That's what BHS suggests (but not BHK). It recommends emending yiqtol יְכוֹנְנֶֽהָ to qatal כּוֹנֲנָהּ, no doubt in order to synchronise the tense with qatal יְסָדָהּ in the previous colon.
Of all the commentators I'm aware of, only Craigie follows this suggestion, and for the same reasons.[1] It is not clear, however, why he feels such an emendation is necessary, given that in his own discussion of tenses in Hebrew poetry (pp. 110-113) he is aware of the diverse uses to which these conjugations are put. Referring to Dahood's “Grammar of the Hebrew Psalter,” he points out that the qtl-yqtl sequence can refer to both past time as well as the future.[2] The qatal//yiqtol sequence is in fact common in Hebrew poetry and is held by some scholars to be poetically (e.g. Berlin[3], Tatu[4]) and semantically (e.g. Niccacci[5]) significant.
In my opinion, MT should be retained.
See my discussion of this form in my two posts: Translating a qatal/yiqtol sequence in Ps 24:2 (drawing on Niccacci) and its sequal: Translating a yiqtol verb in Ps 24:2.
[1] Craigie, Psalms, 210. He translates into the past simple, “established,” and adds in the text critical note: “Reading כוננה (viz. perf for imperf.; cf. BHS); a perfect tense is implied, given the tense in the preceding parallel line.”
[2] Dahood, Psalms III, 361–456; cited in Craigie, Psalms, 111.
[3]Adele Berlin, “Grammatical Aspects of Biblical Parallelism,” in Hebrew Union College Annual 50 (1979), 17-43.
[4] Silviu Tatu, “The Rhetorical Interpretation of the yiqtol//qatal (qatal//yiqtol) Verbal Sequence in Classical Hebrew Poetry and its Research History,” in Transformation 23/1 (2006), 17-23.
[5] A. Niccacci, "The Biblical Hebrew Verbal System in Poetry" in Biblical Hebrew in Its Northwest Semitic Setting: Typological and Historical Perspectives (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2006).
5 comments:
Phil - - J. M. Neale in his collection of the wisdom of the fathers on the psalms (4 volumes - very long subtitle: Commentary on the Psalms, primitive and medieval writers and from the various office books and hymns of the Roman, Mozarabic, Ambrosian, Gallican, Greek, Coptic, Armenian, and Syriac Rites)
He writes this on Psalm 24:2
The literal sense of this verse is much disputed (much follows on Augustine, the Greek Fathers, S Crysostom ...) But in the mystical sense, the seas may be taken for troubles and temptations on which the earth, that is, the Church dispersed through the earth, is founded; while the floods signify the effusion of God's graces by which she is also established. The bitter water and the sweet water are both equally necessary for her; [if this is St C, I Bob think he's got it] the waves of the sea that "are mighty and rage horribly" on the one side; the rivers of the flood that make glad the city of God on the other. S. Ambrose, but less happily, understands both the seas and the floods of one and the same thing, namely, tribulation: in tribulation, says he, the Church is founded, in tempests and storms, in anxieties and griefs; and it is prepared in the floods of adversities.
So - perfection of text and interpretation of verb form aside, there is in the history of reception a tradition that makes present the act of creation - particularly of the church in the earth. And it justifies, in its response to God, an understanding of such presence suggested by the translation. So 'establishes' gets my vote.
Thanks for this Bob, I haven't looked into Patristic interpretation yet. In this case, both the qatal and the yiqtol are translated as present, though they are depending on the Septuagint, which uses an Aorist in both cases! In light of this, it would seem that we ought to make a distinction between the spiritual and literal sense ... don't you?
To hear into the mind of the past is one of the things that a human can do. It's a primitive form of time travel :)
But who can hear when the ear is not 'opened'? Or when the eye is so dominant as it is for us mechanicals.
Neale (19th century cleric and hymn translator) uses the term mystical rather than 'spiritual' - see the dialogue here in which Iyov kindly interacted with me some time ago.
While Spirit is good, spiritual has become a weak adjective in English usage - signifying every thing from New Age to mental arithmetic. I don't much like the mystical either for it tends to the bodiless. But mystical was his word in English at his time c 1860s. What I use today is dialogical or engaged or embodied/incarnational or whatever other term reaches or searches for a word that is creative in the present. So with respect to the Psalm in question - my thoughts while translating are in dialogue with the past poet(s) who wrote and collated the Psalms, and I hope with the Lord/God who interacted with them in their concretely realized turmoil trouble and joy. I say 'hope' because in my own concretely realized time, I am psychologically capable of too many degrees of forgetfulness and self-deception. Nevertheless - there is a real life in this holographic reality that we share and there was a time when I was less aware of it and less mature in it than I may be now - this Presence so willing it.
It is in this spirit (mine) that I interpret (whether translating or reading or meditating on the instruction of the Spirit - in the Johannine sense of God is Spirit). I think it is a way of participation in the work of the Anointed. It is always through his death - the place where we meet God in any age - however it is symbolized for that time period.
Important to say also that this may be 'explained' or 'smoothed out' using 100% human techniques and yet seeing the whole as 100% inexplicably 'of God'.
So distinguishing the two (literal and mystical) is both an invitation and yet not a requirement. But in all things - 'making present' the past as if it were ours is of interest to us. Thinking of the past as over and done with is probably a metaphysical error.
Phil - I wondered if you had found Job 22:16 "seized out of time, torrent poured on their foundation " as another allusion to the floods and foundation - perhaps showing that the ancients have a working mythology themselves - waters above and below the firmament being used to deal with the wicked - this foreshadowing the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world - anticipating 'out of time' exactly the problems we have with evil.
Thanks Bob. I've had a brief glance at the verse and will bear it in mind when I get to the interpretation bit of my exegesis. Job is referred to a fair bit in the commentaries.
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