תָּ֝גֵ֗לְנָה (tā·ḡê·lə·nāh) in Psalms 51:8: Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person feminine plural

Hebrew-verb

Verb

Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person feminine plural

Qal

Imperf

Third

Feminine

Plural

Not applicable

None

Imperfect aspect leaves the rejoicing open as a hoped-for response, while discourse supplies the English let construction.

The imperfect verb matches the following feminine plural subject and receives its request-like force from the surrounding prayer.

The feminine plural bones You have crushed as the subject of the psalmist's plea for restored joy

The request to hear joy and gladness after the appeal for cleansing and before the prayer that sins be hidden and blotted out

The third feminine plural Qal imperfect agrees with bones and expresses the desired rejoicing of the psalmist's crushed frame.

The feminine plural ending refers to the grammatical gender of bones, not to female persons, and morphology alone does not decide whether crushed is literal or figurative.

High: The repentant speaker asks God to restore joy so deeply that even the bones described as crushed may rejoice again.

The imperfect verb matches the following feminine plural subject and receives its request-like force from the surrounding prayer.. The third feminine plural Qal imperfect agrees with bones and expresses the desired rejoicing of the psalmist's crushed frame.. Attached to the feminine plural bones You have crushed as the subject of the psalmist's plea for restored joy. Governed by the request to hear joy and gladness after the appeal for cleansing and before the prayer that sins be hidden and blotted out. The feminine plural ending refers to the grammatical gender of bones, not to female persons, and morphology alone does not decide whether crushed is literal or figurative.

Why is rejoice marked third feminine plural in Psalm 51:8? It agrees with the grammatically feminine plural noun bones, which serves as the vivid subject of the requested rejoicing.

Direct: Let ... rejoice makes the prayerful force explicit even though the Hebrew form is labeled imperfect rather than imperative.

Imperfect forms can carry several discourse forces; the chain of petitions supports a request or wish here. Crushed bones vividly represent profound distress, but readers should not use metaphor to deny possible embodied dimensions of suffering.

Feminine verb means female sufferers: The agreement follows the grammatical gender of bones and says nothing about the speaker's sex. imperfect automatically means simple future: Prayer context supports a desired outcome expressed naturally in English as let them rejoice. morphology replaces literary context: The H1523 form clarifies the rejoice relation in Psalms 51:8; the surrounding passage establishes its scope.

At Psalms 51:8, the Psalms 51:8 source token תָּ֝גֵ֗לְנָה is H1523, V-Qal-Imperf-3fp. The H1523 Psalms 51:8 BSB+ word table row therefore anchors this guide.

גִּיל is the lemma behind rejoice here. Within Psalms 51:8, H1523 retains this exact lexical identity.

The imperfect verb matches the following feminine plural subject and receives its request-like force from the surrounding prayer.

The repentant speaker asks God to restore joy so deeply that even the bones described as crushed may rejoice again.

Psalm 51 treats forgiveness as restoration of the whole person while keeping joy dependent on God's cleansing mercy rather than emotional self-repair.

Use agreement to locate the surprising subject: the bones rejoice, a vivid whole-person image whose plea-like force comes from the psalm's petitions.

Do not interpret feminine agreement as human sex, and do not use the image to minimize either bodily suffering or the psalmist's moral responsibility.