Psalm 12 → 74
Reasoning: 8000 Output: 5836 Total: 13836
Argument
Here is a set of mutually reinforcing arguments that Psalm 74 can be read as logically following Psalm 12. I group them by (a) thematic flow, (b) shared lexemes/roots and rare collocations, (c) form/style, and (d) life-setting/history/mythic logic. A. Thematic flow: from social rot and a promise to arise (Ps 12) to national catastrophe and a plea to arise (Ps 74) - Ps 12 diagnoses internal moral collapse: deceitful speech, boastful tongues, oppression of the poor and needy; but God utters a promise: “Now I will arise” and “I will set him in safety” (12:6), and “You, O YHWH, will keep/guard” (12:8). - Ps 74 opens with the crisis that seems to contradict or test that promise: the sanctuary has been desecrated and burned, the signs and prophets have vanished, and the community asks “Why have you rejected us forever?” (74:1) and “How long?” (74:10). - The pivot word is arise. Ps 12:6 has the divine oracle “Now I will arise” (עתָה אָקוּם). Ps 74:22 replies with the community’s imperative “Arise, O God” (קוּמָה אֱלֹהִים). Psalm 74 thus reads like the next act: the people appeal to the earlier oracle and ask God to make good on it amid an intensified crisis. B. Shared lexemes, roots and rare collocations (rarer and exact matches weighted higher) Most significant identical words/forms and roots: - קוּם “arise” - 12:6 אָקוּם (1cs, divine promise) - 74:22 קוּמָה (impv., communal plea) Logical linkage: the second psalm explicitly solicits the action promised in the first. - יֶשַׁע / יְשׁוּעוֹת “salvation/deliverance” (root ישע) - 12:6 בְּיֵשַׁע (“I will set him in salvation”) - 74:12 יְשׁוּעוֹת (“working salvations in the midst of the land”) The same salvation-root shifts from promised rescue of the oppressed individual(s) to the King-of-old who historically performs salvations for the nation. - עָנִי / אֶבְיוֹן “poor/needy” (identical nouns) - 12:6 מִשֹּׁד עֲנִיִּים; מֵאַנְקַת אֶבְיוֹנִים - 74:21 עָנִי וְאֶבְיוֹן; 74:19 חַיַּת עֲנִיֶּיךָ The same social group anchors both psalms; the protection of the poor in 12 becomes the focal petition in 74 not to forget “the life of your poor” (74:19, 21). - עוֹלָם / נֶצַח “forever” (semantic pair with high rhetorical weight) - 12:8 לְעוֹלָם (forever you will guard) - 74:1, 10, 19 לָנֶצַח (forever cast off? blaspheme forever? do not forget forever) Psalm 74 problematizes Psalm 12’s “forever-guarding” with repeated “forever” questions and negatives; the tension reads intentionally. - אָמַר “say” + לֵב “heart” collocation - 12:3 בְּלֵב וָלֵב יְדַבֵּרוּ (“with a double heart they speak”); 12:5 אֲשֶׁר אָמְרוּ (“who say…”) - 74:8 אָמְרוּ בְּלִבָּם (“they said in their heart”) The same “speech-from-the-heart” of the wicked runs through both psalms; Ps 74’s violent program (“let us annihilate them together”) is the matured fruit of Ps 12’s lying/boasting mouths. - אֶרֶץ “earth/land” - 12:7 בַּעֲלִיל לָאָרֶץ (“in a crucible for the land/earth”) - 74:12 בְּקֶרֶב הָאָרֶץ; 74:20 מַחֲשַׁכֵּי־אֶרֶץ Both locate God’s action in the land; 12 uses metallurgical imagery “in the earth,” 74 speaks of God working salvations “in the midst of the land” and laments that “the dark places of the land are filled with haunts of violence.” Further lexical/thematic correspondences: - Speech-sin and blasphemy: - 12:3–5 smooth lips, great-speaking tongue (שְׂפַת חֲלָקוֹת… לָשׁוֹן מְדַבֶּרֶת גְּדֹלוֹת), “Who is lord over us?” - 74:10, 18, 22 repeated חרף/נאץ “blaspheme/insult” your name Both focus the problem in abusive speech directed against God and his people. - Memory/keeping dialectic: - 12:8 תִּשְׁמְרֵם / תִּצְּרֶנּוּ (“You will keep/guard them/us”) - 74:2, 18, 22 זְכֹר (“remember”); 74:19 אַל־תִּשְׁכַּח (“do not forget”) Rhetorically, “keeping” in 12 is pressed in 74 as “remembering,” the covenantal face of divine guardianship. - Fire and holiness vs fire and profanation: - 12:7 “refined sevenfold” (metallurgical fire as image for the purity of YHWH’s words) - 74:7 “They sent fire into your sanctuary… profaned the dwelling of your name” The fire that purifies in 12 is perversely turned to destroy in 74; both stress what is legitimate/holy versus corrupt/profane. Rare or striking phrases that map conceptually: - 12:9 כְּרוּם זֻלוּת לִבְנֵי אָדָם (“when vileness is exalted among the sons of man”) is an unusual collocation; 74:20 מָלְאוּ… נְאוֹת חָמָס (“haunts/habitations of violence are full”) is likewise striking. Both depict a social order where the abnormal (vileness/violence) has been enthroned and fills the land. C. Form and stylistic parallels - Lament-oracle-trust structure: - Psalm 12: complaint (vv. 2–5) → divine oracle (v. 6 “Now I will arise”) → trust/affirmation (vv. 7–8) → realism about the present (v. 9). - Psalm 74: complaint (vv. 1–11) → hymnic recollection of God’s cosmic kingship and saving acts (vv. 12–17) → direct petitions (vv. 18–23), climaxing with “Arise, O God” (v. 22). The oracle in 12 is answered by a petition in 74 using the same key verb (קום), a deliberate rhetorical seam. - Second-person emphasis on God’s agency: - 12:8 אַתָּה יְהוָה תִּשְׁמְרֵם (“You, YHWH, will keep them”) - 74:13–17 anaphoric אַתָּה… אַתָּה… (“You split the sea… You crushed Leviathan… You cleaved fountain and torrent… You set the bounds of the earth… You made summer and winter”) Both lean hard into direct address, spotlighting divine capacity as the grounds for the plea/trust. D. Life-setting, historical and mythic logic - Social breakdown leads to national catastrophe: Psalm 12’s world is one where the faithful have vanished, elites boast that no lord rules them, and the poor are exploited. That is precisely the moral climate that Israel’s prophets say precipitates judgment and, ultimately, temple destruction. Psalm 74 presents that endpoint: the enemies have invaded and burned the sanctuary and suppressed prophetic word and signs. - “Now” vs “How long?”: The sequence from עַתָּה אָקוּם (“Now I will arise,” Ps 12:6) to עַד־מָתַי (“How long?” Ps 74:10) tracks a common Israelite liturgical arc—initial oracle of salvation met by a later historical crisis that forces the community to hold God to his word. - Covenant logic: Psalm 12 stresses God’s reliable utterances (אִמְרוֹת יְהוָה… טְהֹרוֹת… מְזֻקָּק שִׁבְעָתָיִם, 12:7). Psalm 74 leverages that reliability covenantally: “Look to the covenant” (הַבֵּט לַבְּרִית, 74:20) and “remember” (זְכֹר, 74:2, 18, 22). The move from pure word to invoked covenant is exactly how Israel’s liturgy reasons from God’s character to present help. - Mythic remedy for sociopolitical chaos: Psalm 74’s Chaoskampf motifs (tanninim, Leviathan; 74:13–14) and creation sovereignty (day/night; seasons; boundaries, 74:16–17) are invoked as the macro-scale answer to the micro-scale chaos of Psalm 12’s lying tongues and social overturn. If God orders the cosmos, he can re-order the desecrated community. - The poor as covenant canary: Both psalms center עֲנִיִּים/אֶבְיוֹנִים. In Israel’s theology, treatment of the poor signals the health of the covenant order; their rescue in Psalm 12 and their plea not to be forgotten “forever” in Psalm 74 mark beginning and end of the same storyline. Summary - Strong lexical ties (קום; ישע; עני/אביון; אמר+לב; ארץ; עוֹלָם/נֶצַח), shared speech-sin focus, and the move from God’s “Now I will arise” to the people’s “Arise, O God” create an intentional seam. - Structurally, both are laments that hinge on God’s character/word; stylistically, both heighten second-person address and deploy unusual collocations to describe a world inverted by wickedness. - Historically and mythically, Psalm 74 reads as the national-historical crisis that tests the promise of Psalm 12; the remedy appealed to in Psalm 74 (God’s cosmic kingship and covenant memory) flows naturally from the claims made in Psalm 12 (the purity and reliability of YHWH’s words and his commitment to guard the oppressed). On these grounds one can justify reading Psalm 74 as a logical follow-on to Psalm 12.
Evaluation
Score: 6.5
Evaluated at: 2026-01-19T02:38:52 (UTC)
Evaluator model: gpt-5
Evaluator version: v2
Reasoning: 2368 Output: 6662 Total: 9030
Checklist
- Has verse refs: Yes
- Factual error detected: No
- Only generic motifs: No
- Counterargument considered: No
- LXX/MT numbering acknowledged: No
Vocabulary specificity: 3.5 / 10
Multiple accurate verse-level links (קום; ישע; עני/אביון; עתה vs עד־מתי) and coherent flow. However, lexemes are common across Psalms; no editorial signal; ignores distance/superscription counterpoints. Moderately persuasive.
Prompt
Consider Psalm 12 and Psalm 74 (reproduced below). What arguments could you make to justify that Psalm 74 logically follows on from Psalm 12? 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 12:
Psalm 12
1. לַמְנַצֵּ֥חַ
עַֽל־
הַשְּׁמִינִ֗ית
מִזְמ֥וֹר
לְדָוִֽד׃
2. הוֹשִׁ֣יעָה
יְ֭הוָה
כִּי־
גָמַ֣ר
חָסִ֑יד
כִּי־
פַ֥סּוּ
אֱ֝מוּנִ֗ים
מִבְּנֵ֥י
אָדָֽם׃
3. שָׁ֤וְא ׀
יְֽדַבְּרוּ֮
אִ֤ישׁ
אֶת־
רֵ֫עֵ֥הוּ
שְׂפַ֥ת
חֲלָק֑וֹת
בְּלֵ֖ב
וָלֵ֣ב
יְדַבֵּֽרוּ׃
4. יַכְרֵ֣ת
יְ֭הוָה
כָּל־
שִׂפְתֵ֣י
חֲלָק֑וֹת
לָ֝שׁ֗וֹן
מְדַבֶּ֥רֶת
גְּדֹלֽוֹת׃
5. אֲשֶׁ֤ר
אָֽמְר֨וּ ׀
לִלְשֹׁנֵ֣נוּ
נַ֭גְבִּיר
שְׂפָתֵ֣ינוּ
אִתָּ֑נוּ
מִ֖י
אָד֣וֹן
לָֽנוּ׃
6. מִשֹּׁ֥ד
עֲנִיִּים֮
מֵאַנְקַ֢ת
אֶבְי֫וֹנִ֥ים
עַתָּ֣ה
אָ֭קוּם
יֹאמַ֣ר
יְהוָ֑ה
אָשִׁ֥ית
בְּ֝יֵ֗שַׁע
יָפִ֥יחַֽ
לֽוֹ׃
7. אִֽמֲר֣וֹת
יְהוָה֮
אֲמָר֢וֹת
טְהֹ֫ר֥וֹת
כֶּ֣סֶף
צָ֭רוּף
בַּעֲלִ֣יל
לָאָ֑רֶץ
מְ֝זֻקָּ֗ק
שִׁבְעָתָֽיִם׃
8. אַתָּֽה־
יְהוָ֥ה
תִּשְׁמְרֵ֑ם
תִּצְּרֶ֓נּוּ ׀
מִן־
הַדּ֖וֹר
ז֣וּ
לְעוֹלָֽם׃
9. סָבִ֗יב
רְשָׁעִ֥ים
יִתְהַלָּכ֑וּן
כְּרֻ֥ם
זֻ֝לּ֗וּת
לִבְנֵ֥י
אָדָֽם׃
Psalm 74:
Psalm 74
1. מַשְׂכִּ֗יל
לְאָ֫סָ֥ף
לָמָ֣ה
אֱ֭לֹהִים
זָנַ֣חְתָּ
לָנֶ֑צַח
יֶעְשַׁ֥ן
אַ֝פְּךָ֗
בְּצֹ֣אן
מַרְעִיתֶֽךָ׃
2. זְכֹ֤ר
עֲדָתְךָ֨ ׀
קָ֘נִ֤יתָ
קֶּ֗דֶם
גָּ֭אַלְתָּ
שֵׁ֣בֶט
נַחֲלָתֶ֑ךָ
הַר־
צִ֝יּ֗וֹן
זֶ֤ה ׀
שָׁכַ֬נְתָּ
בּֽוֹ׃
3. הָרִ֣ימָה
פְ֭עָמֶיךָ
לְמַשֻּׁא֣וֹת
נֶ֑צַח
כָּל־
הֵרַ֖ע
אוֹיֵ֣ב
בַּקֹּֽדֶשׁ׃
4. שָׁאֲג֣וּ
צֹ֭רְרֶיךָ
בְּקֶ֣רֶב
מוֹעֲדֶ֑ךָ
שָׂ֖מוּ
אוֹתֹתָ֣ם
אֹתֽוֹת׃
5. יִ֭וָּדַע
כְּמֵבִ֣יא
לְמָ֑עְלָה
בִּֽסֲבָךְ־
עֵ֝֗ץ
קַרְדֻּמּֽוֹת׃
6. ועת
וְ֭עַתָּה
פִּתּוּחֶ֣יהָ
יָּ֑חַד
בְּכַשִּׁ֥יל
וְ֝כֵֽילַפֹּ֗ת
יַהֲלֹמֽוּן׃
7. שִׁלְח֣וּ
בָ֭אֵשׁ
מִקְדָּשֶׁ֑ךָ
לָ֝אָ֗רֶץ
חִלְּל֥וּ
מִֽשְׁכַּן־
שְׁמֶֽךָ׃
8. אָמְר֣וּ
בְ֭לִבָּם
נִינָ֣ם
יָ֑חַד
שָׂרְפ֖וּ
כָל־
מוֹעֲדֵי־
אֵ֣ל
בָּאָֽרֶץ׃
9. אֽוֹתֹתֵ֗ינוּ
לֹ֥א
רָ֫אִ֥ינוּ
אֵֽין־
ע֥וֹד
נָבִ֑יא
וְלֹֽא־
אִ֝תָּ֗נוּ
יֹדֵ֥עַ
עַד־
מָֽה׃
10. עַד־
מָתַ֣י
אֱ֭לֹהִים
יְחָ֣רֶף
צָ֑ר
יְנָ֘אֵ֤ץ
אוֹיֵ֖ב
שִׁמְךָ֣
לָנֶֽצַח׃
11. לָ֤מָּה
תָשִׁ֣יב
יָ֭דְךָ
וִֽימִינֶ֑ךָ
מִקֶּ֖רֶב
חוקך
חֵֽיקְךָ֣
כַלֵּֽה׃
12. וֵ֭אלֹהִים
מַלְכִּ֣י
מִקֶּ֑דֶם
פֹּעֵ֥ל
יְ֝שׁוּע֗וֹת
בְּקֶ֣רֶב
הָאָֽרֶץ׃
13. אַתָּ֤ה
פוֹרַ֣רְתָּ
בְעָזְּךָ֣
יָ֑ם
שִׁבַּ֖רְתָּ
רָאשֵׁ֥י
תַ֝נִּינִ֗ים
עַל־
הַמָּֽיִם׃
14. אַתָּ֣ה
רִ֭צַּצְתָּ
רָאשֵׁ֣י
לִוְיָתָ֑ן
תִּתְּנֶ֥נּוּ
מַ֝אֲכָ֗ל
לְעָ֣ם
לְצִיִּֽים׃
15. אַתָּ֣ה
בָ֭קַעְתָּ
מַעְיָ֣ן
וָנָ֑חַל
אַתָּ֥ה
ה֝וֹבַ֗שְׁתָּ
נַהֲר֥וֹת
אֵיתָֽן׃
16. לְךָ֣
י֭וֹם
אַף־
לְךָ֥
לָ֑יְלָה
אַתָּ֥ה
הֲ֝כִינ֗וֹתָ
מָא֥וֹר
וָשָֽׁמֶשׁ׃
17. אַתָּ֣ה
הִ֭צַּבְתָּ
כָּל־
גְּבוּל֣וֹת
אָ֑רֶץ
קַ֥יִץ
וָ֝חֹ֗רֶף
אַתָּ֥ה
יְצַרְתָּם׃
18. זְכָר־
זֹ֗את
א֖dוֹיֵב
חֵרֵ֣ף ׀
יְהוָ֑ה
וְעַ֥ם
נָ֝בָ֗ל
נִֽאֲצ֥וּ
שְׁמֶֽךָ׃
19. אַל־
תִּתֵּ֣ן
לְ֭חַיַּת
נֶ֣פֶשׁ
תּוֹרֶ֑ךָ
חַיַּ֥ת
עֲ֝נִיֶּ֗יךָ
אַל־
תִּשְׁכַּ֥ח
לָנֶֽצַח׃
20. הַבֵּ֥ט
לַבְּרִ֑ית
כִּ֥י
מָלְא֥וּ
מַחֲשַׁכֵּי־
אֶ֝֗רֶץ
נְא֣וֹת
חָמָֽס׃
21. אַל־
יָשֹׁ֣ב
דַּ֣ךְ
נִכְלָ֑ם
עָנִ֥י
וְ֝אֶבְי֗וֹן
יְֽהַלְל֥וּ
שְׁמֶֽךָ׃
22. קוּמָ֣ה
אֱ֭לֹהִים
רִיבָ֣ה
רִיבֶ֑ךָ
זְכֹ֥ר
חֶרְפָּתְךָ֥
מִנִּי־
נָ֝בָ֗ל
כָּל־
הַיּֽוֹם׃
23. אַל־
תִּ֭שְׁכַּח
ק֣וֹל
צֹרְרֶ֑יךָ
שְׁא֥וֹן
קָ֝מֶ֗יךָ
עֹלֶ֥ה
תָמִֽיד׃