Bernard P. Robinson, «Form and Meaning in Psalm 131», Vol. 79 (1998) 180-197
Psalm 131 displays a subtle play on words. The psalmist has silenced and calmed down his soul/breast (he has put an end to its loud complaints). The two verbs used express or suggest the idea of assimilation (I have transformed it into something silent and something calm), which leads up to the material image which follows. In 2b gamul means a child that has been weaned or is happy (and has stopped crying loudly); instead of kaggamul one should read tiggmol, you have been nice to me. Although the psalm has an unusual form, it has the same structure as Psalm 130. It probably constitutes a literary unit. It may by royal psalm.
was my soul to me", which would surely require Nk. "To me" is a possible rendering of yl(, though l( in this sense (=in my eyes: Rashi) is a post-exilic usage (BDB, l( 8) 33. RV has my soul is with me like a weaned child; NEB and REB as a weaned child clinging to me (they delete the words, though); RSV like a child that is quieted is my soul, which omits yl( and mistranslates lmg 34. NRSV my soul is like the weaned child that is with me would make sense only if (as suggested by Quell and Seybold) spoken by a worshipper carrying a child 35. I find it hard to believe that a poem would have found its way into the Psalter if it could have been sung only by a minority of the congregation. JB and NJB, as is their wont, translate creatively, unconstrained by the actual Hebrew text: as content as a child that has been weaned and like a little child, so I keep myself. The New Latin Psalter has Sicut parvulus, ita in me est anima mea, which mistranslates lmg and has a dubious rendering of yl(. The translation of l( as "within" was already rejected by BDB as "incorrect". Some take yl( as "within me" at Pss 42,5; 142,4 and 143,4, but very questionably36.
VanGemeren, taking lmg, as we have seen, to mean contented rather than weaned, comes up with the translation "So is my soul contented/satisfied within me"37. This seems to me unsatisfactory on several counts: he is taking k as if it were Nk; he is ignoring the gender of #$pn, which would require hlwmg; he is taking no account of the article with lmg; and he is taking l( in a doubtful sense.
Loretz, as we have seen, takes v. 2 to mean Like a weaned child on its mother; like a weaned child is my soul to me. He finds here