Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 74:18

congratulates Heb. בֵּרֵך, like בֵּרַך, an expression of the past tense. You should know [that this is so,] for if it were a noun, the accent would be on the first letter and it would be vowelized with a “pattah” [meaning a “seggol” under the “resh”], but this one is vowelized with a small “kamatz” [i.e., with a “tzereh”] and it is accented below on the “resh.” Do not wonder about בֵּרֵך, that he did not say: בֵּרַך, because many words spelled with a “resh” are vowelized in this manner, e.g. (below 74:18), “an enemy blasphemed (חֵרֵף) the Lord,” and it does not say חֵרַף.

Whereas the terms מכורותיך and מולדתיך occur in Ezekiel 16,3-4, describing close relatives in one’s birthplace, in our verse, the vowel tzeyreh under the letter כ converts this word into one that could have been written with a dagesh, i.e. from the conjugation piel, the strong, transitive conjugation, suggesting that these emotions were evident only when the two brothers engaged in a scheme of doubtful ethical merit. The construction of the word is parallel to Job 37,12 where the word מסבות, describes clouds in constant motion foreboding turmoil, nature at its most destructive. Examples of the expected vowel chirik becoming a tzeyreh instead, are found in Lamentations 2,9, as well as in Numbers 8,26, and in Psalms 74,18. In all those examples the addition of the extra “dot” next to the chirik converts the meaning into something stronger, more aggressive, more intense.

וברך — This is equivalent to וּבִרֵּךְ. This is the rule of the letter ר, as in (Psalms 74:18): “the enemy blasphemeth”, חֵרֵף like חִרֵּף; and similarly (Psalms 10:3): [ובצע בֵּרֵךְ [נאץ ה׳ (where בֵּרֵךְ is for בִּרֵּךְ), which means, He who praises and blesses the robber (בצע) and says, ‘Do not be afraid, for you will not be punished; peace will be unto you’, he angers (נאץ) God thereby (but see Rashi on this verse where another translation is given). — One cannot say that ברך is a noun, for if it were, it would be voweled in both syllables with Short Patach (our Segol), and its accent would be on the first syllable (בֶּרָךְ) because it is a verb in the Piel conjugation, it is voweled with Short Kametz (our Tzéré) on both syllables, and its accent is on the last syllable.