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Worksheet on Psalm 29
Note: All verse numbers refer to the Hebrew text of Psalm 29.

1. Read Psalm 29 out loud in Hebrew. What rhetorical device(s) do you notice?

2. Translate verses 1 and 2 and parse both verbs in verse 2.

3. What elements are repeated in verses 1 and 2?

4. Each verb that occurs in verses 1 and 2 is the beginning of a line of poetry called a
colon (also sometimes called a stich). A colon can stand on its own or be combined
with other cola (the plural of colon) into a strophe.
A strophe that is made up of a single colon is called a monocolon.
A strophe that is made up of two cola is called a bicolon.
A strophe that is made up of three cola is called a tricolon.
A strophe that is made up of four cola is called a tetrecolon or a quatrain.
Describe the cola structure of verses 1 and 2. How many strophes are there? What
type of strophe(s) are they? (A strophe may be a part of a verse, an entire verse, or
even parts of two verses. Verse divisions are not always helpful when analyzing
poetry.)

5. Translate verses 3 and 4 and parse the verb in verse 3.

6. Use the following chart to help you determine the time reference of the verb.

Perfect Imperfect
Present
Fientive Past
Future
Past
Stative Future
Present

Horizon Education Network, 2017.

 7. What elements are repeated in verses 3 and 4? (Look for both repetition within the
verses and repetition of elements you have already seen in verses 1 and 2.)

8. Describe the cola structure of verses 3 and 4.

9. Translate verses 5 and 6, and parse all three verbs.

10. What is the time reference of the verb in the B-line of verse 5 and the verb in the A-
line of verse 6? (The first line of a bicolon is sometimes called the A-line; the second
is called the B-line. A tricolon would have an A-line, a B-line, and a C-line.)

11. Participles usually derive their time reference from the context. What time
reference does the context suggest for the participle in the A-line of verse 5? If
necessary, adjust your translation in number 9 to reflect this time reference.1

12. What elements are repeated in verses 5 and 6?

13. Describe the cola structure of verses 5 and 6.

1 The grammatical structure of verse 5 with a participle followed by a preterite seems strange when you
approach it the same way you would narrative texts. If this were the only time it happened, we might be
tempted to repoint as a Qal (or Piel) perfect instead of a participle to start the sequence of verbs the way
a narrative would. This is not, however, the only time this participle followed by preterite construction occurs
in poetry, particularly in older poetry. Other examples include Psalm 18:33 (cf. Psalm 18:34-35); Job 12:21-
24; Psalm 107:40.

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14. Translate verse 7 and parse the verb. What time reference do you think it should
have?

15. Describe the cola structure of verse 7.

16. Translate verse 8 and parse the repeated verb.

17. If this is an imperfect, what time reference would it have according to the chart in
number 6? With prefix forms in poetry, you often have the option of reading them as
preterites instead of imperfects. (Poetry is filled with preterites that look like yiqtol
instead of wayyiqtol.) If the repeated form could be read either way, would a
preterite or an imperfect reading make more sense here? Why?

18. Some prefix forms

can be classified as
long (imperfect) or
short (jussive or
preterite). Use the
table to help you
decide if this prefix
form is long or short.

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19. If the form is morphologically long, then we can rule out a preterite reading, but can
we rule out past time reference? Do you think we should translate the long
imperfect using the time reference options in the chart in number 6? Or should we
look outside the chart and translate the imperfect using a past habitual or showing
ongoing action in the past (was X-ing)?

20. Translate verse 9 and parse all three verbs.

21. Note that the verb in the A-line is morphologically ambiguous, meaning it could be
either a long or a short prefix form. Do you think that a preterite or an imperfect
reading makes more sense in this context?

22. Explain text critical note a in the BHS apparatus for verse 9.

23. How would accepting the suggested emendation change the meaning of the verb in
the A-line?

24. Which meaning is a better fit with the B-line: the Masoretic pointing or the
emendation?

25. Describe the cola structure of verses 8 and 9.

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 26. Translate verses 10 and 11 and parse all four verbs.

27. What is the time reference of the verb in the A-line of verse 10, according to the
chart in number 6?

28. The verbs in verse 11 are both morphologically ambiguous, meaning they could be
read as either imperfects, preterites, or even as jussives.2 Which reading do you
think makes the most sense?

29. Describe the cola structure of verses 10 and 11.

30. How many times is the phrase repeated in Psalm 29?

Bonus question:
31. Look back over your answers to the cola structure questions (4, 8, 13, 15, 26, 30).
Did you find any strophes that were not bicola? Which ones were they?

2 There are Hebrew linguists who hypothesize that Hebrew tends to follow subject-verb word order in the
indicative (this would include yiqtol preterites and imperfects that follow the time reference chart), but it
tends to follow verb-subject word order in modal clauses (this would include jussives and some imperfects
that do not follow the time reference chart). If this position is correct, the subject-verb word order in Psalm
29:11 would suggest that the verbs should not be read as jussives.