Psalm 68 is well known for the difficulties of interpretation it presents. As YHWH addresses his
people using the image of a dove, the poet describes its wings and plumage through a beautiful
parallelism and a recurrent literary motif: that of silver-gold. However, unlike silver, the gold here
is described with the adjectival lexeme yraqraq, suggesting a hue which has been much discussed
both among exegetes and in modern versions of the Bible. Today, the field of cognitive linguistics
provides us with a theoretical framework and a series of useful lexicographical tools for this study,
including the need for an encyclopaedic knowledge that will situate us in the world of speaker.
From this, we can deepen our knowledge of the psalm’s context and the referents of the colour
term: dove and gold. We have concluded that the dove’s plumage is imbued with a greenish gold
colour.
