Symmachus uses the lexeme περισπουδάζειν in his translation of Psalm 67[68]:17. The relevant passage reads as follows in the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text:
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LXX Ps 67:17a–b, ed. A. Rahlfs |
MT Ps 68:17a–b, ed. H. Bardtke (BHS) |
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aἵνα τί ὑπολαμβάνετε, ὄρη τετυρωμένα, bτὸ ὄρος, ὃ εὐδόκησεν ὁ θεὸς κατοικεῖν ἐν αὐτῷ; cκαὶ γὰρ ὁ κύριος κατασκηνώσει εἰς τέλος. |
לָ֤מָּה ׀ תְּֽרַצְּדוּן֮ הָרִ֪ים גַּבְנֻ֫נִּ֥ים הָהָ֗ר חָמַ֣ד אֱלֹהִ֣ים לְשִׁבְתּ֑וֹֹ אַף־יְ֝הוָ֗ה יִשְׁכֹּ֥ן לָנֶֽצַח׃ |
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English translation by NETS: |
English translation by NJPS: |
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Why do you suppose, O curdled mountains, that it is the mount which God was pleased to live in it? Indeed, the Lord will encamp finally. |
why so hostile, O jagged mountains, |
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German translation by LXX.D: |
German translation by Elberfelder: |
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Warum beargwöhnt ihr, ihr geronnenen Berge, den Berg, auf dem es Gott gefallen hat, zu wohnen, (auf dem) ja auch der Herr Wohnung nehmen wird für immer? |
Warum lauert ihr neidisch, ihr gipfelreichen Berge, auf den Berg, den Gott zu seinem Wohnsitz begehrt hat? Ja, der HERR wird ⟨dort⟩ wohnen für immer. |
Hexaplaric Evidence for περισπουδάζειν (σ' Ps 67:17a)
The Göttingen Hexapla Database, which is in its Beta version, gives the following information for Psalm 67[68]:17a:
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LXX Ps 67:17a |
MT Ps 68:17a |
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LXX |
MT |
α' |
σ' |
θ' |
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ἵνα τί |
לָמָּה |
εἰς τί Field |
εἰς τί Field |
ἱνατί Field |
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ὑπολαμβάνετε, |
תְּרַצְּדוּן |
ἐρίζετε Field |
περισπουδάζετε Field |
δικάζεσθε (s. ἐρίζετε) Field |
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ὄρη |
הָרִים |
ὄρη Field |
τὰ ὄρη Field |
περὶ τούτου τοῦ ὄρους [?]Field |
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τετυρωμένα |
גַּבְנֻנִּים |
ὠφρυωμένα Field |
τὰ ὑψηλά Field |
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MT
The Tiberian Masoretic Text has the verb תְּרַצְּדוּן, a second-person plural piel yiqtol verb (with final nun) from the root רצד. In Classical Hebrew texts, this verbal root occurs only in Psalm 68[67]:17 and Ben Sira 14:22 (ms. A, T-S 12.863, f. 6r).[1] The former passage was cited above. The latter passage, together with its context (vv. 20–24), reads as follows:[2]
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אשרי אנוש בחכמה יהגה ובתבונה ישעה: השם על דרכיה לבו ובתבונתיה יתבונן: לצאת אחריה בחקר וכל מבואיה ירצד: המשקיף בעד ועל פתחיה יצותת: החונה סביבות ביתה והביא יתריו בקירה: |
Blessed is the man who meditates on wisdom and has his eyes fixed on understanding. The one who sets his heart on her ways and understands the things she understands. By following after her when she goes out and lurking at all her entrances. Who observes her through her window and eavesdrops at her doorways. Who encamps around her house and nails his tent pegs to her wall. |
Based on these uses of the word, the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew defines רצד (piel) as “watch stealthily, watch carefully.”[3] A Phoenician inscription from Cyprus (c. 5th century bce) appears to use a cognate word (rṣd) in a similar sense, as does a later Aramaic text (Leviticus Rabbah, c. 5th century ce).[4]
The ancient versions struggled to understand the meaning of the word in Psalm 68[67]:17, resulting in a wide variety of renderings, e.g., “desire” (Peshitta: ܨܒܝܢ ܐܢܬܘܢ), “leap” (Targum: אתון טפזין), and “contend against” (Jerome [iuxta Hebr.]: contenditis… adversum), in addition to the various Greek translations presented above and discussed below.[5] Rabbinic interpretation is also varied. In the tractate b. Megillah, תרצדון is associated with the similar-sounding words רצה (“desire”) and דין (“judgment”): “Why do you want a judgment (תִּרְצוּ דִּין) with Sinai?” (29a).[6] In the Genesis Rabbah, it is associated with the words רוץ (“run”) and דין (“judgment”): “the mountains were running and contending (רָצִים וּמִדַּיְּנִים) with one another” (99.1).[7] Rashi understood it as a synonym of ארב (“to lie in wait”), and Radak, like the Targum, understood it as a synonym of רקד (“leap”).[8]
LXX
The Greek Psalter translates תְּרַצְּדוּן with the word ὑπολαμβάνετε, which Muraoka defines in this context as “to form an assumption or view about.”[9] Elsewhere, the Psalms translator uses this lexeme to translate the Hebrew terms דּלה (piel; Ps 29[30]:2), דּמה (piel; Pss 47[48]:10; 49[50]:21; cf. Ps 16[17]:12), and חשׁב (piel; Ps 72[73]:16).[10] His choice of the word in this context appears to represent a guess at the meaning of תְּרַצְּדוּן.[11] Eusebius paraphrases the relevant part of the translation as follows: “those who think (τοῖς… νομίζουσιν) that another one is like it… to compare(ἀντιπαραβάλλειν) another one to it.”[12]
Aquila & Theodotion
According to the Database, Aquila reads ἐρίζετε – “why do you quarrel?” – and Theodotion reads δικάζεσθε – “why do you contend?”[13] Both of these readings come via Field’s edition from Theodoret’s commentaries on Psalms and Ezekiel.[14] The relevant passage in the Ezekiel commentary, in which Theodoret cites both translators, reads as follows:[15]
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Ἱνατί ὑπολαμβάνετε ὄρη τετυρωμένα; τὸ ὄρος, ὃ εὐδόκησεν ὁ Θεὸς κατοικεῖν ἐν αὐτῷ· καὶ γὰρὁ Κύριος κατασκηνώσει εἰς τέλος.
Μάτην, φησὶ, ζηλοτυπεῖτε τοῦτο τὸ ὄρος, ἐπειδή ἐν αὐτῷ κατασκηνοῦν ὁ θεὸς εὐδόκησεν· εἰς τέλος γὰρ τοῦτο ποιήσει. Οὕτω δὲ νοεῖνἡμᾶς ἐδίδαξαν οἱ ἄλλοι ἑρμηνευταί·
ὁ μὲν Ἀκύλας εἰρηκώς· Ἱνατί ἐρίζετε ὄρητετυρωμένα;
ὁ δὲ Θεοδοτίων· Ἱνατί δικάζεσθε περὶ τούτουτοῦ ὄρους; |
“Why do you suppose, O curdled mountains, that it is the mount which God was pleased to live in it? Indeed, the Lord will encamp finally.”
“It is vain,” he says, “for you to envy this mountain because God desires to dwell on it. For he will do so forever. This is how the other translators taught us to understand.
Aquila says, “Why do you quarrel, curdled mountains?”
Theodotion says, “Why do you contendconcerning this mountain?” |
Theodoret suggests that Aquila’s translation (ἐρίζετε) and Theodotion’s translation (δικάζεσθε) are roughly equivalent in meaning, and both can be paraphrased as ζηλοτυπεῖτε (“envy”). Interestingly, he does not cite Symmachus’s translation, perhaps because Symmachus gives a different sense. Theodotion’s translation – and perhaps Aquila’s as well – reflects the Rabbinic interpretations discussed above which associated the word with “judgment” (דין; so also Jerome [iuxta Hebr.]: contenditis).
Symmachus
According to the Database, Symmachus reads περισπουδάζετε. The Database, in its Beta version, has drawn this reading from Field’s edition.[16] Field presents Symmachus’s reading as εἰς τί περισπουδάζετε τὰ ὄρη τὰ ὑψηλά and gives the following sources for this reading: “Euseb., ubi περισπουδάζεται scriptum. Nobil., Vat.: Σ. εἰς τί περισπουδάζετε;”[17]The reference to “Vat” is a reference to the Vatican manuscript gr. 754 (= Ra 1175), and the reference to “Nobil.” is a reference to the notes of “Nobilius,” who, according to Field, used manuscripts that appear to be closely related to Vat. gr. 754.[18] The reading thus has two main sources: (1) Ra 1175, (2) Eusebius. The following section discusses each of these sources.
Manuscript Attestation and Patristic Evidence
Ra 1175
Ra 1175 (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 754) is a 10th century copy of the Psalms and Odes, surrounded by a marginal Catena commentary.[19] For Psalm 67:17, the Bible text reads ὑπολαμβάνετε (line 3), and the readings of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus are given in the margin:
Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 754 (Ra 1175), f. 167v.
The manuscript gives the following readings for the Three:
α' εἰς τί ἐρί|ζετε:
θ' ἵνα τί ἐρίζετ:
σ' ἵνα τί περι|σπουδάζετε·
Eusebius
The quotation of Eusebius is based on the 10th century manuscript Codex Coislinianus 44, the only direct witness of Eusebius’ commentary for Psalms 51–95. The reading attributed to Symmachus for Psalm 67:17a appears on page 141v, on the first column of the page:
Codex Coislinianus 44, f. 141v
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b11004562j/f145
Note that the form here is περισπουδάζεται (mid./pas. third person singular) instead of περισπουδάζετε. The full passage reads as follows according to Bandt’s critical edition.[20] An English translation has been provided.[21]
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Ἀντὶ τοῦ· ἐν τῷ διαστέλλειν τὸν ἐπουράνιον καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, ὁ Σύμμαχος τοῦτον ἡρμήνευσε τὸν τρόπον·
»ὁπότε κατεμέριζεν ὁ ἱκανὸς βασιλεύειν αὐτήν, ὡς χιονισθεῖσα ἦν Σελμών, ὄρος θεοῦ, ὄρος εὐτροφίας, ὄρος ὑψηλότατον, ὄρος εὐτροφίας. εἰς τί περισπουδάζετε τὰ ὄρη τὰ ὑψηλά τὸ ὄρος, ὅπερ ἐπόθησεν ὁ θεὸς εἰς τὸ κατοικεῖν ἐν αὐτῷ, καὶ κύριος κατασκηνώσει εἰς τέλος;« |
Instead of, “When the Heavenly One sets apart…” Symmachus translated this way:
“When the Mighty One was distributing its rule, as Selmon became covered with snow – a mountain of God, a mountain of flourishing, the loftiest mountain, a mountain of flourishing. Why do you so desire, you lofty mountains, the mountain in which God longed to dwell, and [which] the Lord will settle to the end.” |
In the critical apparatus, Bandt notes that Codex Coislinianus 44 reads περισπουδάζεται and that the reading περισπουδάζετε is a conjectural emendation (attributed to Annette von Stockhausen).[22] The emendation is almost certainly correct (unless Eusebius himself misread Symmachus). The reading περισπουδάζετε, which is attested for Symmachus in Ra 1175, better corresponds to the Hebrew text (תְּרַצְּדוּן), which has a second person plural verb. Furthermore, the reading περισπουδάζεται in Coislin 44 is easily explained as secondary, since ε/αι interchange was common in the Roman and Byzantine periods.[23]
Refined Representation of Hexaplaric Evidence (σ' Ps 67:17a)
A refined representation of the reading in question and its attestation looks like this:
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LXX Ps 67:17a |
MT Ps 68:17a |
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LXX |
MT |
α' |
σ' |
θ' |
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ὑπολαμβάνετε, |
תְּרַצְּדוּן |
ἐρίζετε (Ra 1175; Theodoret; cf. Syh: ܡܬܚܪܝܢ ܐܢܬܘܢ) |
περισπουδάζετε (Ra 1175; Eusebius; Coislin 44: περισπουδάζεται) |
δικάζεσθε (Theodoret on Ezek 34:13; Ra 1175: ἐρίζετε) |
Analysis of σ' περισπουδάζειν in Ps 67:17a
The word περισπουδάζετε, used by Symmachus in Psalm 67[68]:17a to translate the Hebrew word תְּרַצְּדוּן, is a present active indicative second person plural verb (infinitive: περισπουδάζειν; lexical form: περισπουδάζω). This lexeme appears to be a hapax legomenon in all surviving Greek literature. The consulted lexica analyze the word as follows:
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Biel and Mutzenbecher, Thesaurus III (1780), 92 |
Περισπουδάζω, perquam studiose ago. רצד pih. dejicio, it. exsilio, Sym. Ps LXVII, 16. περισπουδάζετε. |
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Schleusner, Thesaurus II (1829 [London edn]), 743 |
ΠΕΡΙΣΠΟΥΔΑ´ΖΩ, perquam studiose ago. רִצֵד Pih. dejicio, it. exsilio. Symm. Ps LXVII. 16. περισπουδάζετε. Scil. Arab. رصدdicitur de oculis aliquem insidiose observantibus, unde רִצֵד est invidere, oculis obliquis intueri. Ergo περισπουδάζειν de contentione ex invidia orta explicandum h. l. erit. Aqu. et Theod. Habent ἐρίζειν. Nonnullis Interpretibus περισπουδάζειν h. l. est magno studio expetere. |
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Stephanus, Thesaurus VI (1865), 924 |
Περισπουδάζω, Studiose expeto. Symmach. Psalm. 67, 16. |
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Dimitriakos, Λεξικόν XI (1936–1950), 5735 |
περισπουδάζω μτγν. ἀσχολοῦμαι μετὰ σπουδῆς περί τι, ἐκτελῶ τι μετὰ ζήλου, εἶμαι λίαν πρόθυμος πρός τι : Σύμμ.ΠΔ Ψαλμ.67[68].17. |
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Liddell and Scott, Lexicon (1996), 1387 |
περισπουδάζω, to be very eager, Sm.Ps.67(68).17 rest. in SEG39.1056 (Neapolis, i b.c.). |
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Montanari, Dictionary (2015), 1645 |
περισπουδάζω [περίσπουδος] to be desirous VT (Sym.) Ps. 67.17. |
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Montanari, Wörterbuch (2023), 1549 |
περισπουδάζω [περίσπουδος] sehr eifrig sein VT. (Sym.) Ps. 67.17. |
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Bailly – Hugo-Chávez, Dictionnaire (2020), 1834 |
περι·σπουδάζω, être très empressé, Symm. Ps. 67, 16. |
The lexica generally agree that περισπουδάζειν means “to be in a state of or to act with great eagerness/desire.” This meaning is what one might expect from an analysis of the word’s component parts, with the lexical stem σπουδcontributing the sense of “eagerness,” the verbal suffix -άζω contributing the sense of action, and the prefixed preposition περι- intensifying the sense of the whole.[24]
The best etymological evidence for the meaning of the hapax περισπουδάζειν is the related adjective περισπούδαστος. Montanari defines the first sense of this adjective as “very sought after, much desired,” and he cites an example of this sense from a third century ad (?) Greek novel: “Chloe was an especially desirable (catch) (περισπούδαστος): she was a beautiful girl, endowed with all good qualities.”[25] Morphologically, the adjective περισπούδαστος presupposes the verbal base περισπουδασ- (from περισπουδάζειν) to which the derivational adjectival suffix -τός has been added. This suffix, according to the Cambridge Grammar of Classical Greek, is used “either express a passive state (like a perfect passive participle) or express passive possibility,” for example:[26]
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κρυπτός |
hidden (passive state; κρύπτω) |
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πόλις ἀφύλακτος |
an unguarded city (passive state; φυλάττω) |
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πιστός |
reliable (= ‘who can/may be trusted’, passive possibility; πείθομαι) |
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ποταμὸς διαβατός |
a fordable river (passive possibility; διαβαίνω) |
The meaning of the verb περισπουδάζειν can be inferred, then, from the passive adjective περισπούδαστος. If the latter means “much desired” (passive state) or “desirable” (passive possibility), then the former must mean “to desire (very much)” (cf. Montanari 2015). Notably, the interpretation of תְּרַצְּדוּן as “desire” is reflected also in the Syriac Peshitta: ܨܒܝܢ ܐܢܬܘܢ.[27]
This meaning seems to work well in the context of Symmachus’s translation. Note especially the juxtaposition of the verb περισπουδάζετε with the following verb ἐπόθησεν (lexical form: ποθέω), which also means “to have a strong desire for.”[28]
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»εἰς τί περισπουδάζετε τὰ ὄρη τὰ ὑψηλά τὸ ὄρος, ὅπερ ἐπόθησεν ὁ θεὸς εἰς τὸ κατοικεῖν ἐν αὐτῷ, καὶ κύριος κατασκηνώσει εἰς τέλος;« |
“Why do you so desire, you lofty mountains, the mountain in which God longed to dwell, and [which] the Lord will settle to the end?” |
The meaning of the passage, however, is difficult to discern. If περισπουδάζετε is transitive, then another interpretation of the syntax is possible:
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»εἰς τί περισπουδάζετε τὰ ὄρη τὰ ὑψηλά τὸ ὄρος, ὅπερ ἐπόθησεν ὁ θεὸς εἰς τὸ κατοικεῖν ἐν αὐτῷ, καὶ κύριος κατασκηνώσει εἰς τέλος;« |
“Why do you so desire the lofty mountains, you mountain in which God longed to dwell, and [which] the Lord will settle to the end?” |
According to this interpretation of the syntax, the phrase “the lofty mountains” (τὰ ὄρη τὰ ὑψηλά) is the accusative object of the verb περισπουδάζετε, and the following phrase (τὸ ὄρος…) is either a vocative (“you mountain”) or appositional to “the lofty mountains” in the previous line. This interpretation of the syntax finds a close parallel in the Syriac Peshitta, which has a beth preposition on the word for “mountains”: ܡܢܐ ܨܒܝܢ ܐܢܬܘܢ ܒܛܘܪ̈ܐ ܕܓܒܢܝܡ܂. According to this interpretation, the addressee (the subject of the 2nd person plural verb) would seem to be the people of Judah or the inhabitants of Jerusalem, addressed collectively as “the mountain in which God longed to dwell.” The verse might then be read as a rebuke against illicit worship on mountains other than Zion: “why would you desire other mountains, when God himself has desired your mountain?”
[1] Abraham Even-Shoshan, ed., קונקורדנציה חדשׁה לתורה נביאים וכתובים, 4th edn (Jerusalem: Kiryat-Sefer, 1983), 1090; David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993–2011), 540.
[2] https://www.bensira.org/navigator.php?Manuscript=A&PageNum=11, English translation by Benjamin H. Parker and Martin G. Abegg. For the corresponding Greek translation, see Joseph Ziegler, ed., Sapientia Iesu filii Sirach, 2nd edn, Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum XII,2 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1980), 191. The translator renders רצד as ἐνέδρευε, “lie in wait.”
[3] Clines, Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, 540; cf. Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, ed. Herbert Donner, 18th edn (Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, 2013), 1263, who sees the two extant uses of the word as representing two distinct senses: “—1. eifersüchtig, scheel blicken auf… Ps 68.17. —2. beobachten, belauern… Sir 14.22.” It is not clear, however, whether the sense of “envy” – the first sense identified by Gesenius – is an established sense of the word, or whether it results from its use in this particular context (pragmatic meaning). See the helpful notes by Joseph Habib for the Psalms: Layer-by-Layer project: https://psalms.scriptura.org/w/Psalm_68/Home.
[4] For the Phoenician inscription, see Brian Peckham, “Notes on a Fifth-Century Phoenician Inscription from Kition, Cyprus (CIS 86),” Orientalia (Nova Series) 37, no. 3 (1968): 304–24, on pp. 305–6: “For the 20 marshals . and the men who stood guard (rṣd) on the route (‘l sl).” For the Aramaic text, see https://www.sefaria.org/Vayikra_Rabbah, §26: אָזַל וּרְצַד עֲלוֹי; cf. Marcus Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Leipzig: W. Drugulin, 1903), 1492.
[5] See 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), 131; Robert Weber/Roger Gryson, eds., Biblia Sacra: iuxta vulgatam versionem, editio quinta (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2007), 851.
[6] Jacob Neusner, The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, vol. 7b (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2011), 152; cf. https://www.sefaria.org/Megillah.29a.10.
[10] Edwin Hatch/Henry A. Redpath, A Concordance to the Septuagint and the other Greek Versions of the Old Testament: including the Apocryphal Books (Graz: Akademische Druck-und Verlagsanstalt, 1975), II,1414.
[11] Cf. Gilles Dorival, Les Psaumes, Livre 2. Psaumes 41-71, with Claudine Cavalier and Didier Pralon, La Bible d’Alexandrie 16 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2024), 170: “La LXX semble avoir donné une traduction conjecturale.”
[12] Cordula Bandt, ed., Eusebius X: Der Psalmenkommentar 2. Teil, 1. Band: Die Kommentare zu Psalm 51–71 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024), 229: ἐπιτιμῶντος τοῦ λόγου τοῖς ἕτερόν τι νομίζουσιν ὅμοιον αὐτῷ εἶναι. ἐπιλέγει δὲ καὶ αἰτίαν, δι᾽ ἣν οὐ προσήκει αὐτῷ ἕτερον.
[13] Cf. Joseph Reider, An Index to Aquila: Greek-Hebrew, Hebrew-Greek, Latin-Hebrew: With the Syriac and Armenian Evidence, with Nigel Turner, Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 12 (Leiden: Brill, 1966), 96.
[14] Frederick Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt, vol. 2 Job–Malachi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1875), 202. The Syro-Hexapla provides indirect evidence for Aquila’s translation: ܠܡܢܐ ܡܬܚܪܝܢ ܐܢܬܘܢ.
[15] See Jean-Paul Migne (ed.), Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca, Patrologiae Graecae Tomus LXXXI (Paris 1864), 1157. For the passage in Theodoret’s Psalms commentary where he cites Aquila’s reading (ἐρίζετε), see the Göttingen preliminary edition: https://septuaginta.uni-goettingen.de/theodoret/basetext/67/, §67.81: Ὁ δὲ Ἀκύλας οὕτως· Εἰς τί ἐρίζετε, ὄρη ὠφρυωμένα, τὸ ὄρος ὃ ἐπεθύμησε ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ καθίσαι ἐπ’ αὐτό;
[18] Field, Origenis Hexaplorum, 84: “Nobilius in Notis ad hunc librum… scholia et interpretationum varietates in libris manuscriptis repertas affert, quae cum lectionibus Vaticani 754 supra memorati arctissimam cognationem habere videntur.”
[19] Felix Albrecht, “Ra 1175,” Göttinger Septuaginta, 2022, https://septuaginta.uni-goettingen.de/catalogue/Ra_1175/.
[21] Compare the translation by Justin Gohl, “Eusebius of Caesarea, Commentary on the Psalms – A translation of Selected Psalms,” 213, https://www.academia.edu/45603294/Eusebius_of_Caesarea_Commentary_on_the_Psalms_A_translation_of_Selected_Psalms: “When the Mighty One distributed to rule it, as Selmon was snow-covered, mountain of God, mountain of good nourishment, a most exalted mountain, a mountain of good nourishment; for what are the exalted mountains very eager? The mountain, which God desired so as to dwell in it, and the Lord will tabernacle unto the end.”
[23] See Benjamin Kantor, The Pronunciation of New Testament Greek: Judeo-Palestinian Greek Phonology and Orthography from Alexander to Islam (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2023), §8.3.7.2 and §8.2.1.1.II.
[24] According to Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966), §866, -άζω verbs “denote action,” e.g., γυμνάζω (“exercise,” from γυμνός, “naked”), θαυμάζω (“marvel at,” from θαῦμα, “wonder”), σκεπάζω (“cover,” from σκέπας, “covering”) etc. According to Liddell/Scott, Lexicon (1996), 1367, the prefixed preposition περι- can express “a strengthening of the simple notion, beyond measure, very, exceedingly, as in περικαλλής, περίκηλος, περιδείδω, like Lat. per-.”
[26] Evert van Emde Boas et al., The Cambridge Grammar of Classical Greek (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), §37.4.
[27] Walter/Vogel/Ebied, eds., Psalms; on the meaning of the verb ܨܒܝ, see the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon: https://cal.huc.edu/getlex.php?coord=62027068017&word=1.
