Psalm 136:16 missing bicolon

Hebrew structure (again) points to LXX advantage

In a previous post, I argue that the poetic structure of Psalm 145 (LXX 144) all but guarantees that the so-called missing nun verse was originally present in the Hebrew, as it already is in the Greek.

After much study of Psalm 136 (LXX 135), I am convinced that here, too, there is a pattern in the psalm structure that argues in favor of the re-constructed Greek text of Alfred Rahlfs. There is a hole in the psalm without this missing line, actually 2 lines forming a bicolon.

Before getting into the structure, even a casual reading of the psalm gives one the sense that something is missing in verse 16, the wilderness wanderings verse. The six verses preceding verse 16 recount the Exodus events. After verse 16, there are four verses dealing with the battles against the kings of the Amorites and Bashan. So when the 40 years in the desert gets one short line (“He led his people in the wilderness”), it feels too abbreviated for someone familiar with the biblical narratives. The cadence is “off”. The wanderings have become a short stroll.

Nearly all English translations of this psalm render verse 16 something like:

[Give thanks] to Him who led his people through the wilderness: For his mercy endures forever.

But the Orthodox Study Bible, which leveraged Rahlfs’ Greek text, reads:

[Give thanks] to Him who led His people through the wilderness, For His mercy endures forever.

To Him who drew water from the hard rock, For His mercy endures forever.

Now it is a fact that the 3 “great Uncial codices” of the Greek Old Testament do not include this additional bicolon about getting water from the rock (Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus), but some other sources do include it. I am not qualified to make a judgement on Rahlfs’ reconstructed text. It seems to be based on ancient Coptic and Latin sources, like this text from the Vetus Latina Psalter:

I agree with Rahlfs’ inclusion of an additional bicolon for two reasons: 1) the straightforward reading described above, and 2) this pattern I see in the psalm:

[Tap or click on the image to enlarge.]

To simplify the presentation, I have removed the refrain (for His mercy endures forever) that is at the end of every verse. I have also simplified the idea of each verse to highlight its content. What we see is that the first half of the psalm consists of five 2-by-3 bicolons. I do not expect anyone will quibble with this. After these, the pace of the poem accelerates, switching to 2-by-2 bicolons. This latter structure of five 2x2 bicolons works only if verse 16 includes the bicolon having to do with providing water from the hard rock (or any additional bicolon, for that matter). Inclusion of this bicolon solidifies the structure and gives the wilderness wanderings more content as it seems their due.

One could argue that verses 17-20 could form a single 2x4 bicolon. This is fair thematically, but in the Hebrew, even though the theme is the same, the wording is clearly two 2x2s, not a single 2x4. Strike and kill go together; Sihon and Og go together.

The end of the psalm might seem to throw the structure off, but I do not think so. There is a lot of variation in the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts at the end. In the Masoretic text, verse 26b is not there, and I think one could make an argument either way if it was dropped from the Hebrew or added to the Greek. It’s easier to add or subtract from the ending of a text than its middle. I like to see verse 25 as a single bicolon for two reasons. First, it accelerates the pace yet again, bringing the poem to a crescendo. Second, it returns to the universal outlook (“all flesh”) that began the psalm, after its focus switched to Israel.

I was really hoping the Dead Sea Scrolls might be of assistance here, but unfortunately the otherwise beautiful psalm scroll disappoints. This is psalm 136 from 11Q5 plate 975.  Verse 16 would be the very next (unpreserved) line of text!

[Tap or click on the image to enlarge.]

Oh, well.

In a future post I plan to provide a Hebrew reconstruction of the missing bicolon, leveraging the Greek, Latin (and possibly Coptic) versions. Stay tuned…