προεχω or προσεχω?

Greek Learning Greek
1

Is προσχες the aor. act. imp. 2sg. of προεχω or προσεχω?

This question came up in my reading of Psalm 54:3 LXX:

πρόσχες μοι καὶ εἰσάκουσόν μου ἐλυπήθην ἐν τῇ ἀδολεσχίᾳ μου καὶ ἐταράχθην

and after looking these two verbs up in LSJ (via Logeion), CGL and Muraoka, I’m confused!!

Thanks!

2

πρόσχες clearly from προσ-έχω. Sometimes it’s best not to look things up!

3

Hah That’s what I figured from the context. Thanks!

4

In this passage, that’s imperative aorist active 2nd person singular from προσέχω.
It’s a short form for πρόσχες μοι <τὸν νοῦν>: pay attention to me.
We would expect πρόσσεχες, as in Plato’s Theaetetus (198b): Τῷ δὲ δὴ ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη πρόσσχες τὸν νοῦν.
But the form πρόσχες appears many times in different authors and especially in the LXX.
Hope this helps.

5

@tico - Yes thanks that’s what I had suspected because Muraoka in his lexicon entry for προσεχω lists προσσχες as the imperative but adds “On the spelling with -σσ- see Walters, The Text of the Septuagint: its Corruptions and their Emendations” but unfortunately I don’t have access to that work.

6

An interesting morphological detail: since ἔχω has a second thematic aorist in the other moods (indicative: ἔσχον etc.), we would expect the imperative σχέ (like βάλε, εἰπέ, etc.) and not σχέ-ς. It seems to follow the athematic imperative we find in θές (τίθημι), δός (δίδωμι), ἕς (ἵημι).

7

Thanks for pointing that out.