means of three considerations arrives, in this instance also, at the common refuge of the Maccabaean period, which possesses such an irresistible attraction for him.
In opposition to this transplanting of the Psalm into the time of the Maccabees we appeal to Hitzig, who is also quicksighted enough, when there is any valid ground for it, in finding out Maccabaean Psalms. He refers the Psalm to the victorious campaign of Joram against faithless Moab, undertaken in company with Jehoshaphat. Bottcher, on the other hand, sees in it a festal hymn of triumph belonging to the time of Hezekiah, which was sung antiphonically at the great fraternizing Passover after the return home of the young king from one of his expeditions against the Assyrians, who had even at that time fortified themselves in the country east of the Jordan (Bashan). Thenius (following the example of Rodiger) holds a different view. He knows the situation so very definitely, that he thinks it high time that the discussion concerning this Psalm was brought to a close. It is a song composed to inspirit the army in the presence of the battle which Josiah undertook against Necho, and the prominent, hateful character in ver. 22 is Pharaoh with his lofty artificial adornment of hair upon his shaven head. It is, however, well known what a memorably tragical issue for Israel that battle had; the Psalm would therefore be a memorial of the most lamentable disappointment.
All these and other recent expositors glory in not advancing any proof whatever in support of the inscribed TfP. And yet there are two incidents in David's life, with regard to which the Psalm ought first of all to be accurately looked at, before we abandon this Tf6 to the winds of conjecture. The first is the bringing home of the Ark of the covenant to Zion, to which, e.g., Franz Volkmar Reinhard (in vol. ii. of the Velthusen Commentationes Tkeol. 1795), Stier, and Hofmann refer the Psalm. But the manner in which the Psalm opens with a paraphrase of Moses' memorable words is at once opposed to this; and also the impossibility of giving unity to the explanation of its contents by such a reference is against it. Jahve has long since taken up His abode upon the holy mountain; the poet in this Psalm, which is one of the Psalms of war and victory describes how the exalted One, who now, however, as in the days of old, rides along through the highest heavens at the head of His people, casts down all powers hostile to Him and to His people, and compels all the world to confess that the God of Israel rules from His sanctuary with invincible might. A far more appropriate occasion is, therefore, to be found in the Syro-Ammonitish war of David, in which the Ark was taken with them by the people (2 Sam. xi. 11); and the hymn was not at that time first of all composed when, at the close of the war, the Ark was brought back to the holy mountain (Hengstenberg, Reinke), but when it was set in motion from thence at the head of Israel as they advanced against the confederate kings and their army (2 Sam. x. 6). The war lasted into the second year, when a second campaign was obliged to be undertaken in order to bring it to an end; and this fact offers at least a second possible period for the origin of the Psalm. It is clear that in vers. 12-15, and still more clear that in vers. 20-24 (and from a wider point of view, vers. 29-35), the victory over the hostile kings is only hoped for, and in vers. 25-28, therefore, the pageantry of victory is seen as it were beforehand. It is the spirit of faith, which here celebrates beforehand the victory of Jahve, and sees in the single victory a pledge of His victory over all the nations of the earth. The theme of the Psalm, generalized beyond its immediate occasion, is the victory of the God of Israel over the world. Regarded as to the nature of its contents, the whole divides itself into two halves, vers. 2-19, 20-35, which are on the whole so distinct that the first dwells more upon the mighty deed God has wrought, the second upon the impressions it produces upon the church and upon the peoples of the earth; in both parts it is viewed now as future, now as past, inasmuch as the longing of prayer and the confidence of hope soar aloft to the height of prophecy, before which futurity lies as a fulfilled fact. The musical Sela occurs three times (vers. 8, 20, 33). These three forte passages furnish important points of view for the apprehension of the collective meaning of the Psalm.
But is David after all the author of this Psalm? The general character of the Psalm is more Asaphic than Davidic (yid. Habukhtk) S. 122). Its references to Zalmon, to Benjamin and the Northern tribes, to the song of Deborah, and in general to the Book of Judges (although not in its present form), give it an appearance }f being Ephraimitish. Among the Davidic Psalms it stands entirely alone, so that criticism is quite unable to justify the 1)1?. And if the words in ver. 29a are addressed to the king, it points to some other poet than David. But is it to a cotemporary poet? The mention of the sanctuary on Zion in vers. 30, 36, does not exclude such an one. Only the threatening of the " wild beast of the sedge" (ver. 31) seems to bring us down beyond the time of David; for the inflammable material of the hostility of Egypt, which broke out into a flame in the reign of Rehoboam, was first gathering towards the end of Solomon's reign. Still Egypt was never entirely lost sight of from the horizon of Israel; and the circumstance that it is mentioned in the first rank, where the submission of the kingdoms of this world to the God of Israel is lyrically set forth in the prophetic prospect of the future, need not astonish one even in a poet of the time of David. And does not ver. 28 compel us to keep on this side of the division of the kingdom 1 It ought then to refer to the common expedition of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat against Moab (Hitzig), the indiscriminate celebration of which, however, was no suitable theme for a psalmist.
Vers. 2-7. The Psalm begins with the expression of a wish that the victory of God over all His foes and the triumphant exultation of the righteous were near at hand. Ewald and Hitzig take DTibtf Dip1 hypothetically: If God arise, His enemies will be scattered. This rendering is possible in itself so far as the syntax is concerned, but here everything conspires against it; for the futures in vers. 2-4 form an unbroken chain; then a glance at the course of the Psalm from ver. 20 onwards shows that the circumstances of Israel, under which the poet writes, urged forth the wish: let God arise and humble His foes; and finally the primary passage, Num. x. 35, makes it clear that the futures are the language of prayer transformed into the form of the wish. In ver. 3 the wish is addressed directly to God Himself, and therefore becomes petition. ffttfl is inflected (as vice versa itflV, vii. 6, from *fT]J) from *l*Wl (like injn, Jer. xxxii. 4); it is a violation of all rule in favour of the conformity of sound (cf. nfafjpn for Aton, Lev. xiv. 43, and supra on li. 6) with *fWj the object of which is easily supplied (dispcllas, sc. hostes tuos), and is purposely omitted in order to direct attention more stedfastly to the omnipotence which to every creature is so irresistible. Like smoke, wax (Jjfy root n, ttjk, Sanscrit tak, to shoot past, to run, Zend tak\ whence vitak'ina, dissolving, Neo-Persic guddchten; causative: to cause to run in different directions = to melt or smelt) is an emblem of human feebleness. As Bakius observes, Si creatura creaturam non fert, quomodo creatura creatoris indignantis faciem ferre possit? The wish expressed in ver. 4 forms the obverse of the preceding. The expressions for joy are heaped up in order to describe the transcendency of the joy that will follow the release from the yoke of the enemy. *3Qp is expressively used in alternation with "ODD in vers. 2, 3: by the wrathful action, so to speak, that proceeds from His countenance [just as the heat radiating from the fire melts the wax] the foes are dispersed, whereas the righteous rejoice before His gracious countenance. As the result of the challenge that has been now expressed in vers. 2-4, Elohim, going before His people, begins His inarch; and in ver. 5 an appeal is made to praise Him with song, His name with the music of stringed instruments, and to make a way along which He may ride ni3"jy3. In view of ver. 34 we cannot take nmy, as do the Targum and Talmud (B. Chagiga 126), as a name of one of the seven heavens, a meaning to which, apart from other considerations, the verb 2^, to be effaced, confused, dark, is not an appropriate stem-word; but it must be explained according to Isa. xl. 3. There Jahve calls in the aid of His people, here He goes forth at the head of His people; He rides through the steppes in order to fight against the enemies of His people. Not merely the historical reference assigned to the Psalm by Hitzig, but also the one adopted by ourselves, admits of allusion being made to the "steppes of Moab;" for the way to Medeba, where the Syrian mercenaries of the Ammonites had encamped (1 Chron. xix. 7), lay through these steppes, and also the way to Kabbath Ammon (2 Sam. x. 7 sq.). &Q calls upon them to make a way for Him, the glorious, invincible King (cf. Isa. lvii. 14, lxii. 10); W?p signifies to cast up, heap up or pave, viz. a raised and suitable street or highway, Symmachus Karaarpcoaare. He who thus rides along makes the salvation of His people His aim: a Jah is His name, therefore shout with joy before Him." The Beth in njn (Symmachus, Quinta:?cr) is the Beth essentia, which here, as in Isa. xxvi. 4, stands beside the subject: His name is (exists) in IT, i.e. His essential name is iT, His self-attestation, by which He makes Himself capable of being known and named, consists in His being the God of salvation, who, in the might of free grace, pervades all history. This Name is a fountain of exultant rejoicing to His people.
This Name is exemplificatively unfolded in vers. 6 sq. The highly exalted One, who sits enthroned in the heaven of glory, rules in all history here below and takes an interest in the lowliest more especially, in all circumstances of their lives following after His own to succour them. He takes the place of a father to the orphan. He takes up the cause of the widow and contests it to a successful issue. Elohim is one who makes the solitary or isolated to dwell in the house; nrP3 with He locale, which just as well answers the question where? as whither? T))2t a house = family bond, is the opposite of Trp, solitarius, recluse, xxv. 16. Dachselt correctly renders it, m domum, h.e. familiam numerosam durabilemque eos ut patresfamilias plantabit. He is further One who brings forth (out of the dungeon and out of captivity) those who are chained into abundance of prosperity. nin03? occurring only here, is a pluralet. from 1t23, synonym ">£W, to be straight, fortunate. Ver. 7 c briefly and sharply expresses the reverse side of this His humanely condescending rule among mankind. ^K is here (cf. Gen. ix. 4, Lev. xi. 4) restrictive or adversative (as is more frequently the case with J2N); and the preterite is the preterite of that which is an actual matter of experience. The D^T^D, i.e. (not from "PiD, the apostate ones, Aquila acpcarafjievoi,, but as in lxvi. 7, from "HD) the rebellious, Symmachus a7re^et?, who were not willing to submit to the rule of so gracious a God, had ever been excluded from these proofs of favour. These must inhabit nrrnv (accusative of the object), a sunscorched land; from nnv, to be dazzlingly bright, sunny, dried or parched up. They remain in the desert without coming into the land, which, fertilized by the waters of grace, is resplendent with a fresh verdure and with rich fruits. If the poet has befcre his mind in connection with this the bulk of the people delivered out of Egypt, ojv tcl KtoXa eireaav iv ry ep^fJLM (Heb. iii. 17), then the transition to what follows is much more easily effected. There is, however, no necessity for any such intermediation. The poet had the march through the desert to Canaan under the guidance of Jahve, the irresistible Conqueror, in his mind even from the beginning, and now he expressly calls to mind that marvellous divine leading in order that the present age may take heart thereat.
Vers. 8-11. In vers. 8 sq. the poet repeats the words of Deborah (Judg. v. 4 sq.), and her words again go back to Deut. xxxiii. 2, cf. Ex. xix. 15 sqq.; on the other hand, our Psalm is the original to Hab. ch. iii. The martial verb KJF represents Elohim as, coming forth from His heavenly dwellingplace (Isa. xxvi. 21), He places Himself at the head of Israel. The stately verb "WJ represents Him as He accompanies the hosts of His people with the step of a hero confident of victory; and the terrible name for the wilderness, |foH8^ is designedly chosen in order to express the contrast between the scene of action and that which they beheld at that time. The verb to TP '"It is easily supplied; Dachselt's rendering according to the accents is correct: hie mons Sinai (sc. in specie ita tremuit). The description fixes our attention upon Sinai as the central point of all revelations of God during the period of deliverance by the hand of Moses, as being the scene of the most glorious of them all (yid. on Hab. p. 136 sq.). The majestic phenomena which proclaimed the nearness of God are distributed over the whole journeying, but most gloriously concentrated themselves at the giving of the Law on Sinai. The earth trembled throughout the extended circuit of this vast granite range, and the heavens dropped, inasmuch as the darkness of thunder clouds rested upon Sinai, pierced by incessant lightnings (Ex. ch. xix.). There, as the original passages describe it, Jahve met His people; He came from the east, His people from the west; there they found themselves together, and shaking the earth, breaking through the heavens, He gave them a pledge of the omnipotence which should henceforth defend and guide them. The poet has a purpose in view in calling Elohim in this passage "the God of Israel;" the covenant relationship of God to Israel dates from Sinai, and from this period onwards, by reason of the Tora, He became Israel's King (Deut. xxxiii. 5). Since the statement of a fact of earlier history has preceded, and since the preterites alternate with them, the futures that follow in vers. 10, 11 are to be understood as referring to the synchronous past; but hardly so that ver. 10 should refer to the miraculous supply of food, and more especially the rain of manna, during the journeyings through the wilderness. The giving of the Law from Sinai has a view to Israel being a settled, stationary people, and the deliverance out of the land of bondage only finds its completion in the taking and maintaining possession of the Land of Promise. Accordingly vers. 10, 11 refer to the blessing and protection of the people who had taken up their abode there.
The rnro of God (genit. aucloris, as in 2 Mace. ii. 4) is the land assigned by Him to Israel as an inheritance; and D2;3 nil"!} an emblem of the abundance of gifts which God has showered down upon the land since Israel took up its abode in it. nzna is the name given to a deed and gift springing from an inward impulse, and in this instance the intensive idea of richness and superabundance is associated therewith by means of the plural; flto'ii ^F? 1S a shower-like abundance of good gifts descending from above. The Hipliil *pn here governs a double accusative, like the Kal in Prov. vii. 17, in so far, that is, as ir6ru is drawn to ver. 10a; for the accentuation, in opposition to the Targum, takes 7\vhv\ "[vbrti together: Thine inheritance and that the parched one (Waw epexeget. as in 1 Sam. xxviii. 3, Amos iii. 11, iv. 10). But this " and that" is devoid of aim; why should it not at once be read nspiin? The rendering of Bottcher, " Thy sickened and wearied," is inadmissible, too, according to the present pointing; for it ought to be 1^!!|JJ. or ^r6rn. And with a suffix this Niphal becomes ambiguous, and more especially so in this connection, where the thought of ^D;?, an inherited possession, a heritage, lies so naturally at hand, ^rpro is therefore to be drawn to ver. 10a, and ver. 10b must begin with flNpjn, as in the LXX., Kal rjadevr^ae^ crv Se tcarrjptlctco avTTjv. It is true HN73 is not a hypothetical preterite equivalent to nnrai; but, as is frequently the case with the anarthrous participle (Ew. § 341, b), it has the value of a hypothetical clause: u and if it (Israel's inheritance) were in a parched, exhausted condition (cf. the cognate root nn?7 Gen. xlvii. 13), then hast Thou always made it again firm" (viii. 4, Ex. xv. 17), i.e. strengthened, enlivened it. Even here the idea of the inhabitants is closely associated with the land itself; in ver. 11 they are more especially thought of: "Thy creatures dwelt therein." Nearly all modern expositors take njn either according to 2 Sam. xxiii. 11, 13 (cf. 1 Chron. xi. 15), in the signification tent-circle, ring-camp (root in, *-^, to move in a circle, to encircle, to compass), or in the signification of ^- beings (cf. ^n, 1 Sam. xviii. 18). But the Asaphic character of this Psalm, which is also manifest in other points, is opposed to this rendering. This style of Psalm is fond of the comparison of Israel to a flock, so that also in lxxiv. 19 ~\"ty JVn signifies nothing else than "the creatures [Gethier, collective] of Thy poor, Thy poor creatures." This use of njn is certainly peculiar; but not so remarkable as if by the " creatures of God" we had to understand, with Hupfeld, the quails (Ex. ch. xvi.). The avoiding of nana on account of the idea of brutum (lxxiii. 22) which is inseparable from this word, is sufficient to account for it; in JTn, foW, there is merely the notion of moving life. We therefore are to explain it according to Mic. vii. 14, where Israel is called a flock dwelling in a wood in the midst of Carmel: God brought it to pass, that the flock cf Israel, although sorely persecuted, nevertheless continued to inhabit the land. PI3 as in ver. 15, refers to Canaan. 'W in ver. lib is the ecclesia pressa surrounded by foes on every side: Thou didst prepare for Thy poor with Thy goodness, Elohim, i.e. Thou didst regale or entertain Thy poor people with Thy possessions and Thy blessings.? P?n, as in Gen. xliii. 16, 1 Chron. xii. 39, to make ready to eat, and therefore to entertain; nniD as in lxv. 12, 'n 3*tt, Jer. xxxi. 12. It wrould be quite inadmissible, because tautological, to refer p3fl to the land according to lxv. 10 (Ewald), or even to the desert (Olshausen), which the description has now left far behind.
Vers. 12-15. The futures that now follow are no longer to be understood as referring to previous history; they no ^nger alternate with preterites. Moreover the transition to tne language of address in ver. 14 shows that the poet here looks forth from his present time and circumstances into the future; and the introduction of the divine name *J »K, after Elohim has been used eleven times, is an indication of a new commencement. The prosperous condition in which God places His church by giving it the hostile powers of the world as a spoil is depicted. The noun *1EK, never occurring in the genitival relationship, and never with a suffix, because the specific character of the form would be thereby obliterated, always denotes an important utterance, more particularly God's word of promise (lxxvii. 9), or His word of power (Hab. iii. 9), which is represented elsewhere as a mighty voice of thunder (lxviii. 34, Isa. xxx. 30), or a trumpet-blast (Zech. ix. 14); in the present instance it is the word of power by which the Lord suddenly changes the condition of His oppressed church. The entirely new state of things which this omnipotent behest as it were conjures into existence is presented to the mind in ver. 12b: the women who proclaim the tidings of victory — a great host. Victory and triumph follow upon God's 18K, as upon His creative W. The deliverance of Israel from the army of Pharaoh, the deliverance out of the hand of Jabin by the defeat of Sisera, the victory of Jephthah over the Ammonites, and the victorious single combat of David with Goliath were celebrated by singing women. God's decisive word shall also go forth this time, and of the evangelists, like Miriam (Mirjam) and Deborah, there shall be a great host.
Ver. 13 describes the subject of this triumphant exultation. Hupfeld regards vers. 13-15 as the song of victory itself, the fragment of an ancient triumphal ode (epinikiori) reproduced here; but there is nothing standing in the way that should forbid our here regarding these verses as a direct continuation of ver. 12. The u hosts" are the numerous well-equipped armies which the kings of the heathen lead forth to the battle against the people of God. The unusual expression " kings of hosts" sounds very much like an ironically disparaging antithesis to the customary "Jahve of Hosts" (Bottcher). He, the Lord, interposes, and they are obliged to flee, staggering as they go, to retreat, and that, as the anadiplosis (cf. Judg. v. 7, xix. 20) depicts, far away, in every direction. The fut. energicum with its wZta'ma-accentuation gives intensity to the pictorial expression. The victors then turn homewards laden with rich spoils. IVn r\))y here in a collective sense, is the wife who stays at home (Judg. v. 24) while the husband goes forth to battle. It is not: the ornament (njj as in Jer. vi. 2) of the house, which Luther, with the LXX., Vulgate, and Syriac, adopts in his version,* but: the dweller or homely one (cf. H13, a dwellingplace, Job viii. 6) of the house, 97 olfcovpos. The dividing of the spoil elsewhere belongs to the victors; what is meant here is the distribution of the portions of the spoil that have fallen to the individual victors, the further distribution of which is left for the housewife (Judg. v. 30 sq., 2 Sam. i. 24). Ewald now recognises in vers. 14 sq. the words of an ancient song of victory; but ver. 136 is unsuitable to introduce them. The language of address in ver. 14 is the poet's own, and he here describes the condition of the people who are victorious by the help of their God, and who again dwell peaceably in the land after the war. EN passes out of the hypothetical signification into the temporal, as e.g. in Job xiv. 14 (vid. on lix. 16.) The lying down among the sheep-folds (D^riD^ = D^riBSPD, cf. B32>, EB^Dj the staked-in folds or pens consisting of hurdles standing two by two over against one another) is an emblem of thriving peace, which (like vers. 8, 28) points back to Deborah's song, Judg. v. 16, cf. Gen. xlix. 14. Just such a time is now also before Israel, a time of peaceful prosperity enhanced by rich spoils. Everything shall glitter and gleam with silver and gold. Israel is God's turtle-dove, lxxiv. 19, cf, lvi. 1, Hos. vii. 11, xi. 11. Hence the new circumstances of ease and comfort are likened to the varied hues of a dove disporting itself in the sun. Its wings are as though overlaid with silver (nsro, not 3. prcet., but part. fern. Niph. as predicate to *B33, cf. 1 Sam. iv. 15, Mic. iv. 11, i. 9; Ew. § 317, a), therefore like silver wings (cf. Ovid, Metam. ii. 537: Niveis argentea pennis Ales); and its pinions with gold-green,f and that, as the reduplicated
* " Hausehre" says he, is the housewife or matron as being the adornment of the house; vid. F. Dietrich, Frau und Dame, a lecture bearing upon the history of language (1864), S. 13.
t Ewald remarks, " Arabian poets also call the dove \jf. Jl, the greenish yellow, golden gleaming one, vid. Kosegarten, Chrestom. p. 156, 5." But this Arabic poetical word for the dove signifies rather the ash-green, whity blackish one. Nevertheless the signification greenish for the Hebrew p-ip"l"» is established. Bartenoro, on Negaim xi. 4, calls the colour of the wings of the peacock p-lpT1; and I am here reminded of what Wetzstein once told me, that, according to an Arab proverb, the surface of good coffee ought to be "like the neck of the dove," i.e. so oily that it gleams form implies, with the iridescent or glistening hue of the finest gold (P*1?, not dull, but shining gold). Side by side with this bold simile there appears in ver. 15 an equally bold but contrastive figure, which, turning a step or two backward, likewise vividly illustrates the results of their God-given victory. The suffix of H3 refers to the land of Israel, as in Isa. viii. 21, lxv. 9. jiE?¥, according to the usage of the language so far as it is now preserved to us, is not a common noun: deep darkness (Targum = n.)9?¥), it is the name of a mountain in Ephraim, the trees of which Abimelech transported in order to set fire to the tower of Shechem (Judg. ix. 48 sqq.). The Talmudic literature was acquainted with a river taking its rise there, and also somewhat frequently mentions a locality bearing a similar name to that of the mountain. The mention of this mountain may in a general way be rendered intelligible by the consideration that, like Shiloh (Gen. xlix. 10), it is situated about in the centre of the Holy Land.* 3?^? signifies to bring forth snow, or even, like -djtj to become snow-white; this Hiph. is not a word descriptive of colour, like P??0- Since the protasis is bn^n, and not W^??, *wn is intended to be impersonal (cf. 1. 3, Amos iv. 7, Mic. iii. 6); and the voluntative form is explained from its use in apodoses of hypothetical protases (Ges. § 128, 2). It indicates the issue to which, on the supposition of the other, it must and shall come. The words are therefore to be like the eye of a peacock. A way for the transition from green to grey in aurak as the name of a colour is already, however, opened up in postbiblical Hebrew, when to frighten any one is expressed by D^D p^Dn, Genesis Rabba, 47<z. The intermediate notion is that of fawn colour, i.e. yellowish grey. In the Talmud the plumage of the full-grown dove is called lint and mn¥, Chullin, 22b.
* In Tosifta Para, ch. viii., a river of the name of p^VH HTTP is mentioned, the waters of which might not be used in preparing the water of expiation (nNLDn ^D), because they were dried up at the time of the war, and thereby hastened the defeat of Israel (viz. the overthrow of Barcochba). Gratz (Geschichte dcr Juden, iv. 157, 459 f.) sees in it the Naliar Arsuf, which flows down the mountains of Ephraim past Bcthar into the Mediterranean. The village of Zalmon occurs in the Mishna, Jtbamoth xvi. 6, and frequently. The Jerusalem Gemara (Maascroth i. 1) gives preeminence to the carob-trees of Zalmona side by side with those of Sliitta aud Gadara.
rendered: then It snows on Zalmon; and tlie snowing is either an emblem of the glistening spoil that falls into their hands in such abundance, or it is a figure of the becoming white, whether from bleached bones (cf. Virgil, 2En. v. 865: albi ossibus scopuli; xii. 36: campi ossibus albent; Ovid, Fasti i. 558: humanis ossibus albet humus) or even from the naked corpses (2 Sam. i. 19, bbn vntea^y). Whether we consider the point of comparison to lie in the spoil being abundant as the flakes of snow, and like to the dazzling snow in brilliancy, or in the white pallid corpses, at any rate flop^a is not equivalent to |i»?s:i3, but what follows " when the Almighty scatters kings therein" is illustrated by Zalmon itself. In the one case Zalmon is represented as the battle-ground (cf. ex. 6), in the other (which better corresponds to the nature of a wooded mountain) as a place of concealment. The protasis 'w KHM favours the latter; for BH3 signifies to spread wide apart, to cause a compact whole — and the host of "the kings" is conceived of as such — to fly far asunder into many parts (Zech. ii. 10, cf. the Niph. in Ezek. xvii. 21). The hostile host disperses in all directions, and Zalmon glitters, as it were with snow, from the spoil that is dropped by those who flee. Homer also {Iliad, xix. 357-361) likens the mass of assembled helmets, shields, armour, and lances to the spectacle of a dense fall of snow. In this passage of the Psalm before us still more than in Homer it is the spectacle of the fallen and far seen glistening snow that also is brought into the comparison, and not merely that which is falling and that which covers everything (vid. Iliad, xii. 277 sqq.). The figure is the pendant of the figure of the dove.*
* Wetzstein gives a different explanation (Reise in den beiden Traclwnen und um das Haurdngebirge in the Zeitschrift fur allgem. Erdkunde, 1859, S. 198). " Then fell snow on Zalmon, i.e. the mountain clothed itself in a bright garment of light in celebration of this joyous event. Any one who has been in Palestine knows how very refreshing is the spectacle of the distant mountain-top capped with snow. The beauty of this poetical figure is enhanced by the fact that Zalmon Q.Uli?), according to its etymology, signifies a mountain range dark and dusky, either from shade, forest, or black rock. The laat would well suit the mountains of Ham an, among which Ptolemaeus (p. 365 and 370, Ed. Wilberg) mentions a mountain (according to one of the various readings) * Aa»7iftetpog.n
Vers. 16-10. This victory of Israel over the kings of the Gentiles gives the poet the joyful assurance that Zion is the inaccessible dwelling-place of Elohim, the God of the heavenly hosts. The mention of Zalmon leads him to mention other mountains. He uses the mountains of Bashan as an emblem of the hostile powers east of Jordan. These stand over against the people of God, as the mighty mountains of Bashan rising in steep, only slightly flattened peaks, to little hill-like Zion. In the land on this side Jordan the limestone and chalk formation with intermingled strata of sandstone predominates; the mountains of Bashan, however, are throughout volcanic, consisting of slag, lava, and more particularly basalt {basanites\ which has apparently taken its name from Bashan (Basan).* As a basalt range the mountains of Bashan are conspicuous among other creations of God, and are therefore called "the mountain of Elohim:w the basalt rises in the form of a cone with the top lopped off, or even towers aloft like so many columns precipitous and rugged to sharp points; hence the mountains of Bashan are called Bs3333 in, i.e. a mountain range (for in, as is well known, signifies both the single eminence and the range of summits) of many peaks = a many-peaked mountain; p33 is an adjective like iJJH,???*?. With this boldly formed mass of rock so gloomily majestic, giving the impression of antiquity and of invincibleness, when compared with the ranges on the other side of unstable porous limestone and softer formations, more particularly with Zion, it is an emblem of the world and its powers standing over against the people of God as a threatening and seemingly invincible colossus. The poet asks these mountains of Bashan " why," etc.? *\T\ is explained from the Arabic <Xa »,, which, in accordance with its root ^o,, signifies to cleave firmly to a place (Jirmiter inhcesit loco), properly used of a beast of prey couching down and lying in wait for prey, of a hunter on the catch, and of an enemy in ambush; hence then: to lie in wait for, lurk, evehpevecv, craftily, insidiose (whence rdsid, a lier-in-wait, tarrassud, an ambush), here: to regard enviously, invidiose. In Arabic, just as in this instance, it is construed as a direct transitive with an accusative of the
* This is all the more probable as Semitism has no proper word for basalt; in Syria it is called hcuj'ar aswad, u black stone."
object, whereas the original signification would lead one to look for a dative of the object (? ^Tl), which does also really occur in the common Arabic. Olewejored is placed by D,,3333, but what follows is not, after all, the answer: "the mountain — Elohim has chosen it as the seat of His throne," but "inn is the object of the interrogative clause: Quare invidiose observatis, monies cacuminosi, hunc montem (Sei/cTLfca)?: that Zion yonder), quern, etc. (an attributive clause after a determinate substantive, as in lii. 9, lxxxix. 50, and many other instances, contrary to the Arabic rule of style). Now for the first time, in ver. 17c, follows that which is boastfully and defiantly contrasted with the proud mountains: "Jahvewill also dwell for ever;" not only that Elohim has chosen Zion as the seat of His throne, it will also continue to be the seat of His throne, Jahve will continue to dwell [there] for ever. Grace is superior to nature, and the church superior to the world, powerful and majestic as this may seem to be. Zion maintains its honour over against the mountains of Bashan.
Ver. 18 now describes the kind of God, so to speak, who sits enthroned on Zion. The war-chariots of the heavenly hosts are here collectively called 33n, as in 2 Kings vi. 17. D713T (with Dechi, not Olewejored) is a dual from Hi3"i; and this is either an abstract noun equivalent to rR3"l (from which comes the apocopated 1sn = un)f a myriad, consequently B^3"i, two myriads, or a contracted plural out of flftfen, Ezra ii. 69, therefore the dual of a plural (like D^rriDin? D^nim?): an indefinite plurality of myriads, and this again doubled (Hofmann). With this sense, in comparison with which the other is poor and meagre, also harmonizes the expression |N3K> '•SpK, thousands of repetition (aira^ Xeyofi. = £3$), i.e. thousands and again thousands, numberless, incalculable thousands; cf. the other and synonymous expression in Dan. vii. 10.* It is intended to
The stem-word is, however, ri3£>, just as &)&, Arabic thinan, ithnan, is also formed from a singular that is to be assumed, viz. w,.J ( J^), and this from H3£>, ^aj (cf.;a from H33,.Ju).
give a conception of the "hosts" which Elohim is to set in array against the "kings of hosts," i.e. the martial power of the kingdom of the world, for the protection and for the triumph of His own people. Chariots of fire and horses of fire appear in 2 Kings ii. 11. vi. 17 as God's retinue; in Dan. vii. 10 it is angelic forces that thus make themselves visible. They surround Him on both sides in many myriads, in countless thousands. D2 tfW (with Beth raphatum*), the Lord is among them (cf. Isa. xlv. 14), i.e. they are round about Him, He has them with Him (Jer. xli. 15), and is present with them. It now becomes clear why Sinai is mentioned, viz. because at the giving of the Law Jahve revealed Himself on Sinai surrounded by " ten thousands of saints " (Deut. xxxiii. 2 sq.). But in what sense is it mentioned? Zion, the poet means, presents to the spiritual eye now a spectacle such as Sinai presented in the earlier times, although even Sinai does not belong to the giants among the mountains:f God halts there with His angel host as a protection and pledge of victory to His people. The conjectures won fcO and WDto D2 (Hitzig) are of no use to us. We must either render it: Sinai is in the sanctuarv, i.e. as it were transferred into the sanctuary of Zion; or: a Sinai is it in holiness, i.e. it presents a spectacle such as Sinai presented when God by His appearing surrounded it with holiness. The use of the expression £Hp? in ver. 25, lxxvii. 14, Ex. xv. 11, decides in favour of the latter rendering.
With ver. 19 the Psalm changes to prayer. According to vii. 8, xlvii. 6, Di"»E? appears to be the height of heaven; but since in vers. 16-18 Zion is spoken of as Jahve's inaccessible dwelling-place, the connection points to tf5? ^"I^, Jer. xxxi. 12, cf. Ezek. xvii. 23, xx. 40. Moreover the preterites, which
* This is one of the three passages (the others being Isa. xxxiv. 11, Ezek. xxiii. 42; cf. Ew. § 93, b) in which the dageshing of the opening mute of the following word is given up after a soft final consonant, when the words are connected by a conjunctive accent or Makkeph.
f Cf. the epigram in Sadi's Garden of Iioses, " Of all mountains Sinai is the smallest, and yet the greatest in rank and worth in the estimation of God," etc. On the words KHpH WQ which follow we may to a certain extent compare the name of honour given to it in Arabic, fur m'ana, " Sinai of pensiveness " (Pertsch, Die persischen Handschri/ten der Gothaer Bibliotkek, 1859, S. 24).
under other circumstances we should be obliged to take as prophetic, thus find their most natural explanation as a retrospective glance at David's storming of " the stronghold of Zion" (2 Sam. v. 6-10) as the deed of Jahve Himself. But we should exceed the bounds of legitimate historical interpretation by referring D"jsn rri:n» nn^ to the Nethinim, Ezra viii. 20 (cf. Num. xvii. 6), those bondmen of the sanctuary after the manner of the Gibeonites, Josh. ix. 23. The Beth of Dl&O is not Beth substantia?: gifts consisting of men, so that these themselves are the thing given (J. D. Michaelis, Evvald), but the expression signifies inter homines, as in lxxviii. 60, 2 Sam. xxiii. 3, Jer. xxxii. 20. Dhftp n^py mentions the ascending of the triumphant One; ^ P*??* (c^» Judg. v. 12), the subjugation of the enemy; 'U1 nnipj, the receiving of the gifts betokening homage and allegiance (Deut. xxviii. 38, and frequently), which have been presented to Him since He has taken possession of Zion, — there He sits enthroned henceforth over men, and receives gifts like to the tribute which the vanquished bring to the victor. These He has received among men, and even (*)K1, atque etiam, as in Lev. xxvi. 39-42) among the rebellious ones. Or does a new independent clause perhaps begin with D'nnip &|to? This point will be decided by the interpretation of the words that follow. Side by side with an infinitive with p expressing a purpose, the one following noun (here a twofold name) has the assumption against it of being the subject. Is D\"6s H1 then consequently the object, or is it an apostrophe? If it be taken as the language of address, then the definition of the purpose, pB$, ought, as not being suited to what immediately precedes, to refer back to Tvbv; but this word is too far off. Thus, therefore, the construction of D*r6« n* with pc6, as its object, is apparently intended (Ewald, Hupfeld): and even the rebellious are to dwell (Ges. § 132, rem. 1) with Jah Elohim (accus. as in v. 5, and frequently). This interpretation is also the one most generally adopted among the old expositors. The Targum renders: and even the rebellious who turn and repent, even upon them will the Shechina of the glory of Jah Elohim descend and dwell; the Syriac version: and even the rebellious will (" not " is probably to be crossed out) dwell before God (N!"6n Dip jnojr); and Jerome: insuper et non credentes inhabitare Vominum Deum, Thus Theodoret also understands the versions of the LXX. and of Aquila: " Thou hast not regarded their former disobedience, but notwithstanding their' rebellion hast Thou continually been gracious to them ew? avrovs OLKT)TT]pLov oltceiov aire^rjva^r The expression, however, sounds too grand to have " the rebellious ones" as its subject, and more particularly in view of ver. 7. Hence we take D*TPD *1*N with E^?? • and even among rebellious ones (hast Thou received gifts), or: and even rebellious ones (give Thee); and |3Bv as a clause denoting the purpose, followed by the subject (as e.g. in 2 Sam. xix. 20): in order that Jah Elohim may dwell, i.e. continue to dwell (as in ver. 17, cf. Isa. lvii. 15). The first half of the Psalm ends here. With the words Jah Elohim the Psalm has reached a summit upon which it takes its rest. God has broken forth on behalf of His people against their enemies, and He now triumphs over and on behalf of men. The circumstance of Elohim arising is the rise of the final glory, and His becoming manifest as Jah Elohim is its zenith. Paul (Eph. iv. 8) gathers up the meaning of ver. 19, without following the LXX., in the following manner: avaftas eh vtyo? r)')(jAa\<jL)Tev(Tev alyjxcCKwaiav teal eScofce ha^aro, rots av6pu>Troi$. Might he perhaps have had the Targum, with which the Syriac version agrees, in his mind at the time: NrQrv NK'J *pa?)jnD [inpl He interprets in the light and in the sense of the history that realizes it. For the ascension of Elohim in its historical fulfilment is none other than the ascension of Christ. This latter was, however, as the Psalm describes it, a triumphal procession (Col. ii. 15); and what the Victor has gained over the powers of darkness and of death, He has gained not for His own aggrandisement, but for the interests of men. It is D*JK3 A^Pj gifts which Pie now distributes among men, and which benefit even the erring ones. So the apostle takes the words, inasmuch as he changes €\a/3e? into eSeo/ce. The gifts are the charismata which come down from the Exalted One upon His church.* It is a distribution of gifts, a dispensing of blessing, which stands related to His victory as its primary cause; for as Victor He is also the possessor of blessing, His
* In this respect Ps. lxviii. is the most appropriate Psalm for the Dominica Pentecostes, just as it is also, in the Jewish ritual, the Psalm of the second Shabuoth day.
gifts are as it were the spoils of the victory He has gained over sin, death, and Satan.* The apostle is the more warranted in this interpretation, since Elohim in what follows is celebrated as the Lord who also brings out of death. This praise in the historical fulfilment applies to Him, who, as Theodoret observes on ver. 21, has opened up the prison-house of death, which for us had no exit, and burst the brazen doors, and broken asunder the iron bolts,f viz. to Jesus Christ, who now has the keys of Death and of Hades.
Vers. 20-28. Now begins the second circuit of the hymn. Comforted by the majestic picture of the future that he has beheld, the poet returns to the present, in which Israel is still oppressed, but yet not forsaken by God. The translation follows the accentuation, regular and in accordance with the sense, which has been restored by Baer after Heidenheim, viz. tffK has Zarka, and w DDJP Olewejored preceded by the sub-distinctive Rebia parvum; it is therefore: Benedictus Dominator: quotidie bajulat nobis^ — with which the Targum, Rashi, and Kimchi agree.J D*?V> like N^J and?3p, unites the significations to lay a burden upon one (Zech. xii. 3, Isa. xlvi. 1, 3), and to carry a burden; with?V it signifies to lay a burden upon any one, here with? to take up a burden for any one and to bear it for him. It is the burden or pressure of the hostile world that is meant, which the Lord day by day helps His church to bear, inasmuch as He is mighty by His strength in her who of herself is so feeble. The divine name?N, as being the subject of the sentence, is?Nn: God is our salvation. The music here again strikes in forte9 and the same thought that is emphasized
* Just so Hbleniann in the second division of his Bibelsludien (1861); whereas to Hofmann (Schriftbeweis, ii. 482 ff.) the New Testament application of the citation from the Psalm is differently brought about, because he refers neither fxf^ci'Karsvaev cdx^ttKuaictv nor >sem/3>j tig rdi Kxrurepx ftepri t*is y»k to the descent of the Lord into Hades.
t Just so that portion of the Gospel of Nicodemus that treats of Christ's descent into Hades; vid. Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocryph. (1853), p. 307.
% According to the customary accentuation the second D^ has Mercha or Olewejored, and ^"DOys Mugrash. But this Mugrasli has the position of the accents of the Silluk- member against it; for although it does exceptionally occur that two conjunctives follow Mugrasli (Accentsystem, xvii. § 5), yet these cannot in any case be Mahpach sarkatum and Illui.
by the music in its turn, is also repeated in ver. 21a with heightened expression: God is to us a God niV'J'iD^ who grants us help in rich abundance. The pluraleL denotes not so much the many single proofs of help, as the riches of rescuing power and grace. In ver. 216 TN3> corresponds to the W; for it is not to be construed HJS? rrisvim: Jahve's, the Lord, are the outgoings to death (Bottcher), i.e. He can command that one shall not fall a prey to death, mxvin, the parallel word to fnWID, signifies, and it is the most natural meaning, the escapings; N^, evadere, as in 1 Sam. xiv. 41, 2 Kings xiii. 5, Eccles. vii. 18. In Jahve's power are means of deliverance for death, i.e. even for those who are already abandoned to death. With "^ a joyously assuring inference is drawn from that which God is to Israel. The parallelism of the correctly divided verse shows that &'N"I here, as in ex. 6, signifies caput in the literal sense, and not in the sense of princeps. The hair-covered scalp is mentioned as a token of arrogant strength, and unhumbled and impenitent pride, as in Deut. xxxii. 42, and as the Attic Kofiav directly signifies to strut along, give one's self airs. The genitival construction is the same as in Isa. xxviii. 16, xxxii. 136. The form of expression refers back to Num. xxiv. 17, and so to speak inflects" this primary passage very similarly to Jer. xlviii. 45. If "W ^plp be an object, then WiT) ought also to be a second object (that of the member of the body); the order of the words does not in itself forbid this (cf. iii. 8 with Deut. xxxiii. 11), but would require a different arrangement in order to avoid ambiguity. In ver. 23 the poet hears a divine utterance, or records one that he has heard: u From Bashan will I bring back, I will bring back from the eddies of the sea (from S^ =??¥, to whiz, rattle; to whirl, eddy), i.e. the depths or abysses of the sea." Whom % When after the destruction of Jerusalem a ship set sail for Rome with a freight of distinguished and well-formed captives before whom was the disgrace of prostitution, they all threw themselves into the sea, comforting themselves with this passage of Scripture (Gittin 576, cf. Echa Rabbathi 6Qa). They therefore took ver. 23 to be a promise which has Israel as its object;* but the clause expressing a
* So also the Targum, which understands the promise to refer to the restoration of the righteous who have been eaten by wild beasts and purpose, ver. 24, and the paraphrase in Amos ix. 2 sq., show that the foes of Israel are conceived of as its object. Even if these have hidden themselves in the most out-of-the-way places, God will fetch them back and make His own people the executioners of His justice upon them. The expectation is that the flight of the defeated foes will take a southernly direction, and that they will hide themselves in the primeval forests of Bashan, and still farther southward in the depths of the sea, i.e. of the Dead Sea (DJ as in Isa. xvi. 8, 2 Chron. xx. 2). Opposite to the hiding in the forests of the mountainous Bashan stands the hiding in the abyss of the sea, as the extreme of remoteness, that which is in itself impossible being assumed as possible. The first member of the clause expressing the purpose, ver. 24, becomes more easy and pleasing if we read K^nn (LXX., Syriac, and Vulgate, ut intingatur), according to lviii. 11. So far as the letters are concerned, the conjecture j^n?? (from which prion, according to Chajug', is transposed), after Isa. lxiii. 1, is still more natural (Hitzig): that thy foot may redden itself in blood. This is certainly somewhat tame, and moreover E^JO would be better suited to this rendering than D13. As the text now stands, pnDfl* is equivalent to &?ni?n (them, viz. the enemies), and CH2 ^pan is an adverbial clause (setting or plunging thy foot in blood). It is, however, also possible that f*no agites pedem tuam in sanguine. Can it now be that in ver. 246 from among the number of the enemies the one who goes about glorying in his sins, the VVft Kari^o^ijv (cf. Isa. xi. 4, Hab. iii. 13, and other passages), is brought prominently forward by *njM?1 Hardly so; the absence of P?n (lambat) cannot be tolerated, cf.
drowned in the sea (Midrash: ft>:no = nV"lX *JB> pE>); cf. also the things related from the time of the Khaliphs in Jost's Gexchichte des Judenthums, ii. 399, and Grata' Gesck. derJuden, v. 347.
* The Gaja of the first closed syllable warns one to make a proper pause upon it, in order that the guttural of the second, so apt to be slurred over, may be distinctly pronounced; cf. Iran, lxv. 5; p*mn, ciii 12. So also with the sibilants at the beginning of the second syllable, e.g. N£Hn, Gen. i. 11, in accordance with which, in xiv. 1, liii. 2, we must write WMlBtfl
1 King9 xxi. 19, xxii. 38. It is more natural, with Simonis, to refer VtW back to $By (a word which is usually fern., but sometimes perhaps is masc, xxii. 16, Prov. xxvi. 28); and, since side by side with *3t30 only *H3D occurs anywhere else (E\v. § 263, 6), to take it in the signification pars ejus (\0 from |3>J = n^o after the form H, fn,)'P, of the same meaning as H3D. J13D, lxiii. 11), in favour of which Hupfeld also decides.
What is now described in vers. 25-28, is not the rejoicing over a victory gained in the immediate past, nor the rejoicing over the earlier deliverance at the Eed Sea, but Israel's joyful celebration when it shall have experienced the avenging and redemptive work of its God and King. According to lxxvii. 14, Hab. iii. 6, ntovn appears to be God's march against the enemy; but what follows shows that the pompa magnified of God is intended, after He has overcome the enemy. Israel's festival of victory is looked upon as a triumphal procession of God Himself, the King, who governs in holiness, and has now subjugated and humbled the unholy world; BHpa as in ver. 18. The rendering " in the sanctuary" is very natural in this passage, but Ex. xv. 11, Ps. lxxvii. 14, are against it. The subject of **n is all the world, more especially those of the heathen who have escaped the slaughter. The perfect signifies: they have seen, just as WJP, they have occupied the front position. Singers head the procession, after them ("in^,* an adverb as in Gen. xxii. 13, Ex. v. 1) players upon citherns and harps (D>^, participle to |23), and on either side virgins with timbrels (Spanish adufe); riisaifl, apocopated part. Poel with the retention of e (cf. nj?$e*3 cvii. 9), from *|Bfi, to strike the *|h (;^).
It is a retrospective reference to the song at the Sea, now again come into life, which Miriam and the women of Israel sang amidst the music of timbrels. The deliverance which is now being celebrated is the counterpart of the deliverance out of Egypt. Songs resound as in ver. 27, u in gatherings of the
* This "intf, according to B. Nedarim 376, is a so-called DnDID TlDy (ablatio scribarum), the sopherim (sofrim) who watched over the faithful preservation of the text having removed the reading "irifcO, so natural according to the sense, here as in Gen. xviii. 5, xxiv. 55, Num. xxxi. 2, and marked it as not genuine.
congelation (and, so to- speak, in full choirs) praise ye Elohim." D^npD (D^npD, xxvi. 12) is the plural to ^Pt (xxii. 23), which forms none of its own (cf. post-biblical riOTp from npnp). Ver. 276 is abridged from ^nfe* nipDD DDK "IK'K WK 13*13, praise ye the Lord, ye who have Israel for your fountainhead. tfw, in accordance with the sense, has Mugrash. Israel is here the name of the patriarch, from whom as from its fountainhead the nation has spread itself abroad; cf. Isa. xlviii. 1, li. 1, and as to the syntax l^fy those who descend from thee, Isa. lviii. 12. In the festive assembly all the tribes of Israel are represented by their princes. Two each from the southern and northern tribes are mentioned. Out of Benjamin was Israel's first king, the first royal victor over the Gentiles; and in Benjamin, according to the promise (Deut. xxxiii. 12) and according to the accounts of the boundaries (Josh, xviii. 16 sq., xv. 7 sq.), lay the sanctuary of Israel. Thus, therefore, the tribe which, according both to order of birth (Gen. xliii. 29 sqq.) and also extent of jurisdiction and numbers (1 Sam. ix. 21), was " little," was honoured beyond the others.* Judah, however, came to the throne in the person of David, and became for ever the royal tribe. Zebulun and Naphtali are the tribes highly praised in Deborah's song of victory (Judg. v. 18, cf. iv. 6) on account of their patriotic bravery. E~}?, giving no sense when taken from the well-known verb DTJ, falls back upon ITTJj and is consequently equivalent to Cji (cf. Lam. i. 13), subduing or ruling them; according to the sense, equivalent to D3!Tfi (1 Kings v. 30, ix. 23, 2 Chron. viii. 10), like D^tsn, not " their leader up," but 6 avayaycov avrovs, Isa. Ixiii. 11, not = DHHT (like BjWy, E'T^P), which would signify their subduer or their subduers. The verb rn"J, elsewhere to subjugate, oppress, hold down by force, Ezek. xxxiv. 4, Lev. xxv. 53, is here used of the peaceful occupation of the leader who maintains the order of a stately and gorgeous procession. For the reference to the enemies, u their subduer," is without any coherence. But to render the parallel word DnJoa"i "their (the enemies') stoning" (Hengstenberg, Vaihinger, and others, according to Bottcher's
* Tertullian calls the Apostle Paul, with reference to his name and his Benjamitish origin, parvus Benjamin, just as Augustine calls the poetess of the Magnijicat, nostra tympanistria.
" Proben"), is, to say nothing more, devoid of taste; moreover DJ") does not mean to throw stones with a sling, but to stone as a judicial procedure. If we assign to the verb BJ"J the primary then Dnom signifies their closely compacted band, as Jewish expositors have explained it (DSUp 1X D^np). Even if we connect D3"J with Bj?"], variegare, or compare the proper name
Vers. 29-36. The poet now looks forth beyond the domain of Israel, and describes the effects of Jahve's deed of judgment and deliverance in the Gentile world. The language °f ver. 29a is addressed to Israel, or rather to its king (lxxxvi. 16, ex. 2): God, to whom everything is subject, has given Israel I'y, victory and power over the world. Out of the consciousness that He alone can preserve Israel upon this height of power upon which it is placed, who has placed it thereon, grows the prayer: establish (pfV with } for #, as is frequently the case, and with the accent on the ultima on account of the following Aleph, vid. on vi. 5), Elohim, that which Thou hast wrought for us; Tty, roborare, as in Prov. viii. 28, Eccles. vii. 19, LXX. SwdficoaoVj Symmachus ivio"xyaov. It might also be interpreted: show Thyself powerful (cf. n^"1, xxi. 14), Thou who (Isa. xlii. 24) hast wrought for us (?y3 as in Isa. xliii. 13, with?, like? »*"OT, Isa. Ixiv. 3); but in the other way of taking it the prayer attaches itself more sequentially to what precedes, and lxii. 12 shows that ft can also represent the neuter. Hitzig has a still different rendering: the powerful divine help, which Thou hast given us; but although n— instead of n— in the stat. construct, is Ephraimitish style (vid. on xlv. 5), yet i"OT for T'y is an unknown word, and the expression "from Thy temple," which is manifestly addressed to Elohim, shows that ^?VB is not the language of address to the king (according to Hitzig, to Jehoshaphat). The language of prayerful address is retained in ver. 30. From the words ^3\"iO oi>BTP by there is nothing to be transported to ver. 29b (Hupfeld); for ver. 30 would thereby become stunted. The words together are the statement of the starting-point of the oblations belonging to v1?1: starting from Thy temple, which soars aloft over Jerusalem, may kings bring Thee, who sittest enthroned there in the Holy of holies, tributary gifts (W as in Ixxvi. 12, Isa. xviii. 7). In this connection (of prayer) it is the expression of the desire that the Temple may become the zenith or cynosure, and Jerusalem the metropolis, of the world. In this passage, where it introduces the seat of religious worship, the taking of IP as expressing the primary cause, " because or on account of Thy Temple" (Ewald), is not to be entertained. In ver. 31 follows a summons, which in this instance is only the form in which the prediction clothes itself. The u beast of the reed" is not the lion, of which sojourn among the reeds is not a characteristic (although it makes its home inter arundineta Mesopotamice, Ammianus, xviii. 7, and in the thickets of the Jordan, Jer. xlix. 19, 1. 44, Zech. xi. 3). The reed is in itself an emblem of Egypt (Isa. xxxvi. 6, cf. xix. 6), and it is therefore either the crocodile, the usual emblem of Pharaoh and of the power of Egypt (Ezek. xxix. 3, cf. Ps. lxxiv. 13 sq.) that is meant, or even the hippopotamus (Egyptian p-ehe-mout), which also symbolizes Egypt in Isa. xxx. 6 (which see), and according to Job. xl. 21 is more appropriately than the crocodile (D£ -\m pnn, Isa. xxvii. 1) called rujj n»n. Egypt appears here as the greatest and most dreaded worldly power. Elohim is to check the haughty ones who exalt themselves over Israel and Israel's God. B^T?^ strong ones, are bulls (xxii. 13) as an emblem of the kings; and vJJJ explains itself by the genit, epexeg. E^l?: together with (Beth of the accompaniment as in ver. 31 b, lxvi. 13, and beside the plur. humanus, Jer. xli. 15) the calves, viz. the peoples, over whom those bulls rule. With the one emblem of Egypt is combined the idea of defiant self-confidence, and with the other the idea of comfortable security (yid. Jer. xlvi. 20 sq.). That which is brought prominently forward as the consequence of the menace is moulded in keeping with these emblems. DSnnD, which has been explained by Flaminius substantially correctly: ut supplex veniat, is intended to be taken as a part. fut. (according to the Arabic stroke depicts thoroughly humbled pride; for Dp"} (cf. DD"j) signifies to stamp, pound, or trample, to knock down, and the Hithpa. either to behave as a trampling one, Prov. vi. 3, or to trample upon one's self, i.e. to cast one's self violently upon the ground. Others explain it as conculcandum se prcebere; but such a meaning cannot be shown to exist in the sphere of the Hebrew Hitlipael; moreover this "suffering one's self to be trampled upon" does not so well suit the words, which require a more active sense, viz. ^Kpjna, in which is expressed the idea that the riches which the Gentiles have hitherto employed in the service of God-opposed worldliness, are now offered to the God of Israel by those who both in outward circumstances and in heart are vanquished (cf. Isa. lx. 9). ^IP^m (from YTl, confringere) is a piece of uncoined silver, a bar, wedge, or ingot of silver. In "W3 there is a wide leap from the call "W3 to the language of description. This rapid change is also to be found in other instances, and more especially in this dithyrambic Psalm we may readily give up any idea of a change in the pointing, as "tfr or "ite (LXX. Siaa/topTriaov); 1T3, as it stands, cannot be imperative (Hitzig), for the final vowel essential to the imperat. Piel is wanting. God hath scattered the peoples delighting in war; war is therefore at an end, and the peace of the world is realized.
In ver. 32, the contemplation of the future again takes a different turn: futures follow as the most natural expression of that which is future. The form VTiiO more usually found in pause, here stands pathetically at the beginning, as in Job a nose, a word erroneously denied by Gesenius), would signify the supercilious, contemptuous (cf. ""',.«, nasutus, as an appellation of a proud person who will put up with nothing). On the other hand, compared with *£^, it would mean the fat ones, inasmuch as this verbal stem (root ^J^>~, cf. fi"]P;n, 2 Sam. xxii. 12), starting from the primary signification " to be pressed together," also signifies " to be compressed, become compact," i.e. to regain one's plumpness, to make flesh and fat, applied, according to the usage of the language, to wasted men and is not at all natural, — a usage which is brought about by the intransitive signification proper to the verb starting from its radical signification, "to become or be angry, to be zealous about any one or anything," inasmuch as the nomen verbale persons, for whose maintenance, safety, and honour one is keenly solicitous, such as the members of the family, household attendants, servants, neighbours, clients or proteges, guest-friends; also a thing which one ardently seeks, and over the preservation of which one keeps zealous watch (Fleischer). Here there does not appear to be any connecting link whatever in the Arabic which might furnish some hold for the Hebrew; hence it will be more advisable, by comparison of fy?K>'n and \wny to understand by D^D^'n, the resplendent, most distinguished ones, perillustres. The dignitaries of Egypt come to give glory to the God of Israel, and ^Ethiopia, disheartened by fear before Jahve (cf. Hab. iii. 7), causes his hands to run to Elohim, i.e. hastens to stretch them out. Thus it is interpreted by most expositors. Bat if it is VT, why is it not also pnjf We reply, the Hebrew style, even in connection with words that stand close beside one another, does not seek to avoid either the enallage generis {e.g. Job xxxix. 3, 16), or the enall. numeri (e.g. Ixii. 5). But w to cause the hands to run " is a far-fetched and easily misunderstood figure. We may avoid it, if, with Bottcher and Olshausen, we disregard the accentuation and interpret thus, " Cush — his hands cause to hasten, i.e. bring on in haste (1 Sam. xvii. 17, 2 Chron. xxxv. 13), to Elohim," viz. propitiating gifts; P"jn being the predicate to VT, according to Ges. § 146, 3.
Ver. 33. The poet stands so completely in the midst of this glory of the end, that soaring onwards in faith over all the kingdoms of the world, he calls upon them to render praise to the God of Israel. 3317 attaches itself to the dominating notion of VW in ver. 33a. The heavens of heavens (Deut. x. 14) are by Dip described as primeval (perhaps, following the order of their coming into existence, as extending back beyond the heavens that belong to our globe, of the second and fourth day of Civation). God is said to ride along in the primeval heavens of the heavens (Deut. xxxiii. 26), when hy means of the cherub (xviii. 11) He extends His operations to all parts of these infinite distances and heights. The epithet a who rideth alonp; in the heavens of heavens of the first beginning"
denotes the exalted majesty of the superterrestrial One, who on account of His immanency in history is called "He who rideth along through the steppes" (nunyn 22iy ver. 5). In Wp3 jn* we have a repetition of the thought expressed above in ver. 12 by "1DK JW; what is intended is God's voice of power, which thunders down everything that contends against Him. Since in the expression itip3 jnj (xlvi. 7, Jer. xii. 8) the voice, according to Ges. § 138, rem. 3, note, is conceived of as the medium of the giving, i.e. of the giving forth from one's self, of the making one's self heard, we must take T*y b)p not as the object (as in the Latin phrase sonitum dare), but as an apposition: * behold, He maketh Himself heard with His voice, a powerful voice. Thus let them then give God?'y, i.e. render back to Him in praise that acknowledges His omnipotence, the omnipotence which He hath, and of which He gives abundant proof. His glory (njSJ) rules over Israel, more particularly as its guard and defence; His power (ty), however, embraces all created things, not the earth merely, but also the loftiest regions of the sky. The kingdom of grace reveals the majesty and glory of His redemptive work (cf. Eph. i. 6), the kingdom of nature the universal dominion of His omnipotence. To this call to the kingdoms of the earth they respond in ver. 36: " Awful is Eiohim out of thy sanctuaries." The words are addressed to Israel, consequently MNp? is not the heavenly and earthly sanctuary (Hitzig), but the one sanctuary in Jerusalem (Ezek. xxi. 7) in the manifold character of its holy places (Jer. li. 51, cf. Am. vii. 9). Commanding reverence — such is the confession of the Gentile world — doth Eiohim rule from thy most holy places, O Israel, the God who hath chosen thee as His mediatorial people. The second part of the confession runs: the God of Israel giveth power and abundant strength to the people, viz. whose God He is, equivalent to te$ xxix. 11. Israel's might in the omnipotence of God it is which the Gentile world has experienced, and from which it has deduced the universal fact of experience, ver. 366. All peoples with their gods succumb at last to Israel and its God. This confession of the Gentile world closes with DWK tpna (which is preceded by Mugrash transformed out of Atlinach). That which the psalmist said in the name of Israel in ver. 20, "Blessed be the Lord," now re-echoes from all the world, "Blessed be Elohim." The world is overcome by the church of Jahve, and that not merely in outward form, but spiritually. The taking up of all the kingdoms of the world into the kingdom of God, this the great theme of the Apocalypse, is also after all the theme of this Psalm. The first half closed with Jahve's triumphant ascension, the second closes with the results of His victory and triumph, which embrace the world of peoples.
3 I have sunk in the mud of the abyss, and there is no standing; I am fallen into the depths of the waters and a flood over-
4 I am wearied by my calling, my throat is parched, Mine eyes have failed, I who wait for my God.
without a cause, Numerous are my destroyers, mine enemies falsely — That which I stole not, I must then restore.
Lord, Jahve of hosts, Let not those be confounded, in me, who seek Thee, O God of Israel!
8 For for Thy sake have I borne reproach, Shame hath covered my face.
9 I am become estranged from my brethren, And an alien to my mother's children.
12 I made sackcloth my garment, And became a satire to them.
14 Yet I, I pray to Thee, Jahve, in a time of favour, Elohim, by reason of Thy great mercy; Answer me with the truth of Thy salvation!
16 Let not the flood of waters overflow me, And let not the abyss swallow me up,
17 Answer me, Jahve, for good is Thy loving-kindness; According to the abundance of Thy compassion turn Thou
18 And hide not Thy face from Thy servant, For I am afraid, speedily answer me.
19 Draw near to my soul, redeem it, Because of mine enemies deliver me.
21 Reproach hath broken my heart, and I became sick unto I hoped for pity, but in vain, [death, And for comforters — finding none.
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink,
24 Let their eyes be darkened that they see not, And make their loins continually to shake.
27 For him who is smitten of Thee they persecute, And of the pain of Thy pierced ones do they tell.
29 Let them be blotted out of the book of life,
32 And it shall please Jahve better than young bullocks, Having horns, cleaving the hoof.
The seas and everything that moveth therein.
36 For Elohim will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, That they may dwell there and possess them.
37 And the seed of His servants shall inherit them, And those who love His name shall dwell therein.
This Psalm follows Ps. lxviii. because in vers. 36 sq. the very same thought is expressed in unfigurative language, that we found in lxviii. 11 represented under a figure, viz. Thy creatures dwelt therein. In other respects the two Psalms are as different as day and night. Ps. lxix. is not a martial and triumphal Psalm, but a Psalm of affliction which does not brighten until near the close; and it is not the church that is the speaker here, as in the preceding Psalm, but an individual. This individual, according to the inscription, is David; and if David, it is not the ideal righteous man (Hengstenberg), but David the righteous, and that when he was unjustly persecuted by SauL The description of suffering harmonizes in many points with the Psalms belonging to the time of Saul, even the estrangement of his nearest adherents, lxix. 9, xxxi. 12 (cf. xxvii. 10); the fasting till he is thoroughly enfeebled, lxix. 11, cix. 24; the curse upon his foes, in which respect Ps. xxxv., lxix., and cix. form a fearful gradation; and the inspiriting call to the saints who are his companions in suffering, lxix. 33, xxii. 27, xxxi. 25. Were there no doubt about Ps. xl. being Davidic, then the Davidic origin of Ps. lxix. would at the same time be firmly established; but instead of their inscriptions *IV"6 being mutually confirmatory, they tend, on the contrary, to shake our confidence. These two Psalms are closely related as twin-Psalms: in both the poet describes his suffering as a sinking into a miry pit; in both we meet with the same depreciation of ceremonial sacrifice; the same method of denoting a great multitude, " more than the hairs of my head," lxix. 5, xl. 13; and the same prospect of the faith of the saints being strengthened, lxix. 33, 7, xl. 17, 4.
But whilst in Ps. xl. it is more the style and in general the outward form than the contents that militate against its Davidic authorship, in Ps. lxix. it is not so much in form as in subject-matter that we find much that does not accord with David's authorship. For this reason Clericus and Vogel (in his dissertation Inscriptiones Psalmorum serius demum additas videri, 1767) have long ago doubted the correctness of the Tfi^; and Hitzig has more fully supported the conjecture previously advanced by Seiler, von Bengel, and others, that Ps. lxix., as also Ps. xl., is by Jeremiah. The following points favour this view: (1) The martyrdom which the author endured in his zeal for the house of God, in his self-mortification, and in this consuming of himself with the scorn and deadly hostility of his foes; we may compare more particularly Jer. xv. 15-18, a confession on the part of the prophet very closely allied in spirit to both these Psalms. (2) The murderous animosity which the prophet had to endure from the men ©f Anathoth, Jer. xi. 18 sq., with which the complaint of the psalmist in ver. 9 fully accords. (3) The close of the Psalm, vers. 35-37, which is like a summary of that which Jeremiah foretells in the Book of the Restoration, ch. xxx.-xxxiii. (4) The peculiar character of Jeremiah's sufferings, who was cast by the princes, as being an enemy to his country, into the waterless but muddy cistern of prince Malchiah (Malktja) in the court of the guard, and there as it were buried alive. It is true, in Jer. xxxviii. 6 it is said of this cistern that there was "no water, but only mire," which seems to contradict the language of the PsaJm; but since he sank into the mud, the meaning is that just then there was no water standing in it as at other times, otherwise he must at once have been drowned. Nevertheless, that he was in peril of his life is clear to us from the third kinah (Lam. ch. iii.), which in other respects also has many points of close contact with Ps. lxix.; for there in vers. 53-58 he says: u They cut off my life in the pit and cast stones at me. Waters flowed over my head; I thought: I am undone, I called upon 2hy name, Jahve, out of the lowest pit. Thou didst hear my cry: Hide not Thine ear from the outpouring of *my hearty from my cry for help! Thou didst draw near in the day that I cried, Thou saidst: Fear not" The view of Hitzig, that in Ps. lxix. we have this prayer out of the pit, has many things in its favour, and among them, (5) the style, which on the whole is like that of Jeremiah, and the many coincidences with the prophet's language and range of thought visible in single instances. But how could this Psalm have obtained the inscription TTli>? Could it be on account of the similarity between the close of Ps. lxix. and the close of Ps. xxii.? And why should not Ps. lxxi., which is to all appearance by Jeremiah, also have the inscription IVlb? Ps. lxix. is wanting in that imitative character by which Ps. lxxi. so distinctly points to Jeremiah. Therefore we duly recognise the instances and considerations brought forward against the Jeremianic authorship by Keil (Luth. Zeitschrift, 1860, S. 485 f.) and Kurtz (Dorpater Zeitschrift, 1865, S. 58 ff.), whilst, on the contrary, we still maintain, as formerly, that the Psalm admits of being much more satisfactorily explained from the life of Jeremiah than that of David.
The passion Psalms are the part of the Old Testament Scriptures most frequently cited in the New Testament; and after Ps. xxii. there is no Psalm referred to in so many ways as Ps. lxix. (1) The enemies of Jesus hated Him without a cause: this fact, according to John xv. 25, is foretold in ver. 5. It is more probable that the quotation by John refers to lxix. 5 than to xxxv. 19. (2) When Jesus drove the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, ver. 10a received its fulfilment, according to John ii. 17: the fierce flame of zeal against the profanation of the house of God consumes Him, and because of this zeal He is hated and despised, (3) He willingly bore this reproach, being an example to us; ver. 10b of our Psalm being, according to Rom. xv. 3, fulfilled in Him. (4) According to Acts i. 20, the imprecation in ver. 26a has received its fulfilment in Judas Iscariot. The suffixes in this passage are plural; the meaning can therefore only be that indicated by J H. Michaelis, quod Me primus et proe reliquis hujus maledictionis se fecerit participem. (5) According to Rom. xi. 9 sq<, vers. 23 sq. of the Psalm have been fulfilled in the present rejection of Israel. The apostle does not put these imprecations directly into the mouth of Jesus, just as in fact they are not appropriate to the lips of the suffering Saviour; he only says that what the psalmist there, in the zealous ardour of the prophetic Spirit — a zeal partaking of the severity of Sinai and of the spirit of Elias — invokes upon his enemies, has been completely fulfilled in those who wickedly have laid violent hands upon the Holy One of God. The typically prophetic hints of the Psalm are far from being exhausted by these New Testament quotations. One is reminded, in connection with ver. 13, of the mockery of Jesus by the soldiers in the praetorium, Matt, xxvii. 27—30; by ver. 22, of the offer of vinegar mingled with gall (according to Mark xv. 23, wine mingled with myrrh) which Jesus refused, before the crucifixion, Matt, xxvii. 34, and of the sponge dipped in vinegar which they put to the mouth of the crucified One by means of a stalk of hyssop, John xix. 29 sq. When John there says that Jesus, freely and consciously preparing Himself to die, only desired a drink in order that, according to God's appointment, the Scripture might receive its utmost fulfilment, he thereby points back to Ps. xxii. 16 and lxix. 22. And what an amount of New Testament light, so to speak, falls upon ver. 27a when we compare with it Isa. ch. liii. and Zech. xiii. 7! The whole Psalm is typically prophetic, in as far as it is a declaration of a history of life and suffering moulded by God into a factual prediction concerning Jesus the Christ, whether it be the story of a king or a prophet; and in as far as the Spirit of prophecy has even moulded the declaration itself into the language of prophecy concerning the future One.
The Psalm falls into three parts, consisting of the following strophes: (1) 3. 5. 6. 6. 7; (2) 5. 6. 7; (3) 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. Does DWisy perhaps point to the preponderating six-line strophes under the emblem of the six-leaved lily? This can hardly be the case. The old expositors said that the Psalm wras so inscribed because it treats of the white rose of the holy innocence of Christ, and of the red rose of His precious blood. }BhB> properly does not signify a rose; this flower was altogether unknown in the Holy Land at the time this Psalm was written. The rose was not transplanted thither out of Central Asia until much later, and was called TTj (poBov); \&W9 on the other hand, is the white, and in the Holy Land mostly red, lily — certainly, as a plant, a beautiful emblem of Christ. Propter me, says Origen, qui in convalle eram7 Sponsus descendit et Jit lilium.
Vers. 2-14. Out of deep distress, the work of his foes, the complaining one cries for help; he thinks upon his sins, which his sufferings bring to his remembrance, but he is also distinctly conscious that he is an object of scorn and hostility for God's sake, and from His mercy he looks for help in accordance with His promises. The waters are said to rush in unto the soul (tfaj—J^j when they so press upon the imperilled one that the soul, i.e. the life of the body, more especially the breath, is threatened; cf. Jonah ii. 6, Jer. iv. 10. Waters are also a figure of calamities that come on like a flood and drag one into their vortex, xviii. 17, xxxii. 6, cxxiv. 5, cf. lxvi. 12, lxxxviii. 8, 18; here, however, the figure is cut off in such a way that it conveys the impression of reality expressed in a poetical form, as in Ps. xl., and much the same as in Jonah's psalm. The soft, yielding morass is called j)sT, and the eddying deep H7WD. The nomen Hophal. "WO signifies properly a being placed, then a standing-place, or firm standing (LXX. vTroaracns), like ntsp, that which is stretched out, extension, Isa. viii. 8. rP2i^ stream, flow (cf. note on lviii. 9a). 3 Kia, to fall into, as in Ixvi. 12, and *]££> with an accusative, to overflow, as in cxxiv. 4. The complaining one is nearly drowned in consequence of his sinking down, for he has long cried in vain for help: he is wearied by continual crying (2 JHJ, as in vi. 7, Jer. xlv. 3), his throat is parched fTO from Tin; LXX. and Jerome: it is become hoarse), his eyes have failed (Jer. xiv. 6) him, who waits upon his God. The participle?rVD? equal to a relative clause, is, as in xviii. 51, 1 Kings xiv. 6, attached to the suffix of the preceding noun (Hitzig). Distinct from this use of the participle without the article is the adverbially qualifying participle in Gen. iii. 8, Cant. v. 2, cf 7?, 2 Sam. xii. 21, xviii. 14. There is no necessity for the correction of the text 7JTB (LXX. dirb rov eKiri^eiv fie). Concerning the accentuation of EH vid. on xxxviii. 20. Apart from the words " more than the hairs of my head" (xl. 13), the complaint of the multitude of groundless enemies is just the same as in xxxviii. 20, xxxv. 19, cf. cix. 3, both in substance and expression. Instead of WPV*?, my destroyers, the Syriac version has the reading Trtovyp (more numerous than my bones), which is approved by Hupfeld; but to reckon the multitude of the enemy by the number of one's own bones is both devoid of taste and unheard of. Moreover the reading of our text finds support, if it need any, in Lam. iii. 52 sq. The words, " what I have not taken away, I must then restore," are intended by way of example, and perhaps, as also in Jer. xv. 10, as a proverbial expression: that which I have not done wrong, I must suffer for (cf. Jer. xv. 10, and the similar complaint in Ps. xxxv. 11). One is tempted to take TN in the sense of u nevertheless " (Ewald), a meaning, however, which it is by no means intended to convey. In this passage it takes the place of riNt (cf. o(/tw? for ravTa, Matt. vii. 12), inasmuch as it gives prominence to the restitution desired, as an inference from a false assumption: then, although I took it not away, stole it not.
The transition from the bewailing of suffering to a confession of sin is like xl. 13. In the undeserved persecution which he endures at the hand of man, he is obliged nevertheless to recognise well-merited chastisement from the side of God. And whilst by £JJT rnntf (cf. xl. 10, Jer. xv. 15, xvii. 16, xviii. 23, and on b as an exponent of the object, Jer. xvi. 16, xl. 2) he does not acknowledge himself to be a sinner after the standard of his own shortsightedness, but of the divine omniscience, he at the same time commends his sinful need, which with self-accusing modesty he calls rat* (xxxviii. 6) and niDKW (2 Chron. xxviii. 10), to the mercy of the omniscient One. Should he, the sinner, be abandoned by God to destruction, then all those who are faithful in their intentions towards the Lord would be brought to shame and confusion in him, inasmuch as they would be taunted with this example. T)P designates the godly from the side of the ttIgtis, and T^i??P from the side of the ayaTrrj. The multiplied names of God are so many appeals to God's honour, to the truthfulness of His covenant relationship. The person praying here is, it is true, a sinner, but that is no justification of the conduct of men towards him; he is suffering for the Lord's sake, and it is the Lord Himself who is reviled in him. It is upon this he bases his prayer in ver. 8. *J vj, for Thy sake, as in xliv. 23, Jer. xv. 15. The reproach that he has to bear, and ignominy that has covered his face and made it quite unrecognisable (xliv. 16, cf. lxxxiii. 17), have totally estranged (xxxviii. 12, cf. Ixxxviii. 9, Job xix. 13-15, Jer. xii. 6) from him even his own brethren (^, parallel word *DK VJ2, as in 1. 20; cf., on the other hand, Gen. xlix. 8, where the interchange designedly takes another form of expression); for the glow of his zeal (nwjp from Wjj, according to the Arabic, to be a deep or bright red) for the house of Jahve, viz. for the sanctity of the sanctuary and of the congregation gathered about it (which is never directly called "the house of Jahve" in the Old Testament, vid. Kohler on Zech. ix. 8, but here, as in Num. xii. 7, Hos. viii. 1, is so called in conjunction with the sanctuary), as also for the honour of Him who sits enthroned therein, consumes him, like a fire burning in his l>ones which incessantly breaks forth and rages all through him (Jer. xx. 9, xxiii. 9), and therefore all the malice of those who are estranged from God is concentrated upon and against him.
He now goes on to describe how sorrow for the sad condition of the house of God has brought nothing but reproach to him (cf. cix. 24 sq.). It is doubtful whether ^33 is an alternating subject to n33N1 (fut. consec. without being apocopated), cf. Jer. xiii. 17, or a more minutely defining accusative as in Isa. xxvi. 9 (yid. on iii. 5), or whether, together with Dtea, it forms a circumstantial clause (et flevi dum in jejunio esset anima mea), or even whether it is intended to be taken as an accusative of the object in a pregnant construction (= n33 i#W SJBBh, xlii. 5, 1 Sam. i. 15): I wept away my soul in fasting. Among all these possible renderings, the last is the least probable, and the first, according to xliv. 3, lxxxiii. 19, by far the most probable, and also that which is assumed by the accentuation.* The reading of the LXX. H3JJNV fcal awe/cd-dra (Olshausen, Hupfeld, and Bottcher), is a very natural (xxxv. 13) exchange of the poetically bold expression for one less choice and less expressive (since B>M nay is a phrase of the Pentateuch equivalent to DW). The garb of mourning, like the fasting, is an expression of sorrow for public distresses, not, as in xxxv. 13, of personal condolence; concerning njnw, vid. on iii. 6. On account of this mourning, reproach after reproach comes upon him, and they fling gibes and raillery at him; everywhere, both in the gate, the place where the judges sit and where business is transacted, and also at carousals, he is jeered at and traduced (Lam. iii. 14, cf. v. 14, Job xxx. 9). 3 rFB> signifies in itself fabulari d e... without any bad secondary meaning (cf. Prov. vi. 22, confabulabitur tecum); here it is construed first with a personal and then a neuter subject (cf. Amos viii. S), for in ver 136 neither WJH (Job xxx. 9, Lam. iii. 14) nor *}K (Lam. iii. 63) is to be supplied. Ver. 14 tells us how he acts in the face of such hatred and scorn; ^Kl, as in cix. 4, sarcasmis hostium suam opponit in precibus constantiam (Geier). As for himself, his prayer is directed towards Jahve at the present time, when his affliction
* The Munach of m¥3 is a transformation of DecM (just as the Munach of niD"inp is a transformation of Mugrash), in connection with which ^Q3 might certainly be conceived of even as object ^cf. xxvi. 6a); bat this after HSIIKI (not ii33fcO)i an(l as being without example, could hardly have entered the minds of the punctuiscs.
as a witness for God gives him the assurance that He will be well-pleased to accept it (fan ny = pn njD, Isa. xlix. 8). It is addressed to Him who is at the same time Jahve and Elohim, — the revealed One in connection with the history of redemption, and the absolute One in His exaltation above the world, — on the ground of the greatness and fulness of His mercy: may He then answer him with or in the truth of His salvation, i.e. the infallibility with which His purpose of mercy verifies itself in accordance with the promises given. Thus is ver. 14 to be explained in accordance with the accentuation. According to Isa. xlix. 8, it looks as though ]))n ny must be drawn to ^ay (Hitzig), but xxxii. 6 sets us right on this point; and the fact that TiDm-Q is joined to ver. 14a also finds support from v. 8. But the repetition of the divine name perplexes one, and it may be asked whether or not the accent that divides the verse into its two parts might not more properly stand beside ffiPlj as in xxxii. 6 beside KSD; so that ver. 146 runs: Elolrim, by virtue of the greatness of Thy mercy hear me, by virtue of the truth of Thy salvation.
Vers. 15-22. In this second part the petition by which the first is as it were encircled, is continued; the peril grows greater the longer it lasts, and with it the importunity of the cry for help. The figure of sinking in the mire or mud and in the depths of the pit ("W?, lv. 24, cf. ")13, xl. 3) is again taken up, and so studiously wrought out, that the impression forces itself upon one that the poet is here describing something that has really taken place. The combination "from those who hate me and from the depths of the waters" shows that "the depths of the waters" is not a merely rhetorical figure; and the form.of the prayer: let not the pit (the well-pit or covered tank) close ("iBNn with Dagesh in the Teth, in order to guard against its being read *iEKfi; cf. on the signification of "*?**> clausus =r claudus, scil. manu) its mouth (i.e. its upper opening) upon me, exceeds the limits of anything that can be allowed to mere rhetoric. "Let not the water-flood overflow me " is intended to say, since it has, according to ver. 3, already happened, let it not go further to my entire destruction. The "answer me" in ver. 17a is based upon the plea that God's loving-kindness is nitD, i.e. good, absolutely good (as in the kindred passion-Psalm, cix. 21), better than all besides (Ixiii. 4), the means of healing or salvation from all evil. On ver. lib cf. li. 3, Lam. iii. 32. In ver. 18 the prayer is based upon the painful situation of the poet, which urgently calls for speedy help ("IHO beside the imperative, cii. 3, cxliii. 7, Gen. xix. 22, Esth. vi. 10, is certainly itself not an imperative like 2"]n? li. 4, but an adverbial infinitive as in lxxix. 8). n?"?i?, or, in order to ensure the pronunciation korbah in distinction from kdrbah, Deut. xv. 9, »"19")i?- (m Baer#), is imperat. Kal; cf. the fulfilment in Lam. iii. 57. The reason assigned, " because of mine enemies," as in v. 9, xxvii. 11, and frequently, is to be understood according to xiii. 5: the honour of the all-holy One cannot suffer the enemies of the righteous to triumph over him.f The accumulation of synonyms in ver. 20 is Jeremiah's custom, ch. xiii. 14, xxi. 5, 7, xxxii. 37, and is found also in Ps. xxxi. (ver. 10) and xliv. (vers. 4, 17, 25). On rniP nsnn ^, cf. li. 19, Jer. xxiii. 9. The cnra% yeypafi. ™U*}T (historical tense), from B>w, is explained by $WN from BOK, sickly, dangerously ill, evil-disposed, which is a favourite word in Jeremiah. Moreover "TO in the signification of manifesting pity, not found elsewhere in the Psalter, is common in Jeremiah, e.g. ch. xv. 5; it signifies originally to nod to any one as a sign of a pity that sympathizes with him and recognises the magnitude of the evil. " To give wormwood for meat and BfcC"PD to drink" is a Jeremianic (ch. viii. 14, ix. 14, xxiii. 15) designation for inflicting the extreme of pain and anguish upon one. wth (^n) signifies first of all a poisonous plant with an umbellated head of flower or a capitate fruit; but then, since bitter and poisonous are interchangeable notions in the Semitic languages, it signifies gall as the bitterest of the bitter. The LXX. renders: Kal eSoofcav et? to ftpa/ia /jlou %o\^, real et? T771/ Bi-yfrav fiov eiroTLadv /xe 6%o$. Certainly 2 jro can mean to put something into something, to mix something with it, but the parallel word t Both ^aj and ^ttf, contrary to logical interpunction, are marked •with Munach; the former ought properly to have Dechi, and the latter Mugrash. But since neither the Athnach-woT& nor the Silluk-word has two syllables preceding the tone syllable, the accents are transformed according to Accentuationssystem, xviii. § 2, 4.
Vers. 23-37. The description of the suffering has reached its climax in ver. 22, at which the wrath of the persecuted one flames up and bursts forth in imprecations. The first imprecation joins itself upon ver. 22. They have given the sufferer gall and vinegar; therefore their table, which was abundantly supplied, is to be turned into a snare to them, from which they shall not be able to escape, and that Brv???, in the very midst of their banqueting, whilst the table stands spread out before them (Ezek. xxiii. 41). D^Dw (collateral form of D^pfe) is the name given to them as being carnally secure; the word signifies the peaceable or secure in a good (lv. 21) and in a bad sense. Destruction is to overtake them suddenly, a when they say: Peace and safety" (1 Thess. v. 3). The LXX. erroneously renders: koli eU avrairohoo iv = D^pw?5!. The association of ideas in ver. 24 is transparent. With their eyes they have feasted themselves upon the sufferer, and in the strength of their loins they have ill-treated him. These eyes with their bloodthirsty malignant looks are to grow blind. These loins full of defiant self-confidence are to shake (^V^, imperat. Hiph. like pn^n, Job xiii. 21, from Tyon, for which in Ezek. xxix. 7, and perhaps also in Dan. xi. 14, we find TBjjn). Further: God is to pour out His wrath upon them (lxxix. 6, Hos. v. 10, Jer. x. 25), i.e. let loose against them the cosmical forces of destruction existing originally in His nature. *J£VT has the Dagesh in order to distinguish it in pronunciation from 1PVT. In ver. 26 htd (from "nD, to encircle) is a designation of an encamping or dwelling-place (LXX. eiravXis) taken from the the nomads (Gen. xxv. 16). The laying waste and desolation of his own house is the most fearful of all misfortunes to the Semite (Job, i. 327). The poet derives the justification of such fearful imprecations from the fact that they persecute him, who is besides smitten of God. God has smitten him on account of his sins, and that by having placed him in the midst of a time in which he must be consumed with zeal and solicitude for the house of God. The suffering decreed for him by God is therefore at one and the same time suffering as a chastisement and as a witnessing for God; and they heighten this suffering by every means in their power, not manifesting any pity for him or any indulgence, but imputing to him sins that he has not committed, and requiting him with deadly hatred for benefits for which they owed him thanks.
There are also some others, although but few, who share this martyrdom with him. The psalmist calls them, as he looks up to Jahve, 1 yjn, Thy fatally smitten ones; they are those to whom God has appointed that they should bear within themselves a pierced or wounded heart (vid. cix. 22, cf. Jer. viii. 18) in the face of such a godless age. Of the deep grief (?N, as in ii. 7) of these do they tell, viz. with self-righteous, self-blinded mockery (cf. the Talmudic phrase ]T\n pefci ibd or yin p&j6 "1DD, of evil report or slander). The LXX. and Syriac render *£PDi* (7rpoae6r]Kav): they add to the anguish; the Targum, Aquila, Symmachus, and Jerome follow the traditional text. Let God therefore, by the complete withdrawal of His grace, suffer them to fall from one sin into another — this is the meaning of the da culpam super culpam eorum — in order that accumulated judgment may correspond to the accumulated guilt (Jer. xvi. 18). Let the entrance into God's righteousness, i.e. His justifying and sanctifying grace, be denied to them for ever. Let them be blotted out of CPn "lap (Ex. xxxii. 32, cf. Isa. iv. 3, Dan. xii. 1), that is to say, struck out of the list of the living, and that of the living in this present world; for it is only in the New Testament that we meet with the Book of Life as a list of the names of the heirs of the &V <*>l<*>vio$. According to the conception both of the Old and of the New Testament the D,,i?V:!¥ are the heirs of life. Therefore ver. 296 wishes that they may not be written by the side of the righteous, who, according to Hab. ii. 4, " live," i.e. are preserved, by their faith. With ^Nl the poet contrasts himself, as in xl. 18, with those deserving of execration. They are now on high, but in order to be brought low; he is miserable and full of poignant pain, but in order to be exalted; God's salvation will remove him from his enemies on to a height that is too steep for them (lix. 2, xci. 14). Then will he praise (???) and magnify (•nj) the
Name of God with song and thankful confession. And such spiritual rnin, such thank-offering of the heart, is more pleasing to God than an ox, a bullock, i.e. a young ox (= "Wn "is, an ox-bullock, Judg. vi. 25, according to Ges. § 113), one having horns and a cloven hoof (Ges. § 53, 2). The attributives do not denote the rough material animal nature (Hengstenberg), but their legal qualifications for being sacrificed. PIP*? is the name for the young ox as not being under three years old (cf. 1 Sam. i. 24, LXX. iv fioa^cp TpLert^ovTi); D^BB as belonging to the clean four-footed ainimals, viz. those that are clovenfooted and chew the cud, Lev. ch. xi. Even the most stately, full-grown, clean animal that may be offered as a sacrifice stands in the sight of Jahve very far below the sacrifice of grateful praise coming from the heart.
When now the patient sufferers (BW) united with the poet by community of affliction shall see how he offers the sacrifice of thankful confession, they will rejoice. WJ is a hypothetical preterite; it is neither WJ] (p^rf. consec), nor *&?£ (xl. 4, lii. 8, cvii. 42, Job xxii. 19). The declaration conveying information to be expected in ver. 336 after the Waw apodoseos changes into an apostrophe of the "seekers of Elohim:" their heart shall revive, for, as they have suffered in company with him who is now delivered, they shall now also refresh themselves with him. We are at once reminded of xxii. 27, where this is as it were the exhortation of the entertainer at the thank-offering meal. It would be rash to read V®w in ver. 34, after xxii.
25, instead of VOW (Olshausen); the one object in that passage is here generalized: Jahve is attentive to the needy, and doth not despise His bound ones (cvii. 10), but, on the contrary, He takes an interest in them and helps them. Starting from this proposition, which is the clear gain of that which has been experienced, the view of the poet widens into the prophetic prospect of the bringing back of Israel out of the Exile into the Land of Promise. In the face of this fact of redemption of the future he calls upon (cf. Isa. xliv. 23) all created things to give praise to God, who will bring about the salvation of Zion, will build again the cities of Judah, and restore the land, freed from its desolation, to the young God-fearing generation, the children of the servants of God among the exiles. The feminine suffixes refer to ^ (cf. Jer. ii. 15, xxii. 6 Chethib).
The tenor of Isa. lxv. 9 is similar. If the Psalm were written by David, the closing turn from ver. 34 onwards might be more difficult of comprehension than xiv. 7, li. 20 sq. If, however, it is by Jeremiah, then we do not need to persuade ourselves that it is to be understood not of restoration and re-peopling, but of continuance and completion (Hofmann and Kurtz). Jeremiah lived to experience the catastrophe he foretold; but the nearer it came to the time, the more comforting were the words with which he predicted the termination of the Exile and the restoration of Israel. Jer. xxxiv. 7 shows us how natural to him, and to him in particular, was the distinction between Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. The predictions in Jer. ch. xxxii., xxxiii., which sound so in accord with vers. 36 sq., belong to the time of the second siege. Jerusalem was not yet fallen; the strong places of the land, however, already lay in ruins.
3 Let those be ashamed and confounded who seek my soul, Let those fall back and be put to shame who desire my
4 Let those turn back as a reward of their shame, Who say: Aha, aha 1
5 Let all those heartily rejoice in Thee who seek Thee, And let those continually say tt Elohim be magnified" who
6 I, however, am needy and poor — Elohim, make haste unto me!
This short Psalm, placed after Ps. Ixix. on account of the kindred nature of its contents (cf. more especially ver. 6 with lxix. 30), is, with but few deviations, a repetition of Ps. xl. 14 sqq. This portion of the second half of Ps. xl. is detached from it and converted into the Elohimic style. Concerning *V3tr6, at the presentation of the memorial portion of the mincha, vid. xxxviii. 1. It is obvious that David himself is not the author of the Psalm in this stunted form. The Trfr is moreover justified, if he composed the original Psalm which is here modified and appropriated to a special liturgical use.
Vers. 2-4. We see at once at the very beginning, in the omission of the run (xl. 14), that what we have here before us is a fragment of Ps. xl., and perhaps a fragment that only accidentally came to have an independent existence. The ^^l1?, which was under the government of run, now belongs to ntWIj and the construction is without example elsewhere. In ver. 3 (= xl. 15) ^n! and nniapp are given up entirely; the original is more full-toned and soaring. Instead of TOB^, torpescant, ver. 4a has ^V^ recedant (as in vi. 11, cf. ix. 18), which is all the more flat for coming after "Wis UD\ In ver. 46, after D^DNn the v, which cannot here (cf., on the contrary, xxxv. 21) be dispensed with, is wanting.
Vers. 5, 6. TiD&Ol instead of riDK* is unimportant. But since the divine name Jahve is now for once chosen side by side with Elohim, it certainly had a strong claim to be retained in ver. 5b. Instead of *]ru?OT we have "]nyiB*. here; instead of vnw, here ^ttf. And instead of ^ 2BTP tfia we have here ^"ng^n DwK, — the hope is turned into petition: make haste unto me, is an innovation in expression that is caused by the taking over of the y.
2 Through Thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me, Incline Thou Thine ear unto me and save me.
3 Be Thou to me a rock of habitation to take me up alway; Thou hast given commandment to save me,
4 My God, rescue me out of the hand of the wicked, Out of the grasp of the evil-doer and the violent man.
5 For Thou art my hope, O Lord Jahve, My trust from my youth.
8 My mouth shall be filled with Thy praise, All the day long with Thy glorification.
9 Cast me not away in the time of old age; Now when my strength f aileth, forsake me not!
11 Saying: u Elohim hath forsaken him; Persecute and seize him, for he cannot be rescued."
13 Let be ashamed, let vanish away, the adversaries of my soul; Let those be covered with reproach and dishonour who seek
And will yet praise Thee more and more.
16 I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord Jahve, I will praise Thy righteousness, Thee alone.
17 Elohim, Thou hast taught me from my youth up, And until now do I declare Thy wondrous works.
18 Even to old age and white hairs, Elohim, forsake me not, Till I declare Thine arm to posterity, to all that shall come