The Root Škl and the Soul Bereaved in Psalm 35

Abstract

Psalm 35 appeals to God against those who requite 'evil for good'. When they were sick the psalmist had donned sackcloth, fasted and prayed 'as though for my friend or my brother'. Indeed, the intimacy and intensity of his kinship feelings toward them moves him to the phrases, š^ekôl l^enapsî (v. 12b) and '^abel-'em (v. 14.b) (RSV, 'my soul is forlorn', and 'one who laments his mother'). From an examination of the root šakal I argue that the psalmist's feelings toward his erstwhile but now estranged kin are likened to those of a mother bereaved of her young.