The Roots ‮מצ″י‬‎ and ‮מצ″ץ‬‎ in the Psalms according to the Babylonian Tradition

What is it about?

The Hebrew root מצה appears twice in the book of Psalms. This is only the case, however, according to the Tiberian tradition. In this article, the largely-neglected Babylonian reading tradition of Biblical Hebrew is drawn upon to explore the diversity of interpretation, and, in some cases, improvement upon the standard manuscripts upon which the field of Biblical Hebrew studies has largely relies. Israel Yeivin's (1985) groundbreaking work on Babylonian pronunciation lists six manuscripts for the passages of the Psalms in question. These six are examined and the results of their similarities or differences to the Tiberian tradition discussed. In one case, half of them differ from the Tiberian root מצה, with מצץ, but supply evidence against a common reconstruction that has been offered to improve the Tiberian text – without any manuscript support. In the other case, the majority of the Babylonian manuscripts provide hitherto undiscussed support for the Greek translation (the Septuagint), clarifying the syntax of the sentence in question.

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