UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE - Hebrew grammar

 

Psalm 34 and Vav Hahefuch

This poem by King David -- which is read every Shabbat and Holiday during the morning prayers -- is some 24 verses long if organized by its alphabetical acrostic (see any Art Scroll siddur) and contains just over 50 verbs.

Throughout, King David uses normal verb tenses and forms – except for the two verbs at the end of the first verse which are in vav hahefuch.

א    לְדָוִד--    בְּשַׁנּוֹתוֹ אֶת-טַעְמוֹ, לִפְנֵי אֲבִימֶלֶךְ;                            וַיְגָרְשֵׁהוּ, וַיֵּלַךְ.

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 When David fled King Saul and hid among the enemy Philistines, his true identity was discovered and he would have faced certain death except he convinced the ruler, Avimelech, and his court that he was insane; a fate the king saw as worse than death.  And so Avimelech spared his life and let him go free.

To commemorate this event, David wrote Psalm 34 and in only one spot -- twice – back to back -- used vav hahefuch.  

This cannot be accidental, especially as vav hahefuch is almost never used in the Book of Psalms. As a collection of man-made poems praising God, the Divine vav hahefuch would not be used, but it does show up at times, and when it does, it deserves attention.

 

The first verse encapsulates the event and ends with David’s expulsion from the royal court and his safe departure from the land of the Philistines.

 

It translates as " A Psalm of David, when he pretended to be insane before Avimelech who drove him away and he departed.”

 

 

By specifically using vav hahefuch, David acknowledges that it was not his own wit that outsmarted the Philistine king and his court, but rather that the ruse worked due to special Divine intervention.

 

In David’s mind, his expulsion by Avimelech – alive –was from God (וַיְגָרְשֵׁהו), and the second, seemingly superfluous “and he departed” (וַיֵּלַךְ) alludes to his ‘safe passage’ through the land of vengeful Philistine people.

 

Put simply, King David saw this as a double miracle .  Through using vav hahefuch twice and only for these verbs of deliverance, he attests to his belief in the invisible hand of God and Divine intercession in the affairs of mankind.