Sunday, January 03, 2010

Psalm 119 - Part 1 Grammar

Let's look again at the verses of the perfect acrostic, Psalm 119, one part at a time and see what the grammar is.  In Psalm 119 part 1, every verse begins with aleph א. In my translation I chose 'a' for my initial letter. Not because aleph says a, though a is a guttural, but just because a is the first vocalization in the poem. This poem enjoys its written state. The initial sounds of each verse are not vocalized all alike in this first part. I changed the translation a bit after reflecting on the grammar. (Transcription is below in the vertical form for anyone not familiar with reading Hebrew letters).
All joy for those who are the complete of the way
of those walking in the teaching of יְהוָה
אַשְׁרֵי תְמִימֵי דָרֶךְ
הַהֹלְכִים בְּתוֹרַת יְהוָה
All joy for those observing his testimonies
With their whole heart they seek him
אַשְׁרֵי נֹצְרֵי עֵדֹתָיו
בְּכָל לֵב יִדְרְשׁוּהוּ
Also they do no injustice
They walk in his ways
אַף לֹא פָעֲלוּ עַוְלָה
בִּדְרָכָיו הָלָכוּ
And you commanded your precepts
to keep in full
אַתָּה צִוִּיתָה פִקֻּדֶיךָ
לִשְׁמֹר מְאֹד
Ah if only my ways were directed
to keep your statutes
אַחֲלַי יִכֹּנוּ דְרָכָי
לִשְׁמֹר חֻקֶּיךָ
And then I would not be ashamed
in my gaze on all your commandments
אָז לֹא אֵבוֹשׁ
בְּהַבִּיטִי אֶל כָּל מִצְו‍ֹתֶיךָ
And I will praise you with an upright heart
when I learn from the judgments of your righteousness
אוֹדְךָ בְּיֹשֶׁר לֵבָב
בְּלָמְדִי מִשְׁפְּטֵי צִדְקֶךָ
And I will keep your statutes
you will not forsake me in full perpetuity
אֶת חֻקֶּיךָ אֶשְׁמֹר
אַל תַּעַזְבֵנִי עַד מְאֹד
What is the scope of this prayer? It balances with the last prayer (part 22). The poem on a surface reading seems so 'pious' that the last verse can come as a humorous shock - and also as a relief.
Time and again I am straying like a sheep that has perished
seek your servant for I do not forget your commandments
But this thought is already present in verse 5. The form is not of parallel cola, at least not particularly. The poet seems free to begin with hope. I struggle to balance the repeated word in the fourth and eighth verses. The forsaking reminds me of psalm 22. The first verse reminds me of psalm 1. To keep the instruction of יְהוָה in full and not to be forsaken 'for ever' (though that phrasing loses the sound of the poem), not to be forsaken fully in perpetuity - says to me that the cost of creation, unlimited though it be, is not a cost that cannot be met. The time of the forsaken is limited.

Here are the words in order in small doses with the grammar noted.
asheri
אשׁרי
happy - in construct
tamymi
תמימי
tamim is also a word in itself though it means the same as tam and looks like a plural so the only grammatical aspect of this word is the final yod from the construct
derek
דרך
the noun that is the end point of the construct chain? - how did it become definite when there is no article? Implicitly by the parallel that follows?
haholkim
ההלכים
qal active plural participle with article interpreted as relative but perhaps this is the end of the construct chain
betorat
בתורת
in the teaching of
יהוה
יהוה
יהוה
asheri
אשׁרי
happy - in construct
notsrei
נצרי
qal active participle in construct
`edotaiv
עדתיו
plural feminine with possessive pronoun third person masculine
becol
בכל
with + adjective
lev
לב
noun
yidreshuhu
ידרשׁוהו
qal imperfect third person plural with third person pronomial suffix
'aph
אף
conjunction
lo
לא
negative particle
pa`alu
פעלו
third person plural qal perfect (of course - there's that vav again)
`avlah
עולה
word occurs both with and without the ה listed separately in BDB and Hebrew-Latin concordance, even misspelled in Hosea 10:9 ('alva!) - also appears with a taf ('avlata) Psalm 92:15 (16 Hebr)
bidrakaiv
בדרכיו
plural ways, singular pronomial suffix, prepositional affix
halaku
הלכו
they walk - third person plural qal perfect
'atta
אתה
you - pronoun
tsivitah
צויתה
second person singular masculine perfect piel (this word is always piel - and it's hollow too and a III-he - yikes! - so the green grammar letters are those letters that are not a part of the regular root) צוה
It seems to me that piel is only distinguishable from qal by diacritics (except for participles where there is an extra mem prefix).
piqudeyka
פקדיך
plural with possessive second person masculine pronoun
lishmor
לשׁמר
infinitive with preposition
me'od
מאד
much - note later recurrence
)`axalai
אחלי
interjection -if only - Rashi reads it as prayers - i.e. the interjection is prayer as is the sentence - "these [my prayers] are that my ways are firm".
yikonu
יכנו
third person plural (next word is the subject) - niphal. The root כּוּן is 'hollow' so the vav disappears in this form.
draki
דרכי
could be singular with first person pronoun = my way, but verb is plural so as with the construct form, the masculine noun plural  in im (which for this noun דרך occurs by itself only 6 times in the Bible) is shortened. This word is very common - 12 columns in my concordance 705 occurrences according to BLB
lishmor
לשׁמר
infinitive with preposition
xuchaika
חקיך
plural (shortened) with pronomial suffix
'az
אז
then
lo
לא
negative particle
'ebosh
אבושׁ
first person imperfect qal
behabiti
בהביטי
preposition+hiphil infinitive+possessive first person pronoun
el
אל
preposition
kol
כל
adjective
mitsvoteika
מצותיך
plural with pronomial second person suffix
'odek
אודך
first person imperfect qal (lucky for the poet it always starts with aleph)
beyosher
בישׁר
preposition+construct
levav
לבב
noun - and the spelling is full - both hearts - negative and positive - represented!
belamdi
בלמדי
same construction as above only preposition+qal infinitive+first person pronoun
mishpatei
משׁפטי
plural in construct = judgments of
tsedeqeka
צדקך
noun singular with second person possessive pronoun
et
את
direct object marker as a lead in a poem - it's as bad as my 'Ah' or 'And'
xuqeik
חקיך
noun plural with second person possessive pronoun
eshmor
אשׁמר
poet could have begun the line with this verb too - again first person imperfect qal
al
אל
negative particle
ti`azbeni
תעזבני
imperfect second person with pronomial suffix with an extra nun - to make the suffix easier to say?
`ad
עד
until
me'od
מאד
much - note how it recurs earlier in this poem

3 comments:

Gary said...

Very good! In my limited experience, if I may point out something: sometimes construct chains are best translated with the second noun being an adjective: "your righteous statutes" sounds like much better English than "the statutes of your righteousness."

Bob MacDonald said...

Gary - I concur - adjectives and even conversion into a relative clause are less cumbersome than the concatenation of nouns - but in this case, I thought I perceived a head over heels approach to the poetry by the writer - a sort of I-am-going-to-delay-my-point-as-long-as-I-can - well at least till the end of the first bi-colon.

I must figure out a way to automate some of the layout! Or I will be doing grammar exercises for years to come.

Bob MacDonald said...

It is interesting that Rashi treats the full first verse as a title: Praiseworthy are those who are blameless with respect to behaviour is how the English version of Rashi's commentary puts it. It makes me think that he also read the whole of that verse as a single concatenated thought.