itself, the poet goes on with the deep heaving PWN (only found here). TU with the accusative of that beside which one sojourns, as in v. 5, Isa. xxxiii. 14, Judg. v. 17. The Moschi (*jtfDj the name of which the LXX. takes as an appellative in the signification of long continuance; cf. the reverse instance in Isa. lxvi. 19 LXX.) dwelt between the Black and the Caspian Seas, and it is impossible to dwell among them and the inhabitants of Kedar (vid. lxxxiii. 7) at one and the same time. Accordingly both these names of peoples are to be understood emblematically, with Saadia, Calvin, Amvraldus, and others, of liomines similes ejusmodi barbaris et truculentis nationibus* Meshech is reckoned to Ma£0£ in Ezek. xxxviii. 2, and the Kedarites are possessed by the lust of possession (Gen. xvi. 12) of the bellum omnium contra omnes. These rough and quarrelsome characters have surrounded the poet (and his fellowcountrymen, with whom he perhaps comprehends himself) too long already. ri2"i, abundantly (vid. lxv. 10), appears, more particularly in 2 Chron. xxx. 17 sq., as a later prose word. The n£, which throws the action back upon the subject, gives a pleasant, lively colouring to the declaration, as in exxii. 3, exxiii. 4. He on his part is peace (cf. Mic. v. 4, Ps. cix. 4, ex. 3), inasmuch as the love of peace, willingness to be at peace, and a desire for peace fill his soul; but if he only opens his mouth, they are for war, they are abroad intent on war, their mood and their behaviour become forthwith hostile. Ewald (§ 362, b) construes it (following Saadia): and I — although I speak peace; but if ^ (like *W, cxli. 10) might even have this position in the clause, yet *31 cannot. EW is not on any account to be supplied in thought to "I21N, as Hitzig suggests (after exxii. 8, xxviii. 3, xxxv. 20). With the shrill dissonance of Dfe and monta the Psalm closes; and the cry for help with which it opens hovers over it, earnestly desiring its removal.
* If the Psalm were a Maccabsean Psalm, one might think 7]"'E), from TjGPDj avpsiu, alluded to the Syrians or even to the Jewish apostates with reference to n,HJJ TJ^iO, int77rxa()cit rqv dxpofivariuu (1 Cor. vii. 18).
2 My help cometh from Jahve, The Creator of heaven and earth.
7 Jahve shall hep thee from all evil, He shall keep thy soul.
8 Jahve shall keep thy going out and thy coming in From this time forth and for evermore.
This song of degrees is the only one that is inscribed "iv^ ftbwb and not nfooni W. The LXX., Targum, and Jerome render it as in the other instances; Aquila and Symmachus, on the contrary, a5S?) (aa/Aa) a? rd? avafidcreis, as the Midrash Sifri also mystically interprets it: Song upon the steps, upon which God leads the righteous up into the other world. Those who explain n^JJDn of the homeward caravans or of the pilgrimages rightly regard this tybyzh, occurring only once, as favouring their explanation. But the Lamed is that of the rule or standard. The most prominent distinguishing mark of Ps. cxxi. is the step-like movement of the thoughts: it is formed HiP^D?, after the manner of steps. The view that we have a pilgrim song before us is opposed by the beginning, which leads one to infer a firmly limited range of vision, and therefore a fixed place of abode and far removed from his native mountains. The tetrastichic arrangement of the Psalm is unmistakeable.
Vers. 1-4. Apollinaris renders as meaninglessly as possible: 6/j.p.ara ^evhpoKo^cov opecov virepe^eTavvcraa — with a reproduction of the misapprehended r\pa of the LXX. The expression in fact is K&K, and not *flN5W. And the mountains towards which the psalmist raises his eyes are not any mountains whatsoever. In Ezekiel the designation of his native land from the standpoint of the Mesopotamian plain is u the mountains of Israel/' His longing gaze is directed towards the district of these mountains, they are his kibla, i.e. the sight-point of his prayer, as of Daniel's, ch. vi. 11. To render u from which my help cometh" (Luther) is inadmissible, l^p is an interrogative even in Josh. ii. 4, where the question is an indirect one. The poet looks up to the mountains, the mountains of his native land, the holy mountains (exxxiii. 3, lxxxvii. 1, exxv. 2), when he longingly asks: whence will my help come? and to this question his longing desire itself returns the answer, that his help comes from no other quarter than from Jahve, the Maker of heaven and earth, from Him who sits enthroned behind and upon these mountains, whose helpful power reaches to the remotest ends and corners of His creation, and with (Ey) whom is help, i.e. both the willingness and the power to help, so that therefore help comes from nowhere but from (\0) Him alone. In ver. lb the poet has propounded a question, and in ver. 2 replies to this question himself. In ver. 3 and further the answering one goes on speaking to the questioner. The poet is himself become objective, and his Ego, calm in God, promises him comfort, by unfolding to him the joyful prospects contained in that hope in Jahve. The subjective?X expresses a negative in both cases with an emotional rejection of that which is absolutely impossible. The poet says to himself: He will, indeed, surely not abandon thy foot to the tottering (EitDp, as in lxvi. 9, cf. lv. 23), thy Keeper will surely not slumber; and then confirms the assertion that this shall not come to pass by heightening the expression in accordance with the step-like character of the Psalm: Behold the Keeper of Israel slumbereth not and sleepeth not, i.e. He does not fall into slumber from weariness, and His life is not an alternate waking and sleeping. The eyes of His providence are ever open over Israel.
Vers. 5-8. That which holds good of u the Keeper of
Israel" the poet applies believingly to himself, the individual among God's people, in ver. 5 after Gen. xxviii. 15. Jahve is his Keeper, He is his shade upon his right hand (pOK} as in Judg. xx. 16, 2 Sara. xx. 9, and frequently; the construct of the western = the western side), which protecting him and keeping him fresh and cool, covers him from the sun's burning heat. 'V9 as in cix. 6, ex. 5, with the idea of an overshadowing that screens and spreads itself out over anything (cf. Num. xiv. 9). To the figure of the shadow is appended the consolation in ver. 6. ns? of the sun signifies to smite injuriously (Isa. xlix. 10), plants, so that they wither (cii. 5), and the head (Jonah iv. 8), so that symptoms of sun-stroke (2 Kings iv. 19, Judith viii. 2 sq.) appear. The transferring of the word to the moon is not zeugmatic. Even the moon's rays may become insupportable, may affect the eyes injuriously, and (more particularly in the equatorial regions) produce fatal inflammation of the brain.* From the hurtful influences of nature that are round about him the promise extends in vers. 7, 8 in every direction. Jahve, says the poet to himself, will keep (guard) thee against all evil, of whatever kind it may be and whencesoever it may threaten; He will keep thy soul, and therefore thy life both inwardly and outwardly; He will keep ("TO^j c^ • on the other hand ~®£f) in ix. 9) thy going out and coming in, i.e. all thy business and intercourse of life (Deut. xxviii. 6, and frequently); for, as Chrysostom observes, iv tovtocs 6 /3los a7ra?, iv etVoSot? /cat igoSois, therefore: everywhere and at ail times; and that from this time forth even for ever. In connection with this the thought is natural, that the life of him who stands under the so universal and unbounded protection of eternal love can suffer no injury.
* Many expositors, nevertheless, understand the destructive influence of the moon meant here of the nightly cold, which is mentioned elsewhere in the same antithesis, Gen. xxxi. 40, Jer. xxxvi. 30. De Sacy observes also: On dit quelquefois d'un grand froid, comme dun grand chaud, qu'U estbrulant. The Arabs also say of snow and of cold as of fire: jahrik, it burns.
1 I REJOICED in those who said to me: " Let us go into the house of Jahve!"
4 Whither the tribes went up, The tribes of Jah —
5 For there were set thrones for judgment, Thrones for the house of David.
7 Peace be within thy walls, Prosperity within thy palaces!
9 For the sake of the house of Jahve, our God, Will I seek thy good.
If by " the mountains" in cxxi. 1 the mountains of the Holy Land are to be understood, it is also clear for what reason the collector placed this Song of degrees, which begins with the expression of joy at the pilgrimage to the house of Jahve, and therefore to the holy mountain, immediately after the preceding song. By its peace-breathing (ofe) contents it also, however, touches closely upon Ps. cxx. The poet utters aloud his hearty benedictory salutation to the holy city in remembrance of the delightful time during which he sojourned there as a visitor at the feast, and enjoyed its inspiring aspect. If in respect of the in? the Psalm were to be regarded as an old Davidic Psalm, it would belong to the series of those Psalms of the time of the persecution by Absalom, which cast a yearning look back towards home, the house of God (xxiii., xxvi., lv. 15, lxi., and more particularly Ixiii.). But the TYlS is wanting in the LXX., Codd. Alex, and Vat.; and the Cod. Sinait., which has Tfl AAA, puts this before Ps. cxxiv., el fir) on fcvptos, /c.t.X., also, contrary to Codd. Alex, and Vat. Here it is occasioned by ver. 5, but without any critical discernment. The measures adopted by Jeroboam I. show, moreover, that the pilgrimages to the feasts were customary even in the time of David and Solomon. The images of calves in Dan and Bethel, and the changing of the Feast of Tabernacles to another month, were intended to strengthen the political rupture, by breaking up the religious unity of the people and weaning them from visiting Jerusalem. The poet of the Psalm before us, however, lived much later. He lived, as is to be inferred with Hupfeld from ver. 3, in the time of the post-exilic Jerusalem which rose again out of its ruins. Thither he had been at one of the great feasts, and here, still quite full of the inspiring memory, he looks back towards the holy city; for, in spite of Keuss, Hupfeld, and Hitzig, vers. 1 sq., so far as the style is concerned, are manifestly a retrospect.
Vers. 1-3. The preterite *J?ITOfe* may signify: I rejoice (1 Sam. ii. 1), just as much as: I rejoiced. Here in comparison with ver. 2a it is a retrospect; for nvj with the participle has for the most part a retrospective signification, Gen. xxxix. 22, Deut. ix. 22, 24, Judg. i. 7, Job i. 14. True, W txntiy might also signify: they have been standing and still stand (as in x. 14, Isa. lix. 2, xxx. 20); but then why was it not more briefly expressed by VlDg (xxvi. 12)? The LXX. correctly renders: evcf)pdv6r)v and ecrrcoTe? rjaav. The poet, now again on the journey homewards, or having returned home, calls to mind the joy with which the cry for setting out, " Let us go up to the house of Jahve!" filled him. When he and the other visitors to the feast had reached the goal of their pilgrimage, their feet came to a stand-still, as if spell-bound by the overpowering, glorious sight.* Eeviving this memory, he
* So also Yeith in his, in many points, beautiful Lectures on twelve gradual Psalms (Vienna 1863), S. 72, " They arrested their steps, in order l \ -'aims: Jerusalem, O thou who art built up Again — true, rU3 in itself only signifies u to build/' but here, where, if there is nothing to the contrary, a closed sense is to be assumed for the line of the verse, and in the midst of songs which reflect the joy and sorrow of the post-exilic restoration period, it obtains the same meaning as in cii. 17, cxlvii. 2, and frequently (Gesenius: 0 Hierosohjma restituta). The parallel member, ver. 3fr, does not indeed require this sense, but is at least favourable to it. Luther's earlier rendering, u as a city which is compacted together," was happier than his later rendering, u a city where they shall come together," which requires a NipJu or Hithpa. instead of the passive. "13H signifies, as in Ex. xxviii. 7, to be joined together, to be united into a whole; and Vnrv strengthens the idea of that which is harmoniouslv, perfectly, and snugly closed up (cf. cxxxiii. 1). The Kaph of "VJJ3 is the so-called Kapli veritatis: Jerusalem has risen again out of its ruined and razed condition, the breaches and gaps are done away with (Isa. lviii. 12), it stands there as a closely compacted city, in which house joins on to house. Thus has the poet seen it, and the recollection fills him with rapture.*
Vers. 4, 5. The imposing character of the impression was still greatly enhanced by the consideration, that this is the city where at all times the twelve tribes of God's nation (which were still distinguished as its elements even after the Exile, I\om. xi. 1, Luke ii. 36, Jas. i. 1) came together at the three great feasts. The use of the & twice as equivalent to 1Bto is (as in Canticles) appropriate to the ornamental, happy, miniature-like manner of these Songs of degrees. In DTO the DP is, as in Eccles. i. 7, equivalent to HSt^ which on the other hand in ver. 5 is no more than an emphatic Bt^ (cf. Ixxvi. 4, lxviii. 7). *OV affirms a habit (cf. Job i. 4) of the past, which extends into the present. Hrj^!!? Wig is not an accusative of the definition or destination (Ew. § 300, c), but an apposition to the previous clause, as e.g. in Lev. xxiii. 14, 21, 31 (Hitzig), referring to the appointment in Ex. xxiii. 17, xxxiv. 23, Deut.
to give time to the amazement with which the sight of the Temple, the citadel of the king, and the magnificent city filled them."
* In synagogue and church it is become customary to interpret ver. 3 of the parallelism of the heavenly and the earthly Jerusalem.
xvi. 16. The custom, which arose thus, is confirmed in ver. 5 from the fact, that Jerusalem, the city of the one national sanctuary, was at the same time the city of the Davidic kingship. The phrase B?^?? 3^ is here transferred from the judicial persons (cf. xxix. 10 with ix. 5, Isa. xxviii. 6), who sit in judgment, to the seats (thrones) which are set down and stand there for judgment (cf. cxxv. 1, and Opbvos efceiTo, Apoc. iv. 2). The Targum is thinking of seats in the Temple, viz. the raised (in the second Temple resting upon pillars) seat of the king in the court of the Israelitish men near the fV^yn "iyp, but VZVnb points to the palace, 1 Kings vii. 7. In the flourishing age of the Davidic kingship this was also the highest court of judgment of the land; the king was the chief judge (2 Sam. xv. 2, 1 Kings iii. 16), and the sons, brothers, or kinsmen of the king were his assessors and advisers. In the time of the poet it is different; but the attractiveness of Jerusalem, not only as the city of Jahve, but also as the city of David, remains the same for all times.
Vers. 6-9. When the poet thus calls up the picture of his country's "city of peace" before his mind, the picture of the glory which it still ever possesses, and of the greater glory which it had formerly, he spreads out his hands over it in the distance, blessing it in the kindling of his love, and calls upon all his fellow-countrymen round about and in all places: apprecamini salutem Hierosolymis. So Gesenius correctly {Thesaurus, p. 1347); for just as DOTb V?KW signifies to inquire after any one's well-being, and to greet him with the question:?[b DWn (Jer. xv. 5), so Dw?XW signifies to find out any one's prosperity by asking, to gladly know and gladly see that it is well with him, and therefore to be animated by the wish that he may prosper; Syriac, "1 KO^ bxv directly: to salute any one; for the interrogatory?]; E^l! and the well-wishing "if? Di^, elprjvrj vol (Luke x. 5, John xx. 19 sqq.), have both of them the same source and meaning. The reading sp>"W, commended by Ewald, is a recollection of Job xii. 6 that is.violently brought in here. The loving ones are comprehended with the beloved one, the children with the mother, rbf forms an alliteration with Dw; the emphatic form *wj occurs even in other instances out of pause (e.g. lvii. 2). In ver. 7 the alliteration of Ei'P and nw is again taken up, and both accord with the name of Jerusalem. Ad eJegantiam facit, as Venema observes, perpetuti vocum ad se invicem et omnium ad nomen IIierosolymo3 nllitera\tio. Both together mark the Song of degrees as such. Happiness, cries out the poet to the holy city from afar, be within itiy bulwarks, prosperity within thy palaces, i.e. without and within. ^H, ramparts, circumvallation (from ^n, to surround, Arabic J^», round about, equally correct whether written ^n or?n), and rmcnx as the parallel word, as in xlviii. 14. The twofokl motive of such an earnest wish for peace is love for the brethren and love for the house of God. For the sake of the brethren is he cheerfully resolved to speak peace (ra 7T/30? elprjvrjv avifjs, Luke xix. 42) concerning (3 13*1, as in lxxxvii. 3, Deut. vi. 7, LXX. irepl aov; cf. dbf "WJ with ^ and S>j to speak peace to, lxxxv. 9, Esth. x. 3) Jerusalem, for the sake of the house of Jahve will he strive after good (i.e. that which tends to her well-being) to her (like? rniD B>"jj)3 in Neh. ii. 10, cf. Dife STF}, Deut. xxiii. 7, Jer. xxix. 7). For although he is now again far from Jerusalem after the visit that is over, he still remains united in love to the holy city as being the goal of his longing, and to those who dwell there as beinor his brethren and friends. Jerusalem is and will remain the heart of all Israel as surely as Jahve, who has His house there, is the God of all Israel.
unto the hand of their master, As the eyes of a maid unto the hand of her mistress: So our eyes are unto Jahve our God, until He be gracious unto us.
This Psalm is joined to the preceding Psalm by the community of the divine name JaJive our God. Alsted (died 1638) wives it the brief, ingenious inscription oculus sperans. It is an upward glance of waiting faith to Jahve under tyrannical oppression. The fact that this Psalm appears in a rhyming form, "as scarcely any other piece in the Old Testament" (Reuss), comes only from those inflexional rhymes which creep in of themselves in the tephilla style.
Vers. 1, 2. The destinies of all men, and in particular of the church, are in the hand of the King who sits enthroned in the unapproachable glory of the heavens and rules over all things, and of the Judge who decides all things. Up to Him the poet raises his eyes, and to Him the church, together with which he may call Him u Jahve our God," just as the eyes of servants are directed towards the hand of their lord, the eyes of a maid towards the hand of her mistress; for this hand regulates the whole house, and they wait upon their winks and signs with most eager attention. Those of Israel are Jahve' s servants, Israel the church is Jahve's maid. In His hand lies its future. At length He will take compassion on His own. Therefore its longing gaze goes forth towards Him, without being wearied, until He shall graciously turn its distress. With reference to the i of "QE^n vid. on cxiii., cxiv. DrpjViK is their common lord; for since in the antitype the sovereign Lord is meant, it will be conceived of as plur. excellentice, just as in general it occurs only rarely (Gen. xix. 2, 18, Jer. xxvii. 4) as an actual plural.
Vers. 3, 4. The second strophe takes up the " be gracious unto us" as it were in echo. It begins with a Kyrie elelson, which is confirmed in a crescendo manner after the form of steps. The church is already abundantly satiated with ignominy.:n is an abstract " much," and nai (cf. lxv. 10, cxx. 6) is concrete, "a great measure," like H2*), lxii. 3, something great (vid. Bottcher, Lehrbuch, § 624). The subjectivizing, intensive PO accords with cxx. 6 — probably an indication of one and the same author. na is strengthened by JPJ, like T3 in Ik. xxxvi. 4. The article of 3y?n is retrospectively demonstrative: full of such scorn of the haughty (E\v. § 290, (/). Mn is also retrospectively demonstrative; but since a repetition of the article for the fourth time would have been inelegant, the poet here says D^vx:6 with the Lamed, which serves as a circumlocution of the genitive. The Masora reckons this word among the fifteen " words that are written as one and are to be read as two." The Keri runs viz. D^V ^p, superbis oppressorum (S^V, part. Kal, like nji'n Zeph. iii. 1, and frequently). But apart from the consideration that instead of 'Kf, from the unknown flMj it might more readily be pointed *K3, from HN3 (a form of nouns indicating defects, contracted KJ), this genitival construction appears to be far-fetched, and, inasmuch as it makes a distinction among the oppressors, inappropriate. The poet surely meant EWVfcOp or D^i*K3P. This word fat* (after the form |tyn, P^?,!**#) is perhaps an intentional new formation of the poet. Saadia interprets it after the Talmudic |TO, legio; but how could one expect to find such a Grecized Latin word (Xeyecov) in the Psalter! Dunash ben- Labrat (about 960) regards D^VKH as a compound word in the signification of D"oisn D'KjjR. In fact the poet may have chosen the otherwise unused adjectival form D^vsa because it reminds one of D^V, although it is not a compound word like 0*3^351. If the Psalm is a Maccabaean Psalm, it is natural to find in Q'2VI07 an allusion to the despotic domination of the DW.
4 Then had the waters overwhelmed us, The stream had gone over our soul —
6 Blessed be Jahve, who hath not abandoned us A prey to their teeth!
7 Our soul, like a bird hath it escaped Out of the snare of the fowlers: The snare was broken
8 Our help is in the Name of Jahve, The Creator of heaven and earth.
The statement " the stream had gone over our soul" of this fifth Song of degrees, coincides with the statement u our soul is full enough" of the fourth; the two Psalms also meet in the synonymous new formations B^Vwa and B\ftTJ, which also look very much as though they were formed in allusion to cotemporary history. The in? is wanting in the LXX., Codd. Alex, and Vat., here as in Ps. cxxii., and with the exception of the Targum is wanting in general in the ancient versions, and therefore is not so much as established as a point of textual criticism. It is a Psalm in the manner of the Davidic Psalms, to which it is closely allied in the metaphors of the overwhelming waters, xviii. 5, 17 (cf. cxliv. 7), lxix. 2 sq., and of the little bird; cf. also on w xxvii. 13, on CHK used of hostile men lvi. 12, on tf»n jfa lv. 16, on 'n spna xxviii. 6, xxxi. 22. This beautiful song makes its modern origin known by its Aramaizing character, and by the delight, after the manner of the later poetry, in all kinds of embellishments of language. The art of the form consists less in strophic symmetry than in this, that in order to take one step forward it always goes back half a step. Luther's imitation (1524), "Were God not with us at this time" (Ware Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit), bears the inscription " The true believers' safeguard."
Vers. 1-5. It is commonly rendered, " If it had not been Jahve who was for us." But, notwithstanding the subject that is placed first (cf. Gen. xxiii. 13), the V belongs to the ^;
in the Aramaic p) V (^"6) *%, o si (prop, o si quod). The W, peculiar to this Psalm in the Old Testament, instead of TN*
In order to begin the apodosis of yO (N?v) emphatically the older language makes use of the confirmatory *3, Gen. xxxi. 42, xliii. 10; here we have '•IN (well rendered bf the LXX. apa), as in cxix. 92. The Lamed of 13? JVT\ is raphe in both instances, according to the rule discussed above, vol. ii. 145. When men (&"]?) rose up against Israel and their anger was kindled against them, they who were feeble in themselves over against the hostile world would have been swallowed up alive if they had not had Jahve for them, if they had not had Him on their side. This " swallowing up alive " is said elsewhere of Hades, which suddenly and forcibly snatches away its victims, lv. 16, Prov. i. 12; here, however, as ver. 6 shows, it is said of the enemies, who are represented as wild beasts. In ver. 4 the hostile power which rolls over them is likened to an overflowing stream, as in Isa. viii. 7 sq., the Assyrian. "V^i a stream or river, is Milel; it is first of all accusative: towards the stream (Num. xxxiv. 5); then, however, it is also used as a nominative, like nW>,!"1™E?, and the like (cf. common Greek 97 vv-)(da, rj veornra); so that nn— is related to n— (•"!—) as n^~, io— to |— and D— (Bottcher, § 615). These latest Psalms are fond of such embellishments by means of adorned forms and Aramaic or Aramaizing words. E^iTT is a word which is indeed not unhebraic in its formation, but is more indigenous to Chaldee; it is the Targum word for D^l m lxxxvi. 14, cxix. 51, 78 (also in liv. 5 for Dnr), although according to Levy the mss. do not present piTT but P?TT. In the passage before us the Targum renders: the king who is like to the proud waters (KJ?T! ^7) of the sea (Antiochus Epiphanes? — A scholium explains ol vTrepijcpavot,). With reference to ")3y before a plural subject, vid. Ges. § 147.
Vers. 6-8. After the fact of the divine succour has been expressed, in ver. 6 follows the thanksgiving for it, and in ver. 7 the joyful shout of the rescued one. In ver. 6 the enemies are conceived of as beasts of prey on account of their bloodthirstiness, just as the worldly empires are in the Book of Daniel; in ver. 7 as " fowlers " on account of their cunning. According to the punctuation it is not to be rendered: Our soul is like a bird that is escaped, in which case it would have been accented 113S3 1JB>33, but: our soul (subject with Eebia magnum) is as a bird ("HSVS as in Hos. xi. 11, Prov. xxiii. 32, Job xiv. 2, instead of the syntactically more usual "uB£3) escaped out of the snare of him who lays snares (W$\ elsewhere E^PJ, B^PJ, a fowler, xci. 3). 12K0 (with a beside Rebia) is 3d proet.: the snare was burst, and we — we became free. In ver. 8 (cf. cxxi. 2, cxxxiv. 3) the universal, and here pertinent thought, viz. the help of Israel is in the name of Jahve, the Creator of the world, i.e. in Him who is manifest as such and is continually verifying Himself, forms the epiphonematic close. Whether the power of the world seeks to make the church of Jahve like to itself or to annihilate it, it is not a disavowal of its God, but a faithful confession, stedfast even to death, that leads to its deliverance.
1 THEY who trust in Jahve are as Mount Zion, Which doth not totter, it standeth fast for ever.
2 As for Jerusalem — mountains are round about her, And Jahve is round about His people
3 For the sceptre of wickedness shall not rest Upon the lot of the righteous,
4 O show Thyself good, Jahve, unto the good And to those who are upright in their hearts.
5 Rat those who turn aside their crooked paths —
Jahve cause them to puss away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel!
The favourite word Israel furnished the outward occasion for annexing this Psalm to the preceding. The situation is like that in Ps. cxxiii. and cxxiv. The people are under foreign dominion. In this lies the seductive inducement to apostasy. The pious and the apostate ones are already separated. Those who have remained faithful shall not, however, always remain enslaved. Round about Jerusalem are mountains, but more important still: Jahve, of rocks the firmest, Jahve encompasses His people.
That this Psalm is one of the latest, appears from the circumstantial expression " the upright in their hearts," instead of the old one, " the upright of heart," from psn vJJs instead of the former px ^VD, and also from to \ytb (beside this passage occurring only in cxix. 11, 80, Ezek. xix. 9, xxvi. 20, Zecli. xii. 7) instead of vh "1K'K \ynb or If.
Vers. 1, 2. The stedfastness which those who trust in Jahve prove in the midst of every kind of temptation and assault is likened to Mount Zion, because the God to whom they believingly cling is He who sits enthroned on Zion. The future 3P). signifies: He sits and will sit, that is to say, He continues to sit, cf. ix. 8, cxxii. 5. Older expositors are of opinion that the heavenly Zion must be understood on account of the Chaldaean and the Roman catastrophes; but these, in fact, only came upon the buildings on the mountain, not upon the mountain itself, which in itself and according to its appointed destiny (vid. Mic. iii. 12, iv. 1) remained unshaken. In ver. 2 also it is none other than the earthly Jerusalem that is meant. The holy city has a natural circumvallation of mountains, and the holy nation that dwells and worships therein has a still infinitely higher defence in Jahve, who encompasses it round (vid. on xxxiv. 8), as perhaps a wall of fire (Zech. ii. 9), or an impassably broad and mighty river (Isa. xxxiii. 21); a statement which is also now confirmed, for, etc. Instead of inferring from the clause ver. 2 that which is to be expected with p^ the poet confirms it with <D by that which is surely to be expected.
Ver. 3. The pressure of the worldly power, which now lies heavily upon the holy land, will not last for ever; the duration of the calamity is exactly proportioned to the power of resistance of the righteous, whom God proves and purifies by calamity, but not without at the same time graciously preserving them. "The rod of wickedness" is the heathen sceptre, and "the righteous" are the Israelites who hold fast to the reliVion of their fathers. The holy land, whose sole entitled inheritors are these righteous, is called their u lot " (Vm, K\r)pos = Kkrjpovofjbla). n^ signifies to alight or settle down anywhere, and having alighted, to lean upon or rest (cf. Isa. xi. 2 with John i. 32, efiewep). The LXX. renders ovk affitrei, i.e. (W fcO (cf. on the other hand (TO*? He shall let down, cause to come down, in Isa. xxx. 32). Not for a continuance shall the sceptre of heathen tyranny rest upon the holy land, God will not suffer that: in order that the righteous may not at length, by virtue of the power which pressure and use exercises over men, also participate in the prevailing ungodly doings, rov with Beth: to seize upon anything wrongfully, or even only (as in Job xxviii. 9) to lay one's hand upon anything (frequently with?V). As here in the case of niJJW, in lxxx. 3 too the form that is the same as the locative is combined with a preposition.
Vers. 4, 5. On the ground of the strong faith in vers. 1 sq. and of the confident hope in ver. 3, the petition now arises that Jahve would speedily bestow the earnestly desired blessing of freedom upon the faithful ones, and on the other hand remove the cowardly [lit. those afraid to confess God] and those who have fellowship with apostasy, together with the declared wicked ones, out of the way. For such is the meaning of vers. 4 sq. MiD (in Proverbs alternating with the " righteous," ch. ii. 20, the opposite being the " wicked," DWi, ch. xiv. 19) are here those who truly believe and rightly act in accordance with the good will of God,* or, as the parallel
' The Midrash here calls to mind a Talmudic riddle: There came a good one (Moses, Ex. ii. 2) and received a good thing (the Tora, Prov. iv. 2) from the good One (God, Ps. cxlv. 9) for the good ones (Israel, Ps. cxxv. 4).
member of the verse explains (where O^v did not require the article on account of the addition), those who in the bottom of their heart are uprightly disposed, as God desires to have it. The poet supplicates good for them, viz. preservation against denying God and deliverance out of slavery; for those, on the contrary, who bend (nBn) their crooked paths, i.e. turn aside their paths in a crooked direction from the right way (Dnipp7|py? cf. Judg. v. 6, no less than in Amos ii. 7, Prov. xvii. 23, an accusative of the object, which is more natural than that it is the accusative of the direction, after Num. xxii. 23 extrem., cf. Job xxiii. 11, Isa. xxx. 11) — for these lie wishes that Jahve would together with the workers of evil, i.e. the open, manifest sinners, to whom these lukewarm and sly, false and equivocal ones are in no way inferior as a source of danger to the church. LXX. correctly: toi/<? he itc/cXlvovTas eh ra? <TTpayya\ia$ (Aquila SiairXo/cds, Symmachus cr/coXtoT^Ta?, Theodotion S teen pa/j, fieva) amaJ^ei icvpLos fiera, tc.r.X. Finally, the poet, stretching out his hand over Israel as if pronouncing the benediction of the priest, gathers up all his hopes, prayers, and wishes into the one prayer: "Peace be upon Israel." He means "the Israel of God," Gal. vi. 16. Upon this Israel he calls down peace from above. Peace is the end of tyranny, hostility, dismemberment, unrest, and terror; peace is freedom and harmony and unity and security and blessedness.
Bearing the scattering of the seed — He cometh along with a shout of joy, Bearing his sheaves.
It is with this Psalm, which the favourite word Zion connects with the preceding Psalm, exactly as with Ps. lxxxv., which also gives thanks for the restoration of the captive ones of Israel on the one hand, and on the other hand has to complain of the wrath that is still not entirely removed, and prays for a national restoration. There are expositors indeed who also transfer the grateful retrospect with which this Song of degrees (vers. 1-3), like that Korahitic Psalm (vers. 2-4), begins, into the future (among the translators Luther is at least more consistent than the earlier ones); but they do this for reasons which are refuted by Ps. lxxxv., and which are at once silenced when brought face to face with the requirements of the syntax.
Vers. 1-3. When passages like Isa. i. 9, Gen. xlvii. 25, or others where ttffln is perf. consec, are appealed to in order to prove that B^na *W may signify erimus quasi somniajites, they are instances that are different in point of syntax. Any other rendering than that of the LXX. is here impossible, viz.: Ev ra> kiricTTpk^ai Kvptov T7p alyjidKwa Lav Slcov i<yevr)6r]fiev co? 7rapaK€K\r]/iei>oc (DWipa? — Jerome correctly, quasi somniantes). It is, however, just as erroneous when Jerome goes on to render: tunc implebitur risu os nostrum; for it is true the future after Ttf has a future signification in passages where the context relates to matters of future history, as in xcvi. 12, Zeph. iii. 9, but it always has the signification of the imperfect after the key-note of the historical past has once been struck, Ex. xv. 1, Josh. viii. 30, x. 12, 1 Kings xi. 7, xvi. 21, 2 Kings xv. 16, Job xxxviii. 21; it is therefore, tunc implebatur. It is the exiles at home again upon the soil of their fatherland who here cast back a glance into the happy time when their destiny suddenly took another turn, by the God of Israel disposing the heart of the conqueror of Babylon to set them at liberty, and to send them to their native land in an honourable manner. nT'J is not equivalent to D*3K*, nor is there any necessity to read it thus (Olshausen, Bottcher, and Hupfeld). n:ptf> (from 3UP, like W3, ^?) signifies the return, and then those returning; it is, certainly, an innovation of this very late poet. When Jahve brought home the homeward-bound ones of Zion — the poet means to say — we were as dreamers. Does he mean by this that the long seventy years' term of affliction lay behind us like a vanished dream (Joseph Kimchi), or that the redemption that broke upon us so suddenly seemed to us at first not to be a reality but a beautiful dream % The tenor of the language favours the latter: as those not really passing through such circumstances, but only dreaming. Then — the poet goes on to say — our mouth was filled with laughter (Job viii. 21) and our tongue with a shout of joy, inasmuch, namely, as the impression of the good fortune which contrasted so strongly with our trouble hitherto, compelled us to open our mouth wide in order that our joy might break forth in a full stream, and our jubilant mood impelled our tongue to utter shouts of joy, which knew no limit because of the inexhaustible matter of our rejoicing. And how awe-inspiring was Israel's position at that time among the peoples! and what astonishment the marvellous change of Israel's lot produced upon them! Even the heathen confessed that it was Jahve' s work, and that He had done great things for them (Joel ii. 20 sq., 1 Sam. xii. 24) — the glorious predictions of Isaiah, as in ch. xlv. 14, lii. 10, and elsewhere, were being fulfilled. The church on its part seals that confession coming from the mouth of the heathen. This it is that made them so joyful, that God had acknowledged them by such a mighty deed.
Vers. 4-6. But still the work so mightily and graciously begun is not completed. Those who up to the present time have returned, out of whose heart this Psalm is, as it were, composed, are only like a small vanguard in relation to the whole nation. Instead of umn^ the Keri here reads ^rV3^? from H^, Num. xxi. 29, after the form JVM in Gen. I. 4. As we read elsewhere that Jerusalem yearns after her children, and Jahve solemnly assures her, u thou shalt put them all on as jewels and gird thyself like a bride" (Isa. xlix. 18), so here the poet proceeds from the idea that the holy land yearns after an abundant, reanimating influx of population, as the Negeb (i.e. the Jud^an south country, Gen. xx. 1, and in general the south country lying towards the desert of Sinai) thirsts for the rain-water streams, which disappear in the summer season and regularly return in the winter season. Concerning P'2S%, " a water-holding channel," vid. on xviii. 16. If we translate converte captivitatem nostram (as Jerome does, following the LXX.), we shall not know what to do with the figure, whereas in connection with the rendering reduc captivos nostros it is just as beautifully adapted to the object as to the governing verb. If we have rightly referred negeb not to the land of the Exile but to the Land of Promise, whose appearance at this time is still so unlike the promise, we shall now also understand by those who sow in tears not the exiles, but those w*ho have already returned home, who are again sowing the old soil of their native land, and that with tears, because the ground is so parched that there is little hope of the seed springing up. But this tearful sowing will be followed by a joyful harvest. One is reminded here of the drought and failure of the crops with which the new colony was visited in the time of Haggai, and of the coming blessing promised by the prophet with a view to the work of the building of the Temple being vigorously carried forward. Here, howrever, the tearful sowing is only an emblem of the new foundation-laying, which really took place not without many tears (Ezra iii. 12), amidst sorrowful and depressed circumstances; but in its general sense the language of the Psalm coincides with the language of the Preacher on the Mount, Matt. v. 4: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The subject to ver. 6 is the husbandman, and without a figure, every member of the ecclesia pressa. The gerundial construction in ver. 6a (as in 2 Sam. iii. 16, Jer. 1. 4, cf. the more Indo-Germanic style of expression in 2 Sam. xv. 30) depicts the continual passing along, here the going to and fro of the sorrowfully pensive man; and ver. 6b the undoubted coming and sure appearing of him who is highly blessed beyond expectation. The former bears JTW -jtPD, the seed-draught, i.e. the handful of seed taken from the rest for casting out (for JHjn sjeip in Amos ix. 13 signifies to cast forth the seed along the furrows); the latter his sheaves, the produce (nXOd), such as puts him to the blush, of his, as it appeared to him, forlorn sowing. As by the sowing we are to understand everything that each individual contributes towards the building up of the kingdom of God, so by the sheaves, the wholesome fruit which, by God bestowing His blessing upon it beyond our prayer and comprehension, springs up from it.
3 Behold a heritage of Jahve are sons, A reward is the fruit of the womb.
4 As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, So are sons of the youth.
The inscribed new? is only added to this Song of degrees because there was found in ver. 2 not only an allusion to the name Jedidiah, which Solomon received from Nathan (2 Sam. xii. 25), but also to his being endowed with wisdom and riches in the dream at Gibeon (1 Kings iii. 5 sqq.). And to these is still to be added the Proverbs-like form of the Psalm; for, like the proverb-song, the extended form of the Mashal, it consists of a double string of proverbs, the expression of which reminds one in many ways of the Book of Proverbs (B'^W in ver. 2, toilsome efforts, as in Prov. v. 10; ^Q**?, as in Prov. xxiii. 30; ontyan *:»a in ver. 4, sons begotten in one's youth, as in Prov. v. 18 D*?U0 HBfc, a wife married in one's youth; "W3 in ver. 5, as in Prov. xxii. 22, xxiv. 7), and which together are like the unfolding of the proverb, ch. x. 22: The blessing of Jahve, it maketh rich, and labour addeth nothing beside it. Even Theodoret observes, on the natural assumption that ver. 1 points to the building of the Temple, how much better the Psalm suits the time of Zerubbabel and Joshua, when the building of the Temple was imperilled by the hostile neighbouring peoples; and in connection with the relatively small number of those who had returned home out of the Exile, a numerous family, and more especially many sons, must have seemed to be a doubly and threefoldly precious blessing from God.
Vers. 1, 2. The poet proves that everything depends upon the blessing of God from examples taken from the Godordained life of the family and of the state. The rearing of the house which affords us protection, and the stability of the city in which we securely and peaceably dwell, the acquisition of possessions that maintain and adorn life, the begetting and rearing of sons that may contribute substantial support to the father as he grows old — all these are things which depend upon the blessing of God without natural preliminary conditions being able to guarantee them, well-devised arrangements to ensure them, unwearied labours to obtain them by force, or impatient care and murmuring to get them by defiance. Many a man builds himself a house, but he is not able to carry out the building of it, or he dies before he is able to take possession of it, or the building fails through unforeseen misfortunes, or, if it succeeds, becomes a prey to violent destruction: if God Himself do not build it, they labour thereon (? ^?V> Jonah iv. 10, Eccles. ii. 21) in vain who build it. Many a city is well-ordered, and seems to be secured by wise precautions against every misfortune, against fire and sudden attack; but if God Himself do not guard it, it is in vain that those to whom its protection ia entrusted give themselves do Bleep and perform ("T'f> a word that lias only come into frequent use since the literature of the Salomonic age) the duties of their office with the utmost devotion. The perfect in the apodosis affirms what has been done on the part of man to be ineffectual if the former is not done on God's part; cf. Num. xxxii. 2;>. Many rise up early in order to get to their work, and delay the sitting down as long as possible; i.e. not: the lying down (Hupfeld), for that is 33^, not 3K>J; but to take a seat in order to rest a little, and, as what follows shows, to eat (Hitzig). Dip and J"Q^ stand opposed to one another: the latter cannot therefore mean to remain sitting at one's work, in favour of which Isa. v. 11 (where "ip33 and ^33 form an antithesis) cannot be properly compared. 1 Sam. xx. 24 shows that prior to the incursion of the Grecian custom they did not take their meals lying or reclining (ava- or tcaTafcel/jievos), but sitting. It is vain for you — the poet exclaims to them — it will not after all bring what you think to be able to acquire; in so doing you eat only the bread of sorrow, i.e. bread that is procured with toil and trouble (cf. Gen. iii. 17, tf 3*873): J3, in like manner, i.e. the same as you are able to procure only by toilsome and anxious efforts, God gives to His beloved (Ix. 7, Deut. xxxiii. 12) WB> (= njfc?), in sleep (an adverbial accusative like "ip3, ny?9 3"i?)j i.e. without restless self-activity, in a state of self-forgetful renunciation, and modest, calm surrender to Him: " God bestows His gifts during the night," says a German proverb, and a Greek proverb even says: evSovn KvpTos aipei. Bottcher takes |3 in the sense of " so = without anything further;" and p certainly has this meaning sometimes (yid. introduction to Ps. ex.), but not in this passage, where, as referring back, it stands at the head of the clause, and where what this mimic p would import lies in the word top.
Vers. 3-5. With nan it goes on to refer to a specially striking example in support of the maxim that everything depends upon God's blessing, ipsn "ns (Gen. xxx. 2, Deut. vii. 13) beside D^3 also admits of the including of daughters. It is with "0$> (recalling Gen. xxx. 18) just as with npn:. Just as the latter in this passage denotes an inheritance not according to hereditary right, but in accordance with the free-will of the ixiver, so the former denotes not a reward that is paid out as in duty bound, but a recompense that is bestowed according to one's free judgment, and in fact looked for in accordance with a promise given, but cannot by any means be demanded. Sons are a blessed gift from above. They are — especially when they are the offspring of a youthful marriage (opp. B^pp^, Gen. xxxvii. 3, xliv. 20), and accordingly themselves strong and hearty (Gen. xlix. 3), and at the time that the father is growing old are in the bloom of their years — like arrows in the hand of a warrior. This is a comparison which the circumstances of his time made natural to the poet, in which the sword was carried side by side with the trowel, and the work of national restoration had to be defended step by step against open enemies, envious neighbours, and false brethren. It was not sufficient then to have arrows in the quiver; one was obliged to have them not merely at hand, but in the hand (T3), in order to be able to discharge them and defend one's self. What a treasure, in such a time when it was needful to be constantly ready for fighting, defensive or offensive, was that which youthful sons afforded to the elderly father and weaker members of the family! Happy is the man — the poet exclaims — who has his quiver, i.e. his house, full of such arrows, in order to be able to deal out to the enemies as many arrows as may be needed. The father and such a host of sons surrounding him (this is the complex notion of the subject) form a phalanx not to be broken through. If they have to speak with enemies in the gate — i.e. candidly to upbraid them with their wrong, or to ward off their unjust accusation — they shall not be ashamed, i.e. not be overawed, disheartened, or disarmed. Gesenius in his Thesaurus, as Ibn-Jachja has already done, takes 13*1 here in the signification "to destroy;" but in Gen. xxxiv. 13 this Piel signifies to deal behind one's back (deceitfully), and in 2 Chron. xxii. 10 to get rid of by assassination.
(vid. xviii. 48, xxviii. 2), does not suit the passage before us, and the expression Wbri6 is favourable to the idea of the gate as being the forum, which arises from taking VQT in its ordinary signification. Unjust judges, malicious accusers, and ialse witnesses retire shy and faint-hearted before a family so capable of defending itself. We read the opposite of this in Job v. 4 of sons upon whom the curse of their fathers rests.
1 HAPPY'is every one who feareth Jahve, Who walketh in His ways.
2 The labour of thy hands shalt thou surely eat, Happy art thou, and it is well with thee.
3 Thy wife, like a fruitful vine is she, In the inner part of thy house;
4 Behold, surely thus is the man blessed Who feareth Jahve.
6 And see thou thy children's children — Peace be upon Israel!
Just as Ps. cxxvii. is appended to Ps. cxxvi. because the fact that Israel was so surprised by the redemption out of exile that they thought they were dreaming, finds its interpretation in the universal truth that God bestows upon him whom He loves, in sleep, that which others are not able to acquire by toiling and moiling day and night: so Ps. cxxviii. follows Ps. cxxvii. for the same reason as Ps. ii. follows Ps. i. In both instances they are Psalms placed together, of which one begins with ashre and one ends with ashre. In other respects Ps. cxxviii. and cxxvii. supplement one another. They are related to one another much as the New Testament parables of the treasure in the field and the one pearl are related. That which makes man happy is represented in Ps. cxxvii. as a gift coming as a blessing, and in Ps. cxxviii. as a reward coming as a blessing, that which is brieflv indicated in the word "13fi? in cxxvii. 3 bein^ here expanded and unfolded. There It appears as a gift of grace in contrast to the God-estranged self -activity of man, here as a fruit of the ora et lahora. Evvald considers this and the preceding Psalm to be songs to be sung at table. But they are ill-suited for this purpose; for they contain personal mirrorings instead of petitions, and instead of benedictions of those who are about to partake of the food provided.
Vers. 1-3. The *3 in ver. 2 signifies neither " for" (Aquila, KQirov ru)v rapcrcjv aov otl cfrdyeo-ai), nor "when" (Symmachus, kqitov xecP^v aov tvQ^v); ifc is tne directly affirmative *3, which is sometimes thus placed after other words in a clause (cxviii. 10-12, Gen. xviii. 20, xli. 32). The proof in favour of this asseverating *3 is the very usual nny *3 in the apodoses of hypothetical protases, or even Tip3 in Job xi. 15, or also only *3 in Isa. vii. 9, 1 Sam. xiv. 39: "surely then;" the transition from the confirmative to the affirmative signification is evident from ver. 4 of the Psalm before us. To support one's self by one's own labour is a duty which even a Paul did not wish to avoid (Acts xx. 34), and so it is a great good fortune (y? 2)D as in cxix. 71) to eat the produce of the labour of one's own hands (LXX. tovs Kapirovs twv 7r6va)v, or according to an original reading, tou? ttovovs tcov /capircov *); for he who can make himself useful to others and still is also independent of them, he eats the bread of blessing which God gives, which is sweeter than the bread of charity which men give. In close connection with this is the prosperity of a house that is at peace and contented within itself, of an amiable and tranquil and hopeful (rich in hope) family life. " Thy wife (l^'K, found only here, for ^ncte) is as a fruit-producing vine." rpnb for rn*B, from ma = na with the Jod of the root retained, like ns3U
Lam. i. 16. The figure of the vine is admirably suited to the wife, who is a shoot or sprig of the husband, and stands in need of the man's support as the vine needs a stick or the wall of a house (pergula). 1JV3 *J13*V3 does not belong to the figure,
* The fact that the rZu Kocp^-Zu of the LXX. here, as in Prov. xxxi. 20, is intended to refer to the hands is noted by Theodoret and also by DidyimiH (in Rosenmiiller): x.xp-ov<; (final »vu u$ cctto juipovg recg %upcL$ (i.e. per synecdochetl partis pro toto), rovriaTt ruv irpcx-KTiKuv aov Ivvapiau Quyiout as Kimchi is of opinion, who thinks of a vine starting out of the room and climbing up in the open air outside. What is meant is the angle, corner, or nook (73?T!> in relation to things and artificial, equivalent to the natural *?71)j *•*• the background, the privacy of the house, where the housewife, who is not to be seen much out of doors, leads a quiet life, entirely devoted to the happiness of her husband and her family. The children springing from such a noble vine, planted around the family table, are like olive shoots or cuttings; cf. in Euripides, Medea, 1098: TeKvwv iv ot/cois <y\vfcepbv /3\daTr)fjLa, and Here. Fur. 839: KcCKkiirai? are(pavo<;. Thus fresh as young layered small olive-trees and thus promising are they.
Vers. 4-6. Pointing back to this charming picture of family life, the poet goes on to say: behold, for thus = behold, thus is the man actually blessed who fears Jahve. *3 confirms the reality of the matter of fact to which the H3n points. The promissory future in ver. 5a is followed by imperatives which call upon the God-fearing man at once to do that which, in accordance with the promises, stands before him as certain. |isSfp as in exxxiv. 3, xx. 3. TJ?;5 D*f? instead of TJ1 *J3 gives a designed indefiniteness to the first member of the combination. Every blessing the individual enjoys comes from the God of salvation, who has taken up His abode in Zion, and is perfected in participation in the prosperity of the holy city and of the whole church, of which it is the centre. A New Testament song would here open up the prospect of the heavenly Jerusalem. But the character of limitation to this present world that is stamped upon the Old Testament does not admit of this. The promise refers only to a present participation in the well-being of Jerusalem (Zech. viii. 15) and to long life prolonged in one's children's children; and in this sense calls down intercessorily peace upon Israel in all its members, and in all places and all ages.
2 Enough have they oppressed me from my youth up, Nevertheless they have not prevailed against me.
He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
5 They must be ashamed and turn back, All who hate Zion.
6 They must become as grass of the house-tops, Which, ere it shooteth up, withereth —
7 Wherewith the reaper filleth not his hand, Nor he who bindeth sheaves his bosom,
" We bless you in the name of Jahve I /"
Just as Ps. cxxiv. with the words " let Israel say" was followed by Ps. cxxv. with " peace be upon Israel" so Ps. cxxviii. with " peace be upon Israel" is followed by Ps. cxxix. with " let Israel say." This Ps. cxxix. has not only the call " let Israel say" but also the situation of a deliverance that has been experienced (cf. ver. 4 with cxxiv. 6 sq.), from which point it looks gratefully back and confidently forward into the future, and an Aramaic tinge that is noticeable here and there by the side of all other classical character of form, in common with Ps. cxxiv.
Vers. 1, 2. Israel is gratefully to confess that, however much and sorely it was oppressed, it still has not succumbed. n?1, together with nsn, has occurred already in lxv. 10, lxii. 3, and it becomes usual in the post-exilic language, cxx. 6, cxxiii. 4, 2 Chron. xxx. 18; Syriac rebath. The expression " from my youth " glances back to the time of the Egyptian bondage; for the time of the sojourn in Egypt was the time of Israel's youth (llos. ii. 17, xi. 1, Jei\ ii. 2, Ezek. xxiii. 3). The protasis ver. la is repeated in an interlinked, chain-like conjunction in order to complete the thought; for ver. 2b is the turning-point, where D|, having reference to the whole negative
Vers. 3-5. Elsewhere it is said that the enemies have driven over Israel (lxvi. 12), or have gone over its back (Isa. li. 23); here the customary figurative language |JK Knn in Job iv. 8 (cf. Hos. x. 13) is extended to another figure of hostile dealing: without compassion and without consideration they ill-treated the stretched-forth back of the people who wrere held in subjection, as though it were arable land, and, without restraining their ferocity and setting a limit to their spoiling of the enslaved people and country, they drew their furrow-strip (OJTOD, according to the Ken B^fogO) long. But TOD does not signify (as Keil on 1 Sam. xiv. 14 is of opinion, although explaining the passage more correctly than Thenius) the furrow
( = DPn, W5), but, like SIa*a>, a strip of arable land which the ploughman takes in hand at one time, at both ends of which consequently the ploughing team p£¥) always comes to a stand, turns round, and ploughs a new furrow; from n:y? to bend, turn (vid. Wetzstein's Excursus II. at the end of this volume). It is therefore: they drew their furrow-turning long (dative of the object instead of the accusative with Hiph., as e.g. in Isa. xxix. 2, cf. with Piel in xxxiv. 4, cxvi. 16, and Kal lxix. 6, after the Aramaic style, although it is not unhebraic). Righteous is Jahve — this is an universal truth, which has been verified in the present circumstances; — He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked (HW as in ii. 3; here, however, it is suggested by the metaphor in ver. 3, cf. Job xxxix. 10; LXX. av%iva<;, i.e. plJJj), with which they held Israel bound. From that which has just been experienced Israel derives the hope that all Zion's haters (a newly coined name for the enemies of the religion of Israel) will be obliged to retreat with shame and confusion.
Vers. 6-8. The poet illustrates the fate that overtakes them by means of a picture borrowed from Isaiah and worked up (eh. xxxvii. 27): they become like u grass of the housetops," etc. ^ is a relative to Bbj (quod exarescit), and TM2Tf^} priusquam, is Hebraized after nri nO'lg-JO in Dan. vi. 11, or nri noigD in Ezra v. 11. *)?£> elsewhere has the signification " to draw forth" of a sword, shoe, or arrow, which is followed by the LXX., Theodotion, and the Quinta: irpo rod eicairaa-6i)vaij before it is plucked. But side by side with the eW7raaOrjvai of the LXX. we also find the reading igavOrjcrai; and in this sense Jerome renders (statim at) viruerit, Symmachus 6KKciv\r}crai (to shoot into a stalk), Aquila aveOaXev, the Sexta €KCTTepea)<Jcu (to attain to full solidity). The Targum paraphrases ffe in both senses: to shoot up and to pluck off. The former signification, after which Venema interprets: anteqaam se evaginet vel evaginetur, i.e. anteqaam e vaginalis sais se evolvat et succrescat, is also advocated by Parchon, Kimchi, and Aben- Ezra. In the same sense von Ortenberg conjectures *)/nt?. Since the grass of the house-tops or roofs, if one wishes to pull it up, can be pulled up just as well when it is withered as when it is green, and since it is the most natural thing to take Tvn as the subject to P)bt?, we decide in favour of the intransitive signification, " to put itself forth, to develope, shoot forth into ear." The roof-grass withers before it has put forth ears or blossoms, just because it has no deep root, and therefore cannot stand against the heat of the sun.* The poet pursues the figure of the grass of the house-tops still further. The encompassing lap or bosom (koXtto?) is called elsewhere |Vh (Isa. xlix. 22, Neh. v. 13); here it is |Vn, like the Arabic hidn (diminutive hodein), of the same root with Tino? a creek, in cvii. 30. The enemies of Israel are as grass upon the house-tops, which is not garnered in; their life closes with sure destruction, the germ of which they (without any need for any rooting out) carry within themselves. The observation of Knapp, that any Western poet would have left off with ver. 6, is based upon the error that vers. 7, 8 are an idle embellishment. The greeting addressed to the reapers in ver. 8 is taken from life; it is not denied even to heathen reapers. Similarly Boaz (Ruth
* So, too, Geiger in the Deutsche Morgenlandische Zeitschrift, xiv. 278 f., according to whom ±jLi (i^cLi) occurs in Saadia and Abu-Said in the signification " to be in the first maturity, to blossom," — a sense f)fe may also have here; cf. the Talmudic »aai^ used of unripe dates that are still in blossom.
ii. 4) greets them with " Jahve be with you," and receives the counter-salutation, " Jahve bless thee." Here it is the passers-by who call out to those who are harvesting: The blessing (J")3")3) of Jahve happen to you (dp vK,* as in the Aaronitish blessing), and (since a we bless you in the name of Jahve" would be a purposeless excess of politeness in the mouth of the same speakers) receive in their turn the countersalutation: We bless you in the name of Jahve, As a contrast it follows that there is before the righteous a garnering in of that which they have sown amidst the exchange of joyful benedictory greetings.
More than the night-watchers for the morning. The night-w ateliers for the morning,
* Here and there DD^JJ is found as an error of the copyist. The Hebrew Psalter, Basel 1547, 12mo, notes it as a various reading.
Luther, being once asked which were the best Psalms, replied, Psalmi Paulini; and when his companions at table pressed him to say which these were, he answered: Ps. xxxii., li., cxxx., and cxliii. In fact in Ps. cxxx. the condemnability of the natural man, the freeness of mercy, and the spiritual nature of redemption are expressed in a manner thoroughly Pauline. It is the sixth among the seven Psalmi posnitentiales (vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., cii., cxxx., cxliii.).
Even the chronicler had this Psalm before him in the present classification, which puts it near to Ps. cxxxii.; for the independent addition with which he enriches Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple, 2 Chron. vi. 40-42, is compiled out of passages of Ps. cxxx. (ver. 2, cf. the divine response, 2 Chron. vii. 15) and Ps. cxxxii. (vers. 8, 16, 10).
The mutual relation of Ps. cxxx. to Ps. lxxxvi. has been already noticed there. The two Psalms are first attempts at adding a third, Adonajic style to the Jehovic and Elohimic Psalm-style. There Adonaj is repeated seven times, and three times in this Psalm. There are also other indications that the writer of Ps. cxxx. was acquainted with that Ps. lxxxvi. (compare ver. 2a, ^P3 ny^, with lxxxvi. 6, b*p3 nrrtfjpni; ver. 26, *junn ^p5>, with lxxxvi. 6, vfaunn iSpa; ver. 4, nn^Dri ^tap, with lxxxvi. h, nk>i; ver. 8, npnn 'n'W, with lxxxvi. 5, 15, ^n"^). The fact that 2W\> (after the form ^3B>) occurs besides only in those dependent passages of the chronicler, and 3$j3 only in Neh. i. 6, 11, as nrppo besides only in Dan. ix. 9, Neh. ix. 17, brings our Psalm down into a later period of the language; and moreover Ps. lxxxvi. is not Davidic.
Vers. 1-4. The depths (WfiggO) are not the depths of the soul, but the deep outward and inward distress in which the poet is sunk as in deep waters (lxix. 3, 15). Out of these depths he cries to the God of salvation, and importunately prays Him who rules all things and can do all things to grant him a compliant hearing (3 VKV, Gen. xxi. 12, xxvii. 13, xxx. 6, and other passages). God hears indeed even in Himself, as being the omniscient One, the softest and most secret as well as the loudest utterance; but, as Hilary observes, fides ofiicium Buum exsequitur, ut Dei auditionem roget, ut qui per naturam suam audit per ovaritis precem dignetur audire. In this sense the poet prays that His ears may be turned ntatpp (duller colla t oral form of 3$P, to be in the condition of arrectw aures), with strained attention, to his loud and urgent petition (xxviii. 2). His life hangs upon the thread of the divine compassion. If God preserves iniquities, who can stand before Him?! He preserves them (p®&) when He puts them down to one (xxxii. 2) and keeps them in remembrance (Gen. xxxvii. 11), or, as it is figuratively expressed in Job xiv. 17, sealed up as it were in custody in order to punish them when the measure is full. The inevitable consequence of this is the destruction of the sinner, for nothing can stand against the punitive justice of God (Nah. i. 6, Mai. iii. 2, Ezra ix. 15). If God should show Himself as Jah,* no creature would be able to stand before Him, who is Adonaj, and can therefore carry out His judicial will or purpose (Isa. li. 16). He does not, however, act thus. He does not proceed according to the legal stringency of recompensative justice. This thought, which fills up the pause after the question, but is not directly expressed, is confirmed by the following ^3, which therefore, as in Job xxii. 2, xxxi. 18, xxxix. 14, Isa. xxviii. 28 (cf. Eccles. v. 6), introduces the opposite. With the Lord is the willingness to forgive (nn "•? pn)? in order that He may be feared; Leslie forgives, as it is expressed elsewhere (e.g. lxxix. 9), for His Name's sake: He seeks therein the glorifying of His Name. He will, as the sole Author of our salvation, who, putting all vain-glorying to shame, causes mercy instead of justice to take its course with us (cf. li. 6), be reverenced; and gives the sinner occasion, ground, and material for reverential thanksgiving and praise by bestowing u forgiveness" upon him in the plenitude of absolutely free grace.
Vers. 5-8. Therefore the sinner need not, therefore too the poet will not, despair. He hopes in Jahve (ace. obj. as in xxv. 5, 21, xl. 2), his soul hopes; hoping in and waiting upon God is the mood of his inmost and of his whole being. He waits upon God's word, the word of His salvation (cxix. 81), which, if it penetrates into the soul and cleaves there, calms
* Eusebius on Ps. lxviii. (lxvii.) 5 observes that the Logos is called "la as ftoptpqv "hovhov "hecftuv Kcil Tocg cLxtHuocs tjjj socvtov Qsotyitq; avarsiAoic xocl cianep xxToibvc; fo r&J aco/xari. There is a similar passage in Vincentius Ciconia (1567), which we introduced into our larger Commentary on the Psalms (1859-60).
all unrest, and by the appropriated consolation of forgiveness transforms and enlightens for it everything in it and outside of it. His soul is tfwfc, i.e. stedfastly and continually directed towards Him; as Chr. A. Crusius when on his death-bed, with hands and eyes uplifted to heaven, joyfully exclaimed: "My soul is full of the mercy of Jesus Christ. My ivhole soul is towards God." The meaning of *nvb becomes at once clear in itself from cxliii. 6, and is defined moreover, without supplying TVjEW (Hitzig), according to the following 1g3>. Towards the Lord he is expectantly turned, like those who in the night-time wait for the morning. The repetition of the expression "those who watch for the morning" (cf. Isa. xxi. 11) gives the impression of protracted, painful waiting. The wrath, in the sphere of which the poet now finds himself, is a nightly darkness, out of which he wishes to be removed into the sunny realm of love (Mai. iii. 20 [iv. 2]); not he alone, however, but at the same time all Israel, whose need is the same, and for whom therefore believing waiting is likewise the way to salvation. With Jahve, and with Him exclusively, with Him, however, also in all its fulness, is *i®nn (contrary to lxii. 13, without any pausal change in accordance with the varying of the segolates), the mercy, which removes the guilt of sin and its consequences, and puts freedom, peace, and joy into the heart. And plenteous (^"in, an adverbial infin. absol., used here, as in Ezek. xxi. 20, as an adjective) is with Him redemption; i.e. He possesses in the richest measure the willingness, the power, and the wisdom, which are needed to procure redemption, which rises up as a wall of partition (Ex. viii. 19) between destruction and those imperilled. To Him, therefore, must the individual, if he will obtain mercy, to Him must His people, look up hopingly; and this hope directed to Him shall not be put to shame: He, in the fulness of the might of His free grace (Isa. xliii. 25), will redeem Israel from all its iniquities, by forgiving them and removing their unhappy inward and outward consequences. With this promise (cf. xxv. 22) the poet comforts himself. He means complete and final redemption, above all, in the genuinely New Testament manner, spiritual redemption.
1 JAIIVE, my heart is not haughty, and mine eyes are not Neither have I to do with great things Q°ft)r> And extraordinary which are beyond me.
2 Verily I have smoothed down and calmed my soul; Like a child that is iveaned beside its mother,
This little son£ is inscribed "Vfp because it is like an echo of the answer (2 Sam. vi. 21 sq.) with which David repelled the mocking observation of Michal when he danced before the Ark in a linen ephod, and therefore not in kingly attire, but in the common raiment of the priests: / esteem myself still less than I now show it, and I appear base in mine own eyes. In general David is the model of the state of mind which the poet expresses here. He did not push himself forward, but suffered himself to be drawn forth out of seclusion. He did not take possession of the throne violently, but after Samuel has anointed him he willingly and patiently traverses the long, thorny, circuitous way of deep abasement, until he receives from God's hand that which God's promise had assured to him. The persecution by Saul lasted about ten years, and his kingship in Hebron, at first only incipient, seven years and a half. He left it entirely to God to remove Saul and Ishbosheth. He let Shimei curse. He left Jerusalem before Absalom. Submission to God's guidance, resignation to His dispensations, contentment with that wdiich was allotted to him, are the distinguishing traits of his noble character, which the poet of this Psalm indirectly holds up to himself and to his cotemporaries as a mirror, viz. to the Israel of the period after the Exile, which, in connection with small beginnings under difficult circumstances, had been taught humbly contented and calm waiting.
With %2& n3}"*6 the poet repudiates pride as being the state of his soul; with W WVfc6 (lo-ramu as in Pro v. xxx. 13, and before Ajin, e.g., also in Gen. xxvi. 10, Isa. xi. 2, in accordance with which the erroneous placing of the accent in Baer's text is to be corrected), pride of countenance and bearing; and with TO&rri6], pride of endeavour and mode of action. Pride has its seat in the heart, in the eyes especially it finds its expression, and great things are its sphere in which it diligently exercises itself. The opposite of " great things" (Jer. xxiii. 3, xlv. 5) is not that which is little, mean, but that which is small; and the opposite of " things too wonderful for me" (Gen. xviii. 14) is not that which is trivial, but that which is attainable.
kS'DN does not open a conditional protasis, for where is the indication of the apodosis to be found? Nor does it signify " but," a meaning it also has not in Gen. xxiv. 38, Ezek. iii, 6. In these passages too, as in the passage before us, it is asseverating, being derived from the usual formula of an oath: verily I have, etc. iW signifies (Isa. xxviii. 25) to level the surface of a field by ploughing it up, and has an ethical sense here, like 1{£ with its opposites Spy and?E$. The Poel Don is to be understood according to njDffi in lxii. 2, and BJpvn in Lam. iii. 26. He has levelled or made smooth his soul, so that humility is its entire and uniform state; he has calmed it so that it is silent and at rest, and lets God speak and work in it and for it: it is like an even surface, and like the calm surface of a lake. Ewald and Hupfeld's rendering: "as a weaned child on its mother, so my soul, being weaned, lies on me," is refuted by the consideration that it ought at least to be nTiDID but more correctly n?l»3 |3; but it is also besides opposed by the article which is swallowed up in fypas), according to which it is to be rendered: like one weaned beside its mother (here b)E>)2 on account of the determinative collateral definition), like the weaned one (here «Dia because without any collateral definition: cf., with Hitzig, Deut. xxxii. 2, and the like; moreover, also, because referring back to the first 5>i»j, cf. Hab. iii. 8), is my soul beside me (Hitzig, Hengstenberg, and most expositors). As a weaned child — viz. not one that is only just begun to be weaned, but an actually weaned child (taa, cognate "MM, to bring to an end, more particularly to bring suckling to an end, to wean) — lies upon its mother without crying impatiently and craving for its mother's breast, but contented with the fact that it has its mother — like such a weaned child is his soul upon him, i.e. in relation to his Ego (which is conceived of in vy as having the soul upon itself, cf. xlii. 7, Jer. viii. 18; Psychology, S. 151 f., tr. p. 180): his soul, which is by nature restless and craving, is stilled; it does not long after earthly enjoyment and earthly good that God should give these to it,* but it is satisfied in the fellowship of God, it finds full satisfaction in Him, it is satisfied (satiated) in Him.
By the closing strain, ver. 3, the individual language of the Psalm comes to have a reference to the congregation at large. Israel is to renounce all self-boasting and all self-activity, and to wait in lowliness and quietness upon its God from now and for evermore. For He resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
3 u I will not enter into the tent of my house, I will not go up to the bed of my couch;
4 I will not give sleep to mine eyes, Slumber to mine eyelids,
6 Behold it was, we heard it, in Ephrathah, We found it in the fields of Jafar.
9 Let Thi/ priests clothe themselves with righteousness, And Thy saints shout for joy.
10 For the sake of David Thy servant Turn not back the face of Thine anointed!
In truth that which He will not recall: " Of the fruit of thy body Do I appoint a possessor of thy throne. 12. If thy children keep My covenant
And My testimony, which I teach them: Their children also shall for ever Sit upon thy throne."
16 And her priests will I clothe with salvation, And her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
1 7 There will I make a horn to shoot forth for David, I will prepare a lamp for mine anointed.
18 His enemies will I clothe with shame, And upon himself shall his crown blossom.
Ps. cxxxi. designedly precedes Ps. cxxxii. The former has grown out of the memory of an utterance of David when he brought home the Ark, and the latter begins with the remembrance of David's humbly zealous endeavour to obtain a settled and worthy abode for the God who sits enthroned above the Ark among His people. It is the only Psalm in which the sacred Ark is mentioned. The chronicler put vers. 8-10 into the mouth of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple (2 Chron. vi. 41 sq.). After a passage borrowed from Ps. cxxx. 2 which is attached by nriJJ to Solomon's Temple-dedication prayer, he appends further borrowed passages out of Ps. cxxxii. with nnjrt. The variations in these verses of the Psalms, which are annexed by him with a free hand and from memory (Jahve Elohim for
Jahve, yrch for inrwoi, nyitrn for pnv, nten WDb* for Ujfi*), just as much prove that lie has altered the Psalm, and not reversely (as llitzig persistently maintains), that the psalmist has borrowed from the Chronicles. It is even still distinctly to be seen how the memory of Isa. lv. 3 has influenced the close of ver. 42 in the chronicler, just as the memory of Isa. lv. 2 has perhaps also influenced the close of ver. 41.
The psalmist supplicates the divine favour for the anointed of Jahve for David's sake. In this connection this anointed one is neither the high priest, nor Israel, which is never so named (vid. Hab. iii. 13), nor David himself, who u in all the necessities of his race and people stands before God," as Hengstenberg asserts, in order to be able to assign this Song of degrees, as others, likewise to the post-exilic time of the new colony. Zerubbabel might more readily be understood (Baur), with whom, according to the closing prophecy of the Book of Haggai, a new period of the Davidic dominion is said to begin. But even Zerubbabel, the «ntfP nriQ, could not be called fTOD, for this he was not. The chronicler applies the Psalm in accordance with its contents. It is suited to the mouth of Solomon. The view that it was composed by Solomon himself when the Ark of the covenant was removed out of the tenttemple on Zion into the Temple-building (Amyraldus, De Wette, Tholuck, and others), is favoured by the relation of the circumstances, as they are narrated in 2 Chron. v. 5 sqq., to the desires of the Psalm, and a close kinship of the Psalm with Ps. lxxii. in breadth, repetitions of words, and a laboured forward movement which is here and there a somewhat uncertain advance. At all events it belongs to a time in which the Davidic throne was still standing and the sacred Ark was not as yet irrecoverably lost. That which, according to 2 Sam. ch. vi., vii., David did for the glory of Jahve, and on the other hand is promised to him by Jahve, is here made by a post- Davidic poet into the foundation of a hopeful intercessory prayer for the kingship and priesthood of Zion and the church presided over by both.
The Psalm consists of four ten-line strophes. Only in connection with the first could any objection be raised, and the strophe be looked upon as only consisting of nine lines. But the other strophes decide the question of its measure; and the breaking up of the weighty ver. 1 into two lines follows the accentuation, which divides it into two parts and places HN by itself as being DK (according to Accents system, xviii. 2, with MugrasJi). Each strophe is adorned once with the name of David; and moreover the step-like progress which comes back to what has been said, and takes up the thread and carries it forward, cannot fail to be recognised.
Vers. 1-5. One is said to remember anything to another when he requites him something that he has done for him, or when he does for him what he has promised him. It is the post- Davidic church which here reminds Jahve of the hereinafter mentioned promises (of the a mercies of David," 2 Chron. vi. 42, cf. Isa. lv. 3) with which He has responded to David's JW. By this verbal substantive of the Pual is meant all the care and trouble which David had in order to procure a worthy abode for the sanctuary of Jahve. 3 njy signifies to trouble or harass one's self about anything, afflictari (as frequently in the Book of Ecclesiastes); the Pual here denotes the self-imposed trouble, or even that imposed by outward circumstances, such as the tedious wars, of long, unsuccessful, and yet never relaxed endeavours (1 Kings v. 17). For he had vowed unto God that he would give himself absolutely no rest until he had obtained a fixed abode for Jahve. What he said to Nathan (2 Sam. vii. 2) is an indication of this vowed resolve, which was now in a time of triumphant peace, as it seemed, ready for being carried out, after the first step towards it had already been taken in the removal of the Ark of the covenant to Zion (2 Sam. ch. vi.); for 2 Sam. ch. vii. is appended to 2 Sam. ch. vi. out of its chronological order and only on account of the internal connection. After the bringing home of the Ark, which had been long yearned for (cf. ci. 2), and did not take place without difficulties and terrors, was accomplished, a series of years again passed over, during which David always carried about with him the thought of erecting God a Temple-building. And when he had received the tidings through Nathan that he should not build God a house, but that it should be done by his son and successor, he nevertheless did as much towards the carrying out of the desire of his heart as was possible in connection with this declaration of the will of Jahve. He consecrated the site of the future Temple, he procured the necessary moans and materials for the building of it, he made all the necessary arrangements for the future Temple-service, he inspirited the people for the gigantic work of building that was before them, and handed over to his son the model for it, as it is all related to us in detail by the chronicler. The divine name " the mighty One of Jacob" is taken from Gen. xlix. 24, as in Isa. i. 24, xlix. 26, lx. 16. The Philistines with their Dagon had been made to feel this mighty Rock of Jacob when they took the sacred Ark along with them (1 Sam. ch. v.). With EN David solemnly declares what he is resolved not to do. The meaning of the hyperbolically expressed vow in the form of an oath is that for so long he will not rejoice at his own dwellinghouse, nor give himself up to sleep that is free from anxiety; in fine, for so long he will not rest. The genitives after Snfc and fcny are appositional genitives; Ps. xliv. delights in similar combinations of synonyms. \IW (Latin strata med) is a poetical plural, as also is rto^D. With \VCR1T\ (which is always said of the eyelids, Gen. xxxi. 40, Prov. vi. 4, Eccles. viii. 16, not of the eyes) alternates rot? (according to another reading JW) for n:£\ The dth is the same as in n?m in xvi. 6, cf. lx. 13, Ex. xv. 2, and frequently. This Aramaizing rejection of the syllable before the tone is, however, without example elsewhere. The LXX. adds to ver. 4, fcal avanravaw toIs tcpora- </>ot? llov QtfiFi? n?^?\)> but this is a disagreeable overloading of the verse.
Vers. 6-10. In ver. 6 begins the language of the church, which in this Psalm reminds Jahve of His promises and comforts itself with them. Olshausen regards this ver. 6 as altogether inexplicable. The interpretation nevertheless has some safe starting-points. (1) Since the subject spoken of is the founding of a fixed sanctuary, and one worthy of Jahve, the suffix of nW2»? (with Chateph as in Hos. viii. 2, Ew. § 60, a) and rnJNVB refers to the Ark of the covenant, which is fern, also in other instances (1 Sam. iv. 17, 2 Chron. viii. 11). (2) The Ark of the covenant, fetched up out of Shiloh by the Israelites to the battle at Ebenezer, fell into the hands of the victors, and remained, having been again given up by them, for twenty years in Kirjath-Jearim (1 Sam. vii. 1 sq.), until David removed it out of this Judasan district to Zion (2 Sam. vi. 2-4; cf.
2 Cliron. i. 4). What is then more natural than that "Wp^ is a poetical appellation of Kirjath-Jearim (cf. u the field of Zoan " in lxxviii. 12)? Kirjath-Jearim has, as a general thing, very varying names. It is also called Kirjath-ha-jearim in Jer. xxvi. 20 (Kirjath- arim in Ezra ii. 25, cf. Josh, xviii. 28), Kirjath-baal in Josh. xv. 60, Bdalah in Josh. xv. 9, 1 Chron. xiii. 6 (cf. Har-ha-bd alah, Josh. xv. 11, with Har-Jearim in Josh. xv. 10), and, as it seems, even BdaU Jehudah in 2 Sam. vi. 2. Why should it not also have been called Jaar side by side with Kirjath-Jearim, and more especially if the mountainous district, to which the mention of a hill and mountain of Jearim points, was, as the name " city of the wood " implies, at the same time a wooded district? We therefore fall in with ivuhnol's (1799) rendering: we found it in the meadows of Jaar, and with his remark: " Jaar is a shortened name of the city of Kirjath-Jearim."
The question now further arises as to what Ephrathali is intended to mean. This is an ancient name of Bethlehem; but the Ark of the covenant never was in Bethlehem. Accordingly Hengstenberg interprets, " We knew of it in Bethlehem (where David had spent his youth) only by hearsay, no one had seen it; we found it in Kirjath-Jearim, yonder in the wooded environs of the city, where it was as it were buried in darkness and solitude." So even Anton Hulsius (1650): Ipse David loquitur, qui dicit illam ipsam arcam, de qua quum adhuc Bethlehemi versaretur inaudivisset, postea a se (yel majoribus suis ipso adhuc minorenni) inventam fuisse in campis Jaar. But (1) the supposition that David's wrords are continued here does not harmonize with the way in which they are introduced in ver. 2, according to which they cannot possibly extend beyond the vow that follows. (2) If the church is speaking, one does not see why Bethlehem is mentioned in particular as the place of the hearsay. (3) We heard it in Ephrathali cannot well mean anything else than, per antiptosin (as in Gen. i. 4, but without ^3), we heard that it was in Ephrathah. But the Ark was before Kirjath-Jearim in Shiloh. The former lay in the tribe of Judah close to the western borders of Benjamin, the latter in the midst of the tribe of Ephraim. Now since W&K quite as often means an Ephraimite as it does a Bethlehemite, it may be asked whether Ephrathah is not intended of the
Ephraimitish territory (Kiihnol, Gesenius, Maurer, Tholuck, and others). Tlic meaning would then be: we had heard that the sacred Ark was in Sliiloh, but we found it not there, but in Kirjath-Jearim. And we can easily understand why the poet has mentioned the two places just in this way. Ephrdth9 according to its etymon, is fruitful fields, with which are contrasted the fields of the wood — the sacred Ark had fallen from its original, more worthy abode, as it were, into the wilderness. But is it probable, more especially in view of Mic. v. 1, that in a connection in which the memory of David is the ruling idea, Ephrathah signifies the land of Ephraim? No, Ephrathah is the name of the district in which Kirjath-Jearim lay. Caleb had, for instance, by Ephrath, his third wife, a son named Hur (Chur), 1 Chron. ii. 19. This Hur, the first-born of Ephrathah, is the father of the population of Bethlehem (1 Chron. iv. 4), and Shobal, a son of this Hur, is father of the population of Kirjath-Jearim (1 Chron. ii. 50). Kirjath- Jearim is therefore, so to speak, the daughter of Bethlehem. This was called Ephrathah in ancient times, and this name of Bethlehem became the name of its district (Mic. v. 1). Kirjath-Jearim belonged to Caleb-Ephrathah (1 Chron. ii. 24), as the northern part of this district seems to have been called in distinction from Negeb-Caleb (1 Sam. xxx. 14).
But vrtoKfo in ver. 7 is now neither a designation of the house of Abinadab in Kirjath-Jearim, for the expression would be too grand, and in relation to ver. 5 even confusing, nor a designation of the Salomonic Temple-building, for the expression standing thus by itself is not enough alone to designate it. What is meant will therefore be the tent-temple erected by David for the Ark when removed to Zion (2 Sam. vii. 2, W"}*). The church arouses itself to enter this, and to prostrate itself in adoration towards (vid. xcix. 5) the footstool of Jahve, i.e. the Ark; and to what purpose? The Ark of the covenant is now to have a place more worthy of it; the nrMB, i.e. the nrnjp TV3, 1 Chron. xxviii. 2, in which David's endeavours have through Solomon reached their goal, is erected: let Jahve and the Ark of His sovereign power, that may not be touched (see the examples of its inviolable character in 1 Sam. ch. v., vi., 2 Sam. vi. 6 sq.), now enter this fixed abode! Let His priests who are to serve Him there clothe themselves in " righteousness," i.e. in conduct that is according to His will and pleasure; let His saints, who shall there seek and find mercy, shout for joy! More especially, however, let Jahve for David's sake His servant, to whose restless longing this place of rest owes its origin, not turn back the face of His anointed one, i.e. not reject his face which there turns towards Him in the attitude of prayer (cf. lxxxiv. 10). The chronicler has understood ver. 10 as an intercession on behalf of Solomon, and the situation into which we are introduced by vers. 6-8 seems to require this. It is, however, possible that a more recent poet here, in vers. 7, 8, reproduces words taken from the heart of the church in Solomon's time, and blends petitions of the church of the present with them. The subject all through is the church, which is ever identical although changing in the persons of its members. The Israel that brought the sacred Ark out of Kirjath-Jearim to Zion and accompanied it thence to the Temple-hill, and now worships in the sanctuary raised by David's zeal for the glory of Jahve, is one and the same. The prayer for the priests, for all the saints, and more especially for the reigning king, that then resounded at the dedication of the Temple, is continued so long as the history of Israel lasts, even in a time when Israel has no king, but has all the stronger longing for the fulfilment of the Messianic promise.
Vers. 11-13. The "for the sake of David" is here set forth in detail. HDX in ver. 11a is not the accusative of the object, but an adverbial accusative. The first member of the verse closes with ivb, which has the distinctive Pazer, which is preceded by Legarmeh as a sub-distinctive; then follows at the head of the second member HDK with Zinnor. then nufcD 2Wh~& with Olewejored and its conjunctive Galgal, which regularly precedes after the sub-distinctive Zinnor. The suffix of KV&'O refers to that which was affirmed by oath, as in Jer. iv. 28. Lineal descendants of David will Jahve place on the throne (KD37 like ^-6 in xxi. 4) to him, i.e. so that they shall follow him as possessors of the throne. David's children shall for ever (which has been finally fulfilled in Christ) sit KB3& to him (cf. ix. 5, Job xxxvi. 7). Thus has Jahve promised, and expects in return from the sons of David the observance of His Law. Instead of *? Tfiy it is pointed ft Wy. In Hahn's edition WV has Mercha in the 'penult, (cf. the retreat of the tone in nr ^S, Dan. x. 17), and in Baer's edition the still
2 Kings vi. 8; and signifies the revelation of God as an attests 7 o.
tation of His will. cnrapX has Mercha mahpach., it Rebia parvum, and Wy Mercha; and according to the interpunction it would have to be rendered: "and My self-attestation there" (via1, on ix. 16), but S) is relative: My self-attestation (revelation), which I teach them. The divine words extend to the end of ver. 12. The hypotheses with DX, as the fulfilment in history shows, wrere conditions of the continuity of the Davidic succession; not, however, — because human unfaithfulness does not annul the faithfulness of God, — of the endlessness of the Davidic throne. In ver. 13 the poet states the ground of such promissory mercy. It is based on the universal mercy of the election of Jerusalem. HJK has He mappic. like nay in Deut. xxii. 29, or the stroke of Raphe (Ew. § 247, d), although the suffix is not absolutely necessary. In the following strophe the purport of the election of Jerusalem is also unfolded in Jahve's own words.
Vers. 14-18. Shiloh has been rejected (Ixxviii. 60), for a time only was the sacred Ark in Bethel (Judg. xx. 27) and Mizpah (Judg. xxi. 5), only somewhat over twenty years was it sheltered by the house of Abinadab in Kirjath-Jearim (1 Sam. vii. 2), only three months by the house of Obed-Edom in Perez-Uzzah (2 Sam. vi. 11) — but Zion is Jahve's abiding dwelling-place, His own proper settlement, nmap (as in Isa. xi. 10, lxvi. 1, and besides 1 Chron. xxviii. 2). In Zion, His chosen and beloved dwelling-place, Jahve blesses everything that belongs to her temporal need (^^ for nnT.T, vid. on xxvii. 5, note); so that her poor do not suffer want, for divine love loves the poor most especially. His second blessing refers to the priests, for by means of these He will keep up His intercourse with His people. He makes the priesthood of Zion a real institution of salvation: He clothes her priests with salvation, so that they do not merely bring it about instrumentally, but personally possess it, and their whole outward appearance is one which proclaims salvation. And to all her saints He gives cause and matter for high and lasting joy, by making Himself known also to the church, in which He has taken up His abode, in deeds of mercy (loving-kindness or grace). There (0^, cxxxiii. 3) in Zion is indeed the kingship of promise, which cannot fail of fulfilment. He will cause a horn to shoot forth, He will prepare a lamp, for the house of David, which David here represents as being its ancestor and the anointed one of God reigning at that time; and all who hostilely rise up against David in his seed, He will cover with shame as uith a garment (Job viii. 22), and the crown consecrated by promise, which the seed of David wears, shall blossom like an unfading wreath. The horn is an emblem of defensive might and victorious dominion, and the lamp (*U, 2 Sam. xxi. 17, cf. "W, 2 Chron. xxi. 7, LXX. Xv-^yov) an emblem of brilliant dignity and joyfulness. In view of Ezek. xxix. 21, of the predictions concerning the Branch (zemach) in Isa. iv. 2, Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15, Zech. iii. 8, vi. 12 (cf. Heb. vii. 14), and of the fifteenth Beracha of the Sliemone-Esre (the daily Jewish prayer consisting of eighteen benedictions): " make the branch (zemach) of David Thy servant to shoot forth speedily, and let his horn rise high by virtue of Thy salvation," — it is hardly to be doubted that the poet attached a Messianic meaning to this promise. With reference to our Psalm, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, changes that supplicatory beracha of his nation (Luke i. 68-70) into a praiseful one, joyfully anticipating the fulfilment that is at hand in Jesus.
Flowing gently down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron, Which flows gently down upon the hem of his garments —
mountains of Zion, For there hath Jahve commanded the blessing, Life, for evermore.
In this Psalm, says Hengstenberg, u David brings to the consciousness of the church the glory of the fellowship of the saints, that had so long been wanting, the restoration of which had begun with the setting up of the Ark in Zion." The Psalm, in fact, does not speak of the termination of the dispersion, but of the uniting of the people of all parts of the land for the purpose of divine worship in the one place of the sanctuary; and, as in the case of Ps. cxxii., its counterpart, occasions can be found in the history of David adapted to the Tf6 of the inscription. But the language witnesses against David; for the construction of w with the participle, as TjH0, qui descendit (cf. cxxxv. 2, DHDjttJ^ qui stant), is unknown in the usage of the language prior to the Exile. Moreover the inscription Tf6 is wanting in the LXX. Cod. Vat. and the Targum; and the Psalm may only have been so inscribed because it entirely breathes David's spirit, and is as though it had sprung out of his love for Jonathan.
With D3 the assertion passes on from the community of nature and sentiment which the word " brethren" expresses to the outward active manifestation and realization that correspond to it: good and delightful (cxxxv. 3) it is when brethren united by blood and heart also (corresponding to this their brotherly nature) dwell together — a blessed joy which Israel has enjoyed during the three great Feasts, although only for a brief period (vid. Ps. cxxii.). Because the high priest, in whom the priestly mediatorial office culminates, is the chief personage in the celebration of the feast, the nature and value of that local reunion is first of all expressed by a metaphor taken from him. Sitsn }d^ is the oil for anointing described in Ex. xxx. 22-33, which consisted of a mixture of oil and aromatic spices strictly forbidden to be used in common life. The sons of Aaron were only sprinkled with this anointing oil; but Aaron was expressly anointed with it, inasmuch as Moses poured it upon his head; hence he is called par excellence " the anointed priest " ((Wian jnbn), whilst the other priests are only " anointed" (p^tWDj Num. iii. 3) in so far as their garments, like Aaron's, were also sprinkled with the oil (together with the blood of the ram of consecration), Lev. viii. 12, 30. In the time of the second Temple, to which the holy oil of anointinc was wanting, the installation into the office of high priest took place by his being invested in the pontifical robes. The poet, however, when he calls the high priest as such Aaron, has the high-priesthood in all the fulness of its divine consecration (Lev. xxi. 10) before his eyes. Two drops of the holy oil of anointing, says a Haggada, remained for ever hanging on the beard of Aaron like two pearls, as an emblem of atonement and of peace. In the act of the anointing itself the precious oil freely poured out ran gently down upon his beard, which in accordance with Lev. xxi. 5 was unshortened.
In that part of the Tora which describes the robe of the high priest, v*P is its hems, i^&O ''S, or even absolutely ns? the opening for the head, or the collar, by means of which the sleeveless garment was put on, and HDb> the binding, the embroidery, the border of this collar (vid. Ex. xxviii. 32, xxxix. 23; cf. Job xxx. 18, ^fl? *S, the collar of my shirt). SB must apparently be understood according to these passages of the Tora, as also the appellation nnp (only here for D*TO, B^B), beginning with Lev. vi. 3, denotes the whole vestment of the high priest, yet without more exact distinction. But the Targum translates *Q with K"iOK (ora == fimbria) — a word which is related to N"^**. agnus, like a>a to oi'9. This wa is used both of the upper and lower edge of a garment. Accordingly Apollinaris and the Latin versions understand the eVt tt]v coav of the LXX. of the hem (in or am vestimenti); Theodore t, on the other hand, understands it to mean the upper edging: &av i/cdXeaev 0 KaXovfJLev TrepLTpa^rjXLov, tovto Se ko\ 6 'AfevXa? arofia iv$vfJL<iTG)v etprjtce. So also De Sacy: sur le Lord de son vetement, c1 est-a-dire, sur le haul de ses habits pontificaux. The decision of the question depends upon the aim of this and the following figure in ver. 3. If we compare the two figures, we find that the point of the comparison is the uniting power of brotherly feeling, as that which unites in heart and soul those who are most distant from one another locally, and also brings them together in outward circumstance. If this is the point of the comparison, then Aaron's beard and the hem of his garments stand just as diametrically opposed to one another as the dew of Hermon and the mountains of Zion. *fi is not the collar above, which gives no advance, much less the antithesis of two extremes, but the hem at the bottom (cf. »§«*, Ex. xxvi.
4, of the edge of a curtain). It is also clear that Tj*$ cannot now refer to the beard of Aaron, either as flowing down over the upper border of his robe, or as flowing down upon its hem; it must refer to the oil, for peaceable love that brings the most widely separated together is likened to the oil. This reference is also more appropriate to the style of the onward movement of the gradual Psalms, and is confirmed by ver. 3, where it refers to the dew, which takes the place of the oil in the other metaphor. When brethren united in harmonious love also meet together in one place, as is the case in Israel at the great Feasts, it is as when the holy, precious chrism, breathing forth the blended odour of many spices, upon the head of Aaron trickles down upon his beard, and from thence to the extreme end of his vestment. It becomes thoroughly perceptible, and also outwardly visible, that Israel, far and near, is pervaded by one spirit and bound together in unity of spirit.
This uniting spirit of brotherly love is now symbolized also by the dew of Hermon, which descends in drops upon the mountains of Zion. " What we read in the 133d Psalm of the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion," says Van de Velde in his Travels (Bd. i. S. 97), " is now become quite clear to me. Here, as I sat at the foot of Hermon, I understood how the water-drops which rose from its forest-mantled heights, and out of the highest ravines, which are filled the whole year round with snow, after the sun's rays have attenuated them and moistened the atmosphere with them, descend at evening-time as a heavy dew upou the lower mountains which lie round about as its spurs. One ought to have seen Hermon with its white-golden crown glistening aloft in the blue sky, in order to be able rightly to understand the figure. Nowhere in the whole country is so heavy a dew perceptible as in the districts near to Hermon." To this dew the poet likens brotherly love. This is as the dew of Hermon: of such pristine freshness and thus refreshing, possessing such pristine power and thus quickening, thus born from above (ex. 3)? and in fact like the dew of Hermon which comes down upon the mountains of Zion — a feature in the picture which is taken from the natural reality; for an abundant dew, when warm days have preceded, might very well be diverted to Jerusalem by the operation of the cold current of air sweeping down from the north over Hermon. We know, indeed, from our own experience how far oft* a cold air coming from the Alps is perceptible and produces its effects. The figure of the poet is therefore as true to nature as it is beautiful. When brethren bound together in love also meet together in one place, and in fact when brethren out of the north unite with brethren in the south in Jerusalem, the city which is the mother of all, at the great Feasts, it is as when the dew of Mount Hermon, which is covered with deep, almost eternal snow,* descends upon the bare, unfruitful — and therefore longing for such quickening — mountains round about Zion. In Jerusalem must love and all that is good meet. For there (Dtp as in cxxxii. 17) hath Jahve commanded (H}¥ as in Lev. xxv. 21, cf. Ps. xlii. 9, lxviii. 29) the blessing, i.e, there allotted to the blessing its rendezvous and its place of issue. nrnarrrtK is appositionally explained by D^n: life is the substance and goal of the blessing, the possession of all possessions, the blessing of all blessings. The closing words Wtyrriy (cf. xxviii. 9) belong to rn?: such is God's inviolable, ever-enduring order.