Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Vers. 2-4. The first strophe contains nothing but petition. First of all the nation is called Israel as springing from Jacob; then, as in lxxxi. 6, Joseph, which, where it is distinct from Jacob or Judah) is the name of the kingdom of the ten tribes (yid. Caspari on Obad. ver. 18), or at least of the northern tribes (lxxvii. 16, Ixxviii. 67 sq.). Ver. 3 shows that it is also these that are pre-eminently intended here. The fact that in the blessing of Joseph, Jacob calls God a Shepherd ('""Up), Gen. xlviii. 15, xlix. 24, perhaps has somewhat to do with the choice of the first two names. In the third, the sitting enthroned in the sanctuary here below and in the heaven above blend together; for the Old Testament is conscious of a mutual relationship between the earthly and the heavenly temple (^3M) until the one merges entirely in the other. The cherubim, which God enthrones, i.e. upon which He sits enthroned, are the bearers of the chariot (naaio) of the Ruler of the world (yid. xviii.

Asaph Psalm 1. 2) the poet prays that He would appear in His splendour of light, i.e. in His fiery bright, judging, and rescuing doxa, whether as directly visible, or even as only recognisable by its operation. Both the comparison " after the manner of a flock" and the verb Jnb are Asaphic, lxxviii. 52, cf. 26. Just so also the names given to the nation. The designation of Israel after the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh attaches itself to the name Joseph; and the two take the brother after the flesh into their midst, of whom the beloved Kachel was the mother as well as of Joseph, the father of Ephraim and Manasseh. In Num. ch. ii. also, these three are not separated, but have their camp on the west side of the Tabernacle. May God again put into activity — which is the meaning of Tfa (excitare) in distinction from "VJJH (expergefacere) — His mnj, the need for the energetic intervention of which now makes itself felt, before these three tribes, i.e. by becoming their victorious leader. rD7 is a summoning imperative.* Concerning nngK^ vid. on iii. 3; the construction with Lamed says as little against the accusative adverbial rendering of the ah set forth there as does the Beth of n^nna (in the wood) in 1 Sam. xxiii. 15, vid. Bottcher's Neue Aehrenlese, Nos. 221, 384, 449. It is not a bringing back out of the Exile that is prayed for by m^n, for, according to the whole impression conveyed by the Psalm, the people are still on the soil of their fatherland; but in their present feebleness they are no longer like themselves, they stand in need of divine intervention in order again to attain a condition that is in harmony with the promises, in order to become themselves again. May God then cause His long hidden countenance to brighten and shine upon them, then shall they be helped as they desire (nv^l).

Vers. 5-8. In the second strophe there issues forth bitter complaint concerning the form of wrath which the present assumes, and, thus confirmed, the petition rises anew. The transferring of the smoking QVV) of God's nostrils = the hard breathing of anger (lxxiv. 1, Deut. xxix. 19), to God Himself is bold, but in keeping with the spirit of the Biblical

* Not a pronoun: to Thee it belongs to be for salvation for us, as the Talmud, Midrash, and Masora (vid. Norzi) take it; wherefore in J. Succa 54c it is straightway written -]S>. Such a rD^=*}^ is called in the language view of the wrath of God (yid. on xviii. 9), so that there is no need to avoid the expression by calling in the aid of the Syriac word \v% to be strong, powerful (why art Thou hard, why dost Thou harden Thyself...). The perfect after V??""^ has the sense of a present with a retrospective glance, as in Ex. x. 3, cf. n^"*1^, Ex. xvi. 28, Hab. i. 2. The construction of \vy with 3 is not to be understood after the analogy of 3 *r)n (to kindle = to be angry against any one), for the prayer of the people is not an object of wrath, but only not a means of turning it aside. While the prayer is being presented, God veils Himself in the smoke of wrath, through which it is not able to penetrate. The LXX. translators have read "pay r&STQ, for they render iirl ttjv irpoaev^v t<ov SovXcov <rov (for which the common reading is tov BovXov gov). Bread of tears is, according to xlii. 4, bread consisting of tears; tears, running down in streams upon the lips of the praying and fasting one, are his meat and his drink. njjfiy'n with an accusative signifies to give something to drink, and followed by Beth, to give to drink by means of something, but it is not to be translated: potitandum das eis cum lacrymis trientem (De Dieu, von Ortenberg, and Hitzig). WyW (Talmudic, a third part) is the accusative of more precise definition (Vatablus, Gesenius, 01shausen,and Hupfeld): by thirds (LXX. iv Aterpo), Symmachus perpa); for a third of an ephah is cer tainly a very small measure for the dust of the earth (Isa. xl. 12), but a large one for tears. The neighbours are the neighbouring nations, to whom Israel is become |HE, an object, a butt of contention. In Su? is expressed the pleasure which the mocking gives them.

Vers. 9-20. The complaint now assumes a detailing character in this strophe, inasmuch as it contrasts the former days with the present; and the ever more and more importunate prayer moulds itself in accordance therewith. The retrospective description begins, as is rarely the case, with the second modus, inasmuch as u the speaker thinks more of the bare nature of the act than of the time" (Ew. § 136, 5). As in the blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix. 22) Joseph is compared to the layer (|?) of a fruitful growth (rns), whose shoots (rfas) climb over the wall: so here Israel is compared to a vine (Gen. xlix. 22; nna jsj^ cxxviii. 3), which has become great in Egypt and been transplanted thence into the Land of Promise. JTpn, LXX.

fi€Talpeiv, as in Job xix. 10, perhaps with an allusion to the DNVDD of the people journeying to Canaan (lxxviii. 52).# Here God made His vine a way and a place (n5?, to clear, from nja, to turn, turn aside, Arabic fanija, to disappear, pass away; root |D, to urge forward), and after He had secured to it a free soil and unchecked possibility of extension, it (the vine) rooted its roots, i.e. struck them ever deeper and wider, and filled the earth round about (cf. the antitype in the final days, Isa. xxvii. 6). The Israelitish kingdom of God extended itself on every side in accordance with the promise, rwfl (cf. Ezek. xvii. 6, and vegetable JW, a shoot) also has the vine as its subject, like Wy?R. Vers. 11 and 12 state this in a continued allegory, by the " mountains" pointing to the southern boundary, by the a cedars" to the northern, by the a sea" to the western, and by the u river'* (Euphrates) to the eastern boundary of the country (vid. Deut. xi. 24 and other passages). vkv and y?JV are accusatives of the so-called more remote object (Ges. § 143, 1). TOjJ is a cutting = a branch; n^JJ% a (vegetable) sucker — a young, tender shoot; -^"Tltf, the cedars of Lebanon as being living monuments of the creative might of God. The allegory exceeds the measure of the reality of nature, inasmuch as this is obliged to be extended according to the reality of that which is typified and historical. But how unlike to the former times is the present! The poet asks "wherefore?" for the present state of things is a riddle to him. The surroundings of the vine are torn down; all who come in contact with it pluck it (fTJ?, to pick off, pluck off, Talmudic of the gathering of figs); the boar out of the wood (l^D with •TOn py, suspended Ajin\) cuts it off (B?"]3, formed out of DD3

husbandmen seek to improve a vine, what do they do? They root (pplj;) it out of its place and plant (j^mp) it in another." And Levit. Rabba, ch. xxxvi., says: " As one does not plant a vine in a place where there are great, rough stones, but examines the ground and then plants it, so didst Thou drive out peoples and didst plant it," etc.

f According to Kiddushin, 30a, because this Ajin is the middle letter of the Psalter as the Waw of pnj, Lev. xi. 42, is the middle letter of the Tora. One would hardly like to be at the pains of proving the correctness of this statement; nevertheless in the seventeenth century there lived one Laymarius, a clergyman, who was not afraid of this trouble, and found

= DT| *), viz. with its tusks; and that which moves about the fields (vid. concerning W, 1. 11), i.e. the untractable, lively wild beast, devours it. Without doubt the poet associates a distinct nation with the wild boar in his mind; for animals are also in other instances the emblems of nations, as e.g. the leviathan, the water-serpent, the behemoth (Isa. xxx. 6), and flies (Isa. vii. 18) are emblems of Egypt. The Midrash interprets it of Seir-Edom, and ^ W, according to Gen. xvi. 12, of the nomadic Arabs.

In ver. 15 the prayer begins for the third time with threefold urgency, supplicating for the vine renewed divine providence, and a renewal of the care of divine grace. We have divided the verse differently from the accentuation, since K3"3V^ B3n is to be understood according to Ges. § 142. The junction by means of 1 is at once opposed to the supposition that H331 in ver. 16 signifies a slip or plant, plantam (Targum, Syriac, Aben-Ezra, Kimchi, and others), and that consequently the whole of ver. 16 is governed by *ipp\ Nor can it mean its (the vine's) stand or base, |3 (Bottcher), since one does not plant a " stand." The LXX. renders H331: ical KardpTiacu, which is imper. aor. 1. med., therefore in the sense of n33i3.f But the alternation of pV (cf. Pro v. ii. 11, and {1^ ^>-, to cover over) with the accusative of the objeet makes it more natural to derive H33, not from 133 — pi3, but from |33 JZ = |33, to cover, conceal, protect (whence ^£, a covering, shelter, hiding-place):

* Saadia appropriately renders it \^J> JL>, by referring, as does Dunash also, to the Talmudic Dp"ip, which occurs of ants, like ijoJ of rodents. So Peah ii. § 7, Menachoth 71&, on which Rashi observes, "the locust (33n) is accustomed to eat from above, the ant tears off the corn-stalk from below." Elsewhere DDYp denotes the breaking off of dry branches from the tree, as y\ f the removal of green branches.

f Perhaps the Caph majusculum is the result of an erasure that required to be made, vid. Geiger, Urschrift, S. 295. Accordingly the Ajin suspensum might also be the result of a later inserted correction, for there is a Phoenician iriscription that has "V (wood, forest); vid. Levy, Phonizisches Worterbuch, S. 22.

and protect him whom... or: protect what Thy right hand has planted. The pointing certainly seems to take nja as the feminine of I? (LXX., Dan. xi. 7, <j>vtov); for an imperat. paragog. Kal of the form naa does not occur elsewhere, although it might have been regarded by the punctuists as possible from the form?Z, volve, cxix. 22. If it is regarded as impossible, then one might read nj*3. At any rate the word is imperative, as the following "HPK, eum quern, also shows, instead of which, if njD were a substantive, one would expect to find a relative clause without new, as in ver. 16b. Moreover ver. 166 requires this, since?V 1£3 can only be used of visiting with punishment. And who then would the slip (branch) and the son of man be in distinction from the vine? If we take rua as imperative, then, as one might expect, the vine and the son of man are both the people of God. The Targum renders ver. 166 thus: " and upon the King Messiah, whom Thou hast established for Thyself," after Ps. ii. and Dan. vii. 13; but, as in the latter passage, it is not the Christ Himself, but the nation out of which He is to proceed, that is meant. Y®& has the sense of firm appropriation, as in Isa. xliv. 14, inasmuch as the notion of making fast passes over into that of laying firm hold of, of seizure. Rosenmiiller well renders it: quern adoptatum tot nexibus tibi adstrinxisti. The figure of the vine, which rules all the language here, is also still continued in ver. 17; for the partt. fern, refer to |M, — the verb, however, may take the plural form, because those of Israel are this " vine," which combusta igne, succisa (as in Isa. xxxiii. 12; Aramaic, to cut off, tear off, away, peel off), is just perishing, or hangs in danger of destruction (Vttfc^) before the threatening of the wrathful countenance of God. The absence of anything to denote the subject, and the form of expression, which still keeps within the circle of the figure of the vine, forbid us to understand this ver. 17 of the extirpation of the foes. According to the sense?V ^T"*,!M?# the like. This Gaja beside the Shebd (instead of beside the following vowel) belongs to the peculiarities of the metrical books, which in general, on account of their more melodious mode of delivery, have many such a Gaja coincides with the supplicatory 7V H33. It is Israel that is called J3 in ver. 16, as being the son whom Jahve has called into being in Egypt, and then called out of Egypt to Himself and solemnly declared to be His son on Sinai (Ex. iv. 22, Hos. xi. 1), and who is now, with a play upon the name of Benjamin in ver. 3 (cf. ver. 16), called ^VW B*N, as being the people which Jahve has preferred before others, and has placed at His right hand* for the carrying out of His work of salvation; who is called, however, at the same time &^"1?, because belonging to a humanity that is feeble in itself, and thoroughly conditioned and dependent. It is not the more precise designation of the "son of man" that is carried forward by 3iD:"fcO^ u and who has not drawn back from Thee" (Hupfeld, Hitzig, and others), but it is, as the same relation which is repeated in ver. 196 shows, the apodosis of the preceding petition: then shall we never depart from Thee; tf DJ being not a participle, as in xliv. 19, but a plene written voluntative: recedamus, vowing new obedience as thanksgiving for the divine preservation. To the prayer in ver. 18 corresponds, then, the prayer WW, which is expressed as future (which can rarely be avoided, Ew. § 229), with a vow of thanksgiving likewise following: then will we call with Thy name, i.e. make it the medium and matter of solemn proclamation. In ver. 20 the refrain of this Psalm, which is laid out as a trilogy, is repeated for the third time. The name of God is here threefold.

beside Shebd, which does not occur in the prose books. Thus, e.g., nirp and Dt6k always have Gaja beside the Sheba when they have Rebia magnum without a conjunctive, probably because Rebia and Dechi had such a fulness of tone that a first stroke fell even upon the /SAe&d-letters.

* Pinsker punctuates thus: Let Thy hand be upon the man, Thy right hand upon the son of man, whom, etc.; but the impression that "p^i and "6 nn^DX coincide is so strong, that no one of the old interpreters (from the LXX. and Targum onwards) has been able to free himself from it.

retreat, Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

6 A testimony hath He laid it down in Joseph, When He went forth over the land of Egypt — A language of one not known did I hear.

7 I have removed his back from the burden, His hands were freed from the task-basket.

8 In distress didst thou cry, and I delivered thee, I answered thee in a covering of thunder,

I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. (Sela.)

9 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee; Israel, Oh that thou wouldst hearken unto Me!—

Who led thee up out of the land of Egypt — Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it.

12 But My people hearkened not unto My voice, And Israel did not obey Me.

1 3 Then I cast them forth to the hardness of their heai t, They went on in their own counsels.

14 Oh that My people would be obedient unto Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!

15 Suddenly would I humble their enemies, And against their oppressors turn My hand.

And their time should endure for ever. 17 He fed them with the fat of wheat,

Ps. lxxx., which looks back into the time of the leading forth out of Egypt, is followed by another with the very same Asaphic* thoroughly characteristic feature of a retrospective glance at Israel's early history (cf. more particularly lxxxi. 11 with lxxx. 9). In Ps. lxxxi. the lyric element of Ps. Ixxvii. is combined with the didactic element of Ps. lxxviii. The unity of these Psalms is indubitable. All three have towards the close the appearance of being fragmentary. For the author delights to ascend to the height of his subject and to go down into the depth of it, without returning to the point from which he started. In Ps. Ixxvii. Israel as a whole was called " the sons of Jacob and Joseph; " in Ps. lxxviii. we read " the sons of Ephraim " instead of the whole nation; here it is briefly called "Joseph." This also indicates the one author. Then Ps. lxxxi., exactly like Ixxix., is based upon the Pentateuchal history in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Jahve Himself speaks through the mouth of the poet, as He did once through the mouth of Moses — Asaph is /car &;oyr\v the prophet (pIP) among the psalmists. The transition from one form of speech to another which accompanies the rapid alternation of feelings, what the Arabs call talwin el-chitdb, " a colouring of a speech by a change of the persons," is also characteristic of him, as later on of Micah (e$. vi. 15 sq.).

This Ps. lxxxi. is according to ancient custom the Jewish New Year's Psalm, the Psalm of the Feast of Trumpets (Num. xxix. 1), therefore the Psalm of the first (and second) of Tishri; it is, however, a question whether the blowing of the horn (shophar) at the new moon, which it calls upon them to do, does not rather apply to the first of Nisan, to the ecclesiastical New Year. In the weekly liturgy of the Temple it was the Psalm for the Thursday.

The poet calls upon them to give a jubilant welcome to the approaching festive season, and in vers. 7 sqq. Jahve Himself makes Himself heard as the Preacher of the festival. He reminds those now living of His loving-kindness towards ancient Israel, and admonishes them not to incur the guilt of like unfaithfulness, in order that they may not lose the like tokens of His loving-kindness. What festive season is it? Either the Feast of the Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles; for it must be one of these two feasts which begin on the day of the full moon. Because it is one having reference to the redemption of Israel out of Egypt, the Targum, Talmud (more particularly Rosli ha-Shana, where this Psalm is much discussed), Midrash, and Sohar understand the Feast of Tabernacles; because vers. 2-4a _,eem to refer to the new moon of the seventh month, which is celebrated before other new moons (Num. x. 10) as nyvinn DV» (Num. xxix. 1, cf. Lev. xxiii. 24), i.e. to the first of Tishri, the civil New Year; and the blowing of horns at the New Year is, certainly not according to Scripture, but yet according to tradition (yid. Maimonides, Hilchoth ShopJiar i. 2), a very ancient arrangement. Nevertheless we must give up this reference of the Psalm to the first of Tishri and to the Feast of Tabernacles, which begins with the fifteenth of Tishri: — (1) Because between the high feast-day of the first of Tishri and the Feast of Tabernacles on the fifteenth to the twenty-first (twenty-second) of Tishri lies the great day of Atonement on the tenth of Tishri, which would be ignored, by greeting the festive season with a joyful noise from the first of Tishri forthwith to the fifteenth. (2) Because the remembrance of the redemption of Israel clings far more characteristically to the Feast of the Passover than to the Feast of Tabernacles. This latter appears in the oldest law-giving (Ex. xxiii. 16, xxxiv. 22) as *Ppxn Jn, i.e. as a feast of the ingathering of the autumn fruits, and therefore as the closing festival of the whole harvest; it does not receive the historical reference to the journey through the desert, and therewith its character of a feast of booths or arbours, until the addition in Lev. xxiii. 39-44, having reference to the carrying out of the celebration of the feasts in Canaan; whereas the feast which begins with the full moon of Nisan has, it is true, not been entirely free of all reference t^ agriculture, but from the very beginning bears the historical names npB and ntaDn in. (3) Because in the Psalm itself, viz. in ver. 66, allusion is made to the fact which the Passover commemorates.

Concerning rV'narp]; vid. on viii. 1. The symmetrical, stichic plan of the Psalm is clear: the schema is 11. 12. 12.

Vera, 2-6. The summons in ver. 2 is addressed to the whole congregation, inasmuch as ttPin is not intended of the clanging of the trumpets, but as in Ezra iii. 11, and frequently. The summons in ver. 3 is addressed to the Levites, the appointed singers and musicians in connection with the divine services, 2 Chron. v. 12, and frequently. The summons in ver. 4 is addressed to the priests, to whom was committed not only the blowing of the two (later on a hundred and twenty, vid. 2 Chron. v. 12) silver trumpets, but who appear also in Josh. vi. 4 and elsewhere (cf. xlvii. 6 with 2 Chron. xx. 28) as the blowers of the shophar. The Talmud observes that since the destruction of the Temple the names of instruments K"jsi£> and WV}Vten are wont to be confounded one for the other (B. Sabbath 36a, Succa 34a), and, itself confounding them, infers from Num. x. 10 the duty and significance of the blowing of the shophar (B. Erachin 36). The LXX. also renders both by (TaX7ny^; but the Biblical language mentions "»Si^ and rnvVrij a horn (more especially a ram's horn) and a (metal) trumpet, side by side in xcviii. 6, 1 Chron. xv. 28, and is therefore conscious of a difference between them. The Tora says nothing of the employment of the shophar in connection with divine service, except that the commencement of every fiftieth year, which on this very account is called /?8n D^? annus buccince, is to be made known by the horn signal throughout all the land (Lev. xxv. 9). But just as tradition by means of an inference from analogy derives the blowing of the shophar on the first of Tishri, the beginning of the common year, from this precept, so on the ground of the passage of the Psalm before us, assuming that BH/1?, LXX. iv veo\ir]via^ refers not to the first of Tishri but to the first of Nisan, we may suppose that the beginning of every month, but, in particular, the beginning of the month which was at the same time the beginning of the ecclesiastical year, was celebrated by a blowing of the shophar, as, according to Josephus, Bell. iv. 9, 12, the beginning and close of the Sabbath was announced from the top of the Temple by a priest with the salpinx. The poet means to say that the Feast of the Passover is to be saluted by the congregation with shouts of joy, by the Levites with music, and even beginning from the new moon (neomenia) of the Passcver month with blowing of shophars, and that this is to be continued at the Feast of the Passover itself. The Feast of the Passover, for which Hupfeld devises a gloomy physiognomy,* was a joyous festival, the Old Testament Christmas. 2 Chron. xxx. 21 testifies to the exultation of the people and the boisterous music of the Levite priests, with which it was celebrated. According to Num. x. 10, the trumpeting of the priests was connected with the sacrifices; and that the slaying of the paschal lambs took place amidst the Tantaratan of the priests (long-drawn notes interspersed with sharp shrill ones, njppro nynn nypn), is expressly related of the post-exilic service at least.f

The phrase *|fa JH3 proceeds from the phrase sSp jrw, according to which J03 directly means: to attune, strike up, cause to be heard. Concerning np2 (Prov. vii. 20 ND3) tradition is uncertain. The Talmudic interpretation (i?. JRosh ha-Shana 8fr, Betza 16a, and the Targum which is taken from it), according to which it is the day of the new moon (the first of the month), on which the moon hides itself, Le, is not to be seen at all in the morning, and in the evening only for a short time immediately after sunset, and the interpretation that is adopted by a still more imposing array of authorities (LXX., Yulgate, Menahem, Pashi, Jacob Tarn, Aben-Ezra, Parchon, and others), according to which a time fixed by computation (from riD3 -= Dp3? cornputare) is so named in general, are outweighed by the usage of the Syriac, in which keso denotes the full moon as the moon with covered, i.e. filled-up orb, and therefore the fifteenth of the month, but also the time from that point onwards, perhaps because then the moon covers itself, inasmuch as its shining surface appears each day less large (cf. the Peshito,

1 Kings xii. 32 of the fifteenth day of the eighth month,

2 Chron. vii. 10 of the twenty-third day of the seventh month, in both instances of the Feast of Tabernacles), after which, too, in the passage before us it is rendered wa-b-kese, which a Syro- Arabic glossary (in Posenmuller) explains fesla quce sunt in medio mensis. The Peshito here, like the Targum, proceeds

* In the first of his Commentationes de primitiva et vera festorum ajmd Hebrxos ration*, 1851, 4to.

t Vid. my essay on the Passover rites during the time of the second Temple in the Luther. Zeitschr. 1855; and cf. Arinknecht, Die heiliye Paalmodie (1855), S. 5.

from the reading ttWJj which, following the LXX. and the best texts, is to be rejected in comparison with the singular ^3n. If, however, it is to be read Ujn, and HD3 (according to Kimchi with Segol not merely in the second syllable, but with double Segol HD3, after the form NJD = WD) signifies not interlunium, but plenilunium (instead of which also Jerome has in medio mense, and in Prov. vii. 20, in die plence lunce, Aquila rj^iepa iravo~e\r)vov), then what is meant is either the Feast of Tabernacles, which is called absolutely Jnn in 1 Kings viii. 2 (2 Chron. v. 3) and elsewhere, or the Passover, which is also so called in Isa. xxx. 29 and elsewhere. Here, as ver. 5 will convince us, the latter is intended, the Feast of unleavened bread, the porch of which, so to speak, is np3 T}V together with the &!&& W? (Ex. xii. 42), the night from the fourteenth to the fifteenth of Nisan. In vers. 2, 3 they are called upon to give a welcome to this feast. The blowing of the shophar is to announce the commencement of the Passover month, and at the commencement of the Passover day which opens the Feast of unleavened bread it is to be renewed. The? of Div is not meant temporally, as perhaps in Job xxi. 30: at the day = on the day; for why was it not DVa? It is rather: towards the day, but HDDS assumes that the day has already arrived; it is the same Lamed as in ver. 2, the blowing of the shophar is to concern this feast-day, it is to sound in honour of it.

Vers. 5 and 6 now tell whence the feast which is to be met with singing and music has acquired such a high significance: it is a divine institution coming from the time of the redemption by the hand of Moses. It is called ph as being a legally sanctioned decree, BB^Q as being a lawfully binding appointment, and nny as being a positive declaration of the divine will. The f in TVSy^b characterizes Israel as the receiver, in wK? the God of Israel as the Owner, i.e. Author and Lawgiver. By iriK)te the establishing of the statute is dated back to the time of the Exodus; but the statement of the time of its being established, " when He went out over the land of Egypt," cannot be understood of the exodus of the people out of Egypt, natural as this may be here, where Israel has just been called *I9^T (pathetic for *19^)> by a comparison with Gen. xli. 45, where Joseph is spoken of in the same words. For this expression does not describe the going forth out of a country, perhaps in the sight of its inhabitants, Num. xxxiii. 3, cf. Ex. xiv. 8 (Hengstenberg), but the going out over a country. Elohim is the subject, and DN¥ is to be understood according to Ex. xi. 4 (Kimchi, De Dieu, Dathe, Rosenmuller, and others): when He went out for judgment over the land of Egypt (cf. Mic. i. 3). This statement of the time of itself at once decides the reference of the Psalm to the Passover, which commemorates the sparing of Israel at that time (Ex. xii. 27), and which was instituted on that very night of judgment. The accentuation divides the verse correctly. According to this, VftVK *fijrP~fcO riD:^ is not a relative clause to DH¥D: where I heard a language that

I understood not (cxiv. 1). Certainly fiBB> JTP, u to understand a language," is an expression that is in itself not inadmissible (cf. 1BD PT1, to understand writing, to be able to read, Isa. xxix.

II sq.), the selection of which instead of the more customary phrase p&6 JJDB> (Deut. xxviii. 49, Isa. xxxiii. 19, Jer. v. 15) might be easily intelligible here beside jflDBte; but the omission of the DB> p^?) is harsh, the thought is here purposeless, and excluded with our way of taking VlfettD. From the speech of God that follows it is evident that the clause is intended to serve as an introduction of this divine speech, whether it now be rendered sermonem quern non novi (cf. xviii. 44, populus quern non novi), or alicujus, quern non novi (Ges. § 123, rem. 1), both of which are admissible. Is it now in some way an introduction to the following speech of God as one which it has been suddenly given to the psalmist to hear: "An unknown language, or the language of one unknown, do I hear"? Thus Doderlein explains it: Subitanea et digna poetico impetu digressioy cum vates sese divino adjlatu subito perculsum sentit et oraculum audire sibi persuadet; and in the same wray De Wette, Olshausen, Hupfeld, and others. But the oracle of God cannot appear so strange to the Israelitish poet and seer as the spiritvoice to Eliphaz (Job iv. 16); and moreover J7DDX after the foregoing historical predicates has the presumption of the imperfect signification in its favour. Thus, then, it will have to be interpreted according to Ex. vi. 2 sq. It was the language of a known, but still also unknown God, which Israel heard in the redemption of that period. It was the God who had been made manifest as ffirp only, so to speak, by way of prelude hitherto, who now appeared at this juncture of the patriarchal history, which had been all along kept in view, in the marvellous and new light of the judgment which was executed upon Egypt, and of the protection, redemption, and election of Israel, as being One hitherto unknown, as the history of salvation actually then, having arrived at Sinai, receives an entirely new form, inasmuch as from this time onwards the congregation or church is a nation, and Jahve the King of a nation, and the bond of union between them a national law educating it for the real, vital salvation that is to come. The words of Jahve that follow are now not the words heard then in the time of the Exodus. The remembrance of the words heard forms only a transition to those that now make themselves heard. For when the poet remembers the language which He who reveals Himself in a manner never before seen and heard of spoke to His people at that time, the Ever-living One Himself, who is yesterday and to-day the same One, speaks in order to remind His people of what He was to them then, and of what He spake to them then.

Vers. 7-11. It is a gentle but profoundly earnest festival discourse which God the Redeemer addresses to His redeemed people. It begins, as one would expect in a Passover speech, with a reference to the nraD of Egypt (Ex. i. 11-14, v. 4, vi. 6 sq.), and to the TH, the task-basket for the transport of the clay and of the bricks (Ex. i. 14, v. 7 sq.).* Out of such distress did He free the poor people who cried for deliverance (Ex. ii. 23-25); He answered them DJH nnD3? i.e. not (according to xxii. 22, Isa. xxxii. 2): affording them protection against the storm, but (according to xviii. 12, lxxvii. 17 sqq.): out of the thunder-clouds in which He at the same time revealed and veiled Himself, casting down the enemies of Israel with His lightnings, which is intended to refer pre-eminently to the passage through the Red Sea (vid. lxxvii. 19); and He proved them (^H3K with 6 contracted from o, cf. on Job xxxv. 6) at the waters of Meribah, viz. whether they would trust Him further on after such glorious tokens of His power and loving-

* In the Papyrus Leydensis i. 346 the Israelites are called the "Aperiu (D'HSU), who dragged along the stones for the great watch-tower of the city of Rameses," and in the Pap. Leyd. i. 349, according to Lauth, the " Aperiu, who dragged along the stones for the storehouse of the city of Raineses."

kindness. The name cl Waters of Meribali" which properly i? borne only by Meribath Kadesh, the place of the giving of water in the fortieth year (Num. xx. 13, xxvii. 14, Deut. xxxii. 51, xxxiii. 8), is here transferred to the place of the giving of water in the first year, which wras named MassaJi u-Meribah (Ex. xvii. 7), as the remembrances of these two miracles, which took place under similar circumstances, in general blend together (yid. on xcv. 8 sq.). It is not now said that Israel did not act in response to the expectation of God, who had so wondrously verified Himself; the music, as Sela imports, here rises, and makes a long and forcible pause in what is being said. What now follows further, are, as the further progress of ver. 12 shows, the words of God addressed to the Israel of the desert, which at the same time with its faithlessness are brought to the remembrance of the Israel of the present. 3 Tyn, as in L 7, Deut. viii. 19, to bear testimony that concerns him against any one. EX (according to the sense, o si, as in Ps. xcv. ver. 7, which is in many ways akin to this Psalm) properly opens a searching question which wishes that the thing asked may come about (whether thou wilt indeed give me a willing hearing?!). In ver. 10 the key-note of the revelation of the Law from Sinai is struck: the fundamental command which opens the decalogue demanded fidelity to Jahve and forbade idol-worship as the sin of sins. ">J?K is an idol in opposition to the God of Israel as the true God; and "9?.?K, a strange god in opposition to the true God as the God of Israel. To this one God Israel ought to yield itself all the more undividedly and heartily as it wTas more manifestly indebted entirely to Him, who in His condescension had chosen it, and in His wonder-working might had redeemed it (jPV®*], part. Hiph. with the eh elided, like Tjkfl, Deut. xiii. 6, and vJK, from nj3; Ex. xxxiii. 3); and how easy this submission ought to have been to it, since He desired nothing in return for the rich abundance of His good gifts, which satisfy and quicken body and soul, but only a wideopened mouth, i.e. a believing longing, hungering for mercy and eager for salvation (cxix. 131)!

Vers. 12-17. The Passover discourse now takes a sorrowful and awful turn: Israel's disobedience and self-will frustrated the gracious purpose of the commandments and promises of its God. "My people" and "Israel" alternate as in the complaint in Isa. i. 3. n^iOO followed by the dative, as in Deut. xiii. 9 (, ov avvdeXrfaeis avra>). Then God made their sin their punishment, by giving them over judicially (rfe> as in Job viii. 4) into the obduracy of their heart, which rudely shuts itself up against His mercy (from "n^, Aramaic TlB^ Arabic

(cf. on the sequence of tense, lxi. 8) in their, i.e. their own, egotistical, God-estranged determinations; the suffix is thus accented, as e.g. in Isa. Ixv. 2, cf. the borrowed passage Jer. vii. 24, and the same phrase in Mic. vi. 16. And now, because this state of unfaithfulness in comparison with God's faithfulness has remained essentially the same even to to-day, the exalted Orator of the festival passes over forthwith to the generation of the present, and that, as is in accordance with the cheerful character of the feast, in a charmingly alluring manner. Whether we take ^ in the signification of si (followed by the participle, as in 2 Sam. xviii. 12), or like DK above in ver. 9 as expressing a wish, o si (if but!), vers. 15 sqq. at any rate have the relation of the apodosis to it. From W?3 (for a little, easily) it may be conjectured that the relation of Israel at that time to the nations did not correspond to the dignity of the nation of God which is called to subdue and rule the world in the strength of God. M*n signifies in this passage only to turn, not: to again lay upon. The meaning is, that He would turn the hand which is now chastening His people against those by whom He is chastening them (cf. on the usual meaning of the phrase, Isa. i. 25, Amos i. 8, Jer. vi. 9, Ezek. xxxviii. 12). The promise in ver. 16 relates to Israel and all the members of the nation. The haters of Jahve would be compelled reluctantly to submit themselves to Him, and their time would endure for ever. "Time" is equivalent to duration, and in this instance with the collateral notion of prosperity, as elsewhere (Isa. xiii. 22) of the term of punishment. One now expects that it should continue with Vi^DNiO, in the tone of a promise. The Psalm, however, closes with an historical statement. For IHTOfcW cannot signify et cibaret eum; it ought to be pronounced Vl^aiW. The pointing, like the LXX., Syriac, and Vulgate, takes ver. 17a (cf. Deut. xxxii. 13 sq.) as a retrospect, and apparently rightly so. For even the Asaphic Psalms lxxvii. and lxxviii. break off with historical pictures. Ver. 176 is, accordingly, also to be taken as retrospective. The words of the poet in conclusion once more change into the words of God. The closing word runs 'IJPaK'Kj as in 1. 8, Deut. iv. 31, and (with the exception of the futt. Hiph. of Lamed He verbs ending with ekka) usually. The Babylonian system of pointing nowhere recognises the suffixform ekka. If the Israel of the present would hearken to the Lawgiver of Sinai, says ver. 17, then would He renew to it the miraculous gifts of the time of the redemption under Moses.

2 " How long will ye judge unjustly,

3 Do justice to the destitute and fatherless, Acquit the afflicted and the poor!

4 Deliver the destitute and needy, Rescue out of the hand of the wicked!" —

5 a They know not, and understand not, In darkness they walk to and fro; All the foundations of the land totter.

As in Ps. lxxxi., so also in this Psalm (according to tho Talmud the Tuesday Psalm of the Temple liturgy) God is in- troduced as speaking after the manner of the prophets. Ps. lviii. and xciv. are similar, but more especially Isa. iii. 13-15. Asaph the seer beholds how God, reproving, correcting, and threatening, appears against the chiefs of the congregation of His people, who have perverted the splendour of majesty which He has put upon them into tyranny. It is perfectly characteristic of Asaph (Ps. 1., lxxv., Ixxxi.) to plunge himself into the contemplation of the divine judgment, and to introduce God as speaking. There is nothing to militate against the Psalm being written by Asaph, David's cotemporary, except the determination not to allow to the *)D&6 of the inscription its most natural sense. Hupfeld, understanding " angels" by the elohim, as Bleek has done before him, inscribes the Psalm: " God's judgment upon unjust judges in heaven and upon earth." But the angels as such are nowhere called elohim in the Old Testament, although they might be so called; and their being judged here on account of unjust judging, Hupfeld himself says, is " an obscure point that is still to be cleared up." An interpretation which, like this, abandons the usage of the language in order to bring into existence a riddle that it cannot solve, condemns itself. At the same time the assertion of Hupfeld (of Knobel, Graf, and others), that in Ex. xxi. 6, xxii. 7 sq., 27,* DTibtf denotes God Himself, and not directly the authorities of the nation as being His earthly representatives, finds its most forcible refutation in the so-called and mortal eloJrirn of this Psalm (cf. also xlv. 7, lviii. 2).

By reference to this Psalm Jesus proves to the Jews (John x. 34-36) that when He calls Himself the Son of God, He does not blaspheme God, by an argumentatio a minori ad majus. If the Law, so He argues, calls even those gods who are officially invested with this name by a declaration of the divine will promulgated in time (and the Scripture cannot surely, as in general, so also in this instance, be made invalid), then it cannot surely be blasphemy if He calls Himself the Son of God, whom not merely a divine utterance in this present time has called to this or to that worldly office after the image of God, but who with His whole life is ministering to the accomplishment of a work to which the Father had already sanctified Him when He came into the world. In connection with rjylaae one is reminded of the fact that those who are called elohim in the Psalm are censured on account of the unholiness of their conduct. The name does not originally belong to them, nor do they show themselves to be morally worthy of it. With rjylacre koX cnreaTeCkev Jesus contrasts His divine sonship, prior to time, with theirs, which began only in this present time.

Vers. 1-4. God comes forward and makes Himself heard first of all as censuring and admonishing. The " congregation of God" is, as in Num. xxvii. 17, xxxi. 16, Josh. xxii. 16 sq., "the congregation of (the sons of) Israel," which God has purchased from among the nations (Ixxiv. 2), and upon which as its Lawgiver He has set His divine impress. The psalmist and seer sees Elohim standing in this congregation of God. The part. Niph. (as in Isa. iii. 13) denotes not so much the suddenness and unpreparedness, as, rather, the statue-like immobility and terrifying designfulness of His appearance. Within the range of the congregation of God this holds good of the elohim. The right over life and death, with which the administration of justice cannot dispense, is a prerogative of God. From the time of Gen. ix. 6, however, He has transferred the execution of this prerogative to mankind, and instituted in mankind an office wielding the sword of justice, which also exists in His theocratic congregation, but here has His positive law as the basis of its continuance and as the rule of its action. Everywhere among men, but here pre-eminently, those in authority are God's delegates and the bearers of His image, and therefore as His representatives are also themselves called elohim, li gods" (which the LXX. in Ex. xxi. 6 renders to KpLrrjpiov tov 0€ov, and the Targums here, as in Ex. xxii. 7, 8, 27 uniformly, NJ^). The God who has conferred this exercise of power upon these subordinate elohim, without their resigning it of themselves, now sits in judgment in their midst. tt3K* of that which takes place before the mind's eye of the psalmist. How long, He asks, will ye judge unjustly % 7}V ODE> is equivalent to 7)V nb>y BBBto?, Lev. xix. 15, 35 (the opposite is on^p BBP, lviii. 2). How long will ye accept the countenance of the wicked, i.e. incline to accept, regard, favour the person of the wicked % The music, which here becomes forte, gives intensity to the terrible sternness (das Niederdonnernde) of the divine question, which seeks to bring the "gods" of the earth to their right mind. Then follow admonitions to do that which they have hitherto left undone. They are to cause the benefit of the administration of justice to tend to the advantage of the defenceless, of the destitute, and of the helpless, upon whom God the Lawgiver especially keeps His eye. The word vh (^K*J), of which there is no evidence until within the time of David and Solomon, is synonymous with P^K. 77 with DWV1 is pointed.77, and with JV2K1, on account of the closer notional union, 77 (as in lxxii. 13). They are words which are frequently repeated in the prophets, foremost in Isaiah (ch. i. 17), with which is enjoined upon those invested with the dignity of the law, and with jurisdiction, justice towards those who cannot and will not themselves obtain their rights by violence.

Vers. 5-7. What now follows in ver. 5 is not a parenthetical assertion of the inefficiency with which the divine correction rebounds from the judges and rulers. In connection with this way of taking ver. 5, the manner in which the divine language is continued in ver. 6 is harsh and unadjusted. God Himself speaks in ver. 5 of the judges, but reluctantly alienated from them; and confident of the futility of all attempts to make them better, He tells them their sentence in vers. 6 sq. The verbs in ver. 5a are designedly without any object: complaint of the widest compass is made over their want of reason and understanding; and iyT takes the perfect form in like manner to iyvcb/eao-i,, noverunt, cf. xiv. 1, Isa. xliv. 18. Thus, then, no result is to be expected from the divine admonition: they still go their ways in this state of mental darkness, and that, as the Hithpa. implies, stalking on in carnal security and self-complacency. The commands, however, which they transgress are the foundations (cf. xi. 3), as it were the shafts and pillars (lxxv. 4, cf. Prov. xxix. 4), upon which rests the permanence of all earthly relationships which are appointed by creation and regulated by the Tora. Their transgression makes the land, the earth, to totter physically and morally, and is the prelude of its overthrow. When the celestial Lord of the domain thinks upon this destruction which injustice and tyranny are bringing upon the earth, His wrath kindles, and He reminds the judges and rulers that it is His own free declaratory act which has clothed them with the godlike dignity which they bear. They are actually elohim^ but not possessed of the right of self-government; there is a Most High (P^V) to whom they as sons are responsible. The idea that the appellation elohim, which they have given to themselves, is only sarcastically given back to them in ver. 1 (Ewald, Olshausen), is refuted by ver. 6, according to which they are really elohim by the grace of God. But if their practice is not an Amen to this name, then they shall be divested of the majesty which they have forfeited; they shall be divested of the prerogative of Israel, whose vocation and destiny they have belied. They shall die off B*]^, like common men not rising in any degree above the mass (cf. D'JK \J3, opp. B^fcj* \33, iv. 3, xlix. 3); they shall fall like any one (Judg. xvi. 7, Obad. ver. 11) of the princes who in the course of history have been cast down by the judgment of God (Hos. vii. 7). Their divine office will not protect them. For although justltia civilis is far from being the righteousness that avails before God, yet injustitia civilis is in His sight the vilest abomination. Ver. 8. The poet closes with the prayer for the realization of that which he has beheld in spirit. He implores God Himself to sit in judgment (HB^ as in Lam. iii. 59), since judgment is so badly exercised upon the earth. All peoples are indeed His '"v^, He has an hereditary and proprietary right among (LXX. and Vulgate according to Num. xviii. 20, and frequently), or rather in (2 as in 3 PKfo, instead of the accusative of the object, Zech. ii. 16), all nations (eOvrj) — may He then be pleased to maintain it judicially. The inference drawn from this point backwards, that the Psalm is directed against the possessors of power among the Gentiles, is erroneous. Israel itself, in so far as it acts inconsistently with its theocratic character, belies its sanctified nationality, is a HJ like the D^, and is put into the same category with these. The judgment over the world is also a judgment over the Israel that is become conformed to the world, and its Godestranged chiefs.

3 For lo Thine enemies make a tumult, And Thy haters carry the head high,

4 Against Thy people they meditate a crafty design, And take counsel together against Thy proteges.

6 For they take counsel together with one mind, Against Thee they make a covenant:

7 The tents of Edom and of the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarenes;

8 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre;

11 They were destroyed at Endor, They became as dung for the land;

12 Make them, their nobles, like Oreb and Zeeb, And like Zebach and Zalmunna all their princes,

14 My God, make them like the whirlwind, As stubble before the wind!

18 Let them be ashamed and overthrown for ever, And let them be confounded and perish;

alone, Art the Most High over all the earth.

The close of this Psalm is in accord with the close of the preceding Psalm. It is the last of the twelve Psalms of Asaph of the Psalter. The poet supplicates help against the many nations which have allied themselves with the descendants of Lot, i.e. Moab and Ammon, to entirely root out Israel as a nation. Those who are fond of Maccabaean Psalms (Hitzig and Olshausen), after the precedent of van Til and von Bengel, find the circumstances of the time of the Psalm in 1 Mace. ch. v., and Grimm is also inclined to regard this as correct; and in point of fact the deadly hostility of the €0vrj KVKkoOev which we there see breaking forth on all sides,* as it were at a given signal, against the Jewish people, who have become again independent, and after the dedication of the Temple doubly self-conscious, is far better suited to explain the Psalm than the hostile efforts of Sanballat, Tobiah, and others to hinder the rebuilding of Jerusalem, in the time of Nehemiah (Vaihinger, Ewald, and Dillmann). There is, however, still another incident beside that recorded in 1 Mace. ch. v. to which the Psalm may be referred, viz. the confederation of the nations for the extinction of Judah in the time of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. ch. xx.), and, as it seems to us, with comparatively speaking less constraint. For the Psalm speaks of a real league, whilst in 1 Mace. ch. v. the several nations made the attack without being allied and not jointly; then, as the Psalm assumes in ver. 9, the sons of Lot, i.e. the Moabites and Ammonites, actually were at the head at that time, whilst in

* Concerning the viol Bouxv (Beni Baijari), 1 Mace. v. 4, the difficulty respecting which is to the present time unsolved, vid. Wetzstein's Excursus II., at the end of this volume.

1 Mace. ch. v. the sons of Esau occupy the most prominent place; and thirdly, at that time, in the time of Jehoshaphat, as is recorded, an Asaphite, viz. Jahaziel, did actually interpose in the course of events, a circumstance which coincides remarkably with the *]D&6. The league of that period consisted, according to 2 Chron. xx. 1, of Moabites, Ammonites, and a part of the D^tyD (as it is to be read after the LXX.). But ver. 2 (where without any doubt D1SD is to be read instead of D")ND) adds the Edomites to their number, for it is expressly stated further on (vers. 10, 22, 23) that the inhabitants of Mount Seir were with them. Also, supposing of course that the a Ishmaelites " and "Hagarenes" of the Psalm may be regarded as an unfolding of the DWD, which is confirmed by Josephus, Antiq. ix. 1. 2; and that Gebal is to be understood by the Mount Seir of the chronicler, which is confirmed by a difficulty in the fact that the Psalm also names Amalek, Philistia, Tyre, and Asshur, of which we find no mention there in the reign of Jehoshaphat. But these difficulties are counterbalanced by others that beset the reference to 1 Mace. ch. v., viz. that in the time of the Seleucidse the Amalekites no longer existed, and consequently, as might be expected, are not mentioned at all in 1 Mace. ch. v.; further, that there the Moabites, too, are no longer spoken of, although some formerly Moabitish cities of Gileaditis are mentioned; and thirdly, that WK = Syria (a certainly possible usage of the word) appears in a subordinate position, whereas it was, however, the dominant power. On the other hand, the mention of Amalek is intelligible in connection with the reference to 2 Chron. ch. xx., and the absence of its express mention in the chronicler does not make itself particularly felt in consideration of Gen. xxxvi. 12. Philistia, Tyre, and Asshur, however, stand at the end in the Psalm, and might also even be mentioned with the others if they rendered aid to the confederates of the south-east without taking part with them in the campaign, as being a succour to the actual leaders of the enterprise, the sons of Lot. We therefore agree with the reference of Ps. lxxxiii. (as also of Ps. xlviii.) to the alliance of the neighbouring nations against Judah in the reign of Jehoshaphat, which has been already recognised by Kimchi and allowed by K<ul, Hengstenberg, and Movers.

Vers. 2-5. The poet prays, may God not remain an inactive looker-on in connection with the danger of destruction that threatens His people. W (with which W is to be supplied) is the opposite of alertness; Bnn the opposite of speaking (in connection with which it is assumed that God's word is at the same time deed); ttj?^ the opposite of being agitated and activity. The energetic future jehemajun gives outward emphasis to the confirmation of the petition, and the fact that Israel's foes are the foes of God gives inward emphasis to it. On BW"» NP3, cf. ex. 7. TiD is here a secret agreement; and *8T!P-i elsewhere to deal craftily, here signifies to craftily plot, devise, bring a thing about. T£BN is to be understood according to xxvii. 5, xxxi. 21. The Hithpa. fjjnn alternates here with the more ancient Niph. (ver. 6). The design of the enemies in this instance has reference to the total extirpation of Israel, of the separatist-people who exclude themselves from the life of the world and condemn it. ^SD, from being a people = so that it may no longer be a people or nation, as in Isa. vii. 8, xvii. 1, xxv. 2, Jer. xlviii. 42. In the borrowed passage, Jer. xlviii. 2, by an interchange of a letter it is naJV-DJ. This Asaph Psalm is to be discerned in not a few passages of the prophets; cf. Isa. lxii. 6 sq. with ver. 2, Isa. xvii. 12 with ver. 3.

Vers. 6-9. Instead of inx 37, 1 Chron. xii. 38, it is deliberant corde una, inasmuch as YOT on the one hand gives intensity to the reciprocal signification of the verb, and on the other lends the adjectival notion to 3>. Of the confederate peoples the chronicler (2 Chron. ch. xx.) mentions the Moabites, the Ammonites, the inhabitants of Mount Seir, and the Me'unim, instead of which Josephus, Antiq. ix. 1. 2, says: a great body of Arabians. This crowd of peoples comes from the other side of the Dead Sea, tftwo (as it is to be read in ver. 2 in the chronicler instead of B")KD, cf. on lx. 2); the territory of Edom, which is mentioned first by the poet, was therefore the rendezvous. The tents of Edom and of the

Ishmaelites are (cf. w\, people) the people themselves who live in tents. Moreover, too, the poet ranges the hostile nations according to their geographical position. The seven first named from Edom to Amalek, which still existed at the time of the psalmist (for the final destruction of the Amalekites by the Simeonites, 1 Chron. iv. 42 sq., falls at an indeterminate period prior to the Exile), are those out of the regions east and south-east of the Dead Sea. According to Gen. xxv. 18, the Ishmaelites had spread from Higaz through the peninsula of Sinai beyond the eastern and southern deserts as far up as the countries under the dominion of Assyria. The Hagarenes dwelt in tents from the Persian Gulf as far as the east of Gile~d (1 Chron. v. 10) towards the Euphrates.?23, situated in the south of the Dead Sea, that is to say, the northern Seiritish mountains. Both Gebal and also, as it appears, the Amalek intended here according to Gen. xxxvi. 12 (cf. Josephus, Antiq. iL 1. 2: '^/xo-X^/cm?, a part of Idumaea), belong to the wide circuit of Edom, Then follow the Philistines and Phoenicians, the two nations of the coast of the Mediterranean, which also appear in Amos ch. i. (cf. Joel ch. iv. [iii.]) as making common cause with the Edomites against Israel. Finally Asshur, the nation of the distant north-east, here not as yet appearing as a principal power, but strengthening (yid. concerning Jfl"i?, an arm = assistance, succour, Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 4336) the sons of Lot, i.e. the Moabites and Ammonites, with whom the enterprise started, and forming a powerful reserve for them. The music bursts forth angrily at the close of this enumeration, and imprecations discharge themselves in the following strophe.

Vers. 10-13. With |HD3 reference is made to Gideon's victory over the Midianites, which belongs to the most glorious recollections of Israel, and to which in other instances, too, national hopes are attached, Isa. ix. 3, x. 26, cf. Hab. iii. 7; and with the asyndeton PM N"}?^3 (X")?'IP?> as Norzi states, who does not rightly understand the placing of the Metheg) to the victory of Barak and Deborah over Sisera and the Canaanitish king Jabin, whose general he was. The Beth of ^3 is like the Beth of IfJJi in ex. 7: according to Judg. v. 21 the Kishon carried away the corpses of the slain army. 'Endor, near

Tabor, and therefore situated not far distant from Taanach and Megiddo (Judg. v. 19), belonged to the battle-field. n?^, starting from the radical notion of that which flatly covers anything, which lies in D1, signifying the covering of earth lying flat over the globe, therefore humus (like fttf, terra, and pari, tellus), is here (cf. 2 Kings ix. 37) in accord with fljl (from \iy]), which is in substance akin to it. In ver. 12 we have a retrospective glance at Gideon's victory. * Oreb and ZeSb were 0^ of the Midianites, Judg. vii. 25; Zebach and Tsalmunna\ their kings, Judg. viii. 5 sqq.* The pronoun precedes the word itself in i^D^? as in Ex. ii. 6; the heaped-up suffixes Brno (Smo) give to the imprecation a rhythm and sound as of rolling thunder. Concerning TPJ, vid. on ii. 6. So far as the matter is concerned, 2 Chron. xx. 11 harmonizes with ver. 13. Canaan, the land which is God's and which He has given to His people, is called DWK niw (cf. lxxiv. 20).

Vers. 14-17. With the wg, which constrains God in faith, the "thundering down" begins afresh. ^?3 signifies a wheel and a whirling motion, such as usually arises when the wind changes suddenly, then also whatever is driven about in is the dry corn-stalks, whether as left standing or, as in this instance, as straw upon the threshing-floor or upon the field. Like a fire that spreads rapidly, laying hold of everything, which burns up the forest and singes off the wooded mountain so that only a bare cone is left standing, so is God to drive them before Him in the raging tempest of His wrath and take them unawares. The figure in ver. 15 is fully worked up by

* The Syriac Hexapla has (Hos. x. 14) JJ3C&V instead of \obw, a substitution which is accepted by Geiger, Deutsch. Morgenland. Zeitschr. 1862, S. 729 f. Concerning the signification of the above names of Midianitish princes, vid. Nbldeke, Ueber die Amalekiter, S. 9.

f Saadia, who renders the pupa in lxxvii. 19 as an astronomical expression with C-JJiH, the sphere of the heavens, here has professedly &j\ Ji\&, which would be a plural form expanded out of Ajj) _c, "sieves" or 4 k tambourines; " it is, however, to be read, as in Isa. xvii. 13, Codex Oxon., <3bj<Jl£

The verb Jj^i, " to sift," is transferred to the wind, e.g. in Mutanabbi (edited with Wahidi's commentary by Dieterici), p. 29, 1. 6 and 6: " it is

Isaiah, ch. x. 16-19; &y? as in Deut. xxxii. 22. In the apodosis, ver. 16, the figure is changed into a kindred one: wrath is a glowing heat (pin) and a breath (HDEO, Isa. xxx. 33) at the same time. In ver. 17b it becomes clear what is the final purpose towards which this language of cursing tends: to the end that all, whether willingly or reluctantly, may give the glory to the God of revelation. Directed towards this end the earnest prayer is repeated once more in the tetrastichic closing strain.

Vers. 18, 19. The aim of the wish is that they in the midst of their downfall may lay hold upon the mercy of Jahve as their only deliverance: first they must come to nought, and only by giving Jahve the glory will they not be utterly destroyed. Side by side with nnx, ver. Ida, is placed ^IP^ as a second subject (cf. xliv. 3, lxix. 11). In view of ver. 176 WP.1. (as in lix. 14) has not merely the sense of perceiving so far as the justice of the punishment is concerned; the knowledge which is unto salvation is not excluded. The end of the matter which the poet wishes to see brought about is this, that Jahve, that the God of revelation 0p&>), mav become the Allexalted One in the consciousness of the nations.

therein, were sifted," ^Jjyco (*.c. caught up and whirled round); and with other notional and constructional applications in Makkari, i. p. 102, 1. 18:

(i.e. the dust thereof swept away by a whirlwind). Accordingly ijb-c signifies first, as a nom. vicis, a whirling about (of dust by the wind), then in a concrete sense a whirlwind, as Saadia uses it, inasmuch as he makes use of it twice for pa^j). So Fleischer in opposition to Ewald, who renders "like the sweepings or rubbish,"

2 HOW lovely are Thy dwelling-places, Jahve of Hosts!

3 My soul longeth, yea fainteth, for the courts of Jahve, My heart and my flesh sing for joy towards the living God.

4 Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, Where she hath sheltered her young — Thine altars, Jahve of Hosts,

5 Blessed are they who dwell in Thy house, They shall still praise Thee. (Sela.)

6 Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee — The pilgrims' ways are in their heart.

7 Passing through the valley of Baca, They make it a place of springs,

9 " Jahve Elohim of Hosts, Oh hear my prayer, Give ear, O God of Jacob!" (Sela.)

10 Thou our Shield, look into it, Elohim, And look upon the face of Thine anointed!

I had rather lie upon the threshold in the house of my God, Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

With Ps. lxxxiii. the circle of the Asaphic songs is closed (twelve Psalms, viz. one in the Second Book and eleven in the Third), and with Ps. lxxxiv. begins the other half of the Korahitic circle of songs, opened by the last of the Korahitic Elohim-Psalms. True, Hengstenberg (transl. vol. iii. Appendix, p. xlv) says that no one would, with my Symbolce, p. 22, regard this Ps. lxxxiv. as an Elohimic Psalm; but the marks of the Elohimic style are obvious. Not only that the poet uses Elohim twice, and that in ver. 8, where a non-Elohimic Psalm ought to have said Jahve; it also delights in compound names of God, which are so heaped up that Jahve Tsebaoth occurs three times, and the specifically Elohimic Jahve Elohim Tsebaoth once.

The origin of this Psalm has been treated of already in connection with its counterpart, Ps. xlii.-xliii. It is a thoroughly heartfelt and intelligent expression of the love to the sanctuary of Jahve which yearns towards it out of the distance, and calls all those happy who have the like good fortune to have their home there. The prayer takes the form of an intercession for God's anointed; for the poet is among the followers of David, the banished one.* He does not pray, as it were, out of his soul (Hengstenberg, Tholuck, von Gerlach), but for him; for loving Jahve of Hosts, the heavenly King, he also loves His inviolably chosen one. And wherefore should he not do so, since with him a new era for the neglected sanctuary had dawned, and the delightful services of the Lord had taken a new start, and one so rich in song? With him he shares both joy and grief. With his future he indissolubly unites his own. To the Precentor upon the Gittith, the inscription runs, by Bene-Korahj a Psalm. Concerning rpri2n"?y, vid. on viii. 1. The structure of the Psalm is artistic. It consists of two halves with a distichic asAr^-conclusion. The schema is 3. 5. 2 | 5.

Vers. 2-5. How loved and lovely (rriTT) is the sacred dwelling-place (plur. as in xliii. 3) of the all-commanding, redemptive God, viz. His dwelling-place here below upon Zion! Thither the poet is drawn by the deeply inward yearning of love, which makes him pale (^P?? from *]p37 to grow pale, xvii. 12) and consumes him (»173 as in Job xix. 27). His heart and flesh joyfully salute the living God dwelling there, who, as a never-failing spring, quenches the thirst of the soul (xlii. 3); the joy that he feels when he throws himself back in spirit into the long- denied delight takes possession even of his bodily nature, the bitter-sweet pain of longing completely fills him (lxiii. 2). The mention of the "courts" (with the exception of the Davidic Psalm lxv. 5, occurring only in the anonymous Psalms) does not preclude the reference of the Psalm to the tent-temple on Zion. The Tabernacle certainly had only one "ivn; the arrangement of the Davidic tent-temple, however, is indeed unknown to us, and, according to reliable traces,* it may be well assumed that it was more gorgeous and more spacious than the old Tabernacle which remained in Gibeon. In ver. 4 the preference must be given to that explanation which makes T,nin2Tp"nx dependent upon n^VJ?, without being obliged to supply an intermediate thought like T))2 (with hardening

Deror, etc., 1741. He considers one of the Ephraimites who were brought back to the fellowship of the true worship of God in the reign of Jehobhapbat (2 Chron. xix. 4) to be the subject of the Psalm.

Dagesh like |3, Gen. xix. 38, vid. the rule at lii. 5) and |i?. as a more definite statement of the object which the poet has in view. The altars, therefore, or (what this is meant to say without any need for taking riN as a preposition) the realm, province of the altars of Jahve — this is the house, this the nest which sparrow and swallow have found for themselves and their young. The poet thereby only indirectly says, that birds have built themselves nests on the Temple-house, without giving any occasion for the discussion whether this has taken place in reality. By the bird that has found a comfortable snug home on the place of the altars of Jahve in the Temple-court and in the Temple-house, he means himself, lisy (from ia¥) is a general name for whistling, twittering birds, like the finch* and the sparrow, just as the LXX. here renders it. *rtTi is not the turtledove (LXX., Targum, and Syriac), but the swallow, which is frequently called even in the Talmud 1VH TiB¥ (= n^9), and appears to take its name from its straightforward darting, as it were, radiating flight (cf. Arabic jadurru of the horse: it darts straight forward). Saadia renders durije, which is the name of the sparrow in Palestine and Syria (vid. Wetzstein's Excursus I. at the end of this volume). After the poet has said that his whole longing goes forth towards the sanctuary, he adds that it could not possibly be otherwise (D| standing at the head of the clause and belonging to the whole sentence, as e.g. in Isa. xxx. 33; Ewald, § 352, b): he, the sparrow, the swallow, has found a house, a nest, viz. the altars of Jahve of Hosts, his King and his God (xliv. 5, xlv. 7), who gloriously and inaccessibly protects him, and to whom he unites himself with most heartfelt and believing love. The addition u where (TJ'X as in xcv. 9, Num. xx. 13) she layeth her young," is not without its significance. One is here reminded of the fact, that at the time of the second Temple the sons of the priests were called n??? *£H?> and the Levite poet means himself together with his family; God's altars secure to them shelter and sustenance. How happy, blessed, therefore, are those who enjoy this good fortune, which he now longs for again with pain in a strange country, viz. to be able to make his home in the house of such an adorable and gracious God! "liy here signifies, not

M constantly" (Gen. xlvi. 29), for which Ton would have been used, but "yet," as in xlii. 6. The relation of ver. 5b to 5a is therefore like xli. 2. The present is dark, but it will come to pass even yet that the inmates of God's house (ol/celoo rov Qeov, Eph. ii. 10) will praise Him as their Helper. The music here strikes in, anticipating this praise.

Vers. G-13. This second half takes up the "blessed" of the distichic epode (eVwSo?) of the first, and consequently joins member to member chain-like on to it. Many hindrances must be cleared away if the poet is to get back to Zion, his true home; but his longing carries the surety within itself of its fulfilment: blessed, yea in himself blessed, is the man, who has his strength (TijJ only here plene) in God, so that, consequently, the strength of Him to whom all things are possible is mighty in his weakness. What is said in ver. $b is less adapted to be the object of the being called blessed than the result of that blessed relationship to God. What follows shows that the " high-roads" are not to be understood according to Isa. xl. 3 sq., or any other passage, as an ethical, notional figure (Venema, Hengstenberg, Hitzig, and others), but according to Isa. xxxiii. 8 (cf. Jer. xxxi. 21), with Aben-Ezra, Vatablus, and the majority of expositors, of the roads leading towards Zion; not, however, as referring to the return from the Exile, but to the going up to a festival: the pilgrim-high-roads with their separate halting-places (stations) were constantly present to the mind of such persons. And though they may be driven never so far away from them, they will nevertheless reach the goal of their longing. The most gloomy present becomes bright to them: passing through even a terrible wilderness, they turn it (VttW*) into a place of springs, their joyous hope and the infinite beauty of the goal, which is worth any amount of toil and trouble, afford them enlivening comfort, refreshing strengthening in the midst of the arid steppe. N??? pB? does n°t signify the " Valley of weeping," as Hupfeld at last renders it (LXX.

KoCkdha tov fc\av6/j,covo<;), although Burckhardt found a ^jj\» &jl\ (Valley of weeping) in the neighbourhood of Sinai. In

Hebrew "weeping" is *33, rua, 1*^3, not N33. Renan, in the fourth chapter of his Vie de Jesus, understands the expression to mean the last station of those who journey from northern

Palestine on this side of the Jordan towards Jerusalem, viz. Ain el-Haramije, in a narrow and gloomy valley where a black stream of water flows out of the rocks in which graves are dug, so that consequently N3nn pDJJ signifies Valley of tears or of trickling waters. But such trickling out of the rock is also called *33, Job xxviii. 11, and not KM. This latter is the singular to D<N33 in 2 Sam. v. 24 (cf. D'K33, D^IIS, ciii. 21), the name of a tree, and, according to the old Jewish lexicographers, of the mulberry-tree (Talmudic mn, ULJjj); but according to the designation, of a tree from which some kind of fluid flows, and such a tree is the *l£j, resembling the balsam-tree, which is very common in the arid valley of Mecca, and therefore might also have given its name to some arid valley of the Holy Land (vid. Winer's Realworterbuch, s.v. Bacha), and, according to 2 Sam. v. 22-25, to one belonging, as it would appear, to the line of valley which leads from the coasts of the Philistines to Jerusalem. What is spoken of in passages like Isa. xxxv. 7, xli. 18, as being wrought by the omnipotence of God, who brings His people home to Zion, appears here as the result of the power of faith in those who, keeping the same end of their journeyings in view, pass through the unfruitful sterile valley. That other side, however, also does not remain unexpressed. Not only does their faith bring forth water out of the sand and rock of the desert, but God also on His part lovingly anticipates their love, and rewardingly anticipates their faithfulness: a gentle rain, like that which refreshes the sown fields in the autumn, descends from above and enwraps it (viz. the Valley of Baca) in a fulness of blessing («"IW> Iliphil with two accusatives, of which one is to be supplied: cf. on the figure, lxv. 14). The arid steppe becomes resplendent with a flowery festive garment (Isa. xxxv. 1 sq.), not to outward appearance, but to them spiritually, in a manner none the less true and real. And whereas under ordinary circumstances the strength of the traveller diminishes in proportion as he has traversed more and more of his toilsome road, with them it is the very reverse; they go from strength to strength (cf. on the expression, Jer. ix. 2, xii. 2), i.e. they receive strength for strength (cf. on the subject-matter, Isa. xl. 31, John i. 16), and that an ever increasing strength, the nearer they come to the desired goal, which also they cannot fail to reach. The pilgrim-band (this is the subject to n^.), going on from strength to (/#) strength, at last reaches, attains to (?tf instead of the?• ^M used in other instances) Elohim in Zion. Having reached this final goal, the pilgrim-band pours forth its heart in the language of prayer such as we have in ver. 9, and the music here strikes up and blends its sympathetic tones with this converse of the church with its God.

The poet, however, who in spirit accompanies them on their pilgrimage, is now all the more painfully conscious of being at the present time far removed from this goal, and in the next strophe prays for relief. He calls God U330 (as in lix. 12), for without His protection David's cause is lost. May He then behold pin, used just as absolutely as in 2 Chron. xxiv. 22, cf. Lam. iii. 50), and look upon the face of His anointed, which looks up to Him out of the depth of its reproach. The position of the words shows that ^d is not to be regarded as the object to n8p0 according to lxxxix. 19 (cf. xlvii. 10) and in opposition to the accentuation, for why should it not then have been D\"6k I^JD n&O? The confirmation (ver. 11) puts the fact that we have before us a Psalm belonging to the time of David's persecution by Absalom beyond all doubt. Manifestly, when his king prevails, the poet will at the same time (cf. David's language, 2 Sam. xv. 25) be restored to the sanctuary. A single day of his lfe in the courts of God is accounted by him as better than a thousand other days (*)./?£ with Olewejored and preceded by Rebia parvuin). He would rather lie down on the threshold (concerning the significance of this ^ifipn in the mouth of a Korahite, vid, supra, vol. ii. p. 53) in the house of his God than dwell within in the tents of ungodliness (not "palaces," as one might have expected, if the house of God had at that time been a palace). For how worthless is the pleasure and concealment to be had there, when compared with the salvation and protection which Jahve Elohim affords to His saints! This is the only instance in which God is directly called a sun (^OP) in the sacred writings (cf. Sir. xlii. 16). He is called a shield as protecting those who flee to Him and rendering them inaccessible to their foes, and a sun as the Being who dwells in an unapproachable light, which, going forth from Him in love towards men, is particularized as jn and

1U3, as the gentle and overpowering light of the grace and glory (%a/?t? and §6%a) of the Father of Lights. The highest good is self-communicative (commwiicativum sui). The God of salvation does not refuse any good thing to those who walk E^pna (yov\ *nn?j ci. 6; cf. on xv. 2). Upon all receptive ones, i.e. all those who are desirous and capable of receiving His blessings, He freely bestows them out of the abundance of His good things. Strophe and anti-strophe are doubled in this second half of the song. The epode closely resembles that which follows the first half. And this closing asJire is not followed by any Sela. The music is hushed. The song dies away with an iambic cadence into a waiting expectant stillness.

2 THOU hast been favourable, Jahve, unto Thy land, Thou hast turned the captivity of Jacob;

3 Thou hast taken away the iniquity of Thy people, Thou hast covered all their sin — (Sela.)

5 Turn unto us again, O God of our salvation, And cause Thine indignation against us to cease.

Wilt Thou draw out Thine anger to all generations?

7 Wilt Thou not quicken us again, That Thy people may rejoice in Thee?

Yea, He speaketh peace to His people and to His saints; Only let them not again fall into folly! 10 Yea, nigh unto those who fear Him is His salvation, That glory may again dwell in our land.

11 Loving-kindness and truth shall meet together, Righteousness and peace shall kiss each other.

The second part of the Book of Isaiah is written for the Israel of the Exile. It was the incidents of the Exile that first unsealed this great and indivisible prophecy, which in its compass is without any parallel. And after it had been unsealed there sprang up out of it those numerous songs of the Psalmcollection which remind us of their common model, partly by their allegorizing figurative language, partly by their lofty prophetic thoughts of consolation. This first Korahitic Jahve- Psalm (in ver. 13 coming into contact with Ps. lxxxiv., cf. lxxxiv. 12), which more particularly by its allegorizing figurative language points to Isa. ch. xl.— lxvi., belongs to the number of these so-called deutero-Isaianic Psalms.

The reference of Ps. lxxxv. to the period after the Exile and to the restoration of the state, says Dursch, is clearly expressed in the Psalm. On the other hand, Hengstenberg maintains that " the Psalm does not admit of any historical interpretation," and is sure only of this one fact, that vers. 2-4 do not relate to the deliverance out of the Exile. Even this Psalm, however, is not a formulary belonging to no express period, but has a special historical basis; and vers. 2-4 certainly sound as though they came from the lips of a people restored to their fatherland.

Vers. 2-4. The poet first of all looks back into the past, so rich in tokens of favour. The six perfects are a remembrance of former events, since nothing precedes to modify them. Certainly that which has just been experienced might also be intended; but then, as Hitzig supposes, vers. 5-8 would be the petition that preceded it, and ver. 9 would go back to the turning-point of the answering of the request — a retrograde movement which is less probable than that in U3W?, ver. 5, we have a transition to the petition for a renewal of previously manifested favour. (^3^) rvQK> 3$, here said of a cessation of a national judgment, seems to be meant literally, not figuratively (yid. xiv. 7). HS1, with the accusative, to have and to show pleasure in any one, as in the likewise Korahitic lamentation-Psalm xliv. 4, cf. cxlvii. 11. In ver. 3a sin is conceived of as a burden of the conscience; in ver. 3b as a blood-stain. The music strikes up in the middle of the strophe in the sense of the "blessed" in xxxii. 1. In ver. 4a God's n*inv {i.e. unrestrained wrath) appears as an emanation; He draws it back to Himself (&)pN as in Joel iv. [hi.] 15, Ps. civ. 29, 1 Sam. xiv. 19) when He ceases to be angry; in ver. 46, on the other hand, the fierce anger is conceived of as an active manifestation on the part of God which ceases when He turns round (3W, Hiph. as inwardly transitive as in Ezek. xiv. 6, xxi. 35; cf. the Kal in Ex. xxxii. 12), i.e. gives the opposite turn to His manifestation.

Vers. 5-8. The poet now prays God to manifest anew the loving-kindness He has shown formerly. In the sense of "restore us again," U3^ does not form any bond of connection between this and the preceding strophe; but it does if, according to Ges. § 121, 4, it is intended in the sense of (^%) vf> 3*0, turn again to us. The poet prays that God would manifest Himself anew to His people as He has done in former days. Thus the transition from the retrospective perfects to the petition is, in the presence of the existing extremity, adequately brought about. Assuming the post-exilic origin of the Psalm, we see from this strophe that it was composed at a period in which the distance between the temporal and spiritual condition of Israel and the national restoration, promised together with the termination of the Exile, made itself distinctly felt. On ^V (in relation to and bearing towards us) beside 19^3, cf. Job x. 17, and also on ">sn, lxxxix. 34. In the question in ver. 6 reminding God of His love and of His promise, ^vfo has the signification of constant endless continuing or pursuing, as in xxxvi. 11. The expression in ver. 7a is like lxxi. 20, cf. lxxx. 19; 3H5? is here the representative of rursus, Ges. § 142. ^IVpl from y^J, like ^isyp. in xxxviii. 2, has ^(cf. the inflexion of ^3 and ph) instead of the fin ^Vp\ WK. Here at the close of the strophe the prayer turns back inferentially to this attribute of God.

Vers. 9-11. The prayer is followed by attention to the divine answer, and by the answer itself. The poet stirs himself np to give ear to the words of God, like Habakkuk, ch. ii. 1. Beside nypt^K we find the reading nyp^K, v{d. on xxxix. 13. The construction of fn?N%n is appositional, like 1VJ sl?sn, Ges. § 113. ^ neither introduces the divine answer in express words, nor states the ground on which he hearkens, but rather supports the fact that God speaks from that which He has to speak. Peace is the substance of that which He speaks to His people, and that (the particularizing Waw) to His saints; but with the addition of an admonition.?K is dehortative. It is not to be assumed in connection with this ethical notion that the ah of rpDD? is the locative ah as in r6ix^7 ix. 18. HpD3 is related to 7D3 like foolery to folly. The present misfortune, as is indicated here, is the merited consequence of foolish behaviour (playing the fool). In vers. 10 sqq. the poet unfolds the promise of peace which he has heard, just as he has heard it. What is meant by Ws. is particularized first by the infinitive, and then in perfects of actual fact. The possessions that make a people truly happy and prosperous are mentioned under a charming allegory exactly after Isaiah's manner, ch. xxxii. 16 sq., xlv. 8, lix. 14 sq. The glory that has been far removed again takes up its abode in the land. Mercy or loving-kindness walks along the streets of Jerusalem, and there meets fidelity, like one guardian angel meeting the other. Righteousness and peace or prosperity, these two inseparable brothers, kiss each other there, and fall lovingly into each other s arms.*

Vers. 12-14. The poet pursues this charming picture of the future further. After God's ™?N, *•*• faithfulness to the promises, has descended like dew, HDN, Le. faithfulness to the covenant, springs up out of the land, the fruit of that fertilizing influence. And ni?7V, gracious justice, looks down from heaven,

* Concerning St. Bernard's beautiful parable of the reconciliation of the inviolability of divine threatening and of justice with mercy and peace in the work of redemption, which has grown out of this passage of the Psalms, Misericordia et Veritas obviaverunt sibi, justitia et pax osculatse sunt, and has been transferred to the painting, poetry, and drama of the middle ages, vid. Piper's Evangelischer Kalender, 1859, S. 24-34, and the beautiful miniature representing the uGTruapCi of ZtKcuoovvq and tipwn of a Greek Psalter, 1867, S. 63.

smiling favour and dispensing blessing. D3 in ver. 13 places these two prospects in reciprocal relation to one another (cf. Ixxxiv. 7); it is found once instead of twice. Jahve gives 2iDn? everything that is only and always good and that imparts true happiness, and the land, corresponding to it, yields ^3*, the increase which might be expected from a land so richly blessed (cf. lxvii. 7 and the promise in Lev. xxvi. 4). Jahve Himself is present in the land: righteousness walks before Him majestically as His herald, and righteousness V»ys SfTO Db>J, sets (viz. its footsteps) upon the way of His footsteps, that is to say, follows Him inseparably. V&V& stands once instead of twice; the construct is to a certain extent attractional, as in Ixv. 12, Gen. ix. 6. Since the expression is neither STTJ (1. 23, Isa. li. 10) nor ^"H? (Isa. xlix. 11), it is natural to interpret the expression thus, and it gives moreover (cf. Isa. lviii. 8, lii. 12) an excellent sense. But if, which we prefer, DV is taken in the sense of 27 W*W (as e.g. in Job iv. 20) with the following p, to give special heed to anything (Deut. xxxii. 46, Ezek. xl. 4, xliv. 5), to be anxiously concerned about it (1 Sam. ix. 20), then we avoid the supplying in thought of a second VBJJB, which is always objectionable, and the thought obtained by the other interpretation is brought clearly before the mind: righteousness goes before Jahve, who dwells and walks abroad in Israel, and gives heed to the way of His steps, that is to say, follows carefully in His footsteps.

1 BOW down, Jahve, Thine ear, answer me, For I am needy and poor.

2 Preserve my soul, for I am pious; Help Thy servant, O Thou my God, Who cleaveth confidingly to Thee.

5 For Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive, And plenteous in mercy unto all who call upon Thee.

8 There is none like unto Thee among the gods, O Lord, And Thy works have not their equal.

10 For Thou art great and doest wondrous things, Thou, Thou art God alone.

I desire to walk in Thy truth; Unite my heart to fear Thy Name.

12 I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord my God, with all my

And an assembly of violent men seek my soul, And have not set Thee before their eyes.

15 But Thou, Lord, art a God compassionate and gracious, Long-suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth.

16 Turn unto me and be gracious to me, O give strength unto Thy servant And save the son of Thy handmaid.

That those who hate me may see it and be ashamed, That Thou, Jahve, hast helped me and comforted me.

A Psalm " by David" which has points of contact with Ps. lxxxv. (cf. Ixxxvi. 2, Ton, with lxxxv. 9; lxxxvi. 15, 1Dn JIDNI, with lxxxv. 11) is here inserted between Korahitic Psalms: it can only be called a Psalm by David as having grown out of Davidic and other model passages. The writer cannot be compared for poetical capability either with David or with the authors of such Psalms as Ps. cxvi. and cxxx. His Psalm is more liturgic than purely poetic, and it is also only entitled npsn, without bearing in itself any sign of musical designation. It possesses this characteristic, that the divine name *J1K occurs seven times,* just as it occurs three times in Ps. cxxx., forming the start for a later, Adonajic style in imitation of the Elohimic.

Vers. 1-5. The prayer to be heard runs like lv. 3; and the statement of the ground on which it is based, ver. lb, word for word like xl. 18. It is then particularly expressed as a prayer for preservation (JYVDW, as in cxix. 167, although imperative, to be read shdrrtfrah; cf. xxx. 4 Tl'P, xxxviii. 21 "•STJ or MDTJ, and what we have already observed on xvi. 1 ^DB*); for he is not only in need of God's help, but also because Tpn (iv. 4, xvi. 10), i.e. united to Him in the bond of affection pDn? Hos. vi. 4, Jer. ii. 2), not unworthy of it. In ver. 2 we hear the strains of xxv. 20, xxxi. 7; in ver. 3, of lvii. 2 sq.: the confirmation in ver. 46 is taken verbally from xxv. 1, cf. also cxxx. 6. Here, what is said in ver. 4 of this shorter Adonajic Psalm, cxxx., is abbreviated in the aira^ yeypafi. n?D (root t>D, bw, to allow to hang loose, 'XpXav, to give up, remittere). The Lord is good (2iL3), i.e. altogether love, and for this very reason also ready to forgive, and great and rich in mercy for all who caU upon Him as such. The beginning of the following group also accords with Ps. cxxx. in ver. 2.

* For the genuine reading in ver. 4 (where Heidenheim reads mrP) and in ver. 5 (where Nissel reads niiT) is also ^'itf (Bomberg, Hutter, etc.). Both the divine names in vers. 4 and 5 belong to the 134 pjnv The divine name ^'itf, which is written and is not merely substituted for niiT, is called in the language of the Masora '•{•Ol (the true and real one).

(Importunate supplications); and also ver. 10 (cf. Ixxii. 18) is a doxological formula that was already in existence. The construction 3 yvpn is the same as in lxvi. 19. But although for the most part flowing on only in the language of prayer borrowed from earlier periods, this Psalm is, moreover, not without remarkable significance and beauty. With the confession of the incomparableness of the Lord is combined the prospect of the recognition of the incomparable One throughout the nations of the earth. This clear unallegorical prediction of the conversion of the heathen is the principal parallel to Apoc. xv. 4. u All nations, which Thou hast made" — they have their being from Thee; and although they have forgotten it (vid. ix. 18), they will nevertheless at last come to recognise it. Djfa"73, since the article is wanting, are nations of all tribes (countries and nationalities); cf. Jer. xvi. 16 with Ps. xxii. 18; Tobit xiii. 11, eOvrj iToWd, with ibid, xiv. 6, iravja ra eOvrj. And how weightily brief and charming is the petition in ver. 11: uni cor meurrij ut timeat nomen tuum! Luther has rightly departed from the renderings of the LXX., Syriac, and Vulgate: Icetetur prtj from tfJJ). The meaning, however, is not so much " keep my heart near to the only thing," as u direct all its powers and concentrate them on the one thing." The following group shows us what is the meaning of the deliverance out of the hell beneath (n>nnn ^kk>, like JVnnn pK, the earth beneath, the inner parts of the earth, Ezek. xxxi. 14 sqq.), for which the poet promises beforehand to manifest his thankfulness (*3, ver. 13, as in lvi. 14).

Vers. 14-17. The situation is like that in the Psalms of the time of Saul. The writer is a persecuted one, and in constant peril of his life. He has taken ver. 14a& out of the Elohimic Ps. liv. ver. 5, and retained the Elohim as a proper name of God (cf. on the other hand vers. 8, 10); he has, however, altered &~}\ to DS"]T, which here, as in Isa. xiii. 11 (cf., however, ibid. xxv. 5), is the alternating word to D^iy. In ver. 15 he supports his petition that follows by Jahve's testimony concerning Himself in Ex. xxxiv. 6. The appellation given to himself by the poet in ver. 16 recurs in cxvi. 16 (cf. Wisd. ix. 5). The poet'calls himself " the son of Thy handmaid" as having been born into the relation to Him of servant; it is a relationship that has come to him by birth. How beautifully does the Adonaj come in here for the seventh time! He is even from his mother's womb the servant of the sovereign Lord, from whose omnipotence he can therefore also look for a miraculous interposition on his behalf. A " token for good" is a special dispensation, from which it becomes evident to him that God is kindly disposed towards him. niiDp as in the mouth of Nehemiah, ch. v. 19, xiii. 31; of Ezra, ch. viii. 22; and also even in Jeremiah and earlier. V^n'1') is just as parenthetical as in Isa. xxvi. 11.

2 Jahve loveth the gates of Zion More than all the dwellings of Jacob.

3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God!

4 " I will proclaim Eahab and Babylon as My intimates; Behold Philistia and Tyre, together with ^Ethiopia — That one is born there."

5 And to Zion it shall one day be said: Each and every one is born in her, And He, the Highest, doth establish her.

6 Jahve shall reckon in the list of the nations: That one is born there. (Sela.)

The mission thouerht in Ixxxvi. 9 becomes the ruling thought in this Korahitic Psalm. It is a prophetic Psalm in the style, boldly and expressively concise even to obscurity (Eusebius, <j(f)68pa alvty fjLaTGo&rjs koX afcoreivcos elprjfjLevos), in which the first three oracles of the tetralogy Isa. xxi.-xxii. 14, and the passage Isa. xxx. 6, 7 — a passage designed to be as it were a memorial exhibition — are also written. It also resembles these oracles in this respect, that ver. lb opens the whole arsis-like by a solemn statement of its subject, like the emblematical inscriptions there. As to the rest, Isa. xliv. 5 is the key to its meaning. The threefold *fpH here corresponds to the threefold HJ in that passage.

Since Rahab and Babylon as the foremost worldly powers are mentioned first among the peoples who come into the congregation of Jahve, and since the prospect of the poet has moulded itself according to a present rich in promise and carrying such a future in its bosom, it is natural (with Tholuck, Hengstenberg, Vaihinger, Keil, and others) to suppose that the Psalm was composed when, in consequence of the destruction of the Assyrian army before Jerusalem, offerings and presents were brought from many quarters for Jahve and the king of Judah (2 Chron. xxxii. 23), and the admiration of Hezekiah, the favoured one of God, had spread as far as Babylon. Just as Micah (ch. iv. 10) mentions Babylon as the place of the chastisement and of the redemption of his nation, and as Isaiah, about the fourteenth year of Hezekiah' s reign, predicts to the king a carrying away of his treasures and his posterity to Babylon, so here Egypt and Babylon, the inheritress of Assyria, stand most prominent among the worldly powers that shall be obliged one day to bow themselves to the God of Israel. In a similar connection Isaiah (ch. xix.) does not as yet mention Babylon side by side with Egypt, but Assyria.

Vers. 1-4. The poet is absorbed in the contemplation of the glory of a matter which he begins to celebrate, without naming it. Whether we render it: His founded, or (since I EM? and lEflD are both used elsewhere as part, pass.): His foundation (after the form na^7D? poetically for ^0\ & founding, then that which is set fast = a foundation), the meaning remains the same; but the more definite statement of the object with PSV '''iW is more easily connected with what precedes by regarding it as a participle. The suffix refers to Jahve, and it is Zion, whose praise is a favourite theme of the Korahitic songs, that is intended. We cannot tell by looking to the accents whether the clause is to be taken as a substantival clause (His founded [city] is upon the holy mountains) or not. Since, however, the expression is not ^'ip-nnnn ton IflW, vhp mm irmD* is an object placed first in advance (which the antithesis to the other dwellings of Jacob would admit of), and in ver. 2a a. new synonymous object is subordinated to 2nx by a similar turn of the discourse to Jer. xiii. 27, vi. 2 (Hitzig). By altering the division of the verses as Hupfeld and Hofmann do (His foundation or founded [city] upon the holy mountains doth Jahve love), ver. 2 is decapitated. Even now the Godfounded city (surrounded on three sides by deep valleys), whose firm and visible foundation is the outward manifestation of its imperishable inner nature, rises aloft above all the other dwelling-places of Israel. Jahve stands in a lasting, faithful, loving relationship (2>?M, not 3 prcet. 3rw) to the gates of Zion. These gates are named as a periphrasis for Zion, because they bound the circuit of the city, and any one who loves a city delights to go frequently through its gates; and they are perhaps mentioned in prospect of the fulness of the heathen that shall enter into them. In ver. 3 the LXX. correctly, and at the same time in harmony with the syntax, renders: AeBo^acrfiiva i\a- \t)6rj Trepl gov. The construction of a plural subject with a singular predicate is a syntax common in other instances also, whether the subject is conceived of as a unity in the form of the plural (e.g. lxvi. 3, cxix. 137, Isa. xvi. 8), or is individualized in the pursuance of the thought (as is the case most likely in Gen. xxvii. 29, cf. xii. 3); here the glorious things are conceived of as the sum-total of such. The operation of the construction of the active (Ew. § 295, b) is not probable here in connection with the participle. 3 beside "^n may signify the place or the instrument, substance and object of the speech (e.g. cxix. 46), but also the person against whom the words are spoken (e.g. 1. 20), or concerning whom they are uttered (as the words of the suitor to the father or the relatives of the maiden, 1 Sam. xxv. 39, Cant. viii. 8; cf. on the construction, 1 Sam. xix. 3). The poet, without doubt, here refers to the words of promise concerning the eternal continuance and future glory of Jerusalem: Glorious things are spoken, i.e. exist as spoken, in reference to thee, O thou city of God, city of His choice and of His love.

The glorious contents of the promise are now unfolded, and that with the most vivid directness: Jahve Himself takes up the discourse, and declares the gracious, glorious, world-wide mission of His chosen and beloved city: it shall become the birth-place of all nations. Rahab is Egypt, as in lxxxix. 11, Isa. xxx. 7, li. 9, the southern worldly power, and Babylon the northern. ^?\n9 as frequently, of loud (Jer. iv. 16) and honourable public mention or commemoration, xlv. 18. It does not signify u to record or register in writing;" for the official name "l>3TD> which is cited in support of this meaning, designates the historian of the empire as one who keeps in remembrance the memorable events of the history of his time It is therefore impossible, with Hofmann, to render: I will add Rahab and Babylon to those who know me. In general? is not used to point out to whom the addition is made as belonging to them, but for what purpose, or as what (cf. 2 Sam. v. 3, Isa. iv. 3), these kingdoms, hitherto hostile towards God and His people, shall be declared: Jahve completes what He Himself has brought about, inasmuch as He publicly and solemnly declares them to be those who know Him, i.e. those who experimentally (yid. xxxvi. 11) know Him as their God, Accordingly, it is clear that DBJ""l?J fit is also meant to refer to the conversion of the other three nations to whom the finger of God points with ^J}, viz. the war-loving Philistia, the rich and proud Tyre, and the adventurous and powerful Ethiopia (Isa. ch. xviii.). nj does not refer to the individuals, nor to the sum- total of these nations, but to nation after nation (cf. nj B>H, Isa. xxiii. 13), by fixing the eye upon each one separately. And W refers to Zion. The words of Jahve, which come in without any intermediary preparation, stand in the closest connection with the language of the poet and seer. Zion appears elsewhere as the mother who brings forth Israel again as a numerous people (Isa. lxvi. 7, liv. 1-3): it is the children of the dispersion (diaspora) which Zion regains in Isa. lx. 4 sq.; here, however, it is the nations which are born in Zion. The poet does not combine with it the idea of being born again in the depth of its New Testament meaning; he means, however, that the nations will attain a right of citizenship in Zion (iroXcTeLa tov ^la-parjk^ Eph. ii. 12) as in their second mothercity, that they will therefore at any rate experience a spiritual change which, regarded from the New Testament point of view, is the new birth out of water and the Spirit.

Vers. 5-7. Inasmuch now as the nations come thus into the church (or congregation) of the children of God and of the children of Abraham, Zion becomes by degrees a church immeasurably great. To Zion, however, or of Zion (p of reference to), shall it be said n^"*1—'! ^*?) W&. Zion, the one city, stands in contrast to all the countries, the one city of God in contrast to the kingdoms of the world, and PW B^K in contrast to HT. This contrast, upon the correct apprehension of which depends the understanding of the whole Psalm, is missed when it is said, " whilst in relation to other countries it is always only the whole nation that comes under consideration, Zion is not reckoned up as a nation, but by persons" (Hofmann). With this rendering the *P retires into the background; in that case this giving of prominence to the value of the individual exceeds the ancient range of conception, and it is also an inadmissible appraisement that in Zion each individual is as important as a nation as a whole. Elsewhere B"N B^K, Lev. xvii. 10, 13, or B»«) B*K, Esth. i. 8, signifies each and every one; accordingly here B>W B^N (individual and, or after, individual) affirms a progressus in infinitum, where one is ever added to another. Of an immeasurable multitude, and of each individual in this multitude in particular, it is said that he was born in Zion. Now, too, Py.y ^-i?) *wn) has a significant connection with what precedes. Whilst from among foreign peoples more and more are continually acquiring the right of natives in Zion, and thus are entering into a new national alliance, so that a breach of their original national friendships is taking place, He Himself (cf. 1 Sam. xx. 9), the Most High, will uphold Zion (xlviii. 9), so that under His protection and blessing it shall become ever greater and more glorious. Ver. 6 tells us what will be the result of such a progressive incorporation in the church of Zion of those who have hitherto been far removed, viz. Jahve will reckon when He writeth down (pSTO as in Josh, xviii. 8) the nations; or better, — since this would more readily be expressed by ^J3, and the book of the living (Isa. iv. 3) is one already existing from time immemorial,— He will reckon in the list (3irD after the form Dv^ *pn, iSpB = 3TI2), Ezek. xiii. 9) of the nations, i.e. when He goes over the nations that are written down there and chosen for the coming salvation, " this one was born there;" He will therefore acknowledge them one after another as those born in Zion. The end of all history is that Zion shal? become the