(of. Prov. xi. 24, xxi. 5, xxii. 16): it tends only to evil-doing, it ends only in thy involving thyself in sin. The final issue, without any need that thou shouldst turn sullen, is that the ttjno, like to whom thou dost make thyself by such passionate murmuring and displeasure, will be cut off, and they who, turning from the troublous present, make Jahve the ground and aim of their hope, shall inherit the land (yid. xxv. 13). It is the end, the final and consequently eternal end, that decides the matter.
Vers. 10, 11. The protasis in ver. 10a is literally: adhuc parum (temporis superest),) DJHp niy, as e.g. Ex. xxiii. 30, and as in a similar connection \ BV», Job xxiv. 24. rmianrn also is a protasis wTith a hypothetical perfect, Ges. § 155, 4, a. This promise also runs in the mouth of the Preacher on the Mount (Matt. v. 5) just as the LXX. renders ver. 11a: ol Be irpaeU KkTjpovofirjdovai yrjv. Meekness, which is content with God, and renounces all earthly stays, will at length become the inheritor of the land, yea of the earth. Whatever God-opposed self-love may amass to itself and may seek to acquire, falls into the hands of the meek as their blessed possession.
Vers. 12, 13, The verb C&J is construed with? of that which is the object at which the evil devices aim. To gnash the teeth (elsewhere also: with the teeth) is, as in xxxv. 16, cf. Job xvi. 9, a gesture of anger, not of mockery, although anger and mockery are usually found together. But the Lord, who regards an assault upon the righteous as an assault upon Himself, laughs (ii. 4) at the enraged schemer; for He, who orders the destinies of men, sees beforehand, with His omniscient insight into the future, his day, i.e. the day of his death (2 Sam. xxvi. 10), of his visitation (cxxxvii. 7, Obad. ver. 12, Jer. 1. 27, 31).
Vers. 14, 15. That which corresponds to the "treading" or stringing of the bow is the drawing from the sheath or unsheathing of the sword: nriQ^ Ezek. xxi. 33, cf. Ps. lv. 22. The combination ^"^^. is just like "p-pD'En, cxix. 1. The emphasis in ver. 15 is upon the suffix of Uf?2: they shall perish by their own weapon. Dnin$j3 has (in Baer) a Shebd dirimens, as also in Isa. v. 28 in correct texts.
genitive (Ges. § 115). |ton is a noisy multitude, here used of earthly possessions. Ds3"} is not per attract, (cf. xxxviii. 11, Dn for wn) equivalent to 31, but the one righteous man is contrasted with many unrighteous. The arms are here named instead of the bow in ver. 1 5b. He whose arms are broken can neither injure others nor help himself. Whereas Jahve does for the righteous what earthly wealth and human power cannot do: He Himself upholds them.
Vers. 18, 19. The life of those who love Jahve with the whole heart is, with all its vicissitudes^ an object of His loving regard and of His observant providential care, i. 6, xxxi. 8, cf. 16. He neither suffers His own to lose their heritage nor to be themselves lost to it. The ala>vio$ Kkripovofila is not as yet thought of as extending into the future world, as in the New Testament. In ven 19 the surviving refers only to this present life.
Ver. 20. With *3 the preceding assertion is confirmed by its opposite (cf. cxxx. 4). 0^3 "lj?*3 forms a fine play in sound; 1R is a substantivized adjective like «H|, Ex. xv. 16. Instead of pVX it is not to be read OT3, Hos. xiii. 3; the 3 is secured by cii. 4, lxxviii. 33. The idea is, that they vanish into smoke, i.e. are resolved into it, or also, that they vanish in the manner of smoke, which is first thick, but then becomes thinner and thinner till it disappears (Rosenmiiller, Hupfeld, Hitzig); both expressions are admissible as to fact and as to the language, and the latter is commended by?3ri3, lxxviii. 33, cf. B?*3, xxxix. 7. |5PV3 belongs to the first, regularly accented v3; for the Munach by |^V2 is the substitute for Mugrash, which never can be used where at least two syllables do not precede the Silluk tone (vid. Psalter ii. 503). The second OT has the accent on the penult, for a change (Ew. § 194, c), i.e. variation of the rhythm (cf. HD^ • ■ nth, xlii. 10, xliii. 2; my • • my, Judg. v. 12, and on cxxxvii. 7), and in particular here on account of its pausal position (cf. Viy, cxxxvii. 7).
Vers. 21, 22. It is the promise expressed in Deut. xv. 6, xxviii. 12, 44, which is rendered in ver. 21 in the more universal, sententious form. TO signifies to be bound or under obligation to any one = to borrow and to owe (nexum esse). The confirmation of ver. 22 is not inappropriate (as Hitzig considers it, who places ver. 22 after ver. 20): in that ever deeper downfall of the ungodly, and in that charitableness of the righteous, which becomes more and more easy to him by reason of his prosperity, the curse and blessing of God, which shall be revealed in the end of the earthly lot of both the righteous and the ungodly, are even nowT foretold. Whilst those who reject the blessing of God are cut off, the promise given to the patriarchs is fulfilled in the experience of those who are blessed of God, in all its fulness.
Vers. 23, 24. By Jahve (jD, airo, almost equivalent to viro with the passive, as in Job xxiv. 1, Eccles. xii. 11, and in a few other passages) are a man's steps made firm, established; not: ordered or directed (LXX., Jerome, tcaTevOvveTcu), which, according to the extant usage of the language, would be HD*n (passive of pan, Prov. xvi. 9, Jer. x. 23, 2 Chron. xxvii. 6), whereas ^2, the Pulal of $3, is to be understood according to xl. 3. By "133 is meant man in an emphatic sense (Job xxxviii. 3), and in fact in an ethical sense; compare, on the other hand, the expression of the more general saying, " Man proposes, and God disposes," Prov. xvi. 9, xx. 24, Jer. x. 23. Ver. 236 shows that it is the upright man that is meant in ver. 23a: to the way, i.e. course of life, of such an one God turns with pleasure (P^n* pausal change of vowel for Y'SW): supposing he should fall, whether it be a fall arising from misfortune or from error, or both together, he is not prostrated, but Jahve upholds his hand, affords it a firm point of support or fulcrum (cf. 3?]>?n, lxiii. 9, and frequently), so that he can raise himself again, rise up again.
Vers. 25, 26. There is an old theological rule: promissiones corporales intelligendcv sunt cum exceptione cruris et castigationis. Temporary forsakenness and destitution the Psalm does not deny: it is indeed even intended to meet the conflict of doubt which springs up in the minds of the God-fearing out of certain conditions and circumstances that are seemingly contradictory to the justice of God; and this it does, by contrasting that which in the end abides with that which is transitory, and in fact without the knowledge of any final decisive adjustment in a future world; and it only solves its problem, in so far as it is placed in the light of the New Testament, which already dawns in the Book of Ecclesiastes.
Vers. 27, 28a. The round of the exhortations and promises is here again reached as in ver. 3. The imperative |3$;, which is there hortatory, is found here with the 1 of sequence in the sense of a promise: and continue, doing such things, to dwell for ever = so shalt thou, etc. (£^, pregnant as in cii. 29, Isa. lvii. 15). Nevertheless the imperative retains its meaning even in such instances, inasmuch as the exhortation is given to share in the reward of duty at the same time with the discharge of it. On ver. 28a compare xxxiii. 5.
Vers. 286, 29. The division of the verses is wrong; for the D strophe, without any doubt, closes wTith VTDn, and the V strophe begins with D?iy?, so that, according to the text which we possess, the y of this word is the acrostic letter. The LXX., however, after et? top alwva fyvXa-xOrjo-ovrai has another line, which suggests another commencement for the y strophe, and runs in Cod. Vat., incorrectly, afico/jboi ifcSt/crfcrovrai, in Cod. Alex., correctly, avofioi Be eKBico^drjaovrac (Symmachus, avo/xoL i^apOrjaovrai). By avojios the LXX. translates PI? in Isa. xxix. 20; by avofia, iWW in Job xxvii. 4; and by enBiwiceiv, IVDVn, the synonym of VtHWlj in Ps. ci. 5; so that consequently this line, as even Venema and Schleusner have discerned, was VJOKO Dvty. It will at once be seen that this is only another reading for HD5W zbty?; and, since it stands side by side with the latter, that it is an ancient attempt to produce a correct beginning for the y strophe, which has been transplanted from the LXX. into the text. It is, however, questionable whether this reparation is really a restoration of the original words (Hupfeld, Hitzig); since?}V (?*)¥.) is not a word found in the Psalms (for which reason Bottcher's conjecture of row Wy more readily commends itself, although it is critically less probable), and 11DCO tb'tyb forms a continuation that is more naturally brought about by the context and perfectly logical.
Vers. 30, 31. The verb n^n unites in itself the two meanings of meditating and of meditative utterance (yid. ii. 1), just as ")BK those of thinking and speaking. Ver. 316 in this connection affirms the stability of the moral nature. The walk of the righteous has a fixed inward rule, for the Tora is to him not merely an external object of knowledge and a compulsory precept; it is in his heart, and, because it is the Tora of his God whom he loves, as the motive of his actions closely united with his own will. On HtfpW, followed by the subject in the plural, compare xviii. 35, lxxiii. 2 Chethib.
Vers. 32, 33. The Lord as ava/cpivcov is, as in 1 Cor. iv. 3 sqM put in contrast with the avaicpiveiv of men, or of human 7)fj,epa. If men sit in judgment upon the righteous, yet God, the supreme Judge, does not condemn him, but acquits him (cf. on the contrary cix. 7). Si condemnamur a mundo, exclaimed Tertullian to his companions in persecution, absolvimur a Deo.
Ver. 34. Let the eye of faith directed hopefully to Jahve go on its way, without suffering thyself to be turned aside by the persecution and condemnation of the world, then He will at length raise thee out of all trouble, and cause thee to possess (ntro, ut possidas et possideas) the land, as the sole lords of which the evil-doers, now cut off, conducted themselves.
Vers. 35, 36. n? (after the form P*W) is coupled with PBH, just as these two words alternate in Job xv. 20: a terrorinspiring, tyrannical evil-doer; cf. besides also Job v. 3. The participle in ver. 35b forms a clause by itself: et se diffundens, scil. erat. The LXX. and Jerome translate as though it were p3?fl n&O, " like the cedars of Lebanon," instead of pyi mt&a. But |35H rn?K is the expression for an oak, terebinth, or the like, that has grown from time immemorial in its native soil, and has in the course of centuries attained a gigantic size in the stem, and a wide-spreading overhanging head. TSjW does not mean: then he vanished away (Hupfeld and others); for "W in this sense is not suitable to a tree. Luther correctly renders it: man ging voruber, one (they) passed by, Ges. § 137, 3. The LXX., Syriac, and others, by way of lightening the difficulty, render it; then I passed by.
Vers. 37, 38. Bn might even be taken as neuter for Oh, and IB* for "M5?; but in this case the poet wTould have written njp instead of HKt; idk* is therefore used as, e.g., in 1 Sam. i. 12. By *3 that to which attention is specially called is introduced. The man of peace has a totally different lot from the evil-doer who delights in contention and persecution. As the fruit of his love of peace he has rnnx, a future, Prov. xxiii. 18, xxiv. 14, viz. in his posterity, Prov. xxiv. 20; whereas the apostates are altogether blotted out; not merely they themselves, but even the posterity of the ungodly is cut off, Amos
rSALM XXXVIII.
iv. 2, ix. 1, Ezek. xxiii. 25. To them remains no posterity to carry forward their name, their H^riK is devoted to destruction (cf. cix. 13 with Num. xxiv. 20).
Vers. 39, 40. The salvation of the righteous cometh from Jahve; it is therefore characterized, in accordance with its origin, as sure, perfect, and enduring for ever. DttJJD is an apposition; the plena scriptio serves, as in 2 Sam. xxii. 33, to indicate to us that nyo is meant in this passage to signify not a fortress, but a hiding-place, a place of protection, a refuge, in
(the protection of God's presence) is an Arabic expression (also used as a formula of an oath); vid. moreover on xxxi. 3. The moods of sequence in ver. 40 are aoristi gnomici. The parallelism in ver. 4S)ab is progressive after the manner of the Psalms of degrees. The short confirmatory clause ki chasu bo forms an expressive closing cadence.
2 JAHVE, do not in Thy wrath rebuke me, And in Thy hot displeasure chasten me.
3 For Thine arrows have entered deep into me, And Thy hand hath sunk down upon me.
4 There is no soundness in my flesh because of Thine anger, There is no health in my bones because of my sin.
5 For mine iniquities are gone over my head, Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
8 For my loins are full of burning, And there is no soundness in my flesh.
10 O Lord, to Thee is all my desire manifest, And my sighing is not hidden from Thee.
11 My heart beateth quickly, my strength hath failed me, And the light of mine eyes, even of these, is gone from me.
12 My lovers and friends stand aloof from my stroke, [And my kinsmen stand afar off,]
And they who strive after my misfortune speak mischievous And utter falsehoods continually. [things,
14 But I am like a deaf man, as though I heard not, And like one dumb that openeth not his mouth;
15 I am become like a man that heareth not, And in whose mouth are no replies.
20 But mine enemies are vigorous, they are numerous, And many are my lying haters.
The penitential Psalm, xxxviii., is placed immediately after Ps. xxxvii. on account of the similarity of its close to the n strophe of that Psalm. It begins like Ps. vi. If we regard David's adultery as the occasion of it (cf. more especially 2 Sam. xii. 14), then Ps.vi., xxxviii., li., xxxii. form a chronological series. David is distressed both in mind and body, forsaken by his friends, and regarded by his foes as one whois cast off for ever. The fire of divine anger burns within him like a fever, and the divine withdrawal as it were rests upon him like darkness. But he fights his way by prayer through this fire and this darkness to the bright confidence of faith. The Psalm, although it is the pouring forth of such elevated and depressed feelings, is nevertheless symmetrically and skilfully laid out. It consists of three main paragraphs, which divide into four (vers. 2-9), three (vers. 10-15), and four (vers. 16-23) tetrastichs. The way in which the names of God are brought in is well conceived. The first word of the first group or paragraph is rorp, the first word of the second tfiN, and in the third nvT and "OIK are used interchangeably twice. The Psalm, in common with Ps. lxx., bears the inscription "^SJDf. The chronicler, in 1 Chron. xvi. 4, refers to these Hazkir Psalms together with the Hodu and Halleluja Psalms. In connection with the presentation of meat-offerings, ntoy?, a portion of the meat-offering was cast into the altar fire, viz. a handful of the meal mixed with oil and the whole of the incense. This portion was called 'TJSJN, avd/jLVTjo-cs, and to offer it ">^Tn (a denominative), because the ascending smoke was intended to bring the owner of the offering into remembrance with God. In connection with the presentation of this memorial portion of the mincha, the two Psalms are appointed to be used as prayers; hence the inscription: at the presentation of the Azcara (the portion taken from the meal-offering). The LXX. adds here irepl (tov) aa/3- fidrov; perhaps equivalent to ri3#?.
In this Psalm we find a repetition of a peculiarity of the penitential Psalms, viz. that the praying one has to complain not only of afflictions of body and soul, but also of outward enemies, who come forward as his accusers and take occasion from his sin to prepare the way for his ruin. This arises from the fact that the Old Testament believer, whose perception of sin was not as yet so spiritual and deep as that of the New
Testament believer, almost always calls to mind some sinful act that has become openly known. The foes, who would then prepare for his ruin, are the instruments of the Satanic power of evil (cf. ver. 21, Wlpfe*), which, as becomes perceptible to the New Testament believer even without the intervention of outward foes, desires the death of the sinning one, whereas God wills that he should live.
Vers. 2-9. David begins, as in Ps. vi.; with the prayer that his punitive affliction may be changed into disciplinary. Bakius correctly paraphrases ver. 2: Corripe sane per legem, castiga per crucem, millies promerui, negare non possum, sed castiga, quceso, me ex amore ut pater, non ex furore et fervore ut judex; ne punias justitio? rigore, sed misericordice dulcore (cf. on vi. 2). The negative is to be repeated in ver. 26, as in i. 5, ix. 19, lxxv. 6. In the description, which gives the ground of the cry for pity, nnj is not the Piel, as in xviii. 35, but the Niphal of the Kal nru immediately following (root na). 1*5 is anger as a breaking forth, fragor (cf. Hos. x. 7, LXX. (ppvyavov), with 8 instead of X in the first syllable, vowels which alternate in this word; and non, as a glowing or burning. DW (in Homer, /cr)\a), God's wrath-arrows, i.e. lightnings of wrath, are His judgments of wrath; and 1J, as in xxxii. 4, xxxix. 11, God's punishing hand, which makes itself felt in dispensing punishment, hence nnjn might be attached as a mood of sequence. In ver. 4 wrath is called DJJT as a boiling up. Sin is the cause of this experiencing wrath, and the wrath is the cause of the bodily derangement; sin as an exciting cause of the wrath always manifests itself outwardly even on the body as a fatal power. In ver. 5a sin is compared to waters that threaten to drown one, as in ver. 5b to a burden that presses one down. ^QD TO3^ they are heavier than I, i.e. than my power of endurance, too heavy for me. In ver. 6 the effects of the operation of the divine hand (as punishing) are wounds, flfaan (properly, suffused variegated marks from a blow variegated), which VfafSSlj send forth an offensive smell, and ^PP}, suppurate. Sin, which causes this, is called njJK, because, as it is at last manifest, it is always the destruction of itself.
With emphasis does vfa.K *JBB form the second half of the verse. To take Wlj/3 out of ver. 7 and put it to this, as Meier and Thenius propose, is to destroy this its proper position. On the three '}Bp, vid. Ewald, § 217, L Thus sick in soul and body, he is obliged to bow and bend himself in the extreme. TO3 is used of a convulsive drawing together of the body, Isa. xxi. 3; nnt£ of a bowed mien, Ps. xxxv. 14; ypn, of a heavy, lagging gait. With *3 in ver. 8 the grounding of the petition begins for the third time. His DVp3? i>e* internal muscles of the loins, which are usually the fattest parts, are full of H7jM, that which is burnt, i.e. parched. It is therefore as though the burning, starting from the central point of the bodily power, would spread itself over the whole body: the wrath of God works commotion in this latter as well as in the soul. Whilst all the energies of life thus yield, there comes over him a partial, almost total lifelessness. JHQ is the proper word for the coldness and rigidity of a corpse; the Niplial means to be brought into this condition, just as K2H3 means to be crushed, or to be brought into a condition of crushing, i.e. of violent dissolution. The |p of riDnap is intended to imply that the loud wail is only the utterance of the pain that is raging in his heart, the outward expression of his ceaseless, deep inward groaning.
Vers. 10-15. Having thus bewailed his suffering before God, he goes on in a somewhat calmer tone: it is the calm of weariness, but also of the rescue which shows itself from afar. He has complained, but not as if it were necessary for him first of all to make God acquainted with his suffering; the Omniscient One is directly cognisant of (has directly before Him, *W, like *MJ? in xviii. 25) every wish that his suffering extorts from him, and even his softer sighing does not escape His knowledge. The sufferer does not say this so much with the view of comforting himself with this thought, as of exciting God's compassion. Hence he even goes on to draw the piteous picture of his condition: his heart is in a state of violent rotary motion, or only of violent, quickly repeated contraction and expansion (Psychol. S. 252; tr. p. 297), that is to say, a state of violent palpitation pnnnp? Pealal according to Ges. § 55, 3). Strength of which the heart is the centre (xl. 13) has left him, and the light of his eyes, even of these (by attraction for WJVDa, since the light of the eyes is not contrasted with anything else), is not with him, but has become lost to him by weeping, watching, and fever. Those who love him and are friendly towards him have placed themselves far from his stroke (WJ the touch of God's hand of wrath), merely looking on (Obad. ver. 11), therefore, in a position hostile (2 Sam. xviii. 13) rather than friendly. TOD, far away, but within the range of vision, within sight, Gen. xxi. 16, Deut. xxxii. 52. The words ^hp} V7»y prnp, which introduce a pentastich into a Psalm that is terrastichic throughout, have the appearance of being a gloss or various reading: 1330 = prnp, 2 Kings ii. 7. His enemies, however, endeavour to take advantage of his fall and helplessness, in order to give him his final death-blow, ^i^l (with the p dageshed*) describes what they have planned in consequence of the position he is in. The substance of their words is nfafl, utter destruction (yid. v. 10); to this end it is fiiD"ip? deceit upon deceit, malice upon malice, that they unceasingly hatch with heart and mouth. In the consciousness of his sin he is obliged to be silent, and, renouncing all self-help, to abandon his cause to God. Consciousness of guilt and resignation close his lips, so that he is not able, nor does he wish, to refute the false charges of his enemies; he has no riirDin, counter-evidence wherewith to vindicate himself. It is not to be rendered: "just as one dumb opens not his mouth;" 3 is only a preposition, not a conjunction, and it is just here, in vers. 14, 152 that the manifest proofs in support of this are found.f as a conjunction, viz. xc. 5, cxxv. 1, Isa. liii. 7, lxi. 11, are invalid; the passage that seems most to favour it is Obad. ver. 16, but in this instance the expression is elliptical, fc^3 being equivalent to t& T^K3, like $b Isa. lxv. 1, = $}} 1BW. It is only i)03 (U<) that can be used as a conjunction; but 3 (t*J) is always a preposition in ancient Hebrew just as in
Syriac and Arabic (yid. Fleischer in the Hallische Allgem. Lit. Zeitschr. 1843, Bd. iv. S. 117 ff.). It is not until the mediaeval synagogal poetry (vid. Zunz, Synagogal-poesie des Mittelalters, S. 121, 381 f.) that it is admissible to use it as a conjunction (e.g. NVD3 when he had found), just as it also occurs in Himjaritic, according to Osiander's deciphering of the
Vers. 16-23. Become utterly useless in himself, he renounces all self-help, for (*3) he hopes in Jahve, who alone can help him. He waits for His answer, for (*a) he says, etc. — he waits for an answer, for the hearing of this his petition which is directed towards the glory of God, that God would not suffer his foes to triumph over him, nor strengthen them in their mercilessness and injustice. Ver. 186 appears also to stand under the government of the IS;* but, since in this case one would look for a Waw relat. and a different order of the words, ver. 18b is to be regarded as a subject clause: " who, when my foot totters, i.e. when my affliction changes to entire downfall, would magnify themselves against me." In ver. 18, *2 connects what follows with vli ttiD3 by way of confirmation: he is PV? Jtoj, ready for falling (xxxv. 15), he will, if God does not graciously interpose, assuredly fall headlong. The fourth *3 in ver. 19 is attached confirmatorily to ver. 186: his intense pain or sorrow is ever present to him, for he is obliged to confess his guilt, and this feeling of guilt is just the very sting of his pain. And whilst he in the consciousness of well-deserved punishment is sick unto death, his foes are numerous and withal vigorous and full of life. Instead of D**n, probably Ejn, as in xxxv. 19, lxix. 5, is to be read (Houbigant, Hitzig, Koster, Hupfeld, Ewald, and Olshausen). But even the LXX. read D^n; and the reading which is so old, although it does not very well suit WBSfjJ (instead of which one would look for D^VJfl), is still not without meaning: he looks upon himself, according to ver. 9, more as one dead than living; his foes, however, are E^?n? living, i.e. vigorous. The verb frequently has this pregnant meaning, and the adjective can also inscriptions. The verbal clause appended to the word to which this 3, instar, is prefixed is for the most part an attributive clause as above, but sometimes even a circumstantial clause (/JW-), as in xxxviii. 14; cf. Sur.
* The following are the constructions of JQ when a clause of more than one member follows it: (1) fut. and per/., the latter with the tone ol the per/, consec, e.g. Ex. xxxiv. 15 sq., or without it, e.g. xxviii. 1 (which see); (2) fut. and fut. as in ii. 12, Jer. li. 46. This construction is indispensable where it is intended to give special prominence to the subject notion or a secondary notion of the clause, e.g. Deut. xx. 6. In one instance JB is even followed (3) by the perf. and fut. consec.^ viz. 2 KiDgs ii. 1C.
have it. Just as the accentuation of the form 12D varies elsewhere out of pause, «H| here has the tone on the ultima, although it is not per/, consec* Ver. 21a is an apposition of the subject, which remains the same as in ver. 20. Instead of ♦riTj (Ges. § 61, rem. 2) the Keri is WFj, rad'phi (without any Makkeph following), or WJ, rdd°phi; cf. on this pronunciation, Ixxxvi. 2, xvi. 1, and with the ChetMb »Bm, the Chethib nSTO, xxvi. 2, also *WD, xxx. 4. By the "following of that which is good" David means more particularly that which is brought into exercise in relation to his present foes.f He closes in vers. 22 sq. with sighs for help. No lighting up of the darkness of wrath takes place. The fides supplex is not changed into fides triumphans. But the closing words, " O Lord, my salvation " (cf. li. 16), show where the repentance of Cain and that of David differ. True repentance has faith within itself, it despairs of itself, but not of God.
f In the Greek and Latin texts, likewise in all the JSthiopic and several Arabic texts, and in the Syriac Psalterium Medilanense, the following addition is found after ver. 21: Ce aperripsan me ton agapeton osi necron ebdelygmenon, Et projecerunt me dilectum tanquam mortuum abominatum (so the Psalt. Veronense). Theodoret refers it to Absalom's relation to David. The words uau uixpov tfilt'hv/p.ivoy are taken from Isa. xiv. 19.
4 My heart was hot within me, While I mused the fire burned — I spake with my tongue.
5 Make me to know, O Jahve, mine end, And the measure of my days how short it is; Oh that I might know, how frail I am!
6 Behold, Thou hast made my days as a handbreadth, And my lifetime is as nothing before Thee.
7 Only as a shadow doth man wander to and fro, Only for a breath do they make an uproar;
9 From all my transgressions rescue me, Make me not a reproach of the profane!
12 When Thou with rebukes dost chasten a man for iniquity, Thou makest his beauty melt away, like the damage of the
13 O hear my prayer, Jahve, And hearken to my cry! At my tears be not silent, For I am a guest with Thee,
In xxxviii. 14 the poet calls himself a dumb person, who opens not his mouth; this submissive, resigned keeping of silence he affirms of himself in the same words in xxxix. 3 also. This forms a prominent characteristic common to the two Psalms, which fully warranted their being placed together as a pair. There is, however, another Psalm, which is still more closely related to Ps. xxxix., viz. Ps. Ixii., which, together with Ps. iv., has a similar historical background. The author, in his dignity, is threatened by those who from being false friends have become open enemies, and who revel in the enjoyment of illegitimately acquired power and possessions. From his own experience, in the midst of which he commits his safety and his honour to God, he derives the general warnings, that to trust in riches is deceptive, and that power belongs alone to God the Avenger — two doctrines, in support of which the issue of the affair with Absalom was a forcible example. Thus it is with Ps. Ixii., and in like manner Ps. xxxix. also. Both Psalms bear the name of Jeduthun side by side with the name of David at their head; both describe the nothingness of everything human in the same language; both delight more than other Psalms in the use of the assuring, confident ^]N; both have!"6d twice; both coincide in some points with the Book of Job; the form of both Psalms, however, is so polished, transparent, and classic, that criticism is not authorized in assigning to this pair of Psalms any particular poet other than David. The reason of the redacteur not placing Ps. Ixii. immediately after Ps. xxxix. is to be found in the fact that Ps. Ixii. is an Elohim-Psalm, which could not stand in the midst of Jahve- Psalms.
To the inscribed n^r1, JWTO is added in this instance. The name is also written thus in Ixxvii. 1, 1 Chron. xvi. 38, Neh. xi. 17, and always with the Keri pmT, which, after the analogy of Jv^T, is the more easily pronouncible pointing (Ixii. 1). It is an offshoot of the form WIJ or H"P; cf. IM* and JV3B\ Jwsn and JWan. It is the name of one of David's three choir-masters or precentors — the third in conjunction with Asaph and Heman, 1 Chron. xvi. 41 sq., xxv. 1 sqq., 2 Chron. v. 12, xxxv. 15, and is, without doubt, the same person as |rPK, 1 Chron. ch. xv., a name which is changed into prnT after the arrangement in Gibeon, 1 Chron. ch. xvi. Consequently side by side with n¥3»5>, prni^ will be the name of the TOO himself, i.e. the name of the person to whom the song was handed over to be set to music. The fact that in two inscriptions (lxii. 1, lxxvii. 1) we read 7V instead of the 7 of prPT7, does not militate against this. By 7 Jeduthun is denoted as the person to whom the song was handed over for performance; and by 7V, as the person to whom the performance was assigned. The rendering: " to the director of the Jedithunites," adopted by Hitzig, is possible regarding the pniT as used as a generic name like pnK in 1 Chron. xii. 27, xxvii. 17; but the customary use of the 7 in inscriptions is against it.
The Psalm consists of four stanzas without any strophic symmetry. The first three are of only approximately the same compass, and the final smaller stanza has designedly the character of an epilogue.
Vers. 2-4. The poet relates how he has resolved to bear his own affliction silently in the face of the prosperity of the ungodly, but that his smart was so overpowering that he was compelled involuntarily to break his silence by loud complaint. The resolve follows the introductory WOK in cohortatives. He meant to take heed to his ways, i.e. his manner of thought and action, in all their extent, lest he should sin with his tongue, viz. by any murmuring complaint concerning his own misfortune, when he saw the prosperity of the ungodly. He was resolved to keep (i.e, cause invariably to press) a bridling (cf. on the form, Gen. xxx. 37), or a bridle (capistrum), upon his mouth, so long as he should see the ungodly continuing and sinning in the fulness of his strength, instead of his speedy ruin which one ought to expect. Then he was struck dumb fiJOVij in silence, i.e. as in lxii. 2, cf. Lam. iii. 26, in resigned submission, he was silent 3ittD? turned away from (vid. xxviii. 1, 1 Sam. vii. 8, and frequently) prosperity, i.e. from that in which he saw the evil-doer rejoicing; he sought to silence for ever the perplexing contradiction between this prosperity and the righteousness of God. But this self-imposed silence gave intensity to the repressed pain, and this was thereby "»3yj, stirred up, excited, aroused; the inward heat became, in consequence of restrained complaint, all the more intense (Jer. xx. 9): " and while I was musing a fire was kindled," i.e. the thoughts and emotions rubbing against one another produced a blazing fire, viz. of irrepressible vexation, and the end of it was: " I spake with my tongue," unable any longer to keep in my pain. What now follows is not what was said by the poet when in this condition. On the contrary, he turns away from his purpose, which has been proved to be impracticable, to God Himself with the prayer that lie would teach him calm submission.
Vers. 5-7. He prays God to set the transitoriness of earthly life clearly before his eyes (cf. xc. 12); for if life is only a few spans long, then even his suffering and the prosperity of the ungodly will last only a short time. Oh that God would then grant him to know his end (Job vi. 11), i.e. the end of his life, which is at the same time the end of his affliction, and the measure of his days, how it is with this (no, interrog. extenaantis, as in viii. 5), in order that he may become fully conscious of his own frailty! Hupfeld corrects the text to ^« l7n"nD after the analogy of lxxxix. 48, because bnn cannot signify "frail." But Tjn signifies that which leaves off and ceases, and consequently in this connection, finite and transitory or frail, no, quam, in connection with an adjective, as in viii. 2, xxxi. 20, xxxvi. 8, lxvi. 3, cxxxiii. 1. By ft (the customary form of introducing the propositio minor, Lev. x. 18, xxv. 20) the preceding petition is supported. God has, indeed, made the days, i.e. the lifetime, of a man ninQD, handbreadths, i.e. He has allotted to it only the short extension of a few handbreadths (cf. EW, a few days, e.g. Isa. Ixv. 20), of which nine make a yard (cf. irrj^vio^ yfiovos in Mimnermus, and 1 Sam. xx. 3); the duration of human life (on ^bn vid. xvii. 14) is as a vanishing nothing before God the eternal One. The particle ^]N is originally affirmative, and starting from that sense becomes restrictive; just as PI is originally restrictive and then affirmative. Sometimes also, as is commonly the case with £N, the affirmative signification passes over into the adversative (cf. verum, verum enim vero). In our passage, agreeably to the restrictive sense, it is to be explained thus: nothing but mere nothingness (cf. xlv. 14, Jas. i. 2) is every man 32tt? standing firmly, i.e. though he stand never so firmly, though he be never so stedfast (Zech. xi. 16). Here the music rises to tones of bitter lament, and the song continues in ver. 7 with the same theme. D^, belonging to the same root as?>\ signifies a shadow-outline, an image; the 3 is, as in xxxv. 2, Beth essentia: he walks about consisting only of an unsubstantial shadow.
Only p^\jj breath-like, or after the manner of breath (cxliv. 4), from empty, vain motives and with vain results, do they make a disturbance (pausal fut. energicum, as in xxxvi. 8); and he who restlessly and noisily exerts himself knows not who will suddenly snatch together, i.e. take altogether greedily to himself, the many things that he heaps up ("OV, as in Job xxvii. 16); cf. Isa. xxxiii. 4, and on — dm = avrd, Lev. xv. 10 (in connection with which EPlpTffi JvK, cf. Isa. xlii. 16, is in the mind of the speaker).
Vers. 8-12. It is customary to begin a distinct turningpoint of a discourse with AW: and now, i.e. in connection with this nothingness or vanity of a life which is so full of suffering and unrest, what am I to hope, quid sperem (concerning the perfect, vid. on xi. 3)? The answer to this question which he himself throws out is, that Jahve is the goal of his waiting or hoping. It might appear strange that the poet is willing to make the brevity of human life a reason for being calm, and a ground of comfort. But here we have the explanation. Although not expressly assured of a future life of blessedness, his faith, even in the midst of death, lays hold on Jahve as the Living One and as the God of the living. It is just this which is so heroic in the Old Testament faith, that in the midst of the riddles of the present, and in the face of the future which is lost in dismal night, it casts itself unreservedly into the arms of God. While, however, sin is the root of all evil, the poet prays in yer. 9a before all else, that God would remove from him all the transgressions by which he has fully incurred his affliction; and while, given over to the consequences of his sin, he would become, not only to his own dishonour but also to the dishonour of God, a derision to the unbelieving, he prays in ver. 95 that God would not permit it to come to this. 73, ver. 9a, has Mercha, and is consequently, as in xxxv. 10, to be read with a (not tf), since an accent can never be placed by Kametz chatuph. Concerning?3J, ver. 93, see on xiv. 1. As to the rest he is silent and calm; for God is the author, viz. of his affliction ('"W, used just as absolutely as in xxii. 32, xxxvii. 5, lii. 11, Lam. i. 21). Without ceasing still to regard intently the prosperity of the ungodly, he recognises the hand of God in his affliction, and knows that he has not merited anything better. But it is permitted to him to pray that God would suffer mercy to take the place of right.!VH is the name he gives to his affliction, as in xxxviii. 12, as being a stroke (blow) of divine wrath; ^"V rnift, as a quarrel into which God's hand has fallen with him; and by ^N, with the almighty (punishing) hand of God, he contrasts himself the feeble one, to whom, if the present state of things continues, ruin is certain. In ver. 12 he puts his own personal experience into the form of a general maxim: when with rebukes (rrirain from nroin, collateral form writh nnain, niroin) Thou chastenest a man on account of iniquity (per/, conditionale), Thou makest his pleasantness (Isa. liii. 3), i.e. his bodily beauty (Job xxxiii. 21), to melt away, moulder away (DDJffi, fut. apoc. from ^Dp?, to cause to melt, vi. 7), like the moth (Hos. v. 12), so that it falls away, as a moth-eaten garment falls into rags. Thus do all men become mere nothing. They are sinful and perishing. The thought expressed in ver. 6c is here repeated as a refrain. The music again strikes in here, as there.
Vers. 13, 14. Finally, the poet renews the prayer for an alleviation of his sufferings, basing it upon the shortness of this earthly pilgrimage. The urgent "TM?^ is here fuller toned, being n^DBf.* Side by side with the language of prayer, tears even appear here as prayer that is intelligible to God; for when the gates of prayer seem to be closed, the gates of tears still remain unclosed (*6y:j tib niyDT "nyis*), B. BeracJwth 32b. As a reason for his being heard, David appeals to the instability and finite character of this earthly life in language which we also hear from his own lips in 1 Chron. xxix. 15. "U is the stranger who travels about and sojourns as a guest in a country that is not his native land; 2K>in is a sojourner, or one enjoying the protection of the laws, who, without possessing any hereditary title, has settled down there, and to whom a settlement is allotted by sufferance. The earth is God's; that which may be said of the Holy Land (Lev. xxv. 23) may be said of the
* So Heidenheim and Baer, following Abulwalid, Efodi, and Mose ha- Nakdan. The Masoretic observation Ppn pop Tvbt "only here with Kametz chateph" is found appended in codices. This Chateph kametz is euphonic, as in nnp!?, Gen. ii. 23, and in many other instances that are obliterated in our editions, vid. Abulwalid, riDpin 'D, P- 198, where even VintDD = VffittDi kxxix. 45, is cited among these examples (Ges. § 10, 2 rem.)
whole earth; man has no right upon it, he only remains there so long as God permits him. 'ijtaK-paa glances back even to the patriarchs (Gen. xlvii. 9, cf. xxiii. 4). Israel is, it is true, at the present time in possession of a fixed dwelling-place, but only as the gift of his God, and for each individual it is only during his life, which is but a handbreadth long. May Jahve, then — so David prays — turn away His look of wrath from him, in order that he may shine forth, become cheerful or clear up, before he goes hence and it is too late. V^\} is imper. apoc. ffiph. for nytyn (in the signification of Kal), and ought, according to the form ^n, properly to be Vtin; it is, however, pointed just like the imper. Hiph. of VW in Isa. vi. 10, without any necessity for explaining it as meaning obline (oculos tuos) = connive (Abulwalid), which would be an expression unworthy of God. It is on the contrary to be rendered: look away from me; on which compare Job vii. 19, xiv. 6; on ny?3K cf. ib. x. 20, ix. 27; on ^ tnoa, ib. x. 21; on fKj, ib. vii. 8, 21. The close of the Psalm, consequently, is re-echoed in many ways in the Book of Job. The Book of Job is occupied with the same riddle as that with which this Psalm is occupied. But in the solution of it, it advances a step further. David does not know how to disassociate in his mind sin and suffering, and wrath and suffering. The Book of Job, on the contrary, thinks of suffering and love together; and in the truth that suffering also, even though it be unto death, must serve the highest interests of those who love God, it possesses a satisfactory solution.
And He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
4 And put into my mouth a new song, praise unto our God — Many see it and fear, and put their trust in Jahve.
5 Blessed is the man who maketh Jahve his trust,
And doth not turn to the proud and to lying apostates. (> Much hast Thou done, Jahve, my God, in Thy wonders and Thy thoughts on our behalf;
7 Sacrifice and meat-offering dost Thou not desire, Ears hast Thou digged for me,
Burnt-offering and sin-offering dost Thou not require.
9 To do Thy will, my God, do I desire, And Thy Law is in my inward part."
10 I brought glad tidings of righteousness in the great con- Lo, I closed not my lips; [gregation, Jahve, Thou, even Thou knowrest it.
11 Thy righteousness did I not hide within my heart, Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation did I declare,
from me, Let Thy loving-kindness and Thy truth continually protect me.
Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me and I am not able to see; They are more numerous than the hairs of my head, And my heart hath failed me.
14 Be pleased, O Jahve, to deliver me; Jahve, to my help make haste!
my soul to destroy it; Let those fall back and be put to shame who desire my misfortune.
Ps. xxxix. is followed by Ps. xl., because the language of thanksgiving with which it opens is, as it were, the echo of the language of prayer contained in the former. If Ps. xl. was composed by David, and not rather by Jeremiah — a question which can only be decided by including Ps. Ixix. (which see) in the same investigation — it belongs to the number of those Psalms which were composed between Gibea of Saul and Ziklag. The mention of the roll of the book in ver. 8 harmonizes with the retrospective references to the Tora, which abound in the Psalms belonging to the time of Saul. And to this we may add the vow to praise Jahve ^JiJ-i, vers. 10 sq., cf. xxii. 26, xxxv. 18; the expression, " more in number than the hairs of my head," ver. 13, cf. Ixix. 5; the wish WJPj ver. 12, cf. xxv. 21; the mocking nan nan, ver. 16, cf. xxxv. 21, 25; and much besides, on which vid. my Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, S. 457 [transl. vol. ii. p. 149]. The second half has an independent form in Ps. lxx. It is far better adapted to form an independent Psalm than the first half, which merely looks back into the past, and for this very reason contains no prayer.
The long lines, more in keeping with the style of prayer than of song, which alternate with disproportionately shorter ones, are characteristic of this Psalm. If with these long lines we associate a few others, which are likewise more or less distinctly indicated, then the Psalm can be easily divided into seven six-line strophes.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. x. 5-10, vers. 7-9 of this Psalm are, by following the LXX., taken as the language of the Christ at His coming into the world. There can be no doubt in this particular instance that, as we look to the second part of the Psalm, this rendering is brought about typically. The words of David, the anointed one, but only now on the way to the throne, are so moulded by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of prophecy, that they sound at the same time like the words of the second David, passing through suffering to glory, whose offering up of Himself is the close of the animal sacrifices, and whose person and work are the very kernel and star of the roll of the Law. We are not thereby compelled to understand the whole Psalm as typically predictive. It again descends from the typically prophetic height to which it has risen even from ver. 10 onwards; and from ver. 13 onwards, the typically prophetic strain which still lingers in vers. 10 and 11 has entirely ceased.
Vers. 1-4. David, whom, though not without some hesitation, we regard as the author, now finds himself in a situation in which, on the one hand, he has just been rescued from danger, and, on the other, is still exposed to peril. Under such circumstances praise rightly occupies the first place, as in general, according to 1. 23, gratitude is the way to salvation. His hope, although n?#9B rbr\)r\ (Prov. xiii. 12), has not deceived him; he is rescued, and can now again sing a new song of thanksgiving, an example for others, strengthening their trust. WJ? rnj^ I waited with constancy and perseverance. niir is the accusative as in xxv. 5, cxxx. 5, and not the vocative as in xxxix. 8. faTK is to be supplied in thought to DJ, although after the analogy of xvii. 6, xxxi. 3, one might have looked for the Hiph. B« instead of the KaL $*& ""3 does not mean a pit of roaring (of water), since ptf£> standing alone (see, on the other hand, Ixv. 8, Isa. xvii. 12 sq.) has not this meaning; and, moreover, u rushing, roaring " (Hengstenberg), tumultuous waters of a pit or a cistern does not furnish any idea that is true to nature; neither does it mean a pit of falling in, since HKK> does not exhibit the signification deorsum labi; but the meaning is: a pit of devastation, of destruction, of ruin (Jer. xxv. 31, xlvi. 17), vid. supra on xxxv. 8. Another figure is " mire of the marsh " ({£ found only here and in lxix. 3), i.e. water, in the miry bottom of which one can find no firm footing— a combination like B$p?», Zech. x. 1, ■©JTWIK, Dan. xii. 2, explained in the Mishna, Mikvaoth ix. 2, by t^B nvrnn (mire of the cisterns). Taking them out of this, Jahve placed his feet upon a rock, established his footsteps, i.e. removed him from the danger which surrounded him, and gave him firm ground under his feet. The high rock and the firm footsteps are the opposites of the deep pit and the yielding miry bottom. This deliverance afforded him new matter for thanksgiving (cf. xxxiii. 3), and became in his mouth " praise to our God;" for the deliverance of the chosen king is an act of the God of Israel on behalf of His chosen people. The futures in ver. 4b (with an alliteration similar to lii. 8) indicate, by their being thus cumulative, that they are intended of the present and of that which still continues in the future.
Vers. 5, 6. He esteems him happy who puts his trust (iHD3D? with a latent Dagesh, as, according to Kimchi, also in lxxi. 5, Job xxxi. 24, Jer. xvii. 7) in Jahve, the God who has already made Himself glorious in Israel by innumerable wonderful works. Jer. xvii. 7 is an echo of this ^^. Ps. lii. 9 (cf. xci. 9) shows how Davidic is the language. The expression is designedly not tf^ri, but ^r\y which is better adapted to designate the man as being tempted to put trust in himself. Q^(J1 from 3rn (not from api) are the impetuous or violent, who in their arrogance cast down everything. M '■Biy, "turners aside of falsehood" (ptiP = nBE>? cf. ci. 3), is the expression for apostates who yield to falsehood instead of to the truth: to take M as accusative of the aim is forbidden by the status construct.; to take it as the genitive in the sense of the accusative of the object (like Dh wfy Prov. ii. 7) is impracticable, because ttlb> (ptiw) does not admit of a transitive sense; 3D is, therefore, genit. qualit. like |JX in lix. 6. This second strophe contains two practical applications of that which the writer himself has experienced. From this point of view, he who trusts in God appears to the poet to be supremely happy, and a distant view of God's gracious rule over His own people opens up before him. rri&oa: are the thoughts of God realized, and ni3Pn» those that are being realized, as in Jer. Ii. 29, Isa. Iv. 8 sq. rtSH is an accusative of the predicate: in great number, in rich abundance; HvK, u for us," as e.g. in Jer. xv. 1 (Ew. § 217, c). His doings towards Israel were from of old a fulness of wondrous deeds and plans of deliverance, which was ever realizing and revealing itself. There is not TJ^^S, a possibility of comparison with Thee, ov/c eari (Ew. § 321, c) laovv ri aoi — ^}V as in lxxxix. 7, Isa. xl. 18 — they are too powerful (DVV of a powerful sum, as in Ixix. 5, cxxxix. 17, cf. Jer. v. 6) for one to enumerate. According to Rosenmiiller, Stier, and Hupfeld, yOH *py pS even affirms the same thing in other words: it is not possible to lay them forth to Thee (before Thee); but that man should u lay forth" (Symmachus enQkaQai) before God His marvellous works and His thoughts of salvation, is an unbecoming conception. The cohortative forms, which follow, rnr]K\ nTatf, admit of being taken as a protasis to what follows, after the analogy of Job xix. 18, xvi. 6, xxx. 26, Ps. cxxxix. 8: if I wish to declare them and speak them forth, they are too powerful (numerous) to be enumerated (Ges. § 128, 1, d). The accentuation, however, renders it as a parenthetical clause: I would (as in li. 18, lv. 13, Job vi. 10) declare them and speak them forth. He would do this, but because God, in the fulness of His wondrous works and thoughts of salvation, is absolutely without an equal, he is obliged to leave it undone — they are so powerful (numerous) that the enumeration of them falls far short of their powerful fulness. The words alioqui pronunciarem et eloquerer have the character of a parenthesis, and, as ver. 7 shows, this accords with the style of this Psalm. Vers. 7-9. The connection of the thoughts is clear: great and manifold are the proofs of Thy loving-kindness, how am I to render thanks to Thee for them % To this question he first of all gives a negative answer: God delights not in outward sacrifices. The sacrifices are named in a twofold way: (a) according to the material of which they consist, viz. rat, the animal sacrifice, and HTOD, the meal or meat offering (including the SJD3, the wine or drink offering, which is the inalienable accessory of the accompanying mincha); (o) according to their purpose, in accordance with which they bring about either the turning towards one of the good pleasure of God, as more especially in the case of the njiy? or, as more especially in the case of the riNttn (in this passage n??!!!), the turning away of the divine displeasure. The fact of the IT?? and <W standing first, has, moreover, its special reason in the fact that rut specially designates the shelamim offerings, and to the province of these latter belongs tlie thank-offering proper, viz. the toda-shelamim offering; and that rw as the sacrifice of adoration (jrpoo-evyfi), which is also always a general thanksgiving (ev^apiarla), is most natural, side by side with the shelamim, to him who gives thanks. When it is said of God, that He does not delight in and desire such non-personal sacrifices, there is as little intention as in Jer. vii. 22 (cf. Amos v. 21 sqq.) of saying that the sacrificial Tora is not of divine origin, but that the true, essential will of God is not directed to such sacrifices.
Between these synonymous utterances in ver. la and 1c stands the clause 7 rp"i3 D^TK. In connection with this position it is natural, with Rosenmuller, Gesenius, De Wette, and Stier, to explain it "ears hast Thou pierced for me" = this hast Thou engraven upon my mind as a revelation, this disclosure hast Thou imparted to me. But, although nn3? to dig, is even admissible in the sense of digging through, piercing (yid. on xxii. 17), there are two considerations against this interpretation, viz.: (1) that then one would rather look for |Ttf instead of D^TK after the analogy of the phrases |?K TO, jTK vyn, and |TX nr)2? since the inner sense, in which the external organs of sense, with their functions, have their basis of unity, is commonly denoted by the use of the singular; (2) that according to the syntax, £?££, rp"}3, and £?£K* are all placed on the same level. Thus, therefore, it is with this very ^ rVH3 DSJTX that the answer is intended, in its positive form, to begin; and the primary passage, 1 Sam. xv. 22, favours this view: " Hath Jahve delight in whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in one's obeying the voice of Jahve? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to attend better than the fat of rams!" The assertion of David is the echo of this assertion of Samuel, by which the sentence of death was pronounced upon the kingship of Saul, and consequently the way of that which is well-pleasing to God was traced out for the future kingship of David. God — says David — desires not outward sacrifices, but obedience; ears hath He digged for me, i.e. formed the sense of hearing, bestowed the faculty of hearing, and given therewith the instruction to obey.* The idea is not that God has given
* There is a similar expression in the Tamul Kural, Graul's translation, S. 63, No. 418: " An ear, that was not hollowed out by hearing, has, even him oars In order to hear that disclosure concerning the true will of God (Hupfeld), but, in general, to hear the word of God, and to obey that which is heard. God desires not sacrificea but hearing oars, and consequently the submission of the person himself in willing obedience. To interpret it "Thou hast appropriated me to Thyself E^iy *TO^," after Ex. xxi. 6 Dout. xv. 17, would not be out of harmony with the context; but it is at once shut out by the fact that the word is not ftfc, but VjTK. Concerning the generalizing rendering of the LXX., acojua 8e KaTTjprlaco /jlov, following which Apollinaris renders it avrap ifiol ftpOTer)? Te/cTTjvao adpKa yeveOXTjs, and the Italic (which is also retained in the Psalterium Bomanum), corpus autem perfecisti mihi; vide on Heb. x. 5, Commentary, S. 460 sq. [transl. vol. ii. p. 153].
The WOX 1?, which follows, now introduces ihe expression of the obedience, with which he placed himself at the service of God, when he became conscious of what God's special will concerning him was. With reference to the fact that obedience and not sacrifice has become known to him as the will and requirement of God, he has said: u Lo, I come," etc. By the words " Lo, I come," the servant places himself at the call of his master, Num. xxii. 38, 2 Sam. xix. 21. It is not likely that the words vy 31D3 "ISD HOT3 then form a parenthesis, since ver. 9 is not a continuation of that " Lo, I come," but a new sentence. We take the Beth, as in lxvi. 13, as the Beth of the accompaniment; the roll of the book is the Tora, and more especially Deuteronomy, written upon skins and rolled up together, which according to the law touching the king (Deut. xvii. 14-20) was to be the vade-mecum of the king of Israel. And vjf cannot, as synonymous with the following ^3, signify as much as " written upon my heart," as De Wette and Thenius render it — a meaning which, as Maurer has already correctly replied, vj obtains elsewhere by means of a conception that is altogether inadmissible in this instance. On the contrary, this preposition here, as in 2 Kings xxii. 13, denotes the object of the contents; for 7V 2ri3 signifies to write anything concerning any one, so that he is the subject one has specially in view (e.g.
if hearing, the manner of not hearing." The " hollowing out" meaning ia this passage an opening of the inward sense of hearing by instruction.
of tne judicial decision recorded in writing, Job xiii. 26)» Because Jahve before all else requires obedience to His will, David comes with the document of this will, the Tora, wrhich prescribes to him, as a man, and more especially as the king, the right course of conduct. Thus presenting himself to the God of revelation, he can say in ver. 9, that willing obedience to God's Law is his delight, as he then knows that the written Law is written even in his heart, or, as the still stronger expression used here is, in his bowels. The principal form of W does not occur in the Old Testament; it was D^p (from yp, HVD, or even W), according to current Jewish pronunciation D$» (which Kimchi explains as dual); and the word properly means (vid. on Isa. xlviii. 19) the soft parts of the body, which even elsewhere, like B^rn? which is synonymous according to its original meaning, appear pre-eminently as the seat of sympathy, but also of fear and of pain. This is the only passage in which it occurs as the locality of a mental acquisition, but also with the associated notion of loving acceptance and cherishing protection (cf. the Syriac phrase KsyD Ul DD, som begau m'ajo, to shut up in the heart = to love). That the Tora is to be written upon the tables of the heart is even indicated by the Deuteronomion, Deut. vi. 6, cf. Pro v. iii. 3, vii. 3. This reception of the Tora into the inward parts among the people hitherto estranged from God is, according to Jer. xxxi. 33, the characteristic of the new covenant. But even in the Old Testament there is among the masses of Israel " a people with My law in their heart" (Isa. li. 7), and even in the Old Testament, u he who hath the law of his God in his heart" is called righteous (Ps. xxxvii. 31). As such an one who has the Tora within him, not merely beside him, David presents himself on the way to the throne of God.
Vers. 10, 11. The self-presentation before Jahve, introduced by WOK TN, extends from nan to *|B; consequently W]fc>3 joins on to WEN, and the fcwK which stands in the midst of perfects describes the synchronous past. The whole is a retrospect. "ti?3, *, (root BO), starting from its sensible primary signification to scrape off, scratch off, rub smooth, means: tc smooth any one {glatten), Engl, to gladden one, i.e. vultum ejus diducere, to make him joyful and glad, more especially to cheer one by good news (e.g. basharahu or bashsharuhu bi-mauludin, he has cheered him by the intelligence of the birth of a son), in Hebrew directly equivalent to evayye\i£eiv (evayyeX^eaOac). lie has proclaimed to all Israel the evangel of Jahve' s justifying and gracious rule, which only changes into retribution towards those who despise His love; and he can appeal to the Omniscient One (Jer. xv. 15), that neither through fear of men, nor through shame and indolence, has he restrained his lips from confessing Him. God's conduct, in accordance with the prescribed order of redemption, is as a matter of fact called PTC, and as an attribute of His holy love, njTO; just as n^DS is His faithfulness which fulfils the promises made and which does not suffer hope to be put to shame, and njw'ri is His salvation as it is manifested in facts. This rich matter for the preaching of the evangel, which may be comprehended in the two words HDKJ IDn, the Alpha and Omega of God's selfattestation in the course of the redemptive history, he has not allowed to slumber as a dead, unfruitful knowledge hidden deep down in his heart. The new song which Jahve put into his mouth, he has also really sung. Thus far we have the first part of the song, which renders thanks for past mercies.
Vers. 12, 13. Now, in accordance with the true art of prayer, petition developes itself out of thanksgiving. The two *03, ver. 10 and here, stand in a reciprocal relation to one another: he refrained not his lips; therefore, on His part, let not Jahve withhold His tender mercies so that they should not be exercised towards him (^BO). There is just the same correlation of mercy and truth in ver. 11 and here: he wishes continually to stand under the protection of these two saving powers, which he has gratefully proclaimed before all Israel. With *3, ver. 13, he bases these desires upon his own urgent need, nijn are the evils, which come even upon the righteous (xxxiv. 20) as trials or as chastenings. vi? ^SBK is a more circumstantial form of expression instead of "^ssx, xviii. 5. His misdeeds have taken hold upon him, i.e. overtaken him in their consequences (?&}, as in Deut. xxviii. 15, 4o; cf. TO, Prov. v. 22), inasmuch as they have changed into decrees of suffering. He cannot see, because he is closely encompassed on all sides, and a free and open view is thereby altogether taken from him (the expression is used elsewhere of loss of sight, 1 Sam. iii. 2, iv. 15, 1 Kings xiv. 4). The interpretation adopted by Hupfeld and Hitzig: I am not able to survey, viz. their number, puts into the expression more than it really expresses in the common usage of the language. His heart, i.e. the power of vital consistence, has forsaken him, he is disconcerted, dejected, as it were driven to despair (xxxviii. 11). This feeling of the misery of sin is not opposed to the date of the Psalm being assigned to the time of Saul, vid. on xxxi. 11. Vers. 14—16. In the midst of such sufferings, which, the longer they last, discover him all the more to himself as a sinner, he prays for speedy help. The cry for help in ver. 14 turns with '"TCp towards the will of God; for this is the root of all things. As to the rest, it resembles xxii. 20 (xxxviii. 23). The persecuted one wishes that the purpose of his deadly foes may as it were rebound against the protection of God and miserably miscarry. FinteDp, ad abripiendam earn (with Dagesh in the D according to Ges. § 45, £, Ew. § 245, a, and not as Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 1235, states, aspirated*), is added to *6?M ^i??P by way of explanation and definiteness. TOB* from Dot?, to become torpid, here used of outward and inward paralysis, which is the result of overpowering and as it were bewitching surprise or fright, and is called by the Arabs rob or rdb (paralysis through terror) [cf. Job, i. 322, note]. An?V following upon X&& looks at first sight as though it introduced the object and reason of this fright; it is therefore not: as a reward, in consequence of their infamy, which would not be "2,\>V"?V, but merely the accusative 2pV (Isa. v. 23, Arabic i^^jjs.), it is rather: on account of the reward (xix. 12) of their disgrace (cf., as belonging to the same period, cix. 29, xxxv. 26), i.e, of the reward which consists in their being put to shame (Hitzig). v as in iii. 3, xli. 6: with reference to me. nxn nxn (Aquila, da an, avry (Tir/xpTio-dfievo*;, as Eusebius says, ovtws zyovari rfj 'Efipaito) <fio)vr}) is an exclamation of sarcastic delight, which finds its satisfaction in another's misfortune (xxxv. 25).
Vers. 17, 18. On ver. 17 compare xxxv. 27. David wishes, as he does in that passage, that the pious may most heartily rejoice in God, the goal of their longing; and that on account of the salvation that has become manifest, which they love (2 Tim. iv. 8), they may continually say: Let Jahve become great, i.e. be magnified or celebrated with praises! In ver. 18 with ^Sl he comes back to his own present helpless state, but only in order to contrast with it the confession of confident hope. True he is [tow *}J (as in cix. 22, lxxxvi. 1, cf. xxv. 16), but He who ruleth over all will care for him: Dominas solicitus erit pro me (Jerome). 3BTI in the same sense in which in ver. 6 the mnt/TiD, i.e. God's thoughts of salvation, is conceived of (cf. the corresponding North-Palestinian expression in Jonah i. 6). A sigh for speedy help ("inxrrpx, as in Dan. ix. 19 with a transition of the merely tone-long Tsere into a pausal Pathachj and here in connection with a preceding closed syllable, Olshausen, § 91, d, under the accompanying influence of two final letters which incline towards the a sound) closes this second part of the Psalm. The first part is nothing but thanksgiving, the second is exclusively prayer.
2 BLESSED is he who regardeth the afflicted, In the day of evil Jahve will deliver him.
3 Jahve will protect him and preserve him, That he may be pronounced happy in the land;
5 As for me, I say: Jahve, be merciful unto me, O heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.
" When will he die and his name perish I!"
7 And if one cometh to see me, he speaketh deceit, His heart gathereth that which is groundless to itself, He goeth abroad, he telleth it.
10 Even the man of my friendship in whom I trusted, Who did eat of my bread, lifteth his heel high against me.
11 And Thou, Jahve, be merciful unto me and raise me up, Then will I requite them.
13 And as for me, in mine integrity dost Thou uphold me, And dost set me before Thine eyes for ever.
14 Blessed be Jahve the God of Israel from ever-
After a Psalm with ^lEfc follows one beginning with *nw$; so that two Psalms with "n$K close the First Book of the Psalms, which begins with "nK>K. Ps. xli. belongs to the time of the persecution by Absalom. Just as the Jahve-Psalm xxxix. forms with the Elohim-Psalm lxii. a coherent pair belonging to this time, so does also the Jahve-Psalm xli. with the Elohim- Psalm lv. These two Psalms have this feature in common, viz. that the complaint concerning the Psalmist's foes dwells with especial sadness upon some faithless bosom-friend. In Ps. xli. David celebrates the blessing which accompanies sincere sympathy, and depicts the hostility and falseness which he himself experiences in his sickness, and more especially from a very near friend. It is the very same person of whom he complains in Ps. lv., that he causes him the deepest sorrow — no ideal character, as Hengstenberg asserts; for these Psalms have the most distinctly impressed individual physiognomy of the writer's own times. In Ps. lv. the poet wishes for the wings of a dove, in order that, far away from the city, he might seek for himself a safe spot in the wilderness; for in the city deceit, violence, and mischief prevail, and the storm of a wide-spread conspiracyis gathering, in which he himself sees his most deeply attached friend involved. We need only supplement what is narrated in the second Book of Samuel by a few features drawn from these two Psalms, and these Psalms immediately find a satisfactory explanation in our regarding the time of their composition as the period of Absalom's rebellion. The faithless friend is that Ahithophel whose counsels, according to 2 Sam. xvi. 23, had with David almost the appearance of being divine oracles. Absalom was to take advantage of a lingering sickness under which his father suffered, in order to play the part of the careful and impartial judge and to steal the heart of the men of Israel. Ahithophel supported him in this project, and in four years after Absalom's reconciliation with his father the end was gained. These four years were for David a time of increasing care and anxiety; for that which was planned cannot have remained altogether concealed from him, but he had neither the courage nor the strength to smother the evil undertaking in the germ. His love for Absalom held him back; the consciousness of his own deed of shame and bloodshed, which was now notorious, deprived him of the alacrity essential to energetic interference; and the consciousness of the divine judgments, which ought to follow his sin, must have determined him to leave the issue of the conspiracy that was maturing under his very eyes entirely to the compassion of his God, without taking any action in the matter himself. From the standpoint of such considerations, Ps. xli. and lv. lose every look of being alien to the history of David and his times. One confirmation of their Davidic origin is the kindred contents of Ps. xxviii.
Jesus explains (John xiii. 18) that in the act of Judas Iscariot Ps. xli. 10 is fulfilled, 6 rpcoycov fier ifMov rbv aprov, iirrjpev eV ifie Tr\v irrepvav avrov (not following the LXX.), and John xvii. 12, Acts i. 16 assume in a general way that the deed and fate of the traitor are foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures, viz. in the Davidic Psalms of the time of
Absalom — the treachery and the end of Ahithophel belong to the most prominent typical features of David's affliction in this second stage of persecution (vid. Hofmann, Weissagung und ErfiiUung, ii. 122).
Vers. 2-4. The Psalm opens by celebrating the lot, so rich in promises, of the sympathetic man. 71 is a general designation of the poor {e.g. Ex. xxx. 15), of the sick and weakly (Gen xli. 19), of the sick in mind (2 Sam. xiii. 4), and of that which outwardly or inwardly is tottering and consequently weak, frail. To show sympathising attention, thoughtful consideration towards such an one (/K ^?$n as in Neh. viii. 13, cf. pV Prov. xvii. 20) has many promises. The verb njn, which elsewhere even means to call to life again (lxxi. 20), in this instance side by side with preserving, viz. from destruction, has the signification of preserving life or prolonging life (as in xxx. 4, xxii. 30). The Pual "iBW signifies to be made happy (Prov. iii. 18), but also declaratively: to be pronounced happy (Isa. ix. 15); here, on account of the p.*J? that stands with it, it is the latter. The Chethib "i#N* sets forth as an independent promise that which the Keri "IBM joins on to what has gone before as a consequence.?$, ver. 3c (cf. xxxiv. 6 and frequently), expresses a negative with full sympathy in the utterance. $333?H3 as in xxvii. 12. The supporting in ver. 4a is a keeping erect, which stops or arrests the man who is sinking down into death and the grave. *W (= davj, similar form to SD$, ^D? but wanting in the syllable before the tone) means sickness. If ver. 4a is understood of the supporting of the head after the manner of one who waits upon the sick (cf. Cant. ii. 6), then ver. 4 must, with Mendelssohn and others, be understood of the making of the couch or bed. But what then is meant by the word bit 23$D is a sick-bed in Ex. xxi. 18 in the sense of being bedridden; and rosn (cf, xxx# 12) is a changing of it into convalescence. By UD$D"^ is not meant the constant lying down of such an one, but the affliction that casts him down, in all its extent. This Jahve turns or changes, so often as such an one is taken ill (i yTD, at his falling sick, parallel with Wl uny*?]}). He gives a complete turn to the " sick-bed " towards recovery, so that not a vestige of the sickness remains behind.
V.rs. 5-7. He, the poet, is treated in his distress of soul in a manner totally different from the way just described which is so rich in promises of blessing. He is himself just such a?1, towards whom one ought to manifest sympathising consideration and interest. But, whilst he is addressing God in the language of penitential prayer for mercy and help, his enemies speak evil to him, i.e. with respect to him, wishing that lie might die and that his name might perish, nssi is as an exception Milra, inasmuch as K draws the tone to its own syllable; cf. on the other hand njjn, Isa. xxxJi# n (Hitzig). "TiD (prop, extension, length of time) has only become a Semitic interrogative in the signification quando by the omission of the interrogative *K (common Arabic in its full form,JU^, gmata).
wenn (if) and wann (when). In w "DT two Rebias come together, the first of which has the greater value as a distinctive, according to the rule laid down in Baer's Psalterium, p. xiv. Consequently, following the accents, it must not be rendered: " falsehood doth his heart speak." The LXX., Vulgate, and Targum have discerned the correct combination of the words. Besides, the accentuation, as is seen from the Targum and expositors, proceeds on the assumption that to? is equivalent to 1373. But why may it not be the subject-notion? " His heart gathereth " is an expression of the activity of his mind and feelings, concealed beneath a feigned and friendly outward bearing. The asyndeton portrays the despatch with which he seeks to make the material for slander, which has been gathered together, public both in the city and in the country.
Vers. 8-10. Continuation of the description of the conduct of the enemies and of the false friend. vy?1}*?, as in 2 Sam. xii. 19, to whisper to one another, or to whisper among themselves; the Hithpa, sometimes (cf. Gen. xlii. 1) has a reciprocal meaning like the Niphal. The intelligence brought out by hypocritical visitors of the invalid concerning his critical condition is spread from mouth to mouth by all who wish him ill as satisfactory news; and in fact in whispers, because at that time caution was still necessary. vJJ stands twice in a prominent position in the sense of contra me. v T\vn belong together: they maliciously invent what will be the very worst for him (going beyond what is actually told them concerning him). In this connection there is a feeling in favour of ^v3 being intended of an evil fate, according to xviii. 5, and not according to ci. 3 (cf. Deut. xv. 9) of pernicious or evil thought and conduct. And this view is also supported by the predicate 13 pw: " a matter of destruction, an incurable evil (Hitzig) is poured out upon him," i.e. firmly cast upon him after the manner of casting metal (Job xli. 15 sq.), so that he cannot get free from it, and he that has once had to lie down will not again rise up. Thus do we understand "WR in ver. 96; there is no occasion to take it as an accusative by departing from the most natural sense, as Ewald does, or as a conjunction, as Hitzig does. Even the man of his peace, or literally of his harmonious relationship (□w B^K as in Obad. ver. 7, Jer. xx. 10, xxxviii. 22), on whom he has depended with fullest confidence, who did eat his bread, i.e. was his messmate (cf. lv. 15), has made his heel great against him, LXX. ifieyaXvvev eir ijxe iTTepvio-fiov. The combination Spy 3**S|n is explained by the fact that ^\>V is taken in the sense of a thrust with the heel, a kick: to give a great kick, i.e. with a good swing of the foot.
Vers. 11-13. Having now described their behaviour towards him, sick in soul and body as he is, so devoid of affection, yea, so malignantly hostile and so totally contrary to the will and promise of God, David prays that God would raise him up, for he is now lying low, sick in soul and in body. The prayer is followed, as in xxxix. 14 and many other passages, by the future with ah: that I may be able to requite them, or: then will I requite them. What is meant is the requiting which it was David's duty as a duly constituted king to exercise, and which he did really execute by the power of God, when he subdued the rebellion of Absalom and maintained his ground in opposition to faithlessness and meanness. Instead of JH« n«?a (Gen. xlii. 33, cf. xv. 8, Ex. vii. 17, Num. xvi.
28, Josh. iii. 10) the expression is VlJJTn&fta in the sense of (ex hoc) cognoverim. On *3 nysn cf. xviii. 20, xxii. 9, xxxv. 27. l>v the second *?, the J"INT3, which points forwards, is explained. The adversatively accented subject *3K1 stands first in ver. 13a as a nom. absoL, just as in xxxv. 13. Ver. 13 states, retrospectively from the standpoint of fulfilment, what will then be made manifest and assure him of the divine good pleasure, viz. J alive upholds him ("H^n as in lxiii. 9), and firmly sets him as His chosen one before Him (cf. xxxix. 6) in accordance with the Messianic promise in 2 Sam. vii. 16, which speaks of an unlimited future.
Ver. 14. The closing doxology of the First Book, vid. Introduction, p. 15. Concerning SJV13 v^- xviii» 47. The expression " from aeon to aeon" is, according to BeracJioth ix. 5, directed against those who deny the truth of the future world. JEiO |DX (a double a\7]dh or aXrjOws) seals it in a climactic form.
2 AS a hind, which panteth after the water-brooks, So panteth my soul after Thee, Elohim.
3 My soul thirsteth for Elohim, for the living God: When shall I come and appear before Elohim?!
5 I think thereon, pouring out my soul within me:
How I passed along among the throng, how I accompanied them to the house of Elohim
thou within me? Hope in Elohim, for I shall yet give thanks to Him, That He is the health of my countenance and my God.
ber Thee From the land of Jordan and of the Hermons, from the mountain of Miz'ar.
8 Flood calleth to flood at the sound of Thy cataracts, All Thy breakers and Thy billows have passed over me.
9 By day Jahve will command His loving-kindness,
1 1 Like a crushing in my bones my oppressors scoff at me, While they say to me continually: Where is thy God?
thou within me? Hope in Elohim, for I shall yet give thanks to Him, That He is the health of my countenance and my God.
merciful people, From the man of deceit and roguery be Thou pleased to rescue me;
2 For Thou art God, my fortress, why dost Thou spurn me? Why must I go about mourning under the oppression of
3 Send Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me,
thou within me? Hope in Elohim, for I shall yet give thanks to Him, That He is the health of my countenance and my God.
The Second Book of Psalms consists entirely of Elohimic Psalms (yid. Introduction, p. 22); for whilst in the First Book m.T occurred 272 times and DTita only 15 times, the relation is here reversed: Dsr6« occurs 164 times, and mrP only 30 times, and in almost every instance by a departure from the customary mode of expression for reasons that lie close at hand.
At the head of these Psalms written in the Elohimic style there stand seven inscribed rrVp-,o:£. That here as in *!?$ the b is Lamed auctoris, is made clear by the fact that none of these Psalms, as might be expected, have in? in addition to the name of the author. The LXX. renders it Tot<? viols Kope, just as it does to; AavlS, without distinguishing the one P from the other indicating the authorship, and even in the Talmud a similar meaning to the Lamed of Tf6 is assumed. It is certainly remarkable that instead of an author it is always the family that is named, a rule from which Ps. lxxxviii. (which see) is only a seeming departure. The designation u Bchmische Bruder" in the hymnology of the German church is very similar. Probably the Korahitic songs originally formed a book of themselves, which bore the title mp *J3 *V# or something similar; and then the nip "03 of this title passed over to the inscription of each separate song of those incorporated in two groups in the Psalm-collection, just as appears also to be the case with the inscription rra/EH "W, which is repeated fifteen times. Or we must suppose that it had become a family custom in the circle of the singers among the Korahites to allow the individual to retreat behind the joint responsibility of family unity, and, vying together, to expiate the name of their unfortunate ancestor by the best liturgical productions.
For Korah, the great-grandson of Levi, and grandson of Kehath, is the same as he who perished by a divine judgment on account of his rebellion against Moses and Aaron (Num. ch. xvi.), whose sons, however, were not involved with him in this judgment (Num. xxvi. 11). In David's time the mp *33 were one of the most renowned families of the Levite race of the Kehathites. The kingship of the promise very soon found valiant adherents and defenders in this family. Korahites gathered together to David to Ziklag, in order to aid in defending him and his title to the throne with the swrord (1 Chron. xii. 6); for D*rrign in this passage can hardly (as Bertheau is of opinion) be descendants of the mp of the family of Judah mentioned in 1 Chron. ii. 43, but otherwise unrenowned, since that name is elsewhere, viz. in ch. ix. 19, 31, a Levitic family name. In Jerusalem, after the Exile, Korahites were keepers of the temple gates (1 Chron. ix. 17, Neh. xi. 19), and the chronicler there informs us that even in David's time they were keepers of the threshold of the 7i"iN (erected over the Ark on Zion); and still earlier, in the time of Moses, in the camp of
Jahve they were appointed as watchers of the entrance. They retained this ancient calling, to which allusion is made in Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, in connection with the new arrangements instituted by David. The post of door-keeper in the temple was assigned to two branches of the Korahite families together with one Merarite (1 Chron. xxvi. 1-19). But they also even then served as musicians in the sanctuary. Heman, one of the three precentors (to be distinguished from Heman the wise man mentioned in 1 Kings v. 11 [Engl. iv. 31]), was a Korahite (1 Chron. vi. 18-23); his fourteen sons belonged, together with the four sons of Asaph and the six sons of Ethan, to the twenty-four heads of the twenty-four divisions of the musicians (1 Chron. ch. xxv.). The Korahites were also renowned even in the days of Jehoshaphat as singers and musicians; see 2 Chron. xx. 19, where a plural BVTijjn^a (cf. Ges. § 108, 3) is formed from mp-oa, which has as it were become smelted together as one word. Whereas in the period after the Exile there is no longer any mention of them in this character. We may therefore look for Korahitic Psalms belonging to the post-Davidic time of the kings; whereas we ought at the outset to be less inclined to find any post-exilic Psalms among them. The common feature of this circle of songs consists herein, — they delight in the praise of Elohim as the King who sits enthroned in Jerusalem, and join in the services in His temple with the tenderest and most genuine emotion. And this impress of unity which they bear speaks strongly in favour of taking mp"^3^ in the sense of denoting authorship.
The composer of the b*2'wn, Ps. xlii., finds himself, against his will, at a great distance from the sanctuary on Zion, the resting-place of the divine presence and manifestation, surrounded by an ungodly people, who mock at him as one forsaken of God, and he comforts his sorrowful soul, looking longingly back upon that which it has lost, with the prospect of God's help which will soon appear. All the complaints and hopes that he expresses sound very much like those of David during the time of Absalom. David's yearning after the house of God in Ps. xxiii., xxvi., Iv., lxiii., finds its echo here: the conduct and outlines of the enemies are also just the same; even the sojourn in the country east of Jordan agrees with
David's settlement at that time at Mahanaim in the mountains of Gilead. The Korahite, however, as is to be assumed in connection with a lyric poem, speaks out of the depth of his own soul, and not, as Hengstenberg and Tholuck maintain, " as from the soul of David." He merely shares David's vexation, just as he then in Ixxxiv. 10 prays for the anointed one. This Ps. Ixxxiv. breathes forth the same feelings, and even in other respects bears traces of the same author; cf. *n 7X? Ixxxiv. 3, xlii. 3; T™^f », Ixxxiv. 2, xliii. 3; VrfnatD, Ixxxiv. 4, xliii. 4; and the similar use of ity, Ixxxiv. 5, xlii. 6, cf. Isa. xlix. 20, Jer. xxxii. 15. The distinguishing features of the Korahitic type of Psalm meet us in both Psalms in the most strong and vivid manner, viz. the being joyous and weeping with God's anointed, the praise of God the King, and the yearning after the services in the holy place. And there are, it is true, thoughts that have been coined by David which we here and there distinctly hear in them (cf. xlii. 2 sq., Ixxxiv. 3, with lxiii. 2); but they are reproduced with a characteristic beauty peculiar to the author himself. We do not, therefore, in the least doubt that Ps. xlii. is the poem of a Korahitic Levite, who found himself in exile beyond the Jordan among the attendants of David, his exiled king.
Concerning Ps. xliii. Eusebius has said: on fiepo? eoiicev elvai rod irph avrov BeBrjXoorat, etc re toov Ofjuoieov iv a/jL<j>OTepoi<i \6ycov teal i/c tt}? ificpepovs Biavoias, and an old Midrash reckons 147 Psalms, taking Ps. xlii.— xliii. together as one, just as with ix.-x., xxxii.-xxxiii. The similarity of the situation, of the general impress, of the structure, and of the refrain, is decisive in favour of these Psalms, which are commonly reckoned as two, being one. The one Psalm consists of three parts: thrice his pain breaks forth into complaint, and is each time again overcome by the admonitory voice of his higher consciousness. In the depicting of the past and the future there is unmistakeable progress. And it is not until the third part (Ps. xliii.) that complaint, resignation, and hope are perfected by the language of confident prayer which supervenes. The unity of the Psalms is not affected by the repetition of xlii. 10b in xliii. 2b, since xlii. 116 is also a repetition of xlii. 46. Beside an edging in by means of the refrain, the poet is also fond of such internal links of connection. The third part has thereby come to consist of thirteen lines, whereas the other two parts consist of twelve lines each.
What a variegated pattern card of hypotheses modern criticism opens out before us in connection with this Psalm (xlii.-xliii.)! Vaihinger regards it as a song composed by one of the Levites who was banished by Athaliah. Ewald thinks that King Jeconiah, who was carried away to Babylon, may have composed the Psalm; and in fact, when (and this is inferred from the Psalm itself) on the journey to Babylon, he may have been detained just a night in the vicinity of Hermon. Keuss (in the Nouvelle Revue de Thdologie, 1858) prefers to suppose it is one of those who were carried off with Jeconiah (among whom there were also priests, as Ezekiel). Hitzig, however, is no less decisive in his view that the author is a priest who was carried off in the direction of Syria at the time of the wars of the Seleucida? and Ptolemies; probably Onias in., high priest from 199 B.C., the collector of the Second Book of the Psalms, whom the Egyptians under the general Skopas carried away to the citadel of Paneas. Olshausen even here, as usual, makes Antiochus Epiphanes his watchword. In opposition to this positive criticism, Maurer adheres to the negative; he says: queer endo elegantissimi carminis scriptore frustra se fatigant interpretes.
Ps. xlii. 2-6. The poet compares the thirsting of his soul after God to the thirsting of a stag.?J8 (like other names of animals is epiccene, so that there is no necessity to adopt Bottcher's emendation JnjJH rpsX3) is construed with a feminine predicate in order to indicate the stag (hind) as an image of the soul. y]V is not merely a quiet languishing, but a strong, audible thirsting or panting for water, caused by prevailing drought, Ixiii. 2, Joel i. 20; the signification desiderate refers back to the primary notion of inclinare (cf. J.^1, the act of inclining), for the primary meaning of the verb _j is to be slanting, inclined or bent, out of which has been developed the signification of ascending and moving upwards, which is transferred in Hebrew to an upward-directed longing. Moreover, it is not with Luther (LXX., Vulgate [and authorized version]) to be rendered: as the (a) stag crieth, etc., but (and it is accented accordingly): as a stag, which, etc. P^BK - pb*J is, according to its primary signification, a watercourse holding water (yid. xviii. 16). By the addition of D)D the full and flowing watercourse is distinguished from one that is dried up.?V and?N point to the difference in the object of the longing, viz. the hind has this object beneath herself, the soul above itself; the longing of the one goes deorsum, the longing of the other sursum. The soul's longing is a thirsting VI?K?. Such is the name here applied to God (as in Ixxxiv. 3) in the sense in which flowing water is called living, as the spring or fountain of life (xxxvi. 10) from which flows forth a grace that never dries up, and which stills the thirst of the soul. The spot where this God reveals Himself to him who seeks Him is the sanctuary on Zion: when shall I come and appear in the presence of Elohim?! The expression used in the Law for the three appearings of the Israelites in the sanctuary at solemn feasts is 'fl "osrttf nx"0 or ^srntf, Ex. xxiii. 17, xxxiv. 23. Here we find instead of this expression, in accordance with the licence of poetic brevity, the bare ace. localis (which is even used in other instances in the definition of localities, e.g. Ezek. xl. 44). Bottcher, Olshausen, and others are of opinion that fifeOK in the mind of the poet is to be read nK")K, and that it has only been changed into n^^ through later religious timidity; but the avoidance of the phrase 'n \3B niO is explained from the fundamental assumption of the Tora that a man could not behold God's D"0S without dying, Ex. xxxiii. 20. The poet now tells us in ver. 4 what the circumstances were which drove him to such intense longing. His customary food does not revive him, tears are his daily bread, which day and night run down upon his mouth (cf. lxxx. 6, cii. 20), and that "foK?, when say to him, viz. the speakers, all day long, i.e. continually: Where is thy God 1 Without cessation, these mocking wTords are continually heard, uttered again and again by those who are round about him, as their thoughts, as it were, in the soul of the poet. This derision, in the Psalms and in the Prophets, is always the keenest sting of pain: lxxix. 10, cxv. 2 (cf. Ixxi. 11), Joel ii. 17, Mic. vii. 10.
In this gloomy present, in which he is made a mock of, as one who is forsaken of God, on account of his trust in the faithfulness of the promises, he calls to remembrance the bright and cl^erful past, and he pours out his soul within him (on the vJJ used here and further on instead of *3 or Mnp3 ami as distinguishing between the ego and the soul, vid. Psychol. S. 152; tr. p. 180), inasmuch as he suffers it to melt entirely away in pain (Job xxx. 16). As in lxxvii. 4, the cohortatives affirm that he yields himself up most thoroughly to this bittersweet remembrance and to this free outward expression of his pain. n?K (Jioecce) points forwards; the ^ (quod) which follows opens up the expansion of this word. The futures, as expressing the object of the remembrance, state what was a habit in the time past. ^V frequently signifies not prceterire, but, without the object that is passed over coming into consideration, porro ire. "HD (a collateral form of Tib), properly a thicket, is figuratively (cf. Isa. ix. 17, x. 34) an interwoven mass, a mixed multitude. The rendering therefore is: that I moved on in a dense crowd (here the distinctive Zinnor). The form DTI&? is Hithpa., as in Isa. xxxviii. 15, after the form Henri from the verb iTT^ « to pass lightly and swiftly along,"
derived by reduplication from the root NT (cf. \J\S), which has the primary meaning to push, to drive (iXavveiv, pousser), and expresses manifold shades of onward motion in lighter or heavier thrusts or jerks. The suffix, as in wia = '•Dy pl^ Job xxxi. 18 (Ges. § 121, 4), denotes those in reference to whom, or connection with whom, this moving onwards took place, so that consequently D^K includes within itself, together with the subjective notion, the transitive notion of ETl$y for the singer of the Psalm is a Levite; as an example in support of this DTIK, vid. 2 Chron. xx. 27 sq., cf. ver. 21. 3jin |ton is the apposition to the personal suffix of this DUX: with them, a multitude keeping holy-day. In ver. 6 the poet seeks to solace and encourage himself at this contrast of the present with the past: Why art thou thus cast down... (LXX. Xva ti irepi- Xi/7ro? e2, /c.t.X., cf. Matt. xxvi. 38, John xii. 27). It is the spirit which, as the stronger and more valiant part of the man, speaks to the soul as to the cncevos daOevearepov; the spiritual man soothes the natural man. The Hithpa. nnin^'n, which occurs only here and in Ps. xliii., signifies to bow one's self very low, to sit down upon the ground like a mourner (xxxv 14, xxxviii. 7), and to bend one's self downwards (xliv. 26). nipn (the future of which Ben-Asher here points WHtj but Ben-Naphtali *BWV), to u*ter a deep groan, to speak quietly and mumbling to one's self. Why this gnawing and almost desponding grief? I shall yet praise Him with thanksgiving, praise VJB nijPiK^, the ready succour of His countenance turned towards me in mercy. Such is the text handed down to us. Although i£ is, however, a custom with the psalmists and prophets not to express such refrainlike thoughts in exactly the same form and words (cf. xxiv. 7, 9, xlix. 13, 21, lvi. 5, 11, lix. 10, 18), nevertheless it is to be read here by a change in the division both of the words and the verses, according to ver. 12 and xliii. 5, *nfott "JS nw;, as is done by the LXX. (Cod. Alex.), Syriac, Vulgate, and most modern expositors. For the words VJS rnyiB^, though in themselves a good enough sense (vid. e.g. xliv. 4, Isa. lxiv. 9), produce no proper closing cadence, and are not sufficient to form a line of a verse.*
Vers. 7-12. The poet here continues to console himself with God's help. God Himself is indeed dishonoured in him; He will not suffer the trust he has reposed in Him to go unjustified. True, vJJ seems at the beginning of the line to be tame, but from vV and T}3^, the beginning and end of the line, standing in contrast, vV is made emphatic, and it is at the same time clear that I5"?y is not equivalent to 1KW)2~by — which Gesenius asserts in his Lexicon, erroneously referring to i. 5, xlv. 3, is a poetical usage of the language; an assertion for which, however, there is as little support as that |2"vJ? *3 in Num. xiv. 43 and other passages is equivalent to *3 fiT/p. In all such passages, e.g. Jer. xlviii. 36, 15 'P means " therefore," and the relationship of reason and consequence is reversed. So even here: within him his soul is bowed very low, and on account of this downcast condition he thinks continually of God, from whom he is separated. Even in Jonah ii. 8 this thinking upon God does not appear as the cause but as the consequence of pain. The " land of Jordan and of Hermonim " is not necessarily the northern mountain range together
* Even an old Hebrew MS. directs attention to the erroneousness of the Soph pasuk here; vid. Pinsker, Einleitung, S. 133 i.
with the sources of the Jordan. The land beyond the Jordan is so called in opposition to P^? pN, the land on this side. According to Dietrich (Abhandlungen, S. 18), Ds:iD")n is an amplihcative plural: the Hermon, as a peak soaring far above all lower summits. John Wilson (Lands of the Bible, ii. 161) refers the plural to its two summits. But the plural serves to denote the whole range of the Antilebanon extending to the south-east, and accordingly to designate the oast Jordanic country. It is not for one moment to be supposed that the psalmist calls Hermon even, in comparison with his native Zion, the chosen of God, "UTCD nn? i.e. the mountain of littleness: the other member of the antithesis, the majesty of Zion, is wanting, and the \0 which is repeated before in is also opposed to this. Hitzig, striking out the D of "IHD, makes it an address to Zion: " because I remember thee out of the land of Jordan and of summits of Hermon, thou little mountain;" but, according to ver. 8, these words are addressed to Elohim. In the vicinity of Mitzar, a mountain unknown to us, in the country beyond Jordan, the poet is sojourning; from thence he looks longingly towards the district round about his home, and just as there, in a strange land, the wild waters of the awe-inspiring mountains roar around him, there seems to be a corresponding tumult in his soul. In ver. 8a he depicts the natural features of the country round about him — and it may remind one quite as much of the high and magnificent waterfalls of the lake of Muzerib (yid. Job, ii. 422) as of the waterfall at the source of the Jordan near Paneas and the waters that dash headlong down the mountains round about — and in ver. 8b he says that he feels just as though all these threatening masses of water were rolling like so many waves of misfortune over his head (Tholuck, Hitzig, and Kiehm). Billow follows billow as if called by one another (cf. Isa. vi. 3 concerning the continuous antiphon of the seraphim) at the roar (?ip? as in Hab. iii. 16) of the cataracts, which in their terrible grandeur proclaim the Creator, God (LXX. tojv /carappa/cTtov gov) — all these breaking, sporting waves of God pass over him, who finds himself thus surrounded by the mighty works of nature, but taking no delight in them; and in them all he sees nothing but the mirrored image of the many afflictions which threaten to involve him in utter destruction (cf. the borrowed passage in that mosaic work taken from the Psalms, Jon. ii. 4).
He, however, calls upon himself in ver. 9 to take courage in the hope that a morning will dawn after this night of affliction (xxx. 6), when Jahve, the God of redemption and of the people of redemption, will command His loving-kindness (cf. xliv. 5, Amos ix. 3 sq.); and when this by day has accomplished its work of deliverance, there follows upon the day of deliverance a night of thanksgiving (Job xxxv. 10): the joyous excitement, the strong feeling of gratitude, will not suffer him to sleep. The suffix of riW is the suffix of the object: a hymn in praise of Him, prayer (viz. praiseful prayer, Hab. iii. 1) to the God of his life (cf. Sir. xxiii. 4), i.e. who is his life, and will not suffer him to come under the dominion of death. Therefore will he say (n"VDiK)? in order to bring about by prayer such a day of loving-kindness and such a night of thanksgiving songs, to the God of his rock, i.e. who is his rock {gen. appos.): Why, etc.? Concerning the different accentuation of nri> here and in xliii. 2, vid. on xxxvii. 20 (cf. x. 1). In this instance, where it is not followed by a guttural, it serves as a "variation" (Hitzig); but even the retreating of the tone when a guttural follows is not consistently carried out, vid. xlix. 6, cf. 1 Sam. xxviii. 15 (Ew. § 243, b). The view of Vaihinger and Hengstenberg is inadmissible, viz. that vers. 10 to 11 are the " prayer," which the psalmist means in ver. 9; it is the prayerful sigh of the yearning for deliverance, which is intended to form the burthen of that prayer. In some MSS. we find the reading n¥"}3 instead of nrta; the 2 is here really synonymous with the 3, it is the Beth essentice (vid. xxxv. 2): after the manner of a crushing (cf. Ezek. xxi. 27, and the verb in lxii. 4 of overthrowing a wall) in my bones, i.e. causing me a crunching pain which seethes in my bones, mine oppressors reproach me (spn with the transfer of the primary meaning carpere, as is also customary in the Latin, to a plucking and stripping one of his good name). The use of 3 here differs from its use in ver. 10b; for the reproaching is not added to the crushing as a continuing state, but is itself thus crushing in its operation (vid. ver. 4). Instead of "foK3 we have here the easier form of expression D"i£N2; and in the refrain '•npNi "35 which is also to be restored in ver. 6,
P>. xliii. 1-3. The Elohimic JuJica (the introit of the so-called Cross or Passion Sunday which opens the celehritas Fturionis), with which the supplicatory and plaintive first strophe of the Psalm begins, calls to mind the Jehovic Judica in vii. 9, xxvi. 1, xxxv. 1, 24: judge me, i.e. decide my cause (LXX. Kplvov fie, Symmachus Kplvov fxoc). nyi has the tone upon the ultima before the *3*l which begins with the halfguttural 1, as is also the case in lxxiv. 22, cxix. 154. The second prayer runs: vindica me a gente impia; jp standing for contra in consequence of a constr. prcprjnans. TDrr&6 is here equivalent to one practising no 1Dn towards men, that is to say, one totally wanting in that Ton, by which God's TDn is to be imitated and repaid by man in his conduct towards his fellow-men. There is some uncertainty whether by B>*K one chief enemy, the leader of all the rest, is intended to be mentioned side by side with the unloving nation, or whether the special manner of his enemies is thus merely individualized. njjp means roguish, mischievous conduct, utterly devoid of all sense of right. In ver. 2 the poet establishes his petition by a twofold Why. He loves God and longs after Him, but in the mirror of his present condition he seems to himself like one cast off by Him. This contradiction between his own consciousness and the inference which he is obliged to draw from his afflicted state cannot remain unsolved. *$jflj TOK, God of my fortress, is equivalent to who is my fortress. Instead of T|bs we here have the form jfep?* of the slow deliberate gait of one who is lost in his own thoughts and feelings. The sting of his pain is his distance from the sanctuary of his God. In connection with ver. 3 one is reminded of lvii. 4 and Ex. xv. 13, quite as much as of xlii. 9. a Light and truth" is equivalent to mercy and truth. What is intended is the light of mercy or loving-kindness which is coupled with the truth of fidelity to the promises; the light, in which the will or purpose of love, which is God's most especial nature, becomes outwardly manifest. The poet wishes to be guided by these two angels of God; he desires that he may be brought (according to the Chethib of the Babylonian text VJ1K13*, "let come upon me;" but the b$ which follows does not suit this form) to the place where his God dwells and reveals Himself. " Tabernacles" is, as in Ixxxiv. 2, xlvi. 5, an amplificative designation of the