Sunday, September 10, 2023

Psalm 44:2

A few months ago, I read Psalm 44 in the ESV and noticed some interesting structures in verse 2:
You [God] with your own hand drove out the nations, but them [our fathers] you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free.
There's normal subject-verb-object word order in the clauses "You with your own hand drove out the nations" and "You afflicted the peoples," but there's object-subject-verb word order in the clauses "them you planted" and "them you set free."  This shift in the word order mirrors the change in the type of action.

If I understand the Hebrew correctly, the "them"s are suffixes on the verbs, so this inverted structure isn't present:
אַתָּ֤ה ׀ יָדְךָ֡ גּוֹיִ֣ם ה֭וֹרַשְׁתָּ וַתִּטָּעֵ֑ם תָּרַ֥ע לְ֝אֻמִּ֗ים וַֽתְּשַׁלְּחֵֽם׃
Nor is it in the NIV, which clarifies the "them"s and supplies "our fathers" instead:
With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.
It is in my German Psalter, though, where this is verse 3:
Du hast mit deiner Hand die Heiden vertrieben, sie aber hast du eingesetzt; du hast die Völker zerschlagen, sie aber hast du ausgebreitet.