Psalm 6 → 7

Reasoning: 6464 Output: 5162 Total: 11626

Argument

Here are lines of argument you can use to show that Psalm 7 plausibly follows Psalm 6, moving from a night of anguished petition to a day of courtroom judgment and praise.

1) Form and movement (form-critical “fit”)
- Both are individual laments with the same large-scale arc: invocation → complaint → petition → confidence/turning point → envisioned outcome. Psalm 6 ends with assurance that YHWH has heard and the enemies will be shamed (6:9–11); Psalm 7 opens by re-asking for rescue (7:2), but moves immediately into a legal scene (oath of innocence, 7:4–6; summons to the Judge, 7:7–9) and ends with confident praise (7:18). This reads like the next step after the confidence reached at the end of Psalm 6.
- Genre progression: Psalm 6 is the penitential/sickness-tinged lament of a threatened individual, whereas Psalm 7 is a “protestation-of-innocence” lament set overtly in the courtroom (שפטני, יָדִין, מִשְׁפָּט). It is natural to move from desperate plea (Ps 6) to legal vindication (Ps 7).

2) Direct lexical and morphological links (identical forms are especially telling)
- Identical imperatives הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי “save me”: Ps 6:5; Ps 7:2.
- Imperative/jussive שׁוּבָה addressed to YHWH in both:
  - Ps 6:5 שׁוּבָה יְהוָה “Return, YHWH!” (to rescue).
  - Ps 7:8 וְעָלֶיהָ לַמָּרוֹם שׁוּבָה “Return on high over it” (to the judgment seat).
  This carries the plea in Ps 6 into the judicial enthronement of Ps 7.
- “My soul” נַפְשִׁי appears at the point of threat in both:
  - Ps 6:5 חַלְּצָה נַפְשִׁי “Draw out/deliver my soul.”
  - Ps 7:3–6 “lest he tear my soul like a lion… let the enemy pursue my soul…” The same object (נפש) is at stake, first in sickness/near-death (Ps 6), then in legal-enemy danger (Ps 7).
- צורר “adversary/enemy” with 1cs suffix occurs in both:
  - Ps 6:8 בְּכָל־צוֹרְרָי.
  - Ps 7:5 צוֹרְרִי; 7:7 צוֹרְרָי.
  The same adversarial circle is in view across the seam.

3) Strong root-level catchwords (rarer/more marked items carry more weight)
- חלץ (a strong and relatively marked root) appears with a purposeful semantic shift that fits the narrative logic:
  - Ps 6:5 חַלְּצָה נַפְשִׁי = “Deliver/draw out my soul” (Hiphil imperative to God).
  - Ps 7:5 וָאֲחַלְּצָה צוֹרְרִי רֵיקָם = “or [if] I have stripped/plundered my adversary for nothing” (Pi’el 1cs). The psalmist asks God to “deliver” him in 6, and then in 7 declares he has not “stripped” his foe unjustly. The same root binds the two psalms while contrasting divine rescue vs. human wrongdoing, a tight ethical progression.
- שׁוּב (“return/turn back”) threads both psalms densely and programmatically:
  - Ps 6:5 “Return, YHWH!”; 6:11 “they shall return (יָשֻׁבוּ) ashamed.”
  - Ps 7:8 “Return on high”; 7:13 “If he does not turn back (יָשׁוּב)”; 7:17 “His mischief will return (יָשׁוּב) on his own head.”
  Psalm 6 prays for YHWH’s “return” and the enemies’ “turn back” in shame; Psalm 7 unpacks that theology of reversal in judicial terms: the unrepentant wicked must “turn” or their violence “returns” upon themselves.
- Anger lexemes cluster across both, redirected from petitioner to adversaries:
  - Ps 6:2 “Do not rebuke me in your anger” (בְּאַפְּךָ) nor discipline me in your wrath (בַחֲמָתֶךָ).
  - Ps 7:7 “Arise, YHWH, in your anger” (בְאַפֶּךָ), “be exalted in the overflows of my adversaries” (בְּעַבְרוֹת), and 7:12 “A God who is angry (זֹעֵם) every day.”
  The seam flips divine anger: “not on me” (Ps 6) → “rise in anger against them” (Ps 7). The repeated, relatively weighty anger terms (אף/חמה/עברה/זעם) make this explicit.
- מוֶת “death” moves from the psalmist’s existential threat to the wicked’s weapons:
  - Ps 6:6 “In death there is no remembrance of you.”
  - Ps 7:14 “He has prepared instruments of death (כְּלֵי־מָוֶת).”
  Logic: deliver me from death (6) → let death be the lot or tool against persistent evildoers (7).
- אוֶן “iniquity” appears across both:
  - Ps 6:9 “Depart from me, all workers of iniquity (פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן).”
  - Ps 7:15 “Behold, he conceives iniquity (יְחַבֶּל־אָוֶן).”
  The “workers of iniquity” in 6 are the same kind of people who “conceive iniquity” in 7 and fall into their own pit (7:16–17), realizing the wish in 6:11.

4) A question in Psalm 6 is answered in Psalm 7
- Ps 6:6 “In death… who will praise (יודֶה) you?” frames praise as the hoped-for outcome of rescue.
- Ps 7:18 “I will praise (אוֹדֶה) YHWH according to his righteousness.” The verb ידה appears again, now fulfilled. Psalm 7 closes with the very praise Psalm 6 said only the living could give.

5) Stylistic similarities that suggest continuity
- Both open with vocative יהוה (Ps 6:2; Ps 7:2,4,9) and are saturated with 1cs forms; both move by short imperatives/jussives addressed to God (חנני, רפאני, שובה; הושיעני, הצילני, קומה, הִנָּשֵׂא, עוּרה).
- Both mix personal plight language (נפשי, עצמות/eyes in 6; נפשי, כבודי in 7) with enemy language (אויב/צורר), characteristic of Davidic laments and making it easy to read them as one unfolding crisis.

6) Event-sequence logic in an ancient Israelite setting
- Psalm 6 can be heard as the nocturnal, tearful prayer of a gravely threatened person (sickness, mortal fear, social pressure): “all night I make my bed swim” (6:7), “my eye wastes away” (6:8), “rescue my soul” (6:5).
- Having attained confidence that YHWH has heard and the enemies will be shamed (6:9–11), Psalm 7 moves into the public/legal arena typical of village or royal-court justice: the psalmist swears innocence with self-imprecation (7:4–6), summons YHWH to take the judge’s seat among the nations (7:7–9), and calls for the moral boomerang (pit-digger falls in, 7:16–17). This matches a real-life sequence: personal crisis → vow/assurance → formal vindication.
- The superscription “concerning the words of Cush the Benjaminite” (7:1) fits the same adversarial world implied in 6:8–11 (“all my enemies,” “workers of iniquity”). If read against the David–Saul matrix, Psalm 6 captures David’s private agony; Psalm 7 articulates his public appeal to YHWH’s court against slander from Saul’s camp.

7) Thematic redirection from discipline to judgment
- Psalm 6:2 asks God not to discipline the psalmist in wrath (תּוֹכִיחֵנִי… תְיַסְּרֵנִי). The fear is that divine anger, rightly aimed at sin, might consume the sufferer.
- Psalm 7 turns that same energy toward the true target—the wicked: “Arise in your anger… judge me, YHWH, according to my righteousness” (7:7–9). The psalmist has reflected, searched himself (7:4–6), and now asks for measured judicial wrath against those who will not turn (7:13).

8) Summary: a stitched seam by catchwords and progression
- Catchwords with high significance: identical forms (הושיעני; שובה), same root with purposeful semantic shift (חלץ), anger lexemes (אף/חמה/עברה/זעם), שוב-chain, ידה “praise,” אוון “iniquity,” מוות “death.”
- Structural fit: Psalm 6’s assurance that enemies will be shamed (יבֹשו… יבהלו… ישובו, 6:11) is the judicial logic Psalm 7 spells out (boomerang justice, 7:16–17).
- Narrative fit: From a night of tears (Ps 6) to a day in court (Ps 7), ending in the praise Psalm 6 desired.

Taken together, these formal, lexical, and thematic ties—especially the rare/marked root חלץ, the repeated identical imperatives הושיעני and שובה, the anger lexeme cluster, the שוב-network, and the fulfilled ידה—make a strong case that Psalm 7 was purposefully placed to carry forward and resolve the crisis voiced in Psalm 6.

Evaluation

Score: 6.5

Evaluated at: 2025-11-18T03:55:55 (UTC)

Evaluator model: gpt-5

Evaluator version: v2

Reasoning: 2816 Output: 5990 Total: 8806

Vocabulary specificity: 4.5 / 10

Multiple accurate, text-anchored links (הושיעני; שובה; חלץ; אוון; ידה; anger/שוב chain) and a plausible night-to-court progression. But most items are common lament vocabulary; no editorial signal; counterpoints unaddressed.

Prompt

Consider Psalm 6 and Psalm 7 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 7 logically follows on from Psalm 6? Consider stylistic similarities, similarities of form, similarities of vocab or ideas, shared roots (if you're doing the search in Hebrew), connections to sequences of events common in ancient Israelite life, mythology or history shared by the two psalms.

Rarer words are more significant than commoner words. Identical forms are more significant than similar forms. The same word class is more significant than different word classes formed from the same root. Identical roots are more significant than suppletive roots.

Psalm 6:
Psalm 6
1. לַמְנַצֵּ֣חַ
        בִּ֭נְגִינוֹת
        עַֽל־
        הַשְּׁמִינִ֗ית
        מִזְמ֥וֹר
        לְדָוִֽד׃
2. יְֽהוָ֗ה
        אַל־
        בְּאַפְּךָ֥
        תוֹכִיחֵ֑נִי
        וְֽאַל־
        בַּחֲמָתְךָ֥
        תְיַסְּרֵֽנִי׃
3. חָנֵּ֥נִי
        יְהוָה֮
        כִּ֤י
        אֻמְלַ֫ל
        אָ֥נִי
        רְפָאֵ֥נִי
        יְהוָ֑ה
        כִּ֖י
        נִבְהֲל֣וּ
        עֲצָֽtמָי׃
4. וְ֭נַפְשִׁי
        נִבְהֲלָ֣ה
        מְאֹ֑ד
        ואת
        וְאַתָּ֥ה
        יְ֝הוָ֗ה
        עַד־
        מָתָֽי׃
5. שׁוּבָ֣ה
        יְ֭הוָה
        חַלְּצָ֣ה
        נַפְשִׁ֑י
        ה֝וֹשִׁיעֵ֗נִי
        לְמַ֣עַן
        חַסְדֶּֽךָ׃
6. כִּ֤י
        אֵ֣ין
        בַּמָּ֣וֶת
        זִכְרֶ֑ךָ
        בִּ֝שְׁא֗וֹל
        מִ֣י
        יֽוֹדֶה־
        לָּֽךְ׃
7. יָגַ֤עְתִּי ׀
        בְּֽאַנְחָתִ֗י
        אַשְׂחֶ֣ה
        בְכָל־
        לַ֭יְלָה
        מִטָּתִ֑י
        בְּ֝דִמְעָתִ֗י
        עַרְשִׂ֥י
        אַמְסֶֽה׃
8. עָֽשְׁשָׁ֣ה
        מִכַּ֣עַס
        עֵינִ֑י
        עָֽ֝תְקָ֗ה
        בְּכָל־
        צוֹרְרָֽי׃
9. ס֣וּרוּ
        מִ֭מֶּנִּי
        כָּל־
        פֹּ֣עֲלֵי
        אָ֑וֶן
        כִּֽי־
        שָׁמַ֥ע
        יְ֝הוָ֗ה
        ק֣וֹל
        בִּכְיִֽי׃
10. שָׁמַ֣ע
        יְ֭הוָה
        תְּחִנָּתִ֑י
        יְ֝הוָ֗ה
        תְּֽפִלָּתִ֥י
        יִקָּֽח׃
11. יֵבֹ֤שׁוּ ׀
        וְיִבָּהֲל֣וּ
        מְ֭אֹד
        כָּל־
        אֹיְבָ֑י
        יָ֝שֻׁ֗בוּ
        יֵבֹ֥שׁוּ
        רָֽגַע׃

Psalm 7:
Psalm 7
1. שִׁגָּי֗וֹן
        לְדָ֫וִ֥ד
        אֲשֶׁר־
        שָׁ֥ר
        לַיהוָ֑ה
        עַל־
        דִּבְרֵי־
        כ֝֗וּשׁ
        בֶּן־
        יְמִינִֽי׃
2. יְהוָ֣ה
        אֱ֭לֹהַי
        בְּךָ֣
        חָסִ֑יתִי
        הוֹשִׁיעֵ֥נִי
        מִכָּל־
        רֹ֝דְפַ֗י
        וְהַצִּילֵֽנִי׃
3. פֶּן־
        יִטְרֹ֣ף
        כְּאַרְיֵ֣ה
        נַפְשִׁ֑י
        פֹּ֝רֵ֗ק
        וְאֵ֣ין
        מַצִּֽיל׃
4. יְהוָ֣ה
        אֱ֭לֹהַי
        אִם־
        עָשִׂ֣יתִי
        זֹ֑את
        אִֽם־
        יֶשׁ־
        עָ֥וֶל
        בְּכַפָּֽי׃
5. אִם־
        גָּ֭מַלְתִּי
        שֽׁוֹלְמִ֥י
        רָ֑ע
        וָאֲחַלְּצָ֖ה
        צוֹרְרִ֣י
        רֵיקָֽם׃
6. יִֽרַדֹּ֥ף
        אוֹיֵ֨ב ׀
        נַפְשִׁ֡י
        וְיַשֵּׂ֗ג
        וְיִרְמֹ֣ס
        לָאָ֣רֶץ
        חַיָּ֑י
        וּכְבוֹדִ֓י ׀
        לֶעָפָ֖ר
        יַשְׁכֵּ֣ן
        סֶֽלָה׃
7. ק֘וּמָ֤ה
        יְהוָ֨ה ׀
        בְּאַפֶּ֗ךָ
        הִ֭נָּשֵׂא
        בְּעַבְר֣וֹת
        צוֹרְרָ֑י
        וְע֥וּרָה
        אֵ֝לַ֗י
        מִשְׁפָּ֥ט
        צִוִּֽיתָ׃
8. וַעֲדַ֣ת
        לְ֭אֻמִּים
        תְּסוֹבְבֶ֑ךָּ
        וְ֝עָלֶ֗יהָ
        לַמָּר֥וֹם
        שֽׁוּבָה׃
9. יְהוָה֮
        יָדִ֢ין
        עַ֫מִּ֥ים
        שָׁפְטֵ֥נִי
        יְהוָ֑ה
        כְּצִדְקִ֖י
        וּכְתֻמִּ֣י
        עָלָֽי׃
10. יִגְמָר־
        נָ֬א
        רַ֨ע ׀
        רְשָׁעִים֮
        וּתְכוֹנֵ֢ן
        צַ֫דִּ֥יק
        וּבֹחֵ֣ן
        לִ֭בּ֗וֹת
        וּכְלָי֗וֹת
        אֱלֹהִ֥ים
        צַדִּֽיק׃
11. מָֽגִנִּ֥י
        עַל־
        אֱלֹהִ֑ים
        מ֝וֹשִׁ֗יעַ
        יִשְׁרֵי־
        לֵֽב׃
12. אֱ֭לֹהִים
        שׁוֹפֵ֣ט
        צַדִּ֑יק
        וְ֝אֵ֗ל
        זֹעֵ֥ם
        בְּכָל־
        יֽוֹם׃
13. אִם־
        לֹ֣א
        יָ֭שׁוּב
        חַרְבּ֣וֹ
        יִלְט֑וֹשׁ
        קַשְׁתּ֥וֹ
        דָ֝רַ֗ךְ
        וַֽיְכוֹנְנֶֽהָ׃
14. וְ֭לוֹ
        הֵכִ֣ין
        כְּלֵי־
        מָ֑וֶת
        חִ֝צָּ֗יו
        לְֽדֹלְקִ֥ים
        יִפְעָֽל׃
15. הִנֵּ֥ה
        יְחַבֶּל־
        אָ֑וֶן
        וְהָרָ֥ה
        עָ֝מָ֗ל
        וְיָ֣לַד
        שָֽׁקֶר׃
16. בּ֣וֹר
        כָּ֭רָֽה
        וַֽיַּחְפְּרֵ֑הוּ
        וַ֝יִּפֹּ֗ל
        בְּשַׁ֣חַת
        יִפְעָֽל׃
17. יָשׁ֣וּב
        עֲמָל֣וֹ
        בְרֹאשׁ֑וֹ
        וְעַ֥ל
        קָ֝דְקֳד֗וֹ
        חֲמָס֥וֹ
        יֵרֵֽד׃
18. אוֹדֶ֣ה
        יְהוָ֣ה
        כְּצִדְק֑וֹ
        וַ֝אֲזַמְּרָ֗ה
        שֵֽׁם־
        יְהוָ֥ה
        עֶלְיֽוֹן׃