- The standart interpretation: Ps 8:2 and 8:3 are interpreted as two different sentences; the word meanings are maintained:
- The "LXX-interpretation": Ps 8:2 and 8:3 are interpreted as two different sentences; עֹז is translated as "praise" (following LXX):From the mouths of sucklings and nursing babies you have founded strength/a bulwark on account of your adversaries.
- Soggin´s interpretation: One connects 8:3a to 8:2; the word meanings are maintained:From the mouths of sucklings and nursing babies you have ordained praise on account of your adversaries.
(tr.: Fokkelman)[Your glory is chanted above the heavens] by the mouths of infants and sucklings; you have founded strength, on account of your foes.
None of this makes any sense to me. I don´t understand how one can build a bulwark from the mouths of sucklings; I don´t understand how the praise of sucklings can help God in fighting his adversaries and I don´t understand what sucklings are doing in heaven (- and even if one were to translate "by the mouths of sucklings and nursing babies" as "babbling like sucklings and nursing babies", I have no idea who this would refer to: Who is babbling like sucklings above the heavens?).
Because of this I wonder whether one could read the min as min causae and פֶּה as meaning "speech", as it often does:
Would you think this interpretation possible?Because of the wailing of sucklings and nursing babies you have founded a bulwark on account of your adversaries, so that you might put an end to enemy and avenger.
Thanks in advance,
Sebastian Walter