Scriptural Mormonism: Mitchell Dahood Vocalizing שׁםו in Psalm 68:4 (Hebrew v. 5) as “Shemaw” (cf. Shaumau) in his Ugaritic-Hebrew Philology (1989)

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Mitchell Dahood Vocalizing שׁםו in Psalm 68:4 (Hebrew v. 5) as “Shemaw” (cf. Shaumau) in his Ugaritic-Hebrew Philology (1989)

12.6. From the frequency of the lamedh vocativum in Ugaritic the Hebraist may conclude that the particle was not unknown in the Bible. This hypothesis yields positive results in texts such as these: Pss. 31:2 = 71:1, b^ekā yahweh ḥāsîtî ʾal ʾēbôšāh l^eʿôlām, “In you, Yahweh, have I trusted; let me not be humiliated, O Eternal”. The balance with vocative yahweh points to the nature of l^e in l^eʿôlām. In Ps. 33:1, the parallelism with vocative ṣaddîqîm hints that the lamedh of lyšrm is not the preposition but rather the vocative particle. Ps. 68:5, šîrû lēʾlōhîm zamm^erû š^emāw (MT š^emô) sollû lārōkēb bāʿ^arābôt, “Sing, O gods, chant, O his heavens! Throw up a highway for him who rides forth from the clouds”. In Ps. 69:4b, vocative lēʾlōhāy, “O my God!”, forms an inclusio with the vocative ʾ^elōhîm in v. 2, and poetic symmetry likewise indicates the function of l in l^eʿôlām in Ps. 86:12, “I shall praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I shall praise your name, O Eternal!” Cf. D. M. Beegle in BASOR 123 (1951) 26, for the vocative element in the personal name *rûmlāyāhû, “Be exalted, O Yahweh”. Once again, a negative judgment must be passed on the versions on which the vocative function of la was lost. (Mitchell Dahood J., Ugaritic-Hebrew Philology: Marginal Notes on Recent Publications (Biblica et orientalia 17; Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1989)], 36)