Steve: Verse 3—I don’t know what is the Masoretic pointing here, what I know is that if the -WT ending is pointed with a ‘U’ sound, that it is often masculine. This is an ending put on verbs to turn them into nouns, similar to English nouns ending in ‘-ship’. So in this case, (not good English) “Being-honored-ship is expressed of you, city of God.”
Verse 7—I think this is a more difficult verse, but I think it means ”And princes are as common people of all those who have their eyes on you (i.e. those who look at you).” מעיני is a participle of the verb meaning “to have an eye on” i.e. to look. These are the readings I am led to from the context of the whole Psalm. Just my 2¢. Karl W. Randolph. On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 7:42 PM, Steve Miller <[email protected]> wrote: > I have a number of questions on this puzzling psalm. Here are the 2 > biggest: > > *Q1 - v3 Glorious things are spoken of Thee, O city of God. Selah > The problem is that the verb "are spoken", מְדֻבָּ֣ר, is 3ms, but the > supposed subject נִ֭כְבָּדוֹת is fem. plural. > I think this means that the "glorious things" are not what is being spoken > but rather describes the speaking. > > Song of Songs 8:8 is similar: ... what shall we do for our sister in the > day when she shall be spoken for? > מַֽה־נַּעֲשֶׂה֙ לַאֲחֹתֵ֔נוּ בַּיּ֖וֹם שֶׁיְּדֻבַּר־בָּֽהּ > > Here the same passive verb דבר is 3ms followed by the same preposition ב > and the subject "our sister" (by way of the relative pronoun) is fem. > singular. This mismatch between subject and verb is because it is not the > sister who is being spoken, but it is a marriage proposal that is the thing > spoken. > > 1 Sam 25:39 also uses DBR followed by B preposition for marriage proposal. > Here the verb is active and 3ms agrees with the subject "David". > > I think the meaning of Ps 87:3 is, "Glorious is your being spoken for" or > "Glorious is your courtship". > > Is this reasonable? > > > *Q2 - v7 - And singers like dancers (?), all my springs are in thee. > The big problem for me is how to translate כְּחֹלְלִ֑ים. It is translated > as either dancers based on root חול or pipers based on root חָלִיל, both of > which seem like guesses to me. > Another problem is how to translate the כ preposition. Most translate it > "as well as", but I don't think כ can have that meaning. Normally it just > means "like". > Another problem is how to handle there being no verb there. > > I think the most straightforward way to translate כְּחֹלְלִ֑ים would be > "like slain ones" as in the following psalm 88:6, where the full > preposition, כְּמ֤וֹ, is used instead of just the prefix. > > So I would translate it as: "And [the] singers [are] like slain ones. All > my springs are in thee. > > Comments? > > Thanks in advance. > > > Sincerely, > -Steve Miller > Detroit > www.voiceInWilderness.info > As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am > a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene. - Albert > Einstein (1879-1955) > > > _______________________________________________ > b-hebrew mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew > _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
