Psalm 58

The 58th psalm (according to Greek counting the 57th) is a psalm of David ( מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד mizmor l ^e david ) and to be classified in the series of “ Lamentations of the People”.

structure

Hermann Gunkel structures the psalm as follows:

• Verse 2f .: Salutation and question
• Verse 3: reproach
• Verses 4–10: The wicked servants of the "gods"
  • Verses 4-6: Your nefarious behavior
  • Verses 7-10: Curses on them
• Verse 11f .: Desire of the righteous

Text-critical problems

The psalm raises the problem of addressing "gods" in Hebrew אלםare meant. There are two different interpretations here: Either the psalmist understands by this, as in Psalm 82 actually gods as members of the pantheon , or rulers are meant who are ironically referred to as "gods". The latter variant suggests a lot of the translations: King James , NIV , New Geneva translation , the Good News and New Life speak of "powerful", while only the very text loyal NIV translated as "gods".

Liturgy of the Hours

Because of its offensive nature as a curse psalm , this psalm as well as Psalms 83 and 109 and individual other verses were deleted from the Catholic Church's Liturgy of the Hours in 1970 .

Web links

• Psalm 58 in the standard translation , the Luther Bible and other translations from bibleserver.com
• Psalm 58 in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) on bibelwissenschaft.de
• Sheet music in the public domain of settings for Psalm 58 in the Choral Public Domain Library - ChoralWiki (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hermann Gunkel: The Psalms. ⁶ 1986, p. 249.
2. ↑ Claudia Süssenbach: The Elohistic Psalter. 2005, p. 145.
3. ↑ General introduction to the Liturgy of the Hours (AES). November 1, 1970, No. 131.
   Adolf Adam, Winfried Haunerland: Liturgy floor plan. Herder, Freiburg et al., 2012, ISBN (incorrect) 978-3-451-31413-3, ISBN 978-3-451-31413-1 (correct), p. 387.