[1] The form in Judges 13:25 (לְפַעֲמוֹ) could be either qal or piel. Cf. Ludwig Köhler/Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, trans. M.E.J. Richardson (Leiden: Brill, 1994–2000), 952. For the limited use of the verb פעם in Rabbinic literature, see Marcus Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Leipzig: W. Drugulin, 1903), 1202. According to https://lexicon.qumran-digital.org, although the noun פַּעַם occurs frequently in the non-biblical texts from Qumran, the verb פעם is not attested.

            [2] Note, however, that “spirit” (רוּחַ) is prominent in the co-text of Psalm 77[76]:5. Cf. v. 4b: וְתִתְעַטֵּף רוּחִי; v. 7b: וַיְחַפֵּשׂ רוּחִי. Rashi even includes the word “spirit” (רוּחַ) in his paraphrase of Psalm 77[76]:5b: נפעמה רוחנו. Rashi’s Commentary on Psalms, trans. Mayer Irwin Gruber, Brill Reference Library of Judaism 18 (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2004), 840.

            [3] Köhler/Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 952. Cf. Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, ed. Herbert Donner, 18th edn (Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, 2013), 1068: “beunruhigt werden, voller Unruhe sein;” David J.A. Clines, ed., Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993–2011), VI, 731: “be agitated.” The ancient versions render the verb in a variety of ways. Jerome translates it as “I was astounded” (stupebam), the Peshitta as “I became mute” (ܚܪܫܬ), and the Targum as “I am troubled” (lit.: “I am knocked about” [איטרפית]). Robert Weber/Roger Gryson, eds., Biblia Sacra: iuxta vulgatam versionem, editio quinta (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2007), 865; D.M. Walter/A. Vogel/R.Y. Ebied, eds., Psalms = Liber Psalmorum, The Old Testament in Syriac according to the Peshiṭta Version 2.3 (Leiden: Brill, 1982); David M. Stec, ed., The Targum of Psalms, The Aramaic Bible 16 (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2004), 149. Ibn Ezra paraphrases the line, “I was so severely struck (הוכיתי) that I was not able to speak.” Ibn Ezra, Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on Books 3-5 of Psalms, trans. Norman Strickman (New York: Touro College Press, 2016), 46.

            [4] Reinier de Blois, “פעם,” Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (United Bible Societies, 2025), https://marble.bible/dictionary?s=פעם&db=Hebrew.

            [5] John William Wevers, ed., Genesis, Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum I (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1974), 383.

            [6] Wevers, Genesis, 383; cf. Frederick Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt, vol. 1 Genesis–Esther (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1875), 58.

            [7] Joseph Ziegler/Olivier Munnich, eds., Susanna, Daniel, Bel et Draco, 2nd edn, Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum XVI/2 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999), 242.

            [8] Ziegler/Munnich, Susanna, Daniel, Bel et Draco, 243.

            [9] Ziegler/Munnich, Susanna, Daniel, Bel et Draco, 242; cf. Frederick Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt, vol. 2 Job–Malachi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1875), 909; retroverted from Syro–Hexapla: ܡܬܦܫܟ ܐܢܐ ܒܢܦܫܐ ܕܝܠܝ.

            [10] Ziegler/Munnich, Susanna, Daniel, Bel et Draco, 242.

            [11] Ziegler/Munnich, Susanna, Daniel, Bel et Draco, 243.

            [12] Ziegler/Munnich, Susanna, Daniel, Bel et Draco, 242; cf. Field, Origenis Hexaplorum, vol. 2, 909, retroverted from the Syro–Hexapla: ܘܡܬܦܫܟܐ ܗܘܬ ܪܘܚܐ ܕܝܠܗ. The Greek verb διηπόρει is attested in Polychronius’ commentary: ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος, καὶ διηπόρει, φησί· λήθη οὖν τῆς ὄψεως ἔσχεν αὐτόν, ὡς ἀπορεῖν περὶ τὴν μνήμην ὧν εἶδε. See Angelo Maio, ed., Scriptorum veterum nova collectio e vaticanis codicibus edita, vol. 1 (Romae: in Collegio Urbano apud Burliaeum, 1825), II.108.

            [13] Alfred Rahlfs/Robert Hanhart, eds., Septuaginta, editio altera (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2006), 463. The text presented here is the reading of Alexandrinus. Cf. Natalio Fernández Marcos, ed., Judges, BHQ 7 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2011), 6*–9*, 41; José Manuel Cañas Reíllo, “Recensions, Textual Groups, and Vocabulary Differentiation in LXX-Judges,” in The Legacy of Soisalon-Soininen. Towards a Syntax of Septuagint Greek, ed. Tuuka Kauhanen/Hanna Vanonen, DSI 13 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2020), 175–188. Vaticanus reads συνεκπορεύεσθαι.

            [14] √בהל (Pss 2:5; 6:3, 4, 11; 29:8; 47:6; 82:16, 18; 89:7; 103:29), √עשׁשׁ (Pss 6:7; 30:10, 11), √רגז (Pss 17:8; 76:17); √סחר (Ps 37:11), √המה (Pss 38:7; 45:7; 64:8), √שׁיח (Ps 41:7), √מור (Ps 45:3), √חמר (Ps 45:4a), √רעשׁ (Ps 45:4b) √הום (Ps 54:3), √חיל (Ps 54:5), √להט (Ps 56:5), √נדד (Ps 63:9), √שׁלל (Ps 75:6), √פעם (Ps 76:5), √צמת (Ps 87:17), √חגג (Ps 106:27), √חלל (Ps 108:22), √מההּ (Ps 118:60), √שׁמם (Ps 142:4).

            [15] Cf. Jan Joosten, “The Impact of the Septuagint Pentateuch on the Greek Psalms,” in XIII Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies: Ljubljana, ed. Melvin K.H. Peters, Septuagint and Cognate Studies 55 (Atlanta, SBL, 2008) 197–205, on p. 197: “The Greek translator of Psalms knew the Greek version of the Pentateuch and exploited it in several ways. Rare Hebrew words are rendered with the same equivalents in the Psalms as in the Pentateuch.” See also Emanuel Tov, “The Septuagint Translation of the Torah as a Source and Resource for the Post-Pentateuchal Translators”, in Die Sprache der Septuaginta: The Language of the Septuagint, ed. Eberhard Bons/Jan Joosten (Gütersloher: Gütersloher Verlag, 2016) 316–28.

            [16] Field, Origenis Hexaplorum, 223. See Bernard de Montfaucon, Hexaplorum Origenis quae supersunt, multis partibus auctiora, quam a Flaminio Nobilio & Joanne Drusio edita fuerint [...] (Paris: apud Ludovicum Guerin, viduam Joannis Boudot, et Carolum Robustel, 1713), 587–8: “διηπόρουν καὶ οὐκ ἐλάλησα.” The note says, “Σ. διηπόρουν &c. Eusebius.”

            [17] Eusebius of Caesarea, Commentarii in Psalmos (Tom. II: Ps 51-100), ed. Cordula Bandt, latest edition: 10/21/2024, https://pta.bbaw.de/text/28560571/urn:cts:pta:pta0003.pta020.pta-grcBibex2.

            [18] So Field, Origenis Hexaplorum, 223.

            [19] So Field, Origenis Hexaplorum, 223.

            [20] Jerome, Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae, ed. Isidorus Hilberg, CSEL 54–56 (Vindobona: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996), §49, p. 271. It is easy to see how ἀνηρεύνων would have been misread as ἀνὴρ συνών in majuscule script (ϲ vs ε).

            [21] Antonio Maria Ceriani, ed., Codex Syro-Hexaplaris Ambrosianus photolithographice editus, vol. 7, Monumenta sacra et profana ex codicibus praesertim Bibliothecae Ambrosianae (Milan: Impensis Bibliothecae Ambrosianae, 1874), 23r.

            [22] “dlḥ,” in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, https://cal.huc.edu/index.html.

            [23] “pšk,” in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, https://cal.huc.edu/index.html.

            [24] On the other hand, the clause in v. 5bβ is unique because it is negated (καὶ οὐκ). If ἐλάλησα is the original Symmachus reading, then the negation might explain why Symmachus switched to the aorist form.

            [25] Instead of the MT’s second-person verb (אָחַזְתָּ), Symmachus appears to have read a first-person verb here. Cf. Friedrich Baethgen, Die Psalmen (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1904), 241.

            [26] Here, too, Symmachus appears to have read a first-person verb instead of MT’s third-person verb, וַיְחַפֵּשׂ. See also Jerome, Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae, ed. Hilberg, §49, p. 271: “…in Hebraeo legimus: recordabar psalmorum meorum in nocte, cum corde meo loquebar et scopebam spiritum meum.” See also Peshitta. Cf. Baethgen, Die Psalmen, 241.

            [27] The form could also be vocalized as a weyiqtol (וִאחַפֵּשׂ).

            [28] The verb ἀπορέω (without the prefixed preposition) occurs several times in the Septuagint, and, according to Muroaka, it can mean “to worry, not knowing what to do” (Gen 32:7; 1 Mac 3:31) or “to be in dire, severe difficulty” (Lev 25:47; Isa 24:19; 2 Mac 8:20; Wis 11:17; cf. Hos 13:8; Prov 31:11; Sir 3:25; 10:27). In many contexts, it appears to be largely synonymous with διαπορέω. Polychronius, for example, uses the two terms interchangeably when discussing Daniel 2:1 vis-à-vis Symmachus’s translation (see following footnote). Stephanus, Thesaurus, 1282, claims that the prefixed preposition διά “somewhat intensifies the meaning,” and Liddell/Scott, Lexicon, 408, note that it is “commonly only a stronger form of ἀπορέω.” On the intensifying function of the prefixed preposition “δια-,” cf. Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966), §1685.3.

            [29] Polychronius: ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος, καὶ διηπόρει, φησί· See Maio, ed., Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, vol. 1, II.108.

            [30] In Dan 2:3, the Syro–Hexapla reads ܡܬܦܫܟ ܐܢܐ, the same Syriac verb that is used to translate διαπορεῖν in Dan 2:1 and Ps 76[77]:5.

            [31] A search for the lemma διαπορέω in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae yielded 269 hits, ranging from the 5^th–4^th centuries bce to the 13^th–14^th centuries ce.

            [32] E.g., Takamitsu Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Louvain: Peeters, 2009); Johan Lust/Erik Eynikel/Katrin Hauspie, Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2003).

            [33] The passage quoted here is taken from Eusebius (see above) with three modifications: (1) τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν instead of οἱ ὀφθαλμοί, (2) ἐλάλουν instead of ἐλάλησα, and (3) ἀνηρεύνων instead of ἀνὴρ συνῶν. For these modifications, see the discussion above. The verb ἐλάλουν is italicized here because it is retroverted from the Syro–Hexapla.

            [34] Johannes P. Louw/Eugene Nida, eds., “Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains,” 2nd edn. (New York: United Bible Societies, 1989).

            [35] Cf. Diggle, Lexicon, 358: “undertake an inquiry;” Dimitrakos Λεξικόν, 1924: “διέρχομαι, ἐρευνῶ, ἐξετάζω ἁπάσας τὰς ἐγειρομένας ἀπορίας ἐπί τινος ζητήματος.”

            [36] That the verb διηπόρουν is immediately followed by the verbs “recollect” (ἀνελογιζόμην) and “remember” (ἀνεμιμνησκόμην) is especially suggestive, because, when Polychronius discusses the word διαπορέω in the context of Symmachus’s translation of Daniel 2:1, he also connects it with the attempt to remember something: “But Symmachus says ‘καὶ διηπόρει.’ So, a forgetfulness of the vision had seized him, such that he was at a loss (ἀπορεῖν) about the memory of what he had seen.”

            [37] “To puzzle (over/about something)” is “to try to solve a problem or understand a situation by thinking carefully about it.” Paul Heacock et al., eds., “Puzzle,” Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). Another, less suitable, gloss would be the word “ruminate:” “think carefully and for a long period about something.” McIntosh, ed., “Ruminate,” Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.

            [38] Bauer et al., Lexicon, 235.

            [39] On the use of wordplay in the Greek Psalter, see Elizabeth H.P. Backfish, Hebrew Wordplay and Septuagint Translation Technique in the Fourth Book of the Psalter, Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 682 (New York: T&T Clark, 2019). The fact that the Hebrew poem concludes with the word “footprints” (Ps 77[76]:20, עִקְּבוֹת) suggests that the Hebrew poet himself might have intended a wordplay with the verb נִפְעַמְתִּי.