oa Gedicht en getal

Starting from certain literary phenomena found in parts of the New Testament the composition of the Hebrew Psalm 6 is investigated. A five-fold structure is proposed, in accordance with the number of words used: v. 1, vv. 2-4, vv. 5-7, v. 8, vv. 9-11. Just as, e.g., in Ps. 47, the exact place of the divine names was determined by the principle of word count; the patterns 13 + 26 and 26 + 13 are in evidence. At the center of the poem, bš’wl (v. 6), with a numerical value of 2 + 21 + 1 + 6 + 12 = 42, is word no. 42. More examples of this device are given. In v. 8, the expression for ‘my eye’ marks a sub-center, viz. the middle part of vv. 5-11, consisting of 24 + 6 + 24 = 54 words. A further sub-center appears in 'd-mty, ‘how long?’ (v. 4, end): in vv. 3-6 the pattern is one of ‘concentric symmetry’. Moreover, the poet appears to have known and used the grammatical distinction between various parts of speech: both arithmetics and grammar were part of this training as a craftsman.