Psalm 25 Macrosyntax
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Psalm 25/Macrosyntax
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Psalm 25
Please note: Resources for Psalm 25 are in the process of being reformatted for visual consistency and improved functionality.
Macrosyntax
Macrosyntax Diagram
| Macrosyntax legend | |
|---|---|
| Vocatives | Vocatives are indicated by purple text. |
| Discourse marker | Discourse markers (such as כִּי, הִנֵּה, לָכֵן) are indicated by orange text. |
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The scope governed by the discourse marker is indicated by a dashed orange bracket connecting the discourse marker to its scope. |
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The preceding discourse grounding the discourse marker is indicated by a solid orange bracket encompassing the relevant clauses. |
| Subordinating conjunction | The subordinating conjunction is indicated by teal text. |
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Subordination is indicated by a solid teal bracket connecting the subordinating conjunction with the clause to which it is subordinate. |
| Coordinating conjunction | The coordinating conjunction is indicated by blue text. |
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Coordination is indicated by a solid blue line connecting the coordinating clauses. |
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Coordination without an explicit conjunction is indicated by a dashed blue line connecting the coordinated clauses. |
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Marked topic is indicated by a black dashed rounded rectangle around the marked words. |
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The scope of the activated topic is indicated by a black dashed bracket encompassing the relevant clauses. |
| Marked focus or thetic sentence | Marked focus (if one constituent) or thetic sentences[1] are indicated by bold text. |
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Frame setters[2] are indicated by a solid gray rounded rectangle around the marked words. |
| [blank line] | Discourse discontinuity is indicated by a blank line. |
| [indentation] | Syntactic subordination is indicated by indentation. |
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Direct speech is indicated by a solid black rectangle surrounding all relevant clauses. |
| (text to elucidate the meaning of the macrosyntactic structures) | Within the CBC, any text elucidating the meaning of macrosyntax is indicated in gray text inside parentheses. |
If an emendation or revocalization is preferred, that emendation or revocalization will be marked in the Hebrew text of all the visuals.
| Emendations/Revocalizations legend | |
|---|---|
| *Emended text* | Emended text, text in which the consonants differ from the consonants of the Masoretic text, is indicated by blue asterisks on either side of the emendation. |
| *Revocalized text* | Revocalized text, text in which only the vowels differ from the vowels of the Masoretic text, is indicated by purple asterisks on either side of the revocalization. |
(Click diagram to enlarge)
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- As discussed throughout the macrosyntax notes, the vocatives help to shape the discourse structure.
- v. 1 - The single clause in v. 1 is distributed across two lines, which have an ABAB structure: A. (אליך) B (יהוה) A' (נפשׁי אשא) B' (אלהי). This might be considered a case of "vertical grammar": "to you, YHWH, // I lift my soul, my God" >> "I lift my soul to you, YHWH my God."[3]
- v. 1b - The prepositional phrase "to you" (אֵלֶיךָ) is fronted for the purpose of the acrostic structure. But it seems likely that this fronting also has the pragmatic effect of focusing the content of the prepositional phrase: "it's to you, YHWH, that I lift my soul."[4]
- v. 1b - The object "my soul" (נַפְשִׁי) is preverbal, but the reason for this is not clear. In fact, all of the constituents in v. 1b (נַפְשִׁ֥י אֶשָּֽׂא׃ אֱֽלֹהַ֗י) are placed in the reverse order in which they would be expected (e.g., *אליך יהוה *אלהי אשא נפשי). The poetic (or pragmatic?) effect of this order is not clear. Perhaps the poet wanted to juxtapose the alef words at the end of the alef line: אֶשָּֽׂא׃ אֱֽלֹהַ֗י.
- v. 2a - The prepositional phrase "in you" (בְּךָ) is fronted for the purpose of the acrostic structure. But, like the phrase in v. 1, it seems likely that this fronting also has the pragmatic effect of focusing the content of the prepositional phrase: "it's in you that I trust."
- v. 3a - The subject "none who hope in you" (כָּל־קֹוֶיךָ) is fronted, probably for marked focus (cf. 2 Chr 20:4): "no one who hopes in you will come to shame – not a single one!"
- v. 4a - The object "your ways" (דְּרָכֶיךָ) is fronted for the sake of the acrostic structure. At the same time, the fronting introduces "ways" as the topic of vv. 4–5 (and one of the major themes in the psalm). The same word order sequence is repeated in v. 4b for poetic cohesion (AB//AB).
- v. 5d - The object "you" (אוֹתְךָ) is fronted for marked focus: "it's in you that I hope."
- v. 6c - The predicate complement "they have been around forever" (lit.: "they are from forever," מֵעוֹלָם) is fronted for marked focus. Because they have been around forever (and not for a little while), they are a reliable basis for his appeal. Notice also the contrast between the antiquity of YHWH's compassion (v. 6) and the psalmist's youthful sins (v. 7).
- v. 7a - The compound object "my youthful sins or my rebellious acts" in v. 7a (חַטֹּאות נְעוּרַי וּפְשָׁעַי) is fronted for the sake of the acrostic structure. At the same time, the fronting seems to have the pragmatic effect of marking the topic: "As for my youthful sins and my rebellion..."
- v. 7b - The prepositional phrase in v. 7b (כְּחַסְדְּךָ) is fronted for replacing focus: "not according to my sins, but according to your loyalty."
- v. 8a - The predicate complement "good and just" in v. 8 is fronted for the sake of the acrostic structure, but it also seems to have a pragmatic effect (focus). The subject, "YHWH," is already discourse active, and the adjectives "good and just" predicate something about him. What is YHWH like? He is good and just (v. 8a). And it's because of these attributes that he instructs sinners in the way (v. 8b).
- v. 11a - Again, the fronted phrase "because of your name" (לְמַֽעַן־שִׁמְךָ֥) in v. 11 doubles to fulfill the requirements of the acrostic structure (lamed verse) and focus the content of the phrase: "if because of nothing else than your name, YHWH, would you forgive my guilt." His only appeal is to YHWH's name, i.e., his character.
- v. 11b - The predicate complement "great" is fronted for marked focus.
- v. 13 - The subjects in v. 13 are fronted for marked topic: "As for his life (i.e., as for he himself)... And as for his offspring..." The clause in v. 13a has double fronting: "as for his life (i.e., as for he himself), he will stay in a good place. The verb "will stay" is presupposed from the journey metaphor (cf. "way" in the previous clause).
- v. 16c - The predicate complement in v. 16 is fronted for marked focus. The subject ("I") is discourse active, and the clause says something new about the subject: "I am alone and afflicted (and that's why I need you to turn towards me and have mercy)."
- v. 15b - The clause in v. 15b has an overt subject pronoun "he" (הוּא) which is also fronted before the verb. This appears to be a case of marked focus; the psalmist is explaining why his eyes are always on YHWH. It is because YHWH is the one who will rescue him from his distress. Cf. NIV: "for only he will release my feet from the snare."
- v. 17a - The subject in v. 17a (צָרוֹת לְבָבִי) is fronted for the sake of the acrostic structure. At the same time, the entire clause ("The troubles of my heart have expanded") could be interpreted as thetic, i.e., the entire utterance is new information. Specifically, it could be an explanative thetic, since it provides the grounds for the following imperative.
- v. 17b - The fronting of the prepositional phrase in v. 17b creates a pattern of repetition: A. the troubles of my heart; B. have expanded (verb); A. from my distresses; B. bring me out (verb).
- v. 19c - The adverbial "violent hatred" is fronted, probably for marked (scalar) focus: "how they hate me with such violent hatred!" The psalmist wants YHWH to see, not just that his enemies hate him, but that their hatred is intense and ready to spill over into violence.
- v. 21a - The subject "integrity and justice" is fronted for the sake of the acrostic structure (taw verse). It could also have the pragmatic effect of introducing "integrity and justice" as the marked topic of the clause: "as for integrity and justice, may they keep me safe."
- The vocatives in vv. 1, 4, and 6 help to structure the discourse, each coinciding with the thematic shifts and the beginning of new poetic subunits (see Poetic Structure).
- v. 1 - The position of the vocative " YHWH" as the second constituent contributes to the focal status of the phrase "to you."[5]
- v. 4 - The vocative YHWH in v. 4 is in second position, perhaps drawing attention to the poetic-structural (and thematic) significance of דְּרָכֶיךָ. This is the first occurrence of the root דרך in Psalm 25 – the most repeated root in the psalm (six times!).
- v. 6 - The vocative YHWH in v. 6 helps to demarcate the end of the poetic line.[6] Otherwise, if the vocative came after the verb (*זְכֹר יְהוָה רַחֲמֶיךָ וַחֲסָדֶיךָ*), the reading would be likely to group וַחֲסָדֶיךָ with the preceding clause/line.
- v. 7 - The clause-final vocative YHWH at the end of v. 7 marks the end of the psalm's opening address to YHWH.[7] Whereas vv. 1–7 are addressed to YHWH in the second person, vv. 8–14 (with the exception of v. 11) talk about YHWH in the third person. The clause-final vocative in v. 7 helps to mark this shift.
- v. 11 - The vocative YHWH in v. 11 helps to focus the preceding phrase.[8]
- v. 22 - The vocative אֱ֭לֹהִים in v. 22 – the only vocative since v. 11 – is in second position. Perhaps it is drawing attention to the following sentence constituent, "Israel."[9] An emphasis on Israel in this line would make sense, since the whole point of the line seems to be to apply David's prayer (vv. 1–21) to Israel.
- v. 3 - The discourse particle גַּם, which fits the requirements of the acrostic structure, appears to have "an affirmative connotation" in this context: "yes" (WEB), "yea" (KJV), "indeed" (ESV, NASB), "certainly" (NET).[10]
- v. 6 - The כִּי clause in v. 6b grounds the request of the previous two clauses. "The reason why I am appealing to your compassion and acts of loyalty is because they have been around forever."
- v. 11 - The כִּי clause in v. 11b – "because it [= my guilt] is great" – explains why it is that he needs forgiveness and why he can appeal to nothing less than YHWH's great name (cf. Rashi: נאה לרב לסלוח עון רב).
- ↑ When the entire utterance is new/unexpected, it is a thetic sentence (often called "sentence focus"). See our Creator Guidelines for more information on topic and focus.
- ↑ Frame setters are any orientational constituent – typically, but not limited to, spatio-temporal adverbials – function to "limit the applicability of the main predication to a certain restricted domain" and "indicate the general type of information that can be given" in the clause nucleus (Krifka & Musan 2012: 31-32). In previous scholarship, they have been referred to as contextualizing constituents (see, e.g., Buth (1994), “Contextualizing Constituents as Topic, Non-Sequential Background and Dramatic Pause: Hebrew and Aramaic evidence,” in E. Engberg-Pedersen, L. Falster Jakobsen and L. Schack Rasmussen (eds.) Function and expression in Functional Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 215-231; Buth (2023), “Functional Grammar and the Pragmatics of Information Structure for Biblical Languages,” in W. A. Ross & E. Robar (eds.) Linguistic Theory and the Biblical Text. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 67-116), but this has been conflated with the function of topic. In brief: sentence topics, belonging to the clause nucleus, are the entity or event about which the clause provides a new predication; frame setters do not belong in the clause nucleus and rather provide a contextual orientation by which to understand the following clause.
- ↑ On "vertical grammar," see Tsumura 2023; cf. Ps 19:15 for a prime example.
- ↑ See, for example, the fronting of אוֹתְךָ in v. 5, where the acrostic structure is unaffected. Compare also Ps 143:8d: אֵלֶיךָ נָשָׂאתִי נַפְשִׁי.
- ↑ Cf. Miller 2010, 357.
- ↑ Cf. Miller 2010, 360–363.
- ↑ Cf. Kim 2022, 217–221.
- ↑ Cf. Miller 2010, 357.
- ↑ Kim 2022, 233–235.
- ↑ BHRG §40.20(4). Cf. 2 Chr 20:4, also with a כֹּל phrase: "And Judah gathered to seek [help] from the Lord, indeed, from all the towns of Judah (גַּם מִכָּל־עָרֵי יְהוּדָה) they came to seek the Lord" (BHRG §40.20(4)).