Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

tent, magnificent in itself and raised to special honour by Him who dwells therein

Vers. 4, 5. The poet, in anticipation, revels in the thought of that which he has prayed for, and calls upon his timorous soul to hope confidently for it. The cohortatives in ver. 4 are, as in xxxix. 14 and frequently, an apodosis to the petition. The poet knows no joy like that which proceeds from God, and the joy which proceeds from Him he accounts as the very highest; hence he calls God v^ nnw 7N and therefore he knows no higher aim for his longing than again to be where the fountainhead of this exultant joy is (Hos. ix. 5), and where it flows forth in streams (xxxvi. 9). Removed back thither, he will give thanks to Him with the cithern {Beth instrum.). He calls Him wj* BwN, an expression which, in the Elohim-Psalms, is equivalent to TOK IWP in the Jahve- Psalms. The hope expressed in ver. 4 casts its rays into the prayer in ver. 3. In ver. 5, the spirit having taken courage in God, holds this picture drawn by hope before the distressed soul, that she may therewith comfort herself. Instead of *»nm, xlii. 6, the expression here used, as in xlii. 12, is WUJTlltt. Variations like these are not opposed to a unity of authorship.

4 For not by their own sword did they acquire the land, And their own arm did not obtain for them the victory; But Thy right hand, Thine arm, the light of Thy countenance, because Thou didst love them.

8 No indeed, Thou givest us the victory over our oppressors, And dost put to shame those who hate us.

10 Nevertheless Thou hast cast off and put us to confusion, And wentest not forth with our armies;

11 Thou madest us to turn back before the oppressor, And those who hate us spoiled just as they liked.

12 Thou gavest us up like sheep for consumption, And among the heathen didst Thou scatter us,

13 Thou didst sell Thy people for a mere nothing, And didst not set a high price upon them.

15 Thou didst make us a proverb among the heathen, A shaking of the head among the peoples.

16 Continually is my confusion before me, And the shame of my face covereth me;

20 That Thou hast crushed us in the place of jackals, And didst cover us with the shadow of death.

21 If we had forgotten the name of our God, And stretched out our hands to a strange god:

23 No indeed, for Thy sake are we slain continually, We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

24 Awake then, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Arouse Thyself, cast not off for ever!

26 For our soul is bowed down to the dust, Our body cleaveth to the earth.

The Korahitic Maskil Ps. xlii., with its counterpart Ps. xliii., is followed by a second, to which a place is here assigned by manifold accords with Ps. xlii.-xliii., viz. with its complaints (cf. xliv. 26 with the refrain of xliii., xlii.; xliv. 10, 24 sq. with xliii. 2, xlii. 10), and prayers (cf. xliv. 5 with xliii. 3, xlii. 9). The counterpart to this Psalm is Ps. lxxxv. Just as Ps. xlii.- xliii. and lxxxiv. form a pair, so do Ps. xliv. and lxxxv. as being Korahitic plaintive and supplicatory Psalms of a national character. Moreover, Ps. lx. by David, Ps. lxxx. by Asaph, and Ps. lxxxix. by Ethan, are nearest akin to it. In all these three there are similar lamentations over the present as contrasting with the former times and with the promise of God; but they do not contain any like expression of consciousness of innocence, a feature in which Ps. xliv. has no equal.

In this respect the Psalm seems to be most satisfactorily explained by the situation of the D^TDn (saints), who under the leadership of the Maccabees defended their nationality and their religion against the Syrians and fell as martyrs by thousands. The war of that period was, in its first beginnings at least, a holy war of religion; and the nation which then went forth on the side of Jahve against Jupiter Olympius, was really, in distinction from the apostates, a people true to its faith and confession, which had to lament over God's doom of wrath in 1 Mace. i. 64, just as in this Psalm. There is even a tradition that it was a stated lamentation Psalm of the time of the Maccabees. The Levites daily ascended the pulpit (\2Ti) and raised the cry of prayer: Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord?! These Levite criers praying for the interposition of God were called Dnnijnp (wakers). It is related in B. Sola 48a of

■hanan the high priest, i.e. John Ilyrcanus (135-107 B.C.), that he put an end to these Dmiyo, saying to them: " Doth the Deity sleep! Hath not the Scripture said: Behold the Keeper

Israel slumbereth not and sleepeth not!? Only in a time when Israel was in distress and the peoples of the world in rest and prosperity, only in reference to such circumstances was it said: Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord?"

Nevertheless many considerations are opposed to the composition of the Psalm in the time of the Maccabees. We will mention only a few. In the time of the Maccabees the nation did not exactly suffer any overthrow of its " armies" (ver. 10) after having gathered up its courage: the arms of Judah, of Jonathan, and of Simon were victorious, and the one defeat to which Hitzig refers the Psalm, viz. the defeat of Joseph and Azaria against Gorgias in Jamnia (1 Mace. v. 55 sqq.), was a punishment brought upon themselves by an indiscreet enterprise. The complaints in vers. 1 0 sq. are therefore only partially explained by the events of that time; and since a nation is a unit and involved as a whole, it is also surprising that no mention whatever is made of the apostates. But Ewald's reference of the Psalm to the time of the post-exilic Jerusalem is still more inadmissible; and when, in connection with this view, the question is asked, What disaster of war is then intended? no answer can be given; and the reference to the time of Jehoiaehin, which Tholuck in vain endeavours to set in a more favourable light — a king who did evil in the eyes of Jahve, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, with which the descriptions of character drawn by Jeremiah, ch. xxii. 20-30, and by Ezekiel, ch. xix., fully accord — is also inadmissible. On the other hand, the position of the Psalm in the immediate neighbourhood of Psalms belonging to the time of Jehoshaphat, and also to a certain extent its contents, favours the early part of the reign of king Joash, in which, as becomes evident from the prophecy of Joel, there was no idolatry on the part of the people to be punished, and yet there were severe afflictions of the people to be bewailed. It was then not long since the Philistines and Arabs from the neighbourhood of the Cushites had broken in upon Judah, ransacked Jerusalem and sold the captive people of Judah for a mere song to the Greeks (2 Chron. xxi. 16 sq., Joel iv. 2-8). But this reference to cotemporary history is also untenable. That unhappy event, together with others, belongs to the category of well-merited judgments, which came upon king and people in the reign of Jehoram; nor does the Psalm sound like a retrospective glance at the time of Jehoram from the standpoint of the time of Joash: the defeat of which it complains, is one that is now only just experienced.

Thus we seem consequently driven back to the time of David; and the question arises, whethei the Psalm does not admit, with Ps. lx., with which it forms a twin couple, of being understood as the offspring of a similar situation, viz. of the events which resulted from the Syro-Ammonitish war. The fact that a conflict with the foes of the kingdom in the south, Az. with the Edomites, was also mixed up with the wars with the Ammonites and their Syrian allies at that period, becomes evident from lx. 1 sq. when compared with 2 Sam. viii. 13, where the words iirdra^e ttjv 'ISou/uaiav (LXX.) have fallen out. Whilst David was contending with the Syrians, the Edomites came down upon the country that was denuded of troops. And from 1 Kings xi. 15 it is very evident that they then caused great bloodshed; for, according to that passage, Joab buried the slain and took fearful revenge upon the Edomites: he marched, after having slain them in the Valley of Salt, into Idumsea and there smote every male. Perhaps, with Hengstenberg, Keil, and others, the Psalm is to be explained from the position of Israel before this overthrow of the Edomites. The fact that in ver. 12 the nation complains of a dispersion among the heathen may be understood by means of a deduction from Amos i. 6, according to which the Edomites had carried on a traffic in captive Israelites. And the lofty self-consciousness, which finds expression in the Psalm, is after all best explained by the times of David; for these and the early part of the times of Solomon are the only period in the history of Israel when the nation as a whole could boast of being free and pure of all foreign influence in its worship. In the kindred Ps. lx., lxxx. (also lxxxix.), it is true this selfconsciousness does not attain the same lofty expression; in this respect Ps. xl. stands perfectly alone: it is like the national mirroring of the Book of Job, and by reason of this takes a unique position in the range of Old Testament literature side by side with Lam. cli. iii. and the deutero-Isaiah. Israel's affliction, which could not possibly be of a punitive character, resembled the affliction of Job; in this Psalm, Israel stands in exactly the same relation to God as Job and the " Servant of J alive1' in Isaiah, if we except all that was desponding in Job's complaint and all that was expiatory in the affliction of the Servant of Jahve. But this very self-consciousness does somewhat approximately find expression even in lx. 6. In that passage also no distinction is made between Israel and the Godfearing ones in Israel; but the psalmist calls Israel absolutely the God-fearing ones, and the battle, in which Israel is defeated, but not without hope of final victory, is a battle for the truth.

The charge has been brought against this Psalm, that it manifests a very superficial apprehension of the nature of sin, in consequence of which the writer has been betrayed into accusing God of unfaithfulness, instead of seeking for guilt in the congregation of Israel. This judgment is unjust. The writer certainly cannot mean to disown the sins of individuals, nor even this or that transgression of the whole people. But any apostasy on the part of the nation from its God, such as could account for its rejection, did not exist at that time. The supremacy granted to the heathen over Israel is, therefore, an abnormal state of things, and for this very reason the poet, on the ground of Israel's fidelity and of God's loving-kindness, prays for speedy deliverance. A Psalm born directly out of the heart of the New Testament church would certainly sound very differently. For the New Testament church is not a national community; and both as regards the relation between the reality and idea of the church, and as regards the relation between its afflictions and the motive and design of God, the view of the New Testament church penetrates far deeper. It knows that it is God's love that makes it conformable to the passion of Christ, in order that, being crucified unto the world, it may become through suffering partaker of the glory of its Lord and Head.

Vers. 2-4. The poet opens with a tradition coming down from the time of Moses and of Joshua which they have heard with their own ears, in order to demonstrate the vast distance between the character of the former times and the present, just as Asaph, also, in lxxviii. 3, appeals not to the written but to the spoken word. That which has been heard follows in the oratio directa. Ver. 3 explains what kind of " work" is intended: it is the granting of victory over the peoples of Canaan, the work of God for which Moses prays in xc. 16. Concerning T]*, vid. on iii. 5, xvii. 14. The position of the words here, as in Ixix. 11, Ixxxiii. 19, leads one to suppose that TjJ is treated as a permutative of HflK, and consequently in the same case with it. The figure of u planting" (after Ex. xv. 17) is carried forward in brbwn'); for this word means to send forth far away, to make wide-branching, a figure which is wrought up in Ps. Ixxx. It was not Israel's own work, but (*3, no indeed, for [Germ. nexn7 denn~\ = imo) God's work: u Thy right hand and Thine arm and the light of Thy countenance," they it was which brought Israel salvation, i.e. victory. The combination of synonyms ^Vpp i\VW is just as in Ixxiv. 11, Sir. xxxiii. 7, %elpa /ecu /3pa^iova Be^iov, and is explained by both the names of the members of the body as applied to God being only figures: the right hand being a figure for energetic interposition, and the arm for an effectual power that carries through the thing designed (cf. e.g. lxxvii. 16, Isa. Hii. 1), just as the light of His countenance is a figure for His loving-kindness which lights up all darkness. The final cause was His purpose of love: for (inasmuch as) Thou wast favourable to them (n^i as in lxxxv. 2). The very same thought, viz. that Israel owes the possession of Canaan to nothing but Jahve's free grace, runs all through Deut. ch. ix.

Vers. 5-9. Out of the retrospective glance at the past, so rich in mercy, springs up (ver. 5) the confident prayer concerning the present, based upon the fact of the theocratic relationship which began in the time of the deliverance wrought under Moses (Deut. xxxiii. 5). In the substantival clause nnx ^pD fcttHj wn is neither logical copula nor predicate (as in cii. 28, Deut. xxxii. 39, there equivalent to I* wn JWK, cf. 1 Chron. xxi. 17), but an expressive resumption of the subject, as in Isa. xliii. 25, Jer. xlix. 12, Neh. ix. 6 sq., Ezra v. 11, and in the frequently recurring expression D\"6&*n Kin HOT; it is therefore to be rendered: Thou — He who (such an one) is my King. May He therefore, by virtue of His duty as king which He has voluntarily taken upon Himself, and of the kingly authority and power indwelling in Him, command the salvation of Jacob, full and entire (xviii. 51, liii. 7). njv as in xlii. 9. Jacob is used for Israel just as Elohim is used instead of Jahve. If Elohim, Jacob's King, now turns graciously to His people, they will again be victorious and invincible, as ver. 6 affirms. n« with reference to fjij as a figure and emblem of strength, as in lxxxix. 25 and frequently; WBjj equivalent to Wy DMDjJ. But only in the strength of God (^3 as in xviii. 30); for not in my bow do I trust, etc., ver. 7. This teaching Israel has gathered from the history of the former times; there is no bidding defiance with the bow and sword and all the carnal weapons of attack, but Thou, etc., ver. 8. This "Thou" in UjW'in is the emphatic word; the preterites describe facts of experience belonging to history. It is not Israel's own might that gives them the supremacy, but God's gracious might in Israel's weakness. Elohim is, therefore, Israel's glory or pride: "In Elohim do we praise," i.e. we glory or make our boast in Him; cf.?V <?n, x. 3. The music here joins in after the manner of a hymn. The Psalm here soars aloft to the more joyous height of praise, from which it now falls abruptly into bitter complaint.

Vers. 10-13. Just as *)N signifies imo vero (lviii. 3) when it comes after an antecedent clause that is expressly or virtually a negative, it may mean lt nevertheless, o/xo)?," when it opposes a contrastive to an affirmative assertion, as is very frequently the case with E3 or DJ}. True, it does not mean this in itself, but in virtue of its logical relation: we praise Thee, we celebrate Thy name unceasingly — also (= nevertheless) Thou hast cast off. From this point the Psalm comes into closest connection with Ps. lxxxix. 39, on a still more extended scale, however, with Ps. lx., which dates from the time of the Syro- Ammonitish war, in which Psalm ver. 10 recurs almost word for word. The rritfny are not exactly standing armies (an objection which has been raised against the Maccabean explanation), they are the hosts of the people that are drafted into battle, as in Ex. xii. 41, the hosts that went forth out of Egypt. Instead of leading these to victory as their victorious Captain (2 Sam. v. 24), God leaves them to themselves and allows them to be smitten by the enemy. The enemy spoil Sv?, i.e. just as they like, without meeting with any resistance, to their hearts' content. And whilst He gives over (flu as in Mic. v. 2, and the first \n\ in Isa. xli. 2) one portion of the people as "sheep appointed for food," another becomes a diaspora or dispersion among the heathen, viz. by being sold to them as slaves, and that |in~&&3, " for not-riches," Le* for a very low price, a mere nothing. We see from Joel iv. [iii.] 3 in what way this is intended. The form of the litotes is continued in ver. 136: Thou didst not go high in the matter of their purchasemoney; the rendering of Maurer is correct: in statuendis pretiis eorum. The 3 is in this instance not the Beth of the price as in ver. 13a, but, as in the phrase 3 7?n? the Beth of the sphere and thereby indirectly of the object, nzn in the sense of the Aramaic ^n (cf. Prov. xxii. 16, and the derivatives JV3*iri, rP3"iD), to make a profit, to practise usury (Hupfeld), produces a thought that is unworthy of God; vid. on the other hand, Isa. Iii. 3. At the head of the strophe stands (ver. 10a) a perfect with an aorist following; NVn NT) is consequently a negative NOTn. And ver. 18, which sums up the whole, shows that all the rest is also intended to be retrospective.

Vers. 14-17. To this defeat is now also added the shame that springs out of it. A distinction is made between the neighbouring nations, or those countries lying immediately round about Israel (rn3*3p, as in the exactly similar passage lxxix. 4, cf. lxxx. 7, which closely resembles it), and the nations of the earth that dwell farther away from Israel, bvfo is here a jesting, taunting proverb, and one that holds Israel up as an example of a nation undergoing chastisement (vid. Hab. ii. 6). The shaking of the head is, as in xxii. 8, a gesture of malicious astonishment. In Ton *ttj (as in xxxviii. 18) we have both the permanent aspect or look and the perpetual consciousness. Instead of a shame covers my face," the expression is u the shame of my face covers me," i.e, it has overwhelmed my entire inward and outward being (cf. concerning the radical notions of ens, vi. 11, and iBn, xxxiv. 6). The juxtaposition of "enemy and revengeful man" has its origin in viii. 3. In ver. 17 Pij9D and VJSD alternate; the former is used of the impression made by the jeering voice, the other of the impression produced by the enraged mien.

Vers. 18-22. If Israel compares its conduct towards God with this its lot, it cannot possibly regard it as a punishment that it has justly incurred. Construed with the accusative, 603 signifies, as in xxxv. 8, xxxvi. 12, to come upon one, and more especially of an evil lot and of powers that are hostile. 1gB>, to lie or deceive, with 3 of the object on whom the deception or treachery is practised, as in lxxxix. 34. In ver. 196 -ivj'H is construed as fern., exactly as in Job xxxi. 7; the fut. consec. is also intended as such (as e.g. in Job iii. 10, Num. xvi. 14): that our step should have declined from, etc.; inward apostasy is followed by outward wandering and downfall. This is therefore not one of the many instances in which the tib of one clause also has influence over the clause that follows (Ges. § 152, 3). *?, ver. 20, has the sense of quod: we have not revolted against Thee, that Thou shouldest on that account have done to us the thing which is now befallen us. Concerning tnn vid, Isa. xiii. 22. A "place of jackals" is, like a habitation of dragons (Jer. x. 22), the most lonesome and terrible wilderness; the place chosen was, according to this, an inhospitable "U1D, far removed from the dwellings of men. HD3 is construed with pV of the person covered, and with 2 of that with which (1 Sam. xix. 13^ he is covered: Thou coveredst us over with deepest darkness (yid. xxiii. 4). BN, ver. 21, is not that of asseveration (verily we have not forgotten), but, as the interrogatory apodosis ver. 22a shows, conditional: if we have (= should have) forgotten. This would not remain hidden from Him who knoweth the heart, for the secrets of men's hearts are known to Him. Both the form and matter here again strongly remind one of Job ch. xxxi., more especially ver. 4; cf. also on rriDpV^!, Job xi. 6, xxviii. 11.

Vers. 23-27. The church is not conscious of any apostasy, for on the contrary it is suffering for the sake of its fidelity. Such is the meaning intended by *3, ver. 23 (cf. xxxvii. 20). The emphasis lies on T?V, which is used exactly as in Ixix. 8. Paul, in Rom. viii. 36, transfers this utterance to the sufferings of the New Testament church borne in witnessing for the truth, or I should rather say he considers it as a divine utterance corresponding as it were prophetically to the sufferings of the New Testament church, and by anticipation, coined concerning it and for its use, inasmuch as he cites it with the words kclOios fyeypcLTTTcu. The suppliant cries rnty and Wpn are David ic, and found in his earlier Psalms, vii. 7, xxxv. 23, lix. 5 sq., cf.

Ixxviii. 65. God is said to sleep when He does not interpose in whatever is taking place in the outward world here below; for the very nature of sleep is a turning in into one's own self from all relationship to the outer world, and a resting of the powers which act outwardly. The writer of our Psalm is fond of couplets of synonyms like ^n?| WW in ver. 25; cf. ver. 4, ^jynri ^?\ Ps. cxix. 25 is an echo of ver. 26. The suppliant cry n^p (in this instance in connection with the nmty which follows, it is to be accented on the ultima) is Davidic, iii. 8, vii. 7; but originally it is Mosaic. Concerning the ah of A^nty, here as also in Ixiii. 8 of like meaning with Wtyb, xxii. 20, and frequently, vid. on iii. 3»

I say to myself: " My production is concerning a king," My tongue is the pen of a quick writer.

men, Gracefulness is shed upon thy lips; Therefore hath Elohim blessed thee for ever.

4 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one, Thy brightness and thy majesty.

For the sake of truth and of the suffering of innocence, And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible deeds.

6 Thine arrows are sharp, — peoples shall fall under thee, — In the heart of the king's enemies!

7 Thy throne, Elohim, endureth for ever and ever, An upright sceptre is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

8 Loving righteousness, thou hatest wickedness; Therefore hath Elohim thy God anointed thee With the oil of joy above thy fellows.

10 Kings' daughters are among thy beloved ones, The queen hath set herself at thy right hand In ornaments of gold of Ophir.

11 Hearken, O daughter, and see and incline thine ear, And forget thine own people and thy father's house;

14 All glory is the king's daughter in the inner chamber, Of gold-woven textures is her clothing.

16 They are escorted with joy and exultation, They enter into the king's palace. —

17 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy sons, Thou shalt set them as princes in all lands.

18 Thy name will I remember in every generation, Therefore shall the peoples praise thee for ever and ever.

To a Korahitic Maskil is appended a song of the same name, and likewise bearing a royal impress after the style of the Korahitic productions. But whilst in xliv. 5 the words " Thou, Thou art my King, JElohim," are addressed in prayer to the God of Israel, in this Psalm the person of the king who is celebrated is a matter of doubt and controversy. The Epistle to the Hebrews (ch. i. 8) proceeds on the assumption that it is the future Christ, the Son of God. It is supported in this view by a tradition of the ancient synagogue, in accordance with which the Targumist renders ver. 3, u Thy beauty, 0 King Messiah, is greater than that of the children of men" This

Messianic interpretation must be very ancient. Just as Ezek. xxi. 32 refers back to n^p, Gen. xlix. 10, "tea hx among the names of the Messiah in Isa. ix. 5 (cf. Zech. xii. 8) refers back in a similar manner to Ps. xlv. And whilst the reception of the Song of Songs into the canon admits of being understood even without the assumption of any prophetically allegorical meaning in it, the reception of this Psalm without any such assumption is unintelligible. But this prophetically Messianic sense is therefore not the original meaning of the Psalm. The Psalm is a poem composed for some special occasion the motive of which is some cotemporary event. The king whom it celebrates was a cotemporary of the poet. If, however, it was a king belonging to David's family, then he was a possessor of a kingship to which were attached, according to 2 Sam. ch. vii., great promises extending into the unlimited future, and on which, consequently, hung all the prospects of the future prosperity and glory of Israel; and the poet is therefore fully warranted in regarding him in the light of the Messianic idea, and the church is also fully warranted in referring the song, which took its rise in some passing occasion, as a song for all ages, to the great King of the future, the goal of its hope. Moreover, we find only such poems of an occasional and individual character received into the Psalter, as were adapted to remain in constant use by the church as prayers and spiritual son^s.

With respect to the historical occasion of the song, we adhere to the conjecture advanced in our commentary on Canticles and on the Epistle to the Hebrews, viz. that it was composed in connection with the marriage of Joram of Judah with Athaliah. The reference to the marriage of Ahab of Israel with Jezebel of Tyre, set forth by Hitzig, is at once set aside by the fact that the poet idealizes the person celebrated, as foreshadowing the Messiah, in a way that can only be justified in connection with a Davidic king. It could more readily be Solomon the king of Israel, whose appearance was fair as that of a woman, but majestic as that of a hero.* Even to the present day several interpreters f explain the Psalm of Solo- mon's marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh; but the entire absence of any mention of Egypt is decisive against this view. Hence Hupfeld imagines a daughter of Hiram to be the bride, by reference to the Zidonian Ashtoreth which is mentioned among Solomon's strange gods (1 Kings xi. 5, 33). But the fact that the king here celebrated is called upon to go forth to battle, is also strange, whilst the glory of Solomon consists in his being, in accordance with his name, the Prince of Peace, or nrWD B*K, 1 Chron. xxii. 9. Further, the wish is expressed for him that he may have children who shall take the place of his ancestors: Solomon, however, had a royal father, but not royal fathers; and there is the less ground for any retrospective reference to the princes of Judah as Solomon's ancestors (which Kurtz inclines to), since of these only one, viz. Nahshon, occurs among the ancestry of David.

All this speaks against Solomon, but just with equal force in favour of Joram, as beincr the king celebrated. This Joram is the son of Jehoshaphat, the second Solomon of the Israelitish history. He became king even during the lifetime of his pious father, under whom the Salomonic prosperity of Israel was revived (cf. 2 Chron. xviii. 1 with xxi. 3, 2 Kings viii. 16, and Winer's Bealworterbuch under Jehoram); he was also married to Athaliah during his father's lifetime; and it is natural, that just at that time, when Judah had again attained to the height of the glory of the clays of Solomon, the highest hopes should be gathered around these nuptials. This explains the name?M which the queen bears, — a name that is elsewhere Chaldaean (Dan. v. 2 sq.) and Persian (Neh. ii. 6), and is more North-Palestinian* than Jewish; for Athaliah sprang from the royal family of Tyre, and was married by Joram out of the royal family of Israel. If she is the queen, then the exhortation to forget her people and her father's house has all the greater force. And it becomes intelligible why the homage of Tyre in particular, and only of Tyre, is mentioned. The Salomonic splendour of Asiatic perfumes and costly things is thus quite as easily explained as by referring the Psalm to Solomon. For even Jehoshaphat had turned his attention to

* In Deborah's song (Judg. v. 30) probably feg is to be read instead foreign wares, more especially Indian gold; he even prepared a fleet for the purpose of going to Ophir, but, ere it started, it was wrecked in the harbour of Ezion-geber (1 Kings xxii. 48-50, 2 Chron. xx. 35 sqq.). And Solomon, it is true, had a throne of ivory (1 Kings x. 18), and the Salomonic Song of Songs (vii. 5) makes mention of a tower of ivory; but he had no ivory palace; whereas the mention of |t?"v3*n in our Psalm harmonizes surprisingly with the fact that Ahab, the father of Athaliah, built a palace of ivory (JPTP3), which the Book of Kings, referring to the annals, announces as something especially worthy of note, 1 Kings xxii. 39 (cf. Amos iii. 15,

But why should not even Joram, at a crisis of his life so rich in hope, have been a type of the Messiah? His name is found in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Matt. i. 8. Joram and Athaliah are among the ancestors of our Lord. This significance in relation to the history of redemption is still left them, although they have not realized the good wishes expressed by the poet at the time of their marriage, just as in fact Solomon also began in the spirit and ended in the flesh. Joram and Athaliah have themselves cut away all reference of the Psalm to them by their own godlessness. It is with this Psalm just as it is with the twelve thrones upon which, according to the promise, Matt. xix. 28, the twelve apostles shall sit and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. This promise was uttered even in reference to Judas Iscariot. One of the twelve seats belonged to him, but he has fallen away from it. Matthias became heir to the throne of Judas Iscariot, and who has become the heir to the promises in this Psalm? All the glorious things declared in the Psalm depend upon this as the primary assumption, as essential to their being a blessing and being realized, viz. that the king whom it celebrates should carry out the idea of the theocratic kingship. To the Old Testament prophecy and hope, more especially since the days of Isaiah, the Messiah, and to the New Testament conception of the fulfilment of prophecy Jesus Christ, is the perfected realization of this idea.

The inscription runs: To the Precentor, upon Lilies, by the Bene-Korah, a meditation, a song of that which is lovely* Concerning Maskil, vid. on xxxii. 1. |tW is the name for the (six- leafed) lily,* that is wide-spread in its use in the East; it is not the (five-leafed) rose, which was not transplanted into Palestine until a much later period. In DWBr^J Hengstenberosees a symbolical reference to the " lovely brides" mentioned in the Psalm. Luther, who renders it " concerning the roses," understands it to mean the rosce futures of the united church of the future. We would rather say, with Bugenhagen, Joh. Gerhard, and other old expositors, u The heavenly Bridegroom and the spiritual bride, they are the two roses or lilies that are discoursed of in this Psalm." But the meaning of ttzwurby must be such as will admit of the inscribed riVJJ) jW'fty, Ix. 1, and nny D^k'box (which is probably all one expression notwithstanding the Athnach), lxxx. 1, being understood after the analogy of it. The preposition?V (?N) forbids our thinking of a musical instrument, perhaps lily-shaped bells.f There must therefore have been some well-knowrn popular song, which began with the words "A lily is the testimony..." or u Lilies are the testimonies (ni"W)...;" and the Psalm is composed and intended to be sung after the melody of this song in praise of the Tora.J It is questionable whether rnv*n (Origen i8i8co0} Jerome ididotli) in the last designation of the Psalm is to be taken as a collateral form of HTT (love, and metonymically an object of love, Jer. xii. 7), or whether we are to explain it after the analogy of rrinv? Isa. xxxii. 4, and rrtnba, Isa. xxvi. 10: it is just on this neuter use of the plur. fern, that the interchange which sometimes occurs of oih with uth in an abstract signification (Ew. § 165, c) is based. In the former case it ought to be rendered a song of love (Aquila dafia 7rpoa(pL- \tas); in the latter, a song of that which is beloved, i.e. lovely, or lovable, and this is the more natural rendering. The adjective TT signified beloved, or even (lxxxiv. 2) lovable. It is things that are loved, because exciting love, therefore lovely,

* This name is also ancient Egyptian, vid. the Book of the Dead, rxxxi. 2: nuk seshni pir am t.ah-en-Phra, i.e. I am a lily, sprung from the fields of the sun-god.

f Vide C. Jessen, On the lily of the Bible, in Hugo von Mohl's Botanische Zeitung, 1861, No. 12. Thrupp in his Introduction (18G0) also understands DW1£> to mean cymbals in the form of a lily.

X The point of comparison, then, to adopt the language of Gregory of Nyssa, is to "hctpirpov re ku\ xtovufog ifbos of the lily.

most pleasing things, which, as JVPT T# says, form the contents of the song. HTT Y$ does not signify a marriage-song; this would be called nann W (cf. xxx. 1). Nor does it signify a secular erotic song, instead of which the expression D*5?? W, Ezek. xxxiii. 32, or even (after Ezek. xvi. 8 and other passages) DHn w'? would have been used. TT is a noble word, and used of holy love.

Vers. 2, 3. The verb ^'ni, as T)ftpp shows, signifies originally to bubble up, boil, and is used in the dialects generally of excited motion and lively excitement; it is construed with the accusative after the manner of verbs denoting fulness, like the synonymous JD3, cxix. 171 (cf. Talmudic wan B^mn *]^B&, let thy tongue overflow with songs of praise). Whatever the heart is full of, with that the mouth overflow's; the heart of the poet gushes over with a "good word." lyj is a matter that finds utterance and is put into the form of words; and 2\D describes it as good with the collateral idea of that which is cheerful, pleasing, and rich in promise (Isa. lii. 7, Zech. i. 13). The fact that out of the fulness and oppression of his heart so good a word springs forth, arises from the subject in which now his whole powers of mind are absorbed: I am saying or thinking C?X pausal form by Declti, in order that the introductory formula may not be mistaken), i.e. my purpose is: Tppp '■BtyEJj my works or creations (not sing., but plur., just as also ^j?D in Ex. xvii. 3, Num. xx. 19, where the connection leads one to expect the plural) shall be dedicated to the king; or even: the thought completely fills me, quite carries me away, that they concern or have reference to the king. In the former case sjjop dispenses with the article because it is used after the manner of a proper name (as in xxi. 2, Ixxii. 1); in the latter, because the person retires before the office or dignity belonging to it: and this we, in common with Hitzig, prefer on account of the self-conscious and reflecting "OK "iDtt by which it is introduced. He says to himself that it is a king to whom his song refers; and this lofty theme makes his tongue so eloquent and fluent that it is like the style of a ypafifiarevq of^vypafos. Thus it is correctly rendered by the LXX.; whereas Trio "IBID as an epithet applied to Ezra (ch. vii. 6) does not denote a rapid writer, but a learned or skilled scribe.

Rapidly, like the style of an agile writer, does the tongue of the poet move; and it is obliged to move thus rapidly because of the thoughts and words that ilovv forth to it out of his heart. The chief thing that inspires him is the beauty of the king. The form nWP, which certainly ought to have a passive sense (Aquila KaWec ifca\\iG)0ri<;), cannot be explained as formed by reduplication of the first two radicals of the verb ns> ^BJ); for there are no examples to be found in support of quinqueliterals thus derived. What seems to favour this derivation is this, that the legitimately formed Pealal n&p\ (cf. the adjective ♦BiWsW, Jer. xlvi. 20) is made passive by a change of vowels in a manner that is altogether peculiar, but still explicable in connection with this verb, which is a twofold weak verb. The meaning is: Thou art beyond compare beautifully fashioned, or endowed with beauty beyond the children of men. The lips are specially singled out from among all the features of beauty in him. Over his lips is poured forth, viz. from above, |n (gracefulness or benevolence), inasmuch as, even without his speaking, the form of his lips and each of their movements awakens love and trust; it is evident, however, that from such lips, full of %«/k?, there must proceed also Xoyot, t^? %dpLTos (Luke iv. 22, Eccles. x. 12). In this beauty of the king and this charm of his lips the psalmist sees a manifestation of the everlasting blessing of God, that is perceptible to the senses. It is not to be rendered: because Elohim hath blessed thee for ever. The assertion that |3-^ is used in some passages for IBW \3"?V cannot be proved (vid. on xlii. 7). But the meaning of the psalmist is, moreover, not that the king, because he is so fair and has such gracious lips, is blessed of God. If this were the idea, then the noble moral qualities of which the beauty of this king is the transparent form, ought to be more definitely expressed. Thus personally conceived, as it is here, beauty itself is a blessing, not a ground for blessing. The fact of the matter is this, beauty is denoted by p"by as a reason for the blessing being known or recognised, not as a reason why the king should be blessed. From his outward appearance it is at once manifest that the king is one who is blessed by God, and that blessed for ever. The psalmist could not but know that "grace is deceitful and beauty vain" (Prov. xxxi. 30), therefore the beauty of this king was in his eyes more than mere earthly beauty; it appears to him in the light of a celestial transfiguration, and for this very reason as an imperishable gift, in which there becomes manifest an unlimited endless blessing.

Vers. 4-6. In the ever blessed one the greatest strength and vigour are combined with the highest beauty. He is a hero. The praise of his heroic strength takes the form of a summons to exert it and aid the good in obtaining the victory over evil. Brightness and majesty, as the objects to "fan, alternating with the sword, are not in apposition to this which is their instrument and symbol (Hengstenberg), but permutatives, inasmuch as ifan is zeugmatically referable to both objects: the king is (1) to gird himself with his sword, and (2) to surround himself with his kingly, God-like doxa. "Hni Tin is the brilliancy of the divine glory (xcvi. 6), of which the glory of the Davidic kingship is a reflection (xxi. 6); mentioned side by side with the sword, it is, as it were, the panoply that surrounds the king as bright armour. In ver. 5 TVTfll, written accidentally a second time, is probably to be struck out, as Olshausen and Hupfeld are of opinion. Hitzig points it SJTWt "and step forth;" but this is not Hebrew. As the text runs, wa-haddrcha (with Legarme preceded by Illuj, vid. Accentsystem xiii. § So, 9) looks as though it were repeated out of ver. 4 in the echo-like and interlinked style that we frequently find in the songs of degrees, e.g. cxxi. 1, 2; and in fact repeated as an accusative of more exact definition (in the same bold manner as in xvii. 13, 14) to n?¥, which, like ^vL?, starting from the primary notion of cleaving, breaking through, pressing forward, comes to have the notion of carrying anything through prosperously, of being successful, pervadere et bene procedere (cf. the corresponding development of signification in,-sdj, ^lil), and, according to Ges. § 142, rem. 1, gives to 33") the adverbial notion of that which is effectual (victorious) or effective and successful. We cannot determine whether 33"i is here intended to say veJii curru or vehi egno; but certainly not upon a mule or an ass (1 Kings i. 44, Zech. ix. 9), which are the beasts ridden in a time of peace. The king going forth to battle either rides in a war-chariot (like Ahab and Jehoshaphat, 1 Kings ch. xxii.), or upon a war-horse, as in Apoc. xix. 11 the Logos of God is borne upon a white horse. That which lie is to accomplish as he rides forth in majesty is introduced by W"vJ (for the sake of, on account of), which is used just as in lxxix. 9, 2 Sam. xviii. 5. The combination Piynjay is very similar to rmTinj^ Mic. i. 11 (nakedness-ignominy = ignominious nakedness), if nuy = nw is to be taken as the name of a virtue. The two words are then the names of virtues, like npx (truth = veracity, which loves and practises that which is true and which is hostile to lying, falseness, and dissimulation); and whereas fW pTW would signify meek righteousness, and pl^n^y, righteous meekness, this conjunction standing in the middle between an addition and an asyndeton denotes meekness and righteousness as twin-sisters and reciprocally pervasive. The virtues named, however, stand for those who exemplify them and who are in need of help, on whose behalf the king is called upon to enter the strife: the righteous, if they are at the same time &)W (P"ty> are doubly worthy and in need of his help. Nevertheless another explanation of nwy presents itself, and one that is all the more probable as occurring just in this Psalm which has such a North-Palestinian colouring. The observation, that North-Palestinian writers do not always point the construct state with ath, in favour of which Hitzig, on Ixviii. 29, wrongly appeals to Hos. x. 6, Job xxxix. 13, but rightly to Judg. vii. 8, viii. 32 (cf. Deut. xxxiii. 4, 27), is perfectly correct. Accordingly njajj may possibly be equivalent to HUV, but not in the signification business, affair = $y, parallel with "i?^, but in the signification afflictio (after the form njKi i, Ezek. xxviii. 17); so that it may be rendered: in order to put a stop to the oppression of righteousness or the suffering of innocence. The jussive *pfo% like 1MV1 in ver. 12, begins the apodosis of a hypothetical protasis that is virtually there (Ew. § 347, b): so shall thy right hand teach thee, i.e. lead thee forth and cause thee to see terrible things, i.e. awe-inspiring deeds. But in ver. 6 both summons and desire pass over into the expression of a sure and hopeful prospect and a vision, in which that which is to be is present to the mind: thine arrows are sharpened, and therefore deadly to those whom they hit; peoples shall fall (^.)* under thee, i.e. so that thou passest over them as they lie upon the ground; in the heart of tne enemies of the king, viz. they (i.e. the arrows) will stick. The harsh ellipse is explained by the fact of the poet having the scene of battle before his mind as though he were an eyewitness of it. The words "in the heart of the king's enemies" are an exclamation accompanied by a pointing with the finger. Thither, he means to say, those sharp arrows fly and smite. Crusius' explanation is similar, but it goes further than is required: apostrophe 'per prosopopoeiam directa ad sagittas quasi jubensy quo tendere debeant. We are here reminded of ex. 2, where a similar 3*jj33 occurs in a prophetico-messianic connection. Moreover, even according to its reference to cotemporary history the whole of this strophe sounds Messianic. The poet desires that the king whom he celebrates may rule and triumph after the manner of the Messiah; that he may succour truth and that which is truly good, and overcome the enmity of the world, or, as Ps. ii. expresses it, that the God-anointed King of Zion may shatter everything that rises up in opposition with an iron sceptre. This anointed One, however, is not only the Son of David, but also of God. He is called absolutely "% o u/09. Isaiah calls Him, even in the cradle, "rt23 7K? ch. ix. 5, cf. x. 21. We shall not, therefore, find it to be altogether intolerable, if the poet now addresses him as &wtf, although the picture thus far sketched is thoroughly human in all its ideality.

Vers. 7, 8. In order to avoid the addressing of the king with the word Elohim, ver. 6a has been interpreted, (1) u Thy throne of God is for ever and ever," — a rendering which is grammatically possible, and, if it were intended to be expressed, must have been expressed thus (Nagelsbach, § 64, g); (2) " Thy throne is God (= divine) for ever and ever;" but it cannot possibly be so expressed after the analogy of u the altar of wood = wooden" (cf. ver. 9), or "the time is showers of rain = rainy" (Ezra x. 13), since God is neither the substance of the throne, nor can the throne itself be regarded as a representation or figure of God: in this case the predicative Elohirn would require to be taken as a genitive for Dsn?N km which, however, cannot possibly be supported in Hebrew by any syntax, not even by 2 Kings xxiii. 17, cf. Ges. § 110, 2, b.

Accordingly one might adopt the first mode of interpretation, which is also commended by the fact that the earthly throne of the theocratic king is actually called flVT KD3 in 1 Chron. xxix. 23. But the sentence " thy throne of God is an everlasting one" sounds tautological, inasmuch as that which the predicate asserts is already implied in the subject; and we have still first of all to try whether D\"Ak cannot, with the LXX. 6 Opovos aov, o ®eo?, els alcova alwvos, be taken as a vocative. Now, since before everything else God's throne is eternal (x. 16, Lam. v. 19), and a love of righteousness and a hatred of evil is also found elsewhere as a description of divine holiness (v. 5, Isa. lxi. 8), Dsr6tf would be obliged to be regarded as addressed to God, if language addressed to the king did not follow with firSjJ, But might D\"6k by any possibility be even addressed to the king who is here celebrated? It is certainly true that the custom with the Elohim-Psalms of using Elolrim as of equal dignity with Jahve is not favourable to this supposition; but the following surpassing of the DTPS by DT17K TivM renders it possible. And since elsewhere earthly authorities are also called D\T?tf, Ex. xxi. 6, xxii. 7 sq., Ps. lxxxii., cf. exxxviii. 1, because they are God's representatives and the bearers of His image upon earth, so the king who is celebrated in this Psalm may be all the more readily styled Elolrim, when in his heavenly beauty, his irresistible doxa or glory, and his divine holiness, he seems to the psalmist to be the perfected realization of the close relationship in which God has set David and his seed to Himself. He calls him BWK, just as Isaiah calls the exalted royal child whom he exultingly salutes in ch. ix. 1-6, ^3|"7K. He gives him this name, because in the transparent exterior of his fair humanity he sees the glory and holiness of God as having attained a salutary or merciful conspicuousness among men. At the same time, however, he guards this calling of the king by the name Elolrim against being misapprehended by immediately distinguishing the God, who stands above him, from the divine king by the words "Elohim, thy God," which, in the Korahitic Psalms, and in the Elohimic Psalms in general, is equivalent to " Jahve, thy God" (xliii. 4, xlviii. 15, 1. 7); and the two words are accordingly united by Munach* Because the king's sceptre is a "sceptre of uprightness" (cf. Isa. xi. 4), because he loves righteousness and consequently (fut. consec.) hates iniquity, therefore God, his God, has anointed him with the oil of joy (Isa* lxi. 3; cf. on the construction Amos vi. 6) above his fellows. What is intended is not the anointing to his office (cf. lxxxix. 21 with Acts x. 38) as a dedication to a happy and prosperous reign, but that God has poured forth upon him, more especially on this his nuptial day, a superabundant joy, both outwardly and in his spirit, such as He has bestowed upon no other king upon the face of the earth. That he rises high above all those round about him is self-evident; but even among his fellows of royal station, kings like himself, he has no equal. It is a matter of question whether the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (ch. i. 8) has taken the first 6 0eo? of the expression o @eo? o 6eo9 crov as a vocative. Apollinaris does not seem so to have understood him; for he renders it Tovveica, (tol 0eo9 avrb? erjv Trep[j(evev d\oL<j>rjv yjplaas reptt&)X?79 /j,€t6'^ol<; 7rapd irdvra^ eXa/o), and the Greek expositors also take o 0eo9 here as a nominative*

Vers. 9, 10. The song of that which is lovely here reaches the height towards which it aspires from the beginning. It has portrayed the lovely king as a man, as a hero, and as a divine ruler; now it describes him as a bridegroom on the day of his nuptials. The sequence of the thoughts and of the figures corresponds to the history of the future. When Babylon is fallen, and the hero riding upon a white horse, upon whom is inscribed the name u King of kings and Lord of lords," shall have smitten the hostile nations with the sword that goeth out of His mouth, there then follows the marriage of the Lamb, for which the way has been prepared by these avenging victories (Apoc. xix. 7 sq.). It is this final 7^09

* The view that the Munach is here vicarius Tiphchse anierioris (Dachselt in his Biblia Accentuate?) is erroneous, vid. Accentuationssystem, xviii. § 4. It is the conjunctive to?j\"6tf, which, in Heidenheim and Baer, on the authority of the Codices, has Tiphcha anterior^ not Athnach as in the editions heretofore published. The proper place for the Athnach would at first be by f\W&; but according to Accentuationssystem, xix. § 6, it cannot which the Psalm, as a song of the congregation, when the light was dawning upon the Old Testament church, sees by anticipation, and as it were goes forth to meet it, rejoicing to behold it afar off. The king's garments are so thoroughly scented with costly spices that they seem to be altogether woven out of them. And *0 out of the ivory palaces enchant him. This H2Q has been taken mostly, according to Isa. lix. 18 (cf. also Isa. lii. 6), as a repetition of the IP: " out of ivory palaces, whence they enchant thee." But this repetition serves no special purpose* Although the apocopated plural in % instead of im, is controvertible in Biblical Hebrew (vid. on xxii. 17, 2 Sam. xxii. 44), still there is the venture that in this instance *?D is equivalent to D%|D, the music of stringed instruments (cl. 4); and if in connection with any Psalm at all, surely we may venture in connection with this Psalm, which in other respects has such an Aramaic or North-Palestinian colouring, to acknowledge this apocope, here perhaps chosen on account of the rhythm. In accordance with our historical rendering of the Psalm, by the ivory palaces are meant the magnificent residences of the king, who is the father of the bride. Out of the inner recesses of these halls, inlaid within with ivory and consequently resplendent with the most dazzling whiteness, the bridegroom going to fetch his bride, as he approaches and enters them, is met by the sounds of festive music: viewed in the light of the New Testament, it is that music of citherns or harps which the seer (Apoc. xiv. 2) heard like the voice of many waters and of mighty thunder resounding from heaven. The Old Testament poet imagines to himself a royal citadel that in its earthly splendour far surpasses that of David and of Solomon. Thence issues forth the sound of festive music zealous, as it were, to bid its welcome to the exalted king.

Even the daughters of kings are among his precious ones. "1|J! is the name for that which is costly, and is highly prized and loved for its costliness (Prov. vi. 2Q). The form T^if? resembles the form ri^Py, Prov. xxx. 17, in the appearance of the i and supplanting the Sheba mobile, and also in the Dag. dirimens in the p (cf. ^V, Gen. xlix. 17; B^pD, Ex. xv. 17).#

* It is the reading of Ben-Naphtali that has here, as an exception, become the receptus,• whereas Ben-Asher reads SpftflSja. Saadia, Rashi,

Now, however, he has chosen for himself his own proper wife, who is here called by a name commonly used of Chaldsean and Persian queens, arid, as it seems (cf. on Judg. v. 30), a North- Palestinian name, «^,* instead of,Ty?3. From the fact that, glittering with gold of Ophir, she has taken the place of honour at the right hand of the king (n3Stt, 3d prcet., not part.), it is evident that her relationship to the king is at this time just in the act of being completed. Who are those daughters of kings and who is this queen standing in closest relationship to the king? The former are the heathen nations converted to Christ, and the latter is the Israel which is remarried to God in Christ, after the fulness of the heathen is come in. It is only when Israel is won to Him, after the fulness of the heathen is come in (Rom. xi. 25), that the morning of the great day will dawn, which this Psalm as a song of the church celebrates, rta DOT? cannot certainly, like "W"n3, be a personificative designation of heathen kingdoms, although bw is the believing Israel conceived of as one person. It is actually kings' daughters as the representatives of their nations that are intended; and the relation of things is just the same here as in Isa. xlix. 23, where, of the Israelitish church of the future, it is predicted that kings shall be its foster-fathers and their princesses its nursingmothers.

Vers. 11-13. The poet next turns to address the one bride of the king, who is now honoured far above the kings' daughters. With ^Vnw he implores for himself a hearing; by W he directs her eye towards the new relationship into which

* Bar- Ali says that in Babylonia Venus is called naini b)W, vid. Lagarde, Gesammelte Abhandl. S. 17. Windischmann {Zoroastrische Studien, S. 161) erroneously compares cagar (pronounced tshagar) as a name of one of the two wives of Zarathustra; but it happens that this is not the name of the wife who holds the first rank (Neo-Persic padishah-zen), but of the second (cakir-zen, bond-woman).

she is just entering; by 1QTM W he bespeaks her attention to the exhortation that follows; by H2 he puts himself in a position in relation to her similar to that which the teacher and preacher occupies who addresses the bridal pair at the altar. She is to forget her people and her father's house, to sever her natural, inherited, and customary relationships of life, both as regards outward form and inward affections; and should the king desire her beauty, to which he has a right, — for he, as being her husband (1 Pet. iii. 6), and more especially as being king, is her lord, — she is to show towards him her profoundest, reverent devotion. 1KTM is a hypothetical protasis according to Ges. § 128, 2, c. The reward of this willing submission is the universal homage of the nations. It cannot be denied on the ground of syntax that "l\TTQ* admits of being rendered " and O daughter of Tyre" (Hitzig), — a rendering which would also give additional support to our historical interpretation of the Psalm, — although, apart from the one insecure passage, Jer. xx. 12 (Ew. § 340, c), there is no instance to be found in which a vocative with) occurs (Prov. viii. 5, Joel ii. 23, Isa. xliv. 21), when another vocative has not already preceded it. But to what purpose would be, in this particular instance, this apostrophe with the words "^TO, from which it looks as though she were indebted to her ancestral house, and not to the king whose own she is become, for the acts of homage which are prospectively set before her? Such, however, is not the case; " daughter of Tyre " is a subject-notion, which can all the more readily be followed by the predicate in the plural, since it stands first almost like a nomin. absoL The daughter, i.e. the population of Tyre — approaching with presents shall they court (lit. stroke) thy face, i.e. meeting thee bringing love, they shall seek to propitiate thy love towards themselves. (^3) n?n corresponds to the Latin mulcere in the sense of delenire; for n?n? L*- (root and tender, of taste to be sweet (in another direction: to be lax, weak, sick); the Piel consequently means to soften, conciliate, to make gentle that which is austere. Tyre, however, is named only by way of example; DV *?B% is not an apposition, but a continuation of the subject: not only Tyre, but in general those who are the richest among each separate people or nation. Just as B*1K V.^?*? (Isa. xxix. 19) are the poorest of mankind, so DJJ "»wy are the richest among the peoples of the earth.

As regards the meaning which the congregation or church has to assign to the whole passage, the correct paraphrase of the words "and forget thy people" is to be found even in the Targum: a Forget the evil deeds of the ungodly among thy people, and the house of the idols which thou hast served in the house of thy father." It is not indeed the hardened mass of Israel which enters into such a loving relationship to God and to His Christ, but, as prophecy from Deut. ch. xxxii. onward declares, a remnant thoroughly purged by desolating and sifting judgments and rescued, which, in order to belong wholly to Christ, and to become the holy seed of a better future (Isa. vi. 13), must cut asunder all bonds of connection with the stiff-neckedly unbelieving people and paternal house, and in like manner to Abram secede from them. This church of the future is fair; for she is expiated (Deut. xxxii. 43), cashed (Isa. iv. 4), and adorned (Isa. lxi. 3) by her God. And if she does homage to Him, without looking back, He not only remains her own, but in Him everything that is glorious belonging to the world also becomes her own. Highly honoured by the King of kings, she is the queen among the daughters of kings, to whom Tyre and the richest among peoples of every order are zealous to express their loving and joyful recognition. Very similar language to that used here of the favoured church of the Messiah is used in lxxii. 10 sq. of the Messiah Himself*

Vers. 14-16. Now follows the description of the manner in which she absolutely leaves her father's house, and richly adorned and with a numerous train is led to the king and makes her entry into his palace; and in connection therewith we must bear in mind that the poet combines on the canvas of one picture (so to speak) things that lie wide apart both as to time and place. He sees her first of all in her own chamber (^9^3, prop, towards the inside, then also in the inside, Ges. § 90, 2, Z>), and how there* she is nothing but splendour (rntt3"!>3, prop.

* In Babylonia these words, according to B. Jebamoth 77a, are cited in favour of domesticity as a female virtue; in Palestine (frO"iyD3) more appropriately, Gen. xviii. 9. The LXX. Codd. Vat. et Sinalt. has ' Eat/3o» mere splendour, fern, of inb as in Ezek. xxiii. 41; cf. fc?n"5>3, xwix. 6, mere nothingness), her clothing is gold-interwoven textures {i.e. such as are interwoven with threads of gold, or woven in squares or diamond patterns and adorned with gold in addition). She, just like Esther (Esth. ii. 12), is being led to the king, her husband, and this takes place fito^?, in variegated, embroidered garments (5> used just as adverbially as in 2 Chron. xx. 21, flYJOp), with a retinue of virgins, her companions, who at the same time with herself become the property of her spouse. According to the accents it is to be rendered: virgines post earn, socice ejus, adducuntur tibi, so that fj^ijn is an apposition. This is also in harmony with the allegorical interpretation of the Psalm as a song of the church. The bride of the Lamb, whom the writer of the Apocalypse beheld, arrayed in shining white linen (byssus), which denotes her righteousness, just as here the variegated, golden garments denote her glory, is not just one person nor even one church, but the church of Israel together with the churches of the Gentiles united by one common faith, which have taken a hearty and active part in the restoration of the daughter of Zion. The procession moves on with joy and rejoicing; it is the march of honour of the one chosen one and of the many chosen together with her, of her friends or companions; and to what purpose, is shown by the hopes which to the mind of the poet spring up out of the contemplation of this scene.

Vers. 17, 18. All this has its first and most natural meaning in relation to cotemporary history, but without being at variance with the reference of the Psalm to the King Messiah, as used by the church. Just as the kings of Judah and of Israel allowed their sons to share in their dominion (2 Sam. viii. 18, 1 Kings iv. 7, cf. 2 Chron. xi. 23; 1 Kings xx. 15), so out of the loving relationship of the daughter of Zion and of the virgins of her train to the King Messiah there spring up children, to whom the regal glory of the house of David which culminates in Him is transferred, — a royal race among which He divides the dominion of the earth (yid. Ps. cxlix.); for He makes His own people " kings and priests, and they shall reign on the earth" (Apoc. v. 10). Those children are to be understood here which, according to Ps. ex., are born to Him as the dew out of the womb of the morning's dawn — the ever-youthful nation, by which He conquers and rules the world. When, therefore, the poet says that he will remember the name of the king throughout all generations, this is based upon the twofold assumption, that he regards himself as a member of an imperishable church (Sir. xxxvii. 25), and that he regards the king as a person worthy to be praised by the church of every age. Elsewhere Jahve's praise is called a praise that lives through all generations (cii. 13, exxxv. 13); here the king is the object of the everlasting praise of the church, and, beginning with the church, of the nations also. On ^Hirr (as in the name »Tpn!) c^* tne f°rms m cxvi. 6, lxxxi. 6. First of all Israel, whom the psalmist represents, is called upon to declare with praise the name of the Messiah from generation to generation. But it does not rest with Israel alone. The nations are thereby roused up to do the same thing. The end of the covenant history is that Israel and the nations together praise this love-worthy, heroic, and divine King: " His name shall endure for ever; as long as the sun shall His name bud, and all nations shall be blessed in Him (and) shall praise Him" (lxxii.-17).

2 ELOHIM is unto us a refuge and safe retreat, As a help in distresses He is thoroughly proved.

3 Therefore do we not fear when the earth changeth, And the mountains fall into the heart of the ocean;

5 There is a river — the streams whereof make glad the city

of Elohim, The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.

G Elolum is in the midst of her, she tottereth not, Elohim helpeth her, when the morning dawneth.

7 The peoples rage, the kingdoms totter — He raiseth His voice, and the earth melteth.

10 Who maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth, Who breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder, Who destroyeth the chariots by fire.

When, during the reign of Jehoshaphat, the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites (more particularly the Maonites, for in 2 Chron. xx. 1 it is to be read COTftnp) carried war into the kingdom of David and threatened Jerusalem, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the Asaphite in the temple congregation which the king had called together, and he prophesied a miraculous deliverance on the morrow. Then the Levite singers praised the God of Israel with jubilant voice, viz. singers of the race of Kohath, and in fact out of the family of Korah. On the following day Levite singers in holy attire and writh song went forth before the army of Jehoshaphat. The enemy, surprised by the attack of another plundering band of the sons of the desert, had turned their weapons against one another, being disbanded in the confusion of flight, and the army of Jehoshaphat found the enemy's camp turned into a field of corpses. In the feast of thanksgiving for victory which followed in Emek ha-Beracha the Levite singers again also took an active part, for the spoil-laden army marched thence in procession to Jerusalem and to the temple of Jahve, accompanied by the music of the nablas, citherns, and trumpets. Thus in the narrative in 2 Chron. xxii. does the chronicler give us the key to the Asaphic Psalm lxxxiii. (lxxvi. t) and to the

Korahitic Psalms xlvi., xlvii., xlviii. It is indeed equally admissible to refer these three Korahitic Psalms to the defeat of Sennacherib's army under Hezekiah, but this view has not the same historical consistency. After the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign the congregation could certainly not help connecting the thought of the Assyrian catastrophe so recently experienced with this Psalm; and more especially since Isaiah had predicted this event, following the language of this Psalm very closely. For Isaiah and this Psalm are remarkably linked together.

Just as Ps. ii. is, as it were, the quintessence of the book of Immanuel, Isa. ch. vii.-xii., so is Ps. xlvi. of Isa. ch. xxxiii., that concluding discourse to Isa. ch. xxviii.— xxxii., which is moulded in a lyric form, and was uttered before the deliverance of Jerusalem at a time of the direst distress. The fundamental thought of the Psalm is expressed there in ver. 2 in the form of a petition; and by a comparison with Isa. xxv. 4 sq. we may see what a similarity there is between the language of the psalmist and of the prophet. Isa. xxxiii. 13 closely resembles the concluding admonition; and the image of the stream in the Psalm has suggested the grandly bold figure of the prophet in ver. 21, which is there more elaborately wrought up: "No indeed, there dwells for us a glorious One, Jahve — a place of streams, of canals of wide extent, into which no fleet of rowing vessels shall venture, and which no mighty man-of-war shall cross.19 The divine determination expressed in EV)N we also hear in Isa. xxxiii. 10. And the prospect of the end of war reminds us of the familiar prediction of Isaiah (ch. ii.), closely resembling Micah's in its language, of eternal peace; just as vers. 8, 12 remind us of the watch-word?$ UDJJ in Isa. vii.-xii. The mind of Isaiah and that of Jeremiah have, each in its own peculiar way, taken germs of thought (lit become impregnated) from this Psalm.

We have already incidentally referred to the inscribed words niDjif?^ on vi. 1. Bottcher renders them ad voces puberes, u for tenor voices," a rendering which certainly accords with the fact that, according to 1 Chron. xv. 20, they were accustomed to sing rMOT vy Dy???, and the Oriental sounds, according to Villoteau (Description de VEgypte), correspond aua six sons vers Caigu de V octave du medium de la voix de puberty); and although certainly no eunuchs sang in the temple, yet there is direct testimony that Levite youths were among the singers in the second temple;* and Ps. lxviii. mentions the niD^y who struck the timbrels at a temple festival. Moreover, we must take into consideration the facts that the compass of the tenor extends even into the soprano, that the singers were of different ages down to twenty years of age, and that Oriental, and more particularly even Jewish, song is fond of falsetto singing. We therefore adopt Perret-Gentil's rendering, chant avec voix de femmes, and still more readilv Armand de Mestral's, en soprano; whereas Melissus' rendering, " upon musical instruments called Alamoth (the Germans would say, upon the virginal)," has nothing to commend it.

Vers. 2-4. The congregation begins with a general declaration of that which God is to them. This declaration is the result of their experience. Luther, after the LXX. and Vulg., renders it, " in the great distresses which have come upon us." As though tfVEJ could stand for nitf¥E3n and that this again could mean anything else but u at present existing," to which *wp is not at all appropriate. God Himself is called 1KD KVDJ as being one who allows Himself to be found in times of distress (2 Chron. xv. 4, and frequently) exceedingly; i.e. to those who then seek Him He reveals Himself and verifies His word beyond all measure. Because God is such a God to them, the congregation or church does not fear though a still greater distress than that which they have just withstood, should break in upon them: if the earth should change, i.e. effect, enter upon, undergo or suffer a change (an inwardly transitive Hiphil, Ges. § 53, 2); and if the mountains should sink down

* The Mishna, Erachin 136, expressly informs us, that whilst the Levites sang to the accompanying play of the nablas and citherns, their youths, standing at their feet below the pulpit, sang with them in order to give to the singing the harmony of high and deep voices (p^n, condimenturn). These Levite youths are called njW or D^n ^jnD, parvuli (although the Gemara explains it otherwise) or adjutores Levitarum.

into the heart (3?3 exactly as in Ezek. xxvii. 27, Jon. ii. 4) of the sea (ocean), i.e. even if these should sink back again into the waters out of which they appeared on the third day of the creation, so that consequently the old chaos should return. The church supposes the most extreme case, viz. the falling in of the universe which has been creatively set in order. We are no more to regard the language as being allegorical here (as Hengstenberg interprets it, the mountains being = the kingdoms of the world), than we would the language of Horace: sifractus illabatur orbis (Carm. iii. 3, 7). Since 0^ is not a numerical but amplificative plural, the singular suffixes in ver. 4 may the more readily refer back to it. niw^ pride, self-exaltation, used of the sea as in lxxxix. 10 nttUi, and in Job xxxviii. 11 PK3 are used. The futures in ver. 4 do not continue the infinitive construction: if the waters thereof roar, foam, etc.; but they are, as their position and repetition indicate, intended to have a concessive sense. And this favours the supposition of Hupfeld and Ewald that the refrain, vers.

8, 12, which ought to form the apodosis of this concessive clause (cf. cxxxix. 8-10, Job xx. 24, Isa. xl. 30 sq.) has accidentally fallen out here. In the text as it lies before us ver. 4 attaches itself to K"V3"fcO: (we do not fear), let its waters (i.e. the waters of the ocean) rage and foam continually; and, inasmuch as the sea rises high, towering beyond its shores, let the mountains threaten to topple in. The music, which here becomes forte, strengthens the believing confidence of the congregation, despite this wild excitement of the elements.

Vers. 5-8. Just as, according to Gen. ii. 10, a stream issued from Eden, to water the whole garden, so a stream makes Jerusalem as it were into another paradise: a river — whose streams make glad the city of Elohim (lxxxvii. 3, xlviii.

9, cf. ci. 8); VJ?a (used of the windings and branches of the main-stream) is a second permutative subject (xliv. 3). What is intended is the river of grace, which is also likened to a river of paradise in xxxvi. 9. When the city of God is threatened and encompassed by foes, still she shall not hunger and thirst, nor fear and despair; for the river of grace and of her ordinances and promises flows with its rippling waves through the holy place, where the dwelling-place or tabernacle of the Most. High is pitched. KHP, Sanctum (cf. El-Kuds as a name of dwellings, like ni:3-j;°, xliii. 3, lxxxiv. 2, cxxxii. 5, 7, equivalent to rt a glorious dwelling." In ver. 6 in the place of the river we find Him from whom the river issues forth. Elohim helps her "ip3 nbw — there is only a night of trouble, the return of the morning is also the sunrise of speedy help. The preterites in ver. 7 are hypothetical: if peoples and kingdoms become enraged with enmity and totter, so that the church is in danger of being involved in this overthrow — all that God need do is to make a rumbling with His almighty voice of thunder (fapa pj, as in lxviii. 34, Jer. xii. 8, cf. n»©3 Dnn, to make a lifting with the rod, Ex. vii. 20), and forthwith the earth melts (^D, as in Amos ix. 5, Niph. Isa. xiv. 31, and frequently), i.e. their titanic defiance becomes cowardice, the bonds of their confederation slacken, and the strength they have put forth is destroyed — it is manifest that Jahve Tsebaoth is with His people. This name of God is, so to speak, indigenous to the Korahitic Psalms, for it is the proper name of God belonging to the time of the kings (vid. on xxiv. 10, lix. 6), on the very verge of which it occurs first of all in the mouth of Hannah (1 Sam. i. 11), and the Korahitic Psalms have a royal impress upon them. In the God, at whose summons all created powers are obliged to marshal themselves like the hosts of war, Israel has a steep stronghold, 33^0, which cannot be scaled by any foe — the army of the confederate peoples and kingdoms, ere it has reached Jerusalem, is become a field of the dead.

Vers. 9-12. The mighty deeds of Jahve still lie visibly before them in their results, and those who are without the pale of the church are to see for themselves and be convinced. In a passage founded upon this, Ixvi. 5, stands DTPN ni^VDD; here, according to Targum and Masora (vid. Psalter, ii. 472), mm rn^JSD.* Even an Elohimic Psalm gives to the God of Israel in opposition to all the world no other name than m.T. fiS&W does not here signify stupenda (Jer. viii. 21), but in

* Nevertheless D\"6k D^DD is also found here as a various reading that goes back to the time of the Talmud. The oldest Hebrew Psalter of 1477 reads thus, vide Repertorium fur Bibl. und Morgenldnd. Liter, v. (1779), 148. Norzi decides in favour of it, and Biesenthal has also adopted it in his edition of the Psalter (1837), which in other respects is a reproduction of Heidenheim's text accordance with the phrase neao Dib, Isa. xiii. 9, and frequently: devastations, viz. among the enemies who have kept the field against the city of God. The participle Wzvn is designedly used in carrying forward the description. The annihilation of the worldly power which the church has just now experienced for its rescue, is a prelude to the ceasing of all war, Mic. iv. 3 (Isa. ii. 4). Unto the ends of the earth will Jahve make an end of waging war; and since He has no pleasure in war in general, much less in war waged against His own people, all the implements of war He in part breaks to pieces and in part consigns to the flames (cf. Isa. liv. 16 sq.). Cease, cries He (ver. 12) to the nations, from making war upon my people, and know that I am God, the invincible One, — invincible both in Myself and in My people, — who will be acknowledged in My exaltation by all the world. A similar inferential admonition closes Ps. ii. With this admonition, which is both warning and threatening at the same time, the nations are dismissed; but the church yet once more boasts that Jahve Tsebaoth is its God and its stronghold.

3 For Jahve is highly exalted, terrible, A great King over all the earth.

6 Elohim is gone up with a shout, Jahve with the sound of a trumpet.

10 The princes of the peoples gather themselves together— A people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth are Elohim's, Very highly exalted is He.

Whilst between Ps. xlv. and xlvi. scarcely any other bond of relationship but the similar use of the significant |3"^ can be discovered, Ps. xlvii. has, in common with Ps. xlvi., not only the thought of the kingly exaltation of Jahve over the peoples of the earth, but also its historical occasion, viz. Jehoshaphat's victory over the allied neighbouring nations, — a victory without a conflict, and consequently all the more manifestly a victory of Jahve, who, after having fought for His people, ascended again amidst the music of their celebration of victory; an event that was outwardly represented in the conducting of the Ark back to the temple (2 Chron. xx. 28). Ps. xlvii. has grown out of this event. The strophe schema cannot be mistaken, viz. 8. 8. 4.

On account of the blowing of the trumpet* mentioned iu ver. 6, this Psalm is the proper new year's Psalm in the synagogue (together with Ps. lxxxi., the Psalm of the second new year's feast day); and on account of the mention of the ascension of Jahve, it is the Psalm for Ascension day in the church. Luther styles it, the a Christ ascended to Heaven of the sons of Korah." Paulus Burgensis quarrels with Lyra because he does not interpret it directly of the Ascension; and Bakius says: Lyranus a Judceis seductus, in cortice hceret. The whole truth here, as is often the case, is not to be found on either side. The Psalm takes its occasion from an event in the reign of Jehoshaphat. But was the church of the ages succeeding required to celebrate, and shall more especially the New Testament church still celebrate, that defeat of the

* In connection with which, J"6jj then is intended to point to the fact that, when the sound of the trumpets of Israel begins, God rises from the throne of justice and takes His seat upon the throne of mercy: vid. Buxtorf, Lex. Talmud, col. 2505.

allied neighbouring peoples f This defeat brought the people of God repose and respect for a season, but not true and lasting peace; and the ascent at that time of Jahve, who had fought here on earth on behalf of His people, was not as yet the ascent above the powers that are most hurtful to His people, and that stand most in the way of the progress of salvation, viz. those powers of darkness which form the secret background of everything that takes place upon earth that is in opposition to God. Hence this Psalm in the course of history has gained a prophetic meaning, far exceeding its first occasion, which has only been fully unravelled by the ascension of Christ.

Vers. 2-5. a Thereupon the fear of Elohim" — so closes the chronicler (2 Chron. xx. 29) the narrative of the defeat of the confederates — u came upon all kingdoms of the countries, when they heard that Jahve had fought against the enemies of Israel." The psalmist, however, does not in consequence of this particular event call upon them to tremble with fear, but to rejoice; for fear is an involuntary, extorted inward emotion, but joy a perfectly voluntary one. The true and final victory of Jahve consists not in a submission that is brought about by war and bloodshed and in consternation that stupefies the mind, but in a change in the minds and hearts of the peoples, so that they render joyful worship unto Him. In order that He may thus become the God of all peoples, He has first of all become the God of Israel; and Israel longs that this the purpose of its election may be attained. Out of this longing springs the call in ver. 2. The peoples are to show the God of revelation their joy by their gestures and their words; for Jahve is absolutely exalted (Pv^, here it is a predicate, just as in lxxviii. 56 it is an attribute), terrible, and the sphere of His dominion has Israel for its central point, not, however, for its limit, but it extends over the whole earth. Everything must do homage to Him in His own people, whether willingly or by constraint. According to the tenses employed, what is affirmed in ver. 4 appears to be a principle derived from their recent experience, inasmuch as the cotemporary fact is not expressed in an historical form, but generalized and idealized. But ini^ ver. 5a, is against this, since the choosing (election) is an act done once for all and not a continued act j we are therefore driven to regard the futures, as in Num. xxiii. 7, Judg. ii. 1, as a statement of historical facts. Concerning "1ST, He bent, made to stoop, vuL xviii. 48. There is now no necessity for altering "ITO into 3HV, and more especially since this is not suited to the fact which has given occasion to the Psalm. On the contrary, "iru* presupposes that in the event of the day God has shown Himself to be a faithful and powerful Lord [lit. feudal Lord] of the land of Israel; the hostile confederation had thought of nothing less than driving Israel entirely out of its inheritance (2 Chron. xx. 11). The Holy Land is called the pride (p*«) of Jacob, as being the gift of grace of which this, the people of God's love, can boast. In Amos vi. 8 spy pfcO has a different meaning (of the sin of pride), and again another sense in Nah. ii. 3 (of the glory of all Israel in accordance with the promise); here it is similar to Isa. xiii. 19. T\H has a conjunctive accent instead of being followed by Makkeph, as in lx. 2, Prov. iii. 12 (these are the only three instances). The strophe which follows supports the view that the poet, in ver. 5, has a recent act of God before his mind.

Vers. 6-9. The ascent of God presupposes a previous descent, whether it be a manifestation of Himself in order to utter some promise (Gen. xvii. 22, Judg. xiii. 20) or a triumphant execution of judgment (vii. 8, lxviii. 19). So here: God has come down to fight on behalf of His people. They return to the Holy City and He to His throne, which is above on Zion, and higher still, is above in heaven. On njjvina and 1BIW bSp cf. xcviii. 6, 1 Chron. xv. 28, but more especially Amos ii. 2; for the " shout" is here the people's shout of victory, and " the sound of the horn" the clear sound of the horns announcing the victory, with reference to the celebration of the victory in the Valley of praise and the homeward march amidst the clanging music (2 Chron. xx. 26 sq.). The poet, who has this festival of victory before his mind as having recently taken place, desires that the festive sounds may find an unending and boundless echo unto the glory of God. TOT is first construed with the accusative as in lxviii. 33, then with the dative. Concerning J^^D = a>Sr) irveviiaTucr) (Eph. v. 19, Col. iii. 16), vid. on xxxii. 1. That which excites to songs of praise is Jahve's dominion of the world which has just been made manifest. $» is to be taken in just the same historical sense as ifiaatXevaas, Apoc. xi. 15-18. What lias taken place is a prelude of the final and visible entering upon the kingdom, the announcement of which the New Testament seer there hears. God has come down to earth, and after having obtained for Himself a recognition of His dominion by the destruction of the enemies of Israel, He has ascended again in visible kingly glory. Imago conscensi a Messia throni glorice^ says Chr. Aug. Crusius, tune efat deportatio arcce foederis in sedem regni.

Ver. 10. In the mirror of the present event, the poet reads the great fact of the conversion of all peoples to Jahve which closes the history of the world. The nobles of the peoples (^"tt with the twofold meaning of generosi), the u shields {i.e. the lords who are the defenders of their people) of the earth " (Hos. iv. 18), enter into the society of the people of the God of Abraham; irepa? at irpo^ rov warpcdp^v 'Afipaap, <i\af3ov v7ro(r^€flre£9, as Theodoret observes. The promise concerning the blessing of the tribes of the nations in the seed of the patriarch is being fulfilled; for the nobles draw the peoples who are protected by them after themselves. It is unnecessary to read By instead of EJf with Ewald, and following the LXX. and Syriac; and it is also inadmissible, since one does not say QV *)DfcO, but p or?N. Even Eusebius has rightly praised Sym-. machus and Theodotion, because they have translated the ambiguous aji by \ab<$ (rov Geov ' ' A$paap)y viz. as being a nominative of the effect or result, as it is also understood by the Targum, Jerome, Luther, and most of the Jewish expositors, and among modern expositors by Crusius, Hupfeld, and Hitzig: They gather and band themselves together as a people or into a people of the God of Abraham, they submit themselves with Israel to the one God who is proved to be so glorious.* The conclusion (ver. 11) reminds one of the song of Hannah, 1 Sam. ii. 8. Thus universal homage is rendered to Him: He is gone up in triumph, and is in consequence thereof highly exalted ('"wl, SdprceL, the result or consequence of the rpy in ver. 6).

* It is also accented accordingly, viz. lDDfcO with Echia magnum, which (and in this respect it is distinguished from MugrasK) makes a pause; and this is then followed by the supplementing clause with Zinnor, Galgal, and Olewejored,

2 GKEAT is Jahve and greatly to be praised In the city of our God, His holy mountain.

3 Beautifully elevated, a joy of the whole earth Is mount Zion, the angle of the north.

In the city of Jahve of Hosts, the city of our God — Elohim upholdeth her for ever. (Sela.)

11 As is Thy name, Elohim, so is Thy praise Unto the ends of the earth;

13 Walk ye about Zion and go round about her, Tell her towers,

Ps. xlviii. is also a song of thanksgiving for victory. It is connected with Ps. xlvi. and xlvii. by the fundamental thought of the exaltation of Jahve above the peoples of the earth; but is distinguished from them both in this respect, viz. that, in accordance with the favourite characteristic of Korahitic poetry, the song of thanksgiving for victory has become a song in praise of Jerusalem, the glorious" and strong city, protected by God who sits enthroned in it. The historical occasion is the same. The mention of the kings points to an army of confederates; ver. 10 points to the gathering held in the temple before the setting out of the army; and the figurative representation of the hostile powers by the shattered ships of Tarshish does not apply to any period so well as to the time of Jehoshaphat. The points of coincidence between this Psalm (cf. ver. 7 with Isa. xxxiii. 14; ver. 8 with Isa. xxxiii. 21; ver. 13 with Isa. xxxiii. 18; ver. 15 with Isa. xxxiii. 22), as well as Ps. xlvi., and Isaiah do not prove that he is its author.

Vers. 2-9. Viewed as to the nature of its subject-matter, the Psalm divides itself into three parts. We begin by considering the three strophes of the first part. The middle strophe presents an instance of the rising and falling caesural schema. Because Jahve has most marvellously delivered Jerusalem, the poet begins with the praise of the great King and of His Holy City. Great and praised according to His due vH1? as m xyiu» 4) is He in her, is He upon His holy mountain, which there is His habitation. Next follow, in ver. 3, two predicates of a threefold, or fundamentally only twofold, subject; for |toj??1!j in whatever way it may be understood, is in apposition to pa^f in. The predicates consequently refer to Z ion- Jerusalem; for 2"\ *J]pD nnj? is not a name for Zion, but, inasmuch as the transition is from the holy mountain to the Holy City (just as the reverse is the case in ver. 25), Jerusalem; ore 7ro\t? €<ttI tov fieydXov /3a<™\€G)?, Matt. v. 35. Of Zion- Jerusalem it is therefore said, it is *[V n§\ beautiful in promi- nence or elevation (stfa from *|U, Arabic ndfa, nanf, root *p, the Stronger force of as, c_^3, to raise one's self, to mount, to come sensibly forward; just as m also goes back to a root f\\ t_i>, uJj, which signifies " to rise, to be high," and is transferred in the Hebrew to eminence, perfection, beauty of form), a beautifully rising terrace-like height;* and, in the second place, it is the joy (WfeD) of the whole earth. It is deserving of being such, as the people who dwell there are themselves convinced (Lam. ii. 15); and it is appointed to become such, it is indeed such even now in hope, — hope which is, as it were, being anticipatorily verified. But in what sense does the appositional W£ fto? follow immediately upon rs¥~-in? Hitzig, Ewald, Hengstenberg, Caspari (Micha, p. 359), and others, are of opinion that the hill of Zion is called the extreme north with reference to the old Asiatic conception of the mountain of the gods — old Persic Ar-burg (Al-burg), also called absolutely hara or haraiti,\ old Indian Kaildsa and Meru% — forming the connecting link between heaven and earth, which lay in the inaccessible, holy distance and concealment of the extreme north. But the poet in no way betrays the idea that he applies this designation to Zion in an ideal sense only, as being not inferior to the extreme north (Bertheau, Lage des Paradieses, S. 50, and so also S. D. Luzzatto on Isa. xiv. 13), or as having taken the place of it (Hitzig). That notion is found, it is true, in Isa. xiv. 13, in the mouth of the king of the Chaldeans; but, with the exception of the passage before us, we have no trace of the Israelitish mind having blended this foreign mythological style of speech with its own. We therefore take the expression "sides of the north" to be a topographical designation, and intended literally. Mount Zion is thereby more definitely designated as the Temple-hill; for the Temple-hilJ, or Zion in the narrower sense, formed in reality the north-eastern angle

* Luther with Jerome (departing from the LXX. and Vulgate) renders it: "Mount Zion is like a beautiful branch," after the Mishna-Talmudic Pjij, a branch, Maccoth 12a, which is compared also by Saadia and Dunash. The latter renders it " beautiful in branches," and refers it to the Mount of Olives.

or corner of ancient Jerusalem. It is not necessarily the extreme north (Ezek. xxxviii. 6, xxxix. 2), which is called J13V WV; for B7??T. are the two sides, then the angle in which the two side lines meet, and just such a northern angle was Mount Moriah by its position in relation to the city of David and the lower city.

Ver. 4, where the pointing is rightly JHfo, not info, shows that the praise sung by the poet is based upon an event in cotemporary history. Elohim has made Himself known by the loftily built parts* of Jerusalem (cxxii. 7) ^f1?1? (the ^ that is customary with verbs of becoming and making), i.e. as an inaccessible fortress, making them secure against any hostile attack. The fact by which He has thus made Himself known now immediately follows. C^n points to a definite number of kings known to the poet; it therefore speaks in favour of the time of peril and war in the reign of Jehoshaphat and against that in the reign of Hezekiah. "Ufa is reciprocal: to appoint themselves a place of meeting, and meet together there. i?V, as in Judg. xi. 29, 2 Kings viii. 21, of crossing the frontier and invasion (Hitzig), not of perishing and destruction, as in xxxvii. 36, Nah. i. 12 (De Wette); for HJflJ requires further progress, and the declaration respecting their sudden downfall does not follow till later on. The allies encamped in the desert of Tekoa, about three hours distant from Jerusalem. The extensive view at that point extends even to Jerusalem: as soon as they saw it they were amazed, i.e. the seeing and astonishment, panic and confused flight, occurred all together; there went forth upon them from the Holy City, because Elohim dwells therein, a D^K rpnn (1 Sam. xiv. 15), or as we should say, a panic or a panic-striking terror. Concerning |3 as expressive of simultaneousness, vid. on Hab. iii. 10. "^J? in the correlative protasis is omitted, as in Hos. xi. 2, and frequently; cf. on Isa. lv. 9. Trembling seized upon them there (p&, as in xiv. 5), pangs as of a woman in travail. In ver. 8, the description passes over emotionally into the form of address. It moulds itself according to the remembrance of a recent event of tho poet's own time, viz. the destruction of the merchant fleet fitted out by Jehoshaphat in conjunction with Ahaziah, king of Israel (1 Kings xxii. 49, 2 Chron. xx. 36 sq.). The general meaning of ver. 8 is, that God's omnipotence is irresistible. Concerning the "wind of the east quarter," which here, as in Ezek. xxvii. 26, -causes shipwreck, vid. on Job xxvii. 21. The-" ships of Tarshish," as is clear from the context both before and after, are not meant literally, but used as a figure of the worldly powers; Isaiah (ch. xxxiii.) also compares Assyria to a gallant ship. Thus, then, the church can say that in the case of Jerusalem it has, as an eye-witness, experienced that which it has hitherto only heard from the tradition of a past age (n^O and VKV as in Job xlii. 5), viz. that God holds it erect, establishes it, for ever. Hengstenberg observes here, " The Jerusalem that has been laid in ruins is not that which the psalmist means; it is only its outward form which it has put off" [lit. its broken and deserted pupa]. It is true that, according to its inner and spiritual nature, Jerusalem continues its existence in the New Testament church; but it is not less true that its being trodden under foot for a season in the /caipol i6vcov no more annuls the promise of God than Israel's temporary rejection annuls Israel's election. The Holy City does not fall without again rising up.

Vers. 10-12. Now follows grateful praise to God, who hears prayer and executes justice, to the joy of His city and of His people. By Wtin the poet refers back to the service held in the temple before the army set out, as narrated in 2 Chron. ch. xx., to the prayers offered in the time of their impending danger, and to the remembrance of the favour hitherto shown towards Jerusalem, from which source they drew the comfort of hope for the present time, ntpj, to compare, to hold one thing over against another, in this instance by causing the history of the past to pass before one's mind. To God's mighty deeds of old is now added a new one. The Name of God, i.e. the sum of His self-attestations hitherto, was the subject of the UW in the temple, and more particularly of the Korahitic songs (2 Chron. xx. 19); and this name has gloriously verified itself by a new deed of righteousness. His fame extends even to the ends of the earth (2 Chron. xx. 29) He has proved Himself to be One whose right hand is full of righteousness, and who practises righteousness or justice where it is necessary. Let, then, the Holy City, let the country cities of Judah (Isa. xl. 9, cf. xvi. 2) rejoice. The whole inheritance of Israel was threatened. Now it is most gloriously delivered.

Vers. 13-15. The call is addressed not to the enemies of Jerusalem — for it would be absurd to invite such to look round about upon Jerusalem with joy and gladness — but to the people of Jerusalem itself. From the time of the going forth of the army to the arrival of the news of victory, they have remained behind the walls of the city in anxious expectation. Now they are to make the circuit of the city (Tip?, still more definite than 23D, Josh. vi. 3) outside the walls, and examine them and see that its towers are all standing, its bulwark is intact, its palaces are resplendent as formerly. "?U?, " upon its bulwark," == PPW (Zech. ix. 4), with softened suffix as in Isa. xxiii. 17, xlv. 6, and frequently; Ew. § 247, d. JDS (according to another reading, ^p^n) signifies, in B. Baba kamma Sib, to cut through (a vineyard in a part where there is no way leading through it); the signification " to take to pieces and examine, to contemplate piece by piece," has no support in the usage of the language, and the signification "to extol" (erhohen, Luther following Jewish tradition) rests upon a false deduction from the name H2D3. Louis de Dieu correctly renders it: JDividite palatia, h. e. obambulate inter palatia ejus, secando omnes palatiorum vias, quo omnia possitis commode intueri. They are to convince themselves by all possible means of the uninjured state of the Holy City, in order that they may be able to tell to posterity, that nt, such an one, such a marvellous helper as is now manifest to them, is Elohim our God. He will also in the future guide us.... Here the Psalm closes; for, although JHJ is wont to be construed with?V in the signification ayetv iiri (xxiii. 2, Isa. xlix. 10), still " at death " [lit. dying], i.e. when it comes to dying (Hengstenberg), or " even unto fa as in ver. 11, xix. 7) death" [lit. dying] (Hupfeld), forms no suitable close to this thoroughly national song, having reference to a people of whom the son of Sirach says (ch. xxxvii. 25): far) avSpbs iv apiOjjLQ) rjfjtepcop nal at rjfiepat tov 'IaparjX avaptOfJtTjroi. The rendering of Mendelssohn, Stier, and others, " over death," i.e. beyond death (Syriac), would be better; more accurately:

beyond dying = destruction (Bunsen, Bibelwerlc, Th. i. S. clxi.). Bat the expression does not admit of this extension, and the thought comes upon one unexpectedly and as a surprise in this Psalm belonging to the time before the Exile. The Jerusalem Talmud, Megilla, ch. ii. (fol. 73, col. b, ed. Venet.), presents a choice of the following interpretations: (1) Jnof>y = ™D?^, in youthfulness, adopting which, but somewhat differently applied, the Targum renders, "in the days of youth;" (2) mo^y p^S3, like virgins, with which Luther's rendering coincides: like youth (ivie die Jugent); (3) according to the reading niDpy, which the LXX. also reproduces: in this and the future world, noting at the same time that Akilas (Aquila) translates the word by aOavaaia: " in a world where there is no death." But in connection with this last rendering one would rather expect to find n!£~btf (Prov. xii. 28) instead of niO"i»y. rriDjy, however, as equivalent to alcove? is Mishnic, not Biblical; and a Hebrew word JTO?y (ri^py) in the sense of the Aramaic TPKWp cannot be justified elsewhere. We see from the wavering of the MSS., some of which give rvjD"?y? and others rviDpy, and from the wavering of expositors, what little success is likely to follow any attempt to gain for TWrhy, as a substantial part of the Psalm, any sense that is secure and in accordance both with the genius of the language and with the context. Probably it is a marginal note of the melody, an abbreviation for ja? rpiErpy, ix. 1. And either this note, as in Hab. iii. 19 ♦JTfraaa n^pp, stands in an exceptional manner at the end instead of the beginning (Hitzig, Reggio), or it belongs to the nwo^ of the following Psalm, and is to be inserted there (Bottcher, De inferis, § 371). If, however, ]TO~i>y does not belong to the Psalm itself, then it must be assumed that the proper closing words are lost. The original close was probably more full-toned, and somewhat like Isa. xxxiii. 22.

3 Both low and high, Rich and poor together!

6 Wherefore should I fear in the days of misfortune, When the evil-doing of my supplanters encompasseth me,

8 A man is not able by any means to redeem his brother, Nor can he give to God a ransom for him,

9 (Too costly is the redemption of their soul, And he must give it up for ever);

11 No indeed, he must see, that wise men the, Likewise the fool and the stupid man perish, And leave to others their wealth.

12 Their thought is that their houses are for ever, Their dwellings from generation to generation; They proclaim their names over lands.

14 This is the lot of those who are full of self-confidence, And who following them yield assent to their mouth. (Sela.)

15 Like sheep gathered to Hades death doth shepherd them, And the upright shall triumph over them on that morning, Whereas their form, falling a prey to the devouring of

16 Yet Elohim will redeem my soul from the power of

17 Be not thou afraid, when a man becometh rich, When the glory of his house is increased.

18 For when he dieth he shall take nothing away with him, His glory doth not go down after him.

20 It shall come to the generation of his fathers: In eternity they shall never see the light.

21 Man in pomp, and yet having no understanding, Is like to the beasts that are destroyed.

To the pair of Psalms xlvii. and xlviii. is appended Ps. xlix.. which likewise begins with an appealing " all ye peoples;" in other respects, being a didactic song, it has nothing in common with the national and historical Psalms, xlvi.-xlviii. The poet Here steps forward as a preacher in the midst of men. His theme is the transitoriness of the prosperity of the ungodly, and, on the other hand, the hope of the upright which rests on God. Accordingly the Psalm falls into the following divisions: an introduction, vers. 2-5, which by its very promissory tone reminds one of the speeches of Elihu in the Book of Job, and the two parts of the sermon following thereupon, vers. 6-13, 14-21, which are marked out by a refrain, in which there is only a slight variation of expression. In its dogmatic character it harmonizes with the Psalms of the time of David, and by its antique and bold form takes rank with such Psalms as Ps. xvii. by David and lxxiii. by Asaph. Since also in the didactic Psalms of David and Asaph we meet with a style differing from that of their other Psalms, and, where the doings of the ungodly are severely rebuked, we find a harsher and more concise mode of expression and a duller, heavier tone, there is nothing at variance with the assumption that Ps. xlix. was composed by the writer of Ps. xlii.-xliii. and lxxxiv.; and more especially since David has composed Psalms of a kindred character (xxxix. and lxii.) in the time of the persecution by Absalom. Nothing, however, is involved in this unity of the author.