Psalm 1 Exegetical Issues

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Psalm 1/Exegetical Issues
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Exegetical Issues Video

Introduction to Exegetical Issues

Presented here are the top three Exegetical Issues that any interpreter of the psalm—whether they’re reading the text in Hebrew or looking at a number of translations—are likely to encounter. These issues usually involve textual criticism, grammar, lexical semantics, verbal semantics, and/or phrase-level semantics, though they sometimes involve higher-level layers as well.

Exegetical Issues for Psalm 1

The first phrase of Ps 1:1 (אַשְׁרֵי הָאִישׁ) has been translated in a variety of ways. The translation of this phrase depends, in part, on how one understands the identity of the person (הָאִישׁ) described in Psalm 1:1–3. Is this person a specific individual, perhaps a royal figure? Or, is this person merely a typical righteous person, representative of anyone who rejects wickedness and meditates on Torah? This issue not only affects how one translates הָאִישׁ in v. 1, it also affects how one understands the entire psalm.
The final line of Ps 1:3 (וְכֹ֖ל אֲשֶׁר־יַעֲשֶׂ֣ה יַצְלִֽיחַ׃) is difficult to interpret, and translations reflect several different interpretations. The differences in translation reflect two distinct issues in this line: (1) the syntactic function of the phrase כֹל אֲשֶׁר־יַעֲשֶׂה, and (2) the subject of the verbs (יַעֲשֶׂה and יַצְלִיחַ).
There are various interpretations of the phrase "in [the] judgment" (בַּמִּשְׁפָּ֑ט) in v. 5a. It is not clear whether the word "judgment" (מִשְׁפָּט) here refers to human judgment (i.e., the local Israelite institution of deciding cases at the city gate) or to divine judgment (so GNT). And if it refers to divine judgment, it is not clear whether it refers specifically to the final, eschatological judgment (so NJB) or to the judgment that YHWH periodically visits upon people (so perhaps NEB).