τί δοθείη σοι καὶ τί προστεθείη σοι > πρὸς γλῶσσαν δολίαν; -Ps. 119.3
What should be given to thee, and what should be added to thee, for [thy] crafty tongue? -Brenton >
My Greek is a bit rusty, could you tell me if πρὸς γλῶσσαν δολίαν;, reflects purpose, or simply an indirect object, or something else?
I’ll take a stab at this one. Based on the context i.e. of the verse following this one, my guess is that what the Psalmist is trying to say here (in somewhat awkward Greek) is something like this:
What penalty should you be given? What punishment should be inflicted upon you? Against you, O devious tongue?
Against you, O devious tongue?
Thank you. However I’m not entirely satisfied by this, since it seems that this use of the vocative is mostly informed by the Hebrew text. I’m looking for a quite literal translation from the LXX. Isn’t πρὸς γλῶσσαν δολίαν a prepositional phrase in the accusative? And what about Brenton’s translation, why did he translate “for thy crafty tongue”?
Well regarding Brenton, I suppose by “for thy crafty tongue” he means “in view of…” or “with regard to…” and I think CGCG 31.8 admits this usage for προς with accusative. Like someone saying “I hate you for doing that” which could also be expressed as “In view of your having done that, I hate you” etc.
Maybe the NETS-translation is better: against a deceitful tongue!
Good point Jean as the spatial interpretation of προς with accusative is towards, facing towards, against etc.
Thank you, what is CGCG?
CGCG = Cambridge Grammar of Classical Greek. It’s the first full-scale reference grammar of Classical greek in English in over a century and pretty much supercedes traditional Greek grammars like Smyth’s as it uses more modern terminology for certain matters of morphology/syntax and goes into deeper stuff like word order. It’s also much easier (IMO) to read and understand than Smyth’s grammar, though in some areas Smyth does go into extra detail.
I’m almost finished my second readthrough of CGCG and it’s been making a world of difference in how I approach grammatical questions in Greek NT/LXX as well as opening up a whole new world for me e.g. Classical Greek authors like Xenophon whose Anabasis I’m currently reading. Highly recommend buying CGCG slogging through it, should take about a year or so 