Smith DTh Thesis (final).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

Chapter 5: Concatenation in Psalms 3-85.3 The relationships between Psalms 5 and 65.3.1 Verbal linksExcluding their headings, Psalm 5 contains 125 words with 91 uniquelexemes, while Psalm 6 has 91 words with 60 unique lexemes. 110 There areוְ‏ ,(1:3) הַ‏ ,(8:9) בְ‏ ,(2:2) אַ‏ ָ ה ,(1:1) אֲ‏ נִ‏ י ,(1:1) אָ‏ וֶ‏ ן namely, 16 shared lexemes,פָ‏ ףָ‏ ל ,(1:1) ףַ‏ יִן ,(1:2) מִ‏ ן ,(1:1) לְ‏ מַ‏ ףַ‏ ן ,(5:2) לְ‏ ,(1:4) כִ‏ י ,(5:8) יחוה ,(1:1) חֶ‏ סֶ‏ ד ,(7:5)(1:2). Psalm 5 shares 18 percent (16/91) of its שָ‏ מַ‏ ע (2:1) and רול (1:1),vocabulary with Psalm 6, whereas Psalm 6 shares 27 percent (16/60) withPsalm 5. The gross verbal overlap is 12 percent (i.e., 16 of 137 lexemes areshared).There are no rare terms among the shared lexemes. The rarest, וֶ‏ ן ‏,אָ‏ occurs 83times in the Hebrew Bible, 29 times in the Psalter. There are two noteworthyword combinations. The first is פֹףֲ‏ לֵ‏ י אָ‏ וֶ‏ ן (5:6 and 6:9), a popular idiom for“evildoers” in the Davidic psalms which occurs 23 times in the Old Testamentand 15 in the Psalter (12 in לְ‏ דָ‏ וִ‏ ד psalms). This idiom is used in 5 psalms in110 These figures are calculated by counting the Hebrew article, conjunction and inseparableprepositions as separate words. If these conjoined lexemes were not counted separately,Psalms 5 and 6 would have 106 and 78 words respectively.207