are not merely bodily diseases, but all kinds of inward and outward sufferings, nn#D the LXX. renders i/c tydopas (from nnc', as in Job xvii. 14); but in this antithesis to life it is more natural to render the "pit" (from nvj>) as a name of Hades, as in xvi. 10. Just as the soul owes its deliverance from guilt and distress and death to God, so also does it owe to God that with which it is endowed out of the riches of divine love. The verb "i^V, without any such addition as in v. 13, is " to crown," cf. viii. 0. As is usually the case, it is construed with a double accusative; the crown is as it were woven out of lovingkindness and compassion. The Beth of 2ii33 in ver. 5 instead of the accusative (civ. 28) denotes the means of satisfaction, which is at the same time that which satisfies. ^\V the Targum renders: dies senectutis tuce, whereas in xxxii. 9 it has ornatus ejus; the Peshito renders: corpus tuum, and in xxxii. 9 inversely, juventus eorum. These significations, " old age " or "youth," are pure inventions. And since the words are addressed to the soul, ^V. cannot also, like 1133 in other instances, be a name of the soul itself (Aben-Ezra, Mendelssohn, Philippsohn, Hengstenberg, and others). We, therefore, with Hitzig, fall back upon the sense of the word in xxxii. 9, where the LXX. renders to? <ria<yova<; avTOiv, but here more freely, apparently starting from the primary notion of "Hy = Arabic cliaddy the cheek: top ifjariirXuiVTa iv ayaOols tt\v iiziBvybiav gov (whereas Saadia's victum tuum is based upon a comparison of the Arabic!jlc, to nourish). The poet tells the soul (i.e. his own person, himself) that God satisfies it with good, so that it as it were gets its cheeks full of it (cf. Ixxxi. 11). The comparison "iffea is, as in Mic. i. 16 (cf. Isa. xl. 31), to be referred to the annual moulting of the eagle. Its renewing of its plumage is an emblem of the renovation of his youth by grace. The predicate to ^Tijtt (plural of extension in relation to time) stands first regularly in the sing. fern.
Vers. 6-10. His range of vision being widened from himself, the poet now in vers. 6-18 describes God's gracious and fatherly conduct towards sinful and perishing men, and that as it shines forth from the history of Israel and is known and recognised in the light of revelation. What ver. 6 says is a common-place drawn from the history of Israel. D^DBCVp is an accusative governed by the nfety that is to be borrowed out of rivy (so Baer after the Masora). And because ver. 6 is the result of an historical retrospect and survey, Jpv in ver. 7 can affirm that which happened in the past (cf. xcix. 6 sq.); for the supposition of Hengstenberg and Hitzig, that Moses here represents Israel like Jacob, Isaac, and Joseph in other instances, is without example in the whole Israelitish literature. It becomes clear from ver. 8 in what sense the making of His ways known is meant. The poet has in his mind Moses' prayer: "make known to me now Thy way" (Ex. xxxiii. 13), which Jahve fulfilled by passing by him as he stood in the cleft of the rock and making Himself visible to him as he looked after Him, amidst the proclamation of His attributes. The ways of Jahve are therefore in this passage not those in which men are to walk in accordance with His precepts (xxv. 4), but those which He Himself follows in the course of His redemptive history (lxvii. 3). The confession drawn from Ex. xxxiv. 6 sq. is become a formula of the Israelitish faith (lxxxvi. 15, cxlv. 8, Joel ii. 13, Neh. ix. 17, and frequently). In vers. 9 sqq. the fourth attribute flpirail) is made the object of further praise. He is not only long (JT% from "spK, like 1?3 from 1?3) in anger, i.e. waiting a long time before He lets His anger loose, but when He contends, i.e. interposes judicially, this too is not carried to the full extent (lxxviii. 38), He is not angry for ever (it?3, to keep, viz. anger, Amos i. 11; cf. the parallels both as to matter and words, Jer. iii. 5, Isa. lvii. 16). The procedure of His righteousness is regulated not according to our sins, but according to His purpose of mercy. The perfects in ver. 10 state that which God has constantly not done, and the futures in ver. 9 what He continually will not do.
Vers. 11-14. The ingenious figures in vers. 11 sq. (cf. xxxvi. 6, lvii. 11) illustrate the infinite power and complete unreservedness of mercy (loving-kindness). PHrnn has Gaja (as have also wWn and ttWOT, xiv. 1, liii. 2, in exact texts), in order to render possible the distinct pronunciation of the guttural in the combination m. Ver. 13 sounds just as much like the spirit of the New Testament as vers. 11, 12. The relationship to Jahve in which those stand who fear Him is a filial relationship based upon free reciprocity (Mai. iii. 11). His Fatherly compassion is (ver. 14) based upon the frailty and perishableness of man, which are known to God, much the same as God's promise after the Flood not to decree a like judgment again (Gen. viii. 21). According to this passage and Deut. xxxi. 21, ^"?T. appears to be intended of' the moral nature; but according to ver. 146, one is obliged to think rather of the natural form which man possesses from God the Creator Py5j Gen. ii. 7) than of the form of heart which he has by his own choice and, so far as its groundwork is concerned, by inheritance (li. 7). In "W3Jj mindful, the passive, according to Bottcher's correct apprehension of it, expresses a passive state after an action that is completed by the person himself, as in ITID3, JJVP and the like. In its form ver. 14a reminds one of the Book of Job ch. xi. 11, xxviii. 23, and ver. 146 as to subject-matter recalls Job vii. 7, and other passages (cf. Ps. lxxviii. 39, lxxxix. 48); but the following figurative representation of human frailty, with which the poet contrasts the eternal nature of the divine mercy as the sure stay of all God-fearing ones in the midst of the rise and decay of things here below, still more strongly recalls that book.
Vers. 15-18. The figure of the grass recalls xc. 5 sq., cf. Isa. xl. 6-8, ii. 12; that of the flower, Job xiv. 2. Kn:« is man as a mortal being; his life's duration is likened to that of a blade of grass, and his beauty and glory to a flower of the field, whose fullest bloom is also the beginning of its fading. In ver. 16 12 (the same as in Isa. xl. 7 sq.) refers to man, who is compared to grass and flowers. *3 is lav with a hypothetical perfect; and the wind that scorches up the plants, referred to man, is an emblem of every form of peril that threatens life: often enough it is really a breath of wind which snaps off a man's life. The bold designation of vanishing away without leaving any trace, u and his place knoweth him no more," is taken from Job vii. 10, cf. ibid. viii. 18, xx. 9. In the midst of this plant-like, frail destiny, there is, however, one strong ground of comfort. There is an everlasting power, which raises all those who link themselves with it above the transitoriness involved in nature's laws, and makes them eternal like itself. This power is the mercy of God, which spans itself above (by) all those who fear Him like an eternal heaven. This is God's righteousness, which rewards faithful adherence to His covenant and conscientious fulfilment of His precepts in accordance with the order of redemption, and shows itself even to (?) children's children, according to Ex. xx. 6, xxxiv. 7, Deut. vii. 9: on into a thousand generations, i.e. into infinity.
Vers. 19-22. He is able to show Himself thus gracious to His own, for He is the supra-mundane, all-ruling King. With this thought the poet draws on to the close of his song of praise. The heavens in opposition to the earth, as in cxv.3, Eccles. v. 1, is the unchangeable realm above the rise and fall of things here below. On ver. 195 cf. 1 Chron. xxix. 12. ^33 refers to everything created without exception, the universe of created things. In connection with the heavens of glory the poet cannot but call to mind the angels. His call to these to join in the praise of Jahve has its parallel only in Ps. xxix. and cxlviii. It arises from the consciousness of the church on earth that it stands in living like-minded fellowship with the angels of God, and that it possesses a dignity which rises above all created things, even the angels which are appointed to serve it (xci. 11). They are called D^aa as in Joel iv. [iii.] 11, and in fact n^ ^a, as the strong to whom belongs strength unequalled. Their life endowed with heroic strength is spent entirely — an example for mortals — in an obedient execution of the word of God. Vb^p is a definition not of the purpose, but of the manner: obediendo (as in Gen. ii. 3 perficiendo). Hearing the call of His word, they also forthwith put it into execution. The hosts 0^?V)> as ^£3^?*? snows> are the celestial spirits gathered around the angels of a higher rank (cf. Luke ii. 13), the innumerable XecrovpyLKa Trvev^iara {civ. 4, Dan. vii. 10, Heb. i. 14), for there is a hierarchia coelestis. From the archangels the poet comes to the myriads of the heavenly hosts, and from these to all creatures, that they, wheresoever they may be throughout Jahve's wide domain, may join in the song of praise that is to be struck up; and from this point he comes back to his own soul, which he modestly includes among the creatures mentioned in the third passage. A threefold T*?a VEjjj now corresponds to the threefold tt]3; and inasmuch as the poet thus comes back to his own soul, his Psalm also turns back into itself and assumes the form of a converging circle.
2 Enwrapping Thyself in light as a garment, Spreading out the heavens like a tent-cloth,
3 Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters, Who maketh the clouds His chariot,
Who walketh upon the wings of the wind,
5 He hath founded the earth upon its pillars, That it may not totter for ever and ever.
6 The deep as a garment didst Thou cover over it, Upon the mountains stood the waters.
At the voice of Thy thunder they hasted away —
To the place which Thou hast founded for them,
9 A bound hast Thou set, they may not pass over, They may not turn back to cover the earth.
11 They give drink to all the beasts of the field, The wild asses quench their thirst.
13 He watereth the mountains out of His chambers — With the fruit of Thy works is the earth satisfied.
14 He causeth grass to grow for the cattle, And herb for the service of man —
15 And that wine may make glad the heart of mortal man, To make his face shining from oil,
The cedars of Lebanon, which He hath planted;
18 Mountains, the high ones, are for the wild goats, The rocks are a refuge for the rock-badgers.
19 He hath made the moon for a measuring of the times, The sun knoweth its going down.
20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night, Wherein all the beasts of the forest do move.
21 The young lions roar after their prey, And seek from God their food.
With wisdom hast Thou executed them altogether, The earth is full of Thy creatures!
25 Yonder sea, great and far extended — There it teems with life, innumerable, Small beasts together with great.
29 Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled; Thou takest back their breath, they expire, And return to their dust.
30 Thou sendest forth Thy breath, they are created, And Thou renewest the face of the ground.
31 Let the glory of Jahve endure for ever, Let Jahve rejoice in His works;
32 He, who looketh on the earth and it trembleth, He toucheth the mountains and they smoke.
With Bless, 0 my soul, Jahve, as Ps. ciii., begins this anonymous Ps. civ. also, in which God's rule in the kingdom of nature, as there in the kingdom of grace, is the theme of praise, and as there the angels are associated with it. The poet sings the God-ordained present condition of the world with respect to the creative beginnings recorded in Gen. i. 1-ii. 3; and closes with the wish that evil may be expelled from this good creation, which so thoroughly and fully reveals God's power, and wisdom, and goodness. It is a Psalm of nature, but such as no poet among the Gentiles could have written. The Israelitish poet stands free and unfettered in the presence of nature as his object, and all things appear to him as brought forth and sustained by the creative might of the one God, brought into being and preserved in existence on purpose that He, the selfsufficient One, may impart Himself in free condescending love — as the creatures and orders of the Holy One, in themselves good and pure, but spotted and disorganized only by the selfcorruption of man in sin and wickedness, which self-corruption must be turned out in order that the joy of God in His works and the joy of these works in their Creator may be perfected. The Psalm is altogether an echo of the heptahemeron (or history of the seven days of creation) in Gen. i. 1-ii. 3. Corresponding to the seven days it falls into seven groups, in which the *TND 31D"run of Gen. i. 31 is expanded. It is not, however, so worked out that each single group celebrates the work of a day of creation; the Psalm has the commingling whole of the finished creation as its standpoint, and is therefore not so conformed to any plan. Nevertheless it begins with the light and closes with an allusion to the divine Sabbath. When it is considered that ver. 8a is only with violence accommodated to the context, that ver. 18 is forced in without any connection and contrary to any plan, and that ver. 32 can onlv be made intelligible in that position by means of an artificial combination of the thoughts, then the supposition of Hitzig, ingeniously wrought out by him in his own way, is forced upon one, viz. that this glorious hymn has decoyed some later poet-hand into enlarging upon it.
Vers. 1-4. The first decastich begins the celebration with work of the first and second days. Tjni Tin here is not the doxa belonging to God irpo ttclvtos tov cllcjvos (Jude, ver. 25), but the doxa which He has put on (Job xl. 10) since He created the world, over against which He stands in kingly glory, or rather in which He is immanent, and which reflects this kingly glory in various gradations, yea, to a certain extent is this glory itself. For inasmuch as God began the work of creation with the creation of light, He has covered Himself with this created light itself as with a garment. That which once happened in connection with the creation may, as in Amos iv. 13, Isa. xliv. 24, xlv. 7, Jer. x. 12, and frequently, be expressed by participles of the present, because the original setting is continued in the preservation of the world; and determinate participles alternate with participles without the article, as in Isa. xliv. 24-28, with no other difference than that the former are more predicative and the latter more attributive. With ver. 2b the poet comes upon the work of the second day: the creation of the expanse (jPpi) which divides between the waters. God has spread this out (cf. Isa. xl. 22) like a tent-cloth (Isa. liv. 2), of such light and of such fine transparent work; nrpu here rhymes with HD'y. In those waters which the " expanse" holds aloft over the earth God lays the beams of His upper chambers (vni^y instead of which we find VDi^D in Amos ix. 6, from n>pjj? ascent, elevation, then an upper story, an upper chamber, which would be more accurately ^V after the Aramaic and Arabic); but not as though the waters were the material for them, they are only the place for them, that is exalted above the earth, and are able to be this because to the
Immaterial One even that which is fluid is solid, and that which is dense is transparent. The reservoirs of the upper waters, the clouds, God makes, as the lightning, thunder, and rain indicate, into His chariot (^31), upon which He rides along in order to make His power felt below upon the earth judicially (Isa. xix. 1), or in rescuing and blessing men. W"l (only here) accords in sound with 2ri3? xviii. 11. For ver. 3c also recalls this primary passage, where the wings of the wind take the place of the cloud-chariot. In ver. 4 the LXX. (Heb. i. 7) makes the first substantive into an accusative of the object, and the second into an accusative of the predicate: 'O ttolcov toi/9 ayyeXovs amov irvevixara koX tovs \€CTOvp,yov<; avrov irvpbs <fi\6ya. It is usually translated the reverse way: making the winds into His angels, etc. This rendering is possible so far as the language is concerned (cf. c. 3 Chethib, and on the position of the words, Amos iv. 13 with v. 8), and the plural Vrn^D is explicable in connection with this rendering from the force of the parallelism, and the singular W$ from the fact that this word has no plural. Since, however, nby with two accusatives usually signifies to produce something out of something, so that the second accusative (viz. the accusative of the predicate, which is logically the second, but according to the position of the words may just as well be the first, Ex. xxv. 39, xxx. 25, as the second, Ex. xxxvii. 23, xxxviii. 3, Gen. ii. 7, 2 Chron. iv. 18-22) denotes the materia ex qua, it may with equal right at least be interpreted: Who makes His messengers out of the winds, His servants out of flaming or consuming (yid. on lvii. 5) fire (W8, as in Jer. xlviii. 45, masc). And this may affirm either that God makes use of wind and fire for special missions (cf. cxlviii. 8), or (cf. Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, i. 325 f.) that He gives wind and fire to His angels for the purpose of His operations in the world which are effected through their agency, as the materials of their outward manifestation, and as it were of their self-embodiment,
* It is a Talmudic view that God really makes the angels out of fire, B. Chagiga, 14a (cf. Koran, xxxviii. 77): Day by day are the angels of the service created out of the stream of fire (lin *)nj), and sing their song of praise and perish.
together in thought as the vehicle of the divine activity in the world, and in xxxv. 5 the angel of Jahve represents the energy of the wind.
Vers. 5-9. In a second decastich the poet speaks of the restraining of the lower waters and the establishing of the land standing out of the water. The suffix, referring back to pK, is intended to say that the earth hanging free in space (Job xxvi. 7) has its internal supports. Its eternal stability is preserved even amidst the judgment predicted in Isa. xxiv. 16 sq., since it comes forth out of it, unremoved from its former station, as a transformed, glorified earth. The deep (Dinn) with which God covers it is that primordial mass of water in which it lay first of all as it were in embryo, for it came into being ef vSaTO? koX oY #8aT05 (2 Pet. iii. 5). iJY©3 does not refer to Dinn (masc. as in Job xxviii. 14), because then HvV would be required, but to pK, and the masculine is to be explained either by attraction (according to the model of 1 Sam. ii. 4a), or by a reversion to the masculine ground-form as the discourse proceeds (cf. the same thing with ^V 2 Sam. xvii. 13, npV? Ex. xi. 6, 1J Ezek. ii. 9). According to ver. 66, the earth thus overflowed with water was already mountainous; the primal formation of the mountains is therefore just as old as the Dinn mentioned in direct succession to the inni inn. After this, vers. 7-9 describe the subduing of the primordial waters by raising up the dry land and the confining of these waters in basins surrounded by banks. Terrified by the despotic command of God, they started asunder, and mountains rose aloft, the dry land with its heights and its low grounds appeared. The rendering that the waters, thrown into wild excitement, rose up the mountains and descended again (Hengstenberg), does not harmonize with the fact that they are represented in ver. 6 as standing above the mountains. Accordingly, too, it is not to be interpreted after cvii. 26: they (the waters) rose mountain-high, they sunk down like valleys. The reference of the description to the coming forth of the dry land on the third day of creation requires that tnn should be taken as subject to ^\ But then, too, the TOJ2 are the subject to W, as Hilary of Poictiers renders it in his Genesis, v. 97, etc.: subsidunt valles, and not the waters as subsiding into the valleys. Hupfeld is correct; ver. 8a is a parenthesis which affirms that, inasmuch as the waters retreating laid the solid land bare, mountains and valleys as such came forth visibly; cf. Ovid, Metam. i. 344:
Ver. 8 continues with the words DlpD"5>N (cf. Gen. i. 9, trtpO"Sj "inx): the waters retreat to the place which (HT, cf. ver. 26, for 1BW, Gen. xxxix. 20) God has assigned to them as that which should contain them. He hath set a bound (<^, synon. ph, Prov. viii. 29, Jer. v. 22) for them beyond which they may not flow forth again to cover the earth, as the primordial waters of chaos have done.
Vers. 10-14&. The third decastich, passing on to the third day of creation, sings the benefit which the shore-surrounded waters are to the animal creation and the growth of the plants out of the earth, which is irrigated from below and moistened from above. God, the blessed One, being the principal subject of the Psalm, the poet (in ver. 10 and further on) is able to go on in attributive and predicative participles: Who sendeth springs &vn?3, into the wadis (not: D vH33j as brooks).?T}1} as ver. 10b shows, is here a synonym of "WP?, and there is no need for saying that, flowing on in the plains, they grow into rivers. The LXX. has eV (pdpay^iv. Hfc favn is doubly poetic for rnfcn n*n. God has also provided for all the beasts that roam far from men; and the wild ass, swift as an arrow, difficult to be hunted, and living in troops (K"}B, Arabic /era, root "IS, J, to move quickly, to whiz, to flee; the wild ass, the onager, Arabic himdr el-wahs, whose home is on the steppes), is made prominent by way of example. The phrase " to break the thirst" occurs only here. ^\y?Vy ver. 12a, refers to the D^^D, which are also still the subject in ver. 11a. The pointing D^KSg needlessly creates a hybrid form in addition to CNBJJ (like D^np) and D"?}[. From the tangled branches by the springs the poet insensibly reaches the second half of the third day. The vegetable kingdom at the same time reminds him of the rain which, descending out of the upper chambers of the heavens, waters the waterless mountain-tops. Like the Talmud (B. Taanith, 10a), by the "fruit of Thy work" (ytoyv as singular) Hitzig understands the rain; but rain is rather that which fertilizes; and why might not the fruit be meant which God's works (y\&yof plural) here below (ver. 24), viz. the vegetable creations, bear, and from which the earth, i.e. its population, is satisfied, inasmuch as vegetable food springs up as much for the beasts as for man? In connection with 3tt>y the poet is thinking of cultivated plants, more especially wheat; rnajfc, however, does not signify: for cultivation by man, since, according to Hitzig's correct remonstrance, they do not say DOTH 12V, and K^nni has not man, but rather God, as its subject, but as in 1 Chron. xxvi. 30, for the service (use) of man.
Vers. 14c-18. In the fourth decastich the poet goes further among the creatures of the field and of the forest. The subject to fcTCrinp is rP»¥D. The clause expressing the purpose, which twice begins with an infinitive, is continued in both instances, as in Isa. xiii. 9, but with a change of subject (cf. e.g. Amos i. 11, ii. 4), in the finite verb. On what is said of wine we may compare Eccles. x. 19, Sir. xl. 20, and more especially Isaiah, who frequently mentions wine as a representative of all the natural sources of joy. The assertion that }?X;9 signifies "before oil = brighter than oil," is an error that is rightly combated by Bottcher in his Proben and two of his " Gleanings,"* which imputes to the poet a mention of oil that is contrary to his purpose in this connection and inappropriate. Corn, wine, and oil are mentioned as the three chief products of the vegetable kingdom (Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Dathe, and Hupfeld), and are assumed under 3by in ver. 14&, as is also the case in other instances where distinction would be superfluous, e.g. in Ex. ix. 22. With oil God makes the countenance shining, or bright and cheerful, not by means of anointing, — since it was not the face but the head that was anointed (Matt, vi. 17), — but by the fact of its increasing the savouriness and nutritiveness of the food. ^?¥?r is chosen with reference to TOP. In ver. 15c k>un~33? does not stand after, as in ver. 15a (where it is "337 with Gaja on account of the distinctive), but before the verb, because 337 as that which is inward stands in antithesis to D"0D as that which is outside. Since the fertilization of the earth by the rain is the chief subject of the predi-
* Proben, i.e. Specimens of Old Testament interpretation, Leipzig 1833, and Athrcnkse (Gleanings), referred to in the preface of these volumes.
cation in vers. 13-15, ver. 16 is naturally attached to what precedes without arousing critical suspicion. That which satisfies is here the rain itself, and not, as in ver. 136, that which the rain matures. The "trees of Jahve" are those which before all others proclaim the greatness of their Creator. Dtrncw refers to these trees, of which the cedars and then the cypresses (D^i">3, root "12, to cut) are mentioned. They are places where small and large birds build their nests and lodge, more particularly the stork, which is called the »lTpn as being ttttjvcov evaefteGTctTov %a)oi)v (Babrius, Fab. xiii.), as avis pia (pietaticultrix in Petronius, lv. 6), i.e. on account of its love of family life, on account of which it is also regarded as bringing good fortune to a house.* The care of God for the lodging of His creatures leads the poet from the trees to the heights of the mountains and the hiding-places of the rocks, in a manner that is certainly abrupt and that disturbs the sketch taken from the account of the creation. D^nhan is an apposition.?V) (Arabic wail) is the steinboc, wild-goat, as being an inhabitant of blP (wal, wa'la), i.e. the high places of the rocks, as fVJ, Lam. iv. 3, according to Wetzstein, is the ostrich as being an inhabitant of the wa'na, i.e. the sterile desert; and ]%& is the rockbadger, which dwells in the clefts of the rocks (Prov. xxx. 26),
(distinct from the African). By \&W the Jewish tradition understands the coney, after which the Peshito here renders it KDjn? (Djn, cuniculus). Both animals, the coney and the rockbadger, may be meant in Lev. xi. 5, Deut. xiv. 7; for the sign of the cloven hoof (njflDK> HDia) is wanting in both. The coney has four toes, and the hyrax has a peculiar formation of hoof, not cloven, but divided into several parts.
Vers. 19-23. The fifth decastich, in which the poet passes over from the third to the fourth day, shows that he has the
* In the Merg' district, where the stork is not called leklek as it is elsewhere, but charnuk on account of its bill like a long horn Lys) standing out in front, the women and children call it Jx^ *^, "bringer of good luck." Like the nTDfl, the long-legged carrion-vulture (Vultur percnopterus) or mountain -stork, opetirthupyos, is called Dm (+z>~j) on account of its OTopyq.
order of the days of creation before his mind. The moon is mentioned first of all, because the poet wishes to make the picture of the day follow that of the night. He describes it in ver. 19 as the calendarial principal star. D*!#9 are points and divisions of time (epochs), and the principal measurer of these for civil and ecclesiastical life is the moon (cf. Sir. xliii. 7, airo a€\r)vr)<; cr\\idov eoprrjs), just as the sun, knowing when he is to set, is the infallible measurer of the day. In ver. 20 the description, which throughout is drawn in the presence of God in His honour, passes over into direct address: jussives (nefa, WJ) stand in the hypothetical protasis and in its apodosis (E\v. § 357, b). It depends upon God's willing only, and it is nic*ht, and the wakeful life of the wild beasts begins to be astir. The young lions then roar after their prey, and flagitaturi sunt a Deo cibum suum. The infinitive with Lamed is an elliptical expression of a conjugatio periphrastica (yid. on Hab. i. 17), and becomes a varying expression of the future in general in the later language in approximation to the Aramaic. The roar of the lions and their going forth in quest of prey is an asking of God which He Himself has implanted in their nature. With the rising of the sun the aspect of things becomes very different. WW is feminine here, where the poet drops the personification (cf. Ps. xix.). The day which dawns with sunrise is the time for man. Both as to matter and style, vers. 21-23 call to mind Job xxiv. 5, xxxvii. 8, xxxviii. 40.
Vers. 24-30. Fixing his eye upon the sea with its small and great creatures, and the care of God for all self-living beings, the poet passes over to the fifth and sixth days of creation. The rich contents of this sixth group flow over and exceed the decastich. With WTTO (not ^rnp, xcii. 6) the poet expresses his wonder at the great number of God's works, each one at the same time having its adjustment in accordance with its design, and all, mutually serving one another, cooperating one with another, t^i?, which signifies both bringing forth and acquiring, has the former meaning here according to the predicate: full of creatures, which bear in themselves the traces of the Name of their Creator (n?.P). Beside T^i?, however, we also find the reading 1JJ3p, which is adopted by Norzi, Heidenheim, and Baer, represented by the versions (LXX., Vulgate, and Jerome), by expositors (Rashi:?!?V PP), by the majority of the MSS. (according to Norzi) and old printed copies, which would signify tt)? tcTiaecos aov, or according to the Latin versions /cTrjaecos gov (possessione tua, Luther * thy possessions"), but is inferior to the plural KTia/idrccv o~ov, as an accusative of the object to n*TO, The sea more particularly is a world of moving creatures innumerable (lxix. 35). Djn nr does not properly signify this sea, but that sea, yonder sea (cf. lxviii. 9, Isa. xxiii. 13, Josh. ix. 13). The attributes follow in an appositional relation, the looseness of which admits of the non-determination (cf. lxviii. 28, Jer. ii. 21, Gen. xliii. 14, and the reverse case above in ver. 18a). rwx in relation to V?K is a nomen unitatis (the single ship). It is an old word, which is also Egyptian in the form hani and ana* Leviathan, in the Book of Job, the crocodile, is in this passage the name of the whale (vid. Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmuds, §§ 178-180, 505). Ewald and Hitzig, with the Jewish tradition, understand)2 in ver. 26 according to Job xl. 29 [xli. 5]: in order to play with him, which, however, gives no idea that is worthy of God. It may be taken as an alternative word for DP (cf. la in ver. 20, Job xl. 20): to play therein, viz. in the sea (Saadia). In E?3, ver. 27, the range of vision is widened from the creatures of the sea to all the living things of the earth; cf. the borrowed passages cxlv. 15 sq., cxlvii. 9. D93, by an obliteration of the suffix, signifies directly " altogether," and W3 (cf. Job xxxviii. 32): when it is time for it. With reference to the change of the subject in the principal and in the infinitival clause, vid. Ew. § 338, a. The existence, passing away, and origin of all beings is conditioned by God. His hand provides everything; the turning of His countenance towards them upholds everything; and His breath, the creative breath, animates and renews all things. The spirit of life of every creature is the disposing of the divine Spirit, which hovered over the primordial waters and transformed the chaos into the cosmos. ^Ipn in ver. 29 is equivalent to ^IpNfi, as in 1 Sam. xv. 6, and frequently. The full future forms accented
* Vide Chabas, Le papyrus magique Harris, p. 246, No. 826: HANI O^N), vaisseau, navire, and the Book of the Dead i. 10, where hani occurs with the determinative picture of a ship. As to the form anat vid. Chabas loc. cit. p. 33.
on the ultima, from ver. 27 onwards, give emphasis to the statements. Job xxxiv. 14 sq. may be compared with ver. 29.
Vers. 31-35. The poet has now come to an end with the review of the wonders of the creation, and closes in this seventh group, which is again substantially decastichic, with a sabbatic meditation, inasmuch as he wishes that the glory of God, which He has put upon His creatures, and which is reflected and echoed back by them to Him, may continue for ever, and that His works may evtr be so constituted that He who was satisfied at the completion of His six days' work may be able to rejoice in them. For if they cease to give Him pleasure, He can indeed blot them out as He did at the time of the Flood, since He is always able by a look to put the earth in a tremble, and by a touch to set the mountains on fire (^V*!^! of the result of the looking, as in Amos v. 8, ix. 6, and ElSflPI of that which takes place simultaneously with the touching, as in cxliv. 5, Zech. ix. 5, cf. on Hab. iii. 10). The poet, however, on his part, will not suffer there to be any lack of the glorifying of Jahve, inasmuch as he makes it his life's work to praise his God with music and song (*jn3 as in lxiii. 5, cf. Bar. iv. 20, iv Tat? rj/jLepcu? (jlov). Oh that this his quiet and his audible meditation upon the honour of God may be pleasing to Him (5>y 2"}V synonymous with bv Ito, but also hv *«?&>, xvi. 6)! Oh that Jahve may be able to rejoice in him, as he himself will rejoice in his God! Between " I will rejoice," ver. 34, and " He shall rejoice," ver. 31, there exists a reciprocal relation, as between the Sabbath of the creature in God and the Sabbath of God in the creature. When the Psalmist wishes tl?at God may have joy in His works of creation, and seeks on his part to please God and to have his joy in God, he is also warranted in wishing that those who take pleasure in wickedness, and instead of giving God joy excite His wrath, may be removed from the earth (IBJV, cf. Num. xiv. 35); for they are contrary to the purpose of the good creation of God, they imperil its continuance, and mar the joy of His creatures. The expression is not: may sins (ETCCn, as it is meant to be read in B. Berachoth, 10a, and as some editions, e.g. Bomberg's of 1521, actually have it), but: may sinners, be no more, for there is no other existence of sin than the personal one.
With the words Bless, 0 my soul, Jahve, the Psalm recurs to its introduction, and to this call upon himself is appended the Hallelujah which summons all creatures to the praise of God — a call of devotion which occurs nowhere out of the Psalter, and within the Psalter is found here for the first time, and consequently was only coined in the later age. In modern printed copies it is sometimes written np6pn? sometimes RJ vpn, but in the earlier copies {e.g. Venice 1521, Wittenberg 1566) mostly as one word rro?n.* In the majority of MSS. it is also found thus as one word,f and that always with n, except the first fTOWJ which occurs here at the end of Ps. civ., which has n raphe in good MSS. and old printed copies. This mode of writing is that attested by the Masora (via1. Baer's Psalterium, p. 132). The Talmud and Midrash observe this first Hallelujah is connected in a significant mariner with the prospect of the final overthrow of the wicked. Ben-Pazzi (B. Berachoth 10a) counts 103 TlVBnQ up to this Hallelujah, reckoning Ps. i. and ii. as one KDBha.
* More accurately STO&n with Chateph, as Jekuthiel ha-Nakdan expressly demands. Moreover the mode of writing it as one word is the rule, since the Masora notes the FP^PPn, occurring only once, in cxxxv. 3, with DyDl riv as being the only instance of the kind.
f Yet even in the Talmud (/. Megilla i. 9, So/rim v. 10) it is a matter of controversy concerning the mode of writing this word, whether it is to be separate or combined; and in B. Pesachim 117a Rab appeals to a Psalter of the school of Chabibi (*MT1 *2TI *6sn) that he has seen, in which l^n stood in one line and pp in the other. In the same place Rab Chasda appeals to a pn 31 *31 W) that he has seen, in which the Hallelujah standing between two Psalms, which might be regarded as the close of the Psalm preceding it or as the beginning of the Psalm following it, was written in the middle between the two (NpTQ JflflDfcO). In the rvttn written as one word, i"p is not regarded as strictly the divine name, only as an addition strengthening the notion of the ppn, as in rP3mQ3 cxviii. 5 i with reference to this, vide Geiger, Ursclirift, S. 275.
THANKSGIVING HYMN IN HONOUR OF GOD WHO IS ATTESTED IN THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL.
1 GIVE thanks unto Jahve, publish His Name, Make known among the peoples His deeds.
2 Sing unto Him, harp unto Him, Speak of all His wondrous works.
4 Follow after Jahve and His strength, Seek ye His face evermore.
5 Remember His wondrous works which He hath done, His rare deeds and the decisions of His mouth,
6 O seed of Abraham His servant, Ye sons of Jacob, His chosen ones.
9 Which He made with Abraham, And His oath unto Isaac.
10 And He hath established it for Jacob as a statute, For Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 Saying: " Unto thee do I give the land of Canaan As the line of your inheritance."
12 When they were a countable people, Very small, and sojourning therein,
13 And went to and fro from nation to natioi., From one kingdom to another people:
19 Until the time that his word came, The word of Jahve had proved him.
21 He made him lord of his house, And ruler over all his possession,
22 To bind his princes at his will, And to make his elders wiser.
And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24 And He made His people fruitful exceedingly, And made them more powerful than their enemies.
25 He turned their heart to hate His people, To practise cunning on His servants;
26 He sent Moses His servant, Aaron, whom He had chosen.
27 They performed upon them facts of His signs, And strange things in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made it dark, And they rebelled not against His words;
29 He turned their waters into blood, And thus killed their fish.
30 Their land swarmed forth fro^s In the chambers of their kings.
32 He gave them as rain hail, Flaming fire in their land,
33 And He smote down their vines and fig-trees, And brake the trees of their border.
34 He spake, and the locusts came, And the grasshopper without number,
35 And devoured all the green herb in their land, And devoured the fruit of their grouud.
36 Then He smote all the first-born in their land, The firstlings of all their strength,
39 He spread a cloud for a covering, And fire to lighten the night;
And satisfied them with the bread of heaven;
41 He opened a rock, and waters gushed out, They flowed through the steppes as a river.
42 For He remembered His holy word, Abraham His servant;
43 And He led forth His people with gladness, And with exulting His chosen ones;
44 And He gave them the lands of the heathen,
We have here another Psalm closing with Hallelujah, which opens the series of the Hodu-Psa\ms. Such is the name we give only to Psalms which begin with Viin (cv., cvii., cxviii., cxxxvi.), just as we call those which begin with n^n (cvi., cxi.-cxiii., cxvii., cxxxv., cxlvi.-cl.) Hallelujah-V sa\ms (alleluiatici.) The expression nniriTi?^np, which frequently occurs in the books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, points to these two kinds of Psalms, or at least to their key-notes.
The festival song which David, according to 1 Chron. xvi. 7, handed over to Asaph and his brethren for musical execution at the setting down of the Ark and the opening of divine service on Zion, is, so far as its first part is concerned (1 Chron. xvi. 8-22), taken from our Psalm (vers. 1-15), which is then followed by Ps. xcvi. as a second part, and is closed with Ps.
cvi. 1, 47, 48. Hitzig regards the festival song in the chronicler as the original, and the respective parallels in the Psalms as u layers or shoots." " The chronicler," says he, u there produces with labour, and therefore himself seeking foreign aid, a song for a past that is dead." But the transition from ver. 22 to ver. 23 and from ver. 33 to ver. 34, so devoid of connection, the taking over of the verse out of Ps. cvi. referring to the Babylonian exile into ver. 35, and even of the doxology of the Fourth Book, regarded as an integral part of the Psalm, into ver. 36, refute that perversion of the right relation, which has been attempted in the interest of the Maccaba?an Psalms. That festival song in the chronicler, as has been shown again very recently by Riehrn and Kohler, is a compilation of parts of songs already at hand, arranged for a definite purpose. Starting on the assumption that the Psalms as a whole are Davidic (just as all the Proverbs are Salomonic), because David called the poetry of the Psalms used in religious worship into existence, the attempt is made in that festival song to represent the opening of the worship on Zion at that time in strains belonging to the Davidic Psalms.
So far as the subject-matter is concerned, Ps. cv. attaches itself to the Asaph Psalm lxxviii., which recapitulates the history of Israel. The recapitulation here, however, is made not with any didactic purpose, but with the purpose of forming a hymn, and does not come down beyond the time of Moses and Joshua. Its source is likewise the Tora as it now lies before us. The poet epitomizes what the Tora narrates, and clothes it in a poetic garb.
Vers. 1-6. Invitation to the praise — praise that resounds far and wide among the peoples — of the God who has become manifest wondrously in the deeds and words connected with the history of the founding of Israel, 'n? nnin? as in xxxiii. 2, lxxv. 2, of a praising and thankful confession offered to God; 'n dbq fcopj to call with the name of Jahve, i.e. to call upon it, of an audible, solemn attestation of God in prayer and m discourse (Symmachus, /crjpvaaere). The joy of heart *
* The Mugrash of npB^ with the following Legarme seems here to be of equal value with Zakeph, 1 Chron. xvi. 10.
that is desired is the condition of a joyous opening of the mouth and Israel's own stedfast turning towards Jahve, the condition of all salutary result; for it is only His " strength" that breaks through all dangers, and His " face" that lightens up all darkness. VET^BPD, as ver. 7 teaches, are God's judicial utterances, which have been executed without any hindrance, more particularly in the case of the Egyptians, their Pharaoh, and their gods. The chronicler has *n%S and b«"JJ^ JHT, which is so far unsuitable as one does not know whether vny is to be referred to " Israel " the patriarch, or to the u seed of Israel," the nation; the latter reference would be deutero- Isaianic. In both texts the LXX. reads n3g (ye His servants). Vers. 7-11. The poet now begins himself to do that to which he encourages Israel. Jahve is Israel's God: His righteous rule extends over the whole earth, whilst His people experience His inviolable faithfulness to His covenant, mrv in ver. la is in apposition to fcttH, for the God who bears this name is as a matter of course the object of the song of praise. 13T is the perfect of practically pledged certainty (cf. cxi. 5, where we find instead the future of confident prospect). The chronicler has ^T instead (LXX. again something different: fiv7]fjLovev(ofjbev); but the object is not the demanding but the promissory side of the covenant, so that consequently it is not Israel's remembering but God's that is spoken of. He remembers His covenant in all time to come, so that exile and want of independence as a state are only temporary, exceptional conditions, nj¥ has its radical signification here, to establish, institute, cxi. 9. Tta *)?Np (in which expression "in is a specifying accusative) is taken from Deut. vii. 9. And since "*yj is the covenant word of promise, it can be continued "i£?N rr>3; and Hagg. ii. 5 (vid. Kohler thereon) shows that 1BW is not joined to imi over ver. 8b. \r\W2W, however, is a second object to "DJ (since "OT with what belongs to it as an apposition is out of the question). It is the oath on Moriah (Gen. xxii. 16) that is meant, which applied to Abraham and his seed. P?f v (chronicler P^f??), as in Amos vii. 9, Jer. xxxiii. 26. To 13} is appended ^PSJl; the suffix, intended as neuter, points to what follows, viz. this, that Canaan shall be Israel's hereditary land. From Abraham and Isaac we come to Jacob- Israel, who as being the father of the twelve is the twelve-tribe nation itself that is coming into existence; hence the plural can alternate with the singular in ver. 11. IVP paTiX (chronicler, without the DN) is an accusative of the object, and t>3n Dsnpro accusative of the predicate: the land of Canaan as the province of your own hereditary possession measured out with a measuring line (lxxviii. 55).
Vers. 12-15. The poet now celebrates the divine preservation which had sway over the small beginnings of Israel, when it made the patriarchs proof against harm on their wanderings. " Men of number" are such as can be easily counted, via1, the confessions in Gen. xxxiv. 30, Deut. xxvi. 5; ^pnrisi places the claim upon the hospitality at one time of this people and at another time of that people in the connection with it of cause and effect. Wp3, as a small number, only such a small number, signifies, as being virtually an adjective: inconsiderable, insignificant, worthless (Prov. x. 20). B3 refers to Canaan. In ver. 13 the way in which the words *i3 and EV alternate is instructive: the former signifies the nation, bound together by a common origin, language, country, and descent; the latter the people, bound together by unity of government.* The apodosis does not begin until ver. 14. It is different in connection with Dsnvna in the text of the chronicler, and in this passage in the Psalter of the Syriac version, according to which ver. 12 ought to be joined to the preceding group. The variation roboDDI instead of rotacD is of no consequence; but PW (to any one whomsoever) instead of D"J?> m connection with rron, restores the current mode of expression (Eccles. v. 11, 2 Sam. xvi. 11, Hos. iv. 17) instead of one which is without support elsewhere, but which follows the model of |nj, K>DJ? Gen. xxxi. 28 (cf. supra i. 274); whilst on the other hand W3321 instead of '•K^jti substitutes an expression that cannot be supported for the current one (Gen. xix. 9, Ruth i. 21). In ver. 14 the poet has the three histories of the preservation of
* For this reason a king says '•fty, not «ja; and '•ia only occurs twice with a suffix, which refers to Jahve (cvi. 5, Zeph. ii. 9); for this reason ^|, frequently side by side with DJJ, is the nobler word, e.g. in Deut. xxxii. 21, Jer. ii. 11; for this reason DV is frequently added to *»i-| as adignitative predicate, Ex. xxxiii. 13, Deut. iv. 6; and for this reason D^3 and 'n D]/ are used antithetically.
the wives of the patriarchs in his mind, viz. of Sarah in Egypt (Gen. ch. xii.), and of Sarah and of Kebekah both in Philistia (ch. xx., xxvi., cf. especially xxvi. 11). In the second instance God declares the patriarch to be a " prophet" (ch. xx. 7). The one mention has reference to this and the other to Gen. ch. xvii., where Abram is set apart to be the father of peoples and kings, and Sarai to be a princess. They are called D^iWD (a passive form) as being God-chosen princes, and EW3J (an intensive active form, from K3J, root 33, to divulge), not as being inspired ones (Hupfeld), but as being God's spokesmen (cf. Ex. vii. 1 sq. with iv. 15 sq.), therefore as being the recipients and mediators of a divine revelation.
Vers. 16-24. u To call up a famine" is also a prose expression in 2 Kings viii. 1. To break the staff of bread (i.e. the staff which bread is to man) is a very old metaphor, Lev. xxvi. 26. That the selling of Joseph was, providentially regarded, a u sending before," he himself says in Gen. xlv. 5. Ps. cii. 24 throws light upon the meaning of 3 nay. The Ken vD*i is just as much without any occasion to justify it as fa*8 in Eccles. iv. 8 (for W*J). The statement that iron came upon his soul is intended to say that he had to endure in iron fetters sufferings that threatened his life. Most expositors take />T")3 as equivalent to <H?3, but Hitzig rightly takes 1£>s: as an object, following the Targum; for br\2 as a name of an iron fetter* can change its gender, as do, e.g., }1DV as a name of the north wind, and 1133 as a name of the soul. The imprisonment (so harsh at the commencement) lasted over ten years, until at last Joseph's word came to pass, viz. the word concerning his exaltation which had been revealed to him in dreams (Gen. xlii. 9). According to cvii. 20, VOT appears to be the word of Jahve, but then one would expect from ver. 196 a more parallel turn of expression. What is meant is Joseph's open-hearted word
* Also in ancient Arabic Jj^i (after the Aramaic fc^ns) directly signifies an iron fetter (and the large smith's shears for cutting the iron), whence the verb, denom. JjJ c. ace. pers., to put any one into iron chains. Iron is called ^pa from p3, to pierce, like the Arabic tX>A>, as being the material of which pointed tools are made.
concerning his visions, and 'H rrax is the revelation of God conveying His promises, which came to him in the same form, which had to try, to prove, and to purify him (*)"]¥ as in xvii. 3, and frequently), inasmuch as he was not to be raised to honour without having in a state of deep abasement proved a faithfulness that wavered not, and a confidence that knew no despair. The divine u word" is conceived of as a living effectual power, as in cxix. 50. The representation of the exaltation begins, according to Gen. xli. 14, with ^btirnbw* and follows Gen. xli. 39-41, 44, very closely as to the rest, according to which iB>"S33 is a collateral definition to "lbs? (with an orthophonic Dag.) in the sense of W5H3: by his soul, i.e. by virtue of his will (vid. Psychology, S. 202; tr. p. 239). In consequence of this exaltation of Joseph, Jacob-Israel came then into Egypt, and sojourned there as in a protecting house of shelter (concerning "W, vid. supra, ii. 203). Egypt is called (vers. 23, 27) the land of Cham, as in lxxviii. 51; according to Plutarch, in the vernacular the black land, from the dark ashy grey colouring which the deposited mud of the Nile gives to the ground. There Israel became a powerful, numerous people (Ex. i. 7, Deut. xxvi. 5), greater than their oppressors.
Vers. 25-38. Narration of the exodus out of Egypt after the plagues that went forth over that land. Ver. 25 tells how the Egyptians became their " oppressors." It was indirectly God's work, inasmuch as He gave increasing might to His people, which excited their jealousy. The craft reached its highest pitch in the weakening of the Israelites that was aimed at by killing all the male children that were born. "HIT signifies facts, instances, as in lxv. 4, cxlv. 5. Here, too, as in Ps. lxxviii., the miraculous judgments of the ten plagues do not stand in exactly historical order. The poet begins with the ninth, which was the most distinct self-representation of divine wrath, viz. the darkness (Ex. x. 21-29): shalach choshech. The former word (n?BJ) has an orthophonic Gaja by
* Here r6tP" is united by Makkeph with the following word, to which it hurries on, whereas in ver. 28 it has its own accent, a circumstance to which the Masora has directed attention in the apophthegm: tO^DT T\Y>v} JTHE) fcO^m TTl^ }T"IT (the emissaries of the king are in haste, those of darkness are tardy); vid. Baer, Thorath Emelh, p. T2.
the final syllable, which warns the reader audibly to utter the guttural of the toneless final syllable, which might here be easily slurred over. The Hiph. T^JJJ has its causative signification here, as also in Jer. xiii. 16; the contracted mode of writing with i instead of i may be occasioned by the Waw convers, Ver. 286 cannot be referred to the Egyptians; for the expression would be a mistaken one for the final compliance, which was wrung from them, and the interrogative way of taking it: nonne rebellarunt, is forced: the cancelling of the K7, however (LXX. and Syriac), makes the thought halting. Hitzig proposes net? nS: they observed not His words; but this, too, sounds flat and awkward when said of the Egyptians. The subject will therefore be the same as the subject of VOW; and of Moses and Aaron, in contrast to the behaviour at Me- Meribah (Num. xx. 24, xxvii. 14; cf. 1 Kings xiii. 21, 26), it is said that this time they rebelled not against the words (Keri, without any ground: the word) of God, but executed the terrible commands accurately and willingly. From the ninth plague the poet in ver. 29 passes over to the first (Ex. vii. 14-25), viz. the red blood is appended to the black darkness. The second plague follows, viz. the frogs (Ex. vii. 26 [viii. 1] -viii. 11); ver. 306 looks as though it were stunted, but neither has the LXX. read any 1K3^ (^JM)j Ex. vii. 28. In ver. 31 he next briefly touches upon the fourth plague, viz. the gad-fly, *% LXX. KvvofxvLa (Ex. viii. 16-28 [20-32], vid. on lxxviii. 45), and the third (Ex. viii. 12-15 [16-19]), viz. the gnats, which are passed over in Ps. lxxviii. From the third plague the poet in vers. 32, 33 takes a leap over to the seventh, viz. the hail (Ex. ix. 13-35). In ver. 32 he has Ex. ix. 24 before his mind, according to which masses of fire descended with the hail; and in ver. 33 (as in lxxviii. 47) he fills in the details of Ex. ix. 25. The seventh plague is followed by the eighth in vers. 34, 35, viz. the locust (Ex. x. 1-20), to which p.^ (the grasshopper) is the parallel word here, just as ^pn (the cricket) is in lxxviii. 46. The expression of innumerableness is the same as in civ. 25. The fifth plague, viz. the pestilence, murrain (Ex. ix. 1-7), and the sixth, viz. priB>, boils (Ex. ix. 8-12), are left unmentioned; and the tenth plague closes, viz. the smiting of the first-born (Ex. xi. 1 sqq.), which ver. 36 expresses in the Asaphic language of lxxviii. 51. Without any mention of the institution of the Passover, the tenth plague is followed by the departure with the vessels of silver and gold asked for from the Egyptians (Ex. xii. 35, xi. 2, iii. 22). The Egyptians were glad to get rid of the people whose detention threatened them with total destruction (Ex. xii. 33). The poet here draws from Isa. v. 27, xiv. 31, lxiii. 13, and Ex. xv. 16. The suffix of VB3K> refers to the chief subject of the assertion, viz. to God, according to cxxii. 4, although manifestly enough the reference to Israel is also possible (Num. xxiv. 2).
Vers. 39-45. Now follows the miraculous guidance through the desert to the taking possession of Canaan. The fact that the cloud (Ijy, root jy, to meet, to present itself to view, whence the Arabic '&nany the visible outward side of the vault of heaven) by day, and becoming like fire by night, was their guide (Ex. xiii. 21), is left out of consideration in ver. 39a. With TjDBp we are not to associate the idea of a covering against foes, Ex. xiv. 19 sq., but of a covering from the smiting sun, for fens (Ex. xl. 19), as in Isa. iv. 5 sq., points to the idea of a canopy. In connection with the sending of the quails the tempting character of the desire is only momentarily dwelt upon, the greater emphasis is laid on the omnipotence of the divine goodness which responded to it. vKB> is to be read instead of?NK*, the 1 before 1 having been overlooked; and the Keri writes and points W (like VJjp, Vay) in order to secure the correct pronunciation, after the analogy of the plural termination V—. The bread of heaven (lxxviii. 24 sq.) is the manna. In ver. 41 the giving of water out of the rock at Rephidim and at Kadesh are brought together; the expression corresponds better to the former instance (Ex. xvii. 6, cf. Num. xx. 11). w?n refers to the waters, and iro for niinas, lxxviii. 16, is, as in xxii. 14, an equation instead of a comparison. In this miraculous escort the patriarchal promise moves on towards its fulfilment; the holy word of promise, and the stedfast, proved faith of Abraham — these were the two motives. The second fix is, like the first, a sign of the object, not a preposition (LXX., Targum), in connection with which ver. 426 would be a continuation of ver. 42«, dragging on without any parallelism. Joy and exulting are mentioned as the mood of the redeemed ones with reference to the festive joy displayed at the Red Sea and at Sinai. By ver. 43 one is reminded of the same descriptions of the antitype in Isaiah, ch. xxxv. 10, li. 11, lv. 12, just as ver. 41 recalls Isa. xlviii. 21. " The lands of the heathen" are the territories of the tribes of Canaan. tay is equivalent to JW in Isa. xlv. 14: the cultivated ground, the habitable cities, and the accumulated treasures. Israel entered upon the inheritance of these peoples in every direction. As an independent people upon ground that is theirs by inheritance, keeping the revealed law of their God, was Israel to exhibit the pattern of a holy nation moulded after the divine will; and, as the beginning of the Psalm shows, to unite the peoples to themselves and their God, the God of redemption, by the proclamation of the redemption which has fallen to their own lot.
Israel's unfaithfulness from egypt onwards, and god's faithfulness down to the present time.
1 GIVE thanks unto Jahve, for He is good, For His graciousness endureth for ever.
2 Who can utter the mighty acts of Jahve, [Who] make all His praise to be heard?
3 Blessed are they who keep the right, He who doeth righteousness at all times.
4 Kemember me, Jahve, at the favouring of Thy people, Visit me with Thy help,
5 That I too may see the prosperity of Thy chosen ones, That I too may be glad at the gladness of Thy people, That I too may glory with Thine inheritance.
We have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.
They remembered not the abundance of Thy loving-kindnesses, And were rebellious at the sea, at the Red Sea.
8 Yet He saved them for His Name's sake, To make His strength known.
10 And He saved them out of the hand of the hater, And redeemed them out of the hand of the enemy.
13 They quickly forgat His works, They waited not for His counsel.
15 Then He gave them their desire, And sent consumption into their soul.
16 They manifested envy against Moses in the camp, Against Aaron, the holy one of Jahve —
17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, And covered the band of Abiram;
21 They had forgotten God their Saviour, Who did great deeds in Egypt,
22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, Terrible deeds at the Red Sea.
23 Then He thought to exterminate them, Had not Moses His chosen one Stepped into the breach before Him
24 They despised the pleasant land, They believed not His word.
26 Then He lifted up His hand against them To cast them down in the desert,
27 And to disperse their seed among the heathen, And to scatter them in the lands.
28 They joined themselves unto Baal-Peor, And ate the sacrifices for the dead,
30 Then stood up Phinehas and arranged, And the plague was stayed.
31 And it was counted unto him for righteousness Unto all generations for ever.
32 Then they excited displeasure at the waters of strife, And it went ill with Moses for their sakes.
33 For they rebelled against God's Spirit, And he erred with his lips.
35 But mixed themselves among the heathen, And learned their works.
The blood of their sons and their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, So that the land was polluted by blood-guiltiness.
41 He gave them over into the hand of the heathen, And their haters became their oppressors.
43 Many times did He rescue them, Yet they rebelled in their self-will — Then they perished in their iniquity.
And bring us together out of the heathen, To give thanks unto Thy holy Name, And to glory in Thy praise.
48 Blessed be Jahve the God of Israel from ever-
lasting to everlasting, And let all people say Amen! Hallelujah!!
With this anonymous Psalm begins the series of the strictly Hallelujah-Psalms, i.e. of those Psalms which have iiH&i for their arsis-like beginning and for their inscription (cvi., cxi.- cxiii., cxvii., cxxxv., cxlvi.-cl.). The chronicler in his cento, 1 Chron. xvi. 8 sqq., and in fact in ch. xvi. 34-36, puts the first and last verses of this Psalm (vers. 1, 47), together with the Beracha (ver. 48) which closes the Fourth Book of the Psalms, into the mouth of David, from which it is to be inferred that this Psalm is no more Maccabsean than Ps. xcvi. and cv. (which see), and that the Psalter was divided into five books which were marked off by the doxologies even in the time of the chronicler. The Beracha, ver. 48, appears even at that period to have been read as an integral part of the Psalm, according to liturgical usage. The Hallelujah Ps. cvi., like the Hodu Ps. cv. and the Asaph Ps. lxxviii., recapitulates the history of the olden times of the Israelitish nation. But the purpose and mode of the recapitulation differ in each of these three Psalms. In Ps. lxxviii. it is didactic; in Ps. cv. hymnic; and here in Ps. cvi. penitential. It is a penitential Psalm, or Psalm of confession, a ^ (from nwri to confess, Lev. xvi. 21). The oldest types of such liturgical prayers are the two formularies at the offering of the first-fruits, Deut. ch. xxvi., and Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple, 1 Kings ch. viii. And to this kind of tephillay the Vidduj, belong, beyond the range of the Psalter, the prayer of Daniel, ch. ix. (yid. the way in which it is introduced in ver. 4), and the prayer (Neh. ix. 5-x. 1 [ix. 38]) which eight Levites uttered in the name of the people at the celebration of the fast-day on the twenty-fourth of Tishri. It is true Ps. cvi. is distinguished from these prayers of confession in the prose style as being a Psalm; but it has three points in common with them and with the liturgical tephilla in general, viz. (1) the fondness for inflexional rhyming, i.e. for rhyming terminations of the same suffixes; (2) the heaping up of synonyms; and (3) the unfolding of the thoughts in a continuous line. These three peculiarities are found not only in the liturgical border, vers. 1-6, 47, but also in the middle historical portion, which iorms the bulk of the Psalm. The law of parallelism is, it is true, still observed; but apart from these distichic wave-like ridges of the thoughts, it is all one direct, straight-line flow without technical division.
Vers. 1-5. The Psalm begins with the liturgical call, which was not coined for the first time in the Maccabsean age (1 Mace. iv. 24), but was already in use in Jeremiah's time (ch. xxxiii. 11). The LXX. appropriately renders aio by yjpr)<jTos;, for God is called " good" not so much in respect of His nature as of the revelation of His nature. The fulness of this revelation, says ver. 2 (like xl. 6), is inexhaustible. flVtt33 are the manifestations of His all-conquering power which makes everything subservient to His redemptive purposes (xx. 7); and njnri is the glory (praise or celebration) of His selfattestation in history. The proclaiming of these on the part of man can never be an exhaustive echo of them. In ver. 3 the poet tells what is the character of those who experience such manifestations of God; and to the assertion of the blessedness of these men he appends the petition in ver. 4, that God would grant him a share in the experiences of the whole nation which is the object of these manifestations. ^V beside pV"]3 is a genitive of the object: with the pleasure which Thou turnest towards Thy people, i.e. when Thou again (cf. ver. 47) showest Thyself gracious unto them. On "li?B cf. viii. 5, Ixxx. 15, and on 3 n*n, Jer. xxix. 32; a similar Beth is that beside nbW (at, on account of, not: in connection with), xxi. 2, exxii.
1. God's u inheritance" is His people; the name for them is varied four times, and thereby *fl is also exceptionally brought into use, as in Zeph. ii. 9.
Vers. 6-12. The key-note of the vidduj, which is a settled expression since 1 Kings viii. 47 (Dan. ix. 5, cf. Bar. ii. 12), makes itself heard here in ver. 6; Israel is bearing at this time the punishment of its sins, by which it has made itself like its forefathers. In this needy and helpless condition the poet, who all along speaks as a member of the assembly, takes the way of the confession of sin, which leads to the forgiveness of sin and to the removal of the punishment of sin. V&1, 1 Kings viii. 47, signifies to be, and the Hiph. to prove one's self to be, a V^\ Dy in ver. 6 is equivalent to ceque ac, as in Eccles. ii. 16, Job ix. 26. With ver. 7 the retrospect begins. The fathers contended with Moses and Aaron in Egypt (Ex. v. 21), and gave no heed to the prospect of redemption (Ex. vi. 9). The miraculous judgments which Moses executed (Ex. iii. 20) had no more effect in bringing them to a right state of mind, and the abundant tokens of loving-kindness (Isa. lxiii. 7) amidst which God redeemed them made so little impression on their memories that they began to despair and to murmur even at the Red Sea (Ex. xiv. 11 sq.). With?#, ver. 76, alternates 1 (as in Ezek. x. 15, V03); cf. the alternation of prepositions in Joel iv. 86. When they behaved thus, Jahve might have left their redemption unaccomplished, but out of unmerited mercy He nevertheless redeemed them. Vers. 8-11 are closely dependent upon Ex. ch. xiv. Ver. 116 is a transposition (cf. xxxiv. 21, Isa. xxxiv. 16) from Ex. xiv. 28. On the other hand, ver. 96 is taken out of Isa. lxiii. 13 (cf. Wisd. xix. 9); Isa. lxiii. 7-lxiv. is a prayer for redemption which has a similar ground- colouring. The sea through which they passed is called, as in the Tora, ^D"D^ which seems, according to Ex. ii. 3, Isa. xix. 3, to signify the sea of reed or sedge, although the sedge does not grow in the Red Sea itself, but only on the marshy places of the coast; but it can also signify the sea of sea-weed, mare algosum, after the Egyptian sippe, wool and sea-weed
Egyptian, whether it is to be referred back to the Egyptian word sippe (sea-weed) or sebe (sedge), and is therefore used after the manner of a proper name; so that the inference drawn by Knobel on Ex. xiii. 18 from the absence of the article, that ppiD is the name of a town on the northern point of the gulf, is groundless. The miracle at the sea of sedge or sea-weed — as ver. 12 says — also was not without effect. Ex. xiv. 31 tells us that they believed on Jahve and Moses His servant, and the song which they sang follows in Ex. ch. xv. But they then only too quickly added sins of ingratitude.
Vers. 13-23. The first of the principal sins on the other side of the Red Sea was the unthankful, impatient, unbelieving murmuring about their meat and drink, vers. 13-15. For what ver. 13 places foremost was the root of the whole evil, that, falling away from faith in God's promise, they forgot the works of God which had been wrought in confirmation of it, and did not wait for the carrying out of His counsel. The poet has before his eye the murmuring for water on the third day after the miraculous deliverance (Ex. xv. 22-24) and in Rephidim (Ex. xvii. 2). Then the murmuring for flesh in the first and second years of the exodus which was followed by the sending of the quails (Ex. ch. xvi. and Num. ch. xi.), together with the wrathful judgment by which the murmuring for the second time was punished (Kibroth ha-Ta?avah, Num. xi. 33-35). This dispensation of wrath the poet calls pn (LXX., Vulgate, and Syriac erroneously irXrjo-fiov^Vj perhaps ptft, nourishment), inasmuch as he interprets Num. xi. 33-35 of a wasting disease, which swept away the people in consequence of eating inordinately of the flesh, and in the expression (cf. lxxviii. 31) he closely follows Isa. x. IB. The "counsel" of God for which they would not wait, is His plan with respect to the time and manner of the help, nsn, root C^, a weaker power of jj^, make firm, e.g. a knot (cf. on xxxiii. 20), and starting from this (without the intervention of the metaphor moras nectere, as Schultens thinks) is transferred to a firm bent of mind, and the tension of long expectation. The epigrammatic expression row] viNrpl (plural of 1WV), xlv. 12, for which codices, as also in Prov. xxiii. 3, 6, xxiv. 1, the Complutensian, Venetian 1521, Elias Levita, and Baer have 1«m without the tonic lengthening) is taken from Num. xi. 4.
The second principal sin was the insurrection against their superiors, vers. 16-18. The poet has Num. ch. xvi. xvii. in his eye. The rebellious ones were swallowed up by the earth, and their two hundred and fifty noble, non-Levite partisans consumed by fire. The fact that the poet does not mention Korah among those who were swallowed up is in perfect harmony with Num. xvi. 25 sqq., Deut. xi. 6; cf. however Num. xxvi. 10. The elliptical nnsn in ver. 17 is explained from Num. xvi. 32, xxvi. 10.
The third principal sin was the worship of the calf, vers. 19-23. The poet here glances back at Ex. ch. xxxii., but not without at the same time having Deut. ix. 8-12 in his mind; for the expression u in Horeb " is Deuteronomic, e.g. Deut. iv. 15, v. 2, and frequently. Ver. 20 is also based upon the Book of Deuteronomy: they exchanged their glory, i.e. the God who was their distinction before all peoples according to Deut. iv. 6-8, x. 21 (cf. also Jer. ii. 11), for the likeness (JV^n) of a plough-ox (for this is pre-eminently called "W, in the dialects nin), contrary to the prohibition in Deut. iv. 17. On ver. 21a cf. the warning in Deut. vi. 12. " Land of Cham" = Egypt, as in lxxviii. 51, cv. 23, 27. With "i»^1 in ver. 23 the expression becomes again Deuteronomic: Deut. ix. 25, cf. Ex. xxxii. 10. God made and also expressed the resolve to destroy Israel. Then Moses stepped into the gap (before the gap), i.e. as it were covered the breach, inasmuch as he placed himself in it and exposed his own life; cf. on the fact, besides Ex. ch. xxxii., also Deut. ix. 18 sq., x. 10, and on the expression, Ezek. xxii. 30 and also Jer. xviii. 20.
Vers. 24-33. The fact to which the poet refers in ver. 24, viz. the rebellion in consequence of the report of the spies, which he brings forward as the fourth principal sin, is narrated in Num. ch. xiii., xiv. The appellation ^on ptf is also found in Jer. iii. 19, Zech. vii. 14. As to the rest, the expression is altogether Pentateuchal. u They despised the land," after Num. xiv. 31; "they murmured in their tents," after Deut. i. 27; "to lift up the hand" = to swear, after Ex. vi. 8, Deut. xxxii. 40; the threat ^BlV, to make them fall down, fall away, after Num. xiv. 29, 32. The threat of exile is founded upon the two great threatening chapters, Lev. xxvi., Deut. xxviii.; cf. more particularly Lev. xxvi. 33 (together with the echoes in
Ezek. v. 12, xii. 14, etc.), Deut. xxviii. 64 (together with the echoes in Jer. ix. 15, Ezek. xxii. 15, etc.). Ezek. xx. 23 stands in a not accidental relationship to ver. 26 sq.; and according to that passage, b^rfa is an error of the copyist for r??f (Hitzig). Now follows in ver. 28-31 the fifth of the principal sins, viz. the taking part in the Moabitish worship of Baal. The verb 1DM (to be bound or chained), taken from Num. xxv. 3, 5, points to the prostitution with which Baal Peor, this Moabitish Priapus, was worshipped. The sacrificial feastings in which, according to Num. xxv. 2, they took part, are called eating the sacrifices of the dead, because the idols are dead beings (ye/cpot, Wisd. xiii. 10-18) as opposed to God, the living One. The catena on Apoc. ii. 14 correctly interprets: ra rocs e^wXot? reXeadevra Kpea* The object of "they made angry" is omitted; the author is fond of this, cf. vers. 7 and 32. The expression in ver. 296 is like Ex. xix. 24. The verb 10J is chosen with reference to Num. xvii. 13 [xvi. 48], The result is expressed in ver. 306 after Num. xxv. 8, 18 sq., xvii. 13 [xvi. 48]. With??3, to adjust, to judge adjustingly (LXX., Vulgate, correctly according to the sense, i£i\daaTo), the poet associates the thought of the satisfaction due to divine right, which Phinehas executed with the javelin. This act of zeal for Jahve, which compensated for Israel's unfaithfulness, was accounted unto him for righteousness, by his being rewarded for it with the priesthood unto everlasting ages, Num. xxv. 10-13. This accounting of a work for righteousness is only apparently contradictory to Gen. xv. 5 sq.: it was indeed an act which sprang from a constancy in faith, and one which obtained for him the acceptation of a righteous man for the sake of this upon which it was based, by proving him to be such.
* In the second section of Aboda zara, on the words of the Mishna: 11 The flesh which is intended to be offered first of all to idols is allowed, but that which comes out of the temple is forbidden, because it is like sacrifices of the dead," it is observed, fol. 32b: "Whence, said K. Jehuda ben Bethera, do I know that that which is offered to idols (jfTQsh fUTIpn mj) pollutes like a dead body? From Ps. cvi. 28. As the dead bodypollutes everything that is under the same roof with it, so also does everything that is offered to idols." The Apostle Paul declares the objectivity of this pollution to be vain, cf. more particularly 1 Cor. x. 2S sq.
In vers. 32, 33 follows the sixth of the principal sins, viz. the insurrection against Moses and Aaron at the waters of strife in the fortieth year, in connection with which Moses forfeited the entrance with them into the Land of Promise (Num. xx. 11 sq., Deut. i. 37, xxxii. 51), since he suffered himself to be carried away by the persevering obstinacy of the people against the Spirit of God (p^fi mostly providing the future for ""no, as in vers. 7, 43, lxxviii. 17, 40, 56, of obstinacy against God; on irvrrriK cf. Isa. lxiii. 10) into uttering the words addressed to the people, Num. xx. 10, in which, as the smiting of the rock which was twice repeated shows, is expressed impatience together with a tinge of unbelief. The poet distinguishes, as does the narrative in Num. ch. xx., between the obstinacy of the people and the transgression of Moses, which is there designated, according to that which lay at the root of it, as unbelief. The retrospective reference to Num. xxvii. 14 needs adjustment accordingly.
Vers. 34-43. The sins in Canaan: the failing to exterminate the idolatrous peoples and sharing in their idolatry. In ver. 34 the poet appeals to the command, frequently enjoined upon them from Ex. xxiii. 32 sq. onwards, to extirpate the inhabitants of Canaan. Since they did not execute this command (yid. Judg. ch. i.-iii. 6), that which it was intended to prevent came to pass: the heathen became to them a snare (Pjpto), Ex. xxiii. 33, xxxiv. 12, Deut. vii. 16. They intermarried with them, and fell into the Canaanitish custom in which the abominations of heathenism culminate, viz. the human sacrifice, which Jahve abhorreth (Deut. xii. 31), and only the demons (Ev!^, Deut. xxxii. 17) delight in. Thus then the land was defiled by blood-guiltiness (^n, Num. xxv. 33, cf. Isa. xxiv. 5, xxvi. 21), and they themselves became unclean (Ezek. xx. 43) by the whoredom of idolatry. In vers. 40-43 the poet (as in Neh. ix. 26 sqq.) sketches the alternation of apostasy, captivity, redemption, and relapse which followed upon the possession of Canaan, and more especially that which characterized the period of the judges. God's " counsel " was to make Israel free and glorious, but they leaned upon themselves, following their own intentions (Dnvya); wherefore they perished in their sins. The poet uses?pD (to sink down, fall away) instead of the p£3 (to moulder, rot) of the primary pas-
Vers. 44-46. The poet's range of vision here widens from the time of the judges to the history of the whole of the succeeding age down to the present; for the whole history of Israel has essentially the same fundamental character, viz. that Israel's unfaithfulness does not annul God's faithfulness. That verifies itself even now. That which Solomon in 1 Kings viii. 50 prays for on behalf of his people when they may be betrayed into the hands of the enemy, has been fulfilled in the case of the dispersion of Israel in all countries (cvii. 3), Babylonia, Egypt, etc.: God has turned the hearts of their oppressors towards them. On 3 n&o, to regard compassionately, cf. Gen. xxix. 32, 1 Sam. i. 11. Dnp *»2?3 belong together, as in cvii. 6, and frequently. H31 is a cry of lamentation, as in 1 Kings viii. 28 in Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple. From this source comes ver. 6, and also from this source ver. 46, cf. 1 Kings viii. 50 together with Neh. i. 11. In Drw the drawing back of the tone does not take place, as in Gen. xxiv. 67. HDn beside 2^3 is not pointed by the Ken ^pn, as in v. 8, lxix. 14, but as in Lam. iii. 32, according to ver. 7, Isa. lxiii. 7, VJDn: in accordance with the fulness (riches) of His manifold mercy or loving-kindness. The expression in ver. 46 is like Gen. xliii. 14. Although the condition of the poet's fellow-countrymen in the dispersion may have been tolerable in itself, yet this involuntary scattering of the members of the nation is always a state of punishment. The poet prays in ver. 47 that God may be pleased to put an end to this.
Ver. 47. He has now reached the goal, to which his whole Psalm struggles forth, by the way of self-accusation and the praise of the faithfulness of God. nanipn (found only here) is the reflexive of the Piel, to account happy, Eccles. jv. 2, therefore: in order that we may esteem ourselves happy to be able to praise Thee. In this reflexive (and also passive) sense nantfn is customary in Aramaic and post-biblical Hebrew.
Ver. 48. The closing doxology of the Fourth Book. The chronicler has V1DW before ver. 47 (which with him differs only very slightly), an indispensable rivet, so to speak, in the fitting together of cvi. 1 (cvii. 1) and cvi. 47. The means this historian, who joins passages together like mosaic-work, calls to his aid are palpable enough. He has also taken over ver. 48 by transforming and let all the people say Amen, Hallelujah! in accordance with his style (cf. 1 Chron. xxv. 3, 2 Chron. v. 13, and frequently, Ezra iii. 11), into an historical clause: npifa rriflv z?m \oh Dyrno. Hitzi^, by re^ardin^ the echoes of the Psalms in the chronicler as the originals of the corresponding Psalms in the Psalter, and consequently 1 Chron. xvi. 36 as the original of the Beracha placed after our Psalm, reverses the true relation; vid. with reference to this point, Riehra in the Theolog. Literat. Blatt, 1866, No. 30, and Kohler in the Luther. Zeitschrift, 1867, S. 297 ff. The priority of Ps. cvi. is clear from the fact that ver. 1 gives a liturgical key-note that was in use even in Jeremiah's time (ch. xxxiii. 11), and that ver. 47 reverts to the tephilla-style of the introit, vers. 4 sq. And the priority of ver. 48 as a concluding formula of the Fourth Book is clear from the fact that it has been fashioned, like that of the Second Book (lxxii. 18 sq.), under the influence of the foregoing Psalm. The Hallelujah is an echo of the Hallelujah- Psalm, just as there the Jahve Elohim is an echo of the Elohim- Psalm. And " let all the people say Amen " is the same closing thought as in ver. 6 of Ps. cl., which is made into the closing doxology of the whole Psalter. 'Afirjv a\X7]Xovia together (Apoc. xix. 4) is a laudatory confirmation.
AN ADMONITION TO FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN TO RENDER THANKS ON ACCOUNT OF HAVING GOT THE BETTER OF CALAMITIES.
1 " GIVE thanks unto Jahve, for He is good, For His loving-kindness endureth for ever,"
From the east and from the west, from the north and from the sea.
4 They wandered in the desert in a waste of a way, They found not a city of habitation.
6 Then they cried unto Jahve in their trouble — Out of their distresses He delivered them,
8 Let them praise to Jahve His loving-kindness, And His wonders to the children of men,
9 That He hath satisfied the thirsty soul, And filled the hungry soul with good.
10 Those who dwelt in darkness and the shadow of death, Being bound in torture and iron,
11 Because they rebelled against the words of God And derided the counsel of the Most High,
12 And He humbled their heart by labour, They fell down, and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried unto Jahve in their trouble — Out of their distresses He saved them;
14 He led them forth out of darkness and the shadow of death, And burst their bonds asunder.
15 Let them praise to Jahve His goodness, And His wonders to the children of men,
16 That He hath broken in pieces the brazen doors And smitten down the iron bars.
17 The foolish, on account of the way of their transgression, And on account of their iniquity, had to suffer.
19 Then they cried unto Jahve in their trouble — Out of their distresses He saved them.
21 Let them praise to Jahve His goodness, And His wonders to the children of men,
22 And let them sacrifice sacrifices of thanksgiving And declare His works with a shout of joy,
23 Those who go down to the sea in ships, Who do business in great waters —
24 These have seen the wTorks of Jahve, And His wonders in the deep.
25 He spake and raised a stormy wind, Which forced up its waves on high.
26 They went up towards heaven, they went down into the Their soul was melted in trouble. [depths,
27 They whirled and staggered like a drunken man, And all their wisdom came of itself to nought.
28 Then they cried unto Jahve in their trouble, And out of their distresses He brought them forth.
29 He changed the storm into a gentle breeze, And their waves were still.
30 Then were they glad that they were abated, And He led them to the haven of their desire.
31 Let them praise to Jahve His goodness, And His wonders to the children of men,
32 And let them exalt Him in the congregation of the people, And praise Him in the council of the elders.
33 He changed rivers into a desert And water-springs into drought,
35 He changed the desert into a pool of water, And the dry land into water-springs;
38 He blessed them and they multiplied greatly, And their cattle He made into not a few.
39 Then they became few and were reduced By the pressure of misfortune and sorrow —
41 He removed the needy out of the way of affliction, And made the families like a flock.
With this Psalm begins the Fifth Book, the Book n^Tin n$K of the Psalter. With Ps. cvi. closed the Fourth Book, or the Book -an»3, the first Psalm of which, Ps. xc, bewailed the manifestation of God's wrath in the case of the generation of the desert, and in the presence of the prevailing death took refuge in God the eternal and unchangeable One. Ps. cvi., which closes the book, has Tf]B3 (vers. 14, 26) as its favourite word, and makes confession of the sins of Israel on the way to Canaan. Now, just as at the beginning of the Book of Deuteronomy Israel stands on the threshold of the Land of
Promise, after the two tribes and a half have already established themselves on the other side of the Jordan, so at the beginning of this Fifth Book of the Psalter we see Israel restored to the soil of its fatherland. There it is the Israel redeemed out of Egypt, here it is the Israel redeemed out of the lands of the Exile. There the lawgiver once more admonishes Israel to yield the obedience of love to the Law of Jahve, here the psalmist calls upon Israel to show gratitude towards Him, who has redeemed it from exile and distress and death.
We must not therefore be surprised if Ps. cvi. and cvii. are closely connected, in spite of the fact that the boundary of the two Books lies between them. u Ps. cvii. stands in close relationship to Ps. cvi. The similarity of the beginning at once points back to this Psalm. Thanks are here given in ver. 3 for what was there desired in ver. 47. The praise of the Lord which was promised in Ps. cvi. 47 in the case of redemption being vouchsafed, is here presented to Him after redemption vouchsafed." This observation of Hengstenberg is fully confirmed. The Psalms civ.-cvii. really to a certain extent form a tetralogy. Ps. civ. derives its material from the history of the creation, Ps. cv. from the preparatory and early history of Israel, Ps. cvi. from the history of Israel in Egypt, in the desert, and in the Land of Promise down to the Exile, and Ps. cvii. from the time of the restoration.
Nevertheless the connection of Ps. civ. with cv.-cvii. is by far not so close as that of these three Psalms among themselves. These three anonymous Psalms form a trilogy in the strictest sense; they are a tripartite whole from the hand of one author. The observation is an old one. The Harpffe Davids mit Teutschen Saiten bespannet (Harp of David strung with German Strings), a translation of the Psalms which appeared in Augsburg in the year 1659, begins Ps. cvi. with the words: " For the third time already am I nowr come, and I make bold to spread abroad, with grateful acknowledgment, Thy great kindnesses." God's wondrous deeds of loving-kindness and compassion towards Israel from the time of their forefathers down to the redemption out of Egypt according to the promise, and giving them possession of Canaan, are the theme of Ps. cv. The theme of Ps. cvi. is the sinful conduct of Israel from Egypt onwards during the journey through the desert, and then in the
Land of Promise, by which they brought about the fulfilment of the threat of exile (ver. 27); but even there God's mercy was not suffered to go unattested (ver. 46). The theme of Ps. cvii., finally, is the sacrifice of praise that is due to Him who redeemed them out of exile and all kinds of destruction. We may compare cv. 44, He gave them the lands (J"ii¥"iS) of the heathen; cvi. 27, {He threatened) to cast forth their seed among the heathen and to scatter them in the lands (nirwn); and cvii. 3, out of the lands (rri¥"W») hath He brought them together, out of east and west, out of north and south. The designed similarity of the expression, the internal connection, and the progression in accordance with a definite plan, are not to be mistaken here. In other respects, too, these three Psalms are intimately interwoven. In them Egypt is called " the land of Ham " (cv. 23, 27, cvi. 22), and Israel " the chosen ones of Jahve" (cv. 6, 43, cvi. 5, cf. 23). They are fond of the interrogative form of exclamation (cvi. 2, cvii. 43). There is an approach in them to the hypostatic conception of the Word ("i^J, cv. 19, cvi. 20). Compare also jto^ cvi. 14, cvii. 4; and the Hithpa. -wW cv. 3, cvi. 5, n?rw cvi. 47, V^nn cvii. 27. In all three the poe* shows himself to be especially familiar with Isa. ch. xl.-lr.vi and also with the Book of Job. Ps. cvii. is the fullest in reminiscences taken from both these Books, and in this Psalm the movement of the poet is more free without recapitulating history that has been committed to writing. Everything therefore favours the assertion that Ps. cv., cvi., and cvii. are a "trefoil" (trifolium)} — two Hodu-Psalms, and a Kallelujah- Psalm in the middle.
Ps. cvii. consists of six groups with an introit, vers. 1-3, and an epiphonem, ver. 43. The poet unrolls before the dispersion of Israel that has again attained to the possession of its native land the pictures of divine deliverances in which human history, and more especially the history of the exiles, is so rich. The epiphonem at the same time stamps the hymn as a consolatory Psalm; for those who were gathered again out of the lands of the heathen nevertheless still looked for the final redemption under the now milder, now more despotic sceptre of the secular power.
Vers. 1-3. The introit, with the call upon them to grateful praise, is addressed to the returned exiles. The Psalm carries the marks of its deutero-Isaianic character on the very front of it, viz.: " the redeemed of Jahve," taken from Isa. lxii. 12, cf. lxiii. 4, xxxv. 9 sq.; K?i? as in Isa. lvi. 8, and frequently; " from the north and from the sea," as in Isa. xlix. 12: a the sea" (t^) here (as perhaps there also), side by side with east, west, and north, is the south, or rather (since D"1 is an established usus loquendi for the west) the south-west, viz. the southern portion of the Mediterranean washing the shores of Egypt. With this the poet associates the thought of the exiles of Egypt, as with TiyftD} the exiles of the islands, i.e. of Asia Minor and Europe; he is therefore writing at a period in which the Jewish state newly founded by the release of the Babylonian exiles had induced the scattered fellow-countrymen in all countries to return home. Calling upon the redeemed ones to give thanks to God the Redeemer in order that the work of the restoration of Israel may be gloriously perfected amidst the thanksgiving of the redeemed ones, he forthwith formulates the thanksgiving by putting the language of thanksgiving of the ancient liturgy (Jer. xxxiii. 11) into their mouth. The nation, now again established upon the soil of the fatherland, has, until it had acquired this again, seen destruction in every form in a strange land, and can tell of the most manifold divine deliverances. The call to sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving is expanded accordingly into several pictures portraying the dangers of the strange land, which are not so much allegorical, personifying the Exile, as rather exemplificative.
Vers. 4-9. It has actually come to pass, the first strophe tells us, that they wandered in a strange land through desert and wastes, and seemed likely to have to succumb to death from hunger. According to ver. 40 and Isa. xliii. 19, it appears that ver. 4a ought to be read ^P?"**' (Olshausen, Baur, and Thenius); but the line is thereby lengthened inelegantly. The two words, joined by Munach, stand in the construct state, like D1K ana, Gen. xvi. 12: a waste of a way = eprjfios 686s, Acts viii. 26 (Ewald, Hitzig), which is better suited to the poetical style than that Sfyj, as in P|D3"ni^p, and the like, should be an accusative of nearer definition (Hengstenberg). In connection with 3K>io Ty the poet, who is fond of this combination (vers. 7, 36, cf. 35$D"TP3, Lev. xxv. 29), means any city whatever which mi^ht afford the homeless ones a habitable, hospitable reception. With the perfects, which describe what has been experienced, alternates in ver. 5b the imperfect, which shifts to the way in which anything comes about: their soul in them enveloped itself (vid. lxi. 3), i.e. was nigh upon extinction. With thefut. consec. then follows in ver. 6 the fact which gave the turn to the change in their misfortune. Their cry for help, as the imperfect D?T implies, was accompanied by their deliverance, the fact of which is expressed by the following fut. consec. B?TW. Those who have experienced such things are to confess to the Lord, with thanksgiving, His loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men. It is not to be rendered: His wonders (supply n&y l^K) towards the children of men (Luther, Olshausen, and others). The two? coincide: their thankful confession of the divine loving-kindness and wondrous acts is not to be addressed alone to Jahve Himself, but also to men, in order that out of what they have experienced a wholesome fruit may spring forth for the multitude. np|W t^DJ (part. PoleL the e of which is retained as a pre-tonic vowel in pause, cf. Ixviii. 26 and on Job xx. 27, Ew. § 188, b) is, as in Isa. xxix. 9, the thirsting soul (from pwr,
-A., to urge forward, of the impulse and drawing of the emotions, in Hebrew to desire ardently). The preterites are here an expression of that which has been experienced, and therefore of that which has become a fact of experience. In superabundant measure does God uphold the languishing soul that is in imminent danger of languishing away.
Vers. 10-16. Others suffered imprisonment and bonds; but through Him who had decreed this as punishment for them, they also again reached the light of freedom. Just as in the first strophe, here too, as far as VJV in ver. 15, is all a compound subject; and in view of this the poet begins with participles. " Darkness and the shadow of death" (vid. xxiii. 4) is an Isaianic expression, Isa. ix. 1 (where *5?* is construed with 3), xlii. 7 (where *3B* is construed as here, cf. Gen. iv. 20, Zech. ii. 11), just as " bound in torture and iron" takes its rise from Job xxxvi. 8. The old expositors call it a hendiadys for " torturing iron" (after cv. 18); but it is more correct to take the one as the general term and the other as the particular:
bound in all sorts of affliction from which they could not break away, and more particularly in iron bonds (-^3, like the Arabic firzil, an iron fetter, vid. on cv. 18). In ver. 11, which calls to mind Isa. v. 19, and with respect to ver. 12, Isa. iii. 8, the double play upon the sound of the words is unmistakeable. By *wy is meant the plan in accordance with which God governs, more particularly His final purpose, which lies at the basis of His leadings of Israel. Not only had they nullified this purpose of mercy by defiant resistance ('TJP1?) against God's commandments (*!!?K, Arabic awdmir, dmireh) on their part, but they had even blasphemed it; f*NJ, Deut. xxxii. 19, and frequently, or YW (proP« to pierce, then to treat roughly), is an old Mosaic designation of blasphemy, Deut. xxxi. 20, Num. xiv. 11, 23, xvi. 30. Therefore God thoroughly humbled them by afflictive labour, and caused them to stumble (^3). But when they were driven to it, and prayed importunately to Him, He helped them out of their straits. The refrain varies according to recognised custom. Twice the expression is Ipjflffl, twice tpyn; once rbw, then twice DJTW, and last of all Ofcoyp, which follows here in ver. 14 as an alliteration. The summary condensation of the deliverance experienced (ver. 16) is moulded after Isa. xlv. 2. The Exile, too, may be regarded as such like a large jail (vid. e.g. Isa. xlii. 7, 22); but the descriptions of the poet are not pictures, but examples.
Vers. 17-22. Others were brought to the brink of the grave by severe sickness; but when they draw nigh in earnest prayer to Him who appointed that they should suffer thus on account of their sins, He became their Saviour. P^K (cf. e.g. Job v. 3), like 733 (vid. xiv. 1), is also an ethical notion, and not confined to the idea of defective intellect merely. It is one who insanely lives only for the passing hour, and ruins health, calling, family, and in short himself and everything belonging to him. Those who were thus minded, the poet begins by saying, were obliged to suffer by reason of (in consequence of) their wicked course of life. The cause of their days of pain and sorrow is placed first by way of emphasis; and because it has a meaning that is related to the past ^VT)\ thereby comes all the more easily to express that which took place simultaneously in the past. The Hithpa. in 1 Kings ii. 26 signifies to suffer willingly or intentionally; here: to be obliged to submit to suffering against one's will. Hengstenberg, for example, construes it differently: " Fools because of their walk in transgression (more than * because of their transgression'), and those who because of their iniquities were afflicted — all food," etc. But p beside *3OT. has the assumption in its favour of being an affirmation of the cause of the affliction. In ver. 18 the poet has the Book of Job (ch. xxxiii. 20, 22) before his eye. And in connection with ver. 20, direajeikev top \6<yov avrov koX Idaaro avrous (LXX.), no passage of the Old Testament is more vividly recalled to one's mind than cv. 19, even more than cxlvii. 18; because here, as in cv. 19, it treats of the intervention of divine acts within the sphere of human history, and not of the intervention of divine operations within the sphere of the natural world. In the natural world and in history the word P91) ^s God's messenger (cv. 19, cf. Isa. lv. 10 sq.), and appears here as a mediator of the divine healing. Here, as in Job xxxiii. 23 sq., the fundamental fact of the New Testament is announced, which Theodoret on this passage expresses in the words: fO @eo? Aoyos evavOpanrrjcra^ teal a7ro<jTaXet5 co? av6 pooTros ra iravToZaiza twv y\rv)(wv Idaaro rpavfiara koX tovs BcacfrOapevTas dveppoocre Xo^ia/xov^. The LXX. goes on to render it: fcal ippvaaro avrovs etc rcov hiatyOopwv avT&v, inasmuch as the translators derive Dnirvna* from nrrnsr (Dan. vi. 5), and this, as nn^ elsewhere (vid. xvi. 10), from rin^? hiafyOeipeiVj which is approved by Hitzig. But Lam. iv. 20 is against this. From nnu> is formed a noun rnnt?
(mnB>) in the signification a hollow* place (Prov. xxviii. 10), the collateral form of which, IVngJ (WW), is inflected like JVpn? plur. nirvon with a retention of the substantival termination. The " pits" are the deep afflictions into which they were plunged, and out of which God caused them to escape. The suffix of DKETH avails also for B?»*, as in Gen. xxvii. 5, xxx. 31, Ps. cxxxix. 1, Isa. xlvi. 5.
Vers. 23-32. Others have returned to tell of the perils of the sea. Without any allegory (Hengstenberg) it speaks of those who by reason of their calling traverse (which is expressed by TV because the surface of the sea lies below the dry land which slopes off towards the coast) the sea in ships (read botinijoth without the article), and that not as fishermen, but (as Luther has correctly understood the choice of the word) in commercial enterprises. These have seen the works and wonders of God in the eddying deep, i.e. they have seen with their own eyes what God can do when in His anger He calls up the powers of nature, and on the other hand when He compassionately orders them back into their bounds. God's mandate (ip^sl as in cv. 31, 34) brought it to pass that a stormy wind arose (cf. ipy, xxxiii. 9), and it drove its (the sea's) waves on high, so that the seafarers at one time were tossed up to the sky and then hurled down again into deep abysses, and their soul melted njna, in an evil, anxious mood, i.e. lost all its firmness. They turned about in a circle (lairr from WH —:nn) and reeled after the manner of a drunken man; all their wisdom swallowed itself up, i.e. consumed itself within itself, came of itself to nought, just as Ovid, Trist. i. 2, says in connection with a similar description of a storm at sea: ambiguis ars stupet ipsa malis. The poet here writes under the influence of Isa. xix. 3, cf. 14. But at their importunate supplication God led them forth out of their distresses (xxv. 17). He turned the raging storm into a gentle blowing (= njin HDOT, 1 Kings xix. 12). D*?n construed with? here has the sense of transporting (carrying over) into another condition or state, as Apollinaris renders: avrltca S' el<; avprjv Trporeprjv jjbere6r)Ke OveXKav. The suffix of on\?3 cannot refer to the D^sn U\D in ver. 23, which is so far removed; u their waves" are those with which they had to battle. These to their joy became calm (pNfif) and were still (pnw as in Jonah i. 11), and God guided them 1*1 Xiyukva therefore a haven, and first of all perhaps a creek, to use a northern word, a fiord. The verb pr\& in relation to n&>n is the stronger word, like BO) in relation to D7.H in the history of the Flood. Those who have been thus marvellously rescued are then called upon thankfully to praise God their Deliverer in the place where the national church assembles, and where the chiefs of the nation sit in council; therefore, as it seems, in the Temple and in the Forum.*
* In exact editions like Norzi, Heidenheim, and Baer's, before vers. 23,
Now follow two more groups without the two beautiful and impressive refrains with which, the four preceding groups are interspersed. The structure is less artistic, and the transitions here and there abrupt and awkward. One might say that these two groups are inferior to the rest, much as the speeches of Elihu are inferior to the rest of the Book of Job. That they are, however, nevertheless from the hand of the very same poet is at once seen from the continued dependence upon the Book of Job and Isaiah. Hengstenberg sees in vers. 33-42 "the song with which they exalt the Lord in the assembly of the people and upon the seat of the elders." But the materia laudis is altogether different from that which is to be expected according to the preceding calls to praise. Nor is it any the more clear to us that vers. 33 sq. refer to the overthrow of Babylon, and vers. 35 sqq. to the happy turn of affairs that took place simultaneously for Israel; ver. 35 does not suit Canaan, and the expressions in vers. 36 sq. would be understood in too low a sense. No, the poet goes on further to illustrate the helpful government of God the just and gracious One, inasmuch as he has experiences in his mind in connection therewith, of which the dispersion of Israel in all places can sing and speak.