Thursday, November 29, 2012

Psalm 9:4

בְּשׁוּב־אֹויְבַי אָחֹור יִכָּשְׁלוּ וְיֹאבְדוּ מִפָּנֶיךָ׃

Rough Word-by-word:
In returning the ones who are enemies of me the place behind they will stumble and they will perish from the faces of you.

Smooth Translation:
My enemies are returned back. They will stumble and perish from your face.

בְּשׁוּב־אֹויְבַי preposition with Qal infinitive construct from שׁוּב (return) and Qal active participle mp in construct with 1cs pronominal suffix from אָיַב (be an enemy) "in returning the ones who are enemies of me"

אָחֹור noun ms "the place behind"

יִכָּשְׁלוּ Niphal imperfect 3mp from כָּשַׁל (he stumbled) "they will stumble" ("they will be stumbled?" - The English is difficult here.)

וְיֹאבְדוּ conjunction and Qal imperfect 3mp from אָבַד (he perished, he was detroyed) "and they will perish"

מִפָּנֶיךָ preposition and noun mp in construct with 2ms pronominal suffix "from the faces of you" (segol yod because of the pause)

2 comments:

  1. I think the passive of the Niphal makes sense for "he stumbled," even though that's not how we say it in English. I can stumble over something (active) or something can make me stumble (passive). So I'd say the connotation here is that something is making them stumble, even though we wouldn't say "be stumbled" in English.

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    Replies
    1. Good Point.
      It's not so causative that it's Hiphil, but the idea that this is happening to them comes across, and some sort of "cause" is assumed with the English "stumble."

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