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

Chapter 6: Composition of Psalms 3-8too far removed from Psalm 3 for the verbal and thematic links which wereoriginally responsible for their concatenation to remain meaningful.6.2.2 The relation of Psalm 7 to the surrounding psalmsWhy did the compilers allow Psalm 7 to remain in a position in which it dividesa series of מִ‏ זְ‏ מוש psalms (Pss 3-9/10) and a string of ַ ֵ לַ‏ מְ‏ נַ‏ psalms (Pss 4-14)?The answer appears to lie in its verbal affinities with Psalms 5, 6 and 8. Table6.7 presents a list of all verbal links between Psalm 7 and the other fivepsalms in my corpus. As was the case with Table 6.6, I have excluded theheadings and removed divine names, the article, prepositions, personalpronouns and common particles, leaving only potentially significant link words.Table 6.7: Verbal links between Psalms 7 and the other six psalmsPsalm 3 Psalm 4 Psalm 5 Psalm 6 Psalm 7 Psalm 8אֹיֵבאֹיֵב אֹיֵב אֹיֵב אַ‏ יִןאַ‏ יִן אַ‏ יִן אַ‏ יִן אָ‏ וֶ‏ ןאָ‏ וֶ‏ ן אָ‏ וֶ‏ ן אַ‏ פאַ‏ פ אֶ‏ שֶ‏ צאֶ‏ שֶ‏ צבֵ‏ ן בֵ‏ ן בֵ‏ ןדָ‏ בָ‏ ש דָ‏ בַ‏ ש252