The superscript of Psalm 6 identifies it as “a psalm of David’s collection” (מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד). It may have been recited by the Davidide king to the musical accompaniment of temple personnel. The psalm might go back to David, but the diction of the superscript does not require it. Following the eclipse of the monarchy, the destruction of the temple, and the scattering of temple musicians (Ps 137), "David's psalms" and their rubrics were nonetheless preserved. Thereafter if not before Ps 6 was read as an appropriate prayer for anyone of a mind to address the patron deity of the eclipsed dynasty if crushed by sickness, rejection by peers, or both.
Psalm 6 is a request for intervention. With the “I” understood as a collective “I,” the prayer has been the daily companion of the Jewish people for two millennia. The psalm became a vehicle of devotion for Christians. In the 6th century, the Church put the psalm at the head of a collection of seven penitential psalms. A comment by Maurice Barrès is frustrating, since the prayers seemed to have done Barrès little good: “Who would have believed that a boy ten years of age would recite the penitential psalms with verve? … They were a feast for me, a promise of salvation.” For a fresh translation of Psalm 6, scroll down to the conclusion of this post.
In the following, light blue colors the verbs whose subject is the deity expected to intervene. Complements of said verbs, if attributes or actions of the deity invoked, are highlighted in yellow. Blue marks qualifiers of extent. Red colors the name and pronominal references to deity. Teal colors states and actions, real or imagined, of the supplicant. Purple colors identifiers/components of the supplicant. Light green colors the supplicant’s foes; grey, actions associated with them. I color “Sheol” in alignment with “wrath” since the house of the dead is the destination the supplicant imagines for himself should his prayer not turn aside the divine wrath.
Elements of compositional technique stand out in this analysis. In the context of larger and more intricate chains, pairs of things crop up continually; less commonly, triads.
A Brief Introduction to the Prosody of Ancient Hebrew Verse
Ancient Hebrew verse is measured out poetry, not as free as “free verse” and not as strict as iambic pentameter. Every line of AHP on my understanding consists of two to three isochronic tetrameters: juxtaposed quadruple beat sequences of utterance + pause positions. Typically, a line contains seven to five utterance and one to three pause positions. Lines of four or eight utterance and four or zero pause position are also attested. Briefly described, a well-formed line of AHP is a double or triple duple dyad (nine out of ten cases in MT Ps 6).
A position is occupied by (1) an iamb; (2) an anapest whose first syllable cannot bear a principal stress; (3) a word-unto-itself monosyllable. A foot may be prolonged over more than one position. A superscript “p” signals a foot “in pause”; a superscript “x,” a foot internal to “one long word” - internal to a phonological sequence that would have been read as “one long word.” Click the following to enlarge.
Comment
The first half of the psalm is divided into two strophes, vv 2-4 and 5-6. Standard accounts of parallelism over-depend on formal features. They are not supple enough to capture sequences like “I am fading,” “my frame is shaken,” “I am shaken to the core,” “no remembering you” [= I will not remember you], “who acknowledges you” [= I will not acknowledge you].
Comment
The second half of the psalm is also divided into two strophes, vv 7-8 and 9-11. The pattern of the entire psalm: (3:2):(2:3), a total of ten lines. The crescendo of ayins in vv 7-8 is one example of the rich phonic texture of the plaint. Internal rhymes according to no fixed scheme abound.
Also of interest: the chiastic Hiphil-Piel x Piel-Qal and the ascending Qal-Piel-Hiphil sequence with Yhwh as subject in vv 2-3, 5. Each half of the psalm contains 5 lines and 13 clauses. With מְאֹד v 11 omitted as assimilatory to the context (v 4) and יְהוָה v 3 omitted as assimilatory to יְהוָה in vv 2-4, the syllable range per half-line is tight: 7-9, with two outliers: the first and final half verses of the second stanza with 6 and 5 syllables, respectively. Every half line of Ps 6 is then a duple dyad of 1-2 pause positions and 7-9 syllables with shorter half-lines marking rhetorical peaks. A presentation of Psalm 6 with proposed modifications of MT. The translation on its own. A pdf version of this post.
Here is Psalm 6 in translation without the colors:
1 A psalm of David’s collection.
2 יהוה, reprove me not in your anger,
correct me not in your fury.
3 Have mercy on me, יהוה, I am fading,
heal me, יהוה, my frame is shaken.
4 I am shaken utterly to the core;
you, יהוה, how long?
5 Return, יהוה, pull me back,
deliver me in view of your kindness!
6 No remembering you in the house of the dead,
in Sheol who acknowledges you?
7 I’m exhausted with groaning,
all night long I drench my bed,
with tears I melt my couch.
8 My eyes are worn out by vexation,
tired out by all my enemies.
9 Take leave of me all doers of harm,
יהוה has heard the sound of my weeping.
10 יהוה heard my plea,
my prayer יהוה will grant.
11 May all my foes be utterly shamed and shaken,
turn back in shame at once!
If the Hebrew is laid out in like fashion, vertical alignment allows parallelisms to be tracked with greater ease. With two omissions relative to MT per the above discussion, here is the text:
Very nice - I am glad you put the English by itself at the end. There are formatting marks that are obscuring the presentation of the colours - they look on my browser (chrome) like tab characters that should be invisible. Hashem and I have long meditated together on this psalm - an article on remembering is brewing in me linking this to 38, 70, and 137 - maybe some day it will see light.
Posted by: Bob MacDonald | April 03, 2011 at 10:37 AM
Hi Bob,
I see that now, too. Formatting marks are in reveal mode. I'll have to try to fix that.
The psalms are wonderful but you are the very last person I need to remind about that. I wish you well with your adventures in Psalms.
Posted by: JohnFH | April 03, 2011 at 11:31 AM