תדבק לשוני לחכי

מאת: אבנר רמו

In the Book of Psalms we read:
תדבק-לשוני לחכי-- אם-לא אזכרכי:
“Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember you not” (Ps 137:6; see also Eze 3:26; Job 29:10; 33:2; Thr 4:4).

Yet the Psalmist also wrote:
יבש כחרש כחי, ולשוני מדבק מלקוחי;
“My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaved to my throat” (Ps 22:16).


The Greek translated לחכי (lekhiki) and the Hapax legomenon מלקוחי (malqokhi) as “throat” and it therefore appears that they assumed that מלקוחי (malqokhi) is a misspelled לחכי (lekhiki). However, it appears more likely that מלקוחי (malqokhi) is a misspelled חכי אל (el khaki) - “to my throat.” This suggestion assumes that in addition to the substitution of א (a) by מ (m), and of כ (k) by ק (q), we have here also a metathesis and mis-division