by a change in the division of the verse and in I punction. -6n, either from ~hr\ Syriac to creep, jlidi. dip away (whence mbn a weasel, a mole) or from I Talmu to cover, hide, signifies: this temporal life which glides by unnoticed (distinct from the Arabic chald, chuld, an abiding stay, endless duration); and consequently ^"in, limited existence, from Hn to have an end, alternates with *^n as a play upon the letters, comp. xlix. 2 with Isa. xxxviii. 11. The combination "l^no DT10 resembles x. 18, xvi. 4. What is meant, is: men who have no other home but the world, which passeth away with the lust thereof, men ex xou xoa[ioo toutou, or otol to5 aicovog touxou. The meaning of the further description D^PI3 QjJ/PI (cf. Eccl. ix. 9) becomes clear from the converse in xvi. 5. Jahve is the pbr of the godly man; and the sphere within which the worldling claims his pbn is D^nn, this temporal, visible, and material life. This is everything to him; whereas the godly man says: *)"Cn DltO DTID, lxiii. 4. The contrast is not so much between this life and the life to come, as between the world (life) and God. Here we see into the inmost nature of the Old Testament faith. To the Old Testament believer, all the blessedness and glory of the future life, which the New Testament unfolds, is shut up in Jahve. Jahve is his highest good, and possessing Him he is raised above heaven and earth, above life and death. To yield implicitly to Him, without any explicit knowledge of a blessed future life, to be satisfied with Him, to rest in Him, to hide in Him in the face of death, is the characteristic of the Old Testament faith. D»nD Dpbn expresses both the state of mind and the lot of the men of the world. Material things which are their highest good, fall also in abundance to their share. The words "whose belly Thou fillest with Thy treasure" (Chethib: ^D^ the usual participial form, but as a participle an Aramaising form) do not sound as though the poet meant to say that God leads them to repentance by the riches of His goodness, but on the contrary that God, by satisfying their desires which are confined to the outward and sensuous only, absolutely deprives them of all claim to possessions that extend beyond the world and this present temporal life. Thus, then, |1DS in this passage is used exactly as D^1?2J is used in Job xx. 26 (from jss to hold anything close to one, to hold back, to keep by one). Moreover, thereis not the slightest alloy of murmur or envy in the words. The godly man who lacks these good things out of the treasury of God, has higher delights; he can exclaim, xxxi. 20: "how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up (n^DH) for those who fear Thee!" Among the good things with which God fills the belly and house of the ungodly (Job xxii. 17 sq.) are also children in abundance; these are elsewhere a blessing upon piety (cxxvii. 3 sq., cxxviii. 3 sq.), but to those who do not acknowledge the Giver they are a snare to self-glorifying, Job xxi. 11 (cf. Wisdom iv. 1). CO 3 is not the subject, but an accusative, and has been so understood by all the old translators from the original text, just as in the phrase WW y^W to be satisfied with, or weary of, life. On c6biy vid. on viii. 3. ^ITP (from "in*1 to stretch out in length, then to be overhanging, towering above, projecting, superfluous, redundant) signifies here, as in Job xxii. 20, riches and the abundance of things possessed.
Ver. 15. With "ON he contrasts his incomparably greater prosperity with that of his enemies. He, the despised and persecuted of men, will behold God's face p"TC3, in righteousness, which will then find its reward (Mat. v. 8, Hel5r. xii. 14), and will, when this hope is realised by him, thoroughly refresh himself with the form of God. It is not sufficient to explain the vision of the divine countenance here as meaning the experience of the gracious influences which proceed from the divine countenance again unveiled and turned towards him. The parallel of the next clause requires an actual vision, as in Num. xii. 8, according to which Jahve appeared to Moses in the true form of His being, without the intervention of any self-manifestation of an accommodative and visionary kind; but at the same time, as in Exod. xxxiii. 20, where the vision of the divine countenance is denied to Moses, according to which, consequently, the selfmanifestation of Jahve in His intercourse with Moses is not to be thought of without some veiling of Himself which might render the vision tolerable to him. Here, how.\ where David gives expression to a hope which is the final goal and the very climax of all his hopes, one has no right in any way to limit the vision of God, who in Love permits him to behold Him (vid. on xi. 7), and to Limit the bi ing satisfied with His r^2P (LXX. ti)v WJctv boo, vid. ft
S. 49; transl. p. 61). If this is correct, then PWQ cannot mean "when I wake up from this night's sleep" as Ewald, Hupfeld and others explain it; for supposing the Psalm were composed just before falling asleep what would be the meaning of the postponement of so transcendent a hope to the end of his natural sleep? Nor can the meaning be to "awake to a new life of blessedness and peace through the sunlight of divine favour which again arises after the night of darkness and distress in which the poet is now to be found" (Kurtz); for to awake from a night of affliction is an unsuitable idea and for this very reason cannot be supported. The only remaining explanation, therefore, is the waking up from the sleep of death (cf. Bottcher, Be inferis § 365 — 367). The fact that all who are now in their graves shall one day hear the voice of Him that wakes the dead, as it is taught in the age after the Exile (Dan. xii. 2), was surely not known to David, for it was not yet revealed to him. But why may not this truth of revelation, towards which prophecy advances with such giant strides (Isa. xxvi. 19. Ezek. xxxvii. 1 — 14), be already heard even in the Psalms of David as a bold demand of faith and as a hope that has struggled forth to freedom out of the comfortless conception of Sheol possessed in that age, just as it is heard a few decades later in the master-work of a cotemporary of Solomon, the Book of Job? The morning in Ps. xlix. 15 is also not any morning whatever following upon the night, but that final morning which brings deliverance to the upright and inaugurates their dominion. A sure knowledge of the fact of the resurrection such as, according to Hofmann (Schriftbeweis ii. 2, 490), has existed in the Old Testament from the beginning, is not expressed in such passages. For laments like vi. 6, xxx. 10, lxxxviii. 11 — 13, shew that no such certain knowledge was then in existence; and when the Old Testament literature which we now possess allows us elsewhere an insight into the history of the perception of redemption, it does not warrant us in concluding anything more than that the perception of the future resurrection of the dead did not pass from the prophetic word into the believing mind of Israel until about the time of the Exile, and that up to that period faith made bold to hope for a redemption from death, but only oy means of an inference drawn from that which was conceived and existed within itself, without having an express word of promise in its favour.* Thus it is here also. David certainly gives full expression to the hope of a vision of God, which, as righteous before God, will be vouchsafed to him; and vouchsafed to him, even though he should fall asleep in death in the present extremity (xiii. 4), as one again awakened from the sleep of death, and, therefore (although this idea does not directly coincide with the former), as one raised from the dead. But this hope is not a believing appropriation of a "certain knowledge", but a view that, by reason of the already existing revelation of God, lights up out of his consciousness of fellowship with Him.
3 Jahve, my rock, and my fortress, and my Deliverer, My God, my fastness wherein I hide myself,
My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower!
4 As worthy to be praised do I call upon Jahve, And against mine enemies shall I be helped.
* To this ITofmaTiTi, Inc. cit. S. 400, replies as follows: *W« 4o not find that faith indulges in such boldness elsewhere, or that I iug ones cherish hopes which are based on such insecure groui; But the word of God is surely no insecure ground, and to draw I conclusions from that which is intimated only from afar, WEI ind< even in many other rp<pects (for instance, respectim: the and respecting the abrogation of the ceremonial law), I the Old Testament faith.
7 In my distress I called upon Jahve, And unto my God did I cry;
And my cry before Him came into His ears.
And the foundations of the mountains trembled, And they swung to and fro, for He was wroth.
9 There went up a smoke in His nostrils, And fire out of His mouth devoured, Coals were kindled by it.
10 Then He bowed the heavens and came down, And thick darkness was under His feet
11 And He rode upon a cherub and did fly, And floated upon the wings of the wind;
12 He made darkness His covering, His pavilion round about
Him Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
clouds Hail-stones and coals of fire.
15 And He sent forth His arrows and scattered them, And lightnings in abundance and discomfited them.
16 And the channels of the waters became visible, And the foundations of the earth were laid bare, At Thy threatening, Jahve,
19 They came upon me in the day of my calamity, Then Jahve was a stay to me,
20 And brought me forth into a large place; He delivered me, for He delighted in me.
21 Jahve rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands did He recompense me.
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
23 Far from this, all His judgments are my aim, And His statutes I do not put away from me.
teousness, According to the cleanness of my hands, which was manifest in His eyes.
26 Towards the good Thou shewest Thyself good Towards the man of perfect submission Thou shewest
28 For Thou, Thou savest the afflicted people, And high looks Thou bringest down.
29 For Thou makest my lamp light; Jahve, my God, enlighteneth my darkness.
30 For by Thee do I scatter a troop, And by my God do I leap walls.
32 For who is a divine being, but Jahve alone, And who is a rock save our God?
33 The God, who girded me with strength, And made my way perfect,
34 Making my feet like hinds' feet,
36 And Thou gavest me also the shield of Thy salvation, And Thy right hand upheld me,
37 Thou madest room for my footsteps under me, And mine ankles have not slipped.
38 I pursued mine enemies and overtook them, And turned not back, till they were consumed.
40 And Thou didst gird me with strength for the battle, Thou madest my foes to bow down under me,
41 Thou gavest me the necks of mine enemies, And those that hated me, I utterly destroyed.
42 They cried, but there was no helper, Even to Jahve, but He answered them not.
43 And I crushed them as dust before the wind, Like the dirt of the streets I emptied them out.
44 Thou didst deliver me from the strivings of the people, Thou didst make me Head of the nations;
And let the God of my salvation be exalted;
Yea, Thou who liftest me up above my foes, Who rescuest me from the violent man.
50 Therefore will I praise Thee among the nations, 0 Jahve, And I will sing praises unto Thy name,
51 As He, who giveth great deliverance to His king And sheweth favour to His anointed.
from "VlfiO, which is in many ways both in words and thoughts (Symbolae p. 49) interwoven with the former. It is the longest of all the hymnic Psalms, and bears the inscription: To the Precentor, by the servant of Jahve, by David, who spake unto Jahve the words of this song in the day that Jahve had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul: then he said. The original inscription of the Psalm in the primary collection was probably only PI^jeS "ir6 'n "i2Jjb, like the inscription of Ps. xxxvi. The rest of the inscription resembles the language with which songs of this class are wont to be introduced in their connection in the historical narrative, Ex. xv. 1, Num. xxi. 17, and more especially Deut. xxxi. 30. And the Psalm before us is found again in 2 Sam. xxii., introduced by words, the manifestly unaccidental agreement of which with the inscription in the Psalter, is explained by its having been incorporated in one of the histories from which the Books of Samuel are extracted, — probably the Annals (Bibre ha-Jamim) of David. From this source the writer of the Books of Samuel has taken the Psalm, together with that introduction; and from this source also springs the historical portion of the inscription in the Psalter, which is connected with the preceding by *W#.
David may have styled himself in the inscription Tl TV, just as the apostles call themselves BouXoi 'Iijoou Xptoxoo. 1I<> also in other instances, in prayer, calls himself "the servant of Jahve", xix. 12, 14, cxliv. 10, 2 Sam. vii. 20, every Israelite might do; but David, who is the first a; Moses and Joshua to bear this designation or by-name, could do so in an especial sense. For he, with whom kingship of promise began, marks an epoch in hi of the work of God no less than did Mosi s, through wl mediation Israel received the Law, and Joshua, tine whose instrumentality they obtained the Land of promi
The terminology of psalm-poesy does not include the word rTW', hut only *V#. This at once shews that the historical portion of the inscription comes from some other source. DV2 is followed, not hy the infin. ^H: on the day of deliverance, but by the more exactly plusquamperf. T%T\' on the day (D1^2 = at the time, as in Gen. ii. 4, and frequently) when he had delivered — a genitival (Ges. § 116, 3) relative clause, like cxxxviii. 3, Ex. vi. 28, Num. iii.l,cf. Ps. lvi. 10. "TO alternates with f]3p in this text without any other design than that of varying the expression. The deliverance out of the hand of Saul is made specially prominent, because the most prominent portion of the Psalm, vers. 5 — 20, treats of it. The danger in which David then was placed, was of the most personal, the most perilous, and the most protracted kind. This prominence was of great service to the collector, because the preceding Psalm bears the features of this time, the lamentations over which are heard there and further back, and now all find expression in this more extended song of praise.
Only a fondness for doubt can lead any one to doubt the Davidic origin of this Psalm, attested as it is in two works, which are independent of one another. The twofold testimony of tradition is supported by the fact that the Psalm contains nothing that militates against David being the author; even the mention of his own name at the close, is not against it (cf. 1 Kings ii. 45). We have before us an Israelitish counterpart to the cuneiform monumental inscriptions, in which the kings of worldly monarchies recapitulate the deeds they have done by the help of their gods. The speaker is a king; the author of the Books of Samuel found the song already in existence as a Davidic song; the difference of his text from that which lies before us in the Psalter, shews that at that time it had been transmitted from some earlier period; writers of the later time of the kings here and there use language which is borrowed from it or are echoes of it (comp. Prov. xxx. 5 with ver. 31; Hab. iii. 19 with ver. 34); it bears throughout the mark of the classic age of the language and poetry, and "if it be not David's, it must have been written in his name and by some one imbued with his spirit, and who could have been this cotemporary poet and twin-genius?" (Hitzig). All this irresistibly points us to David himself, to whom really belong also all the other songs in the Second Book of Samuel, which are introduced as Davidic (over Saul and Jonathan, over Abner, &c). This, the greatest of all, springs entirely from the new self-consciousness to which he was raised by the promises recorded in 2 Sam. vii.; and towards the end, it closes with express retrospective reference to these promises; for David's certainty of the everlasting duration of his house, and God's covenant of mercy with his house, rests upon the announcement made by Nathan.
The Psalm divides into two halves; for the strain of praise begins anew with ver. 32, after having run its first course and come to a beautiful close in ver. 31. The two halves are also distinct in respect of their artificial form. The strophe schema of the first is: 6. 8. 8. 6. 8 (not 9). 8. 8. 8. 7. The mixture of six and eight line strophes is symmetrical, and the seven of the last strophe is nothing strange. The mixture in the second half on the contrary is varied. The art of the strophe system appears here, as is also seen in other instances in the Psalms, to be relaxed; and the striving after form at the commencement has given way to the pressure and crowding of the thoughts.
The traditional mode of writing out this Psalm, as also the Canlica, 2 Sam. xxii. and Judges v., is "a half-brick upon a brick, and a brick upon a half-brick" (PD2^ '23 by fTTH JT*W >D3 by n:2b)): i. e. one line consisting of two, and one of three parts of a verse, and the line consisting of the three parts has only one word on the right and on the left; the whole consequently forms three columns. On the other hand, the song in Deut. xxxii. (as also Josh. xii. 9 sqq., Esth. ix. 7 — 10) is to be written "a half-brick upon a hallbrick and a brick upon a brick", i. e. in only two columns, cf. infra p. 2G9.
Vers. 2 — 4. The poet opens with a number of endearing names for God, in which he gratefully comprehen results of long and varied experience. So far aa regards the parallelism of the members, a monostich forms tin- beginning of this Psalm, as in Ps. xvi. xxiii. xxv. and many others. Nevertheless the matter assumes a somewhat different aspect, if ver. 3 is not, with Maurer, Hengstenberg and Hupfeld, taken as two predicate clauses (Jahve is..., my God is...), but as a simple vocative — a rendering which alone corresponds to the intensity with which this greatest of the Davidic hymns opens — God being invoked by 7% 'D, vH, and each of these names being followed by a predicative expansion of itself, which increases in fulness of tone and emphasis. The *|CPnN (with #, according to Ew. § 251, &), which carries the three series of the names of God, makes up in depth of meaning what is wanting in compass. Elsewhere we find only the Piel om. of tender sympathising love, but here the Kal is used as an Aramaism. Hence the Jalkut on this passage explains it by "jrv worn "I love thee", of ardent, heartfelt love and attachment. The primary signification of softness (root m, _>, ^.*, to be soft, lax, loose), whence EPH, uterus, is transferred in both cases to tenderness of feeling or sentiment. The most general predicate "»pTn (from pin according to a similar inflexion to "IDfc, ^D2, phv, plur. iht}Vm Prov. ix. 18) is followed by those which describe Jahve as a protector and deliverer in persecution on the one hand, and on the other as a defender and the giver of victory in battle. They are all typical names symbolising what Jahve is in Himself; hence instead of UO^BDI it would perhaps have been more correct to point ^BDl (and my refuge). God had already called Himself a shield to Abram, Gen. xv. 1; and He is called yft (cf. pN Gen. xlix. 24) in the great Mosaic song, Deut. xxxii. 4, 37 (the latter verse is distinctly echoed here), ybo from y^D, «JLw, finder e,
* Neshwan defines thus: «JLwJt is a cutting in a mountain after the manner of a gorge; and Jakut, who cites a number of places that are so called: a wide plain (PL*ai) enclosed by steep rocks, which is reached through a narrow pass (v^oi.Co), hut can only be descended on foot. Accordingly, in ^^0 the idea of a safe (and comfortable) hiding-place preponderates; in "HlSf that of firm ground and inaccessibility. The one figure calls to mind the (well-watered) Edomitish JPD surrounded with precipitous rocks, Isa. xvi. 1, xlii. 11, the IHipa rock, and lis, like the Arabic jJk*>, a great and hard mass of rock (Aramaic TIE, a mountain). The figures of the HTIBO (iTTIXD, ISO) and the 3Jfrc are related; the former signifies properly specula, a watch-tower*, and the latter, a steep height. The horn, which is an ancient figure of victorious and defiant power in Deut. xxxiii. 17, 1 Sam. ii. 1, is found here applied to Jahve Himself: "horn of my salvation" is that which interposes on the side of my feebleness, conquers, and saves me. All these epithets applied to God are the fruits of the affliction out of which David's song has sprung, viz. his persecution by Saul, when, in a country abounding in rugged rocks and deficient in forest, he betook himself to the rocks for safety, and the mountains served him as his fortresses. In the shelter which the mountains, by their natural conformations, afforded him at described by Strabo, xvi. 4, 21; the other calls to mind the Phoenician rocky island 1*S, Sur (Tyre), the refuge in the sea.
* In Arabic ^Uw signifies (1) a high hill (a signification that is wanting in Freytag), (2) the summit of a mountain, and according to the original lexicons it belongs to the root <X^o, which in outward appearance is supported by the synonymous forms Jua/ and
J^ajo, as also by their plurals sjuo./)! and ^IJcojc, since these can only be properly formed from those singulars on the assumption of the m being part of the root. Nevertheless, since the meanings of
iXxixi all distinctly point to its being formed from the root y^e contained in the reduplicated stem \jqjh to suck, but the meanings of
bLixJ, <X*o>c, and <X»ax> do not admit of their being referred to it, and moreover there are instances in which original nn. loci from w. med.. and ^ admit of the prefixed m being treated as the first radical through forgetfulness or disregard of their derivation, and with the retention of it form secondary roots (as "\Joc, fjc\-*} w»ajf)< it is highly probable that in maf&d, masad and masd we 1. original ISO, ~yvv, HTHJjD. These H<ft»rew words, however, ire ' referred to a TBI in the signification to look out. thereto) specula. — Fleischer.
that time, and in the fortunate accidents, which sometimes brought him deliverance when in extreme peril, David recognises only marvellous phenomena of which Jahve Himself was to him the final cause. The confession of the God tried and known in many ways is continued in ver. 4 by a general expression of his experience. b^HD is a predicate accusative to mrp: As one praised (worthy to be praised) do I call upon Jahve, — a rendering that is better suited to the following clause, which expresses confidence in the answer coinciding with the invocation, which is to be thought of as a cry for help, than Olshausen's, "Worthy of praise, do I cry, is Jahve", though this latter certainly is possible so far as the style is concerned (vid. on Isa. xlv. 24, cf. also Gen. iii. 3, Mic. ii. 6). The proof of this fact, viz. that calling upon Him who is worthy to be praised, who, as the history of Israel shews, is able and willing to help, is immediately followed by actual help, as events that are coincident, forms the further matter of the Psalm.
Vers. 5 — 7. In these verses David gathers into one collective figure all the fearful dangers to which he had been exposed during his persecution by Saul, together with the marvellous answers and deliverances he experienced, that which is unseen, which stands in the relation to that which is visible of cause and effect, rendering itself visible to him. David here appears as passive throughout; the hand from out of the clouds seizes him and draws him out of mighty waters: while in the second part of the Psalm, in fellowship with God and under His blessing, he comes forward as a free actor.
The description begins in vers. 5 — 7 with the danger and the cry for help which is not in vain. The verb rj£vx according to a tradition not to be doubted (cf. JD1N* a wheel) signifies to go round, surround, as a poetical synonym of D2D, WHj *iri3j and not, as one might after the Arabic have thought: to drive, urge. Instead of "the bands of death," the LXX. (cf. Acts ii. 24) renders it (LStvs? (constrictive pains) 6avaxou; but ver. 6b. favours the meaning bands, cords, cf. cxix. 61 (where it is likewise ^2H instead of the ^211, which one might have expected, Josh. xvii. 5, Job xxxvi. 8), death is therefore represented as a hunter with a cord and net, xci. 3.?tf*72, compounded of ^2 and by* (from bv\ bv\ root?y), signifies unprofitableness, worthlessness, and in fact both deep-rooted moral corruption and also abysmal destruction (cf. 2 Cor. vi. 15, BsXtap = BsAiaX as a name of Satan and his kingdom). Rivers of destruction are those, whose engulfing floods lead down to the abyss of destruction (Jon. ii. 7). Death, Belijdal, and Sheol are the names of the weird powers, which make use of David's persecutors as their instruments. Futt. in the sense of imperfects alternate with prcett. ng2 (= v^i-0 signifies to come suddenly upon any one (but compare also Oju, to startle, excitare, to alarm), and D~p, to rush upon; the two words are distinguished from one another like iiber fallen and anf alien. The ton out of which Jahve hears is His heavenly dwellingplace, which is both palace and temple, inasmuch as He sits enthroned there, being worshipped by blessed spirits, M&b belongs to HJJJIBft: my cry which is poured forth. before Him (as e. g. in cii. 1), for it is tautological if joined with N'sn beside VJTN2. Before Jahve's face he made supplication and his prayer urged its way into His ears.
Vers. 8 — 10. As these verses go on to describe, the being heard became manifest in the form of deliverance. All nature stands to man in a sympathetic relationship, sharing his curse and blessing, his destruction and glory, and to God in a (so to speak) synergetic relationship, furnishing the harbingers and instruments of His mighty deeds. Accordingly in this instance Jahve's interposition on behalf of David is accompanied by terrible manifestations in nature. Like the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, Ps. lxviii. lxxvii., and the giving of the Law on Sinai, Exod. xix., and like the final appearing of Jahve and of Jesus Christ according the words of prophet and apostle (Ilab. ill., 2 Thess. i. 7 sq.), the appearing of Jahve for the help of David has also extraordinary natural phenomena in its train. It is true we find no express record of any incident in David's life of the kind recorded in 1 Sam. vii. 10, but it must be soi real experience which David here idealises (i. <•■ its very roots, and generalises and works up into a grand majestic picture of his miraculous deliverance Amidst which is heralded by the lightning's flash, and its thick clouds descend nearer and nearer to the earth. The aorists in ver. 8 introduce the event, for the introduction of which, from ver. 4 onwards, the way has been prepared and towards which all is directed. The inward excitement of the Judge, who appears to His servant for his deliverance, sets the earth in violent oscillation. The foundations of the mountains (Isa. xxiv. 18) are that upon which they are supported beneath and within, as it were, the pillars which support the vast mass. Bty} (rhyming with t^jn) is followed by the Hiihpa. of the same verb: the first impulse having been given they, viz. the earth and the pillars of the mountains, continue to shake of themselves. These convulsions occur, because "it is kindled with respect to God"; it is unnecessary to supply 1DX, 1^ rnn is a synonym of p DH. When God is wrath, according to Old Testament conception, the power of wrath which is present in Him is kindled and blazes up and breaks forth. The panting of rage may accordingly also be called the smoke of the fire of wrath (lxxiv. 1, lxxx. 5). The smoking is as the breathing out of the fire, and the vehement hot breath which is inhaled and exhaled through the nose of one who is angry (cf. Job xli. 12), is like smoke rising from the internal fire of anger. The fire of anger itself "devours out of the mouth", i. e. flames forth out of the mouth, consuming whatever it lays hold of, — in men in the form of angry words, with God in the fiery forces of nature, which are of a like kind with, and subservient to, His anger, and more especially in the lightning's flash. It is the lightning chiefly, that is compared here to the blazing up of burning coals. The power of wrath in God, becoming manifest in action, breaks forth into a glow, and before it entirely discharges its fire, it gives warning of action like the lightning's flash heralding the outburst of the storm. Thus enraged and breathing forth His wrath, Jahve bowed the heavens, i. e. caused them to bend towards the earth, and came down, and darkness of clouds (Sony similar in meaning to op<pv7j, cf. epe|3os) was under His feet: black, lowhanging clouds announced the coming of Him who in His wrath was already on His way downwards towards the earth. Vers. 11 — 13. The storm, announcing the approaching outburst of the thunderstorm, was also the forerunner of the Avenger and Deliverer. If we compare ver. 11 with civ. 3, it is natural to regard yD3 as a transposition of 3-1D*] (a chariot, Ew. § 153, a). But assuming a relationship between the biblical Cherub and (according to Ctesias) the Indo-Persian griffin, the word (from the Zend grab, garerv, garefsh, to seize) signifies a creature seizing and holding irrecoverably fast whatever it seizes upon; perhaps in Semitic language the strong creature, from 2")3 = ^jj$ torquere, constringer e, (whence mukrab, tight, strong). It is a passive form like >E33j "ID', B*D^. The cherubim are mentioned in Gen. iii. 24 as the guards of Paradise (this alone is enough to refute the interpretation recently revived in the Evang. Kirchen-Zeit., 1866, No. 46, that they are a symbol of the unity of the living One, 2T)D = 3113 "like a multitude"!), and elsewhere, as it were, as the living mighty rampart and vehicle of the approach of the inaccessible majesty of God; and they are not merely in general the medium of God's personal presence in the world, but more especially of the presence of God as turning the fiery side of His doxa towards the world. As in the Prometheus of iEschylus, Oceanus comes flying xov 7rT£poYo>x7j t6v&' oIojvgv 7va>fj/fl otojiiojv axep eu6ovo)v, so in the present passage Jahve rides upon the cherub, of which the heathenish griffin is a distortion; or, if by a comparison of passages like civ. 3, Isa. lxvi. 15, we understand David according to Ezekiel, He rides upon the cherub as upon His living throne -chariot (H231D). The throne floats upon the cherubim, and this cherub-throne flies upon the wings of the wind; or, as we can also say: the cherub is the celestial spirit working in this vehicle formed of the spirit-like elements. The Manager of the chariot is Himself hidden behind the thick thunder-clouds, pip is an aorist without the consecutive i (cf. "2 Hos. vi. 1). ~j ■-, is the accusative of the object to it; and the accusative of I predicate is doubled: His covering, His pavilion round about Him. In Job xxxvi. 29 also the thunder-clouds are ca] God's nrD, and also in xcvii. 2 they are PIP3D, conceal Him on all sides and announcing only His pn He is wroth. In ver. 12& the accusative of the obj "-'" expanded into "darkness of waters*, f. th waters* and billows of thick vapour, thick, and therefore dark, masses (2]) in its primary meaning of denseness, or a thicket, Exod. xix. 9, cf. Jer. iv. 29) of D^pnu/, which is here a poetical name for fleecy clouds. The dispersion and discharge, according to ver. 13, proceeded from 11U H3J. Such is the expression for the doxa of God as being a mirroring forth of His nature, as it were, over against Him, as being therefore His brightness, or the reflection of His glory. The doxa is fire and light. On this occasion the forces of wrath issue from it, and therefore it is the fiery forces: heavy and destructive hail (cf. Exod. ix. 23 sq., Isa. xxx. 30) and fiery glowing coals, i. e. flashing and kindling lightning. The object V2% stands first, because the idea of clouds, behind which, according to ver. 11, the doxa in concealed, is prominently connected with the doxa. It might be rendered: before His brightness His clouds turn into hail..., a rendering which would be more in accordance with the structure of the stichs, and is possible according to Ges. § 138, rem. 2. Nevertheless, in connection with the combinr.on of *Dy with clouds, the idea of breaking through (Lam. iii. 44) is very natural. If V2y is removed, then TOV signifies "thence came forth hail..." But the mention of the clouds as the medium, is both natural and appropriate. Vers. 14 — 16. Amidst thunder, Jahve hurled lightnings as arrows upon David's enemies, and the breath of His anger laid bare the beds of the flood to the very centre of the earth, in order to rescue the sunken one. Thunder is the rumble of God, and as it were the hollow murmur of His mouth, Job xxxvii. 2. |1^g, the Most High, is the name of God as the inapproachable Judge, who governs all things. The third line of ver. 14 is erroneously repeated from the preceding strophe. It cannot be supported on grammatical grounds by Ex. ix. 23, since b)p jru, edere vocem, has a different meaning from the n?p jro, dare tonitrua, of that passage. The symmetry of the strophe structure is also against it; and it is wanting both in 2 Sam. and in the LXX. D1,
* Rab Dimi, B. Taanith \0a, for the elucidation of the passage quotes a Palestine proverb: VII D P'JD "0JV "JITO \"PD pTJ/T \Hy "Wti i.e. if the clouds are transparent they will yield but little water,# if they are dark they will yield a quantity.
which, as the opposite of Ej;p Neh. ii. 12, Isa. x. 7, means adverbially "in abundance", is the parallel to p6t&^1. It is generally taken, after the analogy of Gen. xlix. 23, in the sense of p"!2, cxliv. 6: in in pause = 2"\ (the b passing over into the broader a like ]y instead of ]']) in Gen. xlix. 3) = 2ZH, cognate with Hin, flCfi; but the forms 2D, 12D, here, and in every other instance, have but a very questionable existence, as e.g. 2*1, Isa. liv. 13, is more probably an adjective than the third person prcet. (cf. Bottcher, Neue Aehrenlese No. 635, 106C). The suffixes em do not refer to the arrows, i. e. lightnings, but to David's foes. con means both to put in commotion and to destroy by confounding, Exod. xiv. 24, xxiii. 27. In addition to the thunder, the voice of Jahve, comes the stormwind, which is the snorting of the breath of His nostrils. This makes the channels of the waters visible and lays bare the foundations of the earth. p">EK (collateral form to pDX) is the bed of the river and then the river or brook itself, a continendo aquas (Ges.), and exactly like the Arabic mesik, mesdk, mesek (from dL*x>, the VI. form of which, tamdsaka, corresponds to PBfetfVl), means a place that does not admit of the water soaking in, but on account of the firmness of the soil preserves it standing or flowing. What are here meant are the water -courses or river beds that hold the water. It is only needful for Jahve to threaten (sT:iTi|xav Mat. viii. 26) and the floods, in which he, whose rescue is undertaken here, is sunk, flee (civ. 7) and dry up (cvi. 9, Nah. i. 4). But he is already half engulfed in the abyss of Hades, hence not merely the bed of the flood is opened up, but the earth is rent to its very centre. From the language being here so thoroughly allegorical, it is clear that we were quite correct in interpreting the description as ideal. He, who is nearly overpowered by his foes, is represented as one engulfed in deep waters and almost drowning.
Vers. 17 — 20. Then Jahve stretches out His hand from above into the deep chasm and draws up the unking one. The verb rbw occurs also in prose (2 Sam. vi. 6) without "P (lvii. 4, cf. on the other hand the borrowed passage, cxliv. 7) in the signification to reach (after anything). The verb HtMOj however, is only found in one other instance, \'u.
Exod. ii. 10, as the root (transferred from the Egyptian into the Hebrew) of the name of Moses, and even Luther saw in it an historical allusion, "He hath made a Moses of me", He hath drawn me out of great (many) waters, which had well nigh swallowed me up, as He did Moses out of the waters of the Nile, in which he would have perished. This figurative language is followed, in ver. 18, by its interpretation, just as in cxliv. 7 the "great waters" are explained by "Di 03 -pp, which, however, is not suitable here, or at least is too limited.
With ver. 17 the hymn has reached the climax of epic description, from which it now descends in a tone that becomes more and more lyrical. In the combination TJ? "CPfc, Tj; is not an adverbial accusative, but an adjective, like rDIZD *pn cxliii. 10, and 6 avqp a^aQ6q (HebraerbriefS. 353). >3 introduces the reason for the interposition of the divine omnipotence, viz. the superior strength of the foe and the weakness of the oppressed one. On the day of his TK, i. e. (vid. on xxxi. 12) his load or calamity, when he was altogether a homeless and almost defenceless fugitive, they came upon him (Dip xvii. 13), cutting off all possible means of delivering himself, but Jahve became the fugitive's staff (xxiii. 4) upon wjiich he leaned and kept himself erect. By the hand of God, out of straits and difficulties he reached a broad place, out of the dungeon of oppression to freedom, for Jahve had delighted in him, he was His chosen and beloved one. Vpn has the accent on the penult here, and Metheg as a sign of the lengthening (JTI^vn) beside the ~e, that it may not be read e,* The following strophe tells the reason of his pleasing God and of His not allowing him to perish. This *3 yzri "O (for He delighted in me) now becomes the primary thought of the song.
Vers. 21 — 24. On bizl (like nbu/ with the accusative not merely of the thing, but also of the person, e. g. 1 Sam. xxiv. 18), eo or xocxto? irpaiTsiv xiva, vid. on vii. 5. "1W, to observe = to keep, is used in the same way in Job xxii. 15.
* In like manner Metheg is placed beside the e of the final closed syllable that has lost the tone in ^pn xxii. 9, Wjinffl xc. 2., vid. Isaiah S. 594 note.
\0 pah is a pregnant expression of the malitiosa desertio. "From God's side", i. e. in His judgment, would be contrary to the general usage of the language (for the rq in Job iv. 17 has a different meaning) and would be but a chilling addition. On the poetical form >3D, in pause *3D, vid. Ew. § 263, &. The fut. in ver. 23&, close after the substantival clause ver. 23«, is not intended of the habit in the past, but at the present time: he has not wickedly forsaken God, but (*3 = imo, sed) always has God's commandments present before him as his rule of conduct, and has not put them far away out of his sight, in order to be able to sin with less compunction; and thus then (fut. consec.) in relation (cy, as in Deut. xviii. 13, cf. 2 Sam. xxiii. 5) to God he was Cpn, with his whole soul undividedly devoted to Him, and he guarded himself against his iniquity (liy, from mjj, ^55X5 to twist, pervert, cf. ^yh. of error, delusion, self- enlightenment), i. e. not: against acquiescence in his in-dwelling sin, but: against iniquity becoming in any way his own; "JiJJD equivalent to VfigD (Dan. ix. 5), cf. ^ro = than that I should live, Jon. iv. 8. In this strophe, this Psalm strikes a cord that harmonises with Ps. xvii., after which it is therefore placed. We may compare David's own testimony concerning himself in 1 Sam. xxvi. 23 sq., the testimony of God in 1 Kings xiv. 8, and the testimony of history in 1 Kings xv. 5, xi. 4.
Vers. 25. — 28. What was said in ver. 21 is again expressed here as a result of the foregoing, and substantiated in vers. 26, 27. Ten is a friend of God and man, just as pius is used of behaviour to men as well as towards God. *GJ COT the man (construct of -OH) of moral and religious completeness (integri = integritatis, cf. xv. 2), i. e. of undivided devotion to God. *1DJ (instead of which we find ^3 22S elsewhere, xxiv. 4, lxxiii. 1) not one who is purified, but, in accordance with the reflexive primary meaning of Niph., one who is purifying himself, otYvi'ujv eciutov, 1 John iii. 3. ir"j?y (the opposite of nt^) one who is morally distorted, perverse. Freely formed Hithpaels are used with thi attributive words to give expression to the correspond] self-manifestation: "CrirTl, CBFiri (Ges. § 54, 2,6), TCril, and bnonn (to shew one's self btt) or '^r'-rZ). Tl.
love of the godly man God requites with confiding love, the entire submission of the upright with a full measure of grace, the endeavour after purity by an unbeclouded charity (cf. lxxiii. 1), moral perverseness by paradoxical judgments, giving the perverse over to his perverseness (Rom. i. 28) and leading him by strange ways to final condemnation (Isa. xxix. 14, cf. Lev. xxvi. 23 sq.). The truth, which is here enunciated, is not that the conception which man forms of God is the reflected image of his own mind and heart, but that God's conduct to man is the reflection of the relation in which man has placed himself to God; cf. 1 Sam. ii. 30, xv. 23. This universal truth is illustrated and substantiated in ver. 28. The people who are bowed down by affliction experience God's condescension, to their salvation; and their haughty oppressors, God's exaltation, to their humiliation. Lofty, proud eyes are among the seven things that Jahve hateth, according to Prov. vi. 17. The judgment of God compels them to humble themselves with shame, Isa. ii. 11.
Vers. 29 — 31. The confirmation of what has been asserted is continued by David's application of it to himself. Hitzig translates the futures in vers. 29 sq. as imperfects; but the sequence of the tenses, which would bring this rendering with it, is in this instance interrupted, as it has been even in ver. 28, by "O. The lamp, "1J (contracted from narver), is an image of life, which as it were burns on and on, including the idea of prosperity and high rank; in the form "VJ (from nirvr, nijr) it is the usual figurative word for the continuance of the house of David, 1 Kings xi. 36, and frequently. David's life and dominion, as the covenant king. is the lamp which God's favour has lighted for the wellbeing of Israel, and His power will not allow this lamp (2 Sam. xxi. 17) to be quenched. The darkness which breaks in upon David and his house is always lighted up again by Jahve. For His strength is mighty in the weak; in, with, and by Him he can do all things. The f'ut. ^1N* may be all the more surely derived from^"i (= f>~)N), inasmuch as this verb has the changeable u in the future also in Isa. xlii. 4, Eccl. xii. 6. The text of 2 Sam. xxii., however, certainly seems to put "rushing upon" in the stead of "breaking down". With ver. 31 the first half of the hymn closes epiphonematically. bit?) is a nom. absoL, like T&n, Deut. xxxii. 4. This old Mosaic utterance is re-echoed here, as in 2 Sam. vii. 22, in the mouth of David. The article of btt?] points to God as being manifest in past history. His way is faultless and blameless. His word is PlBriS, not slaggy ore, but purified solid gold, xii. 7. Whoever retreats into Him, the God of the promise, is shielded from every danger. Prov. xxx. 5 is borrowed from this passage.
Vers. 32 — 35. The grateful description of the tokens of favour he has experienced takes a new flight, and is continued in the second half of the Psalm in a more varied and less artificial mixture of the strophes. What is said in ver. 31 of the way and word of Jahve and of Jahve Himself, is confirmed in ver. 32 by the fact that He alone is fil^N, a divine being to be reverenced, and He alone is -fig, a rock, i. e. a ground of confidence that cannot be shaken. What is said in ver. 31 consequently can be said only of Him. nj^SD and ^n^T alternate; the former (with a negative intensive TO) signifies "without reference to" and then absolutely "without" or besides, and the latter (with i as a connecting vowel, which elsewhere has also the function of a suffix), from r6l? (i"PlT), "exception". The verses immediately following are attached descriptively to U^TNJ, our God (*'. e. the God of Israel), the God, who girded me with strength; and accordingly (fut. consec.) made my way QipR, "perfect", i. e. absolutely smooth, free from stumblings and errors, leading straight forward to a divine goal. The idea is no other than that in ver. 31, cf. Job xxii. 3, except that the freedom from error here is intended to be understood in accordance with its reference to the way of a man, of a king, and of a warrior; cf., moreover, the other text. The verb to set right; the dependent passage Hab. iii. 19 has, instead of this verb, the more uncoloured Cy\l'. The hind, m^N or n^\X, is the perfection of swiftness (cf. D nil comparison from the figure. It is not swiftness in flight (De Wette), but in attack and pursuit that is meant, — the latter being a prominent characteristic of warriors, according to 2 Sam. i. 23, ii. 18, 1 Chron. xii. 8. David does not call the high places of the enemy, which he has made his own by conquest "my high places", but those heights of the Holy Land which belong to him as king of Israel: upon these Jahve preserves him a firm position, so that from them he may rule the land far and wide, and hold them victoriously (cf. passages like Deut. xxxii. 13, Isa. lviii. 14). The verb "18^, which has a double accusative in other instances, is here combined with b of the subject taught, as the aim of the teaching. The verb nro (to press down — to bend a bow) precedes the subject "my arms" in the singular; this inequality is admissible even when the subject stands first (e. g. Gen. xlix. 22, Joel i. 20, Zech. vi. 14). nt^'iro ntP'P a bow of brazen = of brass, as in Job xx. 24.
It is also the manner of heroes in Homer and in the Ramajana to press down and bend with their hand a brazen bow, one end of which rests on the ground.
Vers. 36 — 37. Yet it is not the brazen bow in itself that makes him victorious, but the helpful strength of his God. "Shield of Thy salvation" is that consisting of Thy salvation, pft has an unchangeable «, as it has always. The salvation of Jahve covered him as a shield, from which every stroke of the foe rebounded; the right hand of Jahve supported him that his hands might not become feeble in the conflict. In its ultimate cause it is the divine illjg, to which he must trace back his greatness, i. e. God's lowliness, by virtue of which His eyes look down upon that which is on the earth (exiii. 6), and the poor and contrite ones are His favourite dwelling-place (Isa. lvii. 15, lxvi. 1 sq.); cf. B. Megilla 31#, "wl rever Scripture testifies of the ITIOJ of the Holy One, bless I be He, it gives prominence also, in connection with it, to His condescension, inwni-JJ, as in Deut. x. 17 and in connection with it ver. 18, Isa. lvii. 15# and 15&, Ps. lxviii. 5 and 6". The rendering of Luther, who follows the LXX. and Vulgate, "When Thou humblest me, Thou makest me great" is opposed by the fact that niJg means the bending of one's self, and not of another. What is intended is, that condescension of God to mankind, and especially to the house of David, which was in operation, with an ultimate view to the incarnation, in the life of the son of Jesse from the time of his anointing to his death, viz. the divine xpyjotott]? xal cpiXav0po)7:ia (Tit. iii. 4), which elected the shepherd boy to be king, and did not cast him off even when he fell into sin and his infirmities became manifest. To enlarge his steps under any one is equivalent to securing him room for freedom of motion (cf. the opposite form of expression in Prov. iv. 12). Jahve removed the obstacles of his course out of the way, and steeled his ankles so that he stood firm in fight and endured till he came off victorious. The prcel. yiyiD substantiates what, without any other indication of it, is required by the consecutio temporum, viz. that everything here has a retrospective meaning.
Vers. 38 — 41. Thus in God's strength, with the armour of God, and by God's assistance in fight, he smote, cast down, and utterly destroyed all his foes in foreign and in civil wars. According to the Hebrew syntax the whole of this passage is a retrospect. The imperfect signification of the futures in vers. 38, 39 is made clear from the aorist which appears in ver. 40, and from the perfects and futures in what follows it. The strophe begins with an echo of Exod. xv. 9 (cf. supra vii. 6). The poet calls his opponents '•cp, as in ver. 49, xliv. 6, lxxiv. 23, cf. i:Epp Job xxii. 20, inasmuch as Dip by itself has the sense of rising up in hostility and consequently one can say 'DP instead of ty D^PfJ (CEip 2 Kings xvi. 7).* The frequent use of this phrase (<?. g. xxxvi. 13, Lam. i. 14) shews that C^p in ver. 39# does not mean "to stand (resist)", but "to rise (again)." The phrase Ppy ]PJ, however, which in other passages 1 those fleeing as its subject (2 Chron. xxix. G), is here difi ently applied: Thou gavest, or madest me mine enemiei
* In the language of the Beduins kdm is war, feud, end j 'mTinl (denominative from kdm) my enemy (hostis); kdm also has tl tion of a collective of kumuni, and one can equally well say: entum back, i. e. those who turn back, as in Exod ~xiii. 27. From xxi. 13 (UDW IDH^H, Symm. Ta£ei? auxou? aTroaipocpoix;) it becomes clear that rp'y is not an accusative of the member beside the accusative of the person (as e. g. in Deut. xxxiii. 11), but an accusative of the factitive object according to Ges. § 139, 2.
Vers. 42 — 43. Their prayer to their gods, wrung from them by their distress, and even to Jahve, was in vain, because it was for their cause, and too late put up to Him. ty = }$; in xlii. 2 the two prepositions are interchanged. Since we do not pulverize dust, but to dust, *)SJQ is to be taken as describing the result: so that they became as dust (cf. Job xxxviii. 30, ptO, so that it is become like stone, and the extreme of such pregnant brevity of expression in Isa. xli. 2) before the wind (?J5"^y as in 2 Chron. iii. 17, before the front). The second figure is to be explained differently: I emptied them out (DD"H£ from p^Pl) like the dirt of the streets, i. e. not merely: so that they became such, but as one empties it out, — thus contemptuously, ignominiously and completely (cf. Isa. x. 6, Zech. x. 5). The LXX. renders it Xsavui from p"in (root pi to stretch, make thin, cf. tendo tenuis, dehnen diinn); and the text of 2 Sam. xxii. presents the same idea in Dp"Nj.
Vers. 44 — 46. Thus victorious in God, David became what he now is, viz. the ruler of a great kingdom firmly establish both in home and foreign relations. With respect to the D?13 and the verb iJbAdF) which follows, D]) "en can only be understood of the conflicts among his own people, in which David was involved by the persecution of Saul and the rebellions of Absolom and Sheba the son of Bichri; and from which Jahve delivered him, in order to preserve him for his calling of world-wide dominion in accordance with the promise. We therefore interpret the passage according to Cy ITHS in Isa. xlix. 8., and DJTDWp in Isa. xxvi. 11; whereas the following cy comes to have a foreign application by reason of the attributive clause T.jn*"*6 (Ges. § 123, 3). The Niph. yctfj in ver. 45 is the reflexive of yDt£>, to obey (e. g. Ex. xxiv. 7), and is therefore to be rendered: shew themselves obedient (= Ithpa. in Dan. vii. 27). pfc yDKs^ implies more than that they obeyed at the word; ££# means information, rumour, and ]jk J701&' is the opposite of personal observation (Job xlii. 5), it is therefore to be rendered: they submitted even at the tidings of my victories; and 2 Sam. viii. 9 sq. is an example of this. VfTD to lie, disown, feign, and flatter, is used here, as it is frequently, of the extorted humility which the vanquished shew towards the conqueror. Ver. 46 completes the picture of the reason of the sons of a foreign country "putting a good face on a bad game". They faded away, i. e. they became weak and faint-hearted (Ex xviii. 18), incapable of holding out against or breaking through any siege by David, and trembled, surrendering at discretion, out of their close places, i. e. out of their strongholds behind which they had shut themselves in (cf. cxlii. 8). The signification of being alarmed, which in this instance, being found in combination with a local ]D, is confined to the sense of terrified w^., of audible pressure, crowding, and the like) to be pressed, crowded, tight, or narrow, to get in a strait, and the Targumic KDID"! KT)PI = Nmcn NPE\X (vid. the Targums on Deut. xxxii. 25). j^ to limp, halt, which is compared by Hitzig, is far removed as to the sound; and the most natural, but colourless «-vi^> to go out of (according to its erumpere), cannot be supported in Hebrew or Aramaic. The 1TJPP found in the borrowed passage in Micah, ch. vii. 17, favours our rendering.
Vers. 47 — 49. The hymn now draws towards the end with praise and thanksgiving for the multitude of God's mighty deeds, which have just been displayed. Like the (ntt) Tpi3 which is always doxological, 7) 'PI (vivus Jahi is meant as a predicate clause, but is read with the accent of an exclamation just as in the formula of an oath, which is the same expression; and in the present instance it ha doxological meaning. Accordingly C1T1 also signifies ■ alted be," in which sense it is written DTI (DTI = CTV) i'1 the other text. There are three doxological ntteran< drawn from the events which have just been celebrated in song. That which follows, from b#7) onwards, describes Jahve once more #s the living, blessed (euXo-pr^v), and exalted One, which He has shewn Himself to be. From T2H3 we see that jniin is to be resolved as an imperfect. The proofs of vengeance, MDP}, are called God's gift, insofar as He has rendered it possible to him to punish the attacks upon his own dignity and the dignity of his people, or to witness the punishment of such insults (e. g. in the case of Nabal); for divine vengeance is a securing by punishment (vindicatio) of the inviolability of the right. It is questionable whether T3TPI (synonym TT), cxliv. 2) here and in xlvii. 4 means "to bring to reason" as an intensive of "OT, to drive (Ges.); the more natural meaning is "to turn the back" according to the Arabic adbara (Hitzig), cf. dabar, dabre, flight, retreat; dabira to be wounded behind; medbur, wounded in the back. The idea from which T3"in gains the meaning "to subdue" is that of flight, in which hostile nations, overtaken from behind, sank down under him (xlv. 6); but the idea that is fully worked out in cxxix. 3, Isa. li. 23, is by no means remote. With ^tDvjDD the assertion takes the form of an address. ]p CD11 does not differ from ix. 14: Thou liftest me up away from mine enemies, so that I hover above them and triumph over them. The climactic F]K, of which poetry is fond, here unites two thoughts of a like import to give intensity of expression to the one idea. The participle is followed by futures: his manifold experience is concentrated in one general ideal expression.
Vers. 50 — 51. The praise of so blessed a God, who acts towards David as He has promised him, shall not be confined within the narrow limits of Israel. When God's anointed makes war with the sword upon the heathen, it is, in the end, the blessing of the knowledge of Jahve for which he opens up the way, and the salvation of Jahve, which he thus mediatorially helps on. Paul has a perfect right to quote ver. 50 of this Psalm (Rom. xv. 9), together with Deut. xxxii. 43 and Ps. cxvii. 1, as proof that salvation belongs to the Gentiles also, according to the divine purpose of mercy. What is said in ver. 51 as the reason and matter of the praise that shall go forth beyond Israel, is an echo of the Messianic promises in 2 Sam. vii. 12 — 16 which is perfectly reconcileable with the Davidic authorship of the Psalm, as Hitzig acknowledges. And Theodoret does not wrongly appeal to the closing words D^ijrig against the Jews. In whom, but in Christ, the son of David, has the fallen throne of David any lasting continuance, and in whom, but in Christ, has all that has been promised to the seed of David eternal truth and reality? The praise of Jahve, the God of David, His anointed, is, according to its ultimate import, a praising of the Father of Jesus Christ.
On the differences of the introductory superscription, see on xviii. 1. The relation of the prose accentuation of the Psalm in 2 Sam. xxii. to the poetical accentuation in the Psalter is instructive. Thus, for example, instead of Mercha mahpach. (Olewejored) in the Psalter we here find Athnach; instead of the Athnach following upon Mercha mahpach., here is Zakeph (cf. xviii. 7, 16, 31 with 2 Sam. xxii. 7, 16, 31); instead of Rebia mugrash, here Tiphcha (cf. xviii. 4 with 2 Sam. xxii. 4); instead of Pazer at the beginning of a verse, here Athnach (cf. Ps. xviii. 2 with 2 Sam. xxii. 2).* The peculiar mode of writing the stichs, in which we find this song in our editions, is the old traditional mode. If a half-line is placed above a half-line, so that they form two columns, it is called mx '23"^ mN ftxb ^rby MS brick upon brick, a half-brick upon a half-brick, as the song Haazinu in Deut. xxxii. is set out in our editions. On the other hand if the half-lines appear as they do here divided and placed in layers one over another, it is called rr"\x ir~lN 121'by fU3^1 T)2cb "Cr^y. According to Megilla 1G& all the cantica in the Scriptures are to be written thus; and according to Sofrim xiii., Ps. xviii. has this form in common with 2 Sam. xxii.
Vers. 2 — 4. This strophe is stunted by the falling an of its monostichic introit, xviii. 2. In consequence of this, the vocatives in vers. 2 sq. are deprived of their support and lowered to substantival clauses: Jahve is my Rock, &c, which form no proper beginning for a hymn. Instead of U?^BI3 we have, as in cxliv. 2, "6-^DDi; and instead of ryk $8 we find n^ in'^N, which is contrary to the usual manner of arranging these emblematical names. The loss the strophe sustains is compensated by the addition: and my Refuge, my Saviour, who savest me from violence. In ver. 4& as in ver. 49& the non-assimilated)p (cf. ver. 14, xxx. 4, lxxiii. 19) is shortened into an assimilated one. May ^ perhaps be the remains of the obliterated "6k, and ^n'^N, as it were, the clothing of the v-js|\j which was then left too bare?
Vers. 5 — 7. The connection of this strophe with the preceding by "Q accords with the sense, but is tame. On the other hand, the reading ni£'b instead of \^2n (even though the author of cxvi. 3 may have thus read it) is commended by the parallelism, and by the fact, that now the latter figure is not repeated in vers. 5, 6. "HDI^'d are not necessarily waves that break upon the shore, but may also be such as break one upon another, and consequently >MEN is not inadmissible. The l of ^rui., which is not wanted, is omitted. Instead of the fuller toned form 0*020, which is also more commensurate with the closing cadence of the verse, we have here the usual syncopated 012D (cf. cxviii. 11). The repetition of the NIpN (instead of JftB/K) is even more unpoetical than the repetition of ^21"! would be. On the other hand, it might originally have been JflDtfity instead of yptt^; without 1 it is an expression (intended retrospectively) of what takes place simultaneously, with i it expresses the principal fact. The concluding line VJTNQ TO1#1 is stunted: the brief substantival clause is not meaningless (cf. Job xv. 21, Isa. v. 9), but is only a fragment of the more copious, fuller toned conclusion of the strophe which we find in the Psalter.
Vers. 8 — 10. The Keri here obliterates the significant alternation of the Kal and Hithpa. of tfga. Instead of HD1Z3 we have the feminine form of the plural nHDID (as in both texts in ver. 16) without l. Instead of the genitive Dnn, by an extension of the figure, we have CCiTD (cf. the pillars, Job xxvi. 11), which is not intended of the mountains as of Atlasses, as it were, supporting the heavens, but of the points of support and central points of the heavens themselves: the whole universe trembles.
Vers. 11 — 13. Instead of the pictorial K"n (Deut. xxviii. 49, and hence in Jeremiah), which is generally used of the flight of the eagle, we have the plain, uncoloured NTl He appeared. Instead of nt2^, which is intended as an aorist, we meet the more strictly regular, but here, where so many aorists with 1 come together, less poetical rstft* In ver. 12a the rise and fall of the parallel members has grown over till it forms one heavy clumsy line: And made darkness round about Him a pavilion (niZp). But the onz. Xsy. HT^'H, to which the signification of a "massive gathering together" is secured by the Arabic, is perhaps original. The word y&js*, frequently used in the Koran of assembling to judgment, with the radical signification stipare, cogere (to crowd together, compress) which is also present in ^^^t yiU»> <Xck^, is here used like ayeipeiv in the Homeric vecpsXr^eplxa (the cloud-gatherer).* Ver. 13 is terribly mutilated. Of 1 T)D my V2V of the other text there are only the four letters Hg2 (as in ver. 9c) left.
Vers. 14 — 16. Instead of DJTP1 we find D$TP, which is less admissible here, where a principal fact is related and the description is drawing nearer and nearer to its goal. Instead of D^CtfiHD the other text has D^DKG; in xxx. 4 also,
]D is retained without being assimilated before w. But the fact, however, that the line Bfopi?n:n TJ3 is wanting, is a proof, which we welcome, that it is accidentally repeated from the preceding strophe, in the other text. On the other hand, c^n is inferior to v*T); 2") D'p*121 is corrupted into a tame p^2; and the Keri cfM erroneously assumes that the suffix of DS*D1 refers to the arrows, i. e. lightnings. Again on the other hand, C> ^p">£N, channels of the sea, is perhaps
* Midrash and Talmud explain it according to the Aramai. straining of the clouds", inasmuch as the clouds, like a si the drops trickle down to the earth, falling close upon each otln-r ami separately {B. Taanith U: yp~\? Why WD nrHCOTD). Kimchi combines T:n with Tw'p. But the ancient Arabic ^^» i> the right to the word. The root of "i:/n and H3 *: n La perbapi tme (cf.
original; Cft in this connection expresses too little, and, as being the customary word in combination with ij7»BN (xlii. 2, Joel i. 20), may easily have been substituted after it. At any rate CJ and ^DH form a more exact antithesis, ^-p instead of V&l is the same in meaning. The close of the strophe is here also weakened by the obliteration of the address to God: by (3 instead of the p of the other text) the threatening of Jahve, at the snorting of His breath of anger. The change of the preposition in this surge (so-to-speak) of the members of the verse is rather interruptive than pleasing.
Vers. 17 — 20. The variant W$&Q instead of ^Nfroi is unimportant; but ]VWD instead of ]JJtH?^, for a support, is less pleasing both as it regards language and rhythm. The resolution of 'ON'^'Pl into T&... N^l is a clumsy and needless emphasising of the me.
Vers. 21 — 24. Instead of >p"TS3, we find *njfT?3 her<3 and in ver. 25, contrary to usage of the language of the Psalms (cf. vii. 9 with 1 King viii. 32). Instead of the poetical *|B TDK (Job xxvii. 5, xxiii. 12) we have i"j|t&0 "ttDN (with the fern, used as a neuter), according to the common phrase in 2 Kings iii. 3, and frequently (cf. Deut. v. 32). Instead of ^Nl, the not less (e. g. cii. 8) usual TPPNl; and instead of lan&'NI, the form with ah of direction which occurs very frequently with the first person of the fut. convers, in the later Hebrew, although it does also occur even in the older Hebrew (iii. 6, vii. 5, Gen. xxxii. 6, Job xix. 20). And instead of lay we find V?, which does not commend itself, either as a point of language or of rhythm; and by comparison with vers. 26, 27, it certainly is not original. Vers. 25 — 28. On T)j!H20 see ver. 21. n'23 is without example, since elsewhere (D?©D) D*T 13 is the only expression for innocence. In the equally remarkable expression CEH 1123 {the upright "man of valour1"), lOi is used just as in the expression ^n "112J. The form *}2nn, has only the sound of an assimilated Hithpa. like C£r,n (= CEnm), and is rather a reflexive of the Hiph. ""OH after the manner of the Aramaic Ittaphal (therefore = *rann); and the form ^CP.r. sounds altogether like a Hithpa. from b?P (thou shewest thyself insipid, absurd, foolish), but — since nSpn cannot be ascribed to God (Job i. 22), and is even unseemly as an expression — appears to be treated likewise as an Ittaphal with a kind of inverted assimilation = ^rsnrin (Bbttcher). They are contractions such as are sometimes allowed by the dialect of the common people, though contrary to all rules. fifcO instead of "O at the beginning of ver. 28 changes what is confirmatory into a mere continuation of the foregoing. One of the most sensible variations is the change of niED D^J?1 to D'Drij)?|^?.V The rendering: And Thine eyes (are directed down) upon the haughty that Thou mayst bring (them) low (Stier, Hengst., and others), violates the accentuation and is harsh so far as the language is concerned (b^BWPi for C^S^nb). Hitzig renders it, according to the accents: And Thou lowerest Thine eyes against the proud, UWy ^B#n = D^D ^5D (Jer. iii. 12). But one would expect D instead of b)l, if this were the meaning. It is better to render it according to Ps. cxiii. 6: And Thou dost cast down Thine eyes upon the haughty, in which rendering the haughty are represented as being far beneath Jahve notwithstanding their haughtiness, and the "casting down or depressing of the eyes" is an expression of the utmost contempt (despectus).
Vers. 29 — 31. Here in ver. 29« -)\sn has been lost, for Jahve is called, and really is, TiX in xxvii. 1, but not "0. The form of writing TJ is an incorrect wavering between 1} and t:. The repetition mm HIIT, by which the loss of "PNn, and of ^rfbtf in ver. 29&, is covered, is inelegant. We have nig here instead of 5|3, as twice besides in the Old Testament. The form of writing f>TkX, as Isa. xlii. 4 she does not absolutely require that we should derive it from Wi; nevertheless pn can be joined with the accusative just as well as 3^, in the sense of running against, rushing upon; therefore, since the parallelism is favourable, it is to be rendered: by Thee I rush upon a troop. The omission of the 1 before '1T7N2 is no improvement to the rhythm.
Vers. 32 — 35. The variety of explosion in which has been preserved in the other text is lost here, tnst °f ^.H ^ITWOg we find, as if from a faded MS., ^"~ (according to Norzi *p]») my refuge (lit. hiding i.e. my strong refuge, according to a syntactically m< elegant style of expression (= ^n TtyO Wyo)i like lxxi. 7, Lev. vi. 3, xxvi. 42; wtf. Nagelsbach § 63, g, where it is correctly shewn, that this mode of expression is a matter of necessity in certain instances.* The form of writing, 1TIJJE, seems here to recognise a fipD, a hiding-place, refuge, = oLxjo, which is different from ]p3 a fortress (from TTy); but just as in every other case the punctuation confuses the two substantives (vid. on xxxi. 3), so it does even here, since fipp, from TW, ought to be inflected >ftpp, like ^D\jE, and not iTty'D. Nevertheless the pferctf scriptio may avail to indicate to us, that here ]y;}2 is intended to be a synonym of HpTO. Instead of ("CH CED) }PP1 we have *1FP1 here; perhaps it is He let, or caused, my way to be spotless, i. e. made it such. Thus Ewald renders it by referring to the modern Arabic attendant (lit. I have caused it to be such), as it is to be translated in Noldecke's Beitragd zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alien Araber, S. 131.** Or does THH retain its full and
* In the present instance v^n tl^D, like ^ HDIID in lxxi. 7 (cf. Ezek. xvi. 27, xviii. 7, and perhaps Hab. iii. 8) would not be inadmissible, although in the other mode of expression greater prominence is given to the fact of its being provided and granted by God. But in cases like the following it would be absolutely inadmissible to append the suffix to the nom. rectum, viz. I^W^N'to xxxviii. 20; SpJP^.,v',")r my covenant with Jacob, Lev. xxvi. 42; "H VHD his garment of linen, Lev. vi. 3; CWjTniDn D^H3 their ancestral register, Ezra ii. 62; and it is probable that this transference of the pronominal suffix to the nom. rcgcns originated in instances like these, where it was a logical necessary and then became transferred to the syntax ornala. At the same time it is clear from this, that in cases like ~\\>yj \^J "', and consequently also D^n ^NJ^*, the second notion is not conceived as an accusative of more precise definition, but as a governed genitive.
** Ibid. S. 133, Z. 13 is, with Fleischer, to be rendered: ye have made (*Z$JS) my milk camels restless, i. c. caused them to be such, by having stolen them and driven them away so that they now yearn after home and their young ones.
proper meaning tfto unfetter"? This is more probable, since the usage of Hebrew shews no example of "pRPI in the postbiblical signification "to allow, permit", which ought to form the transition to "to cause to be = to effect". Therefore we may compare on the contrary Koran ix. 15, challu sebilahum loose their way, i. e. let them go forth free, and render it: He unfettered, unbound, left to itself, let my way go on as faultless (unobstructed). Hitzig, following the Chethib 1DT1, renders it differently: "and made the upright skip on his way." But D^n beside 1DT1 is to be regarded at the outset as its predicate, and l^n means "to cause to jump up", Hab. iii. 6, not "to skip along". Nevertheless, the Chethib DTI, which, from the following Chethib TOPI, bears the appearance of being designed, at any rate seems to have understood Q^OD personally: He unfettered (expedit) the upright his way, making his feet like &c. The reading nrp"l instead of nnrpi, although admissible so far as the syntax is concerned (Ges. § 147,«), injures the flow of the rhythm.
Vers. 36 — 37. The pentastich is stunted here by the falling away of the middle line of ver. 36: and Thy right hand supported me. Instead of the expressive *]niJ5>l (and Thy condescension) we find here *]niyi which, in accordance with the usage of the language, does not mean Thy being low (Hengst.), but rather: Thy labour (Bottch.), or more securely: Thine answering, LXX. uiraxorj (i. e. the actual help, wherewith Thou didst answer my prayer). Instead of >FIHFI we find, as also in vers. 40, 48, "OPnn with a verbal suffix, like 1J3 in exxxix. 11; it is perhaps an inaccuracy of the common dialect, which confused the genitive and accusal suffix. But instances of this are not wanting even in the written language, Ges. § 103, rem. 3.
Vers. 38 — 41. The cohortative PIBT1K, as frequently, has the sense of a hypothetical antecedent, whether it rei to the present, as in exxxix. 8, or to the past as in lxxiii. L6 and here: incase I pursued. In the text in the Psalter it [a Dj'&Ml, here it is DTDtffctt, by which the echo of Exod. xv. is obliterated. And after cr,to~"W how tautological is the D^?fcfl which is designed to compensate for the Bhorten of the verse! The verse, to wit, is Bhortened at the end, dp ^3*"*6l being transformed into y,ryp\ tfb\. Inst t>B*[, v?3 is not inappropriate. Instead of tfTWPil we find ^"lini, by a syncope that belongs to the dialect of the people, cf. *btPl for '5?KFI Jer. ii. 30, f^e for vfitfD Job xxxv. 11. Of the same kind is nnn = tlfifp, an apocope take from the mouths of the people, with which only 11, Judg. xix. 11, if equivalent to 1T>, can be compared. The conjunctive l of W^ftl stands here in connection with crPOSJK as a consec: my haters, whom I destroyed. The other text is altogether more natural, better conceived, and more elegant in this instance.
Vers. 42 — 43. Instead of ^T)&& we have lytfify a substitution which is just tolerable: they look forth for help, or even: they look up expectantly to their gods, Isa. xvii. 8, xxxi. 1. The two figurative expressions in ver. 43, however, appear here, in contrast with the other text, in a distorted form: And I pulverised them as the dust of the earth, as the mire of the street did I crush them, I trampled them down. The lively and expressive figure mi ^D~t>y ID^D is weakened into P1N~1Syr. Instead of Dp">1N, we have the overloaded glossarial DJ?£1K C[?1N. The former (root pi, "p, to break in pieces) is a word that is interchanged with the Cp^lX of the other text in the misapprehended sense ofOSHK. The latter (root pi, to stretch, to make broad, thin, and compact) looks like a gloss of this DpIN. Since one does not intentionally either crush or trample upon the dirt of the street nor tread it out thin or broad, we must in this instance take not merely ^1N~1i£D but also mmrno*L3D as expressing the issue or result.
Vers. 44 — 46. The various reading i^g igvi proceeds from the correct understanding, that ^1 refers to David's contentions within his kingdom. The supposition that ^bj; is a plur. apoc. and equivalent to D^BJJ, as it is to all appearance in cxliv. 2, and like ljjE = COE xlv. 9, has no ground here. The reasonable variation ^yycstfa harmonises with ^y_: Thou hast kept me (preserved me) for a head of the nations, viz. by not allowing David to become deprived of the throne by civil foes. The two lines of ver. 45 are reversed, and not without advantage. The Hithpa. MtfT?rP instead of the Piel WtTCP (cf. lxvi. 3, lxxxi. 16) is the reflexive of the latter: they made themselves flatterers (cf. the Niph. Deut. xxxiii. 29: to shew themselves flattering, like the typtS^ which follows here, audientes se prcestabant = obediebant). Instead of (|}n) yDtfi6 we have here, in a similar signification, but less elegant, (]Tft)2fOI&6 according to the hearing of the ear, i. e. hearsay. Instead of EPJTPI we find Diirw, which is either a transposition of the letters as a solecism (cf. y^Q 2 Sam. xiii. 27 for "l^D), or used in a peculiar signification. "They gird (accincti prodeunty does not give any suitable meaning to this picture of voluntary submission. But -tfpi (whence Talmudic "tfn lame) may have signified "to limp" in the dialect of the people, which may be understood of those who drag themselves along with difficulty and reluctance (Hitz.). "Out of their closed places (castles)", here with the suff. am instead of ehem.
Vers. 47 — 49. The y& thrust into ver. 47& is troublesome. Uy\ (without any necessity for correcting it to C"%' is optative, cf. Gen. xxvii. 31, Prov. ix. 4, 16. Instead of 1313 we have "p-jbl and who subdueth, which is less significant and so far as the syntax is concerned less elegant. Also here consequently *OTTF) ^or ^DR. Instead of i£75D we find "WS1Q1 and who bringeth me forth out of my enemies, who surround me — a peculiar form of expression and without support elsewhere (for it is different in ver. 20). The poetical pjk is exchanged for the prose 1, 'Dp"?!? for 'Dj5D, and DCH (£"N) for CPDCn (t£"N); the last being a plur. (cxl. 2, 5, Prov. iv. 17), which is foreign to the genuine Davidic Psalms.
Vers. 50 — 51. The change of position of TVXV in ver. 50a, as well as ibtn for iTJBTN, is against the rhythm; the latter, moreover, is contrary to custom, lvii. 10, cviii. 4. While ^"UD of the other text is not pointed blJDi but -~ it is corrected in this text from ^"UO into bllJD tower of salvation — a figure that recalls lxi. 4, Prov. xviii. 10, but is obscure and somewhat strange in this connection; mo over, migdol for migdal, a tower, only occurs elsewhere in tli«' Old Testament as a proper name.
If we now take one more glance over the mutual relationship of the two texts, we cannot say that both t« equally partake of the original. With th<> i correct omission of ver. 14s and the readings ^I'J":. r~J~. and c> f^SM there is scarely anything in thi xxii. that specially commends itself to us. That this text is a designed, and perhaps a Davidic, revision of the other text (Hengst.), is an assumption that is devoid of reason and appearance; for in 2 Sam. xxii. we have only a text that varies in some instances, but not a substantially new form of the text. The text in 2 Sam. xxii., as it has shewn us, is founded upon careless written and oral transmission. The rather decided tendency towards a defective form of writing leads one to conjecture the greater antiquity of the copy from which it is taken. It is easy to understand how poetical passages inserted in historical works were less carefully dealt with. It is characteristic of the form of the text of the Psalm in 2 Sam. xxii., that in not a few instances the licences of popular expression have crept into it. There is some truth in what Bottcher says, when he calls the text in the Psalter the recension of the priests and that in the Second Book of Samuel the recension of the laity.
3 Day unto day poureth forth speech,
And to the end of the world their utterances: To the sun hath He appointed a tabernacle there.
6 And he is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, He rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course.
7 From the end of the heaven is his going forth And his circuit unto the end of it,
restoring the soul; The testimony of Jahve is sure,
rejoicing the heart; The commandment of Jahve is pure,
enduring for ever; The decisions of Jahve are truth,
11 More to be desired are they than gold,
14 Also from presumptuous sins keep Thy servant back,
that they may not have dominion over me! Then shall I be guiltless and clean from great transgression.
and the meditation of my heart Before Thy face, 0 Jahve, my rock and my Redeemer!!
In the inscription of Ps. xviii. David is called PUTT "IVand in Ps. xix. he gives himself this name. In both Psalms, in the former at the beginning, in the latter at the el he calls upon Jahve by the name nr^, my rock. These and other points of contact (Symbolce p. 40) have concurred to lead the collector to append Ps. xix., which celebra L's revelation of Himself in nature and in the Law, to Ps. xviii., which celebrates God's revelation of Himself in the history of David. The view, that in Ps. xix. we have before us two torsi blown together from some quarter or other is founded upon a defective insight into the relationship, which accords with a definite plan, of the two halves vers. 2 — 7, 8 — 15, as Hitzig has recently shewn in opposition to that view. The poet begins with the praise of the glory of God the Creator, and rises from this to the praise of the mercy of God the Lawgiver; and thus through the praise, springing from wondering and loving adoration, he clears the way to the prayer for justification and sanctification. This prayer grows out of the praise of the mercy of the God who has revealed Himself in His word, without coming back to the first part, vers. 2 — 7. For, as Lord Bacon says, the heavens indeed tell of the glory of God, but not of His will, according to which the poet prays to be pardoned and sanctified. Moreover, if we suppose the Psalm to be called forth by the aspect of the heavens by day, just as Ps. viii. was by the aspect of the heavens by night, then the unity of this praise of the two revelations of God becomes still more clear. It is morning, and the psalmist rejoices on the one hand at the dawning light of day, and on the other he prepares himself for the day's work lying before him, in the light of the Tora. The second part, just like the first part, consists of fourteen lines, and each of them is naturally divided into a six and an eight line strophe. But in the second part, in the place of the short lines comes the csesural schema, which as it were bounds higher, draws deeper breaths and surges as the rise and fall of the waves, for the Tora inspires the psalmist more than does the sun. And it is also a significant fact, that in the first part God is called bit according to his relationship of power to the world, and is only mentioned once; whereas in the second part, He is called by His covenant name miT, and mentioned seven times, and the last time by a threefold name, which brings the Psalm to a close with a full toned ^Ml ms HlIT. What a depth of meaning there is in this distinction of the revelation of God, the Redeemer, from the revelation of God, the Creator!
The last strophe presents us with a sharply sketched soteriology in nuce. If we add Ps.xxxii., then we have the whole of the way of salvation in almost Pauline clearness and definiteness. Paul, moreover, quotes both Psalms; they were surely his favourites.
Vers. 2 — 4. The heavens, i. e. the superterrestrial spheres, which, so far as human vision is concerned, are lost in infinite space, declare how glorious is God, and indeed ^J, as the Almighty; and what His hands have made, i. e. what He has produced with a superior power to which everything is possible, the firmament, i. e. vault of heaven stretched out far and wide and as a transparency above the earth (Grseco-Veneta xajia = exxajxa, from j;p*i, root p*j, to stretch, tsivsiv), distinctly expresses. The sky and firmament are not conceived of as conscious beings which the middle ages, in dependence upon Aristotle (yid. Maimonides, More Nebuchim ii. 5), believed could be proved from this passage, cf. Neh. ix. 6, Job xxxviii. 7. Moreover, Scripture knows nothing of the "music of the spheres" of the Pythagoreans. What is meant is, as the old expositors correctly say, objectivum vocis non articulatce prceconium. The doxa, which God has conferred upon the creature as the reflection of His own, is reflected back from it, and given back to God as it were in acknowledgment of its origin. The idea of perpetuity, which lies even in the participle, is expanded in ver. 3. The words of this discourse of praise are carried forward in an uninterrupted line of transmission. p3Pl (fr. V23, «xi, root 23, to gush forth, nearly allied to which, however, is also the root y2, to spring up) points to the rich fulness with which, as from an inexhaustible spring, the testimony passes on from one day to the next. The parallel word mn is an unpictorial, but poetic, word that is more Aramaic than Hebrew (= TJfi). 1Cfc also belongs to the more elevated style; the -pwaiov xo5 0eou deposited in the creature, although not reflected, is here called njn. The poet does not say that the tidings proclaimed by the day, if they gradually die away as the day declines, are tal up by the night, and the tidings of the nighl by the d but (since the knowledge proclaimed by the day concerns the visible works of God by day, and that proclaimed night, His works by night), that each dawning day font in the speech of that which has declined, and each approaching night takes up the tale of thai which has pas (Psychol. 8. 347, tr. p. 408). If ver. 1 v, I
"there is no speech and there are no words, their voice is inaudible", i. e. they are silent, speechless witnesses, uttering no sound, but yet speaking aloud (Hengst.), only inwardly audible but yet intelligible everywhere (Then.): then, ver. 5 ought at least to begin with a Warn adver sativum, and, moreover, the poet would then needlessly check his fervour, producing a tame thought and one that interrupts the flow of the hymn. To take ver. 4 as a circumstantial clause to ver. 5, and made to precede it, as Ewald does, "without loud speech... their sound has resounded through all the earth" (§ 341, d), is impossible, even apart from the fact of "lEtt not meaning "loud speech" and Dp hardly "their sound". Ver. 4 is in the form of an independent sentence, and there is nothing whatever in it to betray any designed subordination to ver. 5. But if it be made independent in the sense "there is no loud, no articulate speech, no audible voice, which proceeds from the heavens", then ver. 5 would form an antithesis to it; and this, in like manner, there is nothing to indicate, and it would at least require that the verb n^ should be placed first. Luther's rendering is better: There is no language nor speech, where their voice is not heard, i. e., as Calvin also renders it, the testimony of the heavens to God is understood by the peoples of every language and tongue. But this ought to be |1b6 pK or D£t£> ]\S (Gen. xi. 1). Hofmann's rendering is similar, but more untenable: "There is no speech and there are no words, that their cry is not heard, i. e. the language of the heavens goes forth side by side with all other languages; and men may discourse ever so, still the speech or sound of the heavens is heard therewith, it sounds above them all." But the words are not yiQBft ^2 (after the analogy of Gen. xxxi. 20), or rather ynVfr 1S2 (as in Job xli. 18, Hos. viii. 7). ^3 with the part. is a poetical expression for the Alpha priv at. (2 Sam. i. 21), consequently pDBfa *ho is "unheard" or "inaudible", and the opposite of VEL^J, audible, Jer. xxxi. 15. Thus, therefore, the only rendering that remains is that of the LXX, Vitringa, and Hitzig: There is no language and no words, whose voice is unheard, i. e. inaudible. Hupfeld's assertion that this rendering destroys the parallelism is unfounded. The structure of the distich resembles cxxxix.
4. The discourse of the heavens and the firmament, of the day (of the sky by day) and of the night (of the sky by night), is not a discourse uttered in a corner, it is a discourse in speech that is everywhere audible, and in words that are understood by all, a cpavspov, Rom. i. 19.
Vers. 5 — 7. Since -tfpfc and C,12"| are the speech and words of the heavens, which form the ruling principal notion, comprehending within itself both CT> and PlW, the suffixes of DID and cn^D must unmistakeably refer to CEiiTI in spite of its being necessary to assign another reference to ub)p in ver. 4. Jer. xxxi. 39 shews how we are to understand ip in connection with ns\ The measuring line of the heavens is gone forth into all the earth, i. e. has taken entire possession of the earth. Ver. b~b tells us what kind of measuring line is intended, viz. that of their heraldship: their words (from rfe, which is more Aramaic than Hebrew, and consequently more poetic) reach to the end of the world, they fill it completely, from its extreme boundary inwards. Isaiah's ip, ch. xxviii. 10, is inapplicable here, because it does not mean commandment, but rule, and is there used as a word of derision, rhyming^ with)%. The 6 9O6770; auxwv of the LXX. (6 \/^ a'kwv Symm.) might more readily be justified, inasmuch as ip might mean a harpstring, as being a cord in tension, and then, like tovq? (cf. xovcaa), a tone or sound (Gesenius in his Lex., and Ewald), if the reading cblp does not perhaps lie at the foundation of that rendering. But the usage of the language presents the signification of a measuring line for ip when used with NX1 (Aq. xavtov, cf. 2 Cor. x. 13); and this gives a new thought, whereas in the other case we should merely have a repetition of what has been already expressed in ver. 4. Paul makes use of these first two lines of the strophe in order, with its very words, to testify to the spread of the a}. tolic message over the whole earth. Hence mosl of the older expositors have taken the first half of the Psalm to be an allegorical prediction, the heavens being a figure the church and the sun a figure of the gospel. The apoi does- not, however, make a formal citation in thi | referred to, ho merely gives a \ •• l itament application to Old Testament language, by taking the all-penetrati prceconium ccelorum as figure of the all-penetrating prceconium evangelii; and he is fully justified in so doing by the parallel which the psalmist himself draws between the revelation of God in nature and in the written word.
The reference of DH2 to D^Cfr'n is at once opposed by the tameness of the thought so obtained. The tent, viz. the retreat (bnx, according to its radical meaning a dwelling, from ^HN, cogn. blK, to retire from the open country) of the sun is indeed in the sky, but it is more naturally at the spot where the sky and the bin llHp meet. Accordingly Di"D has the neuter signification "there" (cf. Isa. xxx. 6); and there is so little ground for reading DIP instead of DIP, as Ewald does, that the poet on the contrary has written DPD and not DIP, because he has just used DIP (Hitzig). The name of the sun, which is always feminine in Arabic, is predominantly masculine in Hebrew and Aramaic (cf. on the other hand Gen. xv. 17, Nah. iii. 17, Isa. xlv. 6, Mai. iii. 20); just as the Sabians and heathen Arabs had a sun-god (masc). Accordingly in ver. 6 the sun is compared to a bridegroom, who comes forth in the morning out of his TiCn. Joel ii. 16 shews that this word means a bride- chamber; properly (from Fjsn to cover) it means a canopy (Isa. iv. 5), whence in later Hebrew the bridal or portable canopy (Talmud. fr03-I ITO), which is supported by four poles and borne by four boys, at the consecration of the bridal pair, and then also the marriage itself, is called chuppa. The morning light has in it a freshness and cheerfulness, as it were a renewed youth. Therefore the morning sun is compared to a bridegroom, the desire of whose heart is satisfied, who stands as it were at the beginning of a new life, and in whose youthful countenance the joy of the wedding-day still shines. And as at its rising it is like a bridegroom, so in its rapid course (Sir. xliii. 5) it is like a hero (yid. on xviii. 34), inasmuch as it marches on its way ever anew, light-giving and triumphant, as often as it comes forth, with rni23 (Judges v. 31). From one end of heaven, the extreme east of the horizon, is its going forth, i\ e. rising (cf. Hos. vi. 3; the opposite is HCX going in = setting), and its circuit (n^pn, from rjip = rjpj, Isa. xxix. 1, to revolve) DniSp"^, to their (the heavens') end (= iy Deut. iv. 32), cf.
1 Esdr. iv. 34: xa^o? xaj Bpojicp 6 ^Xios, an atpe^siai iv t(p xuxXw xo5 oupavoo xal iraXiv aitoxpe^ei el? tov eaaxou xottov ev jita %£pa. On this open way there is not ^PDJ, anything hidden, i. e. anything that remains hidden, before its heat. nan is the enlightening and warming influence of the sun, which is also itself called DEf) in poetry.
Vers. 8 — 10. No sign is made use of to mark the transition from the one part to the other, hut it is indicated by the introduction of the divine name HIPP instead of 7N. The word of nature declares bx (God) to us, the word of Scripture miT (Jahve); the former God's power and glory, the latter also His counsel and will. Now follow twelve encomiums of the Law, of which every two are related as antecedent and consequent, rising and falling according to the caesural schema, after the manner of waves. One can discern how now the heart of the poet begins to beat with redoubled joy as he comes to speak of God's word, the revelation of His will. PHIF) does not in itself mean the law, but a pointing out, instruction, doctrine or teaching, and more particularly such as is divine, and therefore positive; whence it is also used of prophecy, Isa. i. 10, viii. 16, and prophetically of the New Testament gospel, Isa. ii. 3. But here no other divine revelation is meant than that given by the mediation of Moses, which is become the law, i. e. the rule of live (vojjlo;), of Israel; and this law, too, as a whole not merely as to its hortatory and disciplinary character, but also including the promises contained in it. The praises which the poet pronounces upon the Law, arc accurate even from the standpoint of the New Testament. Even Paul says, Rom. vii. 12, 14, "The Law is holy and spiritual, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." The Law merits these praises in itself; and to him who is in a state of favour, it is indeed no longer a law bringing a curse with it, but a mirror of the God merciful in holiness, into which he can look without slavish fear, and is a rule for the direction of his free and willin And how totally different is the affection of the psalmj and prophets for the Law, — an affection based upon the essence and universal morality of the commaxi lm ad of the promises, — from the pharisaical rabbinical service of the letter and the ceremonial in the period after the Exile!
The divine Law is called HD^DR, "perfect", i. e. spotless and harmless, as being absolutely well-meaning, and altogether directed towards the well-being of man. And nZPtPD t^D3 restoring, bringing back, t. e. imparting newness of life, quickening the soul (cf. Pit. 22)W, xxiii. 3), to him, viz., who obeys the will of God graciously declared therein, and enters upon the divine way or rule of salvation. Then in the place of the word mm we find nny, — as the tables of the Ten Commandments (fYHgn t\)pk) are called, — from Ty (TJjn), which signifies not merely a corroborative, but also a warning and instructive testimony or attestation. The testimony of Jahve is PDEJO, made firm, sure, faithful, t. e. raised above all doubt in its declarations, and verifying itself in its threatenings and promises; and hence \nDn£')2n£, making wise simplicity, or the simple, lit. openness, the open (root HD to spread out, open, Indo-Germ. prat, tcet, pat, pad), i. e. easily led astray; to such an one it gives a solid basis and stability, aocpiCei cukov, 2 Tim. iii. 15. The Law divides into QHlpD, precepts or declarations concerning man's obligation; these are D^L^, straight or upright, as a norma normata, because they proceed from the upright, absolutely good will of God, and as a norma normans they lead along a straight way in the right track. They are therefore 2b Tiat^p, their educative guidance, taking one as it were by the hand, frees one from all tottering, satisfies a moral want, and preserves a joyous consciousness of being in the right way towards the right goal. ffiiT H]^p, Jahve's statute (from pfiS statuere), is the tenour of His commandments. The statute is a lamp — it is said in Prov. vi. 23 — and the law a light. So here: it is TTft, clear, like the light of the sun (Cant. vi. 10), and its light is imparted to other objects: C^y PTNO, enlightening the eyes, which refers not merely to the enlightening of the understanding, but of one's whole condition; it makes the mind clear, and body as well as mind healthy and fresh, for the darkness of the eyes is sorrow, melancholy, and bewilderment. In this chain of names for the Law, 'n HKT is not the fear of
God as an act performed, but as a precept, it is what God's revelation demands, effects, and maintains; so that it is the revealed way in which God is to be feared (xxxiv. 12), — in short, it is the religion of Jahve (cf. Prov. xv. 33 with Deut. xvii. 19). This is HTinp, clean, pure, as the word which is like to pure gold, by which it is taught, xii. 7, cf. Job xxviii.19; and therefore -|y^> nTDJJj enduring for ever in opposition to all false forms of reverencing God, which carry their own condemnation in themselves, 'n ^£BW12 are the jura of the Law as a corpus juris divini, everything that is right and constitutes right according to the decision of Jahve. These judgments are PEX, truth, which endures and verifies itself; because, in distinction from most others and those outside Israel, they have an unchangeable moral foundation: HIT p"!H, i- e. they are cp^H, in accordance with right and appropriate (Deut. iv. 8), altogether, because no reproach of inappositeness and sanctioned injustice or wrong clings to them. The eternal will of God has attained a relatively perfect form and development in the Law of Jahve according to the standard set up as the law of the nation.
Vers. 11 — 15. With DHCrwri (for which, preferring a simple Shebd with the gutturals, Ben-Naphtali writes C"icn:r,j the poet sums up the characteristics enumerated; the article is summative, as in *tS^'n at the close of the hexahemeron, Gen. i. 31. ID is the finest purified gold, cf. 1 Kings x. 18 with 2 Chron. ix. 17. MIS HE?: "the discharge (from T\B2 = ^>Ju) of the honeycombs" is the virgin honey, i. <\ the honey that flows of itself out of the cells. To be desired are the revealed words of God, to him who possesses them as an outward possession; and to him who has received them inwardly they are sweet. The poet, who is himself conscious of being a servant of God, and of striving to act as such, makes use of these words for the end for which they are revealed: he is inn, one who suffers himself to enlightened, instructed^ and warned by them, DJ belongs to iniJ (according to the usual arrangemenl of the words, e. g. Hos. vi. 11), just as in ver. 14 it belongs to "J ". II knows that DiptTD (with a subjective suffix m an ob sense, cf. Prov.' xxv. 7, just as we may ala I in tl which follows upon one's heels (-py), or comes immediately after anything, and is used here of the result of conduct. Thus, then, inasmuch as the Law is not only a copy of the divine will, but also a mirror of self-knowledge, in which a man may behold and come to know himself, he prays for forgiveness in respect of the many sins of infirmity, — though for the most part unperceived by him, — to which, even the pardoned one succumbs. nNW" (in the terminology of the Law, n^t£>, ayvo7][ia) comprehends the whole province of the peccatum involuntarium, both the peccatum ignorantice and the peccatum infirmitatis. The question delicto, quis intelligit is equivalent to the negative clause: no one can discern his faults, on account of the heart of man being unfathomable and on account of the disguise, oftentimes so plausible, and the subtlety of sin. Hence, as an inference, follows the prayer: pronounce me free also rVftRDSJD, ab occultis (peccatis, which, however, cannot be supplied on grammatical grounds)^ equivalent to D^ob'Sp (xc- 8), i. e. all those sins, which even he, who is most earnestly striving after sanctification, does not discern, although he may desire to know them, by reason of the ever limited nature of his knowledge both of himself and of sin.* HM, Stxcuouv, is a vox judicialis, to declare innocent, pronounce free from, to let go unpunished. The prayer for justification is followed in yer. 14 by the prayer for sanctification, and indeed for preservation against deliberate sins. From "ffi, TT, to seethe, boil over, Hiph. to sin wilfully, deliberately, insolently, — opp. of sin arising from infirmity, Exod. xxi. 14, Deut. xviii. 22, xvii. 12, — is formed "IT an insolent sinner, one who does not sin rwt?2, but fi"lJ2 (cf. 1 Sam. xvii. 28, where David's brethren bring this reproach against him), or "P3 DD"!, and the neuter collective QHT (cf. DUCD, ci. 3, Hos. v. 2) peccata proceretica or contra conscientiam, which cast one out of the state of grace or favour, Num. xv. 27 — 31. For if D'HT had been intended of arrogant and insolent possessors
* In the Arab proverb, "no sin which is persisted in is small, no sin great for which forgiveness is sought of God," s^uLo directly of power (Ewald), the prayer would have taken some other form than that of "keeping back" (•fc'n as in 1 Sam. xxv. 39 in the mouth of David). CHT, presumptuous sins, when they are repeated, become dominant sins, which irresistibly enslave the man (bv/12 with a non-personal subject, as in Isa. iii. 4&, cf. Ps. ciii. 19); hence the last member of the climax (which advances from the peccatum involuntarium to the procereticum, and from this to the regnans): let them not have dominion over me (*>2 with Dechi in Baer; generally wrongly marked with Munach).
Then (in), when Thou bestowest this twofold favour upon me, the favour of pardon and the grace of preservation, shall I be blameless (crPK 1 fut. Kal, instead of crx, with i as a characteristic of e) and absolved (WW not Piel, as in ver. 13, but Niph., to be made pure, absolved) from great transgression. J?#9* from ytf"Q (root trD), to spread out, go beyond the bounds, break through, trespass, is a collective name for deliberate and reigning, dominant sin, which breaks through man's relation of favour with God, and consequently casts him out of favour, — in one word, for apostasy. Finally, the psalmist supplicates a gracious acceptance of his prayer, in which both mouth and heart accord, supported by the faithfulness, stable as the rock O'TfcO, and redeeming love (^Nlil redemptor, r'mdcx, root \\ $n, to loose, redeem) of his God. firb TVT) is a standing expression of the sacrificial tora, e. g. Lev. i. 3 sq. The *P1E&, which, according to Exod. xxviii. 38, belongs to pSTD, stands in the second member in accordance with the "parallelism by postponement." Prayer is a sacrifice offered by the inner man. The heart meditates and fashions it; and the mouth presents it, by uttering that which is put into the form of words.