Psalms 90:4- Grammatical understanding

 

The question: The picture is of the concordance that’s on the Bible hub website. Not sure which manuscript they used. If you see in the above picture there is a kaf before yom כיום. Denoting as/like. (Not explicitly stating IS) Then there is a Uau in front of ashmurah/WATCH meaning AND. The conjunction alef uau meaning OR is also missing from the above picture.


Psa 90:4 כי אלף שׁנים בעיניך כיום אתמול כי יעבר ואשׁמורה בלילה׃


Ky- for

Alap- thousand

Shanym-years

Ba aynyka- in your eyes

Kaf yum- as/like day

Athmul- yesterday

Ky- a conjunction and can mean for, because, when, if , surely, indeed, that.

Ya- third person singular??

Abar- crossed over

Uau-and

Ashmurah- watch

Ba- in

Lylath-night

For a thousand years in your eyes as/ like (NOT is) yesterday because it crossed over and a watch in the night

Yahuah lives outside of time. Time is a dimension to him. He can step in and out of it. He was in the beginning and has already seen the end.  I suspect the author of chapter 90 is writing what they think or what’s been passed down. But here is the first time 1000 years is being applied to the Creator. I am not a bible literalist and also know that gematria has some benefit but it’s sumthin that doesn’t interest me too much. Maybe in the future it will. End of question 

Grammatically understanding of Psalms 90: 4

Psa 90:4  For a thousand years in Your eyes Are like yesterday that has past, Or like a watch in the night. 

I see the kaph before yom כיום you shared in Psalms 90:4

Let’s analyze grammatically:

כיום אתמול (k’yom etmol) = “like yesterday 

כ (kaph) is a prefix meaning “like” or “as.

It modifies יום (yom) = day

 כיום = “like a day

אתמול = “yesterday

This is clearly a simile — “a thousand years are like yesterday.”

Simile is a figure of speech compares two different things using the words “like” or “as” (in English), or the prefix כ־ (“k”) in Hebrew.

A simile is when you say something is like something else — to create a vivid or symbolic image.

Example: Time is like a river — it flows on and never stops.”

כיום אתמול

“Like a day [that is] yesterday”

→ This is a simile — it’s comparing a long span (a thousand years) to a very short one (yesterday).

In Hebrew: The prefix כ־ before יום (yom) means “like a day” — that’s what makes it a simile.

ואשמרה בלילה (u’ashmurah balaylah) = “and a watch in the night

(Uau) = “and”

אשמורה (ashmurah) = a noun, meaning “a watch [period] of the night” (3–4 hours in ancient timekeeping)

בלילה (balaylah) = “in the night

ב = “in”

לילה = night

The definite article ה is already built in — ב + ה + לילה = “in the night

But in בלילה, we don’t see the ה (hey) at the front of the word , so where is it?

Night is considered to be a noun here in Psalms 90:4 and that’s why it’s translated as ‘the night’ correctly whereas day here is not definitive and thus there is no hey ה before yom יום 

The scribes did’nt put the hey ה before yom יום because its ’a day’ and not ‘the day’. The ha ה makes the word definitive. In case of the night when you combine the preposition ב־ (“in”) with a noun that has the definite article ה־ (“the”), Hebrew grammar often contracts the two into one word — and the ה becomes hidden, but still pronounced and understood

They put it as a dot (grammar ) in the first letter of the noun and here it’s the lamed of Layla. ( Masoretic text of Bible Hub screenshot you shared בַלַּיְלָה)

*The key here*: Ashmurah is a noun, not a verb, and not marked with definiteness (no article like “the watch”).

In Hebrew, if it were definite, it would be:

האשמרה בלילה = “the watch in the night”

But it is not — it is simply:

ואשמרה = “and [a] watch”

So there is no grammatical definiteness here.

Also, ‘and ו׳ is a connector connecting it to the simile 

The uau ( ו )does two things :

Connects this phrase to the previous simile (“like yesterday”)

Introduces a second comparison (a second part of the simile). In Hebrew poetry, this is parallelism: two comparisons placed side by side, often without repeating the simile marker

Hence, it’s read as “and [like] a watch in the night “.

The uau here is not making the second phrase a separate thought, but is continuing the poetic simile:

“A thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday that passed **and [like] a watch in the night.”

The structure of the first simile is implied in the second — even if כ־ (“like”) isn’t repeated.

Hence, 2Peter 3:8 refers to Psalms 90:4 where the context is of Yahuah’s coming

2Pe 3:8  But, beloved ones, let not this one matter be hidden from you: that with יהוה one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Psa 90:4.

2Pe 3:9  יהוה is not slow in regard to the promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.