Psalm 6 → 36

Reasoning: 9024 Output: 4458 Total: 13482

Argument

Short thesis: Read Psalm 36 as the theological and liturgical “answer” to Psalm 6. Psalm 6 pleads for rescue “for the sake of your hesed,” envisions the shaming of “all my enemies,” and contrasts life with Sheol; Psalm 36 picks up those very threads—expanding God’s hesed, describing the moral logic behind the enemies’ fall, and replacing the imagery of death/tears with life/light and abundance—so that the outcome envisioned in Psalm 6 is realized and explained in Psalm 36.

1) Formal and editorial signals (superscriptions and shape)
- Both are Davidic and “for the choirmaster” (למנצח … לדוד), suggesting that an editor could intentionally place or read them together in performance.
- Typical lament-to-assurance arc in Ps 6 (vv. 2–4 complaint; vv. 5–8 petition; vv. 9–11 assurance of enemy collapse) is matched by a mixed wisdom/hymn-plus-petition arc in Ps 36 (vv. 2–5 diagnosis of the wicked; vv. 6–10 hymn on God’s attributes; vv. 11–12 petition; v. 13 realized downfall of the wicked). The two arcs dovetail: Ps 6 ends with confidence; Ps 36 opens by explaining the enemy and then narrates the very downfall Ps 6 anticipated.

2) High‑value lexical anchors (identical and rarer collocations)
- “פֹעֲלֵי אָוֶן” (workers of iniquity) occurs identically in both and is a marked Davidic formula:
  - Ps 6:9 ס֣וּרוּ מִמֶּנִּי כָל־פֹּ֣עֲלֵי אָ֑וֶן
  - Ps 36:13 שָׁם נָפְלוּ פֹּ֣עֲלֵי אָ֑וֶן
  Logical link: in Ps 6 the psalmist drives them away; in Ps 36 they are shown fallen and unable to rise. Imperative/wish in Ps 6 becomes realized outcome in Ps 36 (דֹחוּ וְלֹא־יָכְלוּ קוּם).
- “חֶסֶדְךָ” (your steadfast love) with 2ms suffix is programmatic in both:
  - Ps 6:5 הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי לְמַעַן חַסְדֶּךָ
  - Ps 36:6–8, 11: בְּהַשָּׁמַיִם חַסְדֶּךָ … מַה־יָּקָר חַסְדְּךָ … מְשֹׁךְ חַסְדְּךָ
  Logical link: Ps 6 appeals to hesed; Ps 36 magnifies and explicates that hesed cosmically.
- Root יש״ע “save” in the same stem:
  - Ps 6:5 הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי (Hiphil imperative)
  - Ps 36:7 תּוֹשִׁיעַ (Hiphil imperfect, declarative)
  Petition in Ps 6 is matched by the declarative confidence in Ps 36 (“you save”).
- Night/bed lexeme link:
  - Ps 6:7–8: מִטָּתִי … עַרְשִׂי, a night‑scene of tears
  - Ps 36:5: אָוֶן יַחְשֹׁב עַל־מִשְׁכָּבוֹ, the wicked’s bed is where he plots
  Two contrasted nightscapes that make a narrative pair: the sufferer’s bed (Ps 6) vs. the wicked’s plotting bed (Ps 36), which ends in the wicked’s fall (Ps 36:13).

3) Thematic continuities and developments
- From Sheol to Life:
  - Ps 6:6 “In death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you thanks?”
  - Ps 36:10 “With you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”
  Logical move: Ps 36 supplies the positive theological answer to Ps 6’s fear—YHWH is the source of life and light that defeats the pull of Sheol.
- Tears to abundance, water to water:
  - Ps 6:7–8: “I drench (אֶשְׂחֶה) my bed with tears” (saturation imagery in a negative register)
  - Ps 36:9: “They drink their fill (תַשְׁקֵם) from the river of your delights” (saturation imagery in a positive register)
  The watery saturation of lament (tears) is answered by the river of divine delight and provision.
- Weakening vs. fatness:
  - Ps 6:8: “My eye wastes away (עָשְׁשָׁה) because of grief”
  - Ps 36:9: “They are saturated from the fatness (דֶּשֶׁן) of your house”
  Antithetical reversal: wasting vs. fattening abundance.
- Moral polarity of enemies:
  - Ps 6 emphasizes foes: צֹרְרַי, אֹיְבַי, פֹעֲלֵי אָוֶן; pleads that they be shamed and turned back
  - Ps 36 explains the inner logic of the wicked (לָרָשָׁע … אֵין פַּחַד אֱלֹהִים לְנֶגֶד עֵינָיו; plotting on his bed; not despising evil) and ends with their irreversible collapse
  Ps 36 thus “justifies” the outcome wished in Ps 6 by revealing the character of the wicked and the moral order of God’s world.

4) Motifs of eye/vision and near/far
- Eyes:
  - Ps 6:8 “my eye” is debilitated
  - Ps 36:2 “no fear of God before his eyes”; Ps 36:10 “in your light we see light”
  The ruined eye of lament (Ps 6) is conceptually healed in the seeing light of God (Ps 36).
- Near/far spatial logic:
  - Ps 6:9 “Depart from me, all workers of iniquity”
  - Ps 36:8 “The sons of man take refuge under the shadow of your wings”
  The wicked are pushed far from the sufferer (Ps 6), while the righteous are brought near to God’s protective presence (Ps 36).

5) Cosmological frame that widens Ps 6’s plea
- Ps 6 sets the problem against death/Sheol; Ps 36 stretches the frame from the heavens to the skies, mountains of God, and the great deep (בְּהַשָּׁמַיִם … עַד־שְׁחָקִים … כְּהַרְרֵי־אֵל … תְּהוֹם רַבָּה), then back to the temple abundance and the fountain of life. It thus universalizes the grounds for the salvation invoked in Ps 6:5 (“for the sake of your hesed”).

6) Progression of verbs: wish to realization
- Ps 6 ends with volitives: “Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly dismayed; let them turn back; let them be ashamed in a moment” (יֵבֹשׁוּ … יִבָּהֲלוּ … יָשֻׁבוּ)
- Ps 36 ends with realized perfects: “There they have fallen … they are thrust down and cannot rise” (שָׁם נָפְלוּ … דֹּחוּ וְלֹא־יָכְלוּ קוּם)
  This is precisely the kind of editorial/narrative stitching that makes Ps 36 read as a sequel to Ps 6.

7) Life‑cycle and cultic sequence that makes sense of the pairing
- Ps 6 is a classic individual lament from the sickbed (bones and soul dismayed; bed soaked with tears), pleading not to die and to be delivered for the sake of divine hesed.
- Ps 36 reads like the thanksgiving/wisdom‑hymn offered after deliverance: it generalizes the experience (God’s hesed as cosmic), celebrates abundance “in your house,” prays for continued protection (“do not let the foot of pride come upon me”), and points to the observable ruin of the wicked.
- This sickness-to-temple trajectory is a well‑attested liturgical/life pattern in ancient Israel.

Summary: The strongest, most specific textual bonds are the repeated formula פֹעֲלֵי אָוֶן and the hesed/yesha‘ nexus (הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי לְמַעַן חַסְדֶּךָ → מַה־יָּקָר חַסְדְּךָ … תּוֹשִׁיעַ), together with the shift from wish (Ps 6) to accomplished fact (Ps 36) in the enemies’ fate. Thematically, Ps 36 systematically answers Ps 6: from Sheol to fountain of life, from tears to river of delights, from ruined sight to “in your light we see light,” from “depart, workers of iniquity” to “there they have fallen.” All of that makes a coherent case for reading Psalm 36 as logically following on from Psalm 6.

Evaluation

Score: 6.5

Evaluated at: 2025-11-19T04:10:38 (UTC)

Evaluator model: gpt-5

Evaluator version: v2

Reasoning: 3008 Output: 5296 Total: 8304

Vocabulary specificity: 3.0 / 10

Multiple correct, verse-anchored links (פעלי און; חסדך; הושיע/תושיע; bed/night; Sheol→life; wish→realization). However, vocabulary is common across Psalms; superscriptional pairing is weak; motifs (tears/water, enemies’ fall) are widespread. No caps.

Prompt

Consider Psalm 6 and Psalm 36 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 36 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 36:
Psalm 36
1. לַמְנַצֵּ֬חַ ׀
        לְעֶֽבֶד־
        יְהוָ֬ה
        לְדָוִֽד׃
2. נְאֻֽם־
        פֶּ֣שַׁע
        לָ֭רָשָׁע
        בְּקֶ֣רֶב
        לִבִּ֑י
        אֵֽין־
        פַּ֥חַד
        אֱ֝לֹהִ֗ים
        לְנֶ֣גֶד
        עֵינָֽיו׃
3. כִּֽי־
        הֶחֱלִ֣יק
        אֵלָ֣יו
        בְּעֵינָ֑יו
        לִמְצֹ֖א
        עֲוֺנ֣וֹ
        לִשְׂנֹֽא׃
4. דִּבְרֵי־
        פִ֭יו
        אָ֣וֶן
        וּמִרְמָ֑ה
        חָדַ֖ל
        לְהַשְׂכִּ֣יל
        לְהֵיטִֽיב׃
5. אָ֤וֶן ׀
        יַחְשֹׁ֗ב
        עַֽל־
        מִשְׁכָּ֫ב֥וֹ
        יִ֭תְיַצֵּב
        עַל־
        דֶּ֣רֶךְ
        לֹא־
        ט֑וֹב
        רָ֝֗ע
        לֹ֣א
        יִמְאָֽס׃
6. יְ֭הוָה
        בְּהַשָּׁמַ֣יִם
        חַסְדֶּ֑ךָ
        אֱ֝מֽוּנָתְךָ֗
        עַד־
        שְׁחָקִֽים׃
7. צִדְקָֽתְךָ֨ ׀
        כְּֽהַרְרֵי־
        אֵ֗ל
        מִ֭שְׁפָּטֶךָ
        תְּה֣וֹם
        רַבָּ֑ה
        אָ֤דָֽם־
        וּבְהֵמָ֖ה
        תוֹשִׁ֣יעַ
        יְהוָֽה׃
8. מַה־
        יָּקָ֥ר
        חַסְדְּךָ֗
        אֱלֹ֫הִ֥ים
        וּבְנֵ֥י
        אָדָ֑ם
        בְּצֵ֥ל
        כְּ֝נָפֶ֗יךָ
        יֶחֱסָיֽוּן׃
9. יִ֭רְוִיֻן
        מִדֶּ֣שֶׁן
        בֵּיתֶ֑ךָ
        וְנַ֖חַל
        עֲדָנֶ֣יךָ
        תַשְׁקֵֽם׃
10. כִּֽי־
        עִ֭מְּךָ
        מְק֣וֹר
        חַיִּ֑ים
        בְּ֝אוֹרְךָ֗
        נִרְאֶה־
        אֽוֹר׃
11. מְשֹׁ֣ךְ
        חַ֭סְדְּךָ
        לְיֹדְעֶ֑יךָ
        וְ֝צִדְקָֽתְךָ֗
        לְיִשְׁרֵי־
        לֵֽב׃
12. אַל־
        תְּ֭בוֹאֵנִי
        רֶ֣גֶל
        גַּאֲוָ֑ה
        וְיַד־
        רְ֝שָׁעִ֗ים
        אַל־
        תְּנִדֵֽנִי׃
13. שָׁ֣ם
        נָ֭פְלוּ
        פֹּ֣עֲלֵי
        אָ֑וֶן
        דֹּ֝ח֗וּ
        וְלֹא־
        יָ֥כְלוּ
        קֽוּם׃