תַּ֭שְׁמִיעֵנִי (taš·mî·‘ê·nî) in Psalms 51:8: Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - second person masculine singular | first person common singular
תַּ֭שְׁמִיעֵנִי (taš·mî·‘ê·nî) in Psalms 51:8
Source Word
The BSB+ row for Psalms 51:8 links the English rendering "Let me hear" with תַּ֭שְׁמִיעֵנִי, Strong's H8085, and the parsing label V-Hifil-Imperf-2ms | 1cs.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form makes the line a dependent plea. Joy and gladness are not treated as self-generated feelings but as gifts the psalmist asks God to restore.
How To Communicate It
When teaching Psalm 51:8, use this form to show that biblical repentance asks God to restore hearing, joy, and gladness after sin has brought grief.
What Not To Say
- Grammar should serve context, not override it.
- Do not reduce hearing here to physical sound alone; the context speaks of restored joy and gladness.
- Do not use the form to promise emotional immediacy beyond what the psalm itself promises.
What Does The Label Mean?
Hebrew-verb
Verb
Hifil
Imperfect
Second
Masculine
Singular
First person common singular
Hifil imperfect, second masculine singular, with first common singular suffix
The form works as a request that God cause the speaker to hear joy and gladness, not merely as a statement about future hearing.
This form opens the plea for God to let the psalmist hear joy and gladness after confession.
What The Form Does In This Verse
God as the one asked to make the speaker hear
The verb stands at the front of the request and governs the speaker as the one who receives the hearing.
It asks God to restore the experience of hearing joy and gladness. The first-person suffix makes the plea personal.
The form does not reduce hearing to physical sound or make joy automatic apart from God's restoring mercy.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The Hifil imperfect and first-person suffix shape the plea that God would cause the speaker to hear joy and gladness.
Hifil imperfect request with first-person object suffix. asks God to make the speaker hear joy and gladness. Attached to the joy and gladness phrase in Psalm 51:8. Governed by the prayer request in Psalm 51:8. The imperfect form works in the prayer context and should not be flattened into a simple future tense rule.
What does the speaker ask God to let him hear? He asks God to let me hear joy and gladness.
Direct: The form and suffix directly support the rendering Let me hear.
The imperfect form receives its force from the prayer context, not a universal tense rule. The Hifil stem supports caused hearing here, but the verse supplies the restored joy setting.
Imperfect means future tense: Hebrew imperfect must be read in context and should not be reduced to one English tense label. Hifil always means causative: Hifil supports the caused-hearing sense here, but the clause supplies the actual request.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The BSB+ row for Psalms 51:8 links the English rendering "Let me hear" with תַּ֭שְׁמִיעֵנִי, Strong's H8085, and the parsing label V-Hifil-Imperf-2ms | 1cs.
H8085 can describe hearing, listening, or being made to hear, depending on the stem and context.
The Hifil stem and first-person suffix fit the BSB rendering, Let me hear, within a prayer for restored joy.
Psalm 51:8 asks that the one crushed by sin would again hear joy and gladness because God has dealt mercifully with him.
The request fits Scripture's pattern that joy after sin is restored by God's mercy, not manufactured by denial.
Teachers can explain that the form keeps the psalmist dependent: God must cause the sound of joy to return.
Do not make the grammar promise instant emotional recovery. The form supports the prayer, while the whole psalm shapes the hope.