beney 'elim / beney 'elohim (translation, Abraham, God, Lord, judaism)

[Jayhawker Soule]

Just a brief note revisiting the Hebrew vowels ...

I've been enjoying Robert Alter's very enjoyable The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary. Here is his rendering of Psalms 29:

A David psalm.

Grant to the Lord, O sons of God,

grant to the Lord glory and strength!

Grant to the Lord His name's glory.

Bow to the Lord in holy majesty!

The Lord's voice is over the waters.

The God of glory thunders.

The Lord is over the mighty waters.

Alter notes (and dismisses as not entirely convincing) that the reference to O sons of God "is the first clue of many that have led a whole line of scholars (H.L. Ginsberg, Moshe Held, Mitchel Dahood, Theodore Gaster) to see this psalm as a translation or close adaptation of a Canaanite psalm."

As interesting as that discussion might be, what I want to point out here is that the Hebrew in 29:1 is beney 'elim rather than the typical beney 'elohim - in fact I believe that beney 'elim is only found in one other place, that being Psalms 89:7. What we may be seeing here is the use of the Hebrew heh to posses and consecrate 'elim in much the same way as it was used posses and consecrate Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) as suggested by Hoffman.

Fun stuff ...