STAGING SITE
Psalm 95 Macrosyntax
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
Psalm 95/Macrosyntax
Choose a PsalmNavigate Psalm 95
Macrosyntax
Macrosyntax Diagram
| Macrosyntax legend | |
|---|---|
| Vocatives | Vocatives are indicated by purple text. |
| Discourse marker | Discourse markers (such as כִּי, הִנֵּה, לָכֵן) are indicated by orange text. |
 |
The scope governed by the discourse marker is indicated by a dashed orange bracket connecting the discourse marker to its scope. |
 |
The preceding discourse grounding the discourse marker is indicated by a solid orange bracket encompassing the relevant clauses. |
| Subordinating conjunction | The subordinating conjunction is indicated by teal text. |
 |
Subordination is indicated by a solid teal bracket connecting the subordinating conjunction with the clause to which it is subordinate. |
| Coordinating conjunction | The coordinating conjunction is indicated by blue text. |
 |
Coordination is indicated by a solid blue line connecting the coordinating clauses. |
 |
Coordination without an explicit conjunction is indicated by a dashed blue line connecting the coordinated clauses. |
 |
Marked topic is indicated by a black dashed rounded rectangle around the marked words. |
 |
The scope of the activated topic is indicated by a black dashed bracket encompassing the relevant clauses. |
| Marked focus or thetic sentence | Marked focus (if one constituent) or thetic sentences[1] are indicated by bold text. |
 |
Frame setters[2] are indicated by a solid gray rounded rectangle around the marked words. |
| [blank line] | Discourse discontinuity is indicated by a blank line. |
| [indentation] | Syntactic subordination is indicated by indentation. |
 |
Direct speech is indicated by a solid black rectangle surrounding all relevant clauses. |
| (text to elucidate the meaning of the macrosyntactic structures) | Within the CBC, any text elucidating the meaning of macrosyntax is indicated in gray text inside parentheses. |
If an emendation or revocalization is preferred, that emendation or revocalization will be marked in the Hebrew text of all the visuals.
| Emendations/Revocalizations legend | |
|---|---|
| *Emended text* | Emended text, text in which the consonants differ from the consonants of the Masoretic text, is indicated by blue asterisks on either side of the emendation. |
| *Revocalized text* | Revocalized text, text in which only the vowels differ from the vowels of the Masoretic text, is indicated by purple asterisks on either side of the revocalization. |
(Click diagram to enlarge)
- vv. 1-5 and vv. 6-7b are characterized by their initial serial verb constructions of exhortation ("Come, let us shout for joy" and "Come, let us bow down," respectively) followed by extensive כִּי content (vv. 3-5, 7).
- vv. 7c-9 begin with the temporal frame setter הַ֝יּ֗וֹם "today," followed by אֲשֶׁר subordination.
- vv. 10-11 begin with the temporal אַרְבָּ֘עִ֤ים שָׁנָ֨ה ׀ "forty years," followed by subordination of direct speech, אֲשֶׁר, and another instance of direct speech in the final oath formula.
- v. 2 – The fronting of בִּ֝זְמִר֗וֹת indicates a symmetrical relationship with the preceding poetic line:
- נְקַדְּמָ֣ה פָנָ֣יו בְּתוֹדָ֑ה
- בִּ֝זְמִר֗וֹת נָרִ֥יעַֽ לֽוֹ׃
- v. 3 – The verbless predicational clause אֵ֣ל גָּד֣וֹל יְהוָ֑ה reflects comment-topic order, such that אֵ֣ל גָּד֣וֹל can be read as focal and could be rendered YHWH is indeed a great God or YHWH is nothing less than a great God.
- v. 4a – The clause-initial position of the prepositional phrase בְּ֭יָדוֹ is most natural for information flow—YHWH is already discourse active so the pronominally-suffixed form is more accessible than the newly introduced מֶחְקְרֵי־אָ֑רֶץ.
- v. 4b – As a predicational possessive construction, one expects the possessed entity to be placed before the possessor both in Biblical Hebrew and cross-linguistically, as we have here (see Atkinson forthcoming, "Bipartite Verbless Clauses"). Nevertheless, the information packaging of the current co-text indicates the topical nature of לֽוֹ (cf. the preceding בְּ֭יָדוֹ and following ל֣וֹ), so the phrase תוֹעֲפ֖וֹת הָרִ֣ים most plausibly introduces another entity that belongs to YHWH, and could be glossed "the peaks of the mountains are (also) his." Alternatively, one could understand תוֹעֲפ֖וֹת הָרִ֣ים as the clause's topic—with “belongs to him” as the comment—perhaps activated by the preceding item of the merism, מֶחְקְרֵי־אָ֑רֶץ.
- v. 5a – The clause-initial position of the prepositional phrase ל֣וֹ is most natural for information flow—YHWH is already discourse active so the pronominally-suffixed form is more accessible than the newly introduced הַ֭יָּם.
- v. 5b – The clause וְה֣וּא עָשָׂ֑הוּ is explanatory thetic,[3] as it grounds the previous clause (cf. Jerome's Hebr. rendering of enim "for" for the MT's waw).
- v. 5c – The יַבֶּ֗שֶׁת represents a topic shift from הַ֭יָּם, followed by the intensive focal constituent of יָדָ֥יו "his very own hands."
- v. 7c – The temporal הַ֝יּ֗וֹם provides a frame setter for the following exhortation, which is contrasted with the following כִּמְרִיבָ֑ה כְּי֥וֹם מַ֝סָּ֗ה בַּמִּדְבָּֽר.
- v. 7c – For the focal reading of אִם + X + yiqtol, see van der Merwe.[4] Compare the prototypical instance in 1 Kgs 20:18 from which the focal material is selected from two possible alternatives in the set: "If they have come out for peace (אִם־לְשָׁל֥וֹם יָצָ֖אוּ), take them alive; if they have come out for war (וְאִ֧ם לְמִלְחָמָ֛ה יָצָ֖אוּ), take them alive” (NIV).
- v. 10a – After v. 7c, the fourth and final discourse unit of the psalm is introduced by another temporal adverb, אַרְבָּ֘עִ֤ים שָׁנָ֨ה ׀. Nevertheless, describing duration rather than a point in time, it is unlikely that אַרְבָּ֘עִ֤ים שָׁנָ֨ה ׀ functions as a frame setter (like in v. 7c). Rather, it is plausibly read as scalar focus of the length of time YHWH was furious with the ancestors.
- v. 10c – The verbless predicational clause עַ֤ם תֹּעֵ֣י לֵבָ֣ב הֵ֑ם reflects comment-topic order in order to create a poetic pattern of head-tail linkage between the two הֵם pronouns, binding the two clauses (and lines) before the final אֲשֶׁר conjunction of the psalm and the final verse.
- ↑ When the entire utterance is new/unexpected, it is a thetic sentence (often called "sentence focus"). See our Creator Guidelines for more information on topic and focus.
- ↑ Frame setters are any orientational constituent – typically, but not limited to, spatio-temporal adverbials – function to "limit the applicability of the main predication to a certain restricted domain" and "indicate the general type of information that can be given" in the clause nucleus (Krifka & Musan 2012: 31-32). In previous scholarship, they have been referred to as contextualizing constituents (see, e.g., Buth (1994), “Contextualizing Constituents as Topic, Non-Sequential Background and Dramatic Pause: Hebrew and Aramaic evidence,” in E. Engberg-Pedersen, L. Falster Jakobsen and L. Schack Rasmussen (eds.) Function and expression in Functional Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 215-231; Buth (2023), “Functional Grammar and the Pragmatics of Information Structure for Biblical Languages,” in W. A. Ross & E. Robar (eds.) Linguistic Theory and the Biblical Text. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 67-116), but this has been conflated with the function of topic. In brief: sentence topics, belonging to the clause nucleus, are the entity or event about which the clause provides a new predication; frame setters do not belong in the clause nucleus and rather provide a contextual orientation by which to understand the following clause.
- ↑ See Sasse 2006.
- ↑ van der Merwe 2025, 85ff.