From Dialogic Tension to Social Address: Reconsidering Mandolfo's Proposed Didactic Voice in Lament Psalms

Abstract

In God in the Dock, Carleen Mandolfo argues that the move from second person speech to God to third person description of the divine within “dialogic psalms” reflects the “interjection” of a secondary voice. While her focus on speech to a human audience is significant, the criteria she employs prove problematic. Rather than multiple voices, the psalms Mandolfo discusses are better understood as reflecting shifts in address between multiple audiences spoken by a single supplicant.