BIBLIOTHECA SACRA 161
(January-March 2004): 55-71
Copyright © 2004 by
POETIC ARTISTRY
IN THE
EXPRESSION OF FEAR
IN PSALM 49
Daniel J. Estes
AS
POETIC TEXTS THE PSALMS ARE TYPICALLY MARKED by the
expression of emotions. The Psalter evidences the
full range
of feelings, from the most tender to the most
turgid senti-
ments experienced by humans.
One recurrent emotion in the
psalms is fear. Most frequently the object of fear is
God, as His
worshipers demonstrate respect for Him, as in Psalm
115:11: "'You
who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD; He is their
help and their
shield." It is not, however, unusual for the
object of fear to be hu-
man or impersonal enemies, as in Psalm 56:2-5
(English, 1-4).1
"Be
gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me; fighting
all day long he oppresses me. My foes have trampled
upon me all
day long, for they are many who fight proudly
against me. When I
am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God,
whose word I praise,
in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can mere
man do to me?"
Psalm 49 offers an instructive case for
analyzing the expres-
sion of the emotion of fear
in the Psalms. After his initial proclama-
tion addressed to all of
humanity in verses 2-5, the psalmist asked
a rhetorical question in verses 6-7 that sets
forth the problem:
"Why
should I fear in days of adversity, when the iniquity of my
foes surrounds me, even those who trust in their
wealth, and boast
in the abundance of their riches?"
This question "communicates a real
situation of distress; it
introduces us to the fearful perplexity of those
who are helplessly
Daniel
J. Estes is Associate Academic Vice President and Professor of Bible, Ce-
1 Numeration of verses is
based on the Hebrew text, even when the text is quoted
in English translation.
56
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / January-March 2004
at the mercy of the rich and powerful."2
In verses 8-16 the psalmist
probed this problem, and by this means exposed its
logical and
theological flaws. His conclusion (vv. 17-21) begins
with the prohi-
bition, "Do not be
afraid," in verse 17, which provides a corrective
balance to "Why should I fear?" in
verse 6.
There are numerous Hebrew terms for fear,3 but the two uses
in Psalm 49 are both verbal forms of xry. The semantic range of xry
includes nuances such as "to be
terrified," "to fear," "to respect,"
and "to worship." In discussing the
aspects of fear encompassed by
this term, van Pelt and Kaiser state, "Terror
and worship are, in
some sense, polar opposites; the former is
characteristic of com-
plete anxiety while the
latter suggests trust. The aspect of respect,
however, can be either a weakened sense of fear
or worship. There-
fore, the concept of terror can be weakened to
express respect,
which can once again be intensified to express
worship. Only by
context can the particular sense of each
occurrence be deter-
mined 4 Fuhs
concludes, "The content of the verb is varied by con-
text-sensitive classificators
in such a way as to cover the entire se-
mantic range in all its variety, from alarm in the
face of everyday
threats through fear of numinous powers to fear
of God."5
In Psalm 49 the psalmist focused on the aspect
of xry that re-
lates to fear in the face of
a threatening situation in life. "He
speaks of a fear that is a deep apprehensive anxiety
about the
meaning and destiny of life, a worry in the face
of the faith of the
rich in their wealth that one has failed and missed
it all. That is a
fear that disorients one from the only fear that
belongs to faith, the
fear of the LORD (Prov.
1:7)."6 Recent psychological analyses of
emotions have elucidated the dynamics inherent in
fear. Although
caution must be exercised lest contemporary
scholarship attribute
anachronistic insights to the
psalmist, such research can be useful
for enhancing the interpreter's appreciation of the
psalmist's sense
of fear. Berkowitz states that "fear is
typically associated with a
2 Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 1-59, Continental Commentary,
trans. Hilton C.
Oswald (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1978), 482.
3 H. F. Fuhs, xreyA in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. G. Johan-
nes Botterweck
and Helmer Ringgren, trans.
David E. Green, vol. 6 (
Eerdmans,
1990), 293-95.
4 M. V. van Pelt and W.
C. Kaiser, “xry,“ in New International
Dictionary of Old
Testament
Theology and Exegesis, ed. Willem A. VanGemeren (
dervan, 1997), 2:528.
5 Fuhs, ”xreyA” 295.
6 James Luther Mays, Psalms, Interpretation (Louisville: John Knox, 1994), 192.
Poetic Artistry in the
Expression of Fear in Psalm 49 57
relatively predominant avoidance tendency, an urge
to get away
from the perceived danger," and he contrasts
this impulse with an-
ger, which "is usually
linked to an urge to approach and strike at
some target."7 Similarly Izard and Youngstrom note, `Because of
the potency of fear feeling, the motivation to
escape or to reduce
threat dominates all functional systems. Any emotion
feeling tends
to bias perception. Intense fear feeling exercises
such tight; control
over information processing that it tends to
eliminate all parts of
the perceptual field that hold no promise of an
escape route.” 8
As Ben-Ze'ev explains,
the emotional object of fear can be a
certain situation (e.g., "I am afraid of
the dark") or of a person (e.g.,
"I
am afraid of this violent person") or of oneself
(e.g., "I am afraid
of losing my reputation"). In each of these
cases fear prompts one to
avoid the perceived threat. Fear, then, causes a
person to try to flee
from a situation that threatens his or her feeling
of security or
well-being.9 In Psalm. 49 the
psalmist endeavored to untie the tan-
gled thoughts and feelings
that fear produces by expressing, or
opening up by explanation, the riddle (hdAyHi) of the relationship be-
tween life and death.10
Psalm 49 has been examined frequently in terms
of its philol-
ogy,11 theology,12 and provenance.13
What have not often been
7 Leonard Berkowitz, Cause and Consequences of Feelings (
bridge University Press, 2000), 190.
8 Carroll E. Izard and :Eric A. Youngstrom, "The
Activation and Regulation of
Fear
and Anxiety," in Perspectives on
Anxiety, Panic, and Fear, ed. Debra A. Hope
(
9 Aaron Ben Ze'ev, The Subtlety of
Emotions (
10 Peter C. Craigie, Psalms
1-50, Word Biblical Commentary (
1983), 359.
11 Mitchell Dahood characteristically suggests new meanings of the
Hebrew terms
by appealing to potential parallels in Ugaritic (Psalms
1-50, Anchor Bible [Garden
City,
NY: Doubleday, 19651, 295-303).
12 Of particular
theological interest to interpreters has been the possible reference
to resurrection and immortality in verse 16. See,
for example, T. D. Alexander, "The
Psalms
and the After Life," Irish Biblical
Studies 9 (1987): 2-17; Philip S. Johnston,
"Psalm
49: A Personal Eschatology," in Eschatology
in Bible and Theology, ed.
E.
Brower and Mark W. Elliott (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity,
1997), 73-84; J.
Lindblom, "Die 'Eschatologie'
des 49. Psalms," Horae Soederblomianae
1 (1944):
21-27;
Leonard Ramaroson, "Immortality et Resurrection dans les Psaumes," Sci-
ence et Esprit 36 (1984): 287-95; and Markus Witte, "'Aber Gott wird
meine Seele
erlosen'-Tod and Leben
each Psalm XLIX," Vetus Testamentum
50 (2000): 540-60.
Additional
bibliographic references to theological studies of Psalm 49 are listed in J.
David
Pleins, "Death and Endurance: Reassessing the
Literary Structure and The-
ology of Psalm 49," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
69 (1996): 246 n 6.
13
58
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / January-March 2004
studied, however, are the rhetorical techniques
by which the
psalmist expressed and overcame his feelings of
fear. "The fact that
the psalms are artistic means that they display in
fuller measure
and with greater frequency the components of
artistic form, in-
cluding patterns, design,
unity, balance, harmony, and variation.
The
psalmists were imaginative and creative; they regarded their
artistry as crucial to the meaning of its
content."14 Unfortunately,
as Miller laments, poetic analysis has only rarely
been reflected in
commentaries on the Psalms.
To date, stylistic analysis often stands by
itself without engaging
other issues of
interpretation. But it is also the case that interpreters
of the psalms whose
attention is particularly given over to form-
critical exegesis or to
theological, liturgical, and pastoral dimensions
of interpretation, have
tended on the whole to ignore stylistic aspects
as features of the text's
expression. No modern commentary in Eng-
lish reflects any serious
concentration on matters of style. The full
hearing of the psalms will be
greatly enhanced when the familiar
tendency to abstract content
from form or to empty form of its content
is overcome. To know the
psalms are poetic is not to forget that they
are Scripture. To read and
hear them as Scripture requires that one
receive them also as poetry.15
This article seeks to remedy a deficiency in the
scholarly lit-
erature by analyzing some of
the salient features in the literary
artistry of Psalm 49, including the psalmist's
use of repetition, in-
terlocking semantic fields,
lexical exploitation, and sound play,
which are essential elements in the thematic
development of the
psalm. By this means the content and the form of
Psalm 49 will be
viewed as integrated components in an exquisitely
crafted text 16
REPETITION
The
Hebrew text of Psalm 49 is replete with repetitions, for the
psalmist used at least twenty-eight terms
numerous times. Among
the exact repetitions are MdAxA (vv. 3, 13, 21), wyxi
(vv. 3, 8,
17), dHaya
(vv.
3, 11), Myhilox< ( vv.
8, 16), (vv. 9, 13, 21), and MlAOf (vv. 9, 12).
In
addition the clause Umd;ni tOmheB;Ka
lwam;ni is used to close the two major
tingen: Vandenhoeck
& Ruprecht, 1982); and Michael D. Goulder, The Psalms of the
Sons of Korah, JSOT Supplement Series 20 (Sheffield: JSOT, 1982), 181-95.
14 Allen P. Ross,
"Psalms," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament,
ed. John F. Walvoord and
Roy B. Zuck (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1985), 780.
15Patrick D. Miller, Interpreting the Psalms (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986), 17.
16 The approach taken in
this article has been anticipated in part by F. de Meyer,
"The
Science of Literature Method of Prof. M. Weiss in Confrontation with Form
Criticism,
Exemplified on the Basis of Ps. 49," Bijdragen 41 (1979): 152-68.
Poetic Artistry in the
Expression of Fear in Psalm 49 59
sections of the psalm in verses 13 and 21.17
These repeated expres-
sions signal the focus of the
psalm on the tension between posses-
sions and perpetuity as
humans stand before God.
Many other instances of repetition include
subtle variations
that are not always apparent in translation. For
example the
psalm begins in verse 2 with a universal call,
"Hear this [txzo], all
peoples," and then verse 14 picks up the
demonstrative pronoun
again: "This [hz,] is the way of those
who are foolish." Also in verse
2,
the psalmist urged his hearers, "Give ear [UnyzixEha], all inhabitants
of the world," and then in verse 5 he
acknowledged that he himself
was giving ear to wisdom: "I will incline my
ear [yniz;xA] to a proverb."
By
the repetition of the verbal root Nzx, he indicated that the mes-
sage he was communicating derived from proverbial
wisdom, that
is, from the divine order built into the creation.
Several times combinations of
nominal, adjectival, and verbal
forms of a single root are used to reinforce a motif.
This technique
is demonstrated by rwf, 'which appears as rywifA (v. 3), MrAw;fA (v. 7),
and rwifEya (v. 17). Similar
examples include the following: tOmk;HA (v. 4)
and MymikAHE (v. 11); tOnUbT; (v.4) and NybiyA (v.21); bro, (v.7) and hB,r;yi (v.17);
hD,p;yi
hdopA (v. 8), NOyd;Pi
(v. 9), and
hD,p;yi; (v. 16); yHiyvi (v. 10) and vyyA.HaB; (v. 19);
UtUmyA (v. 11), tv,mA (v. 15), and OtOmB; (v. 18); and (v. 11) and ls,Ke (v. 14).
Another form of repetition occurs
when a noun is combined
with different objects or pronominal suffixes,
and/or with different
introductory prepositions, as in yPi (v. 4) and Mh,ypiB; (v. 14). This fea-
ture is also evidenced in
these examples: MwAp;na (v. 9), ywip;na (v. 16), and
Owp;na (v. 19); Hxan,lA
dOf (v. 10) and Hcane-dfa (v. 20); MyriHexEla (v. 11), Mh,yreHExa
(v.
14), and vyrAHExa (v. 18); lOxw;li ( v. 15), lOxw; tOl.bal; (v. 15), and lOxw;-dy.ami
(v. 16); yniHeq.Ayi (v. 16) and hq.ayi (v. 18); OtyBe
dObK; (v. 17) and OdObK; (v. 18).
Twice the psalmist combined
repetition with negation. This
literary technique produces a particularly
powerful contrast when
the psalmist's rhetorical question in verse 6,
"Why should I fear
[xrAyxi]?" is answered by the prohibition in verse 17, "Do not be
17 Paul R. Raabe argues cogently that the repetition of Umd;ni: in verses 13 and 21
actually includes a significant example of deliberate
ambiguity. "This is a classic
example of antanaclasis,
where a word is repeated with a shift of meaning. In v. 13
the verb vmdn is paired with Nyly lb ('does not survive the
night'). Therefore one takes
it as the niphal of hmd II (or III?), which sometimes is glossed ‘to be destroyed,
per-
ish.’ In v. 21, a refrain
with v. 13, one at first assumes the same meaning. But upon
closer examination, the reader sees that its parallel
has changed to ‘without under-
standing.’ That makes the nuance ‘to be dumb,
speechless,’ which is possible four the
niphal of hmd II, more appropriate. Humans in their pride and wealth are
like cattle
that are slaughtered and that are speechless and
stupid" ("Deliberate Ambiguity in
the
Psalter," Journal of Biblical Literature
110 [1991]: 216).
60
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / January-March 2004
afraid (xrAyTi-lxa]." In the three
uses of hxr, the psalmist began
with
the negative "he should not undergo (hx,r;yi xlo
lit., ‘should not see’]
decay" (v. 10), then used the affirmative
"he sees [hx,r;yi] that even
wise men die" (v. 11), and finally returned to
the negative "they
will never see [Uxr;yi
xlo] the light" (v. 20).
The two remaining uses of repetition
feature a change from the
plural to the singular. In verse 12 wealthy fools
think that "their
houses [OmyTeBA] are forever," but
the psalmist urged his readers not
to fear when the glory of the rich man's house [OtyBe] is increased (v.
17).
By this means the author subtly signaled a diminution
in the
possessions of the wealthy people who caused him to
feel intimi-
dated. This parallels the argument of the psalmist
that the afflu-
ence of those who are
foolish, when seen from the viewpoint of
dom, is in reality not
nearly the threat that it appears at first. In
the same way those who suppose that their dwelling
places will
continue "to all generations [rdovA rdol;]”(v. 12) are
subsequently de-
picted in individual terms, as
one who will "go to the generation
[rOD] of his fathers"
(v. 20).
The wealthy will not be able to secure
future perpetual success, and they also will have to
assume their
place with their ancestors in death. Instead of
enjoying perpetual
prosperity, they will be consigned to the same
unenviable fate as
their predecessors.
In Psalm 49 the extensive use of
lexical repetition with a num-
ber of variations serves to
reinforce the psalmist's major points of
emphasis and to introduce significant
developments in his mes-
sage. It is important to note that of the
twenty-eight repeated roots
in the Hebrew text in this psalm, only fifteen are
reproduced in the
New
American Standard Bible, which is one of the most literal
biblical translations. To appropriate fully both
the psalmist's liter-
ary artistry and the
message he is communicating through that
poetic medium, it is necessary to analyze the Hebrew
text. As
Psalm
49 demonstrates, sound is notoriously difficult to translate,
so without recourse to the author's original
language much of his
poetic brilliance and thematic content is obscured.
SEMANTIC
FIELDS
In
addition to his extensive use of repetition in Psalm 49 the
psalmist also drew deeply from six semantic
fields that manifest
significant interconnections. The largest semantic
field includes
terms referring to wealth or commercial transactions,
and it is rep-
resented in thirteen out of the twenty verses of
the psalm. This
concentration of references
demonstrates that wealth is the key
motif of the psalm.
Poetic Artistry in the Expression of
Fear in Psalm 49 61
"Rich and poor [NOybx,v;
rywifA] together" (v. 3). "Even those who
trust
in their wealth [MLAyHe] and boast in the
abundance of their riches
[MrAw;fA
brob;]" (v. 7). "No man can by any means redeem [hD,p;yi
hdopA-xlo]
his brother, or give to God a ransom [Orp;KA] for him" (v. 8). "For the
redemption [NOyd;Pi] of his soul is costly
[rqaye] (v. 9a). "And
leave their
wealth [MlAyHe] to others" (v.
11). "Their inner thought is that their
houses [OmyTeBA] are forever and their
dwelling places [MtAnoK;w;mi] to all
generations; they have called their lands [tOmdAxE] after their own
names" (v. 12). "But man in his pomp [rqAyBi] will not endure" (v. 13).
"So
that they have no habitation [Ol
lbuz;.mi]"18 (v.
15). "But God will
redeem [hD,p;yi] my soul from the power
of Sheol" (v. 16). "Do not be
afraid when a man becomes rich [rwifEya], when the glory of his house
is increased [OtyBe
dObK; hB,r;yi]" (v. 17).
"His glory [OdObK;] will not de-
scend after him" (v.
18). "'And though men praise you when you do
well [byFiyte] for yourself (v. 19).
These references to wealth yield
several principles. (1) Finan-
cial wealth is valued by
humans (v. 19), and those who are wealthy
may place undue confidence in their affluence (v.
7). (2) Even
though humans are often divided along economic lines
into the rich
and the poor (v. 3), with the result that the
wealthy use their
power to intimidate those with modest means,19
in fact all people
are united in a common humanity (vv. 2-3). (3) The
wealth that
some enjoy should not cause those who do not have it
to feel fearful
(v.
17), because it is only a temporary possession that cannot sur-
vive death (vv. 11-13, 15, 18). (4) Wealth is
inadequate to redeem a person
from death (vv. 8-9), for redemption is solely a
divine prerogative (v. 16).
A second prominent semantic field
encompasses terms refer-
ring to wisdom, which are contrasted to terms
relating to folly. In
his introductory call the psalmist took the role of
the wisdom
teacher. Employing language that is familiar
from its frequent us-
age in Proverbs, he wrote in verses 4-5, "My
mouth will speak
dom [tOmk;HA], and the meditation of my heart will be
understanding
[tOnUbt;]. I will incline my ear
to a proverb [lwAmA]; I will express my
18 Pierre Bordreuil argues that zebul refers to a Ugaritic deity and that the prepo-
sition Nm should be rendered as
an interrogative pronoun ("Mizzebul Lo: A Propos
de
Psaume 49:15," in Ascribe to the Lord, ed. Lyle Eslinger
and Glen Taylor, JSOT
Supplement
Series 67 [Sheffield:
customary interpretation of the term seem
unwarranted, because "habitation" fits
so well the psalmist's concentration of words
referring to material wealth.
19 Kraus comments,
"The question introduced by hml communicates a real situa-
tion of distress; it
introduces us to the fearful perplexity of those who are helplessly
at the mercy of the rich and ;powerful. The singer
himself has experienced this
situation" (Psalms 1-59, 482).
62
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / January-March 2004
riddle [ytidAyHi]20 on the
harp." In verse 11 the antithetical groups of
wise men (MymikAHE) and the stupid and
senseless (rfabavA
lysiK;) are seen
together in view of their common fate of death.
The term (ls,Ke) in
verse 14 is a general description of those who are
foolish in pre-
suming that their wealth can
surmount the eventuality of death
(cf.
vv. 11-13). It is especially significant that the final climactic
'verse of the psalm states, "Man in his pomp, yet
without under-
standing [NybiyA
xlo], is like the beasts that perish" (v. 21). This con-
cluding assessment brings the
psalm back to the opening resolu-
tion in verse 4, in which
the meditation of the psalmist's heart will
be understanding (tOnUbt;). As Pleins reasons, "The shift to yabin
in
verse 21 functions to underscore the critical insight
that it is
dom, not wealth, that ought
to command our listening and our si-
lence before God.... It is a
lesson which the wise will heed and the
foolish ignore to their peril when death
threatens."21
The semantic field of wisdom and
folly is clearly linked to the
themes of wealth and death.22 Those who fix
their hopes on their
material wealth are foolish, because they cannot
survive death
with their wealth intact. On the other hand the
psalm promotes
the attitude of wisdom, which views the presence or
absence of
temporal wealth in the light of mortality.
A third group of related terms in
Psalm 49 focuses on human-
ity as a single entity that
transcends individual differences based
on financial status. In the opening verse the
psalmist addressed all
humans in two parallel expressions: "Hear this,
all peoples
[MymiifahA-lKA]; give ear, all inhabitants of the world [dl,HA
ybew;yo-lKA]" (v. 2).
20 Leo G. Perdue argues
that "Psalm 49 is an elaborate answer to a riddle residing
within the psalm itself, and upon which the literary
structure of the psalm has been
built" by endeavoring to draw parallels to
Judges 14:14 and 18 and ancient Near
Eastern
hero stories" ("The Riddles of Psalm 49," Journal of Biblical Literature 93
[1974]:
533). Perdue conjectures that the riddle is found in verse 21, and its answer
is given in verse 13. A better analysis of the
riddle in Psalm 49 is given by
who explains that the riddle of the oppression of
the pious by the wealthy is pre-
sented in verses 6-7, and then
the remainder of the psalm answers the riddle in
terms of death and resurrection ("Psalm 49: A
Personal Eschatology," 74-78).
21 Pleins,
"Death and Endurance: Reassessing the Literary Structure and Theology
of Psalm 49," 26-27.
22 John Goldingay says insightfully, "Because the Psalms are
concerned with life,
they [are-] concerned with death also-for there can
be no satisfying understanding
of the meaning of life which has not grappled with
the meaning of death. Psalm 49
approaches the question from a particular
theological perspective (one not otherwise
widely represented in the Psalter), that of the Wisdom
tradition in
Job
and Ecclesiastes, it takes up basic questions about the meaning of human life
in
the context of experiences which suggest that in
reality there is no meaning" (Songs
from a Strange Land, The Bible Speaks Today [
1978], 132-33).
Poetic Artistry in the
Expression of Fear in Psalm 49 63
To
make specific his point that all humans are being considered
together, he continues by calling to "both
low and high, rich and
poor together [NOyb;x,v;
rywifA dHaya wyxi-yneB;-MGa MdAxA yneB;-MGa]" to listen to the
wisdom that he is speaking.23 This emphasis
on humanity as a sin-
gle category was reinforced
when the psalmist wrote, "No man [wyxi]
can by any means redeem his brother" (v. 8),
and when he reas-
sured his readers, "Do
not be afraid when a man [wyxi] becomes rich"
(v. 17). Identity and value as a human, then, are
constants that
encompass everyone, but wealth is a variable
condition attained
only by some people, and it is of secondary
significance.
In contrast to the terms that
refer to humanity, the psalmist
also employed terms referring to animals. This
antithesis is pre-
sented explicitly in the
varied refrains in verse 13, "But man [MdAxA]
in his pomp will not endure; he is like the beasts
[tOmheB;Ka] that per-
ish," and verse 21,
"Man [MdAxA] in his pomp, yet
without under-
standing, is like the beasts [tOmheB;Ka] that perish."
In both of these examples, when inherent human
value is re-
placed by the measures of mere financial wealth (rqAyBi) humans are
then viewed on a subhuman level, as though they were
animals.
The
same assessment is implied in verse 15, where wealthy fools
are pictured as sheep (Nxco.Ka) that are appointed for
Sheol, and who
will be shepherded (Mfer;yi) by death.24 This
striking metaphor, per-
haps an intentional parody of Yahweh's beneficent
role as shepherd
in Psalms 23:1; 78:52; and 80:2,25
suggests that those who value
23 "The poet craves a
hearing from all the peoples and from all inhabitants of the
earth, rich as well as poor. This is understandable,
as it is, after all, one of the uni-
versal problems of mankind
which he prepares himself to answer for all men. It is
not without reason that he calls special attention
to people in humble circumstances
and to people of rank, to the poor and to the rich;
for these classes are at the heart of
his problem, and he has something to say to both of
them" (Artur Weiser, The Psalms, Old
Testament
Library, trans. Herbert Hartwell [
24 "While the
affluent self-reliantly and self-importantly prattle away (cf. Ps. 73:6
ff.),
they are already like a large herd being driven into the underworld by death.
We
could ask whether the ‘personification’ of tvm includes reminders of
the divinity
mot, which has become familiar through the Ras Shamra texts. It is important
that
the rich even now, in the midst of life, are being
driven down into lvxw by tvm.... But
tvm is in the employ of God
and executes his judgment over the wicked potentates"
(Kraus,
Psalms 1-59, 483).
25 C. John Collins argues
convincingly for "death will shepherd," as it is rendered
in the Jewish Publication Society of America
version, New American Standard Bi-
ble, and Revised Standard
Version, and against the alternative "death will feed,"
represented in the Authorized Version and the New
International Version ("'Death
Will
Be Their Shepherd' or `Death Will Feed on Them'? mawet yir`em in
Psalm 49.15
[EVV v 141]," Bible Translator 46 [19951: 320-26). This position is also
supported by
Staffan Olofsson,
"Death Shall Be Their Shepherd: An Interpretation of Psalm 49.15
in the Masoretic Text
and the Septuagint," in The
Interpretation of Scripture in
64
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / January-March 2004
material riches above humanity will themselves be
treated as ani-
mals under the rod of
mortality.
The final two semantic fields are
the antithetical pair of perpe-
tuity and death. Verses 8 and
10 together form a unified thought
that is explained by the parenthesis in verse 9. In
countering his
fear of those who trust in their riches, the
psalmist reasoned, "No
man can by any means redeem his brother or give to
God a ransom
for him ... that he should live on eternally [Hcan,lA dOf-yHiyvi] that he
should not undergo decay [tHawA.ha]."26
The explanation for the impos-
sibility of paying God off for
the eternal life of another is that the
redemption of a soul is costly. He should therefore
"cease trying
forever [MlAOfl;] (v. 9). In contrast to
this fact wealthy fools wrongly
suppose that they can achieve at least social
immortality through
their possessions. "Their inner thought is that
their houses are for-
ever [MlAOfl;] and their dwelling
places to all generations [drovA
rdol;];
they have called their lands after their own names"
(v. 12).27 Con-
trary to this strategy of
securing life against death by wealth,28
however, the rich man "shall go to the
generation of his fathers;
they will never [Hcane-dfa] see the light"
(v. 20). He will join his afflu-
ent predecessors in the realm
of death, and none of them will ever
enjoy immortality. Noting the parallel to Psalm
36:10, Dahood re-
marks, "The light of God's face in the fields of
life will be denied
those who put their trust in riches and boast of
financial success."29
Early Judaism and
Christianity,
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Sup-
plement Series 23 (
26 Goldingay
compares this to the law regulating a ransom price in cases of acci-
dental homicide in Exodus 21:30 (Songs from a Strange Land, 143). The situation
envisioned in Psalm 49, however, is different.
Although in many human interac-
tions, money has influence,
the wealthy "just cannot rescue from God's hands a man
who is destined for death." This may be contrasted
to the observation of life in Prov-
erbs 13:8, "The ransom
of a man's life is his wealth."
27 Verse 12 has been
variously interpreted. Raabe suggests that the
psalmist is
using an ambiguous expression that says both that the
rich are deifying themselves
and that they claim to own many lands by naming
them after themselves ("Deliber-
ate Ambiguity in the Psalter," 2211-22). Mark
C. Smith rejects both of Raabe's ren-
derings in favor of the cultic
sense of the comfort that the rich receive by summon-
ing their deceased
ancestors ("The Invocation of Deceased Ancestors in Psalm
49:12c,"
Journal of Biblical Literature 112
[1993]: 105-7). This proposal, however, is
convincingly rejected by
Arguing
from the content of the whole psalm, Pleins presents
a compelling case for
his conclusion that "the inscriptions of the
rich ironically give mute testimony to the
realization that while buildings and monuments may
endure, their rich owners
simply do not" ("Death and Endurance:
Reassessing the Literary Structure and
Theology of Psalm 49," 26).
28 Cf. James Luther Mays, Psalms, Interpretation (Louisville: John
Knox, 1994),
192.
29 Dahood, Psalms 1-50, 303.
Poetic Artistry in the
Expression of Fear in Psalm 49 65
The semantic field of terms
referring to death casts a long
shadow across Psalm 49. In addition to the cases in
which death is
juxtaposed with perpetuity, other references to
death occur fre-
quently in the psalm. "For
he sees that even wise men die [UtUmyA];
the stupid and the senseless alike perish [Udbexyo] and leave their
wealth to others" (v. 11). "As sheep they
are appointed for Sheol
[lOxw;li] death [tv,mA] shall be their shepherd; and the upright shall
rule over them in the morning, and their form shall
be for Sheol to
consume [lOxw;
tOl.bal;] so that they have no habitation" (v. 15).
"But
God
will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol [lOxw;] for He will
receive me" (v. 16). "For when he dies
[OtOmb;] he will carry nothing
away; his glory will not descend after him" (v.
18).
Particularly significant are the
refrains in verses 13 and 21:
"But
man in his pomp will not endure (NyliyA-lBa);30
he is like the
beasts that perish" [Umd;ni] (v. 13). "Man in
his pomp, yet without un-
derstanding, is like the beasts
that perish [Umd;ni]” (v. 21).
Of all of the prominent semantic
fields in Psalm 49 the words
referring to death are most interconnected with
the other clusters
of related terms. In addition to linkages to
perpetuity in verses 10
and 20, this field is also linked with animals in
verse 21 and with
humanity in verses 13 and 21. Moreover, death and
wealth are jux-
taposed explicitly in verses
11, 16, and 18.
The frequency of the
interconnections between the six seman-
tic fields suggests strongly that the psalmist is
intentionally using
literary artistry to advance the message of the
psalm. By this rhe-
torical means, material wealth,
which is often wrongly presumed to
be an indicator of personal worth, is viewed
through the sapiential
lenses of wisdom and folly. The person who receives
the wisdom
and understanding taught by the psalmist realizes
that humanity
is a category that transcends wealth, and that
those too foolish to
recognize that fact are functioning on the subhuman
level of ani-
mals.31 Wealth is a temporary
possession, because it cannot sur-
30 Craigie
comments, "The word ‘survive’ is more precisely ‘lodge overnight’ and is
probably used in irony: the wealthy persons of
this world devoted much of life to
constructing for themselves a solid
lodging place in this world, but the reality of
death was that the grave (v. 12) would be their only
permanent lodging place"
(Psalms 1-50, 359-60).
31 "The purpose of
the psalm was to instruct all men, including the rich, in the
path of wisdom. The psalmist did not intend to
disparage the godly rich who re-
ceived their wealth as a
blessing from God. The difference between man and beast
lies in the degree of ‘understanding.’ If man has no
understanding of himself as
man, of his mortality, and of his God, he lives and
dies `like the beasts that perish' "
(Willem
A. VanGemeren, "Psalms," in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, vol. 5
[
66
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / January--March 2004
vive death to achieve perpetuity. As Mays comments,
"Death is the
great equalizer. The teacher is relentless in driving
this gloomy
lesson home. It is a bitter counsel to his audience,
but it does de-
flate and debunk those who
live by and for riches as the real and
significant clue to life and its destiny."32
By linking together these
fields of meaning the psalmist used poetic form to
reinforce the
content of the psalm.
LEXICAL
EXPLOITATION
Besides
making frequent use of repetitions and interconnected se-
mantic fields, Psalm 49 also exploits the lexical
potential of several
terms in unusual ways. The psalmist employed five
words that are
typically attributed to the worship of Yahweh as
he described the
groundless exaltation of those who are wealthy.
These startling
divergent directions of meaning highlight his
point that those who
equate wealth with worth have in reality engaged in a
form of
idolatry, in which material possessions take the
place that rightly
belongs to God alone.
The following verses demonstrate
this subtle but significant
literary strategy. "Even those who trust [MyHiF;Boha] in their wealth
and boast [UllA.hat;yi] in the abundance of
their riches" (v. 7). "Do not
be afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory
[dObK;] of his
house is increased; for when he dies he will carry
nothing away; his
glory [OdObK;] will not descend after
him" (vv. 17-18). "Though while
he lives he congratulates himself [j`rebAyi]--and though men praise
you [j~dUOyv;] when you do well for
yourself' (v. 19).
By giving to their possessions the
trust, praise, honor, and
thanksgiving that the psalms
elsewhere direct to Yahweh, the
wicked are in effect elevating their gold as their
god. Instead of ex-
tolling the glory of Yahweh, they are striving
to exalt their per-
sonal glory through the
acquisition of riches. By using theologically
loaded terms such as HFaBA, llahA, dObKA, j`raBA and hdAyA, the psalmist
drove
home his point that the wicked are seeking vainly to usurp pre-
rogatives that belong only to
Yahweh.
Just as material wealth may prompt
false confidence, it may
also arouse unjustified fear.33 In light
of the terms in Psalm 49 that
32 Mays, Psalms, 192-93.
33 "It, is not only
the wealthy and powerful who may fail to understand; the
teacher's audience have also not understood. If
they do understand, they will not
make the mistake of succumbing to the temptation to
seek a solution to death in
wealth or position; they will recognize the wisdom of
seeking fullness of life in the
present moment in the experience of God's presence
(Craigie, Psalms
1-50,360-61).
Poetic Artistry in the
Expression of Fear in Psalm 49 67
the wicked have wrongly appropriated to themselves,
the psalm-
ist's use of xreyA in verses 6 and 17 takes on added significance. "Why
should I fear [xrAyxi]34 in days
of adversity, when the iniquity of my
foes surrounds me" (v. 6). "Do not be
afraid [xrAyTi-lxa]35 when a man
becomes rich" (v. 17).
The proper object of fear is Yahweh
(cf. 33:18-19), so to fear
humans is to shift the focus of one's respect or
reverence away from
God, who alone deserves it. As stated in 56:5, the
antidote to fear of
humans is trust in God. As Craigie
observes, "The wisdom teacher
in Ps 49 eliminates two possible kinds of human
fear: the fear of
foes in times of trial (v. 6) and the fear that the
wealthy have some
kind of advantage in the face of death (v. 17). The
teacher elimi-
nates those fears, without
explicitly stating a more positive mes-
sage; yet the positive message is clear in the whole
tradition to
which he belongs, that wisdom may be found in the
fear, or rever-
ence, of the Lord."36
In other words the only thing that will answer
to fear (of humans or death) is fear (of God)
itself.
SOUND
PLAY
Of
all the rhetorical strategies in the psalm sound play is the least
apparent in translation. It is clear, however,
that the nine exam-
ples of sound play in Psalm
49 are not accidental, for they manifest
conscious craftsmanship by a highly skilled and
creative poet.
In addressing all humans in verse 2
the psalmist called, "Give
ear, all inhabitants of the world [dl,HA]." This rare term in the place
of the common Cr,x,, which is typically
used to speak of the earth, is
34 Erhard S. Gerstenberger notes the significance of this expression
within the
Book
of Psalms: "'Why should I fear?' (v. 6a) strikes the note of trust (see Pss 3:7
[RSV
6]; 23:4; 27:1; 56:5, 12 [RSV 4, 11]; 118:6), being originally a response to an
oracle of salvation (Pss
23:4; 91:5)" (Psalms: Part I with an
Introduction to Cultic
Poetry, Forms of the Old
Testament Literature [
204).
35 "The formula 'al tira',
"do not fear!" occurs 75x throughout the OT.
Typically the
reasons for such an exhortation follow either in
an independent clause or in a sub-
ordinate clause introduced by ki, meaning `for' or `because'
" (van Pelt and Kaiser,
XXXX,"
2:531).
36 Craigie, Psalms 1-50, 361. In a similar way Weiser reasons, "Thus at the root of
the psalm in a way is the social problem and
question of how earthly possessions are
to be valued from the moral and religious point of
view, and what man's attitude to
them should be in his everyday life. The poet
searches for an attitude of mind which
will grant him the inner freedom from being subject
to human beings and to earthly
things and will open his eyes to the things which
alone are to be feared and which
alone are trustworthy. And he finds that attitude of
mind in the vision of eternity
and of the God who has ordained man's death" (The Psalms, 385-86).
68
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / January-March 2004
found elsewhere in the Book of Psalms only in 17:14;
39:6; and
89:48,
and it has the temporal sense of "lifetime," rather than the
notion of a physical location. In verse 9 the
consonants of the root
are interchanged from dlH to ldH, where the psalmist said that the
wealthy person should "cease [ldaHA] striving forever" to give to God
a ransom for his brother.37 Subtly the
psalmist was indicating that
since all humans will die, they must not measure
their worth in
terms of temporal wealth.
The term MdAxA is used three times in
the psalm (vv. 3, 13, 21), in
each case linking all people in their common
humanity. The
wealthy, however, try to distinguish themselves
as beyond the
mortality that afflicts all people by calling
"their lands [tOmdAxE] after
their own names" (v. 12). Their aspiration is
dashed, because "man
[MdAxA] in his pomp will not endure" (v. 13).
Another word, rwf (vv. 3, 7, 17), speaks of the wealthy and
their riches. Despite their prominence during their
lifetimes on
earth, they will be ruled over by the upright (MyriwAy; v. 15). Of the
many Hebrew terms available to refer both to wealth
and to righ-
teousness, the psalmist chose two
words similar in sound. By this
means he hinted that by a slight transposition by the
sovereign
God
the upright (rwy) will supplant the
wealthy (rwf) even though
they seem to have such different experiences in
life.
In his opening call the psalmist
said in verse 5 that he would
incline his ear to a proverb (lwAmA ). Using a homonymic root, he con-
cluded in his refrains that
"man in his pomp ... is like [lwam;ni] the
beasts that perish" (vv. 13, 21). The identical
consonants direct the
reader to discern the central maxim of the psalm.
The similar sounding verbs xreyA ("to fear") and hxArA ("to see")
play prominent rules in the psalm. As the psalmist
moved from the
opening propensity to fear (v. 6) to his
eventual counsel against
fear (v. 17), his change in attitude was prompted by
what is seen.
The
wealthy person cannot give God a ransom for his brother, "that
he should not undergo [hx,r;yi
xlo] decay" (v. 10). In addition, "he sees
[hx,r;yi] that even wise men
die; the stupid and the senseless alike perish and
leave their wealth to others" (v. 11). Even the
rich "shall go to the generation
of his fathers; they will never see [Uxr;yi xlo]
the light" (v. 20).
Verse 20 in the Masoretic
text has an additional example of
sound play. "You will go [xObTA] unto the generations of his fathers
37 De Meyer notes the
semantic nuances of dl,H,, but he does not
comment on the
additional sound play involved in the selection of
the term ("The Science of Litera-
ture Method of Prof. M.
Weiss in Confrontation with Form Criticism, Exemplified on
the Basis of Ps. 49," 160).
Poetic Artistry in the
Expression of Fear in Psalm 49 69
[vytAObxE]." The obvious
difficulty in reconciling the second person
verbal form with the third person pronominal suffix
casts suspicion
on the reliability of the textual reading at this
point. Nevertheless
it is interesting to note that this use of
consonantal transposition is
consistent with the practice in the rest of the
psalm.
A comparable sound play can be
observed in verses 15 and 18.
The
upright will rule (UDr;yi) over the wealthy in the morning (v. 15).
But
when the wealthy person dies, he will carry nothing away, be-
cause "his glory will not descend [dreye] after him" (v. 18). The exact
duplication of consonants draws together two
inversions of the pre-
sent condition: the wealthy will not be able to
maintain their es-
teemed position, and the upright will move from
subordination to
superiority with respect to the wealthy.
The final example of sound play is
especially prominent be-
cause it occurs in the refrains of the psalm. Verses 13 and 21. speak
of the transitory nature of humans as "man in
his pomp [rqAyBi],"
which brings to the reader's mind rqABA, a common word for cattle, as
well as rq,Bo, which is used in verse
15 to designate the time when
the upright will rule over their wealthy
oppressors. Verse 13, how-
ever, describes this wealthy person as one who will
not endure
(NyliyA-lBa), whereas verse 21 says that he is without
understanding
(NybiyA
xlo). A few Hebrew manuscripts read NyliyA in both verses, but the
Septuagint,
followed by the Syriac version, reads sunh?ken in verse
13,
thus harmonizing it with the reading in verse 21. The New
English
Bible and the Revised Standard Version and some com-
mentators such as Kraus have
rendered the refrains in verses 13
and 21 in identical language by emending NybiyA in verse 21 to match
NyliyA in verse 13.38
Even
though many psalms do use exact repetitions for re-
frains,39 it is not unusual for
the psalmists to use variation in their
refrains with conscious intention. As Goldingay cautions, "Our
preference for exactly corresponding refrains and
repetitions may
be culture-relative; perhaps the psalmists were
more pleased by a
new twist to a familiar line. This suggests that
the exegete's task
in approaching these passages is to see what the
psalmists might
38
proposes that rqAyBi be given a meaning
similar to rqABA "cattle," and
that NyliyA, be
viewed as being derived from Nvl, "to complain, murmur." His reading of verse 21,
which parallels the New English Bible, says,
"Man is (as) cattle and does not com-
plain; he is comparable to the beasts that
perish." In light of the psalmist's literary
strategies documented in this article Slotki's proposed changes are not necessary or
justified ("Psalm XLIX 13,21 (AV
12,20)," Vetus Testamentum
28 [1978]: 361-62).
39 Gerstenberger,
Psalms: Part I with an Introduction to
Cultic Poetry, 203-4.
70
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / January-March 2004
be conveying by the differences as well as to note
the similari-
ties."40
In this case the sound play between NyliyA (v. 13) and NybiyA
(v. 21)
plays a vital role in the psalmist's thematic
development. The first
refrain summarizes the content of verses 6-11,
in which the arro-
gant presumption of those
who trust in their wealth is subverted.
Thus
man in his pomp, like the beasts that perish, will not endure
(NyliyA-lBa). The
second reference follows verses 14-20, in which God
redeems and receives the upright, that is, those
who possess spiri-
tual understanding. Verse
21, then, is an appropriate conclusion:
In
contrast to the upright person who enjoys God's favor, "man in
his pomp, yet without understanding [NybiyA xlo],
is like the beasts
that perish." The change of a single consonant 41
signals that pos-
session of the understanding taught in this
psalm (cf. tOnUbT; in v. 4),
although easily overlooked by the wealthy fool,
is of the utmost
eternal consequence.
CONCLUSION
This
article has analyzed how the poet in Psalm 49 expressed and
overcame his emotion of fear. In particular it
has focused on sev-
eral prominent rhetorical
techniques-repetition, interlocking se-
mantic fields, lexical exploitation, and sound play-by
which the
psalmist presented and countered his fear of
wealthy oppressors.
Using
a remarkable array of poetic devices, many of which are ap-
parent only in the Hebrew text, he refused to succumb
to an im-
pulse to flee in the face of intimidation. He instead
drew deeply on
his faith in God as he assessed the bankruptcy of
material wealth
in light of the inevitability of death.
The
extensive use of repeated terms, often combined with sub-
tle formal variations,
highlights the key components of the psalm-
ist's theme. The
interconnections between six major semantic fields
place wealth and wisdom in counterpoint, thus
demonstrating that
those who trust in their riches are in fact foolish.
They are in real-
ity acting as though they
were animals, rather than humans, be-
cause material wealth cannot survive death to produce
perpetual
40 John Goldingay, "Repetition and Variation in the
Psalms," Jewish Quarterly
Review 68 (1978): 150-51.
41 The same phenomenon
recurs in Psalm 59:10, 18. "The slight but not unimpor-
tant difference in the
wording of the refrain . . . which should not be obliterated by a
mechanical equalization of these two verses,
delicately indicates the inward freedom
which the poet has gained for himself, and which
makes his soul, like a lark, soar
upward to his God with shouts of joy" (Weiser, The Psalms,
437).
Poetic Artistry in the Expression of Fear
in Psalm 49 71
enjoyment. By interlocking the semantic fields,
the psalmist drew
together aspects of human existence, such as
wealth and death,
which when viewed separately caused him to feel
intimidated. By
considering them as connected elements within the
larger picture
of reality, however, the psalmist presented a
compelling rationale
for faith that transcends his previous fear.
The psalmist also used the familiar
poetic device of exploiting
unusual but legitimate nuances of terms. In
Psalm 49 five words
used prominently in the Old Testament for the
worship of Yahweh
are employed instead for the exaltation of those
who have material.
wealth. In their own minds as well as in the
estimation of other
people the wealthy have taken on prerogatives that
rightly belong
only to God. Because of this, the psalmist feared
them, even though
the biblical texts are clear that Yahweh alone is
the proper object
of fear. By this subtle but powerful poetic
device, the psalmist
communicated that fear emerges when
in one's thinking God has
been supplanted by an oppressor. The corrective to
fear, then, must
entail the psychological reinstatement of God to His
rightful place
of superiority, because then all factors leading
to fear must neces-
sarily be seen as subservient
to Him.
Psalm 49 is also replete with sound
plays that compel the
reader to observe the connections intended by the
psalmist. These
associations of sound are almost
always obscured in translation,
but in the Hebrew text they point the reader toward
clearer com-
prehension of the psalmist's
theme.
In seeking to supplement the
existing literature on Psalm 49,
this article has investigated four of the poetic
strategies used by
the psalmist as he skillfully integrated literary
form with his the-
matic development. This study
has also demonstrated the impor-
tance of reading biblical
texts in their original language and ac-
cording to their appropriate genre distinctives. If this poetic analy-
sis of Psalm 49 is a typical case, then there is
ample fallow ground
in the study of biblical literature for
interpreters who will combine
exegetical precision and artistic sensitivity in
their research,
thereby enriching their understanding and appreciation
of the an-
cient songs of
This
material is cited with gracious permission from:
www.dts.edu
Please report any errors to Ted
Hildebrandt at:
Thanks to Melody Postle
for help with proofing.