Commentary Roundup: Psalm 29:9b
by James Duguid | July 4, 2026
When the King James Version comes to the first colon of Psalm 29:9, it translates: “The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.” The Scottish Psalter follows suit with “God’s voice doth make the hinds to calve.” This is certainly an awkward image to conjure up when praising the Lord on a Sunday, but singers of modern psalters may not have this same experience. The Sing Psalms psalter reads the text quite differently as “The LORD causes oaks of the forest to quake,” while others soften the expression, as with the 1912 Psalter's “wild beasts are affrighted.” However, while the Trinity Psalter Hymnal retains the 1912 version, it supplements it with a second version containing “the voice of the LORD makes the deer to give birth.” And the Covenanters stay on the old paths, as the Book of Psalms for Singing has “The voice of the LORD makes the deer twist in labor,” while the Book of Psalms for Worship has “The Lord's voice induces the deer to give birth.”
Other Gods? In My Monotheistic Bible?
by James Duguid | May 17, 2026
Recently I have had some discussions on social media about the language of other “gods” in Deuteronomy 32. This was spurred by an essay by Rick Wadholm Jr. analyzing and critiquing Michael Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm. At the same time, I was due to work through Heiser’s paper on monotheism.Heiser, “Monotheism, Polytheism, Monolatry, or Henotheism? Toward an Assessment of Divine Plurality in the Hebrew Bible,” Bulletin for Biblical Research 18.1 (2008), pp. 1–30 In light of these discussions, it seemed good to me to try to clarify some of my thoughts around “monotheism” in Deuteronomy and Isaiah 40-48. The short story here is that I find Heiser’s argument a lot more compelling for Deuteronomy than I do for Isaiah 40-48. The long story is this rather long blogpost below. I’m still working my way through the vast literature on the problem of “monotheism” in the Bible as part of my ongoing research on ontological language in Isaiah 40-66, but what follows is an attempt to crystallize some of my thoughts so far.
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Psalms, Lamentations, Numbers
by James Duguid | April 17, 2026
There is a new rotation of scrolls on exhibit at the Museum of the Bible in DC. I thought I’d put together a new post about the biblical manuscripts in particular, looking at interesting text critical readings. For an introduction to the topic, see my first post here. To see all my posts so far, click here.
The Dead Sea Scrolls: 11Q10 Targum Job
by James Duguid | January 16, 2026
With the Dead Sea Scrolls in the District of Columbia this year, I’ve been writing some posts about the particular scrolls that are visiting. My first and second posts covered copies of biblical manuscripts found at Qumran, but now I will move on to some of the other literature there. In this post, we will explore 11Q10 Targum Job.
On the Alleged Theopaschitism of Peter of Ireland
by James Duguid | January 1, 2026
It has been alleged that Peter of Ireland denied divine simplicity – or, in other words, that he affirmed that there are in God passions, change, and movement. Yet another way to specify the charges is to say that he was a theopaschite – one who believes that God can have “passions” in himself, where “passion” may be defined as suffering, or more broadly as susceptibility to change by outside influence, or even more broadly as any potentiality in search of actualization. What follows is a ridiculously in-depth investigation into this question, seeking to make the relevant sources easily available to anyone who may be interested.