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The Translation of 'I Love You, Lord' of the Psalms 18:2 and Its Theological Meaning - Focusing on Its Comparison with the 2 Samuel 22

Kwang-Hyung Lee 1

1장로회신학대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to explore what theological meaning Psalms 18:2 has in the main body of the Psalms by doing comparative analysis of it with its parallel text, 2 Samuel 22. The Psalms 18 and 2 Samuel 22 apparently are not very different. But, when the two texts are compared linguistically, they reveal various differences and problems. Such differences can be summarized into three kinds: differences in orthography, revision of words and grammar, and addition and deletion of words and sentences. Scholars have paid attention to defects of 'yod' and 'waw' which appear in two texts. While it is not consistent, the writings in the Psalms tend to adopt plene spelling more than those in the 2 Samuel. Meanwhile, there are various problems in the Psalms 18:2. The line itself is not shown in the 2 Samuel. The verb 'rhm' used in the phrase is 'qal' form, and it is peculiar to observe that the form is used only here in the whole Old Testament. This study examined the phrases which can be regarded as Aramaism phenomenon, one of the effects of Late Biblical Hebrew, and checked the understanding of 'rhm' mentioned in the Psalms 18:2 in light of the Aramaism phenomenon. It found out that the text of the Psalms was more modernized than that of the 2 Samuel. And, this study compared 'rhm' in the Masoretic Text (MT) with the 'peal' form and 'pael' form shown in Targum, ancient Aramaic translation of the Old Testament, In addition, through intertextuality of the Psalms 18 and 116, we can observe that rhm of the Psalms 18 can be exchangeable with 'ahab'. The final editor of the Psalms revises 2 Samuel in various aspects. Above all, the editor made clearer some ambiguous sentences in 2 Samuel, and modernized the text of the Psalms for contemporary readers.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.