metropolis of all nations. When the fulness of the Gentiles is thus come in, then shall all and each one as well singing as dancing say (supply VUDtf*): All my fountains are in thee. Among the old translators the rendering of Aquila is the best: kcl\ aSovTes a>? yppob irdaat, irrjyal ev <roiy which Jerome follows, et cantor es quasi in choris: omnes fontes mei in te. One would rather render Dwh, u flute-players" (LXX. go? iv avXols); but to pipe or play the flute is?^n (a denominative from '?£), 1 Kings i. 40, whereas to dance is shh (Pilel of hn); it is therefore = DvTino, like Q^?> Hos. vii. 5. But it must not moreover be rendered, " And singers as well as dancers (will say);" for u singers" is D*"WD, not B^, which signifies cantantesj not cantores. Singing as dancing, i.e. making known their festive joy as well by the one as by the other, shall the men of all nations incorporated in Zion say: All my fountains, i.e. fountains of salvation (after Isa. xii. 3), are in thee (O city of God). It has also been interpreted: my looks (i.e. the object on which my eye is fixed, or the delight of my eyes), or: my thoughts (after the modern Hebrew \}V of spiritual meditation); but both are incongruous. The conjecture, too, of Bottcher, and even before him of Schnurrer (Dissertationes, p. 150), *?JHp-?3, all who take up their abode (instead of which Hupfeld conjectures "TOD, all my near-dwellers, i.e. those who dwell with me under the same roof*), is not Hebrew, and deprives us of the thought which corresponds to the aim of the whole, that Jerusalem shall be universally regarded as the place where the water of life springs for the whole of man kind, and shall be universally praised as this place of fountains.
* Hupfeld cites Rashi as having thus explained it; but his gloss is to be rendered: my w iole inmost part (after the Aramaic = ijjd) is with thee, i.e. thy salvation.
3 Let my prayer come before Thy face, Incline Thine ear to my crying.
5 I am accounted as those who go down to the pit, I am become as a man that hath no strength —
Like the slain, those buried in the grave, Whom Thou rememberest no more, And they are cut off from Thy hand.
7 Thou hast laid me in the pit of the abysses, In darknesses, in the depths of the sea.
9 Thou hast removed my familiar friends from me, Thou hast made me an abomination to them, Who am shut up and cannot come forth.
10 Mine eye languisheth by reason of affliction, I call upon Thee, Jahve, every day,
12 Shall Thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave, Thy faithfulness in the place of destruction?
darkness, And Thy righteousness in the land of f orgetf ulness?
15 Wherefore, Jahve, dost Thou cast off my soul, Dost Thou hide Thy face from me?
16 Needy am I and ready to die from my youth up, I bear Thy terrors, I am utterly helpless.
17 Over me Thy fierce anger hath passed, Thy terrors have destroyed me.
18 They have surrounded me like waters all the day, They compassed me about altogether.
19 Thou hast removed far from me lover and friend, My familiar friends are darkness.
Ps. Ixxxviii. is as gloomy as Ps. lxxxvii. is cheerful; they stand near one another as contrasts. Not Ps. lxxvii., as the old expositors answer to the question qucenam ode omnium tristissima, but this Ps. Ixxxviii. is the darkest, gloomiest, of all the plaintive Psalms; for it is true the name " God of my salvation," with which the praying one calls upon God, and his praying itself, show that the spark of faith within him is not utterly extinguished; but as to the rest, it is all one pouring forth of deep lament in the midst of the severest conflict of temptation in the presence of death, the gloom of melancholy does not brighten up to become a hope, the Psalm dies away in Job-like lamentation. Herein we discern echoes of the Korahitic Ps. xlii. and of Davidic Psalms: compare ver. 3 with xviii. 7; ver. 5 with xxviii. 1; ver. 6 with xxxi. 23; ver. 18 with xxii. 17; ver. 19 (although differently applied) with xxxi. 12; and more particularly the questions in vers. 11-13 with vi. 6, of which they are as it were only the amplification. But these Psalm-echoes are outweighed by the still more striking points of contact with the Book of Job, both as regards linguistic usage (^frn, ver. 10, Job xli. 44; C^NEn, ver. 11, Job xxvi. 5; P^K, ver. 12, Job xxvi. 6, xxviii. 22; "»p, ver. 16a, Job xxxiii. 25, xxxvi. 14; D^ptf, ver. 165, Job xx. 25; DW3, ver. 17, Job vi. 4) and single thoughts (cf. ver. 5 with Job xiv. 10; ver. 9 with Job xxx. 10; ver. 19 with Job xvii. 9, xix. 14), and also the suffering condition of the poet and the whole manner in which this finds expression. For the poet finds himself in the midst of the same temptation as Job not merely so far as his mind and spirit are concerned; but his outward affliction is, according to the tenor of his complaints, the same, viz. the leprosy (ver. 9), which, the disposition to which being born with him, has been his inheritance from his youth up (ver. 16). Now, since the Book of Job is a Chokma-work of the Salomonic age, and the two Ezrahites belonged to the wise men of the first rank at the court of Solomon (1 Kings v. 11 [iv. 31]), it is natural to suppose that the Book of Job has sprung out of this very Chokma-company, and that perhaps this verv Heman the Ezrahite who is the author of Ps. lxxxviii. has made a passage of his own life, suffering, and conflict of soul, a subject of dramatic treatment.
The inscription of the Psalm runs: A Psalm-song by the Korahites; to the Precentor, to be recited (lit. to be pressed down, not after Isa. xxvii. 2: to be sung, which expresses nothing, nor: to be sung alternating ly, which is contrary to the character of the Psalm) after a sad manner (cf. liii. 1) with muffled voice, a meditation by Heman the Ezrahite, This is a double inscription, the two halves of which are contradictory. The bare |D\"6 side by side with mp"^ni> would be perfectly in order, since the precentor Heman is a Korahite according to i Chron. vi. 18-23 [33-38]; but TnTKPi |DM is the name of one of the four great Israelitish sages in 1 Kings v. 11 [iv. 31], who, according to 1 Chron. ii. 6, is a direct descendant of Zerah, and therefore is not of the tribe of Levi, but of Judah. The suppositions that Heman the Korahite had been adopted into the family of Zerah, or that Heman the Ezrahite had been admitted among the Levites, are miserable attempts to get over the difficulty. At the head of the Psalm there stand two different statements respecting its origin side by side, which are irreconcilable. The assumption that the title of the Psalm originally was either merely mp-^3^ TOTD "W, or merely 'til rmtb, is warranted by the fact that only in this one Psalm n¥JEi> does not occupy the first place in the inscription. But which of the two statements is the more reliable one? Most assuredly the latter; for mp-^ai) "I1DTD W is only a recurrent repetition of the inscription of Ps. Ixxxvii. The second statement, on the other hand, by its precise designation o" the melody, and by the designation of the author, which corresponds to the Psalm that follows, gives evidence of its antiquity and its historical character.
Vers. 2-8. The poet finds himself in the midst of circumstances gloomy in the extreme, but he does not despair; he still turns towards Jahve with his complaints, and calls Him the God of his salvation. This actus directus of fleeing in prayer to the God of salvation, which urges its way through all tha is dark and gloomy, is the fundamental characteristic of all true filth. Ver. 2a is not to be rendered, as a clause of itself: "by day I cry unto Thee, in the night before Thee" (LXX. and Targum), which ought to have been CW, but (as it is also pointed, especially in Baer's text): by day, i.e. in the time (lvi. 4, lxxviii. 42, cf. xviii. 1), when I cry before Thee in the night, let my prayer come... (Hitzig). In ver. 36 he calls his piercing lamentation, his wailing supplication, W, as in xvii. 1, lxi. 2. ntan as in lxxxvi. 1, for which we find ton in xvii. 6. The Beth of rrijns, as in lxv. 5, Lam. iii. 15, 30, denotes that of which his soul has already had abundantly sufficient. On ver. 46, cf. as to the syntax xxxi. 11.?*K (aira^ Xeyofi. like 1WN, xxii. 20) signifies succinctness, compactness, vigorousness (aopoT???): he is like a man from whom all vital freshness and vigour is gone, therefore now only like the shadow of a man, in fact like one already dead. ^?n, in ver. 6a, the LXX. renders iv veicpoLs i\€v0epo<z (Symmachus, d^>et? iXevOepo?); and in like manner the Targum, and the Talmud which follows it in formulating the proposition that a deceased person is "^an nnVDn JD, free from the fulfilling of the precepts of the Law (cf. Rom. vi. 7). Hitzig, Ewald, Koster, and Bottcher, on the contrary, explain it according to Ezek. xxvii. 20 (where fc^n signifies stragulum): among the dead is my couch (^Qn = WW, Job xvii. 13). But in respect of Job iii. 19 the adjectival rendering is the more probable; " one set free among the dead" (LXX.) is equivalent to one released from the bond of life (Job xxxix. 5), somewhat as in Latin a dead person is called defunctus. God does not remember the dead, i.e. practically, inasmuch as, devoid of any progressive history, their condition remains always the same; they are in fact cut away ("IT33 as in xxxi. 23, Lam. iii. 54, Isa. liii. 8) from the hand, viz. from the guiding and helping hand, of God. Their dwelling-place is the pit of the places lying deep beneath (cf. on rfvinpij Ixiii. 10, lxxxvi. 13, Ezek. xxvi. 20, and more particularly Lam. iii. 55), the dark regions (D*3$np as in cxliii. 3, Lam. iii. 6), the submarine depths (nP¥03; LXX., Symmachus, the Syriac, etc.: iv gkio, Oavdrov = rflD,>¥3, according to Job x. 21 and frequently, but contrary to Lam. iii. 54), whose open abyss is the grave for each one. On ver. 86 cf. xlii. 8. The Mugrash by "p3Bfo-^3 stamps it as an adverbial accusative (Targum), or more correctly, since the expression is not Wiy, as the object placed in advance. Only those who are not conversant with the subject (as Hupfeld in this instance) imagine that the accentuation marks fW as a relative clause (cf. on the contrary viii. lb, xxi. 3b, etc.). nay, to bow down, press down; here used of the turning or directing downwards (LXX. iirrfyayes) of the waves, which burst like a cataract over the afflicted one.
Vers. 9-13. The octastichs are now followed by hexastichs which belong together in pairs. The complaint concerning the alienation of his nearest relations sounds like Job xix. 13 sqq., but the same strain is also frequently heard in the earlier Psalms written in times of suffering, e.g. xxxi. 9. He is forsaken by all his familiar friends (not: acquaintances, for JHVD signifies more than that), he is alone in the dungeon of wretchedness, where no one comes near him, and whence he cannot make his escape. This sounds, according to Lev. ch. xiii., very much like the complaint of a leper. The Book of Leviticus there passes over from the uncleanness attending the beginning of human life to the uncleanness of the most terrible disease. Disease is the middle stage between birth and death, and, according to the Eastern notion, leprosy is the worst of all diseases, it is death itself clinging to the still living man (Num. xii. 12), and more than all other evils a stroke of the chastening hand of God (yy_), a scourge of God (njnj). The man suspected of having leprosy was to be subjected to a seven days' quarantine until the determination of the priest's diagnosis; and if the leprosy was confirmed, he was to dwell apart outside the camp (Lev. xiii. 46), where, though not imprisoned, he was nevertheless separated from his dwelling and his family (cf. Job, i. 347), and if a man of position, would feel himself condemned to a state of involuntary retirement. It is natural to refer the N73, which is closely connected with ^fl^, to this separation. *J%?, ver. 10, instead of WV, as in vi. 8, xxxi. 10: his eye has languished, vanished away (3fen of the same root as tdbescere, cognate with the root of 3Jfa, lxviii. 3), in consequence of (his) affliction. He calls and calls upon Jahve, stretches out (nt3K>, expandere, according to the Arabic, more especially after the manner of a roof) his hands (palmas) towards Him, in order to shield himself from His wrath and to lead Him compassionately to give ear to him. In vers. 11-13 he bases his cry for help upon a twofold wish, viz. to become an object of the miraculous help of God, and to be able to praise Him for it. Neither of these wishes would be realized if he were to die; for that which lies beyond this life is uniform darkness, devoid of any progressive history. With D^JD alternates B^D") (sing. N?"J), the relaxed ones, i.e. shades (aiciaX) of the nether world. With reference to MV instead of FTfaTO, vid. Ewald, § 337, b. Beside ^n (Job x. 21 sq.) stands n#3 PJK, the land of forgetfulness (\rjdr))y where there is an end of all thinking, feeling, and acting (Eccles. ix. 5, 6, 10), and where the monotony of death, devoid of thought and recollection, reigns. Such is the representation given in the Old Testament of the state beyond the present, even in Ecclesiastes, and in the Apocrypha (Sir. xvii. 27 sq. after Isa. xxxviii. 18 sq.; Baruch ii. 17 sq.); and it was obliged to be thus represented, for in the New Testament not merely the conception of the state after death, but this state itself, is become a different one.
Vers. 14-19. He who complains thus without knowing any comfort, and yet without despairing, gathers himself up afresh for prayer. With ^W he contrasts himself with the dead who are separated from God's manifestation of love. Being still in life, although under wrath that apparently has no end, he strains every nerve to struggle through in prayer until he shall reach God's love. His complaints are petitions, for they are complaints that are poured forth before God. The destiny under which for a long time he has been more like one dying than living, reaches back even into his youth. "i^IiD (since "WJ is everywhere undeclined) is equivalent to ^Wp. The i^rj7ropi]0rjv of the LXX. is the right indicator for the understanding of the amcd* \ey. n^DK. Aben-Ezra and Kimchi derive it from |3, like •tjy from?V* and assign to it the signification of dubitare. But it may be more safely explained after the Arabic words ^jl, ^, ^yU (root uJ^> to urge forwards, push), in which the fundamental notion of driving back, nar-
* The derivation is not contrary to the genius of the language; the supplementing productive force of the language displayed in the liturgical poetry of the synagogue, also changes particles into verbs: vid. Zunz, Die synagogaie Poesie des Mittelalters, S. 421.
rowin cr and exhausting, is transferred to a weakening or weakness of the intellect. We might also compare roe, Jj, " to disappear, vanish, pass away;" but the i^rj7roprj6rjv of the LXX. favours the kinship with that Jl, injirma mente et consilii inops fuit* which has been already compared by Castell. The aorist of the LXX., however, is just as erroneous in this instance as in xlii. 5, lv. 3, lvii. 5. In all these instances the cohortative denotes the inward result following from an outward compulsion, as they say in Hebrew: I lay hold of trembling (Isa. xiii. 8, Job xviii. 20, xxi. 6) or joy (Isa. xxxv. 10, li. 11), when the force of circumstances drives one into such states of mind. Labouring under the burden of divine dispensations of a terrifying character, he finds himself in a state of mental weakness and exhaustion, or of insensible (senseless) fright; over him as their destined goal before many others go God's burnings of wrath (plur. only in this instance), His terrible decrees (vid. concerning njD on xviii. 5) have almost annihilated him. ^nntM? is not an impossible form (Olshausen, § 251, a), but an intensive form of VH?¥j the last part of the already inflected verb being repeated, as in ^n rang, Hos. iv. 18 (cf. in the department of the noun, rri^S, edge-edges = many edges, cxlix. 6), perhaps under the influence of the derivative.f The corrections ^nnpv (from r^P?) or ^nntsx (from DB¥) are simple enough; but it is more prudent to let tradition judge of that which is possible in the usage of the language. In ver. 18 the burnings become floods; the wrath of God can be compared to every destroying and overthrowing element. The billows threaten to swallow him up, without any helping hand being stretched out to him on the part of any of his lovers and friends. Is ver. 19a to be now explained according to Job xvii. 14, viz. My familiar friends are gloomy darkness;
* Abulwalid also explains rWBK after the Arabic, but in a way that cannot be accepted, viz. " f or a long time onwards," from the Arabic iff an (ibban, iff, afaf, ifaf, ta'iffah), time, period — time conceived of in the onward rush, the constant succession of its moments.
t Heidenheim interprets: Thy terrors are become to me as flriDX (Lev. xxv. 23), i.e. inalienably my own.
i.e. instead of those who were hitherto my familiars (Job xix. 14), darkness is become my familiar friend? One would have thought that it ought then to have been T™ (Schnurrer), or, according to Prov. vii. 4, Vjte, and that, in connection with this sense of the noun, *\wnD ought as subject to have the precedence, that consequently WJB is subject and ^ntp predicate: my familiar friends have lost themselves in darkness, are become absolutely invisible (Hitzig at last). But the regular position of the words is kept to if it is interpreted: my familiar friends are reduced to gloomy darkness as my familiar friend, and the plural is justified by Job xix. 14: Mother and sister (do I call) the worm. With this complaint the harp falls from the poet's hands. He is silent, and waits on God, that He may solve this riddle of affliction. From the Book of Job we might infer that He also actually appeared to him. He is more faithful than men. No soul that in the midst of wrath lays hold upon His love, whether with a firm or with a trembling hand, is suffered to be lost.
2 OF the loving-kindnesses of Jahve for ever will I sing, To remote generations will I make known Thy faithfulness
4 " I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My servant:
6 And the heavens praise Thy wondrousness, Jahve, Thy faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.
7 For who in the sky can be compared to Jahve, Who among the sons of the gods is like unto Jahve?
8 A God terrible in the great council of the holy ones, And fearful above all those who are round about Him.
10 Thou art He who restraineth the pride of the sea; When its waves arise, Thou stillest them.
13 North and south, Thou hast created them; Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Thy name.
14 Thine is an arm with heroic strength, Strong is Thy hand, exalted is Thy right hand.
15 Righteousness and right is the foundation of Thy throne, Mercy and truth stand waiting before Thee.
16 Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound, Who walk, O Jahve, in the light of Thy countenance!
18 For the glory of their mightiness art Thou, And through Thy favour is our horn exalted.
19 For to Jahve belongeth our shield, And to the Holy One of Israel our king.
saidst: " I have granted help to a mighty one, I have raised a stripling out of the people.
21 I have found David My servant, With My holy oil have I anointed him;
24 I will break in pieces his oppressors before him, And I will smite those who hate him.
25 And My faithfulness and My mercy are with him, And in My Name shall his horn be exalted.
26 I will set his hand upon the sea, And his right hand upon the rivers.
27 He shall cry unto Me: My Father art Thou, My God, and the Rock of my salvation!
29 For ever will I preserve to him My mercy, And My covenant shall be inviolable with him.
30 I will make his seed to endure for ever, And his throne like the days of heaven.
31 If his children shall forsake My law And walk not in My judgments;
33 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes;
35 I will not profane My covenant Nor alter the vow of My lips.
37 His seed shall endure to eternity, And his throne as the sun before Me.
39 And Thou Thyself hast rejected and despised, Thou hast been wroth with Thine anointed;
41 Thou hast broken down all his hedges, Thou hast laid his strongholds in ruins.
He is become a reproach to his neighbours.
43 Thou hast exalted the right hand of his oppressors, Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.
44 Thou didst also turn back the edge of his sword, And didst not hold him erect in the battle.
45 Thou hast caused him to lose his splendour, And hast cast his throne down to the ground.
47 How long, Jahve, wilt Thou hide Thyself for ever, Shall Thy wrath burn like fire?
50 Where are Thy former loving-kindnesses, Lord, Which Thou hast sworn to David in Thy faithfulness?
52 Which reproach — Thine enemies, Jahve! — Which reproach the footsteps of Thine anointed.
After having recognised the fact that the double inscription of Ps. lxxxviii. places two irreconcilable statements concerning the origin of that Psalm side by side, we renounce the artifices by which Ethan (i?^*) the Ezrahite, of the tribe of Judah (1 Kings v. 11 [iv. 31], 1 Chron. ii. 6), is made to be one and the same person with Ethan (Jeduthun) the son of Kushaiah the Merarite, of the tribe of Levi (1 Chron. xv. 17, vi. 29-32 [44-47]), the master of the music together with Asaph and lleman, and the chief of the six classes of musicians over whom his six sons were placed as sub-directors (1 Chron. ch. xxv.).
The collector has placed the Psalms of the two Ezrahites together. Without this relationship of the authors the juxtaposition would also be justified by the reciprocal relation in which the two Psalms stand to one another by their common, striking coincidences with the Book of Job. As to the rest, however, Ps. lxxxviii. is a purely individual, and Ps. lxxxix. a thoroughly national Psalm. Both the poetical character and the situation of the two Psalms are distinct.
The circumstances in which the writer of Ps. lxxxix. finds himself are in most striking contradiction to the promises given to the house of David. He revels in the contents of these promises, and in the majesty and faithfulness of God, and then he pours forth his intense feeling of the great distance between these and the present circumstances in complaints over the afflicted lot of the anointed of God, and prays God to be mindful of His promises, and on the other hand, of the reproach by w7hich at this time His anointed and His people are overwhelmed. The anointed one is not the nation itself (Hitzig), but he who at that time wears the crown. The crowrn of the king is defiled to the ground; his throne is cast down to the earth; he is become grey-headed before his time, for all the fences of his land are broken through, his fortresses fallen, and his enemies have driven him out of the field, so that reproach and scorn follow him at every step.
There was no occasion for such complaints in the reign of Solomon; but surely in the time of Rehoboam, into the first decade of whose reign Ethan the Ezrahite may have survived king Solomon, who died at the age of sixty. In the fifth year of Rehoboam, Shishak (p&p = Seaoy^ = Sheshonk /.), the
* This name {JVK is also Phoenician in the form jj-p, Itan, ' It ocuog; jjvi>, litan, is Phoenician, and equivalent to D^>.
first Pharaoh of the twenty-second (Bubastic) dynasty, marched against Jerusalem with a large army gathered together out of many nations, conquered the fortified cities of Judah, and spoiled the Temple and Palace, even carrying away with him the o-olden shields of Solomon — a circumstance which the history bewails in a very especial manner. At that time Shemaiah preached repentance, in the time of the greatest calamity of war; king and princes humbled themselves; and in the midst of judgment Jerusalem accordingly experienced the gracious forbearance of God, and was spared. God did not complete his destruction, and there also again went forth D^lID Dnai, i.e. (cf. Josh, xxiii. 14, Zech. i. 13) kindly comforting words from God, in Judah. Such is the narrative in the Book of Kings (1 Kings xiv. 25-28) and as supplemented by the chronicler (2 Chron. xii. 1-12).
During this very period Ps. lxxxix. took its rise. The young Davidic king, whom loss and disgrace make prematurely old, is Kehoboam, that man of Jewish appearance whom Pharaoh Sheshonk is bringing among other captives before the god Amun in the monumental picture of Karnak, and who bears before him in his embattled ring the words Judhmeleh (King of Judah) — one of the finest and most reliable discoveries of Champollion, and one of the greatest triumphs of his system of hieroglyphics.*
Ps. lxxxix. stands in kindred relationship not only to Ps. lxxiv., but besides Ps. lxxix., also to Ps. lxxvii., lxxviii., all of which glance back to the earliest times in the history of Israel. They are all Asaphic Psalms, partly old Asaphic (lxxvii., lxxviii.), partly later ones (lxxiv., lxxix.). From this fact we see that the Psalms of Asaph were the favourite models in that school of the four wise men to which the two Ezrahites belong.
Vers. 2-5. The poet, who, as one soon observes, is a D3n (for the very beginning of the Psalm is remarkable and ingenious), begins with the confession of the inviolability of the mercies promised to the house of David, i.e. of the TYJ Hpn
* Vid. Blau, Sisags Zug gegen Juda, illustrated from the monument in Karnak, Deutsche Morgenland. Zeitschr. xv. 233-250.
D'JttMin, Tsa. lv. 3.# God's faithful love towards the house of David, a love faithful to His promises, will he sing without ceasing, and make it known with his mouth, i.e. audibly and publicly (cf. Job xix. 16), to the distant posterity. Instead of HDn, We find here, and also in Lam. iii. 22, ^pn with a not merely slightly closed syllable. The Lamed of I1!} "fv is, according to ciii. 7, cxlv. 12, the datival Lamed. With W}Dlp3 (LXX., Jerome, contrary to ver. 3b, on elira?) the poet bases his resolve upon his conviction. H333 means not so much to be upheld in building, as to be in the course of continuous building (e.g. Job xxii. 23, Mai. iii. 15, of an increasingly prosperous condition). Loving-kindness is for ever (accusative of duration) in the course of continuous building, viz. upon the unshakeable foundation of the promise of grace, inasmuch as it is fulfilled in accordance therewith. It is a building with a most solid foundation, which will not only not fall into ruins, but, adding one stone of fulfilment upon another, will rise ever higher and higher. D"D^ then stands first as casus absol.. and CH2 is, as in xix. 5, a pronoun having a backward reference to it. In the heavens, which are exalted above the rise and fall of things here below, God establishes His faithfulness, so that it stands fast as the sun above the earth, although the condition of things here below seems sometimes to contradict it (cf. cxix. 89). Now follow in vers. 4, 5 the direct words of God, the sum of the promises given to David and to his seed in 2 Sam. ch. vii., at which the poet arrives more naturally in vers. 20 sqq. Here they are strikingly devoid of connection. It is the special substance of the promises that is associated in thought with the " loving-kindness " and " truth " of ver. 3, which is expanded as it were appositionally therein. Hence also r?5 and P?fl, W1M and rua* correspond to one another. David's seed, by virtue of divine faithfulness, has an eternally sure existence; Jahve builds up David's throne " into generation and generation," inasmuch as He causes it to rise ever fresh and vigorous, never as that which is growing old and feeble.
Vers. 6-9. At the close of the promises in vers. 4, 5 the
* The Vulgate renders: Misericordias Domini in asternum cantabo. The second Sunday after Easter takes its name from this rendering.
music is to become forte. And tflfa attaches itself to this jubilant Sela. In vers. 6-19 there follows a hymnic description of the exalted majesty of God, more especially of His omnipotence and faithfulness, because the value of the promise is measured by the character of the person who promises. The God of the promise is He who is praised by the heavens and the holv ones above. His way of acting is &03, of a transcendent, paradoxical, wondrous order, and as such the heavens praise it; it is praised (nv, according to Ges. § 137, 3) in the assembly of the holy ones, i.e. of the spirits in the other world, the angels (as in Job v. 1, xv. 15, cf. Deut. xxxiii. 2), for He is peerlessly exalted above the heavens and the angels, pnv, poetic singular instead of C^i?ntp (vid. supra on lxxvii. 18), which is in itself already poetical; and Spy, not, as e.g. in Isa. xl.
18, in the signification to co-ordinate, but in the medial sense: to rank with, be equal to. Concerning DvK ^3, vid. on xxix. 1. In the great council (concerning 1iD, of both genders, perhaps like Dte, vid. on xxv. 14) of the holy ones also, Jahve is terrible; He towers above all who are about Him (1 Kings xxii.
19, cf. Dan. vii. 10) in terrible majesty, n2H might, according to lxii. 3, lxxviii. 15, be an adverb, but according to the order of the words it may more appropriately be regarded as an adjective; cf. Job xxxi. 34, nni jtort pyx *3? « when I feared the great multitude." In ver. 9 He is apostrophized with \~6s nifcOV as being the One exalted above the heavens and the angels. The question " Who is as Thou V takes its origin from Ex. xv. 11. Ppn is not the construct form, but the principal form, like TO|, IHJ, /$, and is a Syriasm; for the verbal stem fij, what God is is reduced to the briefest possible expression (vid. Ixviii. 19). In the words, " Thy faithfulness compasseth Thee round about," the primary thought of the poet again breaks through. Such a God it is who has the faithfulness with which He fulfils all His promises, and the promises given to the house of David also, as His constant surrounding. His glory would only strike one with terror; but the faithfulness which encompasses Him softens the sunlike brilliancy of His glory, and awakens trust in so majestic a Kuler.
Vers. 10-15. At the time of the poet the nation of the house of David was threatened with assault from violent foes; and this fact gives occasion for this picture of God's power in the kingdom of nature. He who rules the raging of the sea, also rules the raging of the sea of the peoples, lxv. 8. ffi*M., a proud rising, here of the sea, like HJN3 in xlvi. 4. Instead of Ntta, Ilitzig pleasantly enough reads fcCtek = tatf3 from rtW5* • but tiSb is also possible so far as language is concerned, either as an infinitive = ^ibo, xxviii. 2, Isa. i. 14 (instead of AN?'), or as an infinitival noun, like *W, loftiness, Job xx. 6, with a likewise rejected Nun. The formation of the clause favours our taking it as a verb: when its waves rise, Thou stillest them. From the natural sea the poet comes to the sea of the peoples; and in the doings of God at the Red Sea a miraculous subjugation of both seas took place at one and the same time. It is clear from Ixxiv. 13-17, Isa. li. 9, that Egypt is to be understood by Rahab in this passage as in lxxxvii. 4. The word signifies first of all impetuosity, violence, then a monster, like " the wild beast of the reed," lxviii. 31, i.e. the leviathan or the dragon. AN^i is conjugated after the manner of the Lamed He verbs, as in xliv. 20. h?H2 is to be understood as describing the event or issue (vid. xviii. 43): so that in its fall the proudly defiant kingdom is like one fatally smitten. Thereupon in vers. 12-15 again follows in the same co-ordination first the praise of God drawn from nature, then from history. Jahve's are the heavens and the earth. He is the Creator, and for that very reason the absolute owner, of both. The north and the right hand, i.e. the south, represent the earth in its entire compass from one region of the heavens to the other. Tabor on this side of the Jordan represents the west (cf. Hos. v. 1), and Hermon opposite the east of the Holy Land. Both exult by reason of the name of God; by their fresh, cheerful look they give the impression of joy at the glorious revelation of the divine creative might manifest in themselves. In ver. 14 the praise again enters upon the province of history. " An arm with (pV) heroic strength," says the poet, inasmuch as he distinguishes between the attribute inherent in God and the medium of its manifestation in history. His throne has as its ji3D? i.e. its immovable foundation (Prov. xvi. 12, xxv. 5), righteousness of action and right, by which all action is regulated, and which is unceasingly realized by means of the action.
And mercy and truth wait upon Him. ^3 B^i? is not: to go before any one (*JD??!?>}, lxxxv. 14), but anticipatingly to present one's self to any one, Ixxxviii. 14, xcv. 2, Mic. vi. 6. Mercy and truth, these two genii of sacred history (xliii. 3), stand before His face like waiting servants watching upon His nod.
Vers. 16-19. The poet has now described what kind of God He is upon whose promise the royal house in Israel depends. Blessed, then, is the people that walks in the light of His countenance. ^n of a self-assured, stately walk. The words Win ''JTP are the statement of the ground of the blessing interwoven into* the blessing itself: such a people has abundant cause and matter for exultation (cf. lxxxiv. 5). nynn is the festive sound of joy of the mouth (Num. xxiii. 21), and of trumpets or sackbuts (xxvii. 6). This confirmation of the blessing is expanded in vers. 17-19. Jahve's DK*, i.e. revelation or manifestation, becomes to them a ground and object of unceasing joy; by His •^P'JV, *•£- the rigour with which He binds Himself to the relationship He has entered upon with His people and maintains it, they are exalted above abjectness and insecurity. He is tojJJ rnKSri, the ornament of their strength, i.e. their strength which really becomes an ornament to them. In ver. 186 the poet declares Israel to be this happy people. Pinsker's conjecture, D3"]j? (following the Targum), destroys the transition to ver. 19, which is formed by ver. 186. The plural reading of Kimchi and of older editions (e.g. Bomberg's), Wnp, is incompatible with the figure; but it is immaterial whether we read CHfl with the Chethib (Targum, Jerome), or with the Keri (LXX., Syriac) WW.*. U3iO and tt?^ in ver. 19 are parallel designations of the human king of Israel; |3D as in xlvii. 10, but not in lxxxiv. 10. For we are not compelled, with a total disregard of the limits to the possibilities of style (Ew. § 310, a), to render ver. 196: and the Holy One
* Zur Gesclriclite des Karaismus, pp. NSp and 3£p, according to which, reversely, in Josh. v. 1 ^"Qj; is to be read instead of D"Qy, and Isa. xxxiii.
sariNDn instead of DDXDn, Job xxxii. 8 ^3*30 instead of UPin, Prov.
of Israel, (as to Him, He) is our King (Hitzig), since we do not bring down the Psalm beyond the time of the kings. Israel's shield, Israel's king, the poet says in the holy defiant confidence of faith, is Jahve's, belongs to the Holy One of Israel, i.e. he stands as His own possession under the protection of J alive, the Holy One, who has taken Israel to Himself for a possession; it is therefore impossible that the Davidic throne should become a prey to any worldly power.
Vers. 20-23. Having thus again come to refer to the king of Israel, the poet now still further unfolds the promise given to the house of David. The present circumstances are a contradiction to it. The prayer to Jahve, for which the way is thus prepared, is for the removal of this contradiction. A long line, extending beyond the measure of the preceding lines, introduces the promises given to David. With TK the respective period of the past is distinctly defined. The intimate friend of Jahve ("^Pp) is Nathan (1 Chron. xvii. 15) or David, according as we translate ptro " in a vision " or " by means of a vision." But side by side with the lTDnp we also find the preferable reading TTDn?, which is followed in the renderings of the LXX., Syriac, Vulgate, Targum, Aquila, Symmachus, and the Quarta, and is adopted by Rashi, Aben-Ezra, and others, and taken up by Heidenheim and Baer. The plural refers to Samuel and Nathan, for the statement brings together what was revealed to these two prophets concerning David. ity is assistance as a gift, and that, as the designation of the person succoured by it (bv hjb> as in xxi. 6) with "tf3| shows, aid in battle. "WIS (from "»rm = 133 in the Mishna: to ripen, to be manly or of marriageable age, distinct from TOS in ver. 4) is a young man, adolescens: while yet a young man David was raised out of his humble lowly condition (lxxviii. 71) high above the people. When he received the promise (2 Sam. ch. vii.) he had been anointed and had attained to the lordship over all Israel. Hence the preterites in vers. 20, 21, which are followed by promissory futures from ver. 22 onwards, psri is fut. Niph., to be established, to prove one's self to be firm, unchangeable (lxxviii. 37), a stronger expression than fWlfy 1 Sam. xviii. 12, 14, 2 Sam. iii. 10. The Biph. tfBfy derived from NtJO = nBOj to credit (yid. on Isa. xxiv. 2; Gesenius, Hengstenberg), does not give any suitable sense; it therefore
Vers. 24-30. What is promised in ver. 26 is world-wide dominion, not merely dominion within the compass promised in the primeval times (Gen. xv. 18, 2 Chron. ix. 26), in which case it ought to have been said "iruil (of the Euphrates). Nor does the promise, however, sound so definite and boundless here as in lxxii. 8, but it is indefinite and universal, without any need for our asking what rivers are intended by nnnj. }ru 3 T, like fw in Isa. xi. 14, of a giving and taking possession. With ^JJ"PJNI (with retreated tone, as in cxix. 63, 125) God tells with what He will answer David's filial love. Him who is the latest-born among the sons of Jesse, God makes the first-born ("faa from "133, to be early, opp. Wp_?9 to be late, vid. Job, ii. 21), and therefore the most favoured of the " sons of the Most High," lxxxii. 6. And as, according to Deut. xxviii. 1, Israel is to be high (tf v?) above all nations of the earth, so David, Israel's king, in whom Israel's national glory realizes itself, is made as the high one (pbv) with respect to the kings, i.e. above the kings, of the earth. In the person of David his seed is included; and it is that position of honour which, after having been only prelusively realized in David and Solomon, must go on being fulfilled in his seed exactly as the promise runs. The covenant with David is, according to ver. 29, one that shall stand for ever. David is therefore, as ver. 30 affirms, eternal in his seed; God will make David's seed and throne *1J£, into eternal, i.e. into such as will abide for ever, like the days of heaven, everlasting. This description of eternal duration is, as also in Sir. xlv. 15, Bar. i. 11, taken from Deut. xi. 21; the whole of ver. 30 is a poetic reproduction of 2 Sam. vii. 16.
Vers. 31-38. Now follows the paraphrase of 2 Sam. vii. 14, that the faithlessness of David's line in relation to the covenant shall not interfere with (annul) the faithfulness of God — a thought with which one might very naturally console one's self in the reign of Rehoboam. Because God has placed the house of David in a filial relationship to Himself, He will chastise the apostate members as a father chastises his son; cf. Prov. xxiii. 13 sq. In 1 Chron. xvii. 13 the chronicler omits the words of 2 Sam. vii. 14 which there provide against perverted action (pWp.) on the part of the seed of David; our
Psalm proves their originality. But even if, as history shows, this means of chastisement should be ineffectual in the case of individuals, the house of David as such will nevertheless remain ever in a state of favour with Him. In ver. 34 "WMflft *IDH1 toye corresponds to TOO Wt6 ^tpm in 2 Sam. vii. 15 (LXX., Targum): the fut. Hiph. of "HD is otherwise always 1BK • the conjecture "^DK is therefore natural, yet even the LXX. translators (ov fxrj Siacrtce&daG)) had TDK before them. 3 "l{J0 as in xliv. 18. The covenant with David is sacred with God: He will not profane it (w, to loose the bonds of sanctity). He will fulfil what has gone forth from His lips, i.e. His vow, according to Deut. xxiii. 24, cf. Num. xxx. 3. One thing hath He sworn to David; not: once = once for all (LXX.), for what is introduced by ver. 36 (cf. xxvii. 4) and follows in vers. 37, 38, is in reality one thing (as in lxii. 12, two). He hath sworn it per sanctitatem suam. Thus, and not in sanctuario meo, ^IJ3 in this passage and Amos iv. 2 (cf. on lx. 8) is to be rendered, for elsewhere the expression is % Gen. xxii. 16, Isa. xlv. 23, or UtaftS, Amos vi. 8, Jer. li. 14, or ^H, Jer xliv. 26, or iW3, Isa. lxii. 8. It is true we do not read any set form of oath in 2 Sam. ch. vii., 1 Chron. ch. xvii., but just as Isaiah, ch. liv. 9, takes the divine promise in Gen. viii. 21 as an oath, so the promise so earnestly and most solemnly pledged to David may be accounted by Psalm-poesy (here and in exxxii. 11), which reproduces the historical matter of fact, as a promise attested with an oath. With OK in ver. 365 God asserts that He will not disappoint David in reference to this one thing, viz. the perpetuity of his throne. This shall stand for ever as the sun and moon; for these, though they may one day undergo a change (cii. 27), shall nevertheless never be destroyed. In the presence of 2 Sam. vii. 16 it looks as if ver. 386 ought to be rendered: and as the witness in the clouds shall it (David's throne) be faithful (perpetual). By the witness in the clouds one would then have to understand the rainbow as the celestial memorial and sign of an everlasting covenant. Thus Luther, Geier, Schmid, and others. But neither this rendering, nor the more natural one, " and as the perpetual, faithful witness in the clouds," is admissible in connection with the absence of the 3 of comparison. Accordingly Hengstenberg, following the example of Jewish expositors, renders: " and the witness in the clouds is perpetual," viz. the moon, so that the continuance of the Davidic line would be associated with the moon, just as the continuance of the condemned earth is with the rainbow. But in what sense would the moon have the name, without example elsewhere, of witness f Just as the Book of Job was the key to the conclusion of Ps. lxxxviii., so it is the key to this ambiguous verse of the Psalm before us. It has to be explained according to Job xvi. 19, where Job says: " Behold in heaven is my witness, and my surety in the heights" Jahve, the ftJfcU?K (Deut. vii. 9), seals His sworn promise with the words, " and the witness in the sky (ethereal heights) is faithful " (cf. concerning this Waw in connection with asseverations, Ew. § 340, c). Hengstenberg's objection, that Jahve cannot be called His own witness, is disposed of by the fact that 1? frequently signifies the person who testifies anything concerning himself; in this sense, in fact, the whole Tora is called 'n rmy (the testimony of Jahve).
Vers. 39-46. Now after the poet has turned his thoughts towards the beginnings of the house of David which were so rich in promise, in order that he might find comfort under the sorrowful present, the contrast of the two periods is become all the more sensible to him. With HAN") in ver. 39 (And Thou — the same who hast promised and affirmed this with an oath) his Psalm takes a new turn, for which reason it might even have been nnjn, mj is used just as absolutely here as in xliv. 24, lxxiv. 1, lxxvii. 8, so that it does not require any object to be supplied out of ver. 396. nrnKD in ver. 40 the LXX. renders KaTeo-rpeyfra^; it is better rendered in Lam. ii. 7 aireTLva%e; for "iw is synonymous with "W^ to shake off, push away, cf. Arabic el-menair, the thrusters (with the lance). V\p% is a vocational name of the king as such. His crown is sacred as being the insignia of a God-bestowed office. God has therefore made the sacred thing vile by casting it to the ground (^n p.Nv, as in lxxiv. 17, to cast profaningly to the ground). The primary passage to vers. 41, 42 is lxxx. 13. "His hedges" are all the boundary and protecting fences which the land of the king has; and TO3D " the fortresses" of his land (in both instances without io, because matters have not yet come to such
I pass).* In iHDtr the notions of the king and of the land blend together, TH"'"^ «re the hordes of the peoples passing through the land. VjlDir are the neighbouring peoples that are otherwise liable to pay tribute to the house of David, who sought to take every possible advantage of that weakening of the Davidic kingdom. In ver. 44 we are neither to translate "rock of his sword " (Hengstenberg), nor " O rock" (Olshausen). TO does not merely signify rupes, but also from another root ("fi¥, jL>> originally of the grating or shrill noise produced by pressing and squeezing, then more particularly to cut or cut off with pressure, with a sharply set knife or the like) a knife or a blade (cf. English knife, and German kneifen, to nip): God has decreed it that the edge or blade of the sword of the king has been turned back by the enemy, that he has not been able to maintain his ground in battle (iriDpn with e instead of % as also when the tone is not moved forward, Mic. v. 4). In ver. 45 the Mem of linDD, after the analogy of Ezek. xvi. 41, xxxiv. 10, and other passages, is a preposition: cessare fecisti eum a splendore suo. A noun "1HBJ? = "inpB with Dag. dirimens,\ like BH£B Ex. xv. 17, "IJ3D Nah. hi. 17 (Abulwalid, Aben-Ezra, Parchon, Kimchi, and others), in itself improbable in the signification required here, is not found either in post-biblical or in biblical Hebrew, "inb, like nnv, signifies first of all not purity, but brilliancy. Still the form "\nb does not lie at the basis of it in this instance; for the reading found here just happens not to be hjJO, but frntsip; and the reading adopted by Norzi, Heidenheim, and Baer, as also by Nissel and others, so far as form is concerned is not distinct from it, viz. Viruso (mittdharo)) the character of the Shebd being determined by the
* In the list of the nations and cities conquered by King Sheshonk i. are found even cities of the tribe of Issachar, e.g. Shen-ma-an, Sunem; vid. Brugsch, Reiseberichte, S. 141-145, and Blau as referred to above.
f The view of Pinsker (Einleitung, S. 69), that this Dag. is not a sign of the doubling of the letter, but a diacritic point (that preceded the invention of the system of vowel-points), which indicated that the respective letter was to be pronounced with a Chateph vowel {e.g. mitohar), is incorrect. The doubling Dag. renders the Shebd audible, and having once become audible it readily receives this or that colouring according to the nature of its consonant and of the neighbouring vowel.
analogy of the a following (cf. TOp, 2 Kings ii. 1), which presupposes the principal form intp (Bottcher, § 386, cf. supra, ii. 31, note). The personal tenor of ver. 46a requires that it should be referred to the then reigning Davidic king, but not as dying before his time (Olshausen), but as becoming prematurely old by reason of the sorrowful experiences of his reign. The larger half of the kingdom has been wrested from him; Egypt and the neighbouring nations also threaten the half that remains to him; and instead of the kingly robe, shame completely covers him.
Vers. 47-52. After this statement of the present condition of things the psalmist begins to pray for the removal of all that is thus contradictory to the promise. The plaintive question, ver. 47, with the exception of one word, is verbatim the same as lxxix. 5. The wrath to which quousque refers, makes itself to be felt, as the intensifying (vid. xiii. 2) r\)Zlb implies, in the intensity and duration of everlasting wrath. *6n is this temporal life which glides past secretly and unnoticed (xvii. 14); and ^tpiar is not equivalent to "O'TOT (instead of which by way of emphasis only "OK ^^3J can De said), but *Y?tT7lD ^K stands for W *^n"no — according to the sense equivalent to "OK Tjirnp, xxxix. 5, cf. 6. The conjecture of Houbigant and modern expositors, "O^IR ibt (cf. ver. 51), is not needed, since the inverted position of the words is just the same as in xxxix. 5. In ver. 486 it is not pointed *W HD"?^ " wherefore (Job x. 2, xiii. 14) hast Thou in vain (cxxvii. 1) created?" (Hengstenberg), but fcttBrntr?^ on account of or for what a nothing (fcO^'TiD belonging together as adjective and substantive, as in xxx. 10, Job xxvi. 14) hast Thou created all the children of men % (De Wette, Hupfeld, and Hitzig.) by, of the ground of a matter and direct motive, which is better suited to the question in ver. 49 than the other way of taking it: the life of all men passes on into death and Hades; why then might not God, within this brief space of time, this handbreadth, manifest Himself to His creatures as the merciful and kind, and not as the always angry God? The music strikes in here, and how can it do so otherwise than in elegiac mesto? If God's justice tarries and fails in this present world, then the Old Testament faith becomes sorely tempted and tried, because it is not able to find consolation in the life beyond. Thus it is with the faith of the poet in the present juncture of affairs, the outward appearance of which is in such perplexing contradiction to the loving-kindnesa sworn to David and also hitherto vouchsafed. D^C! has not the sense in this passage of promises of favour, as in 2 Chron. vi. 42, but proofs of favour; DWiOn glances back at the long period of the reigns of David and of Solomon.* The Asaph Psalm lxxvii. and the Tephilla Isa. ch. lxiii. contain similar complaints, just as in connection with ver. 51a one is reminded of the Asaph Psalm lxxix. 2, 10, and in connection with ver. 52 of lxxix. 12. The phrase ip^? K?^ ^s use(^ m other instances of loving nurture, Num. xi. 12, Isa. xl. 11. In this passage it must have a sense akin to T7?# n!T!9« It is impossible on syntactic grounds to regard &®V MT73 as still dependent upon nsnn (Ewald) or, as Hupfeld is fond of calling it, as a iC postlimiDiar" genitive. Can it be that the 5o is perhaps a mutilation of riE>p3, after Ezek. xxxvi. 15, as Bottcher suggests? We do not need this conjecture. For (1) to carry any one in one's bosom, if he is an enemy, may signify: to be obliged to cherish him with the vexation proceeding from him (Jer. xv. 15), without being able to get rid of him; (2) there is no doubt that D^SH can, after the manner of numerals, be placed before the substantive to which it belongs, xxxii. 10, Pro v. xxxi. 29, 1 Chron. xxviii. 5, Neh. ix. 28; cf. the other position, e.g., in Jer. xvi. 16; (3) consequently &W D^VpS may signify the " totality of many peoples " just as well as D*2H D]i3 73 in Ezek. xxxi. 6. The poet complains as a member of the nation, as a citizen of the empire, that he is obliged to foster many nations in his bosom, inasmuch as the land of Israel was overwhelmed by the Egyptians and their allies, the Libyans, Troglodytes, and Ethiopians. The *155W which follows in ver. 52 cannot now be referred back over ver. 516 to na"in (qua calumnid), and yet the relative sense, not the confirmatory (because, quoniam), is at issue. We therefore refer it to DW, and take T^iK as an apposition, as in cxxxix. 20: who reproach Thee, (as) Thine
* The Pasek between D^BWin and ^IK is not designed merely to remove the limited predicate from the Lord, who is indeed the First and the Last, but also to secure its pronunciation to the guttural Aleph, which might be easily passed over after Mem; cf. Gen. i. 27, xxl 17, xxx 20, xlii. 21, and frequently.
enemies, Jahve, who reproach the footsteps (ntopy as in lxxvii. 20 with Dag. dirimens, which gives it an emotional turn) of Thine anointed, i.e. they follow him everywhere, wheresoever he may go, and whatsoever he may do. With these significant words, in^ ntajpy, the Third Book of the Psalms dies away. Ver. 53. The closing doxology of the Third Book.
TAKING REFUGE IN THE LOVING-KINDNESS OF THE ETERNAL ONE UNDER THE WRATHFUL JUDGMENT OF DEATH.
And Thou gavest birth to the earth and the world, And from seon to aeon Thou art God!
4 For a thousand years in Thine eyes Are as yesterday when it passeth, And a watch in the night.
5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood, they become a sleep, In the morning they are as grass springing up again.
6 In the morning it flourisheth and springeth up again, In the evening it is cut down and it drieth up.
9 For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath; We have spent our years as a whisper.
10 The days of our years — their sum is seventy years, And, if very many, eighty years;
12 Teach us rightly to number our days, That we may gain a wise heart!
14 Satisfy us at morning-dawn with Thy mercy, Then will we joy and rejoice all our days.
humbled us, The years wherein we have seen evil.
16 Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, And Thy glory upon their children.
17 And let the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us, And the work of our hands do Thou establish upon us, Yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it!
The Fourth Book of the Psalms, corresponding to the 1BD ■Q1B3 of the Pentateuch, begins with a Prayer of Moses the man of God, which comes out of the midst of the dying off of the older generation during the march through the wilderness. To the name, which could not be allowed to remain so bald, because next to Abraham he is the greatest man known to the Old Testament history of redemption, is added the title of honour 0s,y^.^ B^K (as in Deut. xxxiii. 1, Josh. xiv. 6), an ancient name of the prophets which expresses the close relationship of fellowship with God, just as " servant of Jahve" expresses the relationship of service, in accordance with the special office and in relation to the history of redemption, into which Jahve has taken the man and into which he himself has entered. There is scarcely any written memorial of antiquity which so brilliantly justifies the testimony of tradition concerning its origin as does this Psalm, which may have been preserved in some one or other of the older works, perhaps the " Book of Jashar" (Josh. x. 13, 2 Sam. i. 18), until the time of the final redaction of the Psalter. Not alone with respect to its contents, but also with reference to the form of its language, it is perfectly suitable to Moses. Even Hitzig can bring nothing of importance against this view, for the objection that the author in ver. 1 glances back upon past generations, whilst Israel was only born in the time of Moses, is removed by the consideration that the existence of Israel reaches back into the patriarchal times; and there is as little truth in the assertion that the Piel *3#3fe> in ver. 14 instead of the Hiphil brings the Psalm down into very late times, as in the idea that the Hiph. fi^NiTi in cxliii. 12 instead of the Piel carries this Ps. cxliii. back into very early times. These trifling points dwindle down to nothing in comparison with the fact that Ps. xc. bears within itself distinct traces of the same origin as the song WTNn (Deut. ch. xxxii.), the blessing of Moses (Deut. ch. xxxiii.), the discourses in Deuteronomy, and in general the directly Mosaic portions of the Pentateuch. The Book of the Covenant, together with the Decalogue (Ex. ch. xix.-xxiv.) and Deuteronomy (with the exception of its supplement), are regarded by us, on very good grounds, as the largest originally Mosaic constituent parts of the Pentateuch. The Book of Deuteronomy is ntS'D rnin in a pre-eminent sense.
Vers. 1-4. The poet begins with the confession that the Lord has proved Himself to His own, in all periods of human history, as that which He was before the world was and will be for evermore. God is designedly appealed to by the name ^""W, which frequently occurs in the mouth of Moses in the middle books of the Pentateuch, and also in the Song at the Sea, Ex. xv. 17 and in Deut. iii. 24. He is so named here as the Lord ruling over human history with an exaltation ever the same. Human history runs on in "Hi "H, so that one period (7repLoBo<;) with the men living cotemporaneous with it goes and another comes; the expression is Deuteronomic (Deut. xxxii. 7). Such a course of generations lies behind the poet; and in them all the Lord has been jtyo to His church, out of the heart of which the poet discourses. This expression too is Deuteronomic (Deut. xxxiii. 27). pjJD signifies a habitation, dwelling-place (vid. on xxvi. 8), more especially God's heavenly and earthly dwelling-place, then the dwelling-place which God
Himself is to His saints, inasmuch as He takes up to Himself, conceals and protects, those who flee to Him from the wicked one and from evil, and turn in to Him (lxxi. 3, xci. 9). In order to express fuisti ri"n was indispensable; but just as fuisti comes from fuo, <f)VQ), n^ (™?) signifies not a closed, shut up being, but a being that discloses itself, consequently it is fuisti in the sense of te exhibuisti. This historical self-manifestation of God is based upon the fact that He is?K, i.e. might absolutely, or the absolutely Mighty One; and He was this, as ver. 2 says, even before the beginning of the history of the present world, and will be in the distant ages of the future as of the past. The foundation of this world's history is the creation. The combination «n] p.? shows that this is intended to be taken as the object.??nn^ (with Metheg beside the e of the final syllable, which is deprived of its accent, vid. on xviii. 20) is the language of address (Rashi): that which is created is in a certain sense born from God (*5J), and He brings it forth out of Himself; and this is here expressed by Wn (as in Deut. xxxii. 18, cf. Isa. li. 2), creation being compared to travail which takes place amidst pains (Psychology, S. 114; tr. p. 137). If, after the example of the LXX. and Targum, one reads as passive <vinrn (Bottcher, Olshausen, Hitzig) from the Pulal tvirij Prov. viii. 24, — and this commends itself, since the pre-existence of God can be better dated back beyond facts than beyond the acts of God Himself, — then the conception remains essentially the same, since the Eternal and Absolute One is still to be thought of as W?inp. The fact that the mountains are mentioned first of all, harmonizes with Deut. xxxiii. 15. The modus consecutivus is intended to say: before the mountains were brought forth and Thou wast in labour therewith... The forming of the mountains consequently coincides with the creation of the earth, which is here as a body or mass called pK, and as a continent with the relief of mountains and lowlands is called??fi (cf. p.? '-PH, Prov. viii. 31, Job xxxvii. 12). To the double clause with E"}.9 seq. prcet. (cf. on the other hand seq. fut. Deut. xxxi. 21) is appended E^VO* as a second definition of time: before the creation of the world, and from eternity to eternity. The Lord was God before the world was — that is the first assertion of ver. 2; His divine existence reaches out of the unlimited past into the unlimited future — this is the second. b# is not vocative, which it sometimes, though rarely, is in the Psalms; it is a predicate, as e.g. in Deut. iii. 24.
This is also to be seen from vers. 3, 4, when ver. 3 -now more definitely affirms the omnipotence of God, and ver. 4 the supra-temporality of God or the omnipresence of God in time. The LXX. misses the meaning when it brings over?N from ver. 2, and reads aswrptf. The shorter future form 2K>n for y&n stands poetically instead of the longer, as e.g. in xi. 6, xxv. 9; cf. the same thing in the inf. constr. in Deut. xxvi. 12, and both instances together in Deut. xxxii. 8. The poet intentionally calls the generation that is dying away KnJX, which denotes man from the side of his frailty or perishableness; and the new generation DlN"^ with which is combined the idea of entrance upon life. It is clear that N2n~W Wn is intended to be understood according to Gen. iii. 19; but it is a question whether N^n is conceived of as an adjective (with mutable a), as in xxxiv. 19, Isa. lvii. 15: Thou puttest men back into the condition of crushed ones (cf. on the construction Num. xxiv. 24), or whether as a neutral feminine from!rn (r= nsi): Thou changest them into that which is crushed = dust, or whether as an abstract substantive like na^ or according to another reading (cf. cxxvii. 2) K|n, in Deut. xxiii. 2: to crushing. This last is the simplest way of taking it, but it comes to one and the same thing with the second, since N3"1! signifies crushing in the neuter sense. A fut. consec. follows. The fact that God causes one generation to die off has as its consequence that He calls another into being (cf. the Arabic epithet of God el-muid = ywn} the Resuscitator). Hofmann and Hitzig take 2£Ti as imperfect on account of the following "iBKrn: Thou didst decree mortality for men; but the fut. consec. frequently only expresses the sequence of the thoughts or the connection of the matter, e.g. after a future that refers to that which is constantly taking place, Job xiv. 10. God causes men to die without letting them die out; for — so it continues in ver. 4 — a thousand years is to Him a very short period, not to be at all taken into account. What now is the connection between that which confirms and that which is confirmed here? It is not so much ver. 3 that is confirmed as ver. 2, to which the former serves for explanation, viz. this, that God as the Almighty fa), in the midst of this change of generations, which is His work, remains Himself eternally the same. This ever the same, absolute existence has its ground herein, that time, although God fills it up with His working, is no limitation to Him. A thousand years, which would make any man who might live through them weary of life, are to shows, is also true when reversed: " One day is with the Lord as a thousand years." He is however exalted above all time, inasmuch as the longest period appears to Him very short, and in the shortest period the greatest work can be executed by millennium appears to God, when He glances over it, just as the yesterday does to us when (^3) it is passing by p^JP), and we, standing on the border of the opening day, look back upon the day that is gone. The second comparison is an advance upon the first, and an advance also in form, from the fact that the Caph similitudinis is wanting: a thousand years are to God passed in a sort of half-sleep. A day that is past, as we stand on the end of it, still produces upon us the impression of a course of time by reason of the events which we can recall;
but a night passed in sleep, and now even a fragment of the night, is devoid of all trace to us, and is therefore as it were timeless. Thus is it to God with a thousand years: they do not last long to Him; they do not affect Him; at the close of them, as at the beginning, He is the Absolute One fa). Time is as nothing to Him, the Eternal One. The changes of time are to Him no barrier restraining the realization of His counsel
— a truth which has a terrible and a consolatory side. The poet dwells upon the fear which it produces.
Vers. 5-8. Vers. 5, 6 tell us how great is the distance between men and this eternal selfsameness of God. The suffix of BriDnr, referred to the thousand years, produces a synallage (since naty is feminine), which is to be avoided whenever it is possible to do so; the reference to D1JOJ3, as being the principal object pointed to in what has gone before, is the more natural, to say the very least. In connection with both ways of applying it, DiJ does not signify: to cause to rattle down like sudden heavy showers of rain; for the figure that God makes years, or that He makes men (Hitzig: the germs of their coming into being), to rain down from above, is fanciful and strange. Cnj may also mean to sweep or wash away as with heavy rains, abripere instar nimbi, as the old expositors take it. So too Luther at one time: Du reyssest sie dahyn (Thou earnest them away), for which he substituted later: Du lessest sie dahin faren wie einen Strom (Thou causest them to pass away as a river); but tnt always signifies rain pouring down from above. As a sudden and heavy shower of rain, becoming a flood, washes everything away, so God's omnipotence sweeps men away. There is now no transition to another alien figure when the poet continues: W fljfi?. What is meant is the sleep of death, lxxvi. 6, D^y rW,' Jer. li. 39, 57, cf. |B* xiii. 4. He whom a flood carries away is actually brought into a state of unconsciousness, he goes entirely to sleep, i.e. he dies.
From this point the poet certainly does pass on to another figure. The one generation is carried away as by a flood in the night season, and in the morning another grows up. Men are the subject of *PD,., as of ViT. The collective singular alternates with the plural, just as in ver. 3 the collective b*ijx alternates with DlfcT^a. The two members of ver. 5 stand in contrast. The poet describes the succession of the generations. One generation perishes as it were in a flood, and another grows up, and this also passes on to the same fate. The meaning in both verses of the *£n, which has been for the most part, after the LXX., Vulgate, and Luther, erroneously taken to be proeterire = interire, is determined in accordance with this idea. The general signification of this verb, which to go into the place of another, and in general, of passing over from one place or state into another." Accordingly the Hipkil signifies to put into a new condition, cii. 27, to set a new thing on the place of an old one, Isa. ix. 9, to gain new strength, to take fresh courage, Isa. xl. 31, xli. 1; and of plants: to send forth new shoots, Job xiv. 7; consequently the Kaly which frequently furnishes the perfect for the future Hiphil (Ew. § 127, b, and Hitzig on this passage), of plants signifies: to gain new shoots, not: to sprout (Targum, Syriac), growth, new wood. Perishing humanity renews its youth in ever new generations. Ver. 6a again takes up this thought: in the morning it grows up and shoots afresh, viz. the grass to which men are likened (a figure appropriated by Isa. ch. xl.), in the evening it is cut down and it dries up. Others translate b(?to to wither (root te, properly to be long and lax, to to look forth into the distance); but (1) this Pilel of ^D or Poel of /vB is not favourable to this intransitive way of taking it; (2) the reflexive in lviii. 8 proves that iviD signifies to cut off in the front or above, after which perhaps even xxxvii. 2, Job xiv. 2, xviii. 16, by comparison with Job xxiv. 24, are to be explained. In the last passage it runs: as the top of the stalk they are cut off (fut. Niph. of 'V?). Such a cut or plucked ear of corn is called in Deut. xxiii. 26 nJ?P, a Deuteronomic hapaxlegomenon which favours our way of taking the 'yb\ (with a most general subject = Wo'). Thus, too, Bbj. is better attached to what precedes: the cut grass becomes parched hay. Just such an alternation of morning springing forth and evening drying up is the alternation of the generations of men.
The poet substantiates this in vers. 7 sq. from the experience of those amongst whom he comprehended himself in the >y> of ver. 1. Hengstenberg takes ver. 7 to be a statement of the cause of the transitoriness set forth: its cause is the wrath of God; but the poet does not begin "]3sn *3 but w5>a *3- The chief emphasis therefore lies upon the perishing, and »3 is not argumentative but explicative. If the subject of W02 were men in general (Olshausen), then it would be elucidating idem per idem. But, according to ver. 1, those who speak here are those whose refuge the Eternal One is. The poet therefore speaks in the name of the church, and confirms the lot of men from that which his people have experienced even down to the present time. Israel is able out of its own experience to corroborate what all men pass through; it has to pass through the very same experience as a special decree of God's wrath on account of its sins. Therefore in vers. 7, 8 we stand altogether upon historical ground. The testimony of the inscription is here verified in the contents of the Psalm. The older generation that came out of Egypt fell a prey to the sentence of punishment, that they should gradually die off during the forty years' journey through the desert; and even Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb only excepted, were included in this punishment on special grounds, Num. xiv. 26 sqq., Deut. i. 34-39. This it is over which Moses here laments. God's wrath is here called ^ and HDn; just as the Book of Deuteronomy (in distinction from the other books of the Pentateuch) is fond of combining these two synonyms (Deut. ix. 19, xxix. 22, 27, cf. Gen. xxvii. 44 sq.). The breaking forth of the infinitely great opposition of the holy nature of God against sin has swept away the church in the person of its members, even down to the present moment; s^i) as in civ. 29, cf. n^3, Lev. xxvi. 16. It is the consequence of their sins. pV signifies sin as the perversion of the right standing and conduct; Q^^, that which is veiled in distinction from manifest sins, is the sum-total of hidden moral, and that sinful, conduct. There is no necessity to regard W°?¥. as a defective plural; OWy signifies youth (from a radically distinct word, Dpi;); secret sins would therefore be called J"iiE7_y according to xix. 13. God sets transgressions before Him when, because the measure is full and forgiveness is inadmissible, He makes them an object of punishment. W (Keri, as in viii. 7: nn^, cf. vi. 4 FW1, lxxiv. 6 W) has the accent upon the ultima before an initial guttural. The parallel to TwA is T.?? "rtK$. -rix is light, and "tiKO is either a body of light, as the sun and moon, or, as in this passage, the circle of light which the light forms. The countenance of God ('n '•jd) is God's nature in its inclination towards the world, and TiND 'n "OB is the doxa of His nature that is turned towards the world, which penetrates everything that is conformed to God as a gracious light (Num. vi. 25), and makes manifest to the bottom everything that is opposed to God and consumes it as a wrathful fire.
Vers. 9-12. After the transitoriness of men has now been confirmed in vers. 6 sq. out of the special experience of Israel, the fact that this particular experience has its ground in a divine decree of wrath is more definitely confirmed from the facts of this experience, which, as vers. 11 sq. complain, unfortunately have done so little to urge them on to the fear of God, which is the condition and the beginning of wisdom. In ver. 9 we distinctly hear the Israel of the desert speaking. That was a generation that fell a prey to the wrath of God (irmy IVs!, Jer. vii. 29). rnay is wrath that passes over, breaks through the bounds of subjectivity. All their days (cf. ciii. 15) are passed away (»"UB, to turn one's self, to turn, e.g. Deut. i. 24) in such wrath, i.e. thoroughly pervaded by it. They nave spent their years like a sound (i"UrnEp)? which has hardly gone forth before it has passed away, leaving no trace behind it; the noun signifies a gentle dull sound, whether a murmur (Job xxxvii. 2) or a groan (Ezek. ii. 10). With EH3 in ver. 10 the sum is stated: there are comprehended therein seventy years; they include, run up to so many. Hitzig renders: the days wherein (oru) our years consist are seventy years; but imw side by side with W must be regarded as its more minute genitival definition, and the accentuation cannot be objected to. Beside the plural OW the poetic plural HW appears here, and it also occurs in Deut. xxxii. 7 (and nowhere else in the Pentateuch). That of which the sum is to be stated stands first of all as a casus absol. Luther's rendering: Siebenzig Jar, ivens hoch kompt so sinds achtzig (seventy years, or at the furthest eighty years), as Symmachus also meant by his iv irapa&oi-co (in Chrysostom), is confirmed by the Talmudic JOT riling, " to attain to extreme old age" (B. Moed katan 28a), and rightly approved of by Hitzig and Olshausen. rrvi3J signifies in lxxi. 16 full strength, here full measure. Seventy, or at most eighty years, were the average sum of the extreme term of life to which the generation dying out in the wilderness attained. Sir}")) the LXX. renders to ifXelov avrcov, but Darn is not equivalent to B2"). The verb 2rn signifies to behave violently, e.g. of importunate entreaty, Prov. vi. 3, of insolent treatment, Isa. iii. 5, whence 3ni (here ^ni), violence, impetuosity, and more especially a boastful vaunting appearance or coming forward, Job ix. 13, Isa. xxx. 7. The poet means to
Bay that everything of which our life is proud (riches, outward appearance, luxury, beauty, etc.), when regarded in the right light, is after all only tey, inasmuch as it causes us trouble and toil, and fttf, because without any true intrinsic merit and worth. To this second predicate is appended the confirmatory clause. tt*n is infin. adverb, from GW? t^n? Deut. xxxii. 35: speedily, swiftly (Symmachus, the Quinta, and Jerome). The verb na signifies transire in all the Semitic dialects; and following this signification, which is applied transitively in Num. xi. 31, the Jewish expositors and Schultens correctly render: nam transit velocissime. Following upon the perfect T3, the modus consecutivus HSVJI maintains its retrospective signification. The strengthening of this mood by means of the intentional ah is more usual with the 1st pers. sing., e.g. Gen. xxxii. 6, than with the 1st pers. plur.9 as here and in Gen. xli. 11; Ew. § 232, g. The poet glances back from the end of life to the course of life. And life, with all of which it had been proud, appears as an empty burden; for it passed swiftly by and we fled away, we were borne away with rapid flight upon the wings of the past.
Such experience as this ought to urge one on to the fear of God; but how rarely does this happen! and yet the fear of God is the condition (stipulation) and the beginning of wisdom. The verb JTP in ver. 11a, just as it in general denotes not merely notional but practically living and efficient knowledge, is here used of a knowledge which makes that which is known conduce to salvation. The meaning of ^jrixT^i is determined in accordance with this. The suffix is here either gen. subj.: according to Thy fearfulness (n*?T. as in Ezek. i. 18), or gen. obj.: according to the fear that is due to Thee, which in itself is at once (cf. v. 8, Ex. xx. 20, Deut. ii. 25) more natural, and here designates the knowledge which is so rarely found, as that which is determined by the fear of God, as a truly religious knowledge. Such knowledge Moses supplicates for himself and for Israel: to number our days teach us rightly to understand. 1 Sam. xxiii. 17, where |3 Jff signifies " he does not know it to be otherwise, he is well aware of it," shows how J3 is meant. Hitzig, contrary to the accentuation, draws it to irD^ nurD^; but " to number our days" is in itself equivalent to " hourly to contemplate the fleeting character and brevity of our lifetime;" and JHjn |3 prays for a true qualification for this, and one that accords with experience. The future that follows is well adapted to the call, as frequently aim and result. But N^?n is not to be taken, with Ewald and Hitzig, in the signification of bringing as an offering, a meaning this verb cannot have of itself alone (why should it not have been nnpii?). Bottcher also erroneously renders it after the analogy of Prov. ii. 10: " that we may bring wisdom into the heart," which ought to be 373. K*an, deriving its meaning from agriculture, signifies " to carry off, obtain, gain, prop, to bring in," viz. into the barn, 2 Sam. ix. 10, Hagg. i. 6; the produce of the field, and in a general way gain or profit, is hence called n&03fi. A wise heart is the fruit which one reaps or garners in from such numbering of the days, the gain which one carries off from so constantly reminding one's self of the end. 337 npan is a poetically intensified expression for D3n 3^, just as NQ'ip 37 in Prov. xiv. 30 signifies a calm easy heart.
Vers. 13-17. The prayer for a salutary knowledge, or discernment, of the appointment of divine wrath is now followed by the prayer for the return of favour, and the wish that God would carry out His work of salvation and bless Israel's undertakings to that end. We here recognise the well-known language of prayer of Moses in Ex. xxxii. 12, according to which nzntf is not intended as a prayer for God's return to Israel, but for the turning away of His anger; and the sigh TiKny that is blended with it asks how long this being angry, which threatens to blot Israel out, is still to last. Dnarn is explained according to this same parallel passage: May God feel remorse or sorrow (which in this case coincide) concerning His servants, i.e. concerning the affliction appointed to them. The naming of the church by TJ38 (as in Deut. ix. 27, cf. Ex. xxxii. 13 of the patriarchs) reminds one of Deut. xxxii. 36: concerning His serv(*its He shall feel compassion (Hithpa. instead of the Niphal). The prayer for the turning of wrath is followed in ver. 14 by the prayer for the turning towards them of favour. In 1JJ33 there lies the thought that it has been night hitherto in Israel. " Morning " is therefore the beginning of a new season of favour. In WW (to which I^.Dn is a second accusative of the object) is implied the thought that Israel whilst under wrath has been hungering after favour;
cf. the adjective V^y in the same tropical signification in Deut. xxxiii. 23. The supplicatory imperatives are followed by two moods expressive of intention: then will we, or: in order that we may rejoice and be glad; for futures like these set forth the intention of attaining something as a result or aim of what has been expressed just before: Ew. § 325, a. U*DJ"733 is not governed by the verbs of rejoicing (cxviii. 24), in which case it would have been ^Jfla, biit; is an adverbial definition of time (cxlv. 2, Jer. xxxv. 8): within the term of life allotted to us. We see from ver. 15 that the season of affliction has already lasted for a long time. The duration of the forty years of wrath, which in the midst of their course seemed to them as an eternity, is made the measure of the reviving again that is earnestly sought. The plural niD1. instead of *t£ is common only to our Psalm and Deut. xxxii. 7; it is not known elsewhere to Biblical Hebrew. And the poetical HW instead of W> which also occurs elsewhere, appears for the first time in Deut. xxxii. 7. The meaning of ^n"1??, in which mD1 is specialized after the manner of a genitive, is explained from Deut. viii. 2 sqq., according to which the forty years' wandering in the wilderness was designed to humble (WW) and to prove Israel through suffering. At the close of these forty years Israel stands on the threshold of the Promised Land. To Israel all final hopes were closely united with the taking possession of this land. We learn from Gen. ch. xlix. that it is the horizon of Jacob's prophetic benediction. This Psalm too, in vers. 16, 17, terminates in the prayer for the attainment of this goal. The psalmist has begun in ver. 1 his adoration with the majestic divine name *jfa{; in ver. 13 he began his prayer with the gracious divine name njrp; and now, where he mentions God for the third time, he gives to Him the twofold name, so full of faith, tiVpgj "OIK. 7tf used once alternates with the thrice repeated by: salvation is not Israel's own work, but the work of Jahve; it therefore comes from above, it comes and meets Israel. It is worthy of remark that the noun sVB occurs only in Deuteronomy in the whole Tora, and that here also of the gracious rule of Jahve, ch. xxxii. 4, cf. xxxiii. 11. The church calls the work of the Lord WV nbvo in so far as He executes it through them. This expression DHJ nJP]/D as a designation of human undertakings runs through the whole of the Book of
Deuteronomy: ch. ii. 7, iv. 28, xi. 7, xiv. 29, xvi. 15, xxiv. 19, xxvii. 15, xxviii. 12, xxx. 9. In the work of the Lord the bright side of His glory unveils itself, hence it is called "Tin; this too is a word not alien at least to the language of Deuteronomy, ch. xxxiii. 17. Therein is made manifest rfl DV3, His graciousness and condescension — an expression which David has borrowed from Moses in Ps. xxvii. 4. nto* and W are optatives. n:J13 is an urgent request, imperat. obsecrantis as the old expositors say. With Waw the same thought is expressed over again (cf. Isa. Iv. 1, wl, yea come) — a simple, childlike anadiplosis which vividly reminds us of the Book of Deuteronomy, which revolves in thoughts that are ever the same, and by that very means speaks deeply to the heart. Thus the Deuteronomic impression of this Psalm accompanies us from beginning to end, from \WO to W nbTO. Nor will it now be merely accidental that the fondness for comparisons, which is a peculiarity of the Book of Deuteronomy (ch. i. 31, 44, viii. 5, xxviii. 29, 49, cf. xxviii. 13, 44, xxix. 17, 18), is found again in this Psalm.
1 HE who sitteth in the protection of the Most High, Who abideth in the shadow of the Almighty —
2 I say to Jahve: My refuge and my fortress, My God in whom I trust.
3 For He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,
4 With His feathers shall He defend thee, And under His wings art thou hidden; A shield and buckler is His truth.
5 Thou shalt not be afraid for any nightly terror, For the arrow that flieth by day,
6 For the pestilence that walketh in the darkness, For the sickness that wasteth at noon-day.
7 A thousand may fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy
8 Nay, with thine own eyes shalt thou look on And see the recompense of the wicked.
10 The range of misfortune toucheth thee not, And the plague doth not come nigh thy tent.
11 For His angels hath He given charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways.
15 If he shall call upon Me, I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble;
The primeval song is followed by an anonymous song (inscribed by the LXX. without any warrant t&> AavlS), the time of whose composition cannot be determined; and it is only placed in this order because the last verse accords with the last verse but one of Ps. xc. There the revelation of Jahve' s work is prayed for, and here Jahve promises: / will grant him to see My salvation; the u work of Jahve " is His realized " salvation." The two Psalms also have other points of contact, e.g. in the jto referred to God (yid. Symbolce, p. 60).
In this Psalm, the Invocavit Psalm of the church, which praises the protecting and rescuing grace which he who believingly takes refuge in God experiences in all times of danger and distress,* the relation of ver. 2 to ver. 1 meets us at the very beginning as a perplexing riddle. If we take ver. 1 as a clause complete in itself, then it is tautological. If we take ">2N in ver. 2 as a participle (Jerome, dicens) instead of "1BK, ending with Pathach because a construct form (cf. xciv. 9, cxxxvi. 6), then the participial subject would have a participial predicate: " He who sitteth is saying," which is inelegant and also improbable, since "IBN in other instances is always the 1st pers. fut. If we take 10K as 1st pers. fut. and ver. 1 as an apposition of the subject expressed in advance: as such an one who sitteth... I say, then we stumble against?J^^; this transition of the participle to the finite verb, especially without the copula ('-Pi), is confusing. If, however, we go on and read further into the Psalm, we find that the same difficulty as to the change of person recurs several times later on, just as in the opening. Olshausen, Hupfeld, and Hitzig get rid of this difficulty by all sorts of conjectures. But a reason for this abrupt change of the person is that dramatic arrangement recognised even in the Targum, although awkwardly indicated, which, however, was first of all clearly discerned by J. D. Michaelis and Maurer. There are, to wit, two voices that speak (as in Ps. cxxi.), and at last the voice of Jahve comes in as a third. His closing utterance, rich in promise, forms, perhaps not un accidentally, a seven-line strophe. Whether the Psalm came also to be executed in liturgical use thus with several voices, perhaps by three choirs, we cannot tell; but the poet certainly laid it out dramatically, as the translation represents it. In spite of the many echoes of earlier models, it is one of the freshest and most beautiful Psalms, resembling the second part of Isaiah in its light-winged, richly coloured, and transparent diction.
* Hence in J. Shabbath 8, col. 2, and Midrash Shocher tob on xci. 1 and elsewhere, it is called, together with Ps. iii., (D^JQ) pyiJQ "W, a song of occurrences, i.e. a protective (or talismanic) song in times of dangers that may befall one, just as Sebald Hey den's Psalm-song, " He who is in the protection of the Most High and resigns himself to God," is inscribed " Preservative against the pestilence."
Vers. 1, 2. As the concealing One, God is called tfyy, the inaccessibly high One; and as the shadowing One *^, the invincibly almighty One. Faith, however, calls Him by His covenant name (Heilsname) run1 and, with the suffix of appropriation, TOK (my God). In connection with ver. 1 we are reminded of the expressions of the Book of Job, ch. xxxix. 28, concerning the eagle's building its nest in its eyrie. According to the accentuation, ver. 2a ought to be rendered with Geier, " Dicit: in Domino meo (or Domini) latibulum, etc." But the combination 'rp "iBX is more natural, since the language of address follows in both halves of the verse.
Vers. 3-9a. K^PJ, as in Pro v. vi. 5, Jer. v. 26, is the dullest toned form for K^|T or B^, cxxiv. 7. What is meant is death, or " he who has the power of death," Heb. ii. 14, cf. 2 Tim. ii. 26. "The snare of the fowler'* is a figure for the peril of one's life, Eccles. ix. 12. In connection with ver. 4 we have to call to mind Deut. xxxii. 11: God protects His own as an eagle with its large strong wing. n")3K is nom. unitatis, a pinion, to "I2tt, Isa* x^ 31; and the Hiph. "Hpn, from ^]3D? with the dative of the object, like the Kal in cxl. 8, signifies to afford covering, protection. The aira^ \ey. rt"jnb, according to its stem-word, is that which encompasses anything round about, and here beside H3V, a weapon of defence surrounding the body translates H3¥ with Rp*in? 0upeo?, and ninb with MTOE, which points to the round parma. iflpN is the truth of the divine promises. This is an impregnable defence (a) in war-times, ver. 5, against nightly surprises, and in the battle by day; (b) in times of pestilence, ver. 6, when the destroying angel, wTho passes through and destroys the people (Ex. xi. 4), can do no harm to him who has taken refuge in God, either in the midnight or the noontide hours. The future vD* is a more rhythmical and, in the signification to rage (as of disease) and to vanish away, a more usual form instead of jfe. The LXX., Aquila, and Symmachus erroneously associate the demon name 1W with TW*. It is a metaplastic (as if formed from "W) future for ifc'J, cf. Prov. xxix. 6, |VV, and Isa. xlii. 4,)V»J, frangetur* Ver. la a hypothetical protasis: si cadant; the preterite would signify ceciderint, Ew. § 357, b. With PI that which will solely and exclusively take place is introduced. Burk correctly renders: nullum cum peste rem Jiabebis, nisi ut videas. Only a spectator shalt thou be, and that with thine own eyes, being thyself inaccessible and left to survive, conscious that thou thyself art a living one in contrast with those who are dying. And thou shalt behold, like Israel on the night of the Passover, the just retribution to which the evil-doers fall a prey. nopB'j recompense, retribution, is a hapaxlegomenon, cf. BTO^, Isa. xxxiv. 8. Ascribing the glory to God, the second voice confirms or ratifies these promises.
Vers. 9&-16. The first voice continues this ratification, and goes on weaving these promises still further: thou hast made the Most High thy dwelling-place (PJ^); there shall not touch thee... The promises rise ever higher and higher, and sound more glorious. The Pual H3K, prop, to be turned towards, is equivalent to "to befall one," as in Pro v. xii. 21; Aquila well renders: ov pLera^dijo-eTac irpo<; ae Kaicia. 1"\p?~tib reminds one of Isa. liv. 14, where?K follows; here it is 3, as in Judg. xix. 13. The angel guardianship which is apportioned to him who trusts in God appears in vers. 11, 12 as a universal fact, not as a solitary fact and occurring only in extraordinary instances. Hcec est vera miraculorum ratio, observes Brentius on this passage, quod semel aut iterum manifeste revelent ea quce Deus semper abscondite operatur. In ^\mW) the suffix has been combined with the full form of the future. The LXX. correctly renders ver. 126: prproTe. irpoa- Koyfrrj^ 7T/30? XlOov tov nroha gov, for *|JJ everywhere else, and therefore surely here too and in Prov. iii. 23, has a transitive signification, not an intransitive (Aquila, Jerome, Symmachus), cf. Jer. xiii. 16. Ver. 13 tells what he who trusts in God has power to do by virtue of this divine succour through the medium of angels. The promise calls to mind Mark xvi. 18, ocpeis apovo-i, they shall take up serpents, but still more Luke x. 19: Behold, I give you power to tread iirdvco o<f>eccv Kau o-KopTriwv Kai eVt iracrav ttjv Zvvapuiv tov iyOpov, They are all kinds of destructive powers belonging to nature, and particularly to the spirit-world, that are meant. They are called lions and fierce lions from the side of their open power, which threatens destruction, and adders and dragons from the side of their venomous secret malice. In ver. 13a it is promised that the man who trusts in God shall walk on over these monsters, these malignant foes, proud in God and unharmed; in ver. 13&, that he shall tread them to the ground (cf. Rom. xvi. 20). That which the divine voice of promise now says at the close of the Psalm is, so far as the form is concerned, an echo taken from Ps. 1. Vers. 15 and 23 of that Psalm sound almost word for word the same. Gen. xlvi. 4, and more especially Isa. lxiii. 9, are to be compared on ver. 15b. In B. Taanith 16a it is inferred from this passage that God compassionates the suffering ones whom He is compelled by reason of His holiness to chasten and prove. The u salvation of Jahve," as in 1. 23, is the full reality of the divine purpose (or counsel) of mercy. To live to see the final glory was the rapturous thought of the Old Testament hope, and in the apostolic age, of the New Testament hope also.
3 To show forth in the morning Thy loving-kindness, And Thy faithfulness in the nights,
4 Upon a ten-stringed instrument and upon the nabla, In skilful playing with the cithern.
5 For Thou makest me glad, Jahve, through Thy rule, Because of the works of Thy hands can I exult.
6 How great are Thy works, Jahve! Very deep are Thy thoughts.
8 When the ungodly sprang up as the green herb And all the workers of evil flourished,
11 And Thou exaltest, as an antelope, my horn, I am anointed with refreshing oil.
12 And mine eye feasteth upon those that lie in wait for me, Mine ears see their desire upon those who maliciously rose
13 The righteous shall sprout forth as the palm, As a cedar on Lebanon shall he grow up.
15 They shall be still vigorous in old age, Full of sap and green shall they remain,
My rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
This Song-Psalm for the Sabbath-day was the Sabbath- Psalm among the week's Psalms of the post-exilic service (cf. vol. i. pp. 32, 334); and was sung in the morning at the drink-offering of the first Tamid lamb, just as at the accompanying Sabbath-musaph-offering (Num. xxviii. 9 sq.) a part of the song Deut. ch. xxxii. (divided into six parts) was sung, and at the service connected with the Mincha or evening sacrifice one of the three pieces, Ex. xv. 1-10, 11-19, Num. xxi. 17-20 (B. Rosh ha-S^ana 31a). 1 Mace. ix. 23 is a reminiscence from Ps. xcii. deviating but little from the LXX. version, just as 1 Mace. vii. 17 is a quotation taken from Ps. lxxix. With respect to the sabbatical character of the Psalm, it is a disputed question even in the Talmud whether it relates to the Sabbath of the Creation (R. Nehemiah, as it is taken by the Targum) or to the final Sabbath of the world's history (R. Akiba: the day that is altogether Sabbath; cf. Athanasius: alvel i/celvrjv tt)V ryevrjaofiivTjv avairavaiv). The latter is relatively more correct. It praises God, the Creator of the world, as the Ruler of the world, whose rule is pure lovingkindness and faithfulness, and calms itself, in the face of the flourishing condition of the evil-doers, with the prospect of the final issue, which will brilliantly vindicate the righteousness of God, that was at that time imperceptible to superficial observation, and will change the congregation of the righteous into a flourishing grove of palms and cedars upon holy ground. In this prospect Ps. xcii. 12 and Ps. xci. 8 coincide, just as God is also called "the Most High" at the beginning of these two Psalms. But that the tetragrammaton occurs seven times in both Psalms, as Hengstenberg says, does not turn out to be correct. Only the Sabbath-Psalm (and not Ps. xci.) repeats the most sacred Name seven times. And certainly the unmistakeable strophe-schema too, 6. 6. 7. 6. 6, is not without significance. The middle of the Psalm bears the stamp of the sabbatic number. It is also worthy of remark that the poet gains the number seven by means of an anadiplosis in ver. 10. Such an emphatic climax by means of repetition is common to our Psalm with xciii. 3, xci v. 3, xcvi. 13.
Vers. 2-4. The Sabbath is the day that God has hallowed, and that is to be consecrated to God by our turning away from the business pursuits of the working days (Isa. lviii. 13 sq.) and applying ourselves to the praise and adoration of God, which is the most proper, blessed Sabbath employment. It is good, i.e. not merely good in the eyes of God, but also good for man, beneficial to the heart, pleasant and blessed. Lovingkindness is designedly connected with the dawn of the morning, for it is morning light itself, which breaks through the night (xxx. 6, lix. 17), and faithfulness with the nights, for in the perils of the loneliness of the night it is the best companion, and nights of affliction are the " foil of its verification." *wy beside P3p (?3p) is equivalent to "nW???. in xxxiii. 2, cxliv. 9: the ten-stringed harp or lyre, t^an is the music of stringed instruments (yid. on ix. 17), and that, since nan in itself is not a suitable word for the rustling (strepitus) of the strings, the impromptu or phantasia playing (in Amos vi. 5, scornfully, D"}3)? which suits both ix. 17 (where it is appended to the forte of the interlude) and the construction with Beth instrumenti.
Vers. 5-7. Statement of the ground of this commendation of the praise of God. Whilst ^a is the usual word for God's historical rule (xliv. 2, Ixiv. 10, xc. 16, etc.), V* WO denotes the works of the Creator of the world, although not to the exclusion of those of the Ruler of the world (cxliii. 5). To be able to rejoice over the revelation of God in creation and the revelation of God in general is a gift from above, which the poet thankfully confesses that he has received. The Vulgate begins ver. 5 Quia delectasti me, and Dante in his Purgatorio, xxviii. 80, accordingly calls the Psalm il Salmo Delectasti; a smiling female form, which represents the life of Paradise, says, as she gathers flowers, she is so happy because, with the Psalm Delectasti, she takes a delight in the glory of God's works. The works of God are transcendently great; very deep are His thoughts, which mould human history and themselves gain form in it (cf. xl. 6, cxxxix. 17 sq., where infinite fulness is ascribed to them, and Isa. lv. 8 sq., where infinite height is ascribed to them). Man can neither measure the greatness of the divine works nor fathom the depth of the divine thoughts; he who is enlightened, however, perceives the immeasurableness of the one and the unfathomableness of the other, whilst a "lysrs^K, a man of animal nature, homo brntus (vid. lxxiii. 22), does not come to the knowledge (S?T tfr, used absolutely as in xiv. 4), and ^93, a blockhead, or one dull in mind, whose carnal nature outweighs his intellectual and spiritual nature, does not discern HNrntf (cf. 2 Sam. xiii. 17), id ipsum, viz. how unsearchable are God's judgments and untrackable His ways (Rom. xi. 33).
Vers. 8-10. Upon closer examination the prosperity of the ungodly is only a semblance that lasts for a time. The infinitive construction in ver. 8 is continued in the historic tense, and it may also be rendered as historical. HJVn DN? (Saadia:
jjlj) is to be supplied in thought before Dio^np, as in Job xxvii. 14. What is spoken of is an historical occurrence which, in its beginning, course, and end, has been frequently repeated even down to the present day, and ever confirmed afresh. And thus, too, in time to come and once finally shall the ungodly succumb to a peremptory, decisive plTTBO judgment of destruction. Jahve is tb)/p Dho, by His nature and by His rule He is " a height for ever;" i.e. in relation to the creature and all that goes on here below He has a nature beyond and above all this (Jenseitigkeit), ever the same and absolute; He is absolutely inaccessible to the God-opposed one here below who vaunts himself in stupid pride and rebelliously exalts himself as a titan, and only suffers it to last until the term of his barren blossoming is run out. Thus the present course of history will and must in fact end in a final victory of good over evil: for lo Thine enemies, Jahve — for lo Thine enemies... H3n points as it were with the finger to the inevitable end; and the emotional anadiplosis breathes forth a zealous love for the cause of God as if it were his own. God's enemies shall perish, all the workers of evil shall be disjointed, scattered, VHB1V (cf. Job iv. 11). Now they form a compact mass, which shall however fall to pieces, when one day the intermingling of good and evil has an end.
Vers. 11-13. The hitherto oppressed church then stands forth vindicated and glorious. The futt. consec.y as preterites of the ideal past, pass over further on into the pure expression of future time. The LXX. renders: ica\ vyfraiOrjaerai (py$) a>? fjLovo/cepcoTos to /cepa? /jlov. By DW (incorrect for BNH, primary form Dtf")), fiovo/cepcosy is surely to be understood the oryx, one-horned according to Aristotle and the Talmud (vid. on xxix. 6, Job xxxix. 9-12). This animal is called in Talmudic bip (perhaps abbreviated from (Movo/cepm); the Talmud also makes use of K7TK (the gazelle) as synonymous with DJO (Aramaic definitive or emphatic state NO"1!).* The primary passages for figures taken from animal life are Num. xxiii. 22, Deut. xxxiii. 17. The horn is an emblem of defensive power and at the same time of stately grace; and the fresh, green oil an emblem of the pleasant feeling and enthusiasm, joyous in the prospect of victory, by which the church is then pervaded (Acts iii. 19). The LXX. erroneously takes *r>i?2i as infin. Piel, to yrjpd? fxov, my being grown old, a signification which the Piel cannot have. It is 1st i^rceL Kal from??3, perfusus sum (cf. Arabic holla, to be moist, ballah and bullah, moistness, good health, the freshness of youth), and the ultimaaccentuation, which also occurs in this form of double Ajin verbs without Waw convers. (vid. on Job xix. 17), ought not to mislead. In the expression |}jn J£t^ the adjective used in other instances only of the olive-tree itself is transferred to the oil,