Vindication, Refuge, and Satisfaction in God’s Face

Psa 17:6-7 It is only now, after his inward parts and his walk have been laid open to Jahve, that he resumes his petition, which is so well justified and so soundly based, and enters into detail. The אני found beside קראתיך (the perfect referring to that which has just now been put into execution) is meant to imply: such an one as he has described himself to be according to the testimony of his conscience, may call upon God, for God hears such and will therefore also hear him.

הט אזנך exactly corresponds to the Latin au-di ( aus-cul-ta ). The Hiph . הפלה (הפליא, Psa 31:22, cf. Psa 4:4) signifies here to work in an extraordinary and marvellous manner. The danger of him who thus prays is great, but the mercies of God, who is ready and able to help, are still greater. Oh that He may, then, exhibit all its fulness on his behalf. The form of the address resembles the Greek, which is so fond of participles.

If it is translated as Luther translates it: “Show Thy marvellous lovingkindness, Thou Saviour of those who trust in Thee, Against those who so set themselves against Thy right hand,” then חוסים is used just as absolutely as in Pro 14:32, and the right hand of God is conceived of as that which arranges and makes firm. But “to rebel against God’s right (not statuta , but desteram )” is a strange expression.

There are still two other constructions from which to choose, viz. , “Thou Deliverer of those seeking protection from adversaries, with Thy right hand” (Hitz.) , or: “Thou Helper of those seeking protection from adversaries, at Thy right hand” (Aben-Ezra, Tremell.) This last rendering is to be preferred to the two others. Since, on the one hand, one says מחסה מן, refuge from...

, and on the other, חסה בּ to hide one’s self in any one, or in any place, this determining of the verbal notion by the preposition (on this, see above on Psa 2:12) must be possible in both directions. ממּתקוממים is equivalent to ממתקוממיהם Job 27:7; and חוסים בימינך, those seeking protection at the strong hand of Jahve. The force of the ב is just the same as in connection with הסתּתּר, 1Sa 23:19.

In Damascus and throughout Syria - Wetzstein observes on this passage - the weak make use of these words when they surrender themselves to the strong: Arab. anâ b - qabḍt ydk , “I am in the grasp of thy hand (in thy closed hand) i. e. , I give myself up entirely to thee. ”

Psa 17:6-7 It is only now, after his inward parts and his walk have been laid open to Jahve, that he resumes his petition, which is so well justified and so soundly based, and enters into detail. The אני found beside קראתיך (the perfect referring to that which has just now been put into execution) is meant to imply: such an one as he has described himself to be according to the testimony of his conscience, may call upon God, for God hears such and will therefore also hear him.

הט אזנך exactly corresponds to the Latin au-di ( aus-cul-ta ). The Hiph . הפלה (הפליא, Psa 31:22, cf. Psa 4:4) signifies here to work in an extraordinary and marvellous manner. The danger of him who thus prays is great, but the mercies of God, who is ready and able to help, are still greater. Oh that He may, then, exhibit all its fulness on his behalf. The form of the address resembles the Greek, which is so fond of participles.

If it is translated as Luther translates it: “Show Thy marvellous lovingkindness, Thou Saviour of those who trust in Thee, Against those who so set themselves against Thy right hand,” then חוסים is used just as absolutely as in Pro 14:32, and the right hand of God is conceived of as that which arranges and makes firm. But “to rebel against God’s right (not statuta , but desteram )” is a strange expression.

There are still two other constructions from which to choose, viz. , “Thou Deliverer of those seeking protection from adversaries, with Thy right hand” (Hitz.) , or: “Thou Helper of those seeking protection from adversaries, at Thy right hand” (Aben-Ezra, Tremell.) This last rendering is to be preferred to the two others. Since, on the one hand, one says מחסה מן, refuge from...

, and on the other, חסה בּ to hide one’s self in any one, or in any place, this determining of the verbal notion by the preposition (on this, see above on Psa 2:12) must be possible in both directions. ממּתקוממים is equivalent to ממתקוממיהם Job 27:7; and חוסים בימינך, those seeking protection at the strong hand of Jahve. The force of the ב is just the same as in connection with הסתּתּר, 1Sa 23:19.

In Damascus and throughout Syria - Wetzstein observes on this passage - the weak make use of these words when they surrender themselves to the strong: Arab. anâ b - qabḍt ydk , “I am in the grasp of thy hand (in thy closed hand) i. e. , I give myself up entirely to thee. ”

Psa 17:8-9 The covenant relationship towards Himself in which Jahve has placed David, and the relationship of love in which David stands to Jahve, fully justified the oppressed one in his extreme request. The apple of the eye, which is surrounded by the iris, is called אישׁון, the man (Arabic insân ), or in the diminutive and endearing sense of the termination on : the little man of the eye, because a picture in miniature of one’s self is seen, as in a glass, when looking into another person’s eye.

בּת־עין either because it is as if born out of the eye and the eye has, as it were, concentrated itself in it, or rather because the little image which is mirrored in it is, as it were, the little daughter of the eye (here and Lam 2:18). To the Latin pupilla ( pupula ), Greek κόρη, corresponds most closely בּבת עין, Zec 2:12, which does not signify the gate, aperture, sight, but, as בּת shows, the little boy, or more strictly, the little girl of the eye.

It is singular that אישׁון here has the feminine בּת־עין as the expression in apposition to it. The construction might be genitival: “as the little man of the apple of the eye,” inasmuch as the saint knows himself to be so near to God, that, as it were, his image in miniature is mirrored in the great eye of God. But (1) the more ozdinary name for the pupil of the eye is not בּת עין, but אישׁון; and (2) with that construction the proper point of the comparison, that the apple of the eye is an object of the most careful self-preservation, is missed.

There is, consequently, a combination of two names of the pupil or apple of the eye, the usual one and one more select, without reference to the gender of the former, in order to give greater definition and emphasis to the figure. The primary passage for this bold figure, which is the utterance of loving entreaty, is Deu 32:10, where the dazzling anthropomorphism is effaced by the lxx and other ancient versions; cf.

also Sir. 17:22. Then follows another figure, taken from the eagle, which hides its young under its wings, likewise from Deut 32, viz. , Psa 17:11, for the figure of the hen (Mat 23:37) is alien to the Old Testament. In that passage, Moses, in his great song, speaks of the wings of God; but the double figure of the shadow of God’s wings (here and in Psa 36:8; Psa 57:2; Psa 63:8) is coined by David.

“God’s wings” are the spreadings out, i. e. , the manifestations of His love, taking the creature under the protection of its intimate fellowship, and the “shadow” of these wings is the refreshing rest and security which the fellowship of this love affords to those, who hide themselves beneath it, from the heat of outward or inward conflict. From Psa 17:9 we learn more definitely the position in which the psalmist is placed.

שׁדד signifies to use violence, to destroy the life, continuance, or possession of any one. According to the accentuation בּנפשׁ is to be connected with איבי, not with יקּפוּ, and to be understood according to Eze 25:6 : “enemies with the soul” are those whose enmity is not merely superficial, but most deep-seated (cf. ἐκ ψυχῆς, Eph 6:6; Col 3:23). The soul (viz.

, the hating and eagerly longing soul, Psa 27:12; Psa 41:3) is just the same as if בנפשׁ is combined with the verb, viz. , the soul of the enemies; and איבי נפשׁי would therefore not be more correct, as Hitzig thinks, than בנפשׁ איבי, but would have a different meaning. They are eager to destroy him ( perf. conatus ), and form a circle round about him, as ravenous ones, in order to swallow him up.

Psa 17:8-9 The covenant relationship towards Himself in which Jahve has placed David, and the relationship of love in which David stands to Jahve, fully justified the oppressed one in his extreme request. The apple of the eye, which is surrounded by the iris, is called אישׁון, the man (Arabic insân ), or in the diminutive and endearing sense of the termination on : the little man of the eye, because a picture in miniature of one’s self is seen, as in a glass, when looking into another person’s eye.

בּת־עין either because it is as if born out of the eye and the eye has, as it were, concentrated itself in it, or rather because the little image which is mirrored in it is, as it were, the little daughter of the eye (here and Lam 2:18). To the Latin pupilla ( pupula ), Greek κόρη, corresponds most closely בּבת עין, Zec 2:12, which does not signify the gate, aperture, sight, but, as בּת shows, the little boy, or more strictly, the little girl of the eye.

It is singular that אישׁון here has the feminine בּת־עין as the expression in apposition to it. The construction might be genitival: “as the little man of the apple of the eye,” inasmuch as the saint knows himself to be so near to God, that, as it were, his image in miniature is mirrored in the great eye of God. But (1) the more ozdinary name for the pupil of the eye is not בּת עין, but אישׁון; and (2) with that construction the proper point of the comparison, that the apple of the eye is an object of the most careful self-preservation, is missed.

There is, consequently, a combination of two names of the pupil or apple of the eye, the usual one and one more select, without reference to the gender of the former, in order to give greater definition and emphasis to the figure. The primary passage for this bold figure, which is the utterance of loving entreaty, is Deu 32:10, where the dazzling anthropomorphism is effaced by the lxx and other ancient versions; cf.

also Sir. 17:22. Then follows another figure, taken from the eagle, which hides its young under its wings, likewise from Deut 32, viz. , Psa 17:11, for the figure of the hen (Mat 23:37) is alien to the Old Testament. In that passage, Moses, in his great song, speaks of the wings of God; but the double figure of the shadow of God’s wings (here and in Psa 36:8; Psa 57:2; Psa 63:8) is coined by David.

“God’s wings” are the spreadings out, i. e. , the manifestations of His love, taking the creature under the protection of its intimate fellowship, and the “shadow” of these wings is the refreshing rest and security which the fellowship of this love affords to those, who hide themselves beneath it, from the heat of outward or inward conflict. From Psa 17:9 we learn more definitely the position in which the psalmist is placed.

שׁדד signifies to use violence, to destroy the life, continuance, or possession of any one. According to the accentuation בּנפשׁ is to be connected with איבי, not with יקּפוּ, and to be understood according to Eze 25:6 : “enemies with the soul” are those whose enmity is not merely superficial, but most deep-seated (cf. ἐκ ψυχῆς, Eph 6:6; Col 3:23). The soul (viz.

, the hating and eagerly longing soul, Psa 27:12; Psa 41:3) is just the same as if בנפשׁ is combined with the verb, viz. , the soul of the enemies; and איבי נפשׁי would therefore not be more correct, as Hitzig thinks, than בנפשׁ איבי, but would have a different meaning. They are eager to destroy him ( perf. conatus ), and form a circle round about him, as ravenous ones, in order to swallow him up.

Psa 17:10-12 Psa 17:10 tell what sort of people these persecutors are. Their heart is called fat, adeps , not as though חלב could in itself be equivalent to לב, more especially as both words are radically distinct (חלב from the root לב, λιπ; לב from the root לב, לף to envelope: that which is enveloped, the kernel, the inside), but (without any need for von Ortenberg’s conjecture חלב לבּמו סגרוּ “they close their heart with fat”) because it is, as it were, entirely fat (Psa 119:70, cf.

Psa 73:7), and because it is inaccessible to any feeling of compassion, and in general incapable of the nobler emotions. To shut up the fat = the heart (cf. κλείειν τὰ σπλάγχνα 1Jo 3:17), is equivalent to: to fortify one’s self wilfully in indifference to sympathy, tender feeling, and all noble feelings (cf. השׁמין לב = to harden, Isa 6:10). The construction of פּימו (which agrees in sound with פּימה, Job 15:27) is just the same as that of קולי, Psa 3:5.

On the other hand, אשּׁוּרנוּ (after the form עמּוּד and written plene ) is neither such an accusative of the means or instrument, nor the second accusative, beside the accusative of the object, of that by which the object is surrounded, that is usually found with verbs of surrounding (e. g. , Ps 5:13; Psa 32:7); for “they have surrounded me (us) with our step” is unintelligible.

But אשׁורנו can be the accusative of the member, as in Psa 3:8, cf. Psa 22:17, Gen 3:15, for “it is true the step is not a member” (Hitz.) , but since “step” and “foot” are interchangeable notions, Psa 73:2, the σχῆμα καθ ̓ ὅλον καὶ μέρος is applicable to the former, and as, e. g. , Homer says, Iliad vii. 355: σὲ μάλιστα πόνος φρένας ἀμφιβέβηκεν, the Hebrew poet can also say: they have encompassed us (and in fact) our steps, each of our steps (so that we cannot go forwards or backwards with our feet).

The Kerî סבבוּנוּ gets rid of the change in number which we have with the Chethîb סבבוני; the latter, however, is admissible according to parallels like Psa 62:5, and corresponds to David’s position, who is hunted by Saul and at the present time driven into a strait at the head of a small company of faithful followers. Their eyes - he goes on to say in Psa 17:11 - have they set to fell, viz.

, us, who are encompassed, to the earth, i. e. , so that we shall be cast to the ground. נטה is transitive, as in Psa 18:10; Psa 62:4, in the transitively applied sense of Psa 73:2 (cf. Psa 37:31): to incline to fall (whereas in Psa 44:19, Job 31:7, it means to turn away from); and בּארץ (without any need fore the conjecture בּארח) expresses the final issue, instead of לארץ, Psa 7:6.

By the expression דּמינו one is prominently singled out from the host of the enemy, viz. , its chief, the words being: his likeness is as a lion, according to the peculiarity of the poetical style, of changing verbal into substantival clauses, instead of דּמה כּאריה. Since in Old Testament Hebrew, as also in Syriac and Arabic, כ is only a preposition, not a connective conjunction, it cannot be rendered: as a lion longs to prey, but: as a lion that is greedy or hungry (cf.

Arab. ksf , used of sinking away, decline, obscuring or eclipsing, growing pale, and Arab. chsf , more especially of enfeebling, hunger, distinct from חשׂף = Arab. ks̆f , to peel off, make bare) to ravin. In the parallel member of the verse the participle alternates with the attributive clause. כּפיר is (according to Meier) the young lion as being covered with thicker hair.

Psa 17:10-12 Psa 17:10 tell what sort of people these persecutors are. Their heart is called fat, adeps , not as though חלב could in itself be equivalent to לב, more especially as both words are radically distinct (חלב from the root לב, λιπ; לב from the root לב, לף to envelope: that which is enveloped, the kernel, the inside), but (without any need for von Ortenberg’s conjecture חלב לבּמו סגרוּ “they close their heart with fat”) because it is, as it were, entirely fat (Psa 119:70, cf.

Psa 73:7), and because it is inaccessible to any feeling of compassion, and in general incapable of the nobler emotions. To shut up the fat = the heart (cf. κλείειν τὰ σπλάγχνα 1Jo 3:17), is equivalent to: to fortify one’s self wilfully in indifference to sympathy, tender feeling, and all noble feelings (cf. השׁמין לב = to harden, Isa 6:10). The construction of פּימו (which agrees in sound with פּימה, Job 15:27) is just the same as that of קולי, Psa 3:5.

On the other hand, אשּׁוּרנוּ (after the form עמּוּד and written plene ) is neither such an accusative of the means or instrument, nor the second accusative, beside the accusative of the object, of that by which the object is surrounded, that is usually found with verbs of surrounding (e. g. , Ps 5:13; Psa 32:7); for “they have surrounded me (us) with our step” is unintelligible.

But אשׁורנו can be the accusative of the member, as in Psa 3:8, cf. Psa 22:17, Gen 3:15, for “it is true the step is not a member” (Hitz.) , but since “step” and “foot” are interchangeable notions, Psa 73:2, the σχῆμα καθ ̓ ὅλον καὶ μέρος is applicable to the former, and as, e. g. , Homer says, Iliad vii. 355: σὲ μάλιστα πόνος φρένας ἀμφιβέβηκεν, the Hebrew poet can also say: they have encompassed us (and in fact) our steps, each of our steps (so that we cannot go forwards or backwards with our feet).

The Kerî סבבוּנוּ gets rid of the change in number which we have with the Chethîb סבבוני; the latter, however, is admissible according to parallels like Psa 62:5, and corresponds to David’s position, who is hunted by Saul and at the present time driven into a strait at the head of a small company of faithful followers. Their eyes - he goes on to say in Psa 17:11 - have they set to fell, viz.

, us, who are encompassed, to the earth, i. e. , so that we shall be cast to the ground. נטה is transitive, as in Psa 18:10; Psa 62:4, in the transitively applied sense of Psa 73:2 (cf. Psa 37:31): to incline to fall (whereas in Psa 44:19, Job 31:7, it means to turn away from); and בּארץ (without any need fore the conjecture בּארח) expresses the final issue, instead of לארץ, Psa 7:6.

By the expression דּמינו one is prominently singled out from the host of the enemy, viz. , its chief, the words being: his likeness is as a lion, according to the peculiarity of the poetical style, of changing verbal into substantival clauses, instead of דּמה כּאריה. Since in Old Testament Hebrew, as also in Syriac and Arabic, כ is only a preposition, not a connective conjunction, it cannot be rendered: as a lion longs to prey, but: as a lion that is greedy or hungry (cf.

Arab. ksf , used of sinking away, decline, obscuring or eclipsing, growing pale, and Arab. chsf , more especially of enfeebling, hunger, distinct from חשׂף = Arab. ks̆f , to peel off, make bare) to ravin. In the parallel member of the verse the participle alternates with the attributive clause. כּפיר is (according to Meier) the young lion as being covered with thicker hair.

Psa 17:10-12 Psa 17:10 tell what sort of people these persecutors are. Their heart is called fat, adeps , not as though חלב could in itself be equivalent to לב, more especially as both words are radically distinct (חלב from the root לב, λιπ; לב from the root לב, לף to envelope: that which is enveloped, the kernel, the inside), but (without any need for von Ortenberg’s conjecture חלב לבּמו סגרוּ “they close their heart with fat”) because it is, as it were, entirely fat (Psa 119:70, cf.

Psa 73:7), and because it is inaccessible to any feeling of compassion, and in general incapable of the nobler emotions. To shut up the fat = the heart (cf. κλείειν τὰ σπλάγχνα 1Jo 3:17), is equivalent to: to fortify one’s self wilfully in indifference to sympathy, tender feeling, and all noble feelings (cf. השׁמין לב = to harden, Isa 6:10). The construction of פּימו (which agrees in sound with פּימה, Job 15:27) is just the same as that of קולי, Psa 3:5.

On the other hand, אשּׁוּרנוּ (after the form עמּוּד and written plene ) is neither such an accusative of the means or instrument, nor the second accusative, beside the accusative of the object, of that by which the object is surrounded, that is usually found with verbs of surrounding (e. g. , Ps 5:13; Psa 32:7); for “they have surrounded me (us) with our step” is unintelligible.

But אשׁורנו can be the accusative of the member, as in Psa 3:8, cf. Psa 22:17, Gen 3:15, for “it is true the step is not a member” (Hitz.) , but since “step” and “foot” are interchangeable notions, Psa 73:2, the σχῆμα καθ ̓ ὅλον καὶ μέρος is applicable to the former, and as, e. g. , Homer says, Iliad vii. 355: σὲ μάλιστα πόνος φρένας ἀμφιβέβηκεν, the Hebrew poet can also say: they have encompassed us (and in fact) our steps, each of our steps (so that we cannot go forwards or backwards with our feet).

The Kerî סבבוּנוּ gets rid of the change in number which we have with the Chethîb סבבוני; the latter, however, is admissible according to parallels like Psa 62:5, and corresponds to David’s position, who is hunted by Saul and at the present time driven into a strait at the head of a small company of faithful followers. Their eyes - he goes on to say in Psa 17:11 - have they set to fell, viz.

, us, who are encompassed, to the earth, i. e. , so that we shall be cast to the ground. נטה is transitive, as in Psa 18:10; Psa 62:4, in the transitively applied sense of Psa 73:2 (cf. Psa 37:31): to incline to fall (whereas in Psa 44:19, Job 31:7, it means to turn away from); and בּארץ (without any need fore the conjecture בּארח) expresses the final issue, instead of לארץ, Psa 7:6.

By the expression דּמינו one is prominently singled out from the host of the enemy, viz. , its chief, the words being: his likeness is as a lion, according to the peculiarity of the poetical style, of changing verbal into substantival clauses, instead of דּמה כּאריה. Since in Old Testament Hebrew, as also in Syriac and Arabic, כ is only a preposition, not a connective conjunction, it cannot be rendered: as a lion longs to prey, but: as a lion that is greedy or hungry (cf.

Arab. ksf , used of sinking away, decline, obscuring or eclipsing, growing pale, and Arab. chsf , more especially of enfeebling, hunger, distinct from חשׂף = Arab. ks̆f , to peel off, make bare) to ravin. In the parallel member of the verse the participle alternates with the attributive clause. כּפיר is (according to Meier) the young lion as being covered with thicker hair.

Psa 17:13-14 The phrase קדּם פּני, antevertere faciem alicujus , means both to appear before any one with reverence, Psa 95:2 (post-biblical: to pay one’s respects to any one) and to meet any one as an enemy, rush on him. The foe springs like a lion upon David, may Jahve - so he prays - as his defence cross the path of the lion and intercept him, and cast him down so that he, being rendered harmless, shall lie there with bowed knees (כּרע, of the lion, Gen 49:9; Num 24:9).

He is to rescue his soul from the ungodly חרבּך. This חרבך, and also the ידך which follows, can be regarded as a permutative of the subject (Böttcher, Hupfeld, and Hitzig), an explanation which is commended by Psa 44:3 and other passages. But it is much more probable that more exact definitions of this kind are treated as accusatives, vid. , on Psa 3:5. At any rate “sword” and “hand” are meant as the instruments by which the פּלּט, rescuing, is effected.

The force of פּלּטה extends into Psa 17:14, and mimatiym (with a Chateph under the letter that is freed from reduplication, like ממכון, Psa 33:14) corresponds to מרשׁע, as ידך to חרבּך. The word ממתים (plural of מת, men, Deu 2:34, whence מתם, each and every one), which of itself gives no complete sense, is repeated and made complete after the interruption cause by the insertion of ידך ה, - a remarkable manner of obstructing and then resuming the thought, which Hofmann ( Schriftbeweis ii.

2. 495) seeks to get over by a change in the division of the verse and in the interpunction. חלד, either from חלד Syriac to creep, glide, slip away (whence חלדּה a weasel, a mole) or from חלד Talmudic to cover, hide, signifies: this temporal life which glides by unnoticed (distinct from the Arabic chald, chuld , an abiding stay, endless duration); and consequently חדל, limited existence, from חדל to have an end, alternates with חלד as a play upon the letters, comp.

Psa 49:2 with Isa 38:11. The combination מחלד מתים resembles Psa 10:18; Psa 16:4. What is meant, is: men who have no other home but the world, which passeth away with the lust thereof, men ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, or υίοὶ τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου. The meaning of the further description חלקם בּחיּים (cf. Ecc 9:9) becomes clear from the converse in Psa 16:5. Jahve is the חלק of the godly man; and the sphere within which the worldling claims his חלק is החיּים, this temporal, visible, and material life.

This is everything to him; whereas the godly man says: טּוב חסדּך מחיּים, Psa 63:4. The contrast is not so much between this life and the life to come, as between the world (life) and God. Here we see into the inmost nature of the Old Testament faith. To the Old Testament believer, all the blessedness and glory of the future life, which the New Testament unfolds, is shut up in Jahve.

Jahve is his highest good, and possessing Him he is raised above heaven and earth, above life and death. To yield implicitly to Him, without any explicit knowledge of a blessed future life, to be satisfied with Him, to rest in Him, to hide in Him in the face of death, is the characteristic of the Old Testament faith. חלקם בחיים expresses both the state of mind and the lot of the men of the world.

Material things which are their highest good, fall also in abundance to their share. The words “whose belly Thou fillest with Thy treasure” ( Chethîb : וּצפינך the usual participial form, but as a participle an Aramaising form) do not sound as though the poet meant to say that God leads them to repentance by the riches of His goodness, but on the contrary that God, by satisfying their desires which are confined to the outward and sensuous only, absolutely deprives them of all claim to possessions that extend beyond the world and this present temporal life.

Thus, then, צפוּן in this passage is used exactly as צפוּנים is used in Job 20:26 (from צפן to hold anything close to one, to hold back, to keep by one). Moreover, there is not the slightest alloy of murmur or envy in the words. The godly man who lacks these good things out of the treasury of God, has higher delights; he can exclaim, Psa 31:20 : “how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up (צפנתּ) for those who fear Thee!

” Among the good things with which God fills the belly and house of the ungodly (Job 22:17.) are also children in abundance; these are elsewhere a blessing upon piety (Psa 127:3. , Psa 128:3.) , but to those who do not acknowledge the Giver they are a snare to self-glorifying, Job 21:11 (cf. Wisdom Job 4:1). בּנים is not the subject, but an accusative, and has been so understood by all the old translators from the original text, just as in the phrase שׁבע ימים to be satisfied with, or weary of, life.

On עוללים vid. , on Psa 8:3. יתר (from יתר to stretch out in length, then to be overhanging, towering above, projecting, superfluous, redundant) signifies here, as in Job 22:20, riches and the abundance of things possessed.

Psa 17:13-14 The phrase קדּם פּני, antevertere faciem alicujus , means both to appear before any one with reverence, Psa 95:2 (post-biblical: to pay one’s respects to any one) and to meet any one as an enemy, rush on him. The foe springs like a lion upon David, may Jahve - so he prays - as his defence cross the path of the lion and intercept him, and cast him down so that he, being rendered harmless, shall lie there with bowed knees (כּרע, of the lion, Gen 49:9; Num 24:9).

He is to rescue his soul from the ungodly חרבּך. This חרבך, and also the ידך which follows, can be regarded as a permutative of the subject (Böttcher, Hupfeld, and Hitzig), an explanation which is commended by Psa 44:3 and other passages. But it is much more probable that more exact definitions of this kind are treated as accusatives, vid. , on Psa 3:5. At any rate “sword” and “hand” are meant as the instruments by which the פּלּט, rescuing, is effected.

The force of פּלּטה extends into Psa 17:14, and mimatiym (with a Chateph under the letter that is freed from reduplication, like ממכון, Psa 33:14) corresponds to מרשׁע, as ידך to חרבּך. The word ממתים (plural of מת, men, Deu 2:34, whence מתם, each and every one), which of itself gives no complete sense, is repeated and made complete after the interruption cause by the insertion of ידך ה, - a remarkable manner of obstructing and then resuming the thought, which Hofmann ( Schriftbeweis ii.

2. 495) seeks to get over by a change in the division of the verse and in the interpunction. חלד, either from חלד Syriac to creep, glide, slip away (whence חלדּה a weasel, a mole) or from חלד Talmudic to cover, hide, signifies: this temporal life which glides by unnoticed (distinct from the Arabic chald, chuld , an abiding stay, endless duration); and consequently חדל, limited existence, from חדל to have an end, alternates with חלד as a play upon the letters, comp.

Psa 49:2 with Isa 38:11. The combination מחלד מתים resembles Psa 10:18; Psa 16:4. What is meant, is: men who have no other home but the world, which passeth away with the lust thereof, men ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, or υίοὶ τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου. The meaning of the further description חלקם בּחיּים (cf. Ecc 9:9) becomes clear from the converse in Psa 16:5. Jahve is the חלק of the godly man; and the sphere within which the worldling claims his חלק is החיּים, this temporal, visible, and material life.

This is everything to him; whereas the godly man says: טּוב חסדּך מחיּים, Psa 63:4. The contrast is not so much between this life and the life to come, as between the world (life) and God. Here we see into the inmost nature of the Old Testament faith. To the Old Testament believer, all the blessedness and glory of the future life, which the New Testament unfolds, is shut up in Jahve.

Jahve is his highest good, and possessing Him he is raised above heaven and earth, above life and death. To yield implicitly to Him, without any explicit knowledge of a blessed future life, to be satisfied with Him, to rest in Him, to hide in Him in the face of death, is the characteristic of the Old Testament faith. חלקם בחיים expresses both the state of mind and the lot of the men of the world.

Material things which are their highest good, fall also in abundance to their share. The words “whose belly Thou fillest with Thy treasure” ( Chethîb : וּצפינך the usual participial form, but as a participle an Aramaising form) do not sound as though the poet meant to say that God leads them to repentance by the riches of His goodness, but on the contrary that God, by satisfying their desires which are confined to the outward and sensuous only, absolutely deprives them of all claim to possessions that extend beyond the world and this present temporal life.

Thus, then, צפוּן in this passage is used exactly as צפוּנים is used in Job 20:26 (from צפן to hold anything close to one, to hold back, to keep by one). Moreover, there is not the slightest alloy of murmur or envy in the words. The godly man who lacks these good things out of the treasury of God, has higher delights; he can exclaim, Psa 31:20 : “how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up (צפנתּ) for those who fear Thee!

” Among the good things with which God fills the belly and house of the ungodly (Job 22:17.) are also children in abundance; these are elsewhere a blessing upon piety (Psa 127:3. , Psa 128:3.) , but to those who do not acknowledge the Giver they are a snare to self-glorifying, Job 21:11 (cf. Wisdom Job 4:1). בּנים is not the subject, but an accusative, and has been so understood by all the old translators from the original text, just as in the phrase שׁבע ימים to be satisfied with, or weary of, life.

On עוללים vid. , on Psa 8:3. יתר (from יתר to stretch out in length, then to be overhanging, towering above, projecting, superfluous, redundant) signifies here, as in Job 22:20, riches and the abundance of things possessed.

Psa 17:15 With אני he contrasts his incomparably greater prosperity with that of his enemies. He, the despised and persecuted of men, will behold God’s face בּצדק, in righteousness, which will then find its reward (Mat 5:8, Heb 12:14), and will, when this hope is realised by him, thoroughly refresh himself with the form of God. It is not sufficient to explain the vision of the divine countenance here as meaning the experience of the gracious influences which proceed from the divine countenance again unveiled and turned towards him.

The parallel of the next clause requires an actual vision, as in Num 12:8, according to which Jahve appeared to Moses in the true form of His being, without the intervention of any self-manifestation of an accommodative and visionary kind; but at the same time, as in Exo 33:20, where the vision of the divine countenance is denied to Moses, according to which, consequently, the self-manifestation of Jahve in His intercourse with Moses is not to be thought of without some veiling of Himself which might render the vision tolerable to him. Here, however, where David gives expression to a hope which is the final goal and the very climax of all his hopes, one has no right in any way to limit the vision of God, who in love permits him to behold Him (vid.

, on Psa 11:7), and to limit the being satisfied with His תּמוּנה (lxx τὴν δόξαν σου, vid. , Psychol . S. 49; transl. p. 61). If this is correct, then בּהקיץ cannot mean “when I wake up from this night’s sleep” as Ewald, Hupfeld and others explain it; for supposing the Psalm were composed just before falling asleep what would be the meaning of the postponement of so transcendent a hope to the end of his natural sleep?

Nor can the meaning be to “awake to a new life of blessedness and peace through the sunlight of divine favour which again arises after the night of darkness and distress in which the poet is now to be found” (Kurtz); for to awake from a night of affliction is an unsuitable idea and for this very reason cannot be supported. The only remaining explanation, therefore, is the waking up from the sleep of death (cf.

Böttcher, De inferis §365-367). The fact that all who are now in their graves shall one day hear the voice of Him that wakes the dead, as it is taught in the age after the Exile (Dan 12:2), was surely not known to David, for it was not yet revealed to him. But why may not this truth of revelation, towards which prophecy advances with such giant strides (Isa 26:19.

Eze 37:1-14), be already heard even in the Psalms of David as a bold demand of faith and as a hope that has struggled forth to freedom out of the comfortless conception of Sheôl possessed in that age, just as it is heard a few decades later in the master-work of a contemporary of Solomon, the Book of Job? The morning in Psa 49:15 is also not any morning whatever following upon the night, but that final morning which brings deliverance to the upright and inaugurates their dominion.

A sure knowledge of the fact of the resurrection such as, according to Hofmann ( Schriftbeweis ii. 2, 490), has existed in the Old Testament from the beginning, is not expressed in such passages. For laments like Psa 6:6; Psa 30:10; Psa 88:11-13, show that no such certain knowledge as then in existence; and when the Old Testament literature which we now possess allows us elsewhere an insight into the history of the perception of redemption, it does not warrant us in concluding anything more than that the perception of the future resurrection of the dead did not pass from the prophetic word into the believing mind of Israel until about the time of the Exile, and that up to that period faith made bold to hope for a redemption from death, but only by means of an inference drawn from that which was conceived and existed within itself , without having an express word of promise in its favour.

Thus it is here also. David certainly gives full expression to the hope of a vision of God, which, as righteous before God, will be vouchsafed to him; and vouchsafed to him, even though he should fall asleep in death in the present extremity (Psa 13:4), as one again awakened from the sleep of death, and, therefore (although this idea does not directly coincide with the former), as one raised from the dead.

But this hope is not a believing appropriation of a “certain knowledge,” but a view that, by reason of the already existing revelation of God, lights up out of his consciousness of fellowship with Him.

Next to a תּפּלּה of David comes a שׁירה ( nom. unitatis from שׁיר), which is in many ways both in words and thoughts ( Symbolae p. 49) interwoven with the former. It is the longest of all the hymnic Psalms, and bears the inscription: To the Precentor, by the servant of Jahve, by David, who spake unto Jahve the words of this song in the day that Jahve had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saûl : then he said.

The original inscription of the Psalm in the primary collection was probably only לדוד למנצח לעבד ה, like the inscription of Psa 36:1-12. The rest of the inscription resembles the language with which songs of this class are wont to be introduced in their connection in the historical narrative, Exo 15:1; Num 21:17, and more especially Deu 31:30. And the Psalm before us is found again in 2 Sam 22, introduced by words, the manifestly unaccidental agreement of which with the inscription in the Psalter, is explained by its having been incorporated in one of the histories from which the Books of Samuel are extracted, - probably the Annals ( Dibre ha-Jamim ) of David.

From this source the writer of the Books of Samuel has taken the Psalm, together with that introduction; and from this source also springs the historical portion of the inscription in the Psalter, which is connected with the preceding by אשׁר. David may have styled himself in the inscription עבד ה, just as the apostles call themselves δοῦλοι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. He also in other instances, in prayer, calls himself “the servant of Jahve,” Psa 19:12, Psa 19:14; Psa 144:10; 2Sa 7:20, as every Israelite might do; but David, who is the first after Moses and Joshua to bear this designation or by-name, could to so in an especial sense.

For he, with whom the kingship of promise began, marks an epoch in his service of the work of God no less than did Moses, through whose mediation Israel received the Law, and Joshua, through whose instrumentality they obtained the Land of promise. The terminology of psalm-poesy does not include the word שׁירה, but only שׁיר. This at once shows that the historical portion of the inscription comes from some other source.

בּיום is followed, not by the infin . הצּיל: on the day of deliverance, but by the more exactly plusquamperf . הצּיל: on the day (בּיום = at the time, as in Gen 2:4, and frequently) when he had delivered - a genitival (Ges. §116, 3) relative clause, like Psa 138:3; Exo 6:28; Num 3:1, cf. Psa 56:10. מיּד alternates with מכּף in this text without any other design than that of varying the expression.

The deliverance out of the hand of Saul is made specially prominent, because the most prominent portion of the Psalm, Psa 18:5, treats of it. The danger in which David the was placed, was of the most personal, the most perilous, and the most protracted kind. This prominence was of great service to the collector, because the preceding Psalm bears the features of this time, the lamentations over which are heard there and further back, and now all find expression in this more extended song of praise.

Only a fondness for doubt can lead any one to doubt the Davidic origin of this Psalm, attested as it is in two works, which are independent of one another. The twofold testimony of tradition is supported by the fact that the Psalm contains nothing that militates against David being the author; even the mention of his own name at the close, is not against it (cf.

1Ki 2:45). We have before us an Israelitish counterpart to the cuneiform monumental inscriptions, in which the kings of worldly monarchies recapitulate the deeds they have done by the help of their gods. The speaker is a king; the author of the Books of Samuel found the song already in existence as a Davidic song; the difference of his text from that which lies before us in the Psalter, shows that at that time it had been transmitted from some earlier period; writers of the later time of the kings here and there use language which is borrowed from it or are echoes of it (comp.

Pro 30:5 with Psa 18:31; Hab 3:19 with Psa 18:34); it bears throughout the mark of the classic age of the language and poetry, and “if it be not David’s, it must have been written in his name and by some one imbued with his spirit, and who could have been this contemporary poet and twin-genius? ” (Hitzig). All this irresistibly points us to David himself, to whom really belong also all the other songs in the Second Book of Samuel, which are introduced as Davidic (over Saul and Jonathan, over Abner, etc.)

This, the greatest of all, springs entirely from the new self-consciousness to which he was raised by the promises recorded in 2 Sam 7; ; and towards the end, it closes with express retrospective reference to these promises; for David’s certainty of the everlasting duration of his house, and God’s covenant of mercy with his house, rests upon the announcement made by Nathan. The Psalm divides into two halves; for the strain of praise begins anew with Psa 18:32, after having run its first course and come to a beautiful close in Psa 18:31.

The two halves are also distinct in respect of their artificial form. The strophe schema of the first is: 6. 8. 8. 6. 8 (not 9). 8. 8. 8. 7. The mixture of six and eight line strophes is symmetrical, and the seven of the last strophe is nothing strange. The mixture in the second half on the contrary is varied. The art of the strophe system appears here, as is also seen in other instances in the Psalms, to be relaxed; and the striving after form at the commencement has given way to the pressure and crowding of the thoughts.

The traditional mode of writing out this Psalm, as also the Cantica , 2 Sam 22 and Judg 5, is “a half-brick upon a brick, and a brick upon a half-brick” (אירח על גבי לבנה ולבנה על גבי אריח): i. e. , one line consisting of two, and one of three parts of a verse, and the line consisting of the three parts has only one word on the right and on the left; the whole consequently forms three columns.

On the other hand, the song in Deut 32 (as also Jos 12:9. , Est 9:7-10) is to be written “a half-brick upon a half-brick and a brick upon a brick,” i. e. , in only two columns, cf. infra p. 269.

Psa 18:1-3 (Hebrew_Bible_18:2-4) The poet opens with a number of endearing names for God, in which he gratefully comprehends the results of long and varied experience. So far as regards the parallelism of the members, a monostich forms the beginning of this Psalm, as in Psa 16:1-11; Psa 23:1-6; Ps 25 and many others. Nevertheless the matter assumes a somewhat different aspect, if Psa 18:3 is not, with Maurer, Hengstenberg and Hupfeld, taken as two predicate clauses (Jahve is...

, my God is...) , but as a simple vocative-a rendering which alone corresponds to the intensity with which this greatest of the Davidic hymns opens-God being invoked by ה, ה, אלי, and each of these names being followed by a predicative expansion of itself, which increases in fulness of tone and emphasis. The ארחמך (with ā , according to Ew. §251, b ), which carries the three series of the names of God, makes up in depth of meaning what is wanting in compass.

Elsewhere we find only the Piel רחם of tender sympathising love, but here the Kal is used as an Aramaism. Hence the Jalkut on this passages explains it by רחמאי יתך “I love thee,” or ardent, heartfelt love and attachment. The primary signification of softness (root רח, Arab. rḥ , rch , to be soft, lax, loose), whence רחם, uterus , is transferred in both cases to tenderness of feeling or sentiment.

The most general predicate חזפי (from חזק according to a similar inflexion to אמר, בּסר, עמק, plur . עמקי Pro 9:18) is followed by those which describe Jahve as a protector and deliverer in persecution on the one hand, and on the other as a defender and the giver of victory in battle. They are all typical names symbolising what Jahve is in Himself; hence instead of וּמפלּטי it would perhaps have been more correct to point וּמפלטי (and my refuge).

God had already called Himself a shield to Abram, Gen 15:1; and He is called צוּר (cf. אבן Gen 49:24) in the great Mosaic song, Deu 32:4, Deu 32:37 (the latter verse is distinctly echoed here). סלע from סלע, Arab. sl‛ , findere , means properly a cleft in a rock (Arabic סלע, then a cleft rock, and צוּר, like the Arabic sachr , a great and hard mass of rock (Aramaic טוּר, a mountain).

The figures of the מצוּדה (מצודה, מצד) and the משׂגּב are related; the former signifies properly specula , a watch-tower, and the latter, a steep height. The horn, which is an ancient figure of victorious and defiant power in Deu 33:17; 1Sa 2:1, is found here applied to Jahve Himself: “horn of my salvation” is that which interposes on the side of my feebleness, conquers, and saves me.

All these epithets applied to God are the fruits of the affliction out of which David’s song has sprung, viz. , his persecution by Saul, when, in a country abounding in rugged rocks and deficient in forest, he betook himself to the rocks for safety, and the mountains served him as his fortresses. In the shelter which the mountains, by their natural conformations, afforded him at that time, and in the fortunate accidents, which sometimes brought him deliverance when in extreme peril, David recognises only marvellous phenomena of which Jahve Himself was to him the final cause.

The confession of the God tried and known in many ways is continued in Psa 18:5 by a general expression of his experience. מהלּל is a predicate accusative to יהוה: As one praised (worthy to be praised) do I call upon Jahve, - a rendering that is better suited to the following clause, which expresses confidence in the answer coinciding with the invocation, which is to be thought of as a cry for help, than Olshausen’s, “Worthy of praise, do I cry, is Jahve,” though this latter certainly is possible so far as the style is concerned (vid.

, on Isa 45:24, cf. also Gen 3:3; Mic 2:6). The proof of this fact, viz. , that calling upon Him who is worthy to be praised, who, as the history of Israel shows, is able and willing to help, is immediately followed by actual help, as events that are coincident, forms the further matter of the Psalm.

Psa 18:1-3 (Hebrew_Bible_18:2-4) The poet opens with a number of endearing names for God, in which he gratefully comprehends the results of long and varied experience. So far as regards the parallelism of the members, a monostich forms the beginning of this Psalm, as in Psa 16:1-11; Psa 23:1-6; Ps 25 and many others. Nevertheless the matter assumes a somewhat different aspect, if Psa 18:3 is not, with Maurer, Hengstenberg and Hupfeld, taken as two predicate clauses (Jahve is...

, my God is...) , but as a simple vocative-a rendering which alone corresponds to the intensity with which this greatest of the Davidic hymns opens-God being invoked by ה, ה, אלי, and each of these names being followed by a predicative expansion of itself, which increases in fulness of tone and emphasis. The ארחמך (with ā , according to Ew. §251, b ), which carries the three series of the names of God, makes up in depth of meaning what is wanting in compass.

Elsewhere we find only the Piel רחם of tender sympathising love, but here the Kal is used as an Aramaism. Hence the Jalkut on this passages explains it by רחמאי יתך “I love thee,” or ardent, heartfelt love and attachment. The primary signification of softness (root רח, Arab. rḥ , rch , to be soft, lax, loose), whence רחם, uterus , is transferred in both cases to tenderness of feeling or sentiment.

The most general predicate חזפי (from חזק according to a similar inflexion to אמר, בּסר, עמק, plur . עמקי Pro 9:18) is followed by those which describe Jahve as a protector and deliverer in persecution on the one hand, and on the other as a defender and the giver of victory in battle. They are all typical names symbolising what Jahve is in Himself; hence instead of וּמפלּטי it would perhaps have been more correct to point וּמפלטי (and my refuge).

God had already called Himself a shield to Abram, Gen 15:1; and He is called צוּר (cf. אבן Gen 49:24) in the great Mosaic song, Deu 32:4, Deu 32:37 (the latter verse is distinctly echoed here). סלע from סלע, Arab. sl‛ , findere , means properly a cleft in a rock (Arabic סלע, then a cleft rock, and צוּר, like the Arabic sachr , a great and hard mass of rock (Aramaic טוּר, a mountain).

The figures of the מצוּדה (מצודה, מצד) and the משׂגּב are related; the former signifies properly specula , a watch-tower, and the latter, a steep height. The horn, which is an ancient figure of victorious and defiant power in Deu 33:17; 1Sa 2:1, is found here applied to Jahve Himself: “horn of my salvation” is that which interposes on the side of my feebleness, conquers, and saves me.

All these epithets applied to God are the fruits of the affliction out of which David’s song has sprung, viz. , his persecution by Saul, when, in a country abounding in rugged rocks and deficient in forest, he betook himself to the rocks for safety, and the mountains served him as his fortresses. In the shelter which the mountains, by their natural conformations, afforded him at that time, and in the fortunate accidents, which sometimes brought him deliverance when in extreme peril, David recognises only marvellous phenomena of which Jahve Himself was to him the final cause.

The confession of the God tried and known in many ways is continued in Psa 18:5 by a general expression of his experience. מהלּל is a predicate accusative to יהוה: As one praised (worthy to be praised) do I call upon Jahve, - a rendering that is better suited to the following clause, which expresses confidence in the answer coinciding with the invocation, which is to be thought of as a cry for help, than Olshausen’s, “Worthy of praise, do I cry, is Jahve,” though this latter certainly is possible so far as the style is concerned (vid.

, on Isa 45:24, cf. also Gen 3:3; Mic 2:6). The proof of this fact, viz. , that calling upon Him who is worthy to be praised, who, as the history of Israel shows, is able and willing to help, is immediately followed by actual help, as events that are coincident, forms the further matter of the Psalm.

Psa 18:4-6 (Hebrew_Bible_18:5-7) In these verses David gathers into one collective figure all the fearful dangers to which he had been exposed during his persecution by Saul, together with the marvellous answers and deliverances he experienced, that which is unseen, which stands in the relation to that which is visible of cause and effect, rendering itself visible to him. David here appears as passive throughout; the hand from out of the clouds seizes him and draws him out of mighty waters: while in the second part of the Psalm, in fellowship with God and under His blessing, he comes forward as a free actor.

The description begins in Psa 18:5 with the danger and the cry for help which is not in vain. The verb אפף according to a tradition not to be doubted (cf. אופן a wheel) signifies to go round, surround, as a poetical synonym of סבב, הקּיף, כּתּר, and not, as one might after the Arabic have thought: to drive, urge. Instead of “the bands of death,” the lxx (cf.

Act 2:24) renders it ὠδῖνες (constrictive pains) θανάτου; but Psa 18:6 favours the meaning bands, cords, cf. Psa 119:61 (where it is likewise חבלי instead of the הבלי, which one might have expected, Jos 17:5; Job 36:8), death is therefore represented as a hunter with a cord and net, Psa 91:3. בליּעל, compounded of בּלי and יעל (from יעל, ועל, root על), signifies unprofitableness, worthlessness, and in fact both deep-rooted moral corruption and also abysmal destruction (cf.

2Co 6:15, Βελίαρ = Βελίαλ as a name of Satan and his kingdom). Rivers of destruction are those, whose engulfing floods lead down to the abyss of destruction (Jon 2:7). Death, Belı̂jáal , and Sheôl are the names of the weird powers, which make use of David’s persecutors as their instruments. Futt . in the sense of imperfects alternate with praett . בּעת (= Arab.

bgt ) signifies to come suddenly upon any one (but compare also Arab. b‛ṯ , to startle, excitare , to alarm), and קדּם, to rush upon; the two words are distinguished from one another like überfallen and anfallen . The היכל out of which Jahve hears is His heavenly dwelling-place, which is both palace and temple, inasmuch as He sits enthroned there, being worshipped by blessed spirits.

לפניו belongs to ושׁועתי: my cry which is poured forth before Him (as e. g. , in Psa 102:1), for it is tautological if joined with תּבא beside ושׁועתי. Before Jahve’s face he made supplication and his prayer urged its way into His ears.