מָה־אֱנֹושׁ כִּי־תִזְכְּרֶנּוּ וּבֶן־אָדָם כִּי תִפְקְדֶנּוּ׃
Rough Word-by-word:
What is man for you will remember him, and the son of man for you will number him?
Smooth Translation:
What is man that you remember him, and the son of man that you number him?
Notes:
I think the imperfect verbs here should be taken in a continuous sense - an ongoing remembrance and awareness of his being, thus able to be reckoned or numbered.
מָה־אֱנֹושׁ interrogative and noun ms "what [is] man"
כִּי־תִזְכְּרֶנּוּ preposition and Qal imperfect 2ms with 3ms pronominal suffix from זָכַר (he remembered) "for you will remember him"
וּבֶן־אָדָם conjunction and noun ms in construct with noun ms "and the son of man"
כִּי preposition "for"
תִפְקְדֶנּוּ Qal imperfect 2ms with 3ms pronominal suffix from פָּקַד (he numbered, he reckoned) "for you will number him"
Rough Word-by-word:
What is man for you will remember him, and the son of man for you will number him?
Smooth Translation:
What is man that you remember him, and the son of man that you number him?
Notes:
I think the imperfect verbs here should be taken in a continuous sense - an ongoing remembrance and awareness of his being, thus able to be reckoned or numbered.
מָה־אֱנֹושׁ interrogative and noun ms "what [is] man"
כִּי־תִזְכְּרֶנּוּ preposition and Qal imperfect 2ms with 3ms pronominal suffix from זָכַר (he remembered) "for you will remember him"
וּבֶן־אָדָם conjunction and noun ms in construct with noun ms "and the son of man"
כִּי preposition "for"
תִפְקְדֶנּוּ Qal imperfect 2ms with 3ms pronominal suffix from פָּקַד (he numbered, he reckoned) "for you will number him"
The pronominal suffixes on those 2 verbs sure look like 1cp, rather than 3ms. I know the 3ms can be just a sureq sometimes (shortening from the hu normally), but where did the nun come from on both of those? Is it just there as a hinge or something? The Qal imperfect 2ms doesn't have an ending, just a tav prefix.
ReplyDeleteIt would change the translation slightly if they were 1cp - "us" instead of "him" - but it still makes sense, since anyone reading/writing this psalm is part of mankind.
yes, a hinge. This is Dr. Staats' view. "Historically the word was תִזְכְּרֶנְוּ "that you remember him." The ה of the הוּ by reverse assimilation went back into the נ, causing a doubling, hence the daghesh forte in the נ."
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to call the suffix 1cp, but all my resources said 3ms pronominal suffix. Your prompting caused me to verify this by looking in Dr. Staats' commentary on Psalm 8.
--- marty ---
Ok, that sounds good. I figured the he of the pronominal suffix went into the nun, if that truly was a 3ms suffix. Seeing the nun there just surprised me though, because I never know when a hinge is needed and when it's fine without one.
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