Notes on Psalm 139:1

What follows are notes from Dr. Gary Staats on Psalm 139:1 which I am transcribing from an audio tape.

Psalm 139 is a great psalm concerning God’s great omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence. He knows us. He knows all about us. He’s always with us, and He is all powerful. This is a text of reassurance of the Lord’s constant knowledge of us including our every thought and word. It is an intimate, personal relationship that we see from this psalm.

It begins,לַמְנַצֵּחַ לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר for the leader by David a Psalm. לַ is a preposition. Notice the patha under it showing the definite article “For the” and then מְנַצֵּחַ is a piel participle meaning “leader” or “preeminent one.” Notice we have a shewa followed by a patha and then the doubling of the middle radical in the tsade with a furtive patha under the chet. We would render it, “For the preeminent one, or leader, to David, or belonging to David, - a Psalm.”
The lamed here is probably a lamed autholis, a lamed of authorship. It shows that David is the author of the Psalm. דָוִד is just David, a proper name. מִזְמוֹר is a noun that means “song.”

יְהוָה חֲקַרְתַּנִי וַתֵּדָע
Oh, Lord, you have searched me and you have known me.

יְהוָה is the tetragammaton meaning “the eternal covenant God,” or “Yahweh,” and חֲקַרְתַּנִי is a Qal perfect 2nd masculine singular with the fist person singular pronominal suffix נִי meaning “me.”
וַתֵּדָע “and you know me.” The waw is a conjunction, “and,” followed by the verb תֵּדָע which is a Qal imperfect 2nd masculine singular with a waw conversive from the root ידע “he knows.” Notice the yod has dropped out here or elided and we have compensatory lengthening from what was historically a pe waw verb, תִודָע becoming תֵּדָע when the waw dropped out.

Psalm 139:1

לַמְנַצֵּחַ לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר יְהוָה חֲקַרְתַנִי וַתֵדָע׃

Rough Word-by-word:
To the director by David a song LORD you have searched me and you have known.

Smooth Translation:
To the director a song by David. Lord you have searched me and known.

לַמְנַצֵּחַ preposition with piel participle masculine singular "To the overseer, or To the director"

לְדָוִד preposition with proper noun "for David, or by David"

מִזְמוֹר noun "[a] song"

יְהוָה Tetragrammaton "Adoni, or Lord"

חֲקַרְתַנִי Qal perfect 2ms from חקר (he searched) "you searched" 1cs suffix "me"

וַתֵדָע conversive conjunction "and" Qal imperfect 2ms from ידע (he knows) "you know"

Good Morning

I'm back, but I'm sick. I picked up some kind of bug in Israel.
10 days in Israel and I spoke with almost no Jews. Evidently the group I went with had strong Palestinian leanings, so we spent almost all our time in Palestinian areas.

I did hear one Jewish woman say "Good Morning."

בקֶר תוֹב

Headed to Israel

I am heading to Israel tomorrow and will not return until 11-22 -2010.
I plan (at this point) to begin the transcription of Psalm 139 on the blog when I return.
Dr. Staats is working on the audio for me to transcribe. Once complete, it will go up on Google Books with the rest of his works.

To quote Numbers 6:24 -

יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ

Give

נָתַן

Lift up

נָשָׂא

Principal Parts:

נִשָּׂא

נִשֵּׂא

הִשִּׂיא

הִתְנַשֵׂא

הִנַּשֵּׂא

Step back

Last night I took Harper's "Elements of Hebrew by an Inductive Method" to bed and noticed in his discussion of verbs on page 68 that he lists the Qal perfect 3ms for the root I used yesterday. The root actually is in the form of the infinitive construct.

Sooooo.....

I have corrected yesterday's post. I'll try to be more careful in the future.

To Die

מוּת

Principal Parts:

מוּת (Infinitive Construct)To die (Note: This is a Biliteral Root using the vowel of the infinitive construct. The Qal Perfect 3ms is מֵת "he died")

מוֹתֵת (Polel)

הֵמִית

הוּמַת

Take

לָקַח

Principal Parts:

לָקַח he took

נִלְקַח he was taken

לֻקַּח he was intensely taken

יֻקַּח (hophal imperfect) he will be taken

הִתְלַקַּח he took himself

Sit, Dwell

יָשַב

Principal Parts:

יָשַב he sat, he dwelt

נוֹשַׁב was inhabited

יִשֵּׁב cause to remain

הוֹשִׁיב cause to sit, cause to dwell

הוּשַׁב made, caused to dwell

Go Out

יָצַא

Principal Parts:

יָצַא He went out

הוֹצִיא

הוּצָא

Bring Forth

יָלַד

Principal Parts:

יָלַד He brought forth

נוֹלַד He was brought forth

יִלֵּד He brought forth intensely

יֻלַּד He was brought forth intensely

הוֹלִיד He was caused to be brought forth (? is this hophal?)

הוּלַד

הִתְיַלֵּד He brought himself forth

Know

יָדַע Know

Principal Parts:

יָדַע He knew

נוֹדַע He was known

יִדַּע He was certain

יֻדַּע He was certainly known

יוֹדַע He was certainly known

הוֹדִיַע He was himself known

Qamets - The Long and Short of it

I've checked numerous grammars and Weingreen seems to me to have the simplest explanation for when we consider the Qamets as a Qamets - Hatuph.

On page 7 of his grammar he has a rule which applies:

"A syllable which is closed and unaccented must have a short vowel."

On page 12 he uses this rule when explaining the Qamets - Hatuph:

"Since the vowel-sign ָ is use to represent both the Qames 'a' and Qames-Hatuph 'o,' we have to determine when it is (long) 'a' and when (short) 'o'. The rule enunciated on p. 7 is here applied thus:--If the vowel-sign ָ occurs in a closed unaccented syllable it must be short and is therefore (short) 'o' = Qames-Hatuph. If, on the other hand, it occurs in an open syllable, or in a syllable which, though closed, is accented, then it is long and therefore (long) 'a' = Qames."

Walk

הָלַךְ

Principal Parts:

הָלַךְ

נֶהֱלַךְ

הִלֵךְ

הִוֹלִיךְ

הִתְהַלֵךְ

Be

הָיָה Be

Principal Parts:

הָיָה He is

נִהְיָה He has become

Speak

דָּבַר

Principle Parts:

נִדְבַּר

דּבֶּר

דֻּבַּר

הִדְבִּיר

הִדַּבֵּר

Go in

בּוׁא Go in

Principle Parts:

בָּא He went in

הֵבִיא

הוּבָא

He said

אָמַר He said

Principle Parts:

נֶאֱמַר It was spoken

הֶאֱמִר He was caused to speak

הִתְאַמּרֵ He spoke himself

Hebrew Word Lists

I am taking the Hebrew Word Lists from "Hebrew Vocabularies" by William Rainey Harper.
This is available from Google Books as a PDF if you would like to download a copy.

We'll start with the verbs occuring 500 to 5000 times:

אָכַל Eat

Principle Parts:

אָכַל Eat

נֶאֱכַל Be Eaten

אִכֵּל Consume

אֻכַּל Be Consumed

הֶאֱכִיל Feed, Cause to eat

Psalm 1:3