Psalm 80:14 raised ayin

[tebel]

In the MT at Psalm 80:14 there is a raised ayin. Scholars are divided on its significance but the general consensus is that it represents the middle letter in the Psalter. Is there an Accordance search that could verify this claim?

[Bob Kuo]

I don't know if Accordance can answer that kind of question.

 

In "The Masorah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia" by Kelley, Mynatt, and Crawford, they mention this raised ayin under "Suspended Letters" (p. 35):

 

 

Four letters in the Bible are written above their normal position and are thus called suspended letters. The Masoretic manuscripts are uniform in marking these instances. In spite of the uniformity in position, these letters appear to perform a variety of functions. The suspended letters can be found in Judg. 18:30; Ps. 80:14; Job 38:13 and 15.

 

...

 

The ע in מִיָּעַר (Ps. 80:14) has generally been explained as calling attention to the middle letter of the Psalms. This suggestion may be true, although large letters are generally found elsewhere fulfilling that function. Others have noticed that the ע may have originally been a large letter which was subsequently mistaken for a suspended letter. Ginsburg cleverly argues that the ע was a true suspended letter. He begins by noting that the weak letters ע and א were frequently not written in the consonantal text. The original form of the word would have been מיר. He then quotes rabbinic evidence to show that this word was subsequently understood in two ways by different traditions, one reading an א ("river") and the other reading an ע ("forest"). His conclusion is that the ע is suspended to conserve the variant traditions.

 

They also note in two other places that there are other notes in the Mm around this verse.

[tebel]

A useful quote. Thanks Bob. It would be nice to know if Accordance could do this kind of search.

[Helen Brown]

No, Accordance is not geared to these kinds of searches, and the Hebrew etext itself does not mark the large letters.

[Brian K. Mitchell]

In the MT at Psalm 80:14 there is a raised ayin. Scholars are divided on its significance but the general consensus is that it represents the middle letter in the Psalter. Is there an Accordance search that could verify this claim?

 

 

No, need to run a query this time.

The Ayin in verse 80:16 is the middle letter among the other unusual letters of the book of Psalms(small, large and raised). This is probably what the writers of Talmud, Kiddushin 30a were attempting to communicate.

 

 

Psalms 24:4 י

Psalms 77:8 ה

Psalms 77:18 ז

 

 

Psalms 80:14 ע

 

 

Psalms 80:16 כ

Psalms 84:4 ק

Psalms 107:11 ה

 

Check out: http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/natlang/hebrew/hebrew_bible.html

Edited March 18, 2013 by bkMitchell

[Ken Simpson]

On a somewhat related note, I know that we can count the number of hebrew "Words" (which number includes prefixes and pronominal suffixes) by doing * <AND> [RANGE Ps 1:1-80:14] (for example)

 

is there a way of finding the average word length of that pericope? I suspect not, since I know letter counts can't be done.