Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

imperious one, down (fro, like a tower perhaps, Judg. viii. 9, Ezek. xxvi. 9) from his position of honour and his prosperity, and drag him forth out of his habitation, much as one rakes a coal from the hearth (nnn Biblical and Talmudic in this sense), and tear him out of this his home (nno, cf. pflj, Job xviii. 14) and remove him far away (Deut. xxviii. 63), because he has betrayed the homeless fugitive; and will root him out of the land of the living, because he has destroyed the priests of God (1 Sam. xxii. 18). It then proceeds in vers. 8 sq. very much like xl. 4£>, 5, just as the figure of the razor also coincides with Psalms belonging to exactly the same period (li. 8, lvii. 5, cf. KW, vii. 13). The excitement and indignant anger against one's foes which expresses itself in the rhythm and the choice of words, has been already recognised by us since Ps. vii. as a characteristic of these Psalms. The hope which David, in ver. 8, attaches to God's judicial interposition is the same as e.g. in Ps. lxiv. 10. The righteous will be strengthened in the fear of God (for the play of sounds cf. xl. 4) and laugh at him whom God has overthrown, saying: Behold there the man, etc. According to lviii. 11, the laughing is joy at the ultimate breaking through of justice long hidden and not discerned; for even the moral teaching of the Old Testament (Prov. xxiv. 17) reprobates the low malignant joy that glories at the overthrow of one's enemy. By ntpi>1 the former trust in mammon on the part of the man who is overtaken by punishment is set forth as a consequence of his refusal to put trust in God, in Him who is the true TtoD = iU^, hiding-place or place of protection

(yid. on xxxi. 3, xxxvii. 39, cf. xvii. 7, 2 Sam. xxii. 33). nvi is here the passion for earthly things which rushes at and falls upon them (animo fertur).

Vers. 10, 11. The gloomy song now brightens up, and in calmer tones draws rapidly to a close. The betrayer becomes like an uprooted tree; the betrayed, however, stands firm and is like to a green-foliaged olive (Jer. xi. 16) which is planted in the house of Elohim (xc. 14), that is to say, in sacred and inaccessible ground; cf. the promise in Isa. lx. 13. The weighty expression WWV ^ refers, as in xxii. 32, to the gracious and just carrying out of that which was aimed at in the election of David. If this be attained, then he will for ever give thanks ami further wait on the Name, i.e. the self-attestation, of God, which is so gracious and kind, he will give thanks and "wait" in the presence of all the saints. This "waiting," ™.PNJL, is open to suspicion, since what he intends to do in the presence of the saints must be something that is audible or visible to them. Also "hoping in the name of God" is, it is true, not an unbiblical notional combination (Isa. xxvi. 8); but in connection with 2)D *3 ic;? which follows, one more readily looks for a verb expressing a thankful and laudatory proclamation (cf. liv. 8). Hitzig's conjecture that we should read njHKI is therefore perfectly satisfactory. TT'pn ^J does not belong to lit:, which would be construed with W3, and not TD, but to the two votive words; cf. xxii. 26, cxxxviii. 1, and other passages. The whole church (xxii. 23 sq., xl. 10 sq.) shall be witness of his thankfulness to God, and of his proclamation of the proofs which God Himself has given of His love and favour.

2 THE fool hath said in his heart: " There is no God; " Corruptly and abominably do they carry on their iniquity, There is none that doeth good.

3 Elohim looketh down from heaven upon the children of

men, To see if there be any that have understanding, If any that seek after God.

4 Every one of them is gone back, altogether they are corrupt, There is none that doeth good,

5 Are the workers of iniquity so utterly devoid of under- standing, Who eating up my people eat up bread, (And) call not on Elohim %

6 Then were they in great fear, when there was no fear; For Elohim scattered the bones of him that encamped

round about thee; Thou didst put them to shame, for Elohim had despised them.

7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When Elohim turneth the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, Israel shall be glad.

Psalms lii. and liv., which are most closely related by occasion, contents, and expression, are separated by the insertion of Ps. liii., in which the individual character of Ps. lii., the description of moral corruption and the announcement of the divine curse, is generalized. Ps. liii. also belongs to this series according to its species of poetic composition; for the inscription runs: To the Precentor, after Machalath, a Maskil of David. The formula r6nip";>y recurs in Ixxxviii. 1 with the addition of ni3yp. Since Ps. Ixxxviii. is the gloomiest of all the Psalms, and Ps. liii., although having a bright border, is still also a dark picture, the signification of *bf}®9 laxness (root i>n, opp. -»E), sickness, sorrow, which is capable of being supported by Ex. xv. 26, must be retained. thTXtyhy signifies after a sad tone or manner; whether it be that rfrno itself (with the ancient dialectic feminine termination, like n?^> lxi. 1) is a name for such an elegiac kind of melody, or that it was thereby designed to indicate the initial word of some popular song. In the latter case TOTVO is the construct form, the standard song beginning 2? rpno or some such way. The signification to be sweet (Aramaic) and melodious (^Ethiopic), which the root vn obtains in the dialects, is foreign to Hebrew. It is altogether inadmissible to combine rbriQ with il^, ease, comfort (Germ.

Gemdchlichkeit, cf. mdchlich, easily, slowly, with mdhlich, by degrees), as Hitzig does; since i>nD, Rabbinic, to pardon, coincides more readily with nnD? li. 3, 11. So that we may regard machalath as equivalent to mesto, not piano or andante.

That the two texts, Ps. xiv. and liii., are " vestiges of an original identity" (Hupfeld) is not established: Ps. liii. is a later variation of Ps. xiv. The musical designation, common only to the earlier Psalms, at once dissuades one from coming down beyond the time of Jehoshaphat or Hezekiah. Moreover, we have here a manifest instance that even Psalms which are composed upon the model of, or are variations of Davidic Psalms, were without any hesitation inscribed IvA.

Beside the critical problem, all that remains here for the exegesis is merely the discussion of anything peculiar in the deviations in the form of the text,

Ver. 2. The well-grounded asyndeton town ^inw'n is here dismissed; and the expression is rendered more bombastic by the use of ty instead of nWy. fyy (the masculine to nb)y)y pravitas, is the accusative of the object (cf. Ezek. xvi. 52) to both verbs, which give it a twofold superlative attributive notion. Moreover, here wwn is accented with Mugrash in our printed texts instead of Tarcha. One Mugrash after another is contrary to all rule.

Ver. 3. In both recensions of the Psalm the name of God occurs seven times. In Ps. xiv. it reads three times Elohim and four times Jahve; in the Psalm before us it is all seven times Elohim, which in this instance is a proper name of equal dignity with the name Jahve. Since the mingling of the two names in Ps. xiv. is perfectly intentional, inasmuch as Elohim in vers. 1, 2c describes God as a Being most highly exalted and to be reverentially acknowledged, and in ver. 5 as the Being who is present among men in the righteous generation and who is mighty in their weakness, it becomes clear that David himself cannot be the author of this levelling change, which is carried out more rigidly than the Elohimic character of the Psalm really demands.

Ver. 4. Instead of?3H, the totality, we have fe, which denotes each individual of the whole, to which the suffix, that has almost vanished (xxix. 9) from the genius of the language, refers. And instead of ID, the more elegant 3D, without any distinction in the meaning.

Ver. 5. Here in the first line the word "^ which, as in v. 6, vi. 9, is in its right place, is wanting. In Ps. xiv. there then follow, instead of two tristichs, two distichs, which are perhaps each mutilated by the loss of a line. The writer who has retouched the Psalm has "estored the tristichic symmetry that had been lost sight of, but he has adopted rather violent means: inasmuch as he has fused down the two distichs into a single tristich, which is as closely as possible adapted to the sound of their letters.

Ver. 6. The last two lines of this tristich are in letters so similar to the two distichs of Ps. xiv., that they look like an attempt at the restoration of some faded manuscript. Nevertheless, such a close following of the sound of the letters of the original, and such a changing of the same by means of an interchange of letters, is also to be found elsewhere (more especially in Jeremiah, and e.g. also in the relation of the Second Epistle of Peter to Jude1). And the two lines sound so complete in themselves and full of life, that this way of accounting for their origin takes too low an estimate of them. A later poet, perhaps belonging to the time of Jehoshaphat or Hezekiah, has here adapted the Davidic Psalm to some terrible catastrophe that has just taken place, and given a special character to the universal announcement of judgment. The addition of ina rrip6 (supply "»f « = W "«*, lxxxiv. 4) is meant to imply that fear of judgment had seized upon the enemies of the people of God, when no fear, i.e. no outward ground for fear, existed; it was therefore DWN rrnn (1 Sam. xiv. 15), a God-wrought panic. Such was the case with the host of the confederates in the days of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xx. 22-24); such also with the army of Sennacherib before Jerusalem (Isa. xxxvii. 36). *3 gives the proof in support of this fright from the working of the divine power. The words are addressed to the people of God: Elohim hath scattered the bones (so that unburied they lie like dirt upon the plain a prey to wild beasts, cxli. 7, Ezek. vi. 5) of thy besieger, i.e. of him who had encamped against thee, ^jn instead of ^Jjn = Y?V njh.* By the might of his God, who has overthrown them, the enemies of

* So it has been explained by Menachem; whereas Dunash wrongly takes the *] of *pn as part of the root, overlooking the fact that with the suffix it ought rather to have been T]jn instead of?pn. It is true that within the province of the verb dch does occur as a pausal masculine suffix n stead of e'cha, with the preterite (Deut. vi. 17, Isa. xxx. 19, lv. 5, and even out of pause in Jer. xxiii. 37), and with the infinitive (Deut. xxviii. 24, Ezek. xxviii. 15), but only in the passage before us with the participle.

ITs people, Israel has put them to shame, i.e. brought to DOQght in 1 way most shameful to them, the project of those who were so sure of victory, who imagined they could devour Israel as easily and comfortably as bread. It is clear that in this connection even ver. 5 receives a reference to the foreign foes of Israel originally alien to the Psalm, so that consequently Mic. iii. 3 is no longer a parallel passage, but passages like Num. xiv. 9, our bread are they (the inhabitants of Canaan); and Jer. xxx. 16, all they that devour thee shall be devoured.

Ver. 7. The two texts now again coincide. Instead of WE*, we here have rrijJB*; the expression is strengthened, the plural signifies entire, full, and final salvation.

5 For strangers are risen up against me, And violent men seek after my life;

7 He will requite the evil to mine enemies — By virtue of Thy truth cut Thou them off.

Attached to the participle this masculine suffix closely approximates to the Aramaic; with proper substantives there are no examples of it found in Hebrew. Simson ha-Nakdan, in his D^lpn TDn (a MS. in Leipzig University Library, fol. 296), correctly observes that forms like 7]DK>, 7]Ey, are not biblical Hebrew, but Aramaic, and are only found in the language of the Talmud, formed by a mingling of the Hebrew and Aramaic.

Here again we have one of the eight Psalms dated from the time of Saul's persecution, — a Maskil, like the two preceding Psalms, and having points of close contact both with Ps. liii. (cf. ver. 5 with liii. 3) and with Ps. lii. (cf. the resemblance in the closing words of ver. 8 and lii. 11): To the Precentor, with the accompaniment of stringed instruments (vid. on iv. 1), a meditation, by David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul: Is not David hidden among us? Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, had escaped to David, who with six hundred men was then in the fortified town of Keila (Keilah), but received through Abiathar the divine answer, that the inhabitants would give him up if Saul should lay siege to the town. Thereupon we find him in the wilderness of Ziph; the Ziphites betray him and pledge themselves to capture him, and thereby he is in the greatest straits, out of which he was only rescued by an invasion of the Philistines, which compelled Saul to retreat (1 Sam. xxiii. 19 sqq.). The same history which the earlier narrator of the Books of Samuel relates here, we meet with once more in 1 Sam. ch. xxvi., related with fuller colouring. The form of the inscription of the Psalm is word for word the same as both in 1 Sam. xxiii. 19 and in 1 Sam. xxvi. 1; the annals are in all three passages the ultimate source of the inscription.

Vers. 3-5. This short song is divided into two parts by Sela. The first half prays for help and answer. The Name of God is the manifestation of His nature, which has mercy as its central point (for the Name of God is niB, ver. 8, lii. 11), so that ^IP^2 (which is here the parallel word to inn^ia) is consequently equivalent to ^P.pna. The obtaining of right for any one (H like BBK*, vii. 9, and frequently, H. n^y, ix. 5) is attributed to the all-conquering might of God, which is only one side of the divine Name, i.e. of the divine nature which manifests itself in the diversity of its attributes. r?N£ (ver. 46) is construed with f (cf. f>K, lxxvii. 2) like ftft ntsri, lxxviii. 1.

The Targam, misled by lxxxvi. 14, reads Q^T instead of D^T in ver. 5. The inscription leads one to think of the Ziphites in particular in connection with "strangers" and "violent men." The two words in most instances denote foreign enemies, Isa. xxv. 2 sq., xxix. 5, Ezek. xxxi. 12; but ">T is also a stranger in the widest sense, regulated in each instance according to the opposite, e.g. the non-priest, Lev. xxii. 10; and one's fellowcountrymen can also turn out to be D^ny, Jer. xv. 21. The Ziphites, although Judseans like David, might be called " strangers," because they had taken the side against David; and "violent men," because they pledged themselves to seize and deliver him up. Under other circumstances this might have been their duty as subjects. In this instance, however, it was godlessness, as ver. be (cf. lxxxvi. 14) says. Any one at that time in Israel who feared God more than man, could not lend himself to be made a tool of Saul's blind fury, God had already manifestly enough acknowledged David.

Vers. 6-9. In this second half, the poet, in the certainty of being heard, rejoices in help, and makes a vow of thanksgiving. The a of *?pba is not meant to imply that God is one out of many who upheld his threatened life; but rather that He comes within the category of such, and fills it up in Himself alone, cf. cxviii. 7; and for the origin of this Beth essentice, xcix. 6, Judg. xi. 35. In ver. 7 the Keri merits the preference over the Chethib (evil shall " revert" to my spies), which would at feast require?V instead of? (cf. vii. 17). Concerning *y?!f, vid. on xxvii. 11. In the rapid transition to invocation in ver. lb the end of the Psalm announces itself. The truth of God is not described as an instrumental agent of the cutting off, but as an impelling cause. It is the same Beth as in the expression na'ija (Num. xv. 3): by or out of free impulse. These free-will sacrifices are not spiritual here in opposition to the ritual sacrifices (1. 14), but ritual as an outward representation of the spiritual. The subject of *§**? is tne Name of God; the post-biblical language, following Lev. xxiv. 11, calls God straightway 0#n, and passages like Isa. xxx. 27 and the one before us come very near to this usage. The prseterites mention the ground of the thanksgiving. What David now still hopes for, will then lie behind him in the past. The closing line, ver. 96, recaps xxxv. 21, cf. lix. 11, xcii. 12; the invoking

4 Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression

6 Fear and trembling come upon me, And horror hath covered me.

7 I thought: Oh that I had wings like a dove, Then would I fly away and be at rest!

10 Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues, For I see violence and strife in the city.

11 Day and night they go their rounds upon its walls, And evil and trouble are in the midst of it.

Neither is it he that hateth me that exalteth himself against me, Then I could indeed hide myself from him.

15 We who were wont to have sweet intercourse together, To the house of Elohim we walked in the festive throng.

18 Evening and morning and at noon will I meditate and groan, And He will hear my voice,

21 He layeth his hand upon those who are at peace with him, He violateth his covenant.

the pit, Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their lives; But I trust in Thee.

Ps. liv. is followed by another Davidic Psalm bearing the same inscription: To the Precentor, with accompaniment of stringed instruments, a meditation, by David. It also accords with the former in the form of the prayer with which it opens (cf. ver. 2 with liv. 3 sq.); and it is the Elohimic counterpart of the Jahve-Psalm xli. If the Psalm is by David, we require (in opposition to Hengstenberg) an assignable occasion for it in the history of his life. For how could the faithless bosom friend, over whom the complaint concerning malicious foes here, as in Ps. xli., lingers with special sadness, be a mere abstract personage; since it has in the person of Judas Iscariot its historical living antitype in the life and passion of the second David? This Old Testament Judas is none other than Ahithophel, the right hand of Absalom. Ps. lv. belongs, like Ps. xli., to the four years during which the rebellion of Absalom was forming; only to a somewhat later period, when Absalom's party were so sure of their cause that they had no need to make any secret of it. How it came to pass that David left the beginnings and progressive steps of the rebellion of Absalom to take their course without bringing any other weapon to bear against it than the weapon of prayer, is discussed on Ps. xli.

Hitzig also holds this Psalm to be Jeremianic. But it contains no coincidences with the language and thoughts of Jeremiah worth speaking of, excepting that this prophet, in ch. ix. 1, gives utterance to a similar wish to that of the psalmist in vers. 7-9, and springing from the same motive. The argument in favour of Jeremiah in opposition to David is consequently referred to the picture of life and suffering which is presented in the Psalm; and it becomes a question whether this harmonizes better with the persecuted life of Jeremiah or of David. The exposition which follows here places itself — and it is at least worthy of being attempted — on the standpoint of the writer of the inscription.

Vers. 2-9. In this first group sorrow prevails. David spreads forth his deep grief before God, and desires for himself some lonely spot in the wilderness far away from the home or lurking-place of the confederate band of those who are compassing his overthrow. u Veil not Thyself" here, where what is spoken of is something audible, not visible, is equivalent to "veil not Thine ear," Lam. iii. 56, which He designedly does, when the right state of heart leaves the praying one, and consequently that which makes it acceptable and capable of beinc* answered is wanting to the prayer (cf. Isa. i. 15). rvfe> signifies a shrub (Syriac shucfio, Arabic ^>xl), and also reflection and care (Arabic, carefulness, attention; Aramaic, no, to babble, talk, discourse). The Hiph. Tin, which in Gen. xxvii. 40 signifies to lead a roving life, has in this instance the signification to move one's self backwards and forwards, to be inwardly uneasy; root TT, J,, to totter, whence rdda, jaruda, to run up and down (IV. to desire, will); raida, to shake (said of a soft bloated body); radda, to turn (whence taraddud, a moving to and fro, doubting); therefore: I wander hither and thither in my reflecting or meditating, turning restlessly from one thought to another. It is not necessary to read njonw after lxxvii. 4 instead of ft??**], since the verb Din = non, xlii. 6, 12, is secured by the derivatives. Since these only exhibit Din, and not D\n (in Arabic used more particularly of the raving of love), np^nx^ as also 1*79) is Hiph., and in fact like this latter used with an inward object: I am obliged to raise a tumult or groan, break out into the dull murmuring sounds of pain. The cohortative not unfrequently signifies "I have to" or "I must" of incitements within one's self which are under the control of outward circumstances. In this restless state of mind he finds himself, and he is obliged to break forth into this cry of pain on account of the voice of the foe which he cannot but hear; by reason of the pressure or constraint (p\>V) of the evil-doer which he is compelled to feel. The conjecture rijW (Olshausen and Hupfeld) is superfluous. njj]J is a more elegant Aramaizing word instead of nnv.

The second strophe begins with a more precise statement of that which justifies his pain. The Hiph. BW signifies here, as in cxl. 11 (Chethib), declinare: they cast or roll down evil (calamity) upon him and maliciously lay snares for him *1^3, breathing anger against him, who is conscious of having manifested only love towards them. His heart turns about in his body, it writhes (^nj) I cf. on this, xxxviii. 11. Fear and trembling take possession of his inward parts; ^ in the expression ^ siy, as is always the case when followed by a tone syllable, is a so-called Tina JIDJ, i.e. it has the tone that has retreated to the penult. (Deut. i. 38, Isa. vii. 24, lx. 20), although this is only with difficulty discernible in our printed copies, and is therefore (yid. Accentsystem, vi. § 2) noted with Mercha. The jut, consec. which follows introduces the heightened state of terror which proceeds from this crowding on of fear and trembling. Moreover, the wish that is thereby urged from him, which David uttered to himself, is introduced in the third strophe by a fut. consec* a Who will give me?" is equivalent to " Oh that I had!" Ges. § 136, 1. In njbefcl is involved the self-satisfying signification of settling down (Ezek. xxxi. 13), of coming to rest and remaining in a place (2 Sam. vii. 10). Without going out of our way, a sense perfectly in accordance with the matter in hand may be obtained for n^riK \S> t^BB, if wNlK is taken not as Kal (lxxi. 12), but after Isa. v. 19, lx. 12, as Hijplu: I would hasten, i.e. quickly find for myself a place which might serve me as a shelter from the raging wind, from the storm. ^VO nn is equivalent to the quickly, to go or run swiftly," can be said both of light (Koran, lxvi. 8) and of water-brooks (yid, Jones, Comm. Poes. AsiaL, ed. Lipsice, p. 358), and also of strong currents of air, of winds, and such like. The correction n^V?, proposed by Hupfeld, produces a disfiguring tautology. Among those about David there is a wild movement going on which is specially aimed at his overthrow. From this he would gladly flee and hide himself, like a dove taking refuge in a cleft of the rock from the approaching storm, or from the talons of the bird of prey, fleeing with its noiseless but persevering flight.f

Vers. 10-17. In the second group anger is the prevailing feeling. In the city all kinds of party passions have broken loose; even his bosom friend has taken a part in this hostile

* That beautiful old song of the church concerning Jesus has grown out of this strophe: —

Ecquis Unas columbinas Alas dabit animse f Et in almam cruris palmam Evolat citissime, etc. t Kimchi observes that the dove, when she becomes tired, draws in one wing and flies with the other, and thus the more surely escapes. Aben- Ezra finds an allusion here to the carrier-pigeon.

rising. The retrospective reference to the confusion of tongues at Babel which is contained in the word JpB (cf. Gen. x. 25), also in remembrance of??% (Gen. xi. 1-9), involves the choice of the word P??, which here, after Isa. xix. 3, denotes a swallowing up, i.e. annihilation by means of confounding and rendering utterly futile. DJ1b6 is the object to both imperatives, the second of which is J?3 (like the pointing usual in connection with a final guttural) for the sake of similarity of sound. Instead of 3*)) Drpn, the pointing is 3^1 DDn? which is perfectly regular, because the 3^1 with a conjunctive accent logically hurries on to "V?a as its supplement.* The subjects to ver. 11a are not violence and strife (Hengstenberg, Hitzig), for it is rather a comical idea to make these personified run round about upon the city walls; but (cf. lix. 7, 15) the Absalomites, and in fact the spies who incessantly watch the movements of David and his followers, and who to this end roam about upon the heights of the city. The narrative in 2 Sam. ch. xv. shows how passively David looked on at this movement, until he abandoned the palace of his own free will and quitted Jerusalem. The espionage in the circuit of the city is contrasted with the movements going on within the city itself by the word mp3. We are acquainted with but few details of the affair; but we can easily fill in the details for ourselves in accordance with the ambitious, base, and craftily malicious character of Absalom. The assertion that deceit (nj?1P) and the extremest madness had taken possession of the city is confirmed in ver. 13 by *3. It is not open enemies who might have had cause for it that are opposed to him, but faithless friends, and among them that Ahithophel of Giloh, the scum of perfidious ingratitude. The futures KfrfcO and "iriDSI are used as subjunctives, and \ is equivalent to alioqui, as in li. 18, cf. Job vi. 14. He tells him to his face, to his shame, the relationship in which he had stood to him whom he now betrays. Ver. 14 is not to be rendered: and thou art, etc., but: and thou (who dost act thus) wast, etc.; for it is only because the principal clause has a retrospective meaning that the futures P^- ana* ^lOT describe what was a custom in the past. The expression is designedly Tyjga e^S and not OTD B*K; David does not make him feel his kingly eminence, but places himself in the relation to him of man to man, putting him on the same level with himself and treating him as his equal. The suffix of "OijD is in this instance not subjective as in the *p"iJD of the law respecting the asham or trespass-offering: according to my estimation, but objectively: equal to the worth at which I am estimated, that is to say, equally valued with myself. What heart-piercing significance this word obtains when found in the mouth of the second David, who, although the Son of God and peerless King, nevertheless entered into the most intimate human relationship as the Son of man to His disciples, and among them to that Iscariot! *F?K from *|?K, Arabic alifay to be accustomed to anything, assuescere, signifies one attached to or devoted to anyone; and JHJ*?, according to the Hebrew meaning of the verb yv, an intimate acquaintance. The first of the relative clauses in ver. 15 describes their confidential private intercourse; the second the unrestrained manifestation of it in public. "riD here, as in Job xix. 19 (vid. supra on xxv. 14). 1iD PWn, to make friendly intercourse sweet, is equivalent to cherishing it. BUT, stands over against "liD, just like TiD, secret counsel, and n&W"), loud tumult, in lxiv. 3. Here B0"J is just the same as that which the Korahitic poet calls Jtf n fto?} in xlii. 5.

In the face of the faithless friend who has become the head of the Absalomite faction David now breaks out, in ver. 16, into fearful imprecations. The Chethib is nfeM^J, desolationes (super eos); but this word occurs only in the name of a place (" House of desolations "), and does not well suit such direct reference to persons. On the other hand, the Keri njo KH^ let death ensnare or impose upon them, gives a sense that is not to be objected to; it is a pregnant expression, equivalent to: let death come upon them unexpectedly. To this *W corresponds the Bs*n of the second imprecation: let them go down alive into Hades Q>WW, perhaps originally npiN^ the n of which may have been lost beside the n that follows), i.e. like the company of Korah, while their life is yet vigorous, that is to say, let them die a sudden, violent death. The drawing together of the decipiat (opprimat) mors into one word is the result of the

= n?:f" from HNlM = \s*L" is an imaginary one, which cannot be supported by Num. xxi. 30. Ilitzig renders it: let death benumb them (&V]); but this gives an inconceivable figure, with the turgidity of which the trepidantes Manes in Virgil, ^Kneid viii. 246, do not admit of comparison. In the confirmation, ver. 16c, D1UD3 together with the D2"ip3 which follows, does not pretend to be any advance in the thought, whether iSiD be rendered a settlement, dwelling, irapoiicia (LXX., Targum), or an assembly (Aquila, Symmachus, Jerome). Hence Hitzig's rendering: in their shrine, in their breast (= ev to> Orjaavpaj tt)? icap§[a<; auTtov, Luke vi. 45), D"JM0 being short for Drn^p in accordance with the love of contraction which prevails in poetry (on xxv. 5). But had the poet intended to use this figure he would have written Dnip mjijpn, and is not the assertion that wickedness is among them, that it is at home in them, really a climax? The change of the names of God in ver. 17 is significant. He calls upon Him who is exalted above the world, and He who mercifully interposes in the history of the world helps him.

Vers. 18-24. In the third group confidence prevails, the tone that is struck up in ver. 17 being carried forward. Evening, morning, and noon, as the beginning, middle, and close of the day, denote the day in its whole compass or extent: David thus gives expression to the incessancy with which he is determined to lay before God, both in the quiet of his spirit and in louder utterances, whatsoever moves him. The fut. consec. VP^S! connects the hearing (answer) with the prayer as its inevitable result. Also in the prcet. H13 expression is given to the certainty of faith; and Dw2 side by side with it denotes, with the same pregnancy of meaning as in cxviii. 5, the state of undisturbed outward and inward safety and prosperity, into which God removes his soul when He rescues him. If we read mi-kei*obj then np is, as the ancient versions regard it, the infinitive: ne appropinquent mihi; whereas since the time of J. H. Michaelis the preference has been given to the pronunciation mi-kerdb: a conflictu mihi sc. parato, in which case it would be pointed "^PP (with Methcg), whilst the mss., in order to guard against the reading with a, point it "^1??- Hitzig is right when he observes, that after the negative |D the infinitive is indicated beforehand, and that v = ^bv, xxvii. 2, is better suited to this. Moreover, the confirmatory clause ver. 196 is connected with what precedes in a manner less liable to be misunderstood if T\\>fi is taken as infinitive: that they may not be able to gain any advantage over me, cannot come near me to harm me (xci. 10). For it is not until now less precarious to take the enemies as the subject of W9 and to take ^V in a hostile sense, as in Job x. 17, xiii. 19, xxiii. 6, xxxi. 13, cf. BJ> xciv. 16, and this is only possible where the connection suggests this sense. Heidenheim's interpretation: among the magnates were those who succoured me (viz. Hushai, Zadok, and Abiathar, by whom the counsel of Ahithophel was frustrated), does not give a thought characteristic of the Psalms. And with Aben-Ezra, who follows Numeri Rabba 294a, to think of the assistance of angels in connection with D*|1|, certainly strongly commends itself in view of 2 Kings vi. 16 (with which Hitzig also compares 2 Chron. xxxii. 7); here, however, it has no connection, whereas the thought, "as many (consisting of many) are they with me, i.e. do they come forward and fight with me," is very loosely attached to what has gone before. The Beth essentice serves here, as it does frequently, e.g. xxxix. 17, to denote the qualification of the subject. The preterite of confidence is followed in ver. 20 by the future of hope. Although side by side with VW, ruy presumptively has the signification to answer, i.e. to be assured of the prayer being heard, yet this meaning is in this instance excluded by the fact that the enemies are the object, as is required by ver. 20a* (even if ver. 19b is understood of those who are on the side of the poet). The rendering of the LXX.: elaaKovaercai 6 @eo? koX Taireivdiaei clvtqvs 6 virdp^cdv irpb tcov alwvcov, is appropriate, but requires the pronunciation to be B3JW, since the signification to bow down, to humble, cannot be proved to belong either to Kal or Hiphil. But even granted that D'?V*_ might, according to 1 Kings viii. 35 (yid. Keil), signify Tairetvooaei avTovSj it is nevertheless difficult to believe that DJJP1 is not intended to have a meaning correlative with yow\ of which it is the continuation. Saadia has explained Dpyi. in a manner worthy of attention, as being for D3 VSff^ he will testify against them; an interpretation which Aben-Ezra endorses. Heng- Btenberg'fl is better: " God will hear (the tumult of the enemies) and answer them (judicially)." The original text may have been Dip SB* ta3|£1. But as it now stands, Dip 3gh represents a subordinate clause, with the omission of the KVt, pledging that judicial response: since He it is who sitteth enthroned from earliest times (yid. on vii. 10). The bold expression 3B* Dip is an abbreviation of the view of God expressed in lxxiv. 12, Hab. i. 12, cf. Deut. xxxiii. 27, as of Him who from primeval days down to the present sits enthroned as King and Judge, who therefore will be able even at the present time to maintain His majesty, which is assailed in the person of His anointed one.

Ver. 20c. In spite of this interruption and the accompanying clashing in of the music, 1KW with its dependent clause continues the DJJM, more minutely describing those whom God will answer in His wrath. The relative clause at the same time gives the ground for this their fate from the character they bear: they persevere in their course without any regard to any other in their godlessness. The noun flDvrjj which is used elsewhere of a change of clothes, of a reserve in time of war, of a relief of bands of workmen, here signifies a change of mind (Targum), as in Job xiv. 14 a change of condition; the plural means that every change of this kind is very far from them. In ver. 21 David again has the one faithless foe among the multitude of the rebels before his mind. VCW is equivalent to i^K DwK^ Gen. xxxiv. 21, those who stood in peaceful relationship to him (Dw, xli. 10). David classes himself with his faithful adherents. 11*13 is here a defensive and offensive treaty of mutual fidelity entered into in the presence of God. By rfrK? and 7?f) is meant the intention which, though not carried out as yet, is already in itself a violation and profanation of the solemn compact. In ver. 22 the description passes into the tone of the csesural schema. It is impossible for rtonD, so far as the vowels are concerned, to be equivalent to rttXDnD? since this change of the vowels would obliterate the preposition; but one is forbidden to read niNono (Targum, Symmachus, Jerome) by the fact that V3 (LXX. rov 7rpo<7(07rov clvtov, as in Prov. ii. 6) cannot be the subject to *ppn. Consequently D belongs to the noun itself, and the denominative ni«»no (from HNOn), like T\)^jp_ (from FJ8), dainties, signifies articles of food prepared from curdled milk; here it is used figuratively of " milk-words " or butter-words " which come from the lips of the hypocrite softly, sweetly, and supplely as cream: os nectar promit, mens aconita vomit. In the following words tep"3"}p* (3"}?*) the Makkeph (in connection with which it would have to be read uWrob just the same as in ver. 19, since the — has not a Metheg) is to be crossed out (as in fact it is even wanting here and there in MSS. and printed editions). The words are an independent substantival clause: war (^i?, a pushing together, assault, battle, after the form nri3 with an unchangeable «) is his inward part and his words are swords; these two clauses correspond. \3\ (properly like tendere, tenuare) has the accent on the ultima, vid. on xxxviii. 20. nivna is a drawn, unsheathed sword (xxxvii. 14).

The exhortation, ver. 23, which begins a new strophe and is thereby less abrupt, is first of all a counsel which David gives to himself, but at the same time to all who suffer innocently, cf. xxvii. 14. Instead of the obscure aira% yeypafi. ^pn^ we read in xxxvii. 5 "p"tt, and in Prov. xvi. 3 TKWD, according to which the word is not a verb after the form IJn1. (Chajug, Gecatilia, and Kimchi), but an accusative of the object (just as it is in fact accented; for the Legarme of iOT has a lesser disjunctive value than the Zinnor of "prf). The LXX. renders it iirlpjiv^rov eVt Kvpiov ttjv fiepi/nvdv gov. Thus are these words of the Psalm applied in 1 Pet. v. 7. According to the Talmud arp (the same form as 3"}p) signifies a burden. " One day," relates Rabba bar-Chana, B, Rosh ha-Shana, 26£, and elsewhere, "I was walking with an Arabian (Nabateean?) tradesman, and happened to be carrying a heavy pack. And he said to me, "»fc6»JK *\vh -p3rv ^p^, Take thy burden and throw it on my camel." Hence it is wiser to refer 2rp to 2nj, to give, apportion, than to a stem 3HJ = 3&0, cxix. 131 (root as, is), to desire; so that it consequently does not mean desiring, longing, care, but that which is imposed, laid upon one, assigned or allotted to one (Bottcher), in which sense the Chaldee derivatives of ans (Targum Ps. xi. 6, xvi. 5, for rup) do actually occur. On whomsoever one casts what is allotted to him to cany, to bin one gives it to carry. The admonition proceeds on the principle that God is as willing as He is able to bear

D the heaviest burden for us; but this bearing it for us is on the other side our own bearing of it in God's strength, and hence the promise that is added runs: He will sustain thee (?3?3), that thou mayest not through feebleness succumb. Ver.

also favours this figure of a burden: He will not give, i.e. suffer to happen (lxxviii. Q6), tottering to the righteous for ever, He will never suffer the righteous to totter. The righteous shall never totter (or be moved) with the overthrow that follows; whereas David is sure of this, that his enemies shall not only fall to the ground, but go down into Hades (which is here, by a combination of two synonyms, T\n\y ix^ called a well, i.e. an opening, of a sinking in, i.e. a pit, as e.g. in Prov. viii. 31, Ezek. xxxvi. 3), and that before they have halved their days, i.e. before they have reached the half of the age that might be attained under other circumstances (cf. cii. 25, Jer. xvi. 11). By DM?N nriNl prominence is given to the fact that it is the very same God who will not suffer the righteous to fall wTho casts down the ungodly; and by *?W David contrasts himself with them, as being of good courage now and in all time to come.

2 BE gracious unto me, Elohim, for man is greedy after me, All the day he, fighting, oppresseth me.

3 Mine adversaries are greedy after me all the day, For many are they who proudly war against me.

5 Through Elohim will I praise His word, In Elohim do I trust, without fearing: What can flesh do unto me?

6 All the day long they wrest my words, Against me are all their thoughts for evil.

8 By such evil-doing shall they escape? — In wrath cast down the peoples, Elohim J

My tears are laid up in Thy bottle — Are they not in Thy book?

10 Then must mine enemies fall back in the day that I call; This I know: that Elohim is for me.

14 For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, Yea my feet from falling,

To Ps. lv., which in vers. 7 sq. gives utterance to the wish: " Oh that I had wings like a dove" etc., no Psalm could be more appropriately appended, according to the mode of arrangement adopted by the collector, than Ps. lvi., the musical inscription of which runs: To the Precentor, after u The silent dove among the far off" by David, a Michtam. ^jpin is a second genitive, cf. Isa. xxviii. 1, and either signifies distant men or longiqua, distant places, as in lxv. 6, cf. D^^W, xvi. 6. Just as in lviii. 2, it is questionable whether the punctuation D7X has lighted upon the correct rendering. Hitzig is anxious to read E?tf, "Dove of the people in the distance;" but CpK, people, in spite of Egli's commendation, is a word unheard of in Hebrew, and only conjectural in Phoenician. Olshausen's D?N more readily commends itself, " Dove of the distant terebinths." As in other like inscriptions, /V does not signify de (as Joh. Campensis renders it in his paraphrase of the Psalms (1532 and frequently): Pr&fecto musices, de columba muta qua? procul avolaverat), but secundum; and the coincidence of the defining of the melody with the situation of the writer of the Psalm is explained by the consideration that the melody is chosen with reference to that situation. The LXX. (cf. the Targum), interpreting the figure, renders: virep tov Xaou tov dirb tgov ayicdv (from the sanctuary) /j.€fjLaKpvp,p,evov, for which Symnuichus lias: <f>v\ou dircoafievov. The rendering of Aquila is correct: xnrep irepiGTepas dXaXov /xaKpvafMcov. From Ps. lv. (vers. 7 sq., cf. xxxviii. 14) we may form an idea of the standard song designated by the words D^pm D^X n:v; for Ps. lv. is not this song itself, and for this reason, that it belongs to the time of Absalom, and is therefore of later date than Ps. lvi., the historical inscription of which, "when the Philistines assaulted him in Gath" (cf. DT3, 1 Sam. xxi. 14), carries us back into the time of Saul, to the same time of the sojourn in Philistia to which Ps. xxxiv. is assigned. Ps. lvi. exhibits many points of the closest intermingling with the Psalms of this period, and thus justifies its inscription. It is a characteristic possessed in common by these Psalms, that the prospect of the judgment that will come upon the whole of the hostile world is combined with David's prospect of the judgment that will come upon his enemies: lvi. 8, vii. 9, lix. 6 (12). The figure of the bottle in which God preserves the tears of the suffering ones corresponds to the sojourn in the wilderness. As regards technical form, Ps. lvi. begins the series of Davidic Elohimic Afichtammim, Ps. lvi.-lx. Three of these belong to the time of Saul. These three contain refrains, a fact that we have already recognised on xvi. 1 as a peculiarity of these " favourite-word-poems." The favourite words of this Ps. lvi. are (l)"On W>nx D*n?K3 and

Vers. 2-5. B*6lj and 0b& ver. 2 (ix. 20, x. 18), are antitheses: over against God, the majestic One, men are feeble beings. Their rebellion against the counsel of God is ineffective madness. If the poet has God's favour on his side, then he will face these pigmies that behave as though they were giants, who fight against him E^"1?, moving on high, i.e. proudly (cf. DHBD, lxxiii. 8), in the invincible might of God. *]^, inhiare, as in lvii. 4; Dnj, as in xxxv. 1, with? like?tf, e.g. in Jer. i. 19. Thus, then, he does not fear; in the day when (Ges. § 123, 3, b) he might well be afraid (conjunctive future, as e.g. in Josh. ix. 27), he clings trustfully to (?& as in iv. 6, and frequently, Prov. iii. 5) his God, so that fear cannot come near him. He has the word of His promise on his side 0"1?"1. as e.g.

cxxx. 5); BwN3, through God will he praise this His word, inasmuch as it is gloriously verified in him. Hupfeld thus correctly interprets it; whereas others in part render it a in Elohim do I praise His word," in part (and the form of this favourite expression in ver. llab is opposed to it): u Elohim do I celebrate, His word." Hitzig, however, renders it: " Of God do I boast in matter," i.e. in the present affair; which is most chillingly prosaic in connection with an awkward brevity of language. The exposition is here confused by x. 3 and xliv. 9. <?n does not by any means signify gloriari in this passage, but celebrare; and DWN3 is not intended in any other sense than that in lx. 14. 3 npzi is equivalent to the New Testament phrase iriGTevuv iv. NVN N? is a circumstantial clause with a finite verb, as is customary in connection with fr6, xxxv. 8, Job xxix. 24, and?3, Prov. xix. 23.

Vers. Q-S. This second strophe describes the adversaries, and ends in imprecation, the fire of anger being kindled against them. Hitzig's rendering is: " All the time they are injuring my concerns," i.e. injuring my interests. This also sounds unpoetical. Just as we say mm DDn? to do violence to the Tora (Zeph. iii. 4, Ezek. xxii. 26), so we can also say: to torture any one's words, i.e. his utterances concerning himself, viz. by misconstruing and twisting them. It is no good to David that he asseverates his innocence, that he asserts his filial faithfulness to Saul, God's anointed; they stretch his testimony concerning himself upon the rack, forcing upon it a false meaning and wrong inferences. They band themselves together, they place men in ambush. The verb "Via signifies

(= rna); and sometimes, as here, and in lix. 4, Isa. liv. 15: to gather together (= "tiK). The Keri reads ttisy* (as in x. 8, Prov. i. 11), but the scriptio plena points to Hiph. (cf. Job xxiv. 6, and also Ps. cxxvi. 5), and the following n®\} leads one to the conclusion that it is the causative ^SV* that is intended: they cause one to keep watch in concealment, they lay an ambush (synon. ^WJ, 1 Sam. xv. 5); so that ilDH refers to the liers-in-wait told off by them: as to these — they observe my heels or (like the feminine plural in lxxvii. 20, lxxxix. 52) footprints (Rashi: mes traces), i.e. all my footsteps or movements, because (properly, li in accordance with this, that," as in Mic. iii. 4) they now as formerly (which is implied in the perfect, cf. lix. 4) attempt my life, i.e. strive after, lie in wait for it (p)\> like "ux^ lxxi. 10, with the accusative = *? njjj in cxix. 95). To this circumstantial representation of their hostile proceedings is appended the clause SuTu$& P.N"?V, which is not to be understood otherwise than as a question, and is marked as such by the order of the words (2 Kings v. 26, Isa. xxviii. 28): In spite of iniquity [is there] escape for them? i.e. shall they, the liers-inwait, notwithstanding such evil good-for-nothing mode of action, escape? At any rate u?& is, as in xxxii. 7, a substantivized infinitive, and the "by no means" which belongs as answer to this question passes over forthwith into the prayer for the overthrow of the evil ones. This is the customary interpretation since Kimchi's day. Mendelssohn explains it differently: " In vain be their escape," following Aben-Jachja, who, however, like Saadia, takes L&D to be imperative. Certainly adverbial notions are expressed by means of?V, — e.g. "W'2, abundantly, xxxi. 24; "1P^"^, falsely, Lev. v. 22 (via1. Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 1028), — but one does not say 7ST7g9 and consequently also would hardly have said \)K/V (by no means, for nothing, in vain); moreover the connection here demands the prevailing ethical notion for PK. Hupfeld alters L^D to DpQ, and renders it: u recompense to them for wickedness," which is not only critically improbable, but even contrary to the usage of the language, since ohs signifies to weigh out, but not to requite, and requires the accusative cf the object. The widening of the circle of vision to the whole of the hostile world is rightly explained by Hengstenberg by the fact that the special execution of judgment on the part of God is only an outflow of His more general and comprehensive execution of judgment, and the belief in the former has its root in a belief in the latter. The meaning of *nin becomes manifest from the preceding Psalm (lv. 24), to which the Psalm before us is appended by reason of manifold and closely allied relation.

Vers. 9-12. What the poet prays for in ver. 8, he now expresses as his confident expectation with which he solaces himself. "li) (ver. 9) is not to be rendered " flight," which certainly is not a thing that can be numbered (Olshausen); but

" a being fugitive," the unsettled life of a fugitive (Prov. xxvii. 8), can really be numbered both by its duration and its many temporary stays here and there. And upon the fact that God, that He whose all-seeing eye follows him into every secret hiding-place of the desert and of the rocks, counteth (telleth) it, the poet lays great stress; for he has long ago learnt to despair of man. The accentuation gives special prominence to **]3 as an emphatically placed object, by means of Zarka; and this is then followed by nrptt with the conjunctive Galgal and the pausal nris with Olewejored (the — — of which is placed over the final letter of the preceding word, as is always the case when the word marked wTith this double accent is monosyllabic, or dissyllabic and accented on the first syllable). He who counts (Job xxxi. 4) all the steps of men, knows how long David has already been driven hither and thither without any settled home, although free from guilt. He comforts himself with this fact, but not without tears, which this wretched condition forces from him, and which he prays God to collect and preserve. Thus it is according to the accentuation, which takes n^b* as imperative, as e.g. in 1 Sam. viii. 5; but since DHp, nDH?9 is also the form of the passive participle (1 Sam. ix. 24, and frequently, 2 Sam. xiii. 32), it is more natural, in accordance with the surrounding thoughts, to render it so even in this instance (posita est lacrima mea), and consequently to pronounce it as Milra (Ewald, Hupfeld, Bottcher, and Hitzig). YlJJDn (Eccles. iv. 1) corresponds chiastically (crosswise) to *13, with which ^JN32 forms a play in sound; and the closing clause *jrn!3D3 K?n unites with »"I^")?3D in the first member of the verse. Both ver. 96 and ver. 9c are wanting in any particle of comparison. The fact thus figuratively set forth, viz. that God collects the tears of His saints as it were in a bottle, and notes them together with the things which call them forth as in a memorial (Mai. iii. 16), the writer assumes; and only appropriatingly applies it to himself. The TK which follows may be taken either as a logical " in consequence of so and so" (as e.g. xix. 14, xl. 8), or as a " then" fixing a turning-point in the present tearful wandering life (viz. when there have been enough of the "wandering" and of the " tears"), or u at a future time" (more abruptly, like DE> in xiv. 5, xxxvi. 13, vid. on ii. 5). **"?!?? D^ is not an expansion of this TXj which would trail awkwardly after it. The poet says that one day his enemies will be obliged to retreat, inasmuch as a day will come when his prayer, which is even now heard, will be also outwardly fulfilled, and the full realization of the succour will coincide with the cry for help. By VttnHl? in ver. 106 he justifies this hope from his believing consciousness. It is not to be rendered, after Job xix. 19: "I who know," which is a trailing apposition without any proper connection with what precedes; but, after 1 Kings xvii. 24: this I know (of this I am certain), that Elohim is for me. nt as a neuter, just as in connection with SJT in Prov. xxiv. 12, and also frequently elsewhere (Gen. vi. 15, Ex. xiii. 8, xxx. 13, Lev. xi. 4, Isa. xxix. 11, cf. Job xv. 17); and y as e.g. in Gen. xxxi. 42. Through Elohim, ver. 11 continues, will I praise ">yj: tnus absolutely is the word named; it is therefore the divine word, just like "I? in ii. 12, the Son absolutely, therefore the divine Son. Because the thought is repeated, Elohim stands in the first case and then Jahve, in accordance with the Elohimic Psalm style, as in lviii. 7. The refrain in ver. 12 (cf. ver. 5b) indicates the conclusion of the strophe. The fact that we read tHK instead of "i^9 in this instance, just as in ver. 11 ly? instead of S"\21 (ver. 5a), is in accordance with the custom in the Psalms of not allowing the refrain to recur in exactly the same form.

Vers. 13, 14. In prospect of his deliverance the poet promises beforehand to fulfil the duty of thankfulness. yV, incumbent upon me, as in Prov. vii. 14, 2 Sam. xviii. 11. T7J?> with an objective subject, are the vows made to God; and rrilin are distinguished from them, as e.g. in 2 Chron. xxix. 31. He will suffer neither the pledged "Hi *Zw nor the rrrin *eow to be wanting; for — so will he be then able to sing and to declare — Thou hast rescued, etc. The perfect after *3 denotes that which is then past, as in lix. 17, cf. the dependent passage cxvi. 8 sq. There the expression is Q^nn ninx instead of D^nn "litf (here and in Elihu's speech, Job xxxiii. 30). Light of life (John viii. 12) or of the living (LXX. roiv %q)vtcov) is not exclusively the sun-light of this present life. Life is the opposite of death in the deepest and most comprehensive sense; light of life is therefore the opposite of the night of Hades, of this seclusion from God and from His revelation in human history.

2 BE gracious unto me, Elohim, be gracious unto me, For in Thee hath my soul hidden;

And in the shadow of Thy wings do I seek refuge, Until the destruction passeth by.

If he who is greedy for me doth slander — (Sela.) Elohim will send His mercy and truth.

I will lie down among those who breathe forth fire. The children of men — their teeth are spears and arrows, And their tongue is a sharp sword.

6 Oh show Thyself exalted above the heavens, Elohim, Above the whole earth Thy glory!

7 They had laid a net for my steps, They had bowed down my soul, They had digged out a pit before me — They themselves fall therein. (Sela.)

8 Confident is my heart, Elohim, confident is my heart, I will sing and play upon the harp.

IS Oh show Thyself exalted above the heavens, Elohlm, Above the whole earth Thy glory.

The Psalms that are to be sung after the melody nn^rr^Ni (lvii., lviii., lix. Davidic, lxxv. Asaphic) begin here. The direction referring to the musical execution of the Psalm ought properly to be nnBTT?K?V (?K); but this is avoided as being unmelodious, and harsh so far as the syntax is concerned. The Geneva version is correct: pour le chanter sur Al taschchet. There is no actual reference in the words to Deut. ix. 26, or 1 Sam. xxvi. 9 (why not also to Isa. lxv. 8?).

The historical inscription runs: token he fled from Saul, in the cave. From the connection in the history from which this statement is extracted, it will have been clear whether the Psalm belongs to the sojourn in the cave of Adullam (1 Sam. ch. xxii.) or in the labyrinthine cave upon the alpine heights of Engedi, u by the sheep-folds" (1 Sam. ch. xxiv.), described in Van de Velde's Journey, ii. 74-76.

How manifold are the points in which these Psalms belonging to the time of Saul run into one another! Ps. lvii. has not merely the supplicatory " Be gracious unto me, Elohim," at the beginning, but also *)^ applied in the same way (lvii. 4, Ivi. 2 sq.), in common with Ps. lvi; in common with Ps. vii., •nua = i$B} (lvii. 9, vii. 6); the comparison of one's enemies to lions and lionesses (lvii. 5, vii. 3); the figure of the digging of a pit (lvii. 7, vii. 16); with Ps. lix. the figure of the sword of the tongue (lvii. 5, lix. 8, cf. lii. 4); with Ps. lii. the poetical expression min (lvii. 2, lii. 4); with Ps. xxii. the relation of the deliverance of the anointed one to the redemption of all peoples (lvii. 10, xxii. 28 sqq.). Also with Ps. xxxvi. it has one or two points of contact, viz. the expression u refuge under the shadow of God's wings" (ver. 2, xxxvi. 8), and in the measuring of the mercy and truth of God by the height of the heavens (ver. 11, xxxvi. 6). Yet, on the other hand, it has a thoroughly characteristic impress. Just as Ps. lvi. delighted in confirming what was said by means of the interrogatory *6n (vers. 9, 14), so Ps. lvii. revels in the figure epizeuxis, or an emphatic repetition of a word (vers. 2, 4, 8, 9). Ps. cviii. (which see) is a cento taken out of Ps. lvii. and Ix.

4. 5. 6.* Here also the Michtam is not wanting in its prominent favourite word. A refrain of a lofty character closes the first and second parts. In the first part cheerful submission rules, in the second a certainty of victory, which by anticipation takes up the song of praise.

Vers. 2-6. By means of the two distinctive tense-forms the poet describes his believing flight to God for refuge as that which has once taken place (n^n from non = '•on out of pause, like the same forms in lxxiii. 2, cxxii. 6), and still, because it is a living fact, is ever, and now in particular, renewed (nDHK). The shadow of the wings of God is the protection of His gentle, tender love; and the shadow of the wings is the quickening, cordial solace that is combined with this protection. Into this shadow the poet betakes himself for refuge now as he has done before, until fifaf?, i.e. the abysmal danger that threatens him, be overpast, prceteriverit (cf. Isa. xxvi. 20, and on the enallage numeri x. 10, Ges. § 147, a). Not as though he would then no longer stand in need of the divine protection, but he now feels himself to be specially in need of it; and therefore his chief aim is an undaunted triumphant resistance of the impending trials. The effort on his own part, however, by means of which he always anew takes refuge in this shadow, is prayer to Him who dwells above and rules the universe, jiyjf is without the article, which it never takes; and 10i (ver. 36) is the same, because it is regularly left out before the participle, which admits of being more fully defined, Amos ix. 12, Ezek. xxi. 19 (Hitzig). He calls upon God who accomplisheth concerning, i.e. for him (Esth. iv. 16), who carrieth out his cause, the cause of the persecuted one; 103 is transitive as in cxxxviii. 8. The LXX. renders tov €vepy6Ti]cravTd fxe, as though it were vJJ tea (xiii. 6, and frequently); and even Hitzig and Hupfeld hold that the meaning is exactly the same. But although foj and *idji fall back upon one and the same radical notion, still it is just their distinctive final letters that serve to indicate a difference of signification

* The Syriac version reckons only 29 cri'xot (fetgome); vid. the Hexaplarian version of this Psalm taken from Cod. 14,43i {Add. MSS.) in the British Museum, in Hcidenheim's Vierteljahrssch?-ift1 No. 2 (1861).

that is strictly maintained. In ver. 4 follow futures of hope. In this instance "that which brings me deliverance " is to be supplied in thought to Pbw\ (cf. xx. 3) and not iT as in xviii. 17, cf. cxliv. 7; and this general and unmentioned object is then specialized and defined in the words "His mercy and His truth " in ver. 4c. Mercy and truth are as it were the two good spirits, which descending from heaven to earth (cf. xliii. 3) bring the divine nyttPJ to an accomplishment. The words ^Dsb *pn standing between a and c have been drawn by the accentuators to the first half of the verse, they probably interpreting it thus: He (God) reproacheth my devourers for ever (Seta). But *pn always (e.g. Isa. xxxvii. 23) has God as its object, not as its subject. *aKB> Pjin is to be connected with what follows as a hypothetical protasis (Ges. § 155, 4, a): supposing that he who is greedy or pants for me (inhians mild) slandereth, then Elohim will send His mercy and His truth. The music that becomes forte in betweeq, introduces and accompanies the throbbing confidence of the apodosis.

In ver. 5, on the contrary, we may follow the interpretation of the text that is handed down and defined by the accentuation, natural as it may also be, with Luther and others, to take one's own course. Since DKJ? has Zarka (Zinnor) and &&*$ Olewejored, it is accordingly to be rendered: "My soul is in the midst of lions, I will (must) lie down with flaming ones; the children of men — their teeth are a spear and arrows." The rendering of the LXX., of Theodotion, and of the Syriac version accords with the interpunction of our text so far as both begin a new clause with ifcoi/juijOTjv (rDD*n, and I slept); whereas Aquila and Symmachus (taking ^23, as it seems, as a periphrastic expression of the subject-notion placed in advance) render all as far as D^rfr as one clause, at least dividing the verse into two parts, just as the accentuators do, at DW?. The rendering of Aquila is iv fieaco Xeaivcov /tot,fjLr]6rjo-ofjLat, XcifSpcov; that of Symmachus: iv fiecrco Xeovrcov evOapcrtov ifcoLfjLijOrjVj or according to another reading, fiera^v Xeovrcov iKQi[ir)Qv)v (pXeyovrcov. They are followed by Jerome, who, however, in order that he may be able to reproduce the *pbj, changes naassw into rn3K>: Anima mea in medio leonum dormivit ferocientium. This construction, however, can be used in Greek and Latin, but not in Hebrew. We therefore follow the accents even in reference to the Zarka above B^x> (a plural form that only occurs in this one passage in the Psalter, = B1^?). In a general way it is to be observed that this D^tfi) in connection with nns^X is not so much the accusative of the object as the accusative of the place, although it may even be said to be the customary local accusative of the object with verbs of dwelling; on 3£t? cf. Ruth iii. 8, 14, and Ps. lxxxviii. 6, Mic. vii. 5 (where at least the possibility of this construction of the verb is presupposed). But in particular it is doubtful (1) what O^lP signifies. The rendering u flaming ones " is offered by the Targum, Saadia, and perhaps Symmachus. The verb tor6 obtains this signification apparently from the fundamental notion of licking or swallowing; and accordingly Theodotion renders it by avaXccrKovTcov, and Aquila most appropriately by Xd/3pcov (a word used of a ravenous furious longing for anything). But tar6 nowhere means "to devour;" the poet must, therefore, in connection with D^n!?, have been thinking of the flaming look or the fiery jaws of the lions, and this attributive will denote figuratively their strong desire, which snorts forth as it were flames of fire. The question further arises, (2) how the cohortative rQ3BW is meant to be taken. Since the cohortative sometimes expresses that which is to be done more by outward constraint than inward impulse — never, however, without willing it one's self (Ew. § 228, a) — the rendering " I must," or " therefore must I lie down," commends itself. But the contrast, which has been almost entirely overlooked, between the literal beasts of prey and the children of men, who are worse than these, requires the simple and most natural rendering of the cohortative. We need only picture to ourselves the situation. The verb 22'j here has the sense of cubitum ire (iv. 9). Starting from this naaiyK we look to ver. 9, and it at once becomes clear that we have before us an evening or nightly song. David the persecuted one finds himself in the wilderness and, if we accept the testimony of the inscription, in a cave: his soul is in the midst of lions, by which he means to say that his life is exposed to them. Here bold in faith, he is resolved to lie down to sleep, feeling himself more secure among lions than among men; for the children of men, his deadly foes both in word and in deed, are worse than beasts of prey: teeth and tongue are murderous weapons. This more than brutal joy at the destruction of one's neighbour* which prevails among men, urges him to put forth the prayer that God, who in Himself is exalted above the heavens and the whole earth, would show Himself by some visible manifestation over the heavens above as the exalted One, and the prayer that His glory may be, i.e. may become manifest (or even: exalted be His glory, &^), over the whole earth beneath, — His glory which to His saints is a healthdiffusing light, and to the heartless foes of men and God a consuming fire, — so that the whole world shall be compelled to acknowledge this glory in which His holiness manifests itself, and shall become conformed to it after everything that is hostile is overthrown.

Vers. 7-12. In this second half of the Psalm the poet refreshes himself with the thought of seeing that for which he longs and prays realized even with the dawning of the morning after this night of wretchedness. The perfect in ver. Id is the perfect of certainty; the other perfects state what preceded and is now changed into the destruction of the crafty ones themselves. If the clause *B>M f]23 is rendered: my soul was bowed down (cf.??n, cix. 22), it forms no appropriate corollary to the crafty laying of snares. Hence f]DD must be taken as transitive: he had bowed down my soul; the change of number in the mention of the enemies is very common in the Psalms relating to these trials, whether it be that the poet has one enemy /car' i^o^rjv before his mind or comprehends them all in one. Even the LXX. renders /ecu fcarifcafju'tyav ttjv tyvyjqv fjbov, it is true, as though it were 1BM1, but can scarcely have read it thus. This line is still remarkable; one would expect for ver. lb a thought parallel with ver. Id, and perhaps the poet wrote 1PB3 *|B3, his (the net-layer's) own soul bends (viz. in order to fall into the net). Then P)BD like bzn would be prcet. confidential. In this certainty, to express which the music here becomes triumphantly forte, David's heart is confident, cheerful (Symmachus eSpala), and a powerful inward impulse urges him to song and harp. Although JtoJ may signify ready, equipped (Ex. xxxiv*. 2, Job xii. 5), yet this meaning is to be

* Cf. Sir. xxv. 15, in the Hebrew: n^n |"W jriB BW1 5>JJ» B&TI |*« IWK non byi2 (no poison exceeds the poison of the serpent, and no wrath exceeds the wrath of an enemy).

rejected here in view of li. 12, Ixxviii. 37, cxii. 7: it is not appropriate to the emphatic repetition of the word. His evening mood which found expression in ver. 4, was hope of victory; the morning mood into which David here transports himself, is certainty of victory. He calls upon his soul to awake (^33 as in xvi. 9, xxx. 13), he calls upon harp and cithern to awake ("tol?a3n with one article that avails for both words, as in Jer. xxix. 3, Neh. i. 5; and rnyj with the accent on the ultima on account of the coining together of two aspirates), from which he has not parted even though a fugitive; with the music of stringed instruments and with song he will awake the not yet risen dawn, the sun still slumbering in its chamber: •"•"JW, expergefaciam (not expergiscar), as e.g. in Cant. ii. 7, and as Ovid (Metam. xi. 597) says of the cock, evocat auroram* His song of praise, however, shall not resound in a narrow space where it is scarcely heard; he will step forth as the evangelist of his deliverance and of his Deliverer in the world of nations (2^2; and the parallel word, as also in cviii. 4, cxlix. 7, is to be written D^^pa with Lamed raphatum and Metheg before it); his vocation extends beyond Israel, and the events of his life are to be for the benefit of mankind. Here we perceive the self-consciousness of a comprehensive mission, which accompanied David from the beginning to the end of his royal career (yid. xviii. 50). What is expressed in ver. 11 is both motive and theme of the discourse among the peoples, viz. God's mercy and truth which soar high as the heavens (xxxvi. 6). That they extend even to the heavens is only an earthly conception of their infinity (cf. Eph. iii. 18). In the refrain, ver. 12, which only differs in one letter from ver. 6, ttie Psalm comes back to the language of prayer. Heaven and earth have a mutually involved history, and the blessed, glorious end of this history is the sunrise of the divine doxa over both, here prayed for.

* "With reference to the above passage in the Psalms, the Talmud, B.

Berachoth 3Z>, says, " A cithern used to hang above David's bed; and when midnight came, the north wind blew among the strings, so that they sounded of themselves; and forthwith he arose and busied himself with the Tora until the pillar of the dawn ("in^n Tioy) ascended." Rashi observes, "The dawn awakes the other kings; but I, said David, will awake the dawn (in^'n DN TOyD *3K)-"

2 DO ye really, O ye gods, speak righteousness, Do ye in uprightness judge the children of men %

6 That she may not hear the voice of the charmers, The skilful practiser of sorcery.

9 (Let them be) as a snail that goes along dissolving as it goes, (As) the untimely birth of a woman, that hath not seen the

12 And men shall confess: Verily the righteous findeth fruit, Verily there is a deity judging in the earth.

TJieir teeth, said Ps. lvii., are spear and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword; Ps. lviii. prays: crush their teeth in their mouth. This prominent common thought has induced the collector to append the one Michtam of David, to be sung altashcheth, to the other. Ps. lviii., however, belongs to another period, viz. to the time of Absalom. The incomparable boldness of the language does not warrant us in denying it to David

In no one Psalm do we meet with so many high-flown figures coming together within the same narrow compass. But that it is David who speaks in this Psalm is to a certain extent guaranteed by Ps. lxiv. and cxl. These three Psalms, of which the closing verses so closely resemble one another that they at once invite comparison, show that the same David who writes elsewhere so beautifully, tenderly, and clearly, is able among his manifold transitions to rise to an elevation at which his words as it were roll along like rumbling thunder through the gloomy darkness of the clouds, and more especially where they supplicate (lviii. 7) or predict (cxl. 10) the judgment of God.

The cumulative use of i&3 in different applications is peculiar to this Psalm. Its Miclitam character becomes clearly defined in the closing verse.

Vers. 2, 3. The text of ver. 2a runs: Do ye really dictate the silence of righteousness? i.e. that before which righteousness must become silent, as the collector (cf. lvi. 1) appears to have read it (D^K = D^K, B. Chullin 89a). But instead of D^K it is, with Houbigant, J. D. Michaelis, Mendelssohn, and others, to be read o>X (= &?$7 as in Ex. xv. 11), as an apostrophe of those who discharge the godlike office of rulers and judges. Both the interrogative BJD«n (with u as is always the case at the head of interrogative clauses), num vere, which proceeds from doubt as to the questionable matter of fact (Num. xxii. 37, 1 Kings viii. 27, 2 Chron. vi. 18), and the parallel member of the verse, and also the historical circumstances out of which the Psalm springs, demand this alteration. Absalom with his followers had made the administration of justice the means of stealing from David the heart of his people; he feigned to be the more impartial judge. Hence David asks: Is it then really so, ye gods (EyK like 0w$, lxxxii. 1, and here, as there, not without reference to their superhumanly proud and assumptive bearing), that ye speak righteousness, that ye judge the children of men in accordance with justice? Nay, on the contrary (^N, i7no9 introducing an answer that goes beyond the first No), in heart (i.e. not merely outwardly allowing yourselves to be carried away) ye prepare villanies (^y?, as in Mic. ii. 1; and r6iy, as in lxiv. 7, from n?iy = n?)yy xcii. 16, Job v. 16, with 6 = df+ w)y in the land ye weigh out the violence of your hands (so that consequently violence fills the balances of your pretended justice). D"JN *ja in ver. 26 is the accusative of the object; if it had been intended as a second vocative, it ought to have been itapda (iv. 3). The expression is inverted in order to make it possible to use the heavy energetic futures, H**? (mostly erroously marked with Pazer) has Athnach, cf. xxxv. 20, lxxvi. 12. Vers. 4-6. After this bold beginning the boldest figures follow one another rapidly; and the first of these is that of the serpent, which is kept up longer than any of the others. The verb "M (cogn. l\o) is intentionally written "riT in this instance in a neuter, not an active sense, plural vif, like W2, «b. Bakius recognises a retrospective reference to this passage in Isa. xlviii. 8. In such passages Scripture bears witness to the fact, which is borne out by experience, that there are men in whom evil from childhood onwards has a truly diabolical character, i.e. a selfish character altogether incapable of love. For although hereditary sinfulness and hereditary sin (guilt) are common to all men, yet the former takes the most manifold combinations and forms; and, in fact, the inheriting of sin and the complex influence of the power of evil and of the power of grace on the propagation of the human race require that it should be so. The Gospel of John more particularly teaches such a dualism of the natures of men. to?"non (with jRebia, as in xviii. 18a) is not the subject: the poison belonging to them, etc., but a clause by itself: poison is to them, they have poison; the construct state here, as in Lam. ii. 18, Ezek. i. 27, does not express a relation of actual union, but only a close connection. DBiO (with the orthophonic Dagesh which gives prominence to the Teth as the commencement of a syllable) is an optative future form, which is also employed as an indicative in the poetic style, e.g. xviii. 11. The subject of this attributive clause, continuing the adjective, is the deaf adder, such an one, viz., as makes itself deaf; and in this respect (as in their evil serpent nature) it is a figure of the self-hardening evil-doer. Then with "WK begins the more minute description of this adder. There is a difference even among serpents. They belong to the worst among them that are inaccessible to any kind of human influence. All the arts of sorcery are lost upon them. D*BTOD are the whisperers of magic formulas (cf. Arabic naffathdt, adjurations), and B^JCJ "Din is one who works binding by spells, exorcism, and tying fast by magic knots (cf. "OH, to bind = to bewitch, cf. jJLc, ^z, Persic bend = fcaTaSeafios, vid. Isaiali, i. 118, ii. 242). The most inventive affection and the most untiring patience cannot change their mind. Nothing therefore remains to David but to hope for their removal, and to pray for it.

Vers. 7-10. The verb Din is used much in the same way in ver. la as apaacreiv {e.g. Iliad, xiii. 577, cltto 8e rpvcpaXeiav dpa^eu), which presents a similar onomatope. The form ^DSTS^ is, as in Job vii. 5, = V&p\ The Jewish expositors, less appropriately, compare D3N:fS, Num. xxxii. 24, and *KT3 = W3, Isa. xviii. 2, 7; VS^f7 Chethib, Jer. xxx. 16, and HDiO, Zech. xiv. 10, more nearly resemble it. The treading (bending) of the bow is here, as in Ixiv. 4, transferred to the arrows ( = Jp.i3, xi. 2): he bends and shoots off his arrows, they shall be as though cut off in the front, i.e. as inoperative as if they had no heads or points (to3 as in Isa. xxvi. 18). In ver. 9 follow two figures to which the apprecatory "let them become" is to be supplied. Or is it perhaps to be rendered: As a snail, which Thou causest to melt away, i.e. squashest with the foot (Dftfl, as in xxxix. 12, fut. Hiph. of HDD — DDD)? let him perish? The change of the number does not favour this; and according to the usajie of the lansjuasje, which is fond of construing?pn with gerunds and participles, and also with abstract nouns, e.g. Dh l[?n} "HJ? "]S"l, the words Spn* DEfl belong together, and they are also accented accordingly: as a snail or slug which goes along in dissolution, goes on and dissolves as it goes (DEF) after the form?2P\ from???*). The snail has received its name from this apparent dissolving into slime. For 7Q2& (with Dag. dirimens for W5^) is the naked slimy snail or slug (Targum, according to ancient conception, *w3H 7*1)} u the slimeworm"), from w^? to make wet, moist.f In the second figure,

* In the Phoenician, the Cyprian copper mine Tx/xxoaog appears to have taken its name from DDDj liquefactio (Levy, Phonizisclie Studien, iii. 7).

f " God has created nothing without its use," says the Talmud, B. Shabbalh lib; " He has created the snail (rprD*) ^35?) to heal bruises by laying it upon them:" cf. Genesis Ilabba, ch. Ii. init., where 7^3^ is explained by N^D"6> "^D, "b^S, x>oyx,vM, oioi'hog, Umax. Abraham b. David the only sense in which nti'K tea belong together is "the untimely birth of a woman;'* and rather than explain with the Talmud (B. Moed katan 6b) and Targum (contrary to the accents): as an abortion, a mole,* one would alter W*K into nc'N. But this is not necessary, since the construct form flew is found also in other instances (Deut. xxi. 11, 1 Sam. xxviii. 7) out of the genitival relation, in connection with a close coordinate construction. So here, where &£>& ttrrte, according to Job iii. 16, Eccles. vi. 3-5, is an attributive clause to n^K tea (the falling away of a woman = abortions), which is used collectively (Ew. § 176, b). The accentuation also harmonizes here with the syntactic relation of the words. In ver. 10, ^BK (plural in African, i.e. Punic, in Dioscorides cltclMv) is the rhamnus or buckthorn, which, like bTp, the broom, not only makes a cheerful crackling fire, but also produces an ash that retains the heat a long time, and is therefore very useful in cooking. The alternative to? — to? signifies sive, sive, whether the one or the other. *n is that which is living, fresh, viz. the fresh, raw meat still having the blood in it, the opposite of?#?o (1 Sam. ii. 15); fnn, a fierce heat or fire, here a boiling heat. There is no need to understand pin metonymically, or perhaps as an adjective = charron, of boiled meat: it is a statement of the condition. The suffix of ^"W^, however, refers, as being neuter, to the whole cooking apparatus, and more especially to the contents of the pots. The rendering therefore is: whether raw or in a state of heat, i.e. of being cooked through, He (Jahve) carries it away as with a whirlwind. Hengstenberg of Fez, the cotemporary of Saadia, has explained it in his Arabico-Hebrew Lexicon by pt^n?X, the slug. Nevertheless this is properly the name of the snail with a house (pTTU), Talmudic pt^n, and even at the present day in Syria and Palestine L.,«)L>. (which is pronounced halezon); whereas b^yy, in conformity with the etymon and with the figure, is the naked snail or slug. The ancient versions perhaps failed to recognise this, because the slug is not very often to be seen in hot eastern countries; but ~>\?2W in this signification can be looked upon as traditional. The rendering '* a rain-brook or mountain-torrent (Arabic seil sabil) which running runs away," would, to say nothing more, give us, as Rosenmiiller has already observed, a figure that has been made use of already in ver. 8.

* The mole, which was thought to have no eyes, is actually called in post-biblical Hebrew nt^N, plur. ni^K (vid. Kelim xxi. 3).

rightly remarks, u To the raw meat correspond the immature plots, and to the cooked the mature ones." To us, who regard the Psalm as belonging to the time of Absalom, and not, like Hengstenberg, to the time of Saul, the meat in the pots is the new kingship of Absalom. The greater the self-renunciation with which David at that time looked on at the ripening revolt, disclaiming all action of his own, the stronger the confidence with which he expected the righteous interposition of God that did actually follow, but (as he here supposes possible) not until the meat in the pot was almost done through; yet, on the other side, so quickly, that the pots had scarcely felt the crackling heat which should fully cook the meat.

Vers. 11, 12. Finally, we have a view of the results of the judicial interposition of God. The expression made use of to describe the satisfaction which this gives to the righteous is thoroughly Old Testament and warlike in its tone (cf. lxviii. 24). David is in fact king, and perhaps no king ever remained so long quiet in the face of the most barefaced rebellion, and checked the shedding of blood, as David did at that time. If, however, blood must nevertheless flow in streams, he knows full well that it is the blood of the partisans of his deluded son; so that the men who were led the further astray in their judgment concerning him, the more inactive he remained, will at last be compelled to confess that it does really repay one to be just, and that there is really one higher than the high ones (Eccles. v. 7), a deity (OT$M) above the gods (ttfo) who, though not forthwith, will nevertheless assuredly execute judgment in the earth.:JK here, as in Job xviii. 21, Isa. xlv. 14, retains its originally affirmative signification, which it has in common with |?K. BwN is construed with the plural (Ges. § 112, rem. 3), as is frequently the case, e.g. 2 Sam. vii. 23 (where, however, the chronicler, in 1 Chron. xvii. 21, has altered the older text). This is not because the heathen are speaking (Baur), but in order to set the infinite majesty and omnipotence of the heavenly Judge in contrast with these puffedup "gods."

2 DELIVER me from mine enemies, O my God, From those who rise up against me bear me away!

3 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, And from men of blood save me!

4 For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul,

The shameless gather themselves together against me — Not on account of transgression on my part and on account of sin, Jahve!

5 Without sin they run and make themselves ready; Awake to meet me, and examine!

6 And do Thou, Jahve Elohim of hosts, God of Israel, Stir Thyself to visit all the heathen,

7 They come again at evening, they howl like dogs, And go the rounds in the city.

Cause them to go astray by Thy power and cast them down; Thou art our shield, O Lord!

13 The sin of their mouth is the word of their lips, Therefore let them be ensnared in their pride,

14 Destroy in wrath, destroy, that they may be no more, And that they may know that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob Unto the ends of the earth! (Sela.)

15 They come again at evening, they howl like dogs, And go the rounds in the city.

17 But as for me, I shall sing of Thy strength, And exult, in the morning, over Thy mercy; That Thou hast been a fortress to me,

This Michiam, after the melody Al-tashcheth, coinciding witn lvii. 5 and lviii. 7 in the figure used in ver. 8, is the earliest amoncr the Davidic Psalms which are dated from the time of Saul's persecution. When Saul sent and they (those who were sent by him) watched the house in order to slay him (David); it therefore belongs to the time spoken of in 1 Sam. xix. 11 sqq This inscription is no more intended to imply that the Psalm was composed on that night before the flight, which was rendered possible by the artifice of Michal, than the inscription of Ps. li. is meant to imply that the origin of the Psalm was coincident with the arrival of Nathan. The 3 of such inscriptions only sets forth in a general way the historical groundwork of the son£. If we consider the contents of the Psalm from this point of view, we shall obtain a tolerably distinct picture of the situation. We must imagine that Saul, even before he issued that command to watch David's house the night through and to slay him in the morning, i.e. to assassinate him behind Michal's back (1 Sam. xix. 11), sought to get rid of him in some more secret way; that the venal men of his court, themselves not less ill-disposed towards David, had offered him their hand for the deed; and that in consequence of this, great activity, which was probably seen through by him whose life was threatened, was observable in Gibea, and that more especially every evening, when the bandits strolled through the city in order to meet with the dreaded rival and give him his death- blow. The Psalms and the Prophets are often the medium through which we gain a deeper insight into events which are only sketched in the historical books after their most prominent outward features.

In consideration of the fact that the description of the nightly proceedings of the enemies is repeated after the manner of a refrain, and that the poet in ver. 17 contrasts his believingly joyous prospects for the coming morning with the ineffectual ardour with which they pass the night patrolling the streets, Psalm lix. seems to be an evening song belonging to those perilous days spent in Gibea.

Vers. 2-10. First part. As far as ver. 4 we recognise strains familiar in the Psalms. The enemies are called *Dg1pflD as in Job xxvii. 7, cf. Ps. xvii. 7; D*W as shameless, D^B *W or ^???. \W; as in Isa. lvi. 11, on account of their bold shameless greediness, dogs. On K7 in a subordinate clause, vid. Ewald, § 286, g: without there being transgression or sin on my side, which might have caused it. The suffix (transgression on my part) is similar to xviii. 24. ftjTyS (cf. Job xxxiv. 6) is a similar adverbial collateral definition: without there existing any sin, which ought to be punished. The energetic future jeruzun depicts those who servilely give effect to the king's evil caprice; they run hither and thither as if attacking and put themselves in position, ptan = {jrfsrin, like the Hithpa. TtB3!}9 Prov. xxvi. 26, the Hothpa. D33n, Lev. xiii. 55 sq., and the Nithpa. "IS??, Deut. xxi. 8. Surrounded by such a band of assassins, David is like one besieged, who sighs for succour; and he calls upon Jahve, who seems to be sleeping and inclined to abandon him, with that bold n&Tft TlK"^ mty to awake to meet him, i.e. to join him with His help like a relieving army, and to convince Himself from personal observation of the extreme danger in which His charge finds himself. The continuation was obliged to be expressed by "WWj because a special appeal to God interposes between rnty and njpjpn. In the emphatic " Thou," however, after it has been once expressed, is implied the conditional character of the deliverance by the absolute One. And each of the divine names made use of in this lengthy invocation, which corresponds to the deep anxiety of the poet, is a challenge, so to speak, to the ability and willingness, the power and promise of God. The juxtaposition Jahve JElohim Tsebaoth (occurring, besides this instance, in lxxx. 5, 20, lxxxiv. 9), which is peculiar to the Elohimic Psalms, is to be explained by the consideration that Elohim had become a proper name like Jahve, and that the designation Jahve Tsebaoth, by the insertion of Elohim in accordance with the style of the Elohimic Psalms, is made still more imposing and solemn; and now XM3¥ is a genitive dependent not merely upon nw but upon D\"i^K PPlfP (similar to lvi. la, Isa. xxviii. lb; Symbolo?) p. 15). 'ipw\ wK is in apposition to this threefold name of God. The poet evidently reckons himself as belonging to an Israel from which he excludes his enemies, viz. the true Israel which is in reality the people of God. Among the heathen, against whom the poet invokes God's interposition, are included the heathen-minded in Israel; this at least is the view which brings about this extension of the prayer. Also in connection with the words fl&J *1?2 '3 the poet, in fact, has chiefly before his mind those who are immediately round about him and thus disposed. It is those who act treacherously from extreme moral nothingness and worthlessness (IJK genit. epexeg.). The music, as Sela directs, here becomes more boisterous; it gives intensity to the strong cry for the judgment of God; and the first unfolding of thought of this Michtam is here brought to a close.

The second begins by again taking up the description of the movements of the enemy which was begun in vers. 4, 5. We see at a glance how here ver. 7 coincides with ver. 5, and ver. 8 with ver. 4, and ver. 9 with ver. 6, Hence the imprecatory rendering of the futures of ver. 7 is not for a moment to be entertained. By day the emissaries of Saul do not venture to carry out their plot, and David naturally does not run into their hands. They therefore come back in the evening, and that evening after evening (cf. Job xxiv. 14); they snarl or howl like dogs (i*1??, used elsewhere of the growling of the bear and the cooing of the dove; it is distinct from m:,

_J, ^jj, to bark, and n^D, to yelp), because they do not want to betray themselves by loud barking, and still cannot altogether conceal their vexation and rage; and they go their rounds in the city (like TJJ2 DaiO, Cant. iii. 2, cf. supra lv. 11), in order to cut off their victim from flight, and perhaps, what would be very welcome to them, to run against him in the darkness.

The further description in ver. 8 follows them on this patrol. What they belch out or foam out is to be inferred from the Fact that swords are in their lips, which they, as it were, draw so soon as they merely move their lips. Their mouth overflows with murderous thoughts and with slanders concerning David, by which they justify their murderous greed to themselves as if there were no one, viz. no God, who heard it. But Jahve, from whom nothing, as with men, can be kept secret, laughs at them, just as He makes a mockery of all heathen, to whom this murderous band, which fears the light and is unworthy of the Israelitish name, is compared. This is the primary passage to xxxvii. 13, ii. 4; for Ps. lix. is perhaps the oldest of the Davidic Psalms that have come down to us, and therefore also the earliest monument of Israelitish poetry in which the divine name Jahve Tsebaoth occurs; and the chronicler, knowing that it was the time of Samuel and David that brought it into use, uses this name only in the life of David. Just as this strophe opened in ver. 7 with a distich that recurs in ver. 15, so it also closes now in ver. 10 with a distich that recurs below in ver. 18, and that is to be amended according to the text of that passage. For all attempts to understand W as being genuine prove its inaccuracy. With the old versions it has to be read SW; but as for the rest, mo^K must be retained in accordance with the usual variation found in such refrains: my strength, Thee will I regard (1 Sam. xxvi. 15; observe, 2 Sam. xi. 16), or upon Thee will I wait (cf. p, cxxx. 6); i.e. in the consciousness of my own feebleness, tranquil and resigned, I will look for Thine interposition on my behalf.

Vers. 11-18. In this second half of the Psalm the cry of fear is hushed. Hope reigns, and anger burns more fiercely. The Keri says that ver. 11a is to be read: *JOTp "Hon WK, my gracious God will anticipate me, — but with what? This question altogether disappears if we retain the Chethib and point rion Vpjj: my God will anticipate me with His mercy (cf. xxi. 4), i.e. will meet me bringing His mercy without any effort of mine. Even the old translators have felt that non must belong to the verb as a second object. The LXX. is perfectly correct in its rendering, 6 Oeos /xov to e\eo? avrov irpo$6ao~ei fie. The Keri has come into existence in looking to ver. 18, according to which it seems as though ^Dn ^x ought to be added to the refrain, ver. 10 (cf. a similar instance in xlii. 6, 7). But ver. 11a would be stunted by doing this, and it accords with Biblical poetic usage that the refrain in ver. 18 should be climactic in comparison with ver. 10 (just as it also does not altogether harmonize in its first half); so that Olshausen's proposal to close ver. 10 with "Hon \"6x and to begin ver. 11 with non (cf. lxxix. 8) is only just to be put on record. The prayer " slay them not" does not contradict the prayer that follows for their destruction. The poet wishes that those who lie in wait for him, before they are totally swept away, may remain for a season before the eyes of his people as an example of punishment. In accordance with this, top?!}, by a comparison of the Hiph. in Num. xxxii. 13, and of the Kal in ver. 16, cix. 10, is to be rendered: cause them to wander about (Targum, cf. Genesis Rabba, ch. xxxviii. ink., i&?tp?D); and in connection with *psrn one is involuntarily reminded of x. 10, 14, and is tempted to read ^n? or ^v-?: cause them to wander nosa h. e. misera), and more especially since pTQ occurs nowhere else instead of ^lptn or ^W3. But the Jod in l^nn is unfavourable to this supposition; and since the martial apostrophe of God by u our shield" follows, the choice of the word is explained by the consideration that the poet conceives of the power of God as an army (Joel ii. 25), and perhaps thinks directly of the heavenly host (Joel iv. [hi.] 11), over which the Lord of Hosts holds command (Hitzig). By means of this He is first of all to cause them to go astray (TJJ JJJ, Gen. iv. 12), then utterly to cast them down (lvi. 8). The Lord (tflK) is to do this, as truly as He is Israel's shield against all the heathen and all pseudo-Israelites who have become as heathen. The first member of ver. 13 is undoubtedly meant descriptively: u the sin of their mouth (the sin of the tongue) is the word of their lips" (with the dull-toned suffix mo, in the use of which Ps. lix. associates itself with the Psalms of the time of Saul, lvi., xi., xvii., xxii., xxxv., lxiv.). The combination ^^) Djifc03, however, more readily suggests parallel passages like Prov. xi. 6 than Pro v. vi. 2; and moreover the I? of the expression c^r-i r>x,:\ which is without example in connection with n—, and, taken as expressing the motive (Ilupfeld), ought to be joined with some designations of the disposition of mind, is best explained as an appended statement of the reason for which they are to be ensnared, so that consequently *^BD* (cf. lxix. 27, lxiv. G) is an attributive clause; nor is this contrary to the accentuation, if one admits the Munach to be a transformation of Mugrash. It is therefore to be rendered: " let them, then, be taken in their pride, and on account of the curse and deceit which they wilfully utter." If, by virtue of the righteousness of the Ruler of the world, their sin has thus become their fall, then, after they have been as it were a warning example to Israel, God is utterly to remove them out of the way, in order that they (it is unnecessary to suppose any change of subject), while perishing, may perceive that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob (2, used elsewhere of the object, e.g. Mic. v. 1, is here used of the place of dominion), and as in Jacob, so from thence unto the ends of the earth (? like ^y, xlviii. 11) wields the sceptre. Just like the first group of the first part, this first group of the second part also closes with Sela.

The second group opens like the second group in the first part, but with this exception, that here we read QB^J, which loosely connects it with what precedes, whereas there it is *Mfj. The poet's gaze is again turned towards Ms present straitened condition, and agaiu the pack of dogs by which Saul is hunting him present themselves to his mind. HEn points towards an antithesis that follows, and which finds its expression in *}W. *3yJ} and IjJEE stand in direct contrast to one another, and in addition to this 2iy? has preceded. The reading of the LXX. (Vulgate, Luther, [and authorized version]), /ecu ryoyyuaovaii> = WJ or tipjjj *s thereby proved to be erroneous. But if ttvjl is the correct reading, then it follows that we have to take ver. 16 not as foretelling what will take place, but as describing that which is present; so that consequently the fid. consec. (as is frequently the case apart from any historical connection) is only a consecutive continuation of flJW (for which the Kert has row*; the form that was required in ver. 12, but is inadmissible here): they wander up and down (JfiJ as in cix. 10, cf. TO, Job xv. 23) to eat (that is to say, seeking after food); and if they are not satisfied, they pass the night, i.e. remain, eager for food and expecting it, over night on the spot. This interpretation is the most natural, the simplest, and the one that harmonizes best not only with the text before us (the punctuation *V3^., not W2^, gives the member of the clause the impress of being a protasis), but also with the situation. The poet describes the activity of his enemies, and that by completing or retouching the picture of their comparison to dogs: he himself is the food or prey for which they are so eager, and which they would not willingly allow to escape them, and which they nevertheless cannot get within their grasp. Their morbid desire remains unsatisfied: he, however, in the morning, is able to sing of the power of God, which protects him, and exultantly to praise God's loving-kindness, which satiates and satisfies him (xc. 14); for in the day of fear, which to him is now past, God was his inaccessible stronghold, his unapproachable asylum. To this God, then, even further the play of his harp shall be directed ('"™TN), just as was his waiting or hoping (mbK>K, ver. 10).

3 ELOHIM, Thou hast cast us off, Thou hast scattered us, Thou hast been angry, restore us again!

5 Thou hast made Thy people experience a hard thing, Thou hast given us wine to drink to intoxication.

7 In order that Thy beloved may be delivered, Save now with Thy right hand and answer me!!!

I shall rejoice, I shall portion out Shechem, And measure out the valley of Succoth.

9 Mine is Gilead and mine Manasseli, And Ephraim is the helm of my head, Judah is my sceptre,

10 Moab is my wash-pot, Upon Edom I cast my shoe.

14 In Elohim shall we obtain the victory. And He will tread down our oppressors.

This last of the Elohimic Michtammim of David is dated from the time of the Syro-Ammonitish war: When he (David) waged war (Hiph. of HJtt, to pull, to seize by the hair) with (flK like?V in Num. xxvi. 9; according to Ben-Asher, with Segol instead of Makkeph here, as in xlvii. 5, Prov. iii. 12, three passages which are noted by the Masora) Aram of the two rivers (the people of the land of the twin streams, Meo-oiroraiiia) and with Aram Zobah (probably between the Euphrates and Orontes north-east of Damascus), and Joab retwmed P5*J1, transition from the infinitive to the finite verb, Ges. §• 132, rem. 2) and smote Edom in the Valley of Salt (the Edomitish Ghor, i.e. the salt plain, some ten miles wide, at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea) with twelve thousand men. This historical inscription comes from an historical work which gave the Psalm in this connection. It is not taken out of any of the histories that have been preserved to us. For both in 2 Sam. viii. 13 and in 1 Chron. xviii. 12 we find the number eighteen thousand instead of twelve. In the former passage, in which OB* »"CT is substantially equivalent to the Roman triumphum agere, we have to read DIKVIK after the inscription of our Psalm instead of D"i&rnx. It is, however, still more probable that the words D^KVIK 7]SJ (LXX. irrdra^e rrjv 'ISovfxalav) have accidentally fallen out. The fact that here in the Psalm the victory over the Edomites is ascribed to Joab, in the Chronicles to Abshai

(Abishai), and in 2 Sam. ch. viii. to David, is a difference which may easily be reconciled by the consideration that the army of David was under the supreme command of Joab, and this battle in the Valley of Salt was fought against the Edomites by Joab indirectly through his brother (cf. 2 Sam. x. 10).

The inscription carries us into the time of the greatest, longest, and most glorious of David's wars, that with the Ammonites, which, so far as these were concerned, ended in the second year in the conquest of Rabbah (vid. Ps. xxi.), and with their Aramaean allies, among whom Hadadezer, the ruler of the powerful kingdom of Zobah, was defeated in the first year at Chelam on the other side the Jordan. Then when, in the second year, he endeavoured to fortify himself anew in the districts on the banks of the Euphrates, he was completely subjugated together with the Syrians who had come to his assistance. Thus are the accounts of Aramaean wars related in 2 Sam. ch. viiL and x.-xii. to be combined. Whilst, now, the arms of David were making such triumphant progress in the north, the Edomites in the south had invaded the land which was denuded of troops, and here a new war, which jeopardized all the results that had been gained in the north, awaited the victorious army. Ps. lx. refers more especially to this Edomitish war. Hengstenberg is wrong when he infers from the inscription that it was composed after the victory in the Valley of Salt and before the conquest of Idumaea. The inscription only in a general way gives to the Psalm its historical setting. It was composed before the victory in the Valley of Salt, and presupposes the Israelitish south had been at that time grievously laid waste by the Edomites, against whom they were unable to oppose an adequate force. We may also infer from other indications how the occupation of the neighbouring and brother-country by the Edomites called for vengeance against them; vid. on Ps. xliv. That Korahitic Psalm may have been composed after the Davidic Psalm, and is designedly, by ver. 10, brought into relationship with it. In the cento Ps. cviii. vers. 7—14 correspond to lx. 7-14.