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Ps 67(68):5 τῷ ἐπιβεβηκότι ἐπὶ δυσμῶν לָרֹכֵ֣ב בָּ֭עֲרָבוֹת

Posted: January 6th, 2016, 6:17 am
by Stephen Hughes
ᾄσατε τῷ θεῷ ψάλατε τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ ὁδοποιήσατε τῷ ἐπιβεβηκότι ἐπὶ δυσμῶν κύριος ὄνομα αὐτῷ καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ ταραχθήσονται ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ
Is the rendering of לָרֹכֵ֣ב בָּ֭עֲרָבוֹת as τῷ ἐπιβεβηκότι ἐπὶ δυσμῶν an interpretative rendering, or is it thought that there was a difference in the Hebrew manuscripts here?

I guess that the historical context had moved on a lot since the original Psalm was written, but could it be that the reference to a storm god could still be noticed and would need to be " edited" out?

Re: Ps 67(68):5 τῷ ἐπιβεβηκότι ἐπὶ δυσμῶν לָרֹכֵ֣ב בָּ֭עֲרָב

Posted: January 6th, 2016, 9:54 am
by Ken M. Penner
ערב is a common word for evening/sunset. ἑσπέρα is the most common way of rendering this root in the LXX, almost half the time. δυσμή is the second most common. Third is δείλη. So I'm not surprised by the Greek rendering of עֲרָבוֹת as δυσμῶν. Does that answer your question, or did I misunderstand the problem?
Note that Psalm 68:5 is the only place עֲרָבָה is thought to mean cloud because Ba`al is called rkb ʿrpt, and even that is not certain. See Dahood's commentary on this at 2:135f and 3:456.

Re: Ps 67(68):5 τῷ ἐπιβεβηκότι ἐπὶ δυσμῶν לָרֹכֵ֣ב בָּ֭עֲרָב

Posted: January 6th, 2016, 6:41 pm
by Stephen Hughes
Yes. That is the issue. I don't believe there has been a misunderstanding.

Putting together what I have been reading and thinking and what you say now, it seems then that the LXX is "time-capsule" evidence that at least at the time of its translation to Greek, the Hebrew (of this verse) was understood as it would have been read. The English is translated based on the supposition that the Ugaritic epithet was applied to Yah (Κύριος) by the writer of the psalm or the religious community (or milieu) in which they lived, and that at that time (the time of writing the psalm) רֹכֵ֣ב בָּ֭עֲרָב was understood as a borrowing from the language of the N-W Semitic pantheon, rather than as simply a Hebrew word as it is rendered in the LXX.