Sunday, January 17, 2021

Psalm 121:2

The Daily Dose of Hebrew has been going through some Psalms lately.  While following along in the Latin Vulgate, I noticed an interesting feature in Psalm 121:2:


"My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."
"Auxilium meum [venit] a Domino qui fecit caelum et terram."

I don't think "heaven and earth" is technically a merism, but there is a sense of opposites here.  Because caelum (second declension neuter) and terram (first declension feminine) are in different declensions and have different grammatical genders, these opposites are highlighted.