[B-Greek] Psalm 23:1 (22:1) LXX

Polycarp66 at aol.com Polycarp66 at aol.com
Mon Dec 22 09:57:48 EST 2003


In a message dated 12/22/2003 9:02:47 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
eweiss at gte.net writes:
The Greek of Ps. 23:1 (22:1 in LXX) reads "The Lord shepherds me" - POIMAINEI 
- (i.e., a verb). My Hebrew skills are pretty poor, but it looks to me like 
the word resh-ayin-yod (from the verb/root resh-ayin-heh), usually translated 
as "my shepherd," is perhaps a participle(?) with a 1st-person suffix (is that 
allowable in Hebrew), and thus could be translated as "shepherd of me" (i.e., 
a noun) or "shepherding me" (i.e., a participle, which often suffices for the 
present tense in Hebrew). Is that what is going on here? And, if so, to what 
extent does the LXX translate participles as present-tense verbs so that we end 
up with renderings like "the Lord shepherds me"? If I've totally 
misread/misunderstood the Hebrew here, you can disregard this question!

__________________________

You are correct that Ro(iY is a participle with 1 c.s. suff.  It always 
appears as a participle and could well be translated as "the one who shepherds me" 
(though this would not be common English style).  I'm not conversant enough 
with the LXX practice in regard to the translation of participles to answer your 
question regarding to what extent it may or may not translate participles "as 
present tense verbs."

gfsomsel



More information about the B-Greek mailing list