Sunday, June 22, 2025

Psalm 1:2

Months ago, I watched the Worship Anew program for 16 February (Sixth Sunday after Epiphany).  The Psalm was Psalm 1, and in verse 2, I found the same sort of feature that I'd previously noticed in Psalm 145:5:  the object of the man's meditation comes first in the clause, and to some degree, this placement illustrates its importance for him:
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  [ESV]
This structure is also in the Hebrew:
כִּי אִם בְּתוֹרַת יְהוָה חֶפְצוֹ וּֽבְתוֹרָתוֹ יֶהְגֶּה יוֹמָם וָלָֽיְלָה׃
and the Latin Vulgate:
sed in lege Domini voluntas eius et in lege eius meditabitur die ac nocte
I'd previously noticed (but didn't think it significant enough to note on its own) that "day and night" is a temporal merism.