David, according to the superscription.
God My Strength and Fortress Against Violent Watchers
When enemies prowl and arrogant speech threatens the righteous, God's servant waits for the Lord as strength, fortress, and steadfast love, trusting Him to judge publicly and awaken morning praise.
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When enemies prowl and arrogant speech threatens the righteous, God's servant waits for the Lord as strength, fortress, and steadfast love, trusting Him to judge publicly and awaken morning praise.
Psalm 59 argues that violent, deceitful enemies are not ultimate because the Lord hears what they deny He hears, laughs at arrogant nations, preserves His servant, and judges publicly so His rule is known. Therefore, the believer may move from urgent lament to confident praise without pretending the danger has disappeared.
Originally the worshiping community of Israel receiving David's prayer as inspired song; downstream readers include God's people learning to pray amid unjust threat, surveillance, accusation, and violence.
The superscription situates the psalm in David's early conflict with Saul, particularly the episode in which Saul sent men to watch David's house so they could kill him and Michal helped David escape.
When enemies prowl and arrogant speech threatens the righteous, God's servant waits for the Lord as strength, fortress, and steadfast love, trusting Him to judge publicly and awaken morning praise.
David, according to the superscription.
Originally the worshiping community of Israel receiving David's prayer as inspired song; downstream readers include God's people learning to pray amid unjust threat, surveillance, accusation, and violence.
The superscription situates the psalm in David's early conflict with Saul, particularly the episode in which Saul sent men to watch David's house so they could kill him and Michal helped David escape.
- David faces organized violence, public accusation, predatory speech, and repeated night danger from enemies who behave as if no judge hears them.
The city at night becomes an image of vulnerability and predation. Dogs in the poem are not sentimental household pets but scavenging, growling figures of restless hunger and threat.
Psalm 59 belongs to the Davidic experience of suffering before kingship and contributes to the larger pattern of the Lord preserving His anointed servant against murderous opposition.
Psalm 59 moves from urgent rescue from violent watchers, through confidence that God sees and laughs at arrogant nations, into public judgment prayer, and ends with morning praise to the God who is fortress and covenant love.
Theological exposition and fulfillment
Psalm 59 forms resilient refuge-faith: the ability to cry for rescue, resist revenge, wait on God, and praise His steadfast love even while enemies still prowl.
David petitions God to rescue him from enemies and protests that the attack is not deserved in the way his enemies imply.
The first evening-dog scene depicts predatory enemies whose speech is violent and arrogant.
David confesses that God is not intimidated by nations and becomes the waiting believer's strength and fortress.
The imprecatory petition seeks visible judgment that teaches the people and displays God's rule to the ends of the earth.
The repeated evening-dog image intensifies the contrast between restless evil and the worshiper's coming praise.
David's final answer to threatened night is morning praise to God his strength, fortress, and covenant love.
- 1-2: David's prayer is urgent because the threat is urgent. Biblical trust does not minimize violent evil · it names it before God.
- 3-5: David denies the specific guilt that his enemies imply and asks the Lord to rouse Himself. The appeal assumes that God can distinguish suffering for guilt from suffering under wicked hostility.
- 6-7: The enemies' words are sword-like because they believe no one hears. The psalm exposes speech as morally serious before God.
- 8-10: The nations may rage and the enemies may prowl, but the Lord laughs. David waits because God's strength and steadfast love are stronger than the threats surrounding him.
- 11-13: David wants judgment to become instruction. The goal is that people know God rules in Jacob and to the ends of the earth.
- 14-17: The enemies return at evening, but David will sing in the morning. God's steadfast love turns the worshiper's horizon from fear to praise.
Pastoral Entry
The Hebrew verb נָצַל (nāṣal) often describes rescuing or extracting someone from danger, oppression, an enemy’s hand, a trap, or another controlling power. Rescue is concrete and relational: a threatened person or possession is removed from a named danger by an agent able to intervene. Jacob asks God to deliver his household from Esau’s hand. God announces that He has come down to rescue Israel from the Egyptians and deliver the people from bondage. David remembers being delivered from the lion and bear as he faces Goliath.
The exodus gives nāṣal a major canonical setting. God sees Israel’s affliction, comes down, brings the people out, and leads them toward the land He promised. Exodus 6:6 places deliverance beside redemption and acts of judgment. This rescue is neither an inward feeling nor a vague synonym for every aspect of salvation. It is God’s historical action against oppressive bondage, and later biblical theology can develop its pattern while respecting its covenant setting.
Stem and context prevent a uniformly devotional gloss. Exodus 12:36 uses the verb when Israel plunders the Egyptians. Proverbs 6:5 commands a person to free himself urgently from a dangerous pledge. Ezekiel 14:14 limits the effect of exemplary righteousness during announced judgment: Noah, Daniel, and Job could deliver only themselves. These passages require readers to identify the agent, endangered party, controlling hand, means, and extent of the release.
Pastorally, nāṣal supports prayer for rescue and gratitude for God’s intervention, but it must not be used to guarantee immediate physical escape in every crisis. Psalm 91 is poetry of refuge, not permission to ignore danger or promise immunity from violence, illness, or death. Trust in God’s deliverance can include reporting abuse, leaving an unsafe place, contacting civil authorities, receiving medical treatment, accepting shelter, and asking others to intervene. Delayed rescue does not prove weak faith. The canon finally directs hope toward God’s complete defeat of sin, judgment, and death, while particular texts continue to name the real dangers from which rescue is sought.
Sense rescue, snatch away, deliver
Definition rescue, snatch away, deliver
References Psalm 59:1
Why it matters David's first petition asks God to rescue him from enemies who are actively threatening his life.
Pastoral Entry
ʾŌyēb is a common Old Testament word for enemy, an active participle from the verb ʾāyab (to be hostile, to treat as an enemy). The word describes someone who is actively opposed: nations that come against Israel in battle, personal adversaries who seek someone's life or ruin, and in the Psalms, the unnamed enemies who pursue, mock, and threaten the psalmist.
The prevalence of the word across the Hebrew Bible reflects a world in which real hostility — military, social, personal — is part of ordinary experience. The Psalter in particular gives ʾōyēb its most theologically rich treatment. The psalmist brings enemies before God, not as proof that God has abandoned him, but as the situation in which he calls for divine intervention.
God is asked to vindicate against enemies, to deliver from their power, and sometimes to act in judgment against them. This is not mere revenge literature. It is prayer that takes conflict seriously as the arena in which God's character is displayed: his faithfulness to the vulnerable, his power against the violent, his justice in a world of real harm. The New Testament's command to love enemies does not cancel the Old Testament's honest lament about them.
It fulfills it by locating the believer in a position of radical trust in God's justice rather than personal retaliation.
Sense hostile opponents, enemies
Definition hostile opponents, enemies
References Psalm 59:1
Why it matters The psalm names real opposition and refuses to treat violent hostility as imaginary.
Sense set securely on high, protect
Definition set securely on high, protect
References Psalm 59:1
Why it matters The verb connects to the fortress theme by asking God to place David beyond enemy reach.
Pastoral Entry
The Hebrew verb קוּם (qûm) can describe getting up, rising, standing, arising for action, remaining valid, establishing something, appointing someone, restoring what has fallen, or causing another to rise. The subject, object, stem, and surrounding action determine the sense. Abraham gets up from beside Sarah’s body in Genesis 23:3, Moses sets out with Joshua in Exodus 24:13, and Joshua is commanded to arise and cross the Jordan. These ordinary movements remind readers that the verb does not carry one spiritual meaning wherever it appears.
The moral direction also comes from context. Cain rises against Abel and kills him, while Leviticus 19:32 commands rising in the presence of the elderly as an act joined to honor and fear of God. Deuteronomy 22:4 requires helping a neighbor lift a fallen animal. The same lexical identity can therefore describe aggression, respect, movement, and practical assistance without approving every act of rising.
Other passages use qûm for establishment or effective standing. God establishes His covenant with Noah. Deuteronomy 19:15 says a legal matter must be established by adequate testimony. Numbers 23:19 asks whether God could speak and fail to fulfill what He promises. Judges 2:16 says the Lord raised up judges. Isaiah 58:12 speaks of restoring ancient foundations. In such settings, English “rise” may not communicate the function of the Hebrew form.
Selected prophetic and wisdom texts give rising a further horizon. Isaiah 26:19 declares that the dead will live and their bodies will rise. Proverbs 24:16 depicts the righteous person getting up after repeated falls. These passages can nourish resurrection hope and perseverance, but not every occurrence predicts resurrection or promises quick recovery. Faithful teaching should not turn “rise up” into a demand for relentless productivity, unsafe confrontation, or able-bodied performance. Qûm may call someone to act, receive help, rebuild, honor, testify, or trust God to establish what human strength cannot secure.
Sense arise, stand up against
Definition arise, stand up against
References Psalm 59:1
Why it matters Enemy action is organized opposition, not casual dislike.
Sense workers of trouble, doers of wickedness
Definition workers of trouble, doers of wickedness
References Psalm 59:2
Why it matters The enemies are characterized by active wickedness and harm.
Pastoral Entry
דָּם is the OT's word for blood in all its theological dimensions — life, death, covenant, and atonement. Lev 17:11 is the load-bearing verse: 'the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.' The logic is precise: because blood is life, the shedding of blood is the giving of life in substitution.
The animal's life is given in place of the worshiper's. This is why the prohibition on eating blood (Lev 17:14; Deut 12:23) is so strict — blood belongs to God because life belongs to God. The covenant-blood at Sinai (Exod 24:8, Moses sprinkling the people: 'Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you') shows the other dimension: דָּם does not only deal with sin, it seals relationship.
The same substance that atones also binds. This dual function explains the NT's use of Christ's blood: it is simultaneously the ransom that deals with sin (Heb 9:14) and the new covenant seal (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25).
Sense men of bloodshed
Definition men of bloodshed
References Psalm 59:2
Why it matters The danger is lethal; David is not merely annoyed but threatened by murderous intent.
Cross-language bridge 1 link · View in lexicon
Pastoral Entry
יָשַׁע (yasha) is a Hebrew verb for saving, delivering, helping, or giving victory. The local Hebrew artifact currently indexes about 206 H3467 occurrences. It is used with God and with human deliverers, across military danger, personal distress, national rescue, royal hope, and theological proclamation. No single English gloss or doctrinal scope governs every occurrence.
Exodus 14:30 says that the Lord saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians at the sea. In that scene Israel's rescue depends on God's action, and the event becomes a major canonical pattern of deliverance. The passage should not be made the lexical definition of every later H3467 use or used to deny the responsive acts that follow divine rescue.
The Psalms use the verb in petitions and testimonies such as 'save me for the sake of your steadfast love' (Ps 6:4) and 'I am saved from my enemies' (Ps 18:3). These prayers join present need to confidence in God's character without promising that every rescue will arrive in the same temporal form.
Isaiah 43:3 names the Lord as Israel's Savior, and Isaiah 45:22 calls the ends of the earth to turn to God and be saved because there is no other God. The latter widens the audience while remaining grounded in Isaiah's proclamation of Israel's God rather than an Israel-independent religious principle.
Zechariah 9:9 describes Zion's coming king with a Niphal participle that can be rendered saved, victorious, or having salvation. The grammatical and translation question should remain visible; the verse must not be made to say more than its form and royal context support.
The H3467 root family is related to salvation nouns and to the Hebrew names Yeshua and Yehoshua. Matthew 1:21 connects Jesus' name with his mission to save his people from their sins. This supplies a strong canonical name-and-mission link without making every H3467 occurrence a prediction of Jesus or deriving a complete doctrine of salvation from the root alone.
For the preacher, יָשַׁע invites confidence in the God who saves and honest prayer from situations of danger or helplessness. Application should preserve divine agency, genuine human response, and each passage's particular kind of deliverance.
Sense save, deliver, give victory
Definition save, deliver, give victory
References Psalm 59:2
Why it matters The salvation language is concrete rescue from violent men while contributing to the broader biblical vocabulary of deliverance.
Cross-language bridge 1 link · View in lexicon
Pastoral Entry
This Hebrew verb describes lying in wait or setting an ambush. It can identify concealed action in a military narrative or predatory intent condemned in wisdom and prayer. Joshua 8:2 places an ambush within the particular command concerning Ai. Proverbs 1:11 places lying in wait inside the speech of people enticing someone toward bloodshed, and the surrounding instruction tells the hearer not to join them. The shared verb does not remove those different speakers, settings or moral directions.
Psalm 10:9 portrays the wicked person's predation against the oppressed. Deuteronomy 19:11 identifies hatred and deliberate waiting in its distinction between intentional killing and the refuge described earlier in the chapter. Proverbs 24:15 warns the wicked against lying in wait near the righteous person's home. These texts make hidden hostility visible without teaching suspicion as a way of life. Concern about a possible threat should be assessed through actual conduct and appropriate help, not through guessing that every quiet person or disagreement conceals an ambush.
Sense ambush, lie in wait
Definition ambush, lie in wait
References Psalm 59:3
Why it matters The enemies are stealthy and predatory, matching the superscriptional setting of men watching David's house.
Sense strong, fierce, mighty
Definition strong, fierce, mighty
References Psalm 59:3
Why it matters The opponents appear powerful, but their strength is relativized by God as David's true strength.
Pastoral Entry
גּוּר (gur) means to sojourn — to live as an alien in a land that is not one's own, without permanent belonging, without the full rights of a native citizen. Its participial form גֵּר (ger) is the OT's term for the resident alien or stranger, and the ethical-theological treatment of the ger is one of the most developed and demanding areas of Torah ethics.
The theological center of gur is the exodus memory. Leviticus 19:34 gives the foundational logic: 'The stranger (ger) who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers (gerim) in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.' Israel's obligation to the sojourner is grounded in their own sojourn-history: they were gerim in Egypt, subject to oppression (Exod 1:11-14). YHWH's liberation of Israel from that sojourn is the moral basis for Israel's protection of gerim within its own borders. The formula 'for you were gerim in Egypt' appears nine times in the Torah, making it the most-repeated ethical warrant in the Pentateuch.
The patriarchs are themselves gerim. Abraham is a ger ve-toshav (sojourner and foreigner) in Canaan (Gen 23:4), purchasing a burial plot because he has no land. Isaac gurs in Gerar during the famine (Gen 26:3). Jacob sends his sons to gur in Egypt (Gen 47:4). The patriarchal sojourn-identity is the theological backdrop for the entire exodus narrative: Israel in Egypt is not an isolated tragedy but the culmination of a family history of sojourning. YHWH's covenant with Abraham includes the sojourn: 'your offspring will be sojourners (gerim) in a land that is not theirs' (Gen 15:13).
Psalm 39:12 gives gur its existential-theological form: 'Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you (ger anoki imakha), a guest, like all my fathers.' David describes himself as a ger in relation to YHWH: his life is a temporary sojourn even in the land, not a permanent possession. First Chronicles 29:15 gives the corporate form: 'For we are strangers before you and sojourners (gerim va-toshavim), as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.' All of Israel, even in the land, is described as sojourning before YHWH.
For the preacher, גּוּר (gur) gives the congregation two inseparable theological commitments: the compassion ethic toward the sojourner (Lev 19:34 — because you were once the stranger, welcome the stranger), and the existential posture of the believer who recognizes that earth itself is a sojourn (Ps 39:12, 1 Chr 29:15). Both commitments flow from the same theological root: those who know themselves as sojourners before God are those most capable of receiving and welcoming sojourners in their midst.
Sense gather, stir up, attack
Definition gather, stir up, attack
References Psalm 59:3
Why it matters The attack is collective and intentional, increasing the sense of human pressure.
Pastoral Entry
פֶּשַׁע (peša') is a noun for transgression, rebellion, or revolt. Genesis 31:36 uses it in Jacob's demand to know his offense, Exodus 22:9 uses it in a property dispute brought before judges, and First Samuel 24:11 uses it in David's denial of rebellion against Saul. These legal and relational contexts show that a transgression may be alleged, investigated, denied, or established; accusation is not proof.
Covenant texts name both guilt and pardon. Exodus 34:7 says the Lord forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin while not treating guilt as nothing. Leviticus 16:16 and 16:21 include Israel's transgressions in the Day of Atonement rites. Psalms 32 and 51 join acknowledgment with forgiveness, while Proverbs 28:13 contrasts concealment with confession and forsaking. Mercy does not require minimizing the offense, and confession does not eliminate restitution, protection, or consequences.
Prophets expose corporate and personal rebellion and announce God's action. Isaiah 43:25 and 44:22 speak of blotting out transgressions, Isaiah 53:5 and 53:8 place the people's transgression within the servant's suffering, Ezekiel 18:30 calls Israel to turn from transgressions, and Micah 7:18 praises God for passing over rebellion. These passages ground atonement and forgiveness themes, but the noun alone does not settle a complete theory or authorize transferring blame to victims.
Sense rebellion, transgression
Definition rebellion, transgression
References Psalm 59:3
Why it matters David denies the specific rebellion his enemies imply, while not claiming absolute sinlessness.
Pastoral Entry
The Hebrew noun חַטָּאָה (chattaah) can name sin as an offense and, in ritual contexts, the sacrifice commonly rendered “sin offering.” Genesis 4:7 pictures sin crouching at Cain’s door, ready to master him if he refuses what is right. Psalm 51:3 names the sin David knows and cannot dismiss. Numbers 5:7 requires confession, restitution, and added repayment for a wrong committed against another person. These passages use the noun for moral offense and its accountable consequences.
Leviticus gives the same noun a ritual use. Leviticus 4:3 speaks of the priest’s sin and the bull brought as a sin offering in the same sentence. Syntax and ritual instructions distinguish the offense from the animal offered. Leviticus 4:20 then describes atonement and forgiveness, while Leviticus 6:25 calls the offering most holy and regulates where it is slaughtered. The shared noun does not make sin and sacrifice interchangeable. It shows that context can use one lexical form for the problem and for the prescribed purification sacrifice associated with that problem.
The offerings in Leviticus 4 address the chapter’s stated category of unintentional sin across priests, the congregation, leaders, and ordinary Israelites. The broader noun can describe other kinds of sin elsewhere, but that breadth must not be used to erase the ritual passage’s limits. Nor should the offering be presented as an automatic transaction detached from confession, covenant faith, priestly mediation, restitution where required, and the Lord’s provision. The ritual sense is governed by the law’s syntax and actions, not by an assumption that every occurrence means sacrifice.
Zechariah 13:1 promises a fountain opened for the house of David and Jerusalem to cleanse from sin and impurity. The New Testament develops sin, sacrifice, cleansing, forgiveness, and Christ’s once-for-all work through its own passages, especially Hebrews. Those connections fulfill and transform the sacrificial horizon, but H2403 should not be treated as a lexical code that makes every Greek use of sin mean sin offering. Faithful teaching distinguishes offense, guilt, purification, sacrifice, confession, restitution, forgiveness, and final atonement while tracing their canonical relationship.
Sense sin, offense
Definition sin, offense
References Psalm 59:3
Why it matters The protest of innocence concerns the present accusation and attack.
Pastoral Entry
H5782 is a Hebrew verb for waking, rousing, stirring, or inciting someone into action. Its subject and object matter greatly. A person may awaken from sleep, a leader may stir a people toward conflict, desire may be aroused before its proper time, or God may stir a ruler and a covenant community to carry out His purpose. Ezra 1:1 says the Lord stirred the spirit of Cyrus so the promised return and rebuilding could begin.
Haggai 1:14 describes the Lord stirring Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the remnant so they resumed work on the temple after responding to the prophetic word. Song of Songs 2:7 warns against awakening love before its proper time, showing that arousal is not automatically wise or holy. H5782 therefore contributes the movement from inactivity to alertness or action, but the passage identifies the agent, direction, and moral character of that movement.
It opens teaching on divine initiative, responsive obedience, dangerous agitation, and patient restraint. It corrects the assumption that every strong impulse is from God or that spiritual awakening can be manufactured by pressure, spectacle, or emotional intensity.
Sense awake, stir up, rouse
Definition awake, stir up, rouse
References Psalm 59:4-5
Why it matters David's appeal asks God to act visibly against the danger.
Pastoral Entry
רָאָה (rāʾâh) means to see, look, appear, perceive, discern, inspect, or experience. Genesis uses it for God's evaluation of creation, human visual desire, observation of corruption, divine appearances, and ordinary looking. Leviticus 13 uses seeing for careful priestly inspection, while scouts and watchmen look in order to report. Physical sight can supply evidence but does not guarantee truthful interpretation; Genesis 3:6 shows perception shaped by desire, and false prophets in Isaiah 30 ask for agreeable visions.
God's seeing often expresses attention and response. Exodus 2:25 and 3:7 say God sees Israel's affliction and knows its suffering, and Genesis 16:13 responds to Hagar's encounter with the God who sees. Divine seeing is not passive surveillance or permission for leaders to monitor people without limits. It grounds hope that concealed harm matters to God and should move communities toward listening, protection, and justice.
Seeing God and perceiving revelation require passage-specific care. Exodus 24:10 describes Israel's leaders seeing the God of Israel, while Exodus 33:20 says a human cannot see God's face and live and the chapter carefully limits Moses' request. Prophets see visions, Job contrasts hearsay with seeing, and psalms invite worshipers to taste and see God's goodness. These texts should not be flattened into ordinary eyesight, guaranteed mystical visions, or contempt for blind and visually impaired people.
Sense see, observe
Definition see, observe
References Psalm 59:4
Why it matters David asks God to see what enemies think is hidden.
Pastoral Entry
The Hebrew name יהוה identifies the God of Israel throughout the Old Testament. The Berean Standard Bible, like many English translations, represents the name as “Lord” in capital letters. That convention signals a personal name in the Hebrew text; it should not be confused with every ordinary occurrence of the title “lord.” The Masoretic pointing reflects a received reading practice and does not by itself settle the name’s ancient pronunciation. Teachers should therefore acknowledge that pronunciation remains debated instead of presenting one reconstruction as certain.
Exodus 3:15 places the name within God’s commission of Moses: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sends him and declares how He is to be remembered. The nearby statement “I AM WHO I AM” in Exodus 3:14 is important for reading the scene, but the relationship between the forms should be handled with lexical care. A proposed derivation cannot carry a complete doctrine of God by itself. Exodus 6:6 and 34:6 show the name in promises and self-declaration: the Lord redeems Israel and makes His compassion, grace, patience, loving devotion, and faithfulness known.
Genesis 2:4 joins “the Lord God” to the making of heaven and earth, while Deuteronomy 6:4 confesses that the Lord is Israel’s God and is one. Joel 2:32 promises deliverance to those who call on the name of the Lord. These passages support worship, trust, obedience, and covenant remembrance, but the name must not be reduced to a slogan that guarantees a preferred outcome.
The New Testament often uses the Greek title kyrios when quoting Old Testament passages that contain יהוה. Romans 10 draws Joel 2:32 into a Christ-centered confession, which is a weighty canonical connection. Even so, teachers should establish such links passage by passage. The divine name does not license speculative pronunciation claims, secret-name spirituality, or the assertion that every New Testament use of “Lord” directly represents H3068.
Sense the covenant name of the LORD
Definition the covenant name of the LORD
References Psalm 59:5
Why it matters The covenant name grounds the prayer in God's revealed character and faithfulness.
Sense God of armies, LORD of hosts
Definition God of armies, LORD of hosts
References Psalm 59:5
Why it matters The title emphasizes God's command over heavenly armies against earthly threats.
Sense God of Israel
Definition God of Israel
References Psalm 59:5
Why it matters The phrase roots David's prayer in the covenant identity of God's people.
Pastoral Entry
פָּקַד (paqad) describes purposeful attention or intervention whose result depends on context. Genesis 21:1 says the Lord attends to Sarah as promised, Genesis 50:24-25 anticipates God's visitation of Israel, Exodus 3:16 announces that God has attended to the people and their treatment in Egypt, and Ruth 1:6 says the Lord visits his people by giving food. These are gracious acts of remembered promise and care, not mere observation.
Administrative uses are equally important. Genesis 39:4 appoints Joseph over a household, Genesis 41:34 calls for appointed officials, Numbers 1 repeatedly uses the verb in mustering Israel, Numbers 3:10 concerns priestly appointment, and Second Kings 22:5 entrusts money to overseers of temple work. The common thread is accountable attention, assignment, or reckoning; H6485 is not inherently a supernatural event.
The same focused attention can bring judgment. Exodus 20:5 and 32:34, First Samuel 15:2, Jeremiah 5:9, Amos 3:2, and Zechariah 10:3 use visitation or attending-to language for holding wrongdoing accountable. Translation as punish is contextual, not the verb's only meaning. Because paqad spans care and judgment, claims about a present disaster being divine punishment require direct revelation and cannot be inferred from hardship alone.
Sense visit, attend to, punish
Definition visit, attend to, punish
References Psalm 59:5
Why it matters David asks God to attend to evil judicially, not ignore it.
Pastoral Entry
גּוֹי is the standard Hebrew word for a nation — a people defined by shared territory, descent, social identity, and often by the gods they serve. In its most basic sense, the word simply means a body of people constituted as a distinct political and ethnic entity. But in the theology of the Hebrew Bible, גּוֹי does not remain neutral for long. Once Israel is constituted at Sinai as YHWH's own people, the word acquires a relational charge. The nations — הַגּוֹיִם — are the peoples who stand outside the covenant, who do not know YHWH by name, who build their lives around other gods, and whose practices are held up as the anti-pattern to which Israel must not conform.
This is not a word about ethnic inferiority. The Bible shows YHWH as the God who made every nation, set their boundaries, and governs their histories (Deuteronomy 32:8; Acts 17:26). The selected canonical texts keep the nations within God's care and sovereign reach. They appear in the Abrahamic promise as the very ones through whom blessing will flow. Abraham is called so that all the families of the earth might be blessed through him — and the nations are that "all." The word גּוֹי, then, carries both a shadow and a promise within it.
In prophetic literature, the nations become the instrument of YHWH's judgment against unfaithful Israel and, at the same time, the recipients of YHWH's future grace. Isaiah's servant passages and the great eschatological oracles envision the nations streaming to Zion, hearing the word of the Lord, being gathered in. גּוֹי is the Hebrew word standing behind the Gentile question that runs through the whole New Testament — not as a solved problem but as the New Testament's reading of the Abrahamic promise and the prophetic hope.
Pastorally, this word refuses to be domesticated. It will not let Israel — or any covenant people — forget that God's purposes are not tribal. It will not let the nations be reduced to a backdrop for Israel's story. They are the audience, the beneficiary, and in the end the co-heirs of the promise that launched everything with Abraham. A congregation that encounters גּוֹי is encountering the scope of the gospel before the gospel is named.
Sense nations, peoples
Definition nations, peoples
References Psalm 59:5
Why it matters The psalm's horizon widens beyond local enemies to God's rule over the nations.
Sense treacherous workers of evil
Definition treacherous workers of evil
References Psalm 59:5
Why it matters The enemies are not only violent but treacherous and morally perverse.
Pastoral Entry
שׁוּב (shuv) is a common Hebrew verb for turning, returning, going back, bringing back, or restoring. Many occurrences describe ordinary movement, so the verb does not mean repentance every time it appears. In covenant and prophetic settings, however, returning to the Lord becomes a rich description of repentance: people turn from wicked ways, return to God, hear His voice, and seek His mercy.
Other stem forms can describe causing someone or something to return, including God's restoration of His people. Deuteronomy 30 joins Israel's return to the Lord with God's gathering and renewal after judgment. Isaiah 55 calls the wicked to forsake a way and return to the compassionate God. Hosea and Zechariah address a covenant people whose return must be truthful rather than merely verbal.
Christian teaching can connect this movement with New Testament calls to repent and turn to God, but the Hebrew verb itself should not be collapsed into one technical doctrine. Pastoral use must also distinguish return to God from pressure to return to an unsafe person, place, leader, or institution.
Sense return, turn back
Definition return, turn back
References Psalm 59:6
Why it matters The repeated return at evening shows the persistence of enemy pressure.
Pastoral Entry
H6153 names evening, dusk, or the transition from daylight toward night. It can mark ordinary time, the boundary of a day, scheduled worship, travel, mourning, labor, danger, or prophetic imagery. In Gen. 1. 5, evening and morning mark the first day within God's ordered creation. In Exod. 12. 6, the Passover animals are slaughtered at twilight on the appointed day, placing evening within Israel's remembered deliverance.
In Ruth. 2. 17, Ruth gleans until evening and then threshes what she has gathered, showing sustained, vulnerable labor met by providential kindness. H6153 opens teaching on daily rhythms, remembrance, perseverance, and human limits. It does not establish one universal biblical method for calculating dates, make evening inherently ominous, or promise that every night of sorrow will end according to a preferred timetable.
Sense evening
Definition evening
References Psalm 59:6
Why it matters Evening marks the time of danger and sets up the contrast with morning praise.
Sense roar, growl, make noise
Definition roar, growl, make noise
References Psalm 59:6
Why it matters The sound imagery dehumanizes predatory violence and reveals restless hostility.
Sense dog
Definition dog
References Psalm 59:6
Why it matters The dog imagery portrays scavenging, prowling threat rather than harmless companionship.
Pastoral Entry
H5437 describes turning, circling, surrounding, going around, or causing something to turn, with physical routes and figurative changes both governed by context. The verb can trace movement around a place, repeated circular motion, encirclement, a change of direction, transfer of rule, or a heart turned toward a purpose, so physical geometry and providential change must remain distinct.
In Exod. 13. 18, god leads Israel by a roundabout wilderness route toward the Red Sea rather than the nearer Philistine road after the exodus. In Eccl. 1. 6, the Teacher observes the wind turning south and north, circling repeatedly and returning again to its course. H5437 opens teaching on routes that feel indirect, patterns that circle repeatedly, and changes of direction that God can use without making every detour easy or every outcome immediately clear.
It corrects the belief that a roundabout path proves divine absence and also challenges fatalism that treats repeated harmful patterns as unchangeable circles. H5437 can trace a protective detour, a recurring course, or consequences that close in: God leads Israel around by the wilderness rather than the nearer road, the wind turns north and circles back on its course, and Hosea says Israels deeds surround them before God.
Indirect guidance, creaturely repetition, and moral consequence share turning imagery, but each passage supplies a different agent and purpose. For H5437, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. H5437 does not promise that every delay is Gods specific guidance, excuse avoidable wandering or abuse, teach that history is a meaningless cycle, or make a persons harmful circumstances proof of personal guilt.
Sense surround, go around
Definition surround, go around
References Psalm 59:6
Why it matters The enemies encircle the city and make David feel surrounded.
Pastoral Entry
עִיר (ir) is the common Hebrew noun for a city, town, or inhabited settlement. Genesis 4:17 says Cain built a city, Genesis 10:12 calls a settlement a great city, and Genesis 11:4 records the Babel builders' plan for a city and tower. Urban gathering can organize family, trade, defense, culture, worship, and power. The noun itself is morally neutral; Scripture evaluates what a city loves, builds, protects, oppresses, remembers, and worships.
Cities can become places of grave violence and judgment. Abraham asks whether righteous people in Sodom would be swept away with the city in Genesis 18:24, and Genesis 19 narrates urgent departure before destruction. Deuteronomy 13 addresses an Israelite city turned to idolatry, and Joshua 6 narrates Jericho's fall within the conquest. These are specific covenant and judgment texts. They do not authorize churches or modern states to label unwanted communities wicked and carry out religious violence.
Cities also become sites of refuge, worship, responsibility, and hope. Numbers 35 appoints cities of refuge to restrain blood vengeance and provide adjudication. Psalms 46, 48, and 87 celebrate the city of God, while Isaiah 60:14 names Zion the city of the Lord. Jeremiah 29:7 tells exiles to seek the welfare of the Babylonian city where they live, and Jonah is sent to a great foreign city whose violence God judges and whose repentance God receives. Ezekiel 48:35 ends with a restored city named “The Lord Is There.” These trajectories reach beyond one municipality without making any present city identical to Zion, Babylon, or Nineveh.
Sense city
Definition city
References Psalm 59:6
Why it matters The urban setting heightens the image of enemies prowling where safety should exist.
Sense pour forth, gush out
Definition pour forth, gush out
References Psalm 59:7
Why it matters Their speech overflows with violence and arrogance.
Pastoral Entry
פֶּה (peh) first names the physical mouth. Exodus 4:10-12 places Moses' mouth and God's enabling speech together, Numbers 22:28 says the Lord opens the donkey's mouth, Isaiah 6:7 touches the prophet's mouth in a cleansing vision, and Job 40:4 pictures a hand laid over the mouth in humbled silence. The bodily sense grounds, but does not determine, the noun's wider idioms.
Peh can refer to spoken words, command, or authoritative instruction. Israel journeys according to the Lord's command in Exodus 17:1 and Numbers 9:18, Deuteronomy 8:3 speaks of what proceeds from the Lord's mouth, and Deuteronomy 18:18 describes God's words placed in a prophet's mouth. Jeremiah 1:9 and Ezekiel 3:17 likewise connect commissioned speech with divine authority. Those texts do not make every confident religious statement God's word; commission, content, and fidelity remain decisive.
Other constructions must remain visible. Exodus 17:13 uses the mouth or edge of the sword, and peh can mark proportion or what accords with a stated measure. Wisdom evaluates human speech: Proverbs 10:11 calls the righteous person's mouth a fountain of life, Proverbs 18:20 attends to speech's fruit, and Proverbs 21:23 commends guarding mouth and tongue. The noun can name the organ, speech, command, or an idiomatic edge without making all uses interchangeable.
Sense mouth
Definition mouth
References Psalm 59:7
Why it matters The mouth becomes a weaponized instrument of evil.
Pastoral Entry
חֶרֶב is the common Hebrew noun for a sword and can also refer to a dagger, knife, or the sword as a figure for warfare, death, or judgment. The local Hebrew index currently counts about 413 occurrences. Its theological force varies widely: human armies wield swords, prophetic texts announce the sword as judgment, Genesis 3:24 places a flaming sword at Eden, and Isaiah 2:4 envisions swords refashioned as farming tools. The object itself does not carry one continuous redemptive meaning through every text.
Genesis 3:24 says the cherubim and flaming, turning sword guard the way to the tree of life after the humans are expelled. The sword enforces exclusion and guards access; the verse does not specify that it is merely protective rather than punitive, nor does it ask what later figure will “remove” it. Those larger questions require canonical argument beyond this occurrence.
Deuteronomy 32:41-42 depicts the Lord’s glittering sword within a poetic announcement of vengeance and judgment. Isaiah 49:2 compares the servant’s mouth to a sharp sword, emphasizing the effective, penetrating character of his commissioned speech. Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 envision nations turning swords into plowshares under the Lord’s just instruction and rule. These passages use the same noun in distinct images of weapon, judgment, speech, and disarmament.
For teaching, חֶרֶב can expose the destructiveness of human violence, the seriousness of divine judgment, the power of prophetic speech, and the hope of peace. Christian connections to Jesus’ suffering, God’s word, or Revelation’s sword imagery should rest on the New Testament’s explicit quotations and images rather than an allegory in which Eden’s sword falls on Christ.
Sense swords
Definition swords
References Psalm 59:7
Why it matters The metaphor treats destructive words as cutting weapons.
Pastoral Entry
H8193 begins with the lip as a bodily boundary and extends to speech, language, and physical edges such as a riverbank or a fabric border. Exodus 2:3 uses the word for the bank of the Nile, showing that the lexical range cannot be reduced to spoken words. Genesis 11:1 describes the world as having one language and common speech before Babel. Isaiah 6:5 uses unclean lips as a confession of moral impurity within a people whose speech also needs cleansing.
Zephaniah 3:9 looks toward purified lips among the peoples so they may call on the Lord and serve together. The noun itself does not declare every language difference sinful, make ritual cleansing a human technique, or equate articulate speech with holiness. H8193 helps readers distinguish body, boundary, language, confession, deception, praise, and restored communal worship.
Sense lips
Definition lips
References Psalm 59:7
Why it matters The enemies' lips reveal their inner violence.
Pastoral Entry
שָׁמַע (šāmaʿ) is a high-frequency Hebrew verb for hearing, listening, paying attention, understanding, heeding, obeying, receiving news, or causing something to be heard. Adam hears a sound, people hear reports, languages are or are not understood, God hears cries and prayer, communities are summoned to listen, and commands may be heeded or refused. Responsive obedience is an important contextual sense, especially in covenant instruction, but the verb does not erase the distinction between auditory perception and obedient action in every verse.
The Shema begins, 'Hear, Israel,' and continues with confession of the Lord and a call to covenant love and teaching. Exodus says God hears enslaved Israel's groaning, and many prayers trust that God hears. Prophets can speak to people who hear words but do not respond, making the gap between sound and obedience explicit. Wisdom commends listening before answering and receiving counsel. These settings show attention, understanding, response, justice, and relationship without making hearing a single inward act.
Human authority must still be evaluated. Israel can wrongly heed fear or refuse a faithful warning; Tamar's brother does not listen to her and violates her; false prophets demand an audience; rulers and communities ignore truth. 'Listen and obey' language cannot authorize abuse, override consent, or make a leader's claim equal to God's word. Deaf and hard-of-hearing people, auditory-processing differences, language barriers, and communication disabilities must not be treated as spiritual deficits.
Sense hear, listen
Definition hear, listen
References Psalm 59:7
Why it matters Their question 'Who hears?' exposes practical atheism before the God who hears.
Sense laugh
Definition laugh
References Psalm 59:8
Why it matters God's laughter is judicial derision of arrogant rebellion.
Sense mock, deride
Definition mock, deride
References Psalm 59:8
Why it matters The Lord is not intimidated by nations or violent men.
Pastoral Entry
עֹז (ʿōz) is a Hebrew noun for strength, might, power, or firm security. In Exodus 15:2 Israel sings that the Lord is “my strength and song” after deliverance through the sea, and verse 13 says God guides the redeemed people by his strength. Psalm 28:7 calls the Lord the psalmist's strength and shield, Psalm 46:1 calls God refuge and strength, and Jeremiah 16:19 addresses the Lord as strength, stronghold, and refuge. These uses locate security in God's active presence rather than in a human feeling of invulnerability.
Strength can also be human, received, or broken. Judges 5:21 summons the self to march in strength, and Second Samuel 6:14 says David dances before the Lord with all his strength. Leviticus 26:19 warns that God will break the pride of Israel's strength under covenant judgment. Psalm 68:35 says God gives strength and power to his people, while Psalm 84:5 blesses those whose strength is in God. Human capacity is not inherently suspect, but Scripture treats it as accountable, limited, and dependent rather than self-grounding.
Worship texts ascribe strength to God. Psalm 29:1 calls heavenly beings to ascribe glory and strength to the Lord, Psalm 62:11 says power belongs to God, and Psalm 96:6 places strength and beauty in his sanctuary. Psalm 8:2 says God establishes strength from the mouths of infants and nursing children; the Greek translation renders this as praise, a wording later quoted in Matthew 21:16. That canonical relationship is important, but it does not make praise the default lexical gloss of H5797 in every Hebrew passage.
Sense strength, might
Definition strength, might
References Psalm 59:9
Why it matters David waits for God because God, not David's resources, is his strength.
Pastoral Entry
The Hebrew verb שָׁמַר (šāmar) means to keep, guard, watch, observe, preserve, attend carefully, or maintain custody. Its direct object and setting are essential. A person can keep a garden, guard another person, watch a city, observe a command, preserve teaching, watch personal conduct, or keep an entrusted responsibility. God can keep covenant and protect His people. English “keep” may sound static, but many occurrences involve sustained attention expressed through concrete action.
Genesis 2:15 gives the human the work of cultivating and keeping the garden. Genesis 4:9 places keeper language in Cain’s defensive question after Abel’s death. Torah uses šāmar for Sabbath observance, remembering God’s acts, following commands, guarding entrusted things, and attending to covenant responsibilities. Joshua 1:7 connects careful observance with the law given through Moses. Ezekiel 36:27 promises divine action that enables God’s people to walk in His statutes and carefully observe His ordinances.
The verb itself does not certify the morality of every keeper. Joab’s careful watching of the city in 2 Samuel 11:16 serves David’s plan against Uriah. The watchmen in Song of Songs 5:7 assault the woman they encounter. These passages expose a crucial boundary: a title, role, or claim of protection does not prove that the person being watched is safe. Guarding language must be judged by object, purpose, authority, conduct, and fruit.
Psalm 121 praises the Lord as Israel’s keeper who does not sleep. This confession gives pilgrims durable hope, but it should not be turned into a promise that believers will avoid every accident, illness, attack, grief, or death. Biblical preservation belongs to God’s faithful care across the whole life of His people. Human safeguarding remains limited and accountable. Churches, families, and institutions should protect without surveillance, coercion, secrecy, or isolation, and should use trained practices and lawful reporting when vulnerable people may be at risk.
Sense keep, watch, wait
Definition keep, watch, wait
References Psalm 59:9
Why it matters The verb reverses the watching motif: enemies watch David, but David watches for God.
Sense high stronghold, fortress
Definition high stronghold, fortress
References Psalm 59:9
Why it matters One of the psalm's central names for God, repeated to anchor trust.
Pastoral Entry
חֶסֶד has a broad relational range that includes steadfast love, kindness, loyalty, mercy, and faithfulness. No single English gloss fits every occurrence. The word often describes action that sustains a relationship or fulfills a commitment, but the relationship may be covenantal, familial, political, or simply an appeal for kindness. Interpreters should not define it only as warm feeling, only as legal obligation, or only as unmerited grace.
Human חֶסֶד can involve loyalty between friends and households. Jonathan asks David to show covenant loyalty, and David later shows kindness to Mephibosheth for Jonathan’s sake. Those acts arise from promises and relational commitments, so describing them as “unconditional” or as action taken where there is no obligation misses an important part of the narrative. Ruth likewise uses חֶסֶד within family responsibility and generous faithfulness.
Divine חֶסֶד is central to Israel’s confession of the Lord’s character and deeds. Exodus 34:6-7 joins abundant steadfast love with mercy, graciousness, patience, faithfulness, forgiveness, and justice. Psalms repeatedly praise the Lord because his חֶסֶד endures forever. Lamentations 3:22-23 appeals to the Lord’s covenant mercies amid judgment, and Isaiah 54:10 speaks of steadfast love that will not depart within a promise of restoration. Each passage defines the relation between loyal love, covenant, judgment, and mercy.
For teaching, חֶסֶד helps congregations see love expressed as loyal, merciful action. It can ground hope in God’s revealed character and summon believers to faithful kindness, while the text must supply the specific promise and its recipients. The lexeme alone should not be used to promise that God will remove every consequence or that no professing believer can ever face covenant discipline.
Sense steadfast love, covenant loyalty
Definition steadfast love, covenant loyalty
References Psalm 59:10
Why it matters God's covenant love comes to meet David in threat and becomes the ground of morning praise.
Cross-language bridge 1 link · View in lexicon
Sense come before, meet, anticipate
Definition come before, meet, anticipate
References Psalm 59:10
Why it matters David expects God's steadfast love to meet him before the enemy has the final word.
Pastoral Entry
רָאָה (rāʾâh) means to see, look, appear, perceive, discern, inspect, or experience. Genesis uses it for God's evaluation of creation, human visual desire, observation of corruption, divine appearances, and ordinary looking. Leviticus 13 uses seeing for careful priestly inspection, while scouts and watchmen look in order to report. Physical sight can supply evidence but does not guarantee truthful interpretation; Genesis 3:6 shows perception shaped by desire, and false prophets in Isaiah 30 ask for agreeable visions.
God's seeing often expresses attention and response. Exodus 2:25 and 3:7 say God sees Israel's affliction and knows its suffering, and Genesis 16:13 responds to Hagar's encounter with the God who sees. Divine seeing is not passive surveillance or permission for leaders to monitor people without limits. It grounds hope that concealed harm matters to God and should move communities toward listening, protection, and justice.
Seeing God and perceiving revelation require passage-specific care. Exodus 24:10 describes Israel's leaders seeing the God of Israel, while Exodus 33:20 says a human cannot see God's face and live and the chapter carefully limits Moses' request. Prophets see visions, Job contrasts hearsay with seeing, and psalms invite worshipers to taste and see God's goodness. These texts should not be flattened into ordinary eyesight, guaranteed mystical visions, or contempt for blind and visually impaired people.
Sense see, behold
Definition see, behold
References Psalm 59:10
Why it matters David expects to see God's action concerning those who watch him.
Pastoral Entry
H4043 names a physical shield and can figuratively identify a protector, especially the Lord as the One who surrounds, guards, and gives confidence to his people. The noun appears with battlefield equipment, royal display, defensive preparation, animal scales, and theological protection; figurative uses grow from the concrete shield without making every danger or outcome identical.
In Gen. 15. 1, the Lord addresses Abrams fear by identifying himself as Abrams shield and very great reward before renewing covenant promise. In Ps. 3. 3, surrounded by adversaries, the psalmist calls the Lord a shield around him, his glory, and the One who lifts his head. H4043 opens teaching on God as protector through the tangible image of a shield while preserving the reality that faithful people still face danger, grief, bodily harm, and costly obedience.
It corrects formulas that promise believers immunity from suffering and militarized spirituality that turns divine protection into permission for aggression, domination, or careless risk. H4043 gives protection a relational center: the Lord tells fearful Abram that he is his shield and great reward, the psalmist names the Lord as a shield around him and the lifter of his head amid opposition, and Proverbs describes God as a shield to those walking with integrity while locating safety within wisdoms path rather than magical invulnerability.
For H4043, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. The noun does not promise that no faithful person will be wounded or killed, replace practical safeguards, or authorize believers to identify their own weapons, nation, or institution with Gods protective presence.
Sense shield
Definition shield
References Psalm 59:11
Why it matters God is the protective shield who can scatter enemies without letting the people forget.
Sense make stagger, wander
Definition make stagger, wander
References Psalm 59:11
Why it matters David asks God to make the enemies unstable as public testimony.
Pastoral Entry
H3381 is the Hebrew verb for going down, descending, or causing something to come down. Sometimes the movement is ordinary geography: Joseph’s brothers go down to Egypt for grain in Genesis 42:3, and Moses comes down from Sinai to the people in Exodus 19:14. Other passages give descent narrative or theological weight. Jonah goes down to Joppa while fleeing the Lord, and the repeated downward movement in the chapter accompanies his attempted escape.
Micah 1:3 announces that the Lord will come down and tread the high places of the earth, using spatial language for divine intervention in judgment. Psalm 30:3 speaks of being spared from descending into the Pit, where downward movement approaches the realm of death. The verb itself does not make every descent sinful, humiliating, or divine. A traveler may simply move to a lower location; a causative form may bring a person or power down.
Teachers should let geography remain geography when the passage does, while noticing when a book deliberately uses descent to trace danger, judgment, mortality, rescue, or God’s decisive action.
Sense bring down
Definition bring down
References Psalm 59:11
Why it matters The prayer asks God to lower proud enemies by His power.
Pastoral Entry
H2428, ḥayil, is a Hebrew noun for force or consequential capacity. Depending on context, it can name an army, military might, wealth, resources, practical ability, social standing, valor, or proven character. David reaches Israel's ḥayil as the army takes position. Deuteronomy warns Israel not to credit the strength of its hands for the wealth it has gained. Exodus uses the noun for capable leaders whose ability must be joined to fear of God, trustworthiness, and resistance to dishonest gain. The word identifies power that can accomplish, protect, produce, govern, or prevail.
Ruth shows why strength cannot be reduced to physical force or masculine status. Boaz is introduced as a prominent man of ḥayil, and the same community later recognizes Ruth as a woman of ḥayil. In both cases, the narrative supplies character through generous provision, covenant loyalty, courage, restraint, truthful public process, and care for vulnerable family members. Proverbs 31 likewise uses the expression for a woman whose wisdom, work, generosity, planning, and fear of the Lord benefit her household and the poor. Biblical valor is morally textured capacity put to faithful use.
Yet H2428 also names force that belongs ultimately to God or cannot accomplish God's work by itself. David confesses that power and kingdom belong to the Lord. Zechariah tells Zerubbabel that the temple's completion will be neither by might nor by power but by God's Spirit. These texts do not condemn skill, money, organization, or courage. They reject self-sufficiency and the worship of capacity. Pastoral use should honor capable women and men, demand character wherever power is entrusted, protect people from militarized or domineering leadership, and teach that every resource remains derivative, accountable, and unable to replace the Spirit's work.
Sense strength, power, force
Definition strength, power, force
References Psalm 59:11
Why it matters God's power is greater than enemy force.
Sense sin of their mouth
Definition sin of their mouth
References Psalm 59:12
Why it matters The psalm directly identifies speech as sin, not merely expression.
Sense word of their lips
Definition word of their lips
References Psalm 59:12
Why it matters Their verbal violence is part of the evidence against them.
Sense curse, oath
Definition curse, oath
References Psalm 59:12
Why it matters Cursing speech reveals the moral disorder of the enemies.
Sense lie, deception, falsehood
Definition lie, deception, falsehood
References Psalm 59:12
Why it matters The enemies' speech includes deception as well as hostility.
Pastoral Entry
H3615 is a Hebrew verb for reaching an end. Depending on its form and object, something may be finished or completed, strength or supply may fail, or an agent may consume or bring something to an end. Genesis 2:1 says the heavens and earth were completed in all their array. Exodus 40:33 states that Moses finished the tabernacle work. Psalm 73:26 acknowledges that flesh and heart may fail while God remains the psalmist's strength and portion.
Lamentations 3:22 uses a negative construction to confess that the people are not consumed because of the Lord's loving devotion. The range includes successful completion, exhaustion, disappearance, destruction, and consumption, so the surrounding grammar is decisive. H3615 helps teachers honor faithful completion without worshiping productivity. Some work reaches its intended end; some resources run out; bodies and courage can fail; judgment texts can speak of consuming destruction.
Human limits are not automatically moral failure, and biblical completion does not justify pushing workers, caregivers, or sufferers beyond safety.
Sense finish, bring to an end, consume
Definition finish, bring to an end, consume
References Psalm 59:13
Why it matters The prayer seeks the end of violent evil under God's wrath.
Cross-language bridge 1 link · View in lexicon
Pastoral Entry
חֵמָה can denote heat, fury, rage, or wrath. It is used for human anger as well as for the Lord’s judicial anger, so the noun itself does not guarantee that the response is righteous, measured, or divine. Context and subject determine whether it describes Haman’s enraged pride, destructive human fury, or God’s announced judgment against covenant rebellion and injustice.
In prophetic judgment texts, חֵמָה communicates the intensity of the Lord’s opposition to sin. Ezekiel 5:15, Isaiah 42:25, and Jeremiah 30:23-24 place the word within announced acts of judgment, while Psalm 78:38 praises God for restraining his fury in compassion. These passages should be read within their covenant settings: divine wrath is neither irritability nor an impersonal force, and its justice is established by the surrounding scriptural claims rather than by the noun’s heat imagery alone.
For teaching, חֵמָה helps resist a sentimental account of God that treats evil as morally inconsequential. It also warns against projecting sinful human rage onto God. The same word can describe Haman’s self-serving anger in Esther 3:5, so teachers must distinguish the creaturely misuse of fury from the Lord’s holy judgment by attending to each narrative and prophetic context.
The New Testament speaks directly of God’s wrath and Christ’s saving work, but those connections should be made from New Testament texts rather than by claiming that the cross literally “absorbs” this Hebrew lexeme.
Sense wrath, heat, fury
Definition wrath, heat, fury
References Psalm 59:13
Why it matters God's wrath is judicial response to violent, arrogant wickedness.
Pastoral Entry
יָדַע is a very common Hebrew verb meaning to know, recognize, understand, learn, experience, acknowledge, or make known, with other senses determined by stem and context. The local Old Testament index currently counts about 953 uses. Its range includes factual knowledge, practical skill, recognition, acquaintance, sexual relations, God’s knowledge of people, and people’s knowledge of the Lord. No single contrast between “cognitive” and “relational” knowing explains every occurrence.
Genesis 4:1 uses the verb idiomatically for sexual relations between Adam and Eve. That intimate use demonstrates the word’s range but does not make intimacy the core meaning of every יָדַע. Jeremiah 1:5 says the Lord knew Jeremiah before forming him and appointed him as a prophet; the verse concerns God’s prior knowledge and choice, not a prophetic encounter Jeremiah experienced before birth.
Ezekiel repeatedly says people will know that the Lord is God as they witness his acts of judgment or restoration. Jeremiah 31:34 promises that all members of the new covenant will know the Lord because he will forgive their iniquity. Hosea can join knowledge of God with covenant loyalty, obedience, and rejection of instruction. These passages give knowing God relational and covenantal dimensions without excluding true teaching or accurate knowledge.
For teaching, יָדַע helps congregations distinguish knowing facts, recognizing God’s acts, possessing skill, and living in covenant acknowledgment of the Lord. The immediate object and construction determine the sense. Christian application may trace Jeremiah 31 and other promises through the New Testament’s explicit use rather than claiming that the verb itself defines eternal life or guarantees unmediated knowledge.
Sense know
Definition know
References Psalm 59:13
Why it matters The purpose of judgment is revelatory: people must know God rules.
Pastoral Entry
H4910 is a Hebrew verb for ruling, governing, exercising dominion, or holding authority over a people, territory, activity, or created sphere. Second Samuel 23:3 describes the ruler over people as ruling with justice and in the fear of God, giving moral content to the office. First Chronicles 29:12 confesses that the Lord rules over all and possesses power to exalt and strengthen.
Genesis 1:18 assigns the lights to preside over day and night, an ordered function within creation rather than personal sovereignty. Other passages narrate kings who rule as they please, oppressed communities ruled harshly, and disputed requests for dynastic government. H4910 opens authority, public responsibility, creaturely dominion, and God's final sovereignty.
It corrects both anarchic suspicion of every form of governance and the claim that possession of power proves divine favor, moral competence, or entitlement to control another person's conscience.
Sense rule, govern, have dominion
Definition rule, govern, have dominion
References Psalm 59:13
Why it matters God's kingship is the public conclusion David wants judgment to display.
Sense Jacob, Israel
Definition Jacob, Israel
References Psalm 59:13
Why it matters The covenant people are the central setting for God's manifested rule.
Cross-language bridge 3 links · View in lexicon
Sense ends of the earth
Definition ends of the earth
References Psalm 59:13
Why it matters The psalm expands from David's house to worldwide knowledge of God's reign.
Pastoral Entry
H3885 means to lodge or remain, especially overnight, and in another recurring sense to grumble or complain. In Gen. 19. 2, Lot offers travelers washing, shelter, and an overnight stay rather than leaving them in the square. In Exod. 15. 24, the people grumble when they lack drinkable water. In Lev. 19. 13, an employer must not let a hired worker's wages remain unpaid overnight.
H3885 opens teaching on hospitality, temporary shelter, legitimate material need, distrustful complaint, timely pay, guarded service, and thoughts allowed to remain. It does not condemn every lament, excuse wage theft, or require hosts to ignore safety. Its complaint sense must be heard alongside the concrete needs and covenant story named in each wilderness episode.
Sense spend the night, lodge
Definition spend the night, lodge
References Psalm 59:15
Why it matters The enemies' restless wandering contrasts with David's settled refuge in God.
Pastoral Entry
אָכַל (akal) is the Hebrew verb for eating — one of the most theologically freighted acts in Scripture, appearing 815 times. The first prohibition in the Bible concerns akal (Gen 2:17: do not eat from that tree). The first sin in the Bible is akal (Gen 3:6: she took and ate). The covenant meals of the OT involve akal before YHWH. The fire that consumes sacrifices is akal. And the eschatological vision of Isaiah 25 is a great meal — akal at the table of YHWH on his holy mountain. In many of Scripture's theologically significant meals, eating is more than biological; it carries relational, moral, or covenantal weight.
Genesis 2:16-17 sets the akal frame for all of human history: 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat (akal tokhal), but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat (lo tokhal).' The permission is vast (every tree, freely); the prohibition is single and specific. Genesis 3:6 then gives the transgression: 'She took of its fruit and ate (vatokhal), and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate (vayokhal).' The entire fall narrative is concentrated in two instances of akal. What was eaten with permission (vayokhal, Gen 2:16) becomes the pattern for the one act of eating done without permission (vatokhal, Gen 3:6).
Deuteronomy 12 develops the theology of sacral akal — eating in the presence of YHWH at the chosen place: 'There you shall eat (akaltem) before YHWH your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which YHWH your God has blessed you' (Deut 12:7). The meal at the sanctuary is the redemptive reversal of the meal in the garden: eating with YHWH in the right place, of the right food, with joy — a re-ordered akal in the presence of the one who set the original akal-boundaries.
Exodus 3:2 uses akal for the fire that consumes without destroying: the bush burned with fire but 'the bush was not consumed' (lo ukal). The same verb governs the fire of holiness that purifies rather than annihilates. The Levitical fire that akal the sacrifice (Lev 9:24, fire from before YHWH came out and consumed/akal the burnt offering) is the holy akal that transforms the offering into acceptable worship.
Isaiah 25:6-8 is the eschatological akal: 'On this mountain YHWH of hosts will make for all peoples a feast (mishteh) of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine.' The akal of the end is the meal that reverses all the wrong eating of history — communion with YHWH at his table, on his mountain, for all peoples.
For the preacher, אָכַל (akal) asks: what are you eating and with whom? Every akal in the OT maps onto the primal distinction between eating in the right place, of the right thing, before YHWH, and eating the forbidden thing apart from YHWH.
Sense eat, consume
Definition eat, consume
References Psalm 59:15
Why it matters Their hunger imagery portrays unsatisfied evil.
Cross-language bridge 1 link · View in lexicon
Pastoral Entry
H7891, šiyr, is a Hebrew verb for singing. Its contexts make singing a voiced response that can remember deliverance, praise the Lord, proclaim salvation, teach a community, accompany ordered worship, or carry grief that ordinary speech cannot contain. Moses and Israel sing after rescue at the sea. Deborah and Barak sing about the Lord's action amid national danger. Psalms call all the earth to sing and declare His salvation, while another psalm asks how the Lord's song can be sung under the demands of captors. The action is embodied and communal, but it can also rise from one suffering voice.
Biblical singing is not limited to cheerful mood. Psalm 13 moves from “How long?” to trust and song without pretending the distress never existed. Jeremiah 20 places a call to sing beside persecution and, immediately afterward, a curse on the day of his birth. Psalm 137 refuses to turn Zion's song into entertainment for tormentors. These passages protect lament, silence, and protest from the demand to perform happiness. They also show that singing can sustain memory and faith when circumstances remain painful. A congregation should therefore make room for praise, confession, sorrow, thanksgiving, longing, and hope rather than treating one emotional register as the measure of faith.
The object and content of song matter. Psalm 96 joins singing to proclaiming the Lord's salvation among all peoples. Isaiah 42 summons coastlands, deserts, villages, and mountaintops into praise of the Lord who announces new things. Jeremiah sings because God rescues the needy from evildoers. Appointed singers in Chronicles serve ordered public worship, yet their presence before an army does not turn music into a technique that guarantees victory. Faithful singing responds to who God is and what He has done; it does not manipulate Him, prove a singer's spirituality, or excuse injustice. Musical skill can serve the community, but neither vocal ability, cultural style, emotional display, nor platform access determines a person's worth before God.
Sense sing
Definition sing
References Psalm 59:16
Why it matters David's final response is worship rather than retaliation.
Pastoral Entry
H1242 names morning, the break and early portion of the day. Genesis 1:5 joins evening and morning in the first created day. Exodus 16:21 describes Israel gathering manna every morning before the sun's heat melts it, placing daily provision inside a repeated practice of reception and restraint. Lamentations 3:23 confesses that the Lord's compassions are new every morning from within a poem of affliction, not from a life without grief.
Psalm 30:5 contrasts a night of weeping with morning joy while the psalm remembers deliverance from a particular crisis. The noun can mark time, renewed activity, worship, judgment, relief, or poetic hope. Morning does not automatically symbolize blessing, and its hopeful uses are not promises that every sorrow ends overnight. H1242 helps teachers speak about daily dependence and renewed mercy without reducing faith to a cheerful routine.
Morning may bring joy, another measure of provision, difficult work, continued mourning, or the first safe moment to seek help. Its pastoral force comes from God's faithfulness within real days, not from denying chronic pain or blaming those whose mornings remain hard.
Sense morning
Definition morning
References Psalm 59:16
Why it matters Morning marks praise after the enemy's threatening night.
Sense refuge, place of escape
Definition refuge, place of escape
References Psalm 59:16
Why it matters God is the place of escape in trouble, not merely the giver of escape.
Pastoral Entry
The Hebrew form tsar can describe what is narrow or constricting and, as a noun, the distress or adversary that presses a person hard. Some passages speak about an enemy; others name the lived pressure created by danger, grief, judgment, or deprivation. The word does not tell the interpreter whether every hardship is punishment, whether every opponent is equally guilty, or whether a sufferer caused the crisis.
Psalms use it in honest cries for deliverance, while narratives and prophets identify real hostile agents. Responsible teaching keeps the pressure, sufferer, adversary, and covenant setting visible. It invites prayer and practical refuge without minimizing violence, blaming victims, or promising that faithful people will never experience constriction before God's final deliverance.
Sense distress, trouble, adversary pressure
Definition distress, trouble, adversary pressure
References Psalm 59:16
Why it matters The psalm's praise is formed within distress, not after a trouble-free life.
Pastoral Entry
The Hebrew verb zamar commonly means to make music, sing praise, or celebrate in song, often with instrumental accompaniment. It appears especially in Psalms, where worshipers sing about the Lord's name, steadfast love, justice, saving acts, kingship, and care for creation. Judges places the verb in Deborah's victory song, while Samuel, Chronicles, and Isaiah use it in public confession and praise.
The verb describes an embodied musical action, but it does not guarantee that every performance is sincere, spiritually superior, artistically excellent, or pleasing to God apart from the truth being confessed and the life surrounding it. Zamar also does not require one instrument, volume, genre, emotional response, or worship style. Lament, silence, disability, grief, and limited musical ability do not mark deficient faith.
Responsible teaching lets each song's content name the reason for praise, honors musicians and congregational participation, and refuses emotional manipulation, celebrity culture, or the claim that repeated sound produces divine presence or power.
Sense sing praise, make music
Definition sing praise, make music
References Psalm 59:17
Why it matters The psalm ends with direct praise to God as strength and fortress.
Sense God of my covenant love
Definition God of my covenant love
References Psalm 59:17
Why it matters David's final description of God personalizes covenant love as the basis of worship.
Lexicon data: MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML (CC0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (CC BY 4.0) · Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon (CC BY 4.0) · STEPBible Data (CC BY 4.0) · Full details
| v.1 | H516Hiphil · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.10 | H8104שָׁמַרQal · Cohortative |
| v.12 | H7911שָׁכַחQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.13 | H5608סָפַרPiel · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.14 | H3615כָּלָהPiel · Imperative · ImperativeH3615כָּלָהPiel · Imperative · ImperativeH4910מָשַׁלQal · Participle |
| v.15 | H1993הָמָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.16 | H7646שָׂבַעQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.17 | H7891שִׁירQal · Imperfect · Indicative/cohortativeH1961הָיָהQal · Perfect · IndicativeH6862צַרQal · Perfect · Indicative |
| v.18 | H2167זָמַרPiel · Imperfect · Indicative/cohortative |
| v.4 | H693אָרַבQal · Perfect · IndicativeH1481גּוּרQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.6 | H2603חָנַןQal · Imperfect · JussiveH898בָּגַדQal · Participle |
| v.7 | H7725שׁוּבQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH1993הָמָהQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
| v.8 | H8085שָׁמַעQal · Participle |
| v.9 | H7832שָׂחַקQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussiveH3932לָעַגQal · Imperfect · Indicative/jussive |
Aspect in Hebrew is grammatical form, not tense. Perfect = completed action; Imperfect = incomplete/ongoing. Stem modifies action type (Qal=simple, Niphal=passive, Piel=intensive).
Morphology: OSHB WLC (Open Scriptures, CC BY 4.0) · STEPBible TEHMC (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0)
Theological Argument
Psalm 59 argues that violent, deceitful enemies are not ultimate because the Lord hears what they deny He hears, laughs at arrogant nations, preserves His servant, and judges publicly so His rule is known. Therefore, the believer may move from urgent lament to confident praise without pretending the danger has disappeared.
The chapter moves from rescue plea, to enemy exposure, to confidence in God's strength and covenant love, to judgment prayer for public revelation, and finally to morning praise.
- 1.God's servant may cry for deliverance when surrounded by violent enemies.
- 2.Unjust suffering is rightly brought before the God who sees motives, actions, and accusations.
- 3.Wicked speech is not hidden from God, even when the wicked assume no one hears.
- 4.The LORD's sovereign rule relativizes enemy power and anchors patient waiting.
- 5.Divine judgment has a revelatory purpose: the nations must know God rules.
- 6.The final posture of faith is not endless fixation on enemies but praise for God's strength and steadfast love.
Theological Focus
- God as fortress and strength
- Divine hearing and accountability
- Steadfast love under threat
- Public justice and worldwide rule
- Prayer under unjust persecution
- Divine omniscience and accountability
- Divine justice
- Covenant love
- Providential preservation
- Human sin and violent speech
- God's universal reign
- Prayer and lament
Covenant Significance
Psalm 59 locates David's personal danger within God's covenant commitment to preserve His servant and reveal His rule. The reference to God ruling in Jacob keeps the prayer covenantally grounded, while the phrase 'to the ends of the earth' expands the horizon beyond private rescue.
- Davidic preservation - The Lord preserves David from murderous opposition during the vulnerable period before his kingship is fully established.
- Covenant love as protection - Steadfast love is the basis for confidence that God will come to meet His servant in danger.
- Jacob and the nations - God's rule is confessed both in relation to Jacob and to the ends of the earth, keeping Israel's covenant story and worldwide divine kingship together.
- Covenantal judgment - The prayer for judgment is not arbitrary anger but a plea that God uphold righteousness and expose treacherous violence.
Canonical Connections
The narrative describes Saul sending men to David's house to watch and kill him, the setting named in Psalm 59's superscription.
Psalm 2 also presents nations and rulers in rebellion while the Lord laughs and establishes His rule.
Psalm 7 shares the pattern of appeal for refuge, protest against unjust accusation, and confidence in God as righteous judge.
Davidic language of the Lord as strength, fortress, deliverer, and refuge parallels Psalm 59's final confession.
Psalm 56 also arises from David under enemy pressure and confesses trust in God amid fear and hostile words.
Psalm 57 shares the Miktam/refuge cluster, the threat of predatory enemies, and the movement toward exalted praise among the nations.
Psalm 58's concern with unjust power and divine judgment prepares for Psalm 59's prayer against violent watchers and lying speech.
Psalm 60 follows by expanding the concern for divine help from David's personal threat to national distress and military need.
Isaiah 59 similarly exposes violent hands, lying lips, and crooked speech as evidence of sin before God.
Jesus teaches the blessedness of the persecuted and commands love for enemies, guarding Christian use of imprecatory prayer from personal vengeance.
Jesus, the Son of David, is surrounded by hostile men at night and refuses violent self-defense, embodying perfect trust under unjust arrest.
Paul's command to leave vengeance to God provides a New Testament guardrail for praying Psalm 59 faithfully.
Paul names harm, entrusts repayment to the Lord, and confesses the Lord's rescue and heavenly preservation in a pattern resonant with Psalm 59.
The final public praise over God's true and just judgments completes the trajectory of worshipers trusting God to judge evil and display His reign.
Canon-Wide Connections
Cross-reference data: OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Psalm 59 clarifies the gospel by showing why sinners need more than escape from enemies: evil is violent, deceptive, speech-driven, and accountable before God. The gospel announces that in Christ, God both judges sin and becomes the refuge of those who trust Him. The final movement from threatened night to morning praise is not self-generated optimism; it rests on God's steadfast love, ultimately displayed through the death and resurrection of the Son of David.
- Human evil is accountable - The enemies' question, 'Who can hear us?' exposes practical unbelief, but God hears every word and judges rightly.
- God is refuge for the threatened - David's safety rests not in his own power but in God as strength, fortress, and steadfast love.
- Judgment and mercy are not enemies - The same God who judges violent evil is the God whose steadfast love becomes the believer's song.
- The gospel gives morning praise after deepest night - The resurrection of Christ gives final assurance that violent night does not have the last word for God's people.
Primary Emphasis
Psalm 59 contributes to the larger canonical portrait of the righteous Davidic sufferer surrounded by violent enemies, falsely threatened, and preserved by God. It does not directly predict a single event in Christ's passion, but it deepens the scriptural pattern that finds its fullest righteous-sufferer expression in the Son of David, who entrusted Himself to the Father under unjust hostility.
Chapter Contribution
Psalm 59 argues that violent, deceitful enemies are not ultimate because the Lord hears what they deny He hears, laughs at arrogant nations, preserves His servant, and judges publicly so His rule is known. Therefore, the believer may move from urgent lament to confident praise without pretending the danger has disappeared.
Jesus is the truly sinless Son targeted by conspiracy and violence.
Jesus fulfills the royal horizon through resurrection, exaltation, and final judgment.
Jesus endures hostile words and violent encirclement and is vindicated in resurrection.
The gospel moves from the darkness of death to the morning vindication of the risen Son.
The God of Israel remains faithful to His holy name and covenant purposes.
God’s people are called to remember deliverance, judgment, and the identity of their ruler.
God rescues His servants from enemies, evildoers, and bloodthirsty plots.
God’s laughter communicates sovereign judgment rather than unstable or cruel emotion.
God judges persistent violence, falsehood, cursing, and pride with fitting severity.
God hears threatening speech and sees prowling enemies even when they assume secrecy.
Immediate destruction may be withheld so judgment can instruct and reveal.
God has proven Himself a fortress in the day of distress.
God governs night, morning, enemies, escape, shelter, and the continuation of life.
The Lord of hosts rules every army, ruler, people, and security threat.
God’s loyal covenant love remains the central ground of morning praise.
God supplies the power by which the threatened worshiper endures and praises.
God’s wrath is holy opposition to entrenched evil rather than uncontrolled rage.
The final destiny of God’s people is not enemy noise but everlasting praise in secure divine presence.
Persistent unrepentant evil will be fully removed and God’s rule openly acknowledged.
God judges persistent treachery while granting mercy in Christ to repentant enemies.
No conspiracy or human violence can cancel God’s final verdict or the believer’s resurrection life in Christ.
God provides secure refuge beyond the final reach of hostile power.
The distressed servant finds shelter in God amid real danger.
The Lord protects the covenant community while bringing proud aggressors down.
The threatened worshiper’s true power is found in God rather than personal retaliation.
The covenant God actively governs His people and judges their enemies.
The wicked imagine that hidden or unchallenged speech escapes divine hearing.
Predatory appetite and complaint portray evil as unsatisfied and disordered.
Lethal planning and bloodthirsty action stand under God’s condemnation.
The threatened worshiper may place severe demands for justice before God.
Entrusting judgment to God does not authorize private vengeance.
Arrogance creates the conditions by which evildoers are caught.
God can destabilize coordinated evil and prevent hostile power from settling securely.
Faithful people may endure surveillance, hunger-driven hostility, and sleepless danger.
A fallen person may truthfully deny guilt in a particular accusation or conflict.
The church may embody fortress-like care through practical protection and steadfast presence.
Words, curses, and lies reveal the heart and become evidence in divine judgment.
God’s authority extends to the ends of the earth and is not territorially confined.
Praise may arise before every hostile pattern has visibly ceased.
God hears the violent words that sinners assume no one hears and holds them accountable.
The Lord judges violent enemies and reveals His rule publicly.
God's steadfast love is the ground of David's confidence and praise amid threat.
The Lord protects His servant under murderous opposition and preserves His purposes.
The psalm treats evil words as morally serious and destructive, not merely expressive.
God rules in Jacob and to the ends of the earth, so local injustice is never outside His throne's concern.
The psalm validates urgent prayer under threat and directs fear toward God.
Theological exposition and fulfillment
- Psalm 59 forms resilient refuge-faith: the ability to cry for rescue, resist revenge, wait on God, and praise His steadfast love even while enemies still prowl.
Psalm 59 forms resilient refuge-faith: the ability to cry for rescue, resist revenge, wait on God, and praise His steadfast love even while enemies still prowl.
- Bring specific fears to God in prayer rather than vague anxiety.
- Name God as strength and fortress before circumstances feel secure.
- Refuse to answer sword-like speech with sword-like speech.
- Practice morning praise as a deliberate response to night fear.
- Remember that God's justice has a public and missional horizon.
- Psalm 59 warns against violent speech, practical atheism, predatory power, false confidence, and private revenge. It also warns the righteous not to let threat erase worship or make them forget God's worldwide rule.
- The wicked assume no one hears - The phrase 'Who can hear us?' is exposed as delusion before the God who hears every word.
- Speech can become violence - The enemies' mouths and lips are compared to swords, warning that words can function as instruments of destruction.
- Vengeance must be entrusted to God - David prays judgment to God rather than taking unauthorized vengeance into his own hands.
- Fear must not become forgetfulness - The night scene is real, but the morning song is also real because God remains fortress.
- Psalm 59 gives believers permission to curse personal enemies whenever they feel threatened. - The psalm is a covenantal appeal to God as Judge against violent, unjust enemies, not a license for personal vengeance or careless anger.
- David's claim of innocence means he believed he was sinless. - David denies guilt with respect to the accusation and attack in view · he is not claiming absolute sinlessness before God.
- The enemies are only individual opponents with no wider theological significance. - The psalm expands to nations, Jacob, and the ends of the earth, showing that the local crisis participates in the larger issue of God's public rule.
- God's laughter is petty mockery. - God's laughter in this context is judicial derision of arrogant rebellion and violent presumption.
- Morning praise means the danger is already fully removed. - David resolves to praise because of who God is and how God has been his refuge, not because the psalm denies ongoing hostility.
- The dog imagery should be softened into a harmless metaphor. - The imagery intentionally communicates predatory restlessness, hunger, and threat in the city at night.
- Where am I tempted to minimize real danger instead of bringing it honestly before God?
- When I feel watched, accused, or surrounded, do I first seek control, retaliation, escape, or prayer?
- Have I treated destructive words as harmless because they are not physical violence?
- Do I believe God hears what arrogant people think no one hears?
- How can I entrust justice to God without becoming passive toward righteousness?
- What would it look like for morning praise to be ready before the night threat is fully gone?
- Where does this psalm challenge my view of God's rule beyond my immediate crisis?
- Psalm 59 gives language for real fear without surrendering to despair. Bring the full weight of the danger before God and call Him your strength before you feel strong.
- The psalm warns that mouths can be swords. Leaders should neither retaliate in kind nor pretend destructive speech is spiritually harmless.
- Use the psalm to validate the pain of being watched and threatened while guiding the sufferer toward prayer, wise protection, and trust in God's justice.
- Psalm 59 can teach the church to sing not only after rescue but toward rescue, because God is fortress in the night and song in the morning.
- The imprecatory sections should move anger upward to God, not outward into unauthorized vengeance.
- God's laughter in verse 8 corrects the inflated appearance of enemies and nations. Human rage is not ultimate.
- David's prayer that God be known to the ends of the earth reminds the church that God's justice and salvation are never merely private concerns.
The threatened believer learns to bring fear to God before fear becomes lord.
The worshiper gives judgment to God rather than claiming the right to execute personal vengeance.
Praise is cultivated not by denying danger but by remembering God's steadfast love.
The psalm lifts David's personal danger into the larger confession that God rules to the ends of the earth.
C.F. Keil & F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–91) — public domain
The Biblical World
Chapter At A Glance
Psalm 59 moves from urgent rescue from violent watchers, through confidence that God sees and laughs at arrogant nations, into public judgment prayer, and ends with morning praise to the God who is fortress and covenant love.
Psalm 59 locates David's personal danger within God's covenant commitment to preserve His servant and reveal His rule. The reference to God ruling in Jacob keeps the prayer covenantally grounded, while the phrase 'to the ends of the earth' expands the horizon beyond private rescue.
Psalm 59 clarifies the gospel by showing why sinners need more than escape from enemies: evil is violent, deceptive, speech-driven, and accountable before God. The gospel announces that in Christ, God both judges sin and becomes the refuge of those who trust Him. The final movement from threatened night to morning praise is not self-generated optimism; it rests on God's steadfast love, ultimately displayed through the death and resurrection of the Son of David.
Focus Points
- God as fortress and strength
- Divine hearing and accountability
- Steadfast love under threat
- Public justice and worldwide rule
- Prayer under unjust persecution
- Divine omniscience and accountability
- Divine justice
- Covenant love
- Providential preservation
- Human sin and violent speech
- God's universal reign
- Prayer and lament
Biblical Theology
- KingdomTrace the kingdom thread from God's royal rule and promised dominion to the unshakable reign received and secured in Christ.Trace thread →
- Covenant Love and ObedienceTrace the covenant love and obedience theme from God's commanded covenant fidelity to the new-covenant life of walking in truth, love, and obedience through Christ.Trace thread →
- Truth Versus DeceptionTrace the truth versus deception theme from covenant warnings against false word to apostolic discernment that guards the church from lies about Christ.Trace thread →
- Messianic HopeTrace the messianic hope thread from covenant promise and prophetic expectation to the clearer identification of Jesus as the promised ruler, priest, and deliverer.Trace thread →
- Gospel and SufferingThe gospel and suffering belong together because the crucified and risen Christ saves His people not only from sin's guilt, but also teaches them how to endure affliction in union with Him. Suffering is not itself the gospel, yet the gospel gives suffering its truest interpretation by revealing God's holiness, Christ's cross, resurrection hope, and the promise that present affliction will not have the final word. Christian suffering is therefore neither meaningless pain nor automatic evidence of divine displeasure. Where the gospel is central, the church learns to suffer honestly, endure faithfully, comfort wisely, and hope stubbornly in the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Gospel and PerseveranceThe gospel of Jesus Christ not only saves sinners but secures and sustains them to the end. Through union with Christ and the preserving work of God, those who truly belong to Christ continue in faith, repentance, and obedience. Perseverance therefore reveals the enduring power of the cross and resurrection in the life of the believer. The same grace that begins salvation also carries believers forward until the final day of redemption.
- Resurrection-Shaped HopeResurrection-shaped hope is the settled, future-oriented, Christ-grounded confidence that flows from the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and guarantees the final victory of God for His people. It is not vague optimism, emotional positivity, or denial of suffering, but a durable hope anchored in the risen Lord who has conquered death, secured justification, and inaugurated the new creation. Because Christ is risen, Christian ministry, holiness, endurance, and mission are not futile. Resurrection-shaped hope enables the church to labor, suffer, grieve, and persevere without surrendering to despair.
Passages
Chapter opening: Psalms 59:1-5
Psa 59:1-9 First part. As far as Psa 59:4 we recognise strains familiar in the Psalms. The enemies are called מתקוממי as in Job 27:7, cf. Psa 17:7; עזּים as shameless, עזּי פנים or עזּי נפשׁ; as in Isa 56:11, on account of their bold shameless greediness, dogs. On לא in a subordinate clause, vid. , Ewald, §286, g : without there being transgression or sin on my side, which might have caused it.
The suffix (transgression on my part) is similar to Psa 18:24. בּליּ־עון (cf. Job 34:6) is a similar adverbial collateral definition: without there existing any sin, which ought to be punished. The energetic future jeruzûn depicts those who servilely give effect to the king’s evil caprice; they run hither and thither as if attacking and put themselves in position.
הכונן = התכונן, like the Hithpa . הכּסּה, Pro 26:26, the Hothpa . הכּבּס, Lev 13:55. , and the Hithpa. נכּפּר, Deu 21:8. Surrounded by such a band of assassins, David is like one besieged, who sighs for succour; and he calls upon Jahve, who seems to be sleeping and inclined to abandon him, with that bold עוּרה לקראתי וּראה, to awake to meet him, i. e. , to join him with His help like a relieving army, and to convince Himself from personal observation of the extreme danger in which His charge finds himself.
The continuation was obliged to be expressed by ואתּה, because a special appeal to God interposes between עוּרה and הקיצה. In the emphatic “Thou,” however, after it has been once expressed, is implied the conditional character of the deliverance by the absolute One. And each of the divine names made use of in this lengthy invocation, which corresponds to the deep anxiety of the poet, is a challenge, so to speak, to the ability and willingness, the power and promise of God.
The juxtaposition Jahve Elohim Tsebaoth (occurring, besides this instance, in Psa 80:5, 20; Psa 84:9), which is peculiar to the Elohimic Psalms, is to be explained by the consideration that Elohim had become a proper name like Jahve , and that the designation Jahve Tsebaoth , by the insertion of Elohim in accordance with the style of the Elohimic Psalms, is made still more imposing and solemn; and now צבאות is a genitive dependent not merely upon יהוה but upon יהוה אלהים (similar to Psa 56:1 , Isa 28:1 ; Symbolae , p. 15).
אלהי ישׂראל is in apposition to this threefold name of God. The poet evidently reckons himself as belonging to an Israel from which he excludes his enemies, viz. , the true Israel which is in reality the people of God. Among the heathen, against whom the poet invokes God’s interposition, are included the heathen-minded in Israel; this at least is the view which brings about this extension of the prayer.
Also in connection with the words און כּל־בּגדי the poet, in fact, has chiefly before his mind those who are immediately round about him and thus disposed. It is those who act treacherously from extreme moral nothingness and worthlessness (און genit. epexeg .) The music, as Sela directs, here becomes more boisterous; it gives intensity to the strong cry for the judgment of God; and the first unfolding of thought of this Michtam is here brought to a close.
The second begins by again taking up the description of the movements of the enemy which was begun in Psa 59:4, Psa 59:5. We see at a glance how here Psa 59:7 coincides with Psa 59:5, and Psa 59:8 with Psa 59:4, and Psa 59:9 with Psa 59:6. Hence the imprecatory rendering of the futures of Psa 59:7 is not for a moment to be entertained. By day the emissaries of Saul do not venture to carry out their plot, and David naturally does not run into their hands.
They therefore come back in the evening, and that evening after evening (cf. Job 24:14); they snarl or howl like dogs (המה, used elsewhere of the growling of the bear and the cooing of the dove; it is distinct from נבח, Arab. nbb , nbḥ , to bark, and כלב, to yelp), because they do not want to betray themselves by loud barking, and still cannot altogether conceal their vexation and rage; and they go their rounds in the city (like סובב בּעיר, Sol 3:2, cf.
supra Psa 55:11), in order to cut off their victim from flight, and perhaps, what would be very welcome to them, to run against him in the darkness. The further description in Psa 59:8 follows them on this patrol. What they belch out or foam out is to be inferred from the fact that swords are in their lips, which they, as it were, draw so soon as they merely move their lips.
Their mouth overflows with murderous thoughts and with slanders concerning David, by which they justify their murderous greed to themselves as if there were no one, viz. , no God, who heard it. But Jahve, from whom nothing, as with men, can be kept secret, laughs at them, just as He makes a mockery of all heathen, to whom this murderous band, which fears the light and in unworthy of the Israelitish name, is compared.
This is the primary passage to Psa 37:13; Psa 2:4; for Ps 59 is perhaps the oldest of the Davidic Psalms that have come down to us, and therefore also the earliest monument of Israelitish poetry in which the divine name Jahve Tsebaoth occurs; and the chronicler, knowing that it was the time of Samuel and David that brought it into use, uses this name only in the life of David. Just as this strophe opened in Psa 59:7 with a distich that recurs in Psa 59:15, so it also closes now in Psa 59:10 with a distich that recurs below in v.
18, and that is to be amended according to the text of that passage. For all attempts to understand עזּי as being genuine prove its inaccuracy. With the old versions it has to be read עזּי; but as for the rest, אשׁמרה must be retained in accordance with the usual variation found in such refrains: my strength, Thee will I regard (1Sa 26:15; observe, 2Sa 11:16), or upon Thee will I wait (cf.
ל, Psa 130:6); i. e. , in the consciousness of my own feebleness, tranquil and resigned, I will look for Thine interposition on my behalf.
Psa 59:1-9 First part. As far as Psa 59:4 we recognise strains familiar in the Psalms. The enemies are called מתקוממי as in Job 27:7, cf. Psa 17:7; עזּים as shameless, עזּי פנים or עזּי נפשׁ; as in Isa 56:11, on account of their bold shameless greediness, dogs. On לא in a subordinate clause, vid. , Ewald, §286, g : without there being transgression or sin on my side, which might have caused it.
The suffix (transgression on my part) is similar to Psa 18:24. בּליּ־עון (cf. Job 34:6) is a similar adverbial collateral definition: without there existing any sin, which ought to be punished. The energetic future jeruzûn depicts those who servilely give effect to the king’s evil caprice; they run hither and thither as if attacking and put themselves in position.
הכונן = התכונן, like the Hithpa . הכּסּה, Pro 26:26, the Hothpa . הכּבּס, Lev 13:55. , and the Hithpa. נכּפּר, Deu 21:8. Surrounded by such a band of assassins, David is like one besieged, who sighs for succour; and he calls upon Jahve, who seems to be sleeping and inclined to abandon him, with that bold עוּרה לקראתי וּראה, to awake to meet him, i. e. , to join him with His help like a relieving army, and to convince Himself from personal observation of the extreme danger in which His charge finds himself.
The continuation was obliged to be expressed by ואתּה, because a special appeal to God interposes between עוּרה and הקיצה. In the emphatic “Thou,” however, after it has been once expressed, is implied the conditional character of the deliverance by the absolute One. And each of the divine names made use of in this lengthy invocation, which corresponds to the deep anxiety of the poet, is a challenge, so to speak, to the ability and willingness, the power and promise of God.
The juxtaposition Jahve Elohim Tsebaoth (occurring, besides this instance, in Psa 80:5, 20; Psa 84:9), which is peculiar to the Elohimic Psalms, is to be explained by the consideration that Elohim had become a proper name like Jahve , and that the designation Jahve Tsebaoth , by the insertion of Elohim in accordance with the style of the Elohimic Psalms, is made still more imposing and solemn; and now צבאות is a genitive dependent not merely upon יהוה but upon יהוה אלהים (similar to Psa 56:1 , Isa 28:1 ; Symbolae , p. 15).
אלהי ישׂראל is in apposition to this threefold name of God. The poet evidently reckons himself as belonging to an Israel from which he excludes his enemies, viz. , the true Israel which is in reality the people of God. Among the heathen, against whom the poet invokes God’s interposition, are included the heathen-minded in Israel; this at least is the view which brings about this extension of the prayer.
Also in connection with the words און כּל־בּגדי the poet, in fact, has chiefly before his mind those who are immediately round about him and thus disposed. It is those who act treacherously from extreme moral nothingness and worthlessness (און genit. epexeg .) The music, as Sela directs, here becomes more boisterous; it gives intensity to the strong cry for the judgment of God; and the first unfolding of thought of this Michtam is here brought to a close.
The second begins by again taking up the description of the movements of the enemy which was begun in Psa 59:4, Psa 59:5. We see at a glance how here Psa 59:7 coincides with Psa 59:5, and Psa 59:8 with Psa 59:4, and Psa 59:9 with Psa 59:6. Hence the imprecatory rendering of the futures of Psa 59:7 is not for a moment to be entertained. By day the emissaries of Saul do not venture to carry out their plot, and David naturally does not run into their hands.
They therefore come back in the evening, and that evening after evening (cf. Job 24:14); they snarl or howl like dogs (המה, used elsewhere of the growling of the bear and the cooing of the dove; it is distinct from נבח, Arab. nbb , nbḥ , to bark, and כלב, to yelp), because they do not want to betray themselves by loud barking, and still cannot altogether conceal their vexation and rage; and they go their rounds in the city (like סובב בּעיר, Sol 3:2, cf.
supra Psa 55:11), in order to cut off their victim from flight, and perhaps, what would be very welcome to them, to run against him in the darkness. The further description in Psa 59:8 follows them on this patrol. What they belch out or foam out is to be inferred from the fact that swords are in their lips, which they, as it were, draw so soon as they merely move their lips.
Their mouth overflows with murderous thoughts and with slanders concerning David, by which they justify their murderous greed to themselves as if there were no one, viz. , no God, who heard it. But Jahve, from whom nothing, as with men, can be kept secret, laughs at them, just as He makes a mockery of all heathen, to whom this murderous band, which fears the light and in unworthy of the Israelitish name, is compared.
This is the primary passage to Psa 37:13; Psa 2:4; for Ps 59 is perhaps the oldest of the Davidic Psalms that have come down to us, and therefore also the earliest monument of Israelitish poetry in which the divine name Jahve Tsebaoth occurs; and the chronicler, knowing that it was the time of Samuel and David that brought it into use, uses this name only in the life of David. Just as this strophe opened in Psa 59:7 with a distich that recurs in Psa 59:15, so it also closes now in Psa 59:10 with a distich that recurs below in v.
18, and that is to be amended according to the text of that passage. For all attempts to understand עזּי as being genuine prove its inaccuracy. With the old versions it has to be read עזּי; but as for the rest, אשׁמרה must be retained in accordance with the usual variation found in such refrains: my strength, Thee will I regard (1Sa 26:15; observe, 2Sa 11:16), or upon Thee will I wait (cf.
ל, Psa 130:6); i. e. , in the consciousness of my own feebleness, tranquil and resigned, I will look for Thine interposition on my behalf.
Psa 59:1-9 First part. As far as Psa 59:4 we recognise strains familiar in the Psalms. The enemies are called מתקוממי as in Job 27:7, cf. Psa 17:7; עזּים as shameless, עזּי פנים or עזּי נפשׁ; as in Isa 56:11, on account of their bold shameless greediness, dogs. On לא in a subordinate clause, vid. , Ewald, §286, g : without there being transgression or sin on my side, which might have caused it.
The suffix (transgression on my part) is similar to Psa 18:24. בּליּ־עון (cf. Job 34:6) is a similar adverbial collateral definition: without there existing any sin, which ought to be punished. The energetic future jeruzûn depicts those who servilely give effect to the king’s evil caprice; they run hither and thither as if attacking and put themselves in position.
הכונן = התכונן, like the Hithpa . הכּסּה, Pro 26:26, the Hothpa . הכּבּס, Lev 13:55. , and the Hithpa. נכּפּר, Deu 21:8. Surrounded by such a band of assassins, David is like one besieged, who sighs for succour; and he calls upon Jahve, who seems to be sleeping and inclined to abandon him, with that bold עוּרה לקראתי וּראה, to awake to meet him, i. e. , to join him with His help like a relieving army, and to convince Himself from personal observation of the extreme danger in which His charge finds himself.
The continuation was obliged to be expressed by ואתּה, because a special appeal to God interposes between עוּרה and הקיצה. In the emphatic “Thou,” however, after it has been once expressed, is implied the conditional character of the deliverance by the absolute One. And each of the divine names made use of in this lengthy invocation, which corresponds to the deep anxiety of the poet, is a challenge, so to speak, to the ability and willingness, the power and promise of God.
The juxtaposition Jahve Elohim Tsebaoth (occurring, besides this instance, in Psa 80:5, 20; Psa 84:9), which is peculiar to the Elohimic Psalms, is to be explained by the consideration that Elohim had become a proper name like Jahve , and that the designation Jahve Tsebaoth , by the insertion of Elohim in accordance with the style of the Elohimic Psalms, is made still more imposing and solemn; and now צבאות is a genitive dependent not merely upon יהוה but upon יהוה אלהים (similar to Psa 56:1 , Isa 28:1 ; Symbolae , p. 15).
אלהי ישׂראל is in apposition to this threefold name of God. The poet evidently reckons himself as belonging to an Israel from which he excludes his enemies, viz. , the true Israel which is in reality the people of God. Among the heathen, against whom the poet invokes God’s interposition, are included the heathen-minded in Israel; this at least is the view which brings about this extension of the prayer.
Also in connection with the words און כּל־בּגדי the poet, in fact, has chiefly before his mind those who are immediately round about him and thus disposed. It is those who act treacherously from extreme moral nothingness and worthlessness (און genit. epexeg .) The music, as Sela directs, here becomes more boisterous; it gives intensity to the strong cry for the judgment of God; and the first unfolding of thought of this Michtam is here brought to a close.
The second begins by again taking up the description of the movements of the enemy which was begun in Psa 59:4, Psa 59:5. We see at a glance how here Psa 59:7 coincides with Psa 59:5, and Psa 59:8 with Psa 59:4, and Psa 59:9 with Psa 59:6. Hence the imprecatory rendering of the futures of Psa 59:7 is not for a moment to be entertained. By day the emissaries of Saul do not venture to carry out their plot, and David naturally does not run into their hands.
They therefore come back in the evening, and that evening after evening (cf. Job 24:14); they snarl or howl like dogs (המה, used elsewhere of the growling of the bear and the cooing of the dove; it is distinct from נבח, Arab. nbb , nbḥ , to bark, and כלב, to yelp), because they do not want to betray themselves by loud barking, and still cannot altogether conceal their vexation and rage; and they go their rounds in the city (like סובב בּעיר, Sol 3:2, cf.
supra Psa 55:11), in order to cut off their victim from flight, and perhaps, what would be very welcome to them, to run against him in the darkness. The further description in Psa 59:8 follows them on this patrol. What they belch out or foam out is to be inferred from the fact that swords are in their lips, which they, as it were, draw so soon as they merely move their lips.
Their mouth overflows with murderous thoughts and with slanders concerning David, by which they justify their murderous greed to themselves as if there were no one, viz. , no God, who heard it. But Jahve, from whom nothing, as with men, can be kept secret, laughs at them, just as He makes a mockery of all heathen, to whom this murderous band, which fears the light and in unworthy of the Israelitish name, is compared.
This is the primary passage to Psa 37:13; Psa 2:4; for Ps 59 is perhaps the oldest of the Davidic Psalms that have come down to us, and therefore also the earliest monument of Israelitish poetry in which the divine name Jahve Tsebaoth occurs; and the chronicler, knowing that it was the time of Samuel and David that brought it into use, uses this name only in the life of David. Just as this strophe opened in Psa 59:7 with a distich that recurs in Psa 59:15, so it also closes now in Psa 59:10 with a distich that recurs below in v.
18, and that is to be amended according to the text of that passage. For all attempts to understand עזּי as being genuine prove its inaccuracy. With the old versions it has to be read עזּי; but as for the rest, אשׁמרה must be retained in accordance with the usual variation found in such refrains: my strength, Thee will I regard (1Sa 26:15; observe, 2Sa 11:16), or upon Thee will I wait (cf.
ל, Psa 130:6); i. e. , in the consciousness of my own feebleness, tranquil and resigned, I will look for Thine interposition on my behalf.
Psa 59:1-9 First part. As far as Psa 59:4 we recognise strains familiar in the Psalms. The enemies are called מתקוממי as in Job 27:7, cf. Psa 17:7; עזּים as shameless, עזּי פנים or עזּי נפשׁ; as in Isa 56:11, on account of their bold shameless greediness, dogs. On לא in a subordinate clause, vid. , Ewald, §286, g : without there being transgression or sin on my side, which might have caused it.
The suffix (transgression on my part) is similar to Psa 18:24. בּליּ־עון (cf. Job 34:6) is a similar adverbial collateral definition: without there existing any sin, which ought to be punished. The energetic future jeruzûn depicts those who servilely give effect to the king’s evil caprice; they run hither and thither as if attacking and put themselves in position.
הכונן = התכונן, like the Hithpa . הכּסּה, Pro 26:26, the Hothpa . הכּבּס, Lev 13:55. , and the Hithpa. נכּפּר, Deu 21:8. Surrounded by such a band of assassins, David is like one besieged, who sighs for succour; and he calls upon Jahve, who seems to be sleeping and inclined to abandon him, with that bold עוּרה לקראתי וּראה, to awake to meet him, i. e. , to join him with His help like a relieving army, and to convince Himself from personal observation of the extreme danger in which His charge finds himself.
The continuation was obliged to be expressed by ואתּה, because a special appeal to God interposes between עוּרה and הקיצה. In the emphatic “Thou,” however, after it has been once expressed, is implied the conditional character of the deliverance by the absolute One. And each of the divine names made use of in this lengthy invocation, which corresponds to the deep anxiety of the poet, is a challenge, so to speak, to the ability and willingness, the power and promise of God.
The juxtaposition Jahve Elohim Tsebaoth (occurring, besides this instance, in Psa 80:5, 20; Psa 84:9), which is peculiar to the Elohimic Psalms, is to be explained by the consideration that Elohim had become a proper name like Jahve , and that the designation Jahve Tsebaoth , by the insertion of Elohim in accordance with the style of the Elohimic Psalms, is made still more imposing and solemn; and now צבאות is a genitive dependent not merely upon יהוה but upon יהוה אלהים (similar to Psa 56:1 , Isa 28:1 ; Symbolae , p. 15).
אלהי ישׂראל is in apposition to this threefold name of God. The poet evidently reckons himself as belonging to an Israel from which he excludes his enemies, viz. , the true Israel which is in reality the people of God. Among the heathen, against whom the poet invokes God’s interposition, are included the heathen-minded in Israel; this at least is the view which brings about this extension of the prayer.
Also in connection with the words און כּל־בּגדי the poet, in fact, has chiefly before his mind those who are immediately round about him and thus disposed. It is those who act treacherously from extreme moral nothingness and worthlessness (און genit. epexeg .) The music, as Sela directs, here becomes more boisterous; it gives intensity to the strong cry for the judgment of God; and the first unfolding of thought of this Michtam is here brought to a close.
The second begins by again taking up the description of the movements of the enemy which was begun in Psa 59:4, Psa 59:5. We see at a glance how here Psa 59:7 coincides with Psa 59:5, and Psa 59:8 with Psa 59:4, and Psa 59:9 with Psa 59:6. Hence the imprecatory rendering of the futures of Psa 59:7 is not for a moment to be entertained. By day the emissaries of Saul do not venture to carry out their plot, and David naturally does not run into their hands.
They therefore come back in the evening, and that evening after evening (cf. Job 24:14); they snarl or howl like dogs (המה, used elsewhere of the growling of the bear and the cooing of the dove; it is distinct from נבח, Arab. nbb , nbḥ , to bark, and כלב, to yelp), because they do not want to betray themselves by loud barking, and still cannot altogether conceal their vexation and rage; and they go their rounds in the city (like סובב בּעיר, Sol 3:2, cf.
supra Psa 55:11), in order to cut off their victim from flight, and perhaps, what would be very welcome to them, to run against him in the darkness. The further description in Psa 59:8 follows them on this patrol. What they belch out or foam out is to be inferred from the fact that swords are in their lips, which they, as it were, draw so soon as they merely move their lips.
Their mouth overflows with murderous thoughts and with slanders concerning David, by which they justify their murderous greed to themselves as if there were no one, viz. , no God, who heard it. But Jahve, from whom nothing, as with men, can be kept secret, laughs at them, just as He makes a mockery of all heathen, to whom this murderous band, which fears the light and in unworthy of the Israelitish name, is compared.
This is the primary passage to Psa 37:13; Psa 2:4; for Ps 59 is perhaps the oldest of the Davidic Psalms that have come down to us, and therefore also the earliest monument of Israelitish poetry in which the divine name Jahve Tsebaoth occurs; and the chronicler, knowing that it was the time of Samuel and David that brought it into use, uses this name only in the life of David. Just as this strophe opened in Psa 59:7 with a distich that recurs in Psa 59:15, so it also closes now in Psa 59:10 with a distich that recurs below in v.
18, and that is to be amended according to the text of that passage. For all attempts to understand עזּי as being genuine prove its inaccuracy. With the old versions it has to be read עזּי; but as for the rest, אשׁמרה must be retained in accordance with the usual variation found in such refrains: my strength, Thee will I regard (1Sa 26:15; observe, 2Sa 11:16), or upon Thee will I wait (cf.
ל, Psa 130:6); i. e. , in the consciousness of my own feebleness, tranquil and resigned, I will look for Thine interposition on my behalf.
Psa 59:10-17 In this second half of the Psalm the cry of fear is hushed. Hope reigns, and anger burns more fiercely. The Kerî says that Psa 59:11 is to be read: אלהי חסדּי יקדּמני, my gracious God will anticipate me, - but with what? This question altogether disappears if we retain the Chethîb and point אלהי הסדּו: my God will anticipate me with His mercy (cf.
Psa 21:4), i. e. , will meet me bringing His mercy without any effort of mine. Even the old translators have felt that chcdw must belong to the verb as a second object. The lxx is perfectly correct in its rendering, ὁ Θεὸς μου τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ προφθάσει με. The Kerî has come into existence in looking to v. 18, according to which it seems as though אלהי הסדּי ought to be added to the refrain, Psa 59:10 (cf.
a similar instance in Psa 42:6-7). But Psa 59:11 would be stunted by doing this, and it accords with Biblical poetic usage that the refrain in v. 18 should be climactic in comparison with Psa 59:10 (just as it also does not altogether harmonize in its first half); so that Olshausen’s proposal to close Psa 59:10 with אלהי חסדי and to begin Psa 59:11 with חסדו (cf.
Psa 79:8) is only just to be put on record. The prayer “slay them not” does not contradict the prayer that follows for their destruction. The poet wishes that those who lie in wait for him, before they are totally swept away, may remain for a season before the eyes of this people as an example of punishment. In accordance with this, הניעמו, by a comparison of the Hiph .
in Num 32:13, and of the Kal in Psa 59:16, Psa 109:10, is to be rendered: cause them to wander about (Targum, cf. Genesis Rabba , ch. 38 init . , טלטלמו); and in connection with בחילך one is involuntarily reminded of Psa 10:10, Psa 10:14, and is tempted to read בחלך or בחלך: cause them to wander about in adversity or wretchedness, = Arab. ‛umr ḥâlik , vita caliginosa h.
e. misera ), and more especially since בחילך occurs nowhere else instead of בּזרעך or בּימינך. But the Jod in בחילך is unfavourable to this supposition; and since the martial apostrophe of God by “our shield” follows, the choice of the word is explained by the consideration that the poet conceives of the power of God as an army (Joe 2:25), and perhaps thinks directly of the heavenly host (Joe 3:11), over which the Lord of Hosts holds command (Hitzig).
By means of this He is first of all to cause them to go astray (נע ונד, Gen 4:12), then utterly to cast them down (Psa 56:8). The Lord (אדני) is to do this, as truly as He is Israel’s shield against all the heathen and all pseudo-Israelites who have become as heathen. The first member of Psa 59:13 is undoubtedly meant descriptively: “the sin of their mouth (the sin of the tongue) is the word of their lips” (with the dull-toned suffix mo , in the use of which Ps 59 associates itself with the Psalms of the time of Saul, Psa 56:1-13, Psa 11:1-7, Psa 17:1-15, 22, 35, Psa 64:1-10).
The combination ולילּכדוּ בגאונם, however, more readily suggests parallel passages like Pro 11:6 than Pro 6:2; and moreover the מן of the expression וּמאלה וּמכּחשׁ, which is without example in connection with ספּר, and, taken as expressing the motive (Hupfeld), ought to be joined with some designations of the disposition of mind, is best explained as an appended statement of the reason for which they are to be ensnared, so that consequently יספּרוּ (cf. Psa 69:27; Psa 64:6) is an attributive clause; nor is this contrary to the accentuation, if one admits the Munach to be a transformation of Mugrash .
It is therefore to be rendered: “let them, then, be taken in their pride, and on account of the curse and deceit which they wilfully utter. ” If, by virtue of the righteousness of the Ruler of the world, their sin has thus become their fall, then, after they have been as it were a warning example to Israel, God is utterly to remove them out of the way, in order that they (it is unnecessary to suppose any change of subject), while perishing, may perceive that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob (בּ, used elsewhere of the object, e.
g. , Mic 5:1, is here used of the place of dominion), and as in Jacob, so from thence unto the ends of the earth (ל like על, Psa 48:11) wields the sceptre. Just like the first group of the first part, this first group of the second part also closes with Sela . The second group opens like the second group in the first part, but with this exception, that here we read וישׁבוּ, which loosely connects it with what precedes, whereas there it is ישׁוּבוּ.
The poet’s gaze is again turned towards his present straitened condition, and again the pack of dogs by which Saul is hunting him present themselves to his mind. המּה points towards an antithesis that follows, and which finds its expression in ואני. ויּלינוּ and לבּקר stand in direct contrast to one another, and in addition to this לערב has preceded. The reading of the lxx (Vulgate, Luther, [and authorized version]), καὶ γογγύσουσιν = ויּלּינוּ or ויּלּנוּ, is thereby proved to be erroneous.
But if ויּלינוּ is the correct reading, then it follows that we have to take Psa 59:16 not as foretelling what will take place, but as describing that which is present; so that consequently the fut. consec . (as is frequently the case apart from any historical connection) is only a consecutive continuation of ינוּעוּן (for which the Kerî has יניעוּן; the form that was required in Psa 59:12, but is inadmissible here): they wander up and down (נוּע as in Psa 109:10, cf.
נוּד, Job 15:23) to eat (that is to say, seeking after food); and if they are not satisfied, they pass the night, i. e. , remain, eager for food and expecting it, over night on the spot. This interpretation is the most natural, the simplest, and the one that harmonizes best not only with the text before us (the punctuation ישׂבּעוּ, not ישׂבּעוּ, gives the member of the clause the impress of being a protasis), but also with the situation.
The poet describes the activity of his enemies, and that by completing or retouching the picture of their comparison to dogs: he himself is the food or prey for which they are so eager, and which they would not willingly allow to escape them, and which they nevertheless cannot get within their grasp. Their morbid desire remains unsatisfied: he, however, in the morning, is able to sing of the power of God, which protects him, and exultantly to praise God’s loving-kindness, which satiates and satisfies him (Psa 90:14); for in the day of fear, which to him is now past, God was his inaccessible stronghold, his unapproachable asylum.
To this God, then, even further the play of his harp shall be directed (אזמּרה), just as was his waiting or hoping (אשׁמרה, Psa 59:10). (In the Hebrew, v. 1 is the designation 'To the leader:.... A Psalm of David'; from then on v. 1-12 in English translation corresponds to v. 2-13 in the Hebrew)
Psa 59:10-17 In this second half of the Psalm the cry of fear is hushed. Hope reigns, and anger burns more fiercely. The Kerî says that Psa 59:11 is to be read: אלהי חסדּי יקדּמני, my gracious God will anticipate me, - but with what? This question altogether disappears if we retain the Chethîb and point אלהי הסדּו: my God will anticipate me with His mercy (cf.
Psa 21:4), i. e. , will meet me bringing His mercy without any effort of mine. Even the old translators have felt that chcdw must belong to the verb as a second object. The lxx is perfectly correct in its rendering, ὁ Θεὸς μου τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ προφθάσει με. The Kerî has come into existence in looking to v. 18, according to which it seems as though אלהי הסדּי ought to be added to the refrain, Psa 59:10 (cf.
a similar instance in Psa 42:6-7). But Psa 59:11 would be stunted by doing this, and it accords with Biblical poetic usage that the refrain in v. 18 should be climactic in comparison with Psa 59:10 (just as it also does not altogether harmonize in its first half); so that Olshausen’s proposal to close Psa 59:10 with אלהי חסדי and to begin Psa 59:11 with חסדו (cf.
Psa 79:8) is only just to be put on record. The prayer “slay them not” does not contradict the prayer that follows for their destruction. The poet wishes that those who lie in wait for him, before they are totally swept away, may remain for a season before the eyes of this people as an example of punishment. In accordance with this, הניעמו, by a comparison of the Hiph .
in Num 32:13, and of the Kal in Psa 59:16, Psa 109:10, is to be rendered: cause them to wander about (Targum, cf. Genesis Rabba , ch. 38 init . , טלטלמו); and in connection with בחילך one is involuntarily reminded of Psa 10:10, Psa 10:14, and is tempted to read בחלך or בחלך: cause them to wander about in adversity or wretchedness, = Arab. ‛umr ḥâlik , vita caliginosa h.
e. misera ), and more especially since בחילך occurs nowhere else instead of בּזרעך or בּימינך. But the Jod in בחילך is unfavourable to this supposition; and since the martial apostrophe of God by “our shield” follows, the choice of the word is explained by the consideration that the poet conceives of the power of God as an army (Joe 2:25), and perhaps thinks directly of the heavenly host (Joe 3:11), over which the Lord of Hosts holds command (Hitzig).
By means of this He is first of all to cause them to go astray (נע ונד, Gen 4:12), then utterly to cast them down (Psa 56:8). The Lord (אדני) is to do this, as truly as He is Israel’s shield against all the heathen and all pseudo-Israelites who have become as heathen. The first member of Psa 59:13 is undoubtedly meant descriptively: “the sin of their mouth (the sin of the tongue) is the word of their lips” (with the dull-toned suffix mo , in the use of which Ps 59 associates itself with the Psalms of the time of Saul, Psa 56:1-13, Psa 11:1-7, Psa 17:1-15, 22, 35, Psa 64:1-10).
The combination ולילּכדוּ בגאונם, however, more readily suggests parallel passages like Pro 11:6 than Pro 6:2; and moreover the מן of the expression וּמאלה וּמכּחשׁ, which is without example in connection with ספּר, and, taken as expressing the motive (Hupfeld), ought to be joined with some designations of the disposition of mind, is best explained as an appended statement of the reason for which they are to be ensnared, so that consequently יספּרוּ (cf. Psa 69:27; Psa 64:6) is an attributive clause; nor is this contrary to the accentuation, if one admits the Munach to be a transformation of Mugrash .
It is therefore to be rendered: “let them, then, be taken in their pride, and on account of the curse and deceit which they wilfully utter. ” If, by virtue of the righteousness of the Ruler of the world, their sin has thus become their fall, then, after they have been as it were a warning example to Israel, God is utterly to remove them out of the way, in order that they (it is unnecessary to suppose any change of subject), while perishing, may perceive that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob (בּ, used elsewhere of the object, e.
g. , Mic 5:1, is here used of the place of dominion), and as in Jacob, so from thence unto the ends of the earth (ל like על, Psa 48:11) wields the sceptre. Just like the first group of the first part, this first group of the second part also closes with Sela . The second group opens like the second group in the first part, but with this exception, that here we read וישׁבוּ, which loosely connects it with what precedes, whereas there it is ישׁוּבוּ.
The poet’s gaze is again turned towards his present straitened condition, and again the pack of dogs by which Saul is hunting him present themselves to his mind. המּה points towards an antithesis that follows, and which finds its expression in ואני. ויּלינוּ and לבּקר stand in direct contrast to one another, and in addition to this לערב has preceded. The reading of the lxx (Vulgate, Luther, [and authorized version]), καὶ γογγύσουσιν = ויּלּינוּ or ויּלּנוּ, is thereby proved to be erroneous.
But if ויּלינוּ is the correct reading, then it follows that we have to take Psa 59:16 not as foretelling what will take place, but as describing that which is present; so that consequently the fut. consec . (as is frequently the case apart from any historical connection) is only a consecutive continuation of ינוּעוּן (for which the Kerî has יניעוּן; the form that was required in Psa 59:12, but is inadmissible here): they wander up and down (נוּע as in Psa 109:10, cf.
נוּד, Job 15:23) to eat (that is to say, seeking after food); and if they are not satisfied, they pass the night, i. e. , remain, eager for food and expecting it, over night on the spot. This interpretation is the most natural, the simplest, and the one that harmonizes best not only with the text before us (the punctuation ישׂבּעוּ, not ישׂבּעוּ, gives the member of the clause the impress of being a protasis), but also with the situation.
The poet describes the activity of his enemies, and that by completing or retouching the picture of their comparison to dogs: he himself is the food or prey for which they are so eager, and which they would not willingly allow to escape them, and which they nevertheless cannot get within their grasp. Their morbid desire remains unsatisfied: he, however, in the morning, is able to sing of the power of God, which protects him, and exultantly to praise God’s loving-kindness, which satiates and satisfies him (Psa 90:14); for in the day of fear, which to him is now past, God was his inaccessible stronghold, his unapproachable asylum.
To this God, then, even further the play of his harp shall be directed (אזמּרה), just as was his waiting or hoping (אשׁמרה, Psa 59:10). (In the Hebrew, v. 1 is the designation 'To the leader:.... A Psalm of David'; from then on v. 1-12 in English translation corresponds to v. 2-13 in the Hebrew)
Psa 59:10-17 In this second half of the Psalm the cry of fear is hushed. Hope reigns, and anger burns more fiercely. The Kerî says that Psa 59:11 is to be read: אלהי חסדּי יקדּמני, my gracious God will anticipate me, - but with what? This question altogether disappears if we retain the Chethîb and point אלהי הסדּו: my God will anticipate me with His mercy (cf.
Psa 21:4), i. e. , will meet me bringing His mercy without any effort of mine. Even the old translators have felt that chcdw must belong to the verb as a second object. The lxx is perfectly correct in its rendering, ὁ Θεὸς μου τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ προφθάσει με. The Kerî has come into existence in looking to v. 18, according to which it seems as though אלהי הסדּי ought to be added to the refrain, Psa 59:10 (cf.
a similar instance in Psa 42:6-7). But Psa 59:11 would be stunted by doing this, and it accords with Biblical poetic usage that the refrain in v. 18 should be climactic in comparison with Psa 59:10 (just as it also does not altogether harmonize in its first half); so that Olshausen’s proposal to close Psa 59:10 with אלהי חסדי and to begin Psa 59:11 with חסדו (cf.
Psa 79:8) is only just to be put on record. The prayer “slay them not” does not contradict the prayer that follows for their destruction. The poet wishes that those who lie in wait for him, before they are totally swept away, may remain for a season before the eyes of this people as an example of punishment. In accordance with this, הניעמו, by a comparison of the Hiph .
in Num 32:13, and of the Kal in Psa 59:16, Psa 109:10, is to be rendered: cause them to wander about (Targum, cf. Genesis Rabba , ch. 38 init . , טלטלמו); and in connection with בחילך one is involuntarily reminded of Psa 10:10, Psa 10:14, and is tempted to read בחלך or בחלך: cause them to wander about in adversity or wretchedness, = Arab. ‛umr ḥâlik , vita caliginosa h.
e. misera ), and more especially since בחילך occurs nowhere else instead of בּזרעך or בּימינך. But the Jod in בחילך is unfavourable to this supposition; and since the martial apostrophe of God by “our shield” follows, the choice of the word is explained by the consideration that the poet conceives of the power of God as an army (Joe 2:25), and perhaps thinks directly of the heavenly host (Joe 3:11), over which the Lord of Hosts holds command (Hitzig).
By means of this He is first of all to cause them to go astray (נע ונד, Gen 4:12), then utterly to cast them down (Psa 56:8). The Lord (אדני) is to do this, as truly as He is Israel’s shield against all the heathen and all pseudo-Israelites who have become as heathen. The first member of Psa 59:13 is undoubtedly meant descriptively: “the sin of their mouth (the sin of the tongue) is the word of their lips” (with the dull-toned suffix mo , in the use of which Ps 59 associates itself with the Psalms of the time of Saul, Psa 56:1-13, Psa 11:1-7, Psa 17:1-15, 22, 35, Psa 64:1-10).
The combination ולילּכדוּ בגאונם, however, more readily suggests parallel passages like Pro 11:6 than Pro 6:2; and moreover the מן of the expression וּמאלה וּמכּחשׁ, which is without example in connection with ספּר, and, taken as expressing the motive (Hupfeld), ought to be joined with some designations of the disposition of mind, is best explained as an appended statement of the reason for which they are to be ensnared, so that consequently יספּרוּ (cf. Psa 69:27; Psa 64:6) is an attributive clause; nor is this contrary to the accentuation, if one admits the Munach to be a transformation of Mugrash .
It is therefore to be rendered: “let them, then, be taken in their pride, and on account of the curse and deceit which they wilfully utter. ” If, by virtue of the righteousness of the Ruler of the world, their sin has thus become their fall, then, after they have been as it were a warning example to Israel, God is utterly to remove them out of the way, in order that they (it is unnecessary to suppose any change of subject), while perishing, may perceive that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob (בּ, used elsewhere of the object, e.
g. , Mic 5:1, is here used of the place of dominion), and as in Jacob, so from thence unto the ends of the earth (ל like על, Psa 48:11) wields the sceptre. Just like the first group of the first part, this first group of the second part also closes with Sela . The second group opens like the second group in the first part, but with this exception, that here we read וישׁבוּ, which loosely connects it with what precedes, whereas there it is ישׁוּבוּ.
The poet’s gaze is again turned towards his present straitened condition, and again the pack of dogs by which Saul is hunting him present themselves to his mind. המּה points towards an antithesis that follows, and which finds its expression in ואני. ויּלינוּ and לבּקר stand in direct contrast to one another, and in addition to this לערב has preceded. The reading of the lxx (Vulgate, Luther, [and authorized version]), καὶ γογγύσουσιν = ויּלּינוּ or ויּלּנוּ, is thereby proved to be erroneous.
But if ויּלינוּ is the correct reading, then it follows that we have to take Psa 59:16 not as foretelling what will take place, but as describing that which is present; so that consequently the fut. consec . (as is frequently the case apart from any historical connection) is only a consecutive continuation of ינוּעוּן (for which the Kerî has יניעוּן; the form that was required in Psa 59:12, but is inadmissible here): they wander up and down (נוּע as in Psa 109:10, cf.
נוּד, Job 15:23) to eat (that is to say, seeking after food); and if they are not satisfied, they pass the night, i. e. , remain, eager for food and expecting it, over night on the spot. This interpretation is the most natural, the simplest, and the one that harmonizes best not only with the text before us (the punctuation ישׂבּעוּ, not ישׂבּעוּ, gives the member of the clause the impress of being a protasis), but also with the situation.
The poet describes the activity of his enemies, and that by completing or retouching the picture of their comparison to dogs: he himself is the food or prey for which they are so eager, and which they would not willingly allow to escape them, and which they nevertheless cannot get within their grasp. Their morbid desire remains unsatisfied: he, however, in the morning, is able to sing of the power of God, which protects him, and exultantly to praise God’s loving-kindness, which satiates and satisfies him (Psa 90:14); for in the day of fear, which to him is now past, God was his inaccessible stronghold, his unapproachable asylum.
To this God, then, even further the play of his harp shall be directed (אזמּרה), just as was his waiting or hoping (אשׁמרה, Psa 59:10). (In the Hebrew, v. 1 is the designation 'To the leader:.... A Psalm of David'; from then on v. 1-12 in English translation corresponds to v. 2-13 in the Hebrew)
Psa 59:10-17 In this second half of the Psalm the cry of fear is hushed. Hope reigns, and anger burns more fiercely. The Kerî says that Psa 59:11 is to be read: אלהי חסדּי יקדּמני, my gracious God will anticipate me, - but with what? This question altogether disappears if we retain the Chethîb and point אלהי הסדּו: my God will anticipate me with His mercy (cf.
Psa 21:4), i. e. , will meet me bringing His mercy without any effort of mine. Even the old translators have felt that chcdw must belong to the verb as a second object. The lxx is perfectly correct in its rendering, ὁ Θεὸς μου τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ προφθάσει με. The Kerî has come into existence in looking to v. 18, according to which it seems as though אלהי הסדּי ought to be added to the refrain, Psa 59:10 (cf.
a similar instance in Psa 42:6-7). But Psa 59:11 would be stunted by doing this, and it accords with Biblical poetic usage that the refrain in v. 18 should be climactic in comparison with Psa 59:10 (just as it also does not altogether harmonize in its first half); so that Olshausen’s proposal to close Psa 59:10 with אלהי חסדי and to begin Psa 59:11 with חסדו (cf.
Psa 79:8) is only just to be put on record. The prayer “slay them not” does not contradict the prayer that follows for their destruction. The poet wishes that those who lie in wait for him, before they are totally swept away, may remain for a season before the eyes of this people as an example of punishment. In accordance with this, הניעמו, by a comparison of the Hiph .
in Num 32:13, and of the Kal in Psa 59:16, Psa 109:10, is to be rendered: cause them to wander about (Targum, cf. Genesis Rabba , ch. 38 init . , טלטלמו); and in connection with בחילך one is involuntarily reminded of Psa 10:10, Psa 10:14, and is tempted to read בחלך or בחלך: cause them to wander about in adversity or wretchedness, = Arab. ‛umr ḥâlik , vita caliginosa h.
e. misera ), and more especially since בחילך occurs nowhere else instead of בּזרעך or בּימינך. But the Jod in בחילך is unfavourable to this supposition; and since the martial apostrophe of God by “our shield” follows, the choice of the word is explained by the consideration that the poet conceives of the power of God as an army (Joe 2:25), and perhaps thinks directly of the heavenly host (Joe 3:11), over which the Lord of Hosts holds command (Hitzig).
By means of this He is first of all to cause them to go astray (נע ונד, Gen 4:12), then utterly to cast them down (Psa 56:8). The Lord (אדני) is to do this, as truly as He is Israel’s shield against all the heathen and all pseudo-Israelites who have become as heathen. The first member of Psa 59:13 is undoubtedly meant descriptively: “the sin of their mouth (the sin of the tongue) is the word of their lips” (with the dull-toned suffix mo , in the use of which Ps 59 associates itself with the Psalms of the time of Saul, Psa 56:1-13, Psa 11:1-7, Psa 17:1-15, 22, 35, Psa 64:1-10).
The combination ולילּכדוּ בגאונם, however, more readily suggests parallel passages like Pro 11:6 than Pro 6:2; and moreover the מן of the expression וּמאלה וּמכּחשׁ, which is without example in connection with ספּר, and, taken as expressing the motive (Hupfeld), ought to be joined with some designations of the disposition of mind, is best explained as an appended statement of the reason for which they are to be ensnared, so that consequently יספּרוּ (cf. Psa 69:27; Psa 64:6) is an attributive clause; nor is this contrary to the accentuation, if one admits the Munach to be a transformation of Mugrash .
It is therefore to be rendered: “let them, then, be taken in their pride, and on account of the curse and deceit which they wilfully utter. ” If, by virtue of the righteousness of the Ruler of the world, their sin has thus become their fall, then, after they have been as it were a warning example to Israel, God is utterly to remove them out of the way, in order that they (it is unnecessary to suppose any change of subject), while perishing, may perceive that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob (בּ, used elsewhere of the object, e.
g. , Mic 5:1, is here used of the place of dominion), and as in Jacob, so from thence unto the ends of the earth (ל like על, Psa 48:11) wields the sceptre. Just like the first group of the first part, this first group of the second part also closes with Sela . The second group opens like the second group in the first part, but with this exception, that here we read וישׁבוּ, which loosely connects it with what precedes, whereas there it is ישׁוּבוּ.
The poet’s gaze is again turned towards his present straitened condition, and again the pack of dogs by which Saul is hunting him present themselves to his mind. המּה points towards an antithesis that follows, and which finds its expression in ואני. ויּלינוּ and לבּקר stand in direct contrast to one another, and in addition to this לערב has preceded. The reading of the lxx (Vulgate, Luther, [and authorized version]), καὶ γογγύσουσιν = ויּלּינוּ or ויּלּנוּ, is thereby proved to be erroneous.
But if ויּלינוּ is the correct reading, then it follows that we have to take Psa 59:16 not as foretelling what will take place, but as describing that which is present; so that consequently the fut. consec . (as is frequently the case apart from any historical connection) is only a consecutive continuation of ינוּעוּן (for which the Kerî has יניעוּן; the form that was required in Psa 59:12, but is inadmissible here): they wander up and down (נוּע as in Psa 109:10, cf.
נוּד, Job 15:23) to eat (that is to say, seeking after food); and if they are not satisfied, they pass the night, i. e. , remain, eager for food and expecting it, over night on the spot. This interpretation is the most natural, the simplest, and the one that harmonizes best not only with the text before us (the punctuation ישׂבּעוּ, not ישׂבּעוּ, gives the member of the clause the impress of being a protasis), but also with the situation.
The poet describes the activity of his enemies, and that by completing or retouching the picture of their comparison to dogs: he himself is the food or prey for which they are so eager, and which they would not willingly allow to escape them, and which they nevertheless cannot get within their grasp. Their morbid desire remains unsatisfied: he, however, in the morning, is able to sing of the power of God, which protects him, and exultantly to praise God’s loving-kindness, which satiates and satisfies him (Psa 90:14); for in the day of fear, which to him is now past, God was his inaccessible stronghold, his unapproachable asylum.
To this God, then, even further the play of his harp shall be directed (אזמּרה), just as was his waiting or hoping (אשׁמרה, Psa 59:10). (In the Hebrew, v. 1 is the designation 'To the leader:.... A Psalm of David'; from then on v. 1-12 in English translation corresponds to v. 2-13 in the Hebrew)
Psa 59:10-17 In this second half of the Psalm the cry of fear is hushed. Hope reigns, and anger burns more fiercely. The Kerî says that Psa 59:11 is to be read: אלהי חסדּי יקדּמני, my gracious God will anticipate me, - but with what? This question altogether disappears if we retain the Chethîb and point אלהי הסדּו: my God will anticipate me with His mercy (cf.
Psa 21:4), i. e. , will meet me bringing His mercy without any effort of mine. Even the old translators have felt that chcdw must belong to the verb as a second object. The lxx is perfectly correct in its rendering, ὁ Θεὸς μου τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ προφθάσει με. The Kerî has come into existence in looking to v. 18, according to which it seems as though אלהי הסדּי ought to be added to the refrain, Psa 59:10 (cf.
a similar instance in Psa 42:6-7). But Psa 59:11 would be stunted by doing this, and it accords with Biblical poetic usage that the refrain in v. 18 should be climactic in comparison with Psa 59:10 (just as it also does not altogether harmonize in its first half); so that Olshausen’s proposal to close Psa 59:10 with אלהי חסדי and to begin Psa 59:11 with חסדו (cf.
Psa 79:8) is only just to be put on record. The prayer “slay them not” does not contradict the prayer that follows for their destruction. The poet wishes that those who lie in wait for him, before they are totally swept away, may remain for a season before the eyes of this people as an example of punishment. In accordance with this, הניעמו, by a comparison of the Hiph .
in Num 32:13, and of the Kal in Psa 59:16, Psa 109:10, is to be rendered: cause them to wander about (Targum, cf. Genesis Rabba , ch. 38 init . , טלטלמו); and in connection with בחילך one is involuntarily reminded of Psa 10:10, Psa 10:14, and is tempted to read בחלך or בחלך: cause them to wander about in adversity or wretchedness, = Arab. ‛umr ḥâlik , vita caliginosa h.
e. misera ), and more especially since בחילך occurs nowhere else instead of בּזרעך or בּימינך. But the Jod in בחילך is unfavourable to this supposition; and since the martial apostrophe of God by “our shield” follows, the choice of the word is explained by the consideration that the poet conceives of the power of God as an army (Joe 2:25), and perhaps thinks directly of the heavenly host (Joe 3:11), over which the Lord of Hosts holds command (Hitzig).
By means of this He is first of all to cause them to go astray (נע ונד, Gen 4:12), then utterly to cast them down (Psa 56:8). The Lord (אדני) is to do this, as truly as He is Israel’s shield against all the heathen and all pseudo-Israelites who have become as heathen. The first member of Psa 59:13 is undoubtedly meant descriptively: “the sin of their mouth (the sin of the tongue) is the word of their lips” (with the dull-toned suffix mo , in the use of which Ps 59 associates itself with the Psalms of the time of Saul, Psa 56:1-13, Psa 11:1-7, Psa 17:1-15, 22, 35, Psa 64:1-10).
The combination ולילּכדוּ בגאונם, however, more readily suggests parallel passages like Pro 11:6 than Pro 6:2; and moreover the מן of the expression וּמאלה וּמכּחשׁ, which is without example in connection with ספּר, and, taken as expressing the motive (Hupfeld), ought to be joined with some designations of the disposition of mind, is best explained as an appended statement of the reason for which they are to be ensnared, so that consequently יספּרוּ (cf. Psa 69:27; Psa 64:6) is an attributive clause; nor is this contrary to the accentuation, if one admits the Munach to be a transformation of Mugrash .
It is therefore to be rendered: “let them, then, be taken in their pride, and on account of the curse and deceit which they wilfully utter. ” If, by virtue of the righteousness of the Ruler of the world, their sin has thus become their fall, then, after they have been as it were a warning example to Israel, God is utterly to remove them out of the way, in order that they (it is unnecessary to suppose any change of subject), while perishing, may perceive that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob (בּ, used elsewhere of the object, e.
g. , Mic 5:1, is here used of the place of dominion), and as in Jacob, so from thence unto the ends of the earth (ל like על, Psa 48:11) wields the sceptre. Just like the first group of the first part, this first group of the second part also closes with Sela . The second group opens like the second group in the first part, but with this exception, that here we read וישׁבוּ, which loosely connects it with what precedes, whereas there it is ישׁוּבוּ.
The poet’s gaze is again turned towards his present straitened condition, and again the pack of dogs by which Saul is hunting him present themselves to his mind. המּה points towards an antithesis that follows, and which finds its expression in ואני. ויּלינוּ and לבּקר stand in direct contrast to one another, and in addition to this לערב has preceded. The reading of the lxx (Vulgate, Luther, [and authorized version]), καὶ γογγύσουσιν = ויּלּינוּ or ויּלּנוּ, is thereby proved to be erroneous.
But if ויּלינוּ is the correct reading, then it follows that we have to take Psa 59:16 not as foretelling what will take place, but as describing that which is present; so that consequently the fut. consec . (as is frequently the case apart from any historical connection) is only a consecutive continuation of ינוּעוּן (for which the Kerî has יניעוּן; the form that was required in Psa 59:12, but is inadmissible here): they wander up and down (נוּע as in Psa 109:10, cf.
נוּד, Job 15:23) to eat (that is to say, seeking after food); and if they are not satisfied, they pass the night, i. e. , remain, eager for food and expecting it, over night on the spot. This interpretation is the most natural, the simplest, and the one that harmonizes best not only with the text before us (the punctuation ישׂבּעוּ, not ישׂבּעוּ, gives the member of the clause the impress of being a protasis), but also with the situation.
The poet describes the activity of his enemies, and that by completing or retouching the picture of their comparison to dogs: he himself is the food or prey for which they are so eager, and which they would not willingly allow to escape them, and which they nevertheless cannot get within their grasp. Their morbid desire remains unsatisfied: he, however, in the morning, is able to sing of the power of God, which protects him, and exultantly to praise God’s loving-kindness, which satiates and satisfies him (Psa 90:14); for in the day of fear, which to him is now past, God was his inaccessible stronghold, his unapproachable asylum.
To this God, then, even further the play of his harp shall be directed (אזמּרה), just as was his waiting or hoping (אשׁמרה, Psa 59:10). (In the Hebrew, v. 1 is the designation 'To the leader:.... A Psalm of David'; from then on v. 1-12 in English translation corresponds to v. 2-13 in the Hebrew)
Psa 59:10-17 In this second half of the Psalm the cry of fear is hushed. Hope reigns, and anger burns more fiercely. The Kerî says that Psa 59:11 is to be read: אלהי חסדּי יקדּמני, my gracious God will anticipate me, - but with what? This question altogether disappears if we retain the Chethîb and point אלהי הסדּו: my God will anticipate me with His mercy (cf.
Psa 21:4), i. e. , will meet me bringing His mercy without any effort of mine. Even the old translators have felt that chcdw must belong to the verb as a second object. The lxx is perfectly correct in its rendering, ὁ Θεὸς μου τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ προφθάσει με. The Kerî has come into existence in looking to v. 18, according to which it seems as though אלהי הסדּי ought to be added to the refrain, Psa 59:10 (cf.
a similar instance in Psa 42:6-7). But Psa 59:11 would be stunted by doing this, and it accords with Biblical poetic usage that the refrain in v. 18 should be climactic in comparison with Psa 59:10 (just as it also does not altogether harmonize in its first half); so that Olshausen’s proposal to close Psa 59:10 with אלהי חסדי and to begin Psa 59:11 with חסדו (cf.
Psa 79:8) is only just to be put on record. The prayer “slay them not” does not contradict the prayer that follows for their destruction. The poet wishes that those who lie in wait for him, before they are totally swept away, may remain for a season before the eyes of this people as an example of punishment. In accordance with this, הניעמו, by a comparison of the Hiph .
in Num 32:13, and of the Kal in Psa 59:16, Psa 109:10, is to be rendered: cause them to wander about (Targum, cf. Genesis Rabba , ch. 38 init . , טלטלמו); and in connection with בחילך one is involuntarily reminded of Psa 10:10, Psa 10:14, and is tempted to read בחלך or בחלך: cause them to wander about in adversity or wretchedness, = Arab. ‛umr ḥâlik , vita caliginosa h.
e. misera ), and more especially since בחילך occurs nowhere else instead of בּזרעך or בּימינך. But the Jod in בחילך is unfavourable to this supposition; and since the martial apostrophe of God by “our shield” follows, the choice of the word is explained by the consideration that the poet conceives of the power of God as an army (Joe 2:25), and perhaps thinks directly of the heavenly host (Joe 3:11), over which the Lord of Hosts holds command (Hitzig).
By means of this He is first of all to cause them to go astray (נע ונד, Gen 4:12), then utterly to cast them down (Psa 56:8). The Lord (אדני) is to do this, as truly as He is Israel’s shield against all the heathen and all pseudo-Israelites who have become as heathen. The first member of Psa 59:13 is undoubtedly meant descriptively: “the sin of their mouth (the sin of the tongue) is the word of their lips” (with the dull-toned suffix mo , in the use of which Ps 59 associates itself with the Psalms of the time of Saul, Psa 56:1-13, Psa 11:1-7, Psa 17:1-15, 22, 35, Psa 64:1-10).
The combination ולילּכדוּ בגאונם, however, more readily suggests parallel passages like Pro 11:6 than Pro 6:2; and moreover the מן of the expression וּמאלה וּמכּחשׁ, which is without example in connection with ספּר, and, taken as expressing the motive (Hupfeld), ought to be joined with some designations of the disposition of mind, is best explained as an appended statement of the reason for which they are to be ensnared, so that consequently יספּרוּ (cf. Psa 69:27; Psa 64:6) is an attributive clause; nor is this contrary to the accentuation, if one admits the Munach to be a transformation of Mugrash .
It is therefore to be rendered: “let them, then, be taken in their pride, and on account of the curse and deceit which they wilfully utter. ” If, by virtue of the righteousness of the Ruler of the world, their sin has thus become their fall, then, after they have been as it were a warning example to Israel, God is utterly to remove them out of the way, in order that they (it is unnecessary to suppose any change of subject), while perishing, may perceive that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob (בּ, used elsewhere of the object, e.
g. , Mic 5:1, is here used of the place of dominion), and as in Jacob, so from thence unto the ends of the earth (ל like על, Psa 48:11) wields the sceptre. Just like the first group of the first part, this first group of the second part also closes with Sela . The second group opens like the second group in the first part, but with this exception, that here we read וישׁבוּ, which loosely connects it with what precedes, whereas there it is ישׁוּבוּ.
The poet’s gaze is again turned towards his present straitened condition, and again the pack of dogs by which Saul is hunting him present themselves to his mind. המּה points towards an antithesis that follows, and which finds its expression in ואני. ויּלינוּ and לבּקר stand in direct contrast to one another, and in addition to this לערב has preceded. The reading of the lxx (Vulgate, Luther, [and authorized version]), καὶ γογγύσουσιν = ויּלּינוּ or ויּלּנוּ, is thereby proved to be erroneous.
But if ויּלינוּ is the correct reading, then it follows that we have to take Psa 59:16 not as foretelling what will take place, but as describing that which is present; so that consequently the fut. consec . (as is frequently the case apart from any historical connection) is only a consecutive continuation of ינוּעוּן (for which the Kerî has יניעוּן; the form that was required in Psa 59:12, but is inadmissible here): they wander up and down (נוּע as in Psa 109:10, cf.
נוּד, Job 15:23) to eat (that is to say, seeking after food); and if they are not satisfied, they pass the night, i. e. , remain, eager for food and expecting it, over night on the spot. This interpretation is the most natural, the simplest, and the one that harmonizes best not only with the text before us (the punctuation ישׂבּעוּ, not ישׂבּעוּ, gives the member of the clause the impress of being a protasis), but also with the situation.
The poet describes the activity of his enemies, and that by completing or retouching the picture of their comparison to dogs: he himself is the food or prey for which they are so eager, and which they would not willingly allow to escape them, and which they nevertheless cannot get within their grasp. Their morbid desire remains unsatisfied: he, however, in the morning, is able to sing of the power of God, which protects him, and exultantly to praise God’s loving-kindness, which satiates and satisfies him (Psa 90:14); for in the day of fear, which to him is now past, God was his inaccessible stronghold, his unapproachable asylum.
To this God, then, even further the play of his harp shall be directed (אזמּרה), just as was his waiting or hoping (אשׁמרה, Psa 59:10). (In the Hebrew, v. 1 is the designation 'To the leader:.... A Psalm of David'; from then on v. 1-12 in English translation corresponds to v. 2-13 in the Hebrew)
Psa 59:10-17 In this second half of the Psalm the cry of fear is hushed. Hope reigns, and anger burns more fiercely. The Kerî says that Psa 59:11 is to be read: אלהי חסדּי יקדּמני, my gracious God will anticipate me, - but with what? This question altogether disappears if we retain the Chethîb and point אלהי הסדּו: my God will anticipate me with His mercy (cf.
Psa 21:4), i. e. , will meet me bringing His mercy without any effort of mine. Even the old translators have felt that chcdw must belong to the verb as a second object. The lxx is perfectly correct in its rendering, ὁ Θεὸς μου τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ προφθάσει με. The Kerî has come into existence in looking to v. 18, according to which it seems as though אלהי הסדּי ought to be added to the refrain, Psa 59:10 (cf.
a similar instance in Psa 42:6-7). But Psa 59:11 would be stunted by doing this, and it accords with Biblical poetic usage that the refrain in v. 18 should be climactic in comparison with Psa 59:10 (just as it also does not altogether harmonize in its first half); so that Olshausen’s proposal to close Psa 59:10 with אלהי חסדי and to begin Psa 59:11 with חסדו (cf.
Psa 79:8) is only just to be put on record. The prayer “slay them not” does not contradict the prayer that follows for their destruction. The poet wishes that those who lie in wait for him, before they are totally swept away, may remain for a season before the eyes of this people as an example of punishment. In accordance with this, הניעמו, by a comparison of the Hiph .
in Num 32:13, and of the Kal in Psa 59:16, Psa 109:10, is to be rendered: cause them to wander about (Targum, cf. Genesis Rabba , ch. 38 init . , טלטלמו); and in connection with בחילך one is involuntarily reminded of Psa 10:10, Psa 10:14, and is tempted to read בחלך or בחלך: cause them to wander about in adversity or wretchedness, = Arab. ‛umr ḥâlik , vita caliginosa h.
e. misera ), and more especially since בחילך occurs nowhere else instead of בּזרעך or בּימינך. But the Jod in בחילך is unfavourable to this supposition; and since the martial apostrophe of God by “our shield” follows, the choice of the word is explained by the consideration that the poet conceives of the power of God as an army (Joe 2:25), and perhaps thinks directly of the heavenly host (Joe 3:11), over which the Lord of Hosts holds command (Hitzig).
By means of this He is first of all to cause them to go astray (נע ונד, Gen 4:12), then utterly to cast them down (Psa 56:8). The Lord (אדני) is to do this, as truly as He is Israel’s shield against all the heathen and all pseudo-Israelites who have become as heathen. The first member of Psa 59:13 is undoubtedly meant descriptively: “the sin of their mouth (the sin of the tongue) is the word of their lips” (with the dull-toned suffix mo , in the use of which Ps 59 associates itself with the Psalms of the time of Saul, Psa 56:1-13, Psa 11:1-7, Psa 17:1-15, 22, 35, Psa 64:1-10).
The combination ולילּכדוּ בגאונם, however, more readily suggests parallel passages like Pro 11:6 than Pro 6:2; and moreover the מן of the expression וּמאלה וּמכּחשׁ, which is without example in connection with ספּר, and, taken as expressing the motive (Hupfeld), ought to be joined with some designations of the disposition of mind, is best explained as an appended statement of the reason for which they are to be ensnared, so that consequently יספּרוּ (cf. Psa 69:27; Psa 64:6) is an attributive clause; nor is this contrary to the accentuation, if one admits the Munach to be a transformation of Mugrash .
It is therefore to be rendered: “let them, then, be taken in their pride, and on account of the curse and deceit which they wilfully utter. ” If, by virtue of the righteousness of the Ruler of the world, their sin has thus become their fall, then, after they have been as it were a warning example to Israel, God is utterly to remove them out of the way, in order that they (it is unnecessary to suppose any change of subject), while perishing, may perceive that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob (בּ, used elsewhere of the object, e.
g. , Mic 5:1, is here used of the place of dominion), and as in Jacob, so from thence unto the ends of the earth (ל like על, Psa 48:11) wields the sceptre. Just like the first group of the first part, this first group of the second part also closes with Sela . The second group opens like the second group in the first part, but with this exception, that here we read וישׁבוּ, which loosely connects it with what precedes, whereas there it is ישׁוּבוּ.
The poet’s gaze is again turned towards his present straitened condition, and again the pack of dogs by which Saul is hunting him present themselves to his mind. המּה points towards an antithesis that follows, and which finds its expression in ואני. ויּלינוּ and לבּקר stand in direct contrast to one another, and in addition to this לערב has preceded. The reading of the lxx (Vulgate, Luther, [and authorized version]), καὶ γογγύσουσιν = ויּלּינוּ or ויּלּנוּ, is thereby proved to be erroneous.
But if ויּלינוּ is the correct reading, then it follows that we have to take Psa 59:16 not as foretelling what will take place, but as describing that which is present; so that consequently the fut. consec . (as is frequently the case apart from any historical connection) is only a consecutive continuation of ינוּעוּן (for which the Kerî has יניעוּן; the form that was required in Psa 59:12, but is inadmissible here): they wander up and down (נוּע as in Psa 109:10, cf.
נוּד, Job 15:23) to eat (that is to say, seeking after food); and if they are not satisfied, they pass the night, i. e. , remain, eager for food and expecting it, over night on the spot. This interpretation is the most natural, the simplest, and the one that harmonizes best not only with the text before us (the punctuation ישׂבּעוּ, not ישׂבּעוּ, gives the member of the clause the impress of being a protasis), but also with the situation.
The poet describes the activity of his enemies, and that by completing or retouching the picture of their comparison to dogs: he himself is the food or prey for which they are so eager, and which they would not willingly allow to escape them, and which they nevertheless cannot get within their grasp. Their morbid desire remains unsatisfied: he, however, in the morning, is able to sing of the power of God, which protects him, and exultantly to praise God’s loving-kindness, which satiates and satisfies him (Psa 90:14); for in the day of fear, which to him is now past, God was his inaccessible stronghold, his unapproachable asylum.
To this God, then, even further the play of his harp shall be directed (אזמּרה), just as was his waiting or hoping (אשׁמרה, Psa 59:10). (In the Hebrew, v. 1 is the designation 'To the leader:.... A Psalm of David'; from then on v. 1-12 in English translation corresponds to v. 2-13 in the Hebrew)
Psa 59:10-17 In this second half of the Psalm the cry of fear is hushed. Hope reigns, and anger burns more fiercely. The Kerî says that Psa 59:11 is to be read: אלהי חסדּי יקדּמני, my gracious God will anticipate me, - but with what? This question altogether disappears if we retain the Chethîb and point אלהי הסדּו: my God will anticipate me with His mercy (cf.
Psa 21:4), i. e. , will meet me bringing His mercy without any effort of mine. Even the old translators have felt that chcdw must belong to the verb as a second object. The lxx is perfectly correct in its rendering, ὁ Θεὸς μου τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ προφθάσει με. The Kerî has come into existence in looking to v. 18, according to which it seems as though אלהי הסדּי ought to be added to the refrain, Psa 59:10 (cf.
a similar instance in Psa 42:6-7). But Psa 59:11 would be stunted by doing this, and it accords with Biblical poetic usage that the refrain in v. 18 should be climactic in comparison with Psa 59:10 (just as it also does not altogether harmonize in its first half); so that Olshausen’s proposal to close Psa 59:10 with אלהי חסדי and to begin Psa 59:11 with חסדו (cf.
Psa 79:8) is only just to be put on record. The prayer “slay them not” does not contradict the prayer that follows for their destruction. The poet wishes that those who lie in wait for him, before they are totally swept away, may remain for a season before the eyes of this people as an example of punishment. In accordance with this, הניעמו, by a comparison of the Hiph .
in Num 32:13, and of the Kal in Psa 59:16, Psa 109:10, is to be rendered: cause them to wander about (Targum, cf. Genesis Rabba , ch. 38 init . , טלטלמו); and in connection with בחילך one is involuntarily reminded of Psa 10:10, Psa 10:14, and is tempted to read בחלך or בחלך: cause them to wander about in adversity or wretchedness, = Arab. ‛umr ḥâlik , vita caliginosa h.
e. misera ), and more especially since בחילך occurs nowhere else instead of בּזרעך or בּימינך. But the Jod in בחילך is unfavourable to this supposition; and since the martial apostrophe of God by “our shield” follows, the choice of the word is explained by the consideration that the poet conceives of the power of God as an army (Joe 2:25), and perhaps thinks directly of the heavenly host (Joe 3:11), over which the Lord of Hosts holds command (Hitzig).
By means of this He is first of all to cause them to go astray (נע ונד, Gen 4:12), then utterly to cast them down (Psa 56:8). The Lord (אדני) is to do this, as truly as He is Israel’s shield against all the heathen and all pseudo-Israelites who have become as heathen. The first member of Psa 59:13 is undoubtedly meant descriptively: “the sin of their mouth (the sin of the tongue) is the word of their lips” (with the dull-toned suffix mo , in the use of which Ps 59 associates itself with the Psalms of the time of Saul, Psa 56:1-13, Psa 11:1-7, Psa 17:1-15, 22, 35, Psa 64:1-10).
The combination ולילּכדוּ בגאונם, however, more readily suggests parallel passages like Pro 11:6 than Pro 6:2; and moreover the מן of the expression וּמאלה וּמכּחשׁ, which is without example in connection with ספּר, and, taken as expressing the motive (Hupfeld), ought to be joined with some designations of the disposition of mind, is best explained as an appended statement of the reason for which they are to be ensnared, so that consequently יספּרוּ (cf. Psa 69:27; Psa 64:6) is an attributive clause; nor is this contrary to the accentuation, if one admits the Munach to be a transformation of Mugrash .
It is therefore to be rendered: “let them, then, be taken in their pride, and on account of the curse and deceit which they wilfully utter. ” If, by virtue of the righteousness of the Ruler of the world, their sin has thus become their fall, then, after they have been as it were a warning example to Israel, God is utterly to remove them out of the way, in order that they (it is unnecessary to suppose any change of subject), while perishing, may perceive that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob (בּ, used elsewhere of the object, e.
g. , Mic 5:1, is here used of the place of dominion), and as in Jacob, so from thence unto the ends of the earth (ל like על, Psa 48:11) wields the sceptre. Just like the first group of the first part, this first group of the second part also closes with Sela . The second group opens like the second group in the first part, but with this exception, that here we read וישׁבוּ, which loosely connects it with what precedes, whereas there it is ישׁוּבוּ.
The poet’s gaze is again turned towards his present straitened condition, and again the pack of dogs by which Saul is hunting him present themselves to his mind. המּה points towards an antithesis that follows, and which finds its expression in ואני. ויּלינוּ and לבּקר stand in direct contrast to one another, and in addition to this לערב has preceded. The reading of the lxx (Vulgate, Luther, [and authorized version]), καὶ γογγύσουσιν = ויּלּינוּ or ויּלּנוּ, is thereby proved to be erroneous.
But if ויּלינוּ is the correct reading, then it follows that we have to take Psa 59:16 not as foretelling what will take place, but as describing that which is present; so that consequently the fut. consec . (as is frequently the case apart from any historical connection) is only a consecutive continuation of ינוּעוּן (for which the Kerî has יניעוּן; the form that was required in Psa 59:12, but is inadmissible here): they wander up and down (נוּע as in Psa 109:10, cf.
נוּד, Job 15:23) to eat (that is to say, seeking after food); and if they are not satisfied, they pass the night, i. e. , remain, eager for food and expecting it, over night on the spot. This interpretation is the most natural, the simplest, and the one that harmonizes best not only with the text before us (the punctuation ישׂבּעוּ, not ישׂבּעוּ, gives the member of the clause the impress of being a protasis), but also with the situation.
The poet describes the activity of his enemies, and that by completing or retouching the picture of their comparison to dogs: he himself is the food or prey for which they are so eager, and which they would not willingly allow to escape them, and which they nevertheless cannot get within their grasp. Their morbid desire remains unsatisfied: he, however, in the morning, is able to sing of the power of God, which protects him, and exultantly to praise God’s loving-kindness, which satiates and satisfies him (Psa 90:14); for in the day of fear, which to him is now past, God was his inaccessible stronghold, his unapproachable asylum.
To this God, then, even further the play of his harp shall be directed (אזמּרה), just as was his waiting or hoping (אשׁמרה, Psa 59:10). (In the Hebrew, v. 1 is the designation 'To the leader:.... A Psalm of David'; from then on v. 1-12 in English translation corresponds to v. 2-13 in the Hebrew)
This last of the Elohimic Michtammı̂m of David is dated from the time of the Syro-Ammonitish war: When he (David) waged war ( Hiph . of נצה, to pull, to seize by the hair) with (את like על in Num 26:9; according to Ben-Asher, with Segol instead of Makkeph here, as in Psa 47:5, Pro 3:12, three passages which are noted by the Masora) Aram of the two rivers (the people of the land of the twin streams, Mesopotami'a) and with Aram Zobah (probably between the Euphrates and Orontes north-east of Damascus), and Joab returned (ויּשׁב, transition from the infinitive to the finite verb, Ges.
§132, rem. 2) and smote Edom in the Valley of Salt (the Edomitish Ghor , i. e. , the salt plain, some ten miles wide, at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea) with twelve thousand men . This historical inscription comes from an historical work which gave the Psalm in this connection. It is not take out of any of the histories that have been preserved to us.
For both in 2Sa 8:13 and in 1Ch 18:12 we find the number eighteen thousand instead of twelve. In the former passage, in which עשׂה שׁם is substantially equivalent to the Roman triumphum agere , we have to read את־עדם after the inscription of our Psalm instead of את־ארם. It is, however, still more probable that the words ויּך את־עדם (lxx ἐπάταξε τὴν Ἰδουμαίαν) have accidentally fallen out.
The fact that here in the Psalm the victory over the Edomites is ascribed to Joab, in the Chronicles to Abshai (Abishai), and in 2 Sam. to David, is a difference which may easily be reconciled by the consideration that the army of David was under the supreme command of Joab, and this battle in the Valley of Salt was fought against the Edomites by Joab indirectly through his brother (cf.
2Sa 10:10). The inscription carries us into the time of the greatest, longest, and most glorious of David’s wars, that with the Ammonites, which, so far as these were concerned, ended in the second year in the conquest of Rabbah (vid. , Psa 21:1-13), and with their Aramaean allies, among whom Hadadezer, the ruler of the powerful kingdom of Zobah, was defeated in the first year at Chêlam on the other side the Jordan.
Then when, in the second year, he endeavoured to fortify himself anew in the districts on the banks of the Euphrates, he was completely subjugated together with the Syrians who had come to his assistance. Thus are the accounts of Aramaean wars related in 2 Sam. 8 and 2Sa 10:1 to be combined. Whilst, now, the arms of David were making such triumphant progress in the north, the Edomites in the south had invaded the land which was denuded of troops, and here a new war, which jeopardized all the results that had been gained in the north, awaited the victorious army.
Psa 60:1-12 refers more especially to this Edomitish war. Hengstenberg is wrong when he infers from the inscription that it was composed after the victory in the Valley of Salt and before the conquest of Idumaea. The inscription only in a general way gives to the Psalm its historical setting. It was composed before the victory in the Valley of Salt, and presupposes the Israelitish south had been at that time grievously laid waste by the Edomites, against whom they were unable to oppose an adequate force.
We may also infer from other indications how the occupation of the neighbouring and brother-country by the Edomites called for vengeance against them; vid. , on Ps 44. That Korahitic Psalm may have been composed after the Davidic Psalm, and is designedly, by Psa 60:10, brought into relationship with it. In the cento Psalms 108:7-14 correspond to Psalms 60:7-14.
The Michtam character of the Psalm manifests itself both in the fact that a divine oracle is unfolded in it, and also in the fact that the language of complaint, “Elohim, Thou hast cast us off” (cf. Psa 44:10), is repeated as its favourite utterance. Concerning על־שׁוּשׁן עדוּת, after “A Lily is the testimony” (or “The Lily of the testimony” ), vid. , on Psa 45:1.
The addition of ללמּד is to be interpreted according to ללמּד בּני־יהוּדה קשׁת, 2Sa 1:18 : the song is thereby appointed to be sung in connection with the practice of the bow. The elegy on Saul and Jonathan was suited to this by reason of the praise which is therein given to the bow of Jonathan, the favourite weapon of that brave warrior, and by the indirect remembrance of the skilful Philistine archers, who brought a disgrace upon the name of Israel in the battle on Gilboa, that needed as speedily as possible to be wiped out.
Psa 60:1-12, this most martial of all the Psalms, is also a song at the practice of arms, which was designed to inflame and to hallow the patriotic martial ardour of the young men when they were being exercised. Hengstenberg and others, who reckon according to the Masoretic verses, divide the Psalm into three strophes of four Masoretic verses each. The fact that the use made of Psa 60:1-12 in Psa 108:1-13 begins with Psa 60:7, למען יחלצון, lends some colour to this division, which is also strengthened by the Sela .
Nevertheless Psa 60:6 and Psa 60:7 belong inseparably together.
Psa 60:1-5 This first strophe contains complaint and prayer; and establishes the prayer by the greatness of the need and Israel’s relationship to God. The sense in which פּרצתּנוּ is intended becomes clear from 2Sa 5:20, where David uses this word of the defeat of the Philistines, and explains it figuratively. The word signifies to break through what has hitherto been a compact mass, to burst, blast, scatter, disperse.
The prayer is first of all timidly uttered in תּשׁובב לנוּ in the form of a wish; then in רפה ( Psa 60:4 ) and הושׁיעה ( Psa 60:7 ) it waxes more and more eloquent. שׁובב ל here signifies to grant restoration (like הניח ל, to give rest; Psa 23:3; Isa 58:12). The word also signifies to make a turn, to turn one’s self away, in which sense, however, it cannot be construed with ל.
On פּצמתּהּ Dunash has already compared Arab. fṣm , rumpere , scindere , and Mose ha-Darshan the Targumic פּצּם = פרע, Jer 22:14. The deep wounds which the Edomites had inflicted upon the country, are after all a wrathful visitation of God Himself - reeling or intoxicating wine, or as יין תּרעלה (not יין), properly conceived of, is: wine which is sheer intoxication (an apposition instead of the genitive attraction, vid.
, on Isa 30:20), is reached out by Him to His people. The figure of the intoxicating cup has passed over from the Psalms of David and of Asaph to the prophets (e. g. , Isa 51:17, Isa 51:21). A kindred thought is expressed in the proverb: Quem Deus perdere vult, eum dementat. All the preterites as far as השׁקיתנוּ ( Psa 60:5 ) glance back plaintively at that which has been suffered.
But Psa 60:6 cannot be thus intended; for to explain with Ewald and Hitzig, following the lxx, “Thou hast set up a banner for those who reverence Thee, not for victory, but for flight,” is inadmissible, notwithstanding the fact that מפּני קשׁת nuwc is a customary phrase and the inscribed ללמּד is favourable to the mention of the bow. For (1) The words, beginning with נתתּ, do not sound like an utterance of something worthy of complaint - in this case it ought at least to have been expressed by עך להתנוסס (only for flight, not for victory); (2) it is more than improbable that the bow, instead of being called קשׁת (feminine of the Arabic masculine kaus ), is here, according to an incorrect Aramaic form of writing, called קשׁט, whereas this word in its primary form קשׁט (Pro 22:21) corresponds to the Aramaic קוּשׁטא not in the signification “a bow,” but (as it is also intended in the Targum of our passage) in the signification “truth” (Arabic ḳisṭ of strict unswerving justice, root קש, to be hard, strong, firm; just as, vice versa , the word ṣidḳ , coming from a synonymous root, is equivalent to “truth”).
We therefore take the perfect predication, like Psa 60:4 , as the foundation of the prayer which follows: Thou hast given those who fear Thee a banner to muster themselves ( sich aufpanieren ), i. e. , to raise themselves as around a standard or like a standard, on account of the truth - help then, in order that Thy beloved ones may be delivered, with Thy right hand, and answer me.
This rendering, in accordance with which Psa 60:6 expresses the good cause of Israel in opposition to its enemies, is also favoured by the heightened effect of the music, which comes in here, as Sela prescribes. The reflexive התנוסס here therefore signifies not, as Hithpal . of נוּס, “to betake one’s self to flight,” but “to raise one’s self” - a signification on behalf of which we cannot appeal to Zec 9:16, where מתנוססות is apparently equivalent to מתנוצצות “sparkling,” but which here results from the juxtaposition with נס (cf.
נסה, Psa 4:7), inasmuch as נס itself, like Arab. naṣṣun , is so called from נסס, Arab. naṣṣ , to set up, raise, whether it be that the Hithpo . falls back upon the Kal of the verb or that it is intended as a denominative (to raise one’s self as a banner, sich aufpanieren ). It is undeniable that not merely in later (e. g. , Neh 5:15), but also even in older Hebrew, מפּני denotes the reason and motive (e.
g. , Deu 28:20). Moreover Ps 44 is like a commentary on this מפּני קשׁט, in which the consciousness of the people of the covenant revelation briefly and comprehensively expresses itself concerning their vocation in the world. Israel looks upon its battle against the heathen, as now against Edom, as a rising for the truth in accordance with its mission. By reason of the fact and of the consciousness which are expressed in Psa 60:6, arises the prayer in Psa 60:7, that Jahve would interpose to help and to rescue His own people from the power of the enemy.
ימינך is instrumental (vid. , on Psa 3:5). It is to be read ענני according to the Kerî , as in Psa 108:7, instead of עננוּ; so that here the king of Israel is speaking, who, as he prays, stands in the place of his people.
Psa 60:1-5 This first strophe contains complaint and prayer; and establishes the prayer by the greatness of the need and Israel’s relationship to God. The sense in which פּרצתּנוּ is intended becomes clear from 2Sa 5:20, where David uses this word of the defeat of the Philistines, and explains it figuratively. The word signifies to break through what has hitherto been a compact mass, to burst, blast, scatter, disperse.
The prayer is first of all timidly uttered in תּשׁובב לנוּ in the form of a wish; then in רפה ( Psa 60:4 ) and הושׁיעה ( Psa 60:7 ) it waxes more and more eloquent. שׁובב ל here signifies to grant restoration (like הניח ל, to give rest; Psa 23:3; Isa 58:12). The word also signifies to make a turn, to turn one’s self away, in which sense, however, it cannot be construed with ל.
On פּצמתּהּ Dunash has already compared Arab. fṣm , rumpere , scindere , and Mose ha-Darshan the Targumic פּצּם = פרע, Jer 22:14. The deep wounds which the Edomites had inflicted upon the country, are after all a wrathful visitation of God Himself - reeling or intoxicating wine, or as יין תּרעלה (not יין), properly conceived of, is: wine which is sheer intoxication (an apposition instead of the genitive attraction, vid.
, on Isa 30:20), is reached out by Him to His people. The figure of the intoxicating cup has passed over from the Psalms of David and of Asaph to the prophets (e. g. , Isa 51:17, Isa 51:21). A kindred thought is expressed in the proverb: Quem Deus perdere vult, eum dementat. All the preterites as far as השׁקיתנוּ ( Psa 60:5 ) glance back plaintively at that which has been suffered.
But Psa 60:6 cannot be thus intended; for to explain with Ewald and Hitzig, following the lxx, “Thou hast set up a banner for those who reverence Thee, not for victory, but for flight,” is inadmissible, notwithstanding the fact that מפּני קשׁת nuwc is a customary phrase and the inscribed ללמּד is favourable to the mention of the bow. For (1) The words, beginning with נתתּ, do not sound like an utterance of something worthy of complaint - in this case it ought at least to have been expressed by עך להתנוסס (only for flight, not for victory); (2) it is more than improbable that the bow, instead of being called קשׁת (feminine of the Arabic masculine kaus ), is here, according to an incorrect Aramaic form of writing, called קשׁט, whereas this word in its primary form קשׁט (Pro 22:21) corresponds to the Aramaic קוּשׁטא not in the signification “a bow,” but (as it is also intended in the Targum of our passage) in the signification “truth” (Arabic ḳisṭ of strict unswerving justice, root קש, to be hard, strong, firm; just as, vice versa , the word ṣidḳ , coming from a synonymous root, is equivalent to “truth”).
We therefore take the perfect predication, like Psa 60:4 , as the foundation of the prayer which follows: Thou hast given those who fear Thee a banner to muster themselves ( sich aufpanieren ), i. e. , to raise themselves as around a standard or like a standard, on account of the truth - help then, in order that Thy beloved ones may be delivered, with Thy right hand, and answer me.
This rendering, in accordance with which Psa 60:6 expresses the good cause of Israel in opposition to its enemies, is also favoured by the heightened effect of the music, which comes in here, as Sela prescribes. The reflexive התנוסס here therefore signifies not, as Hithpal . of נוּס, “to betake one’s self to flight,” but “to raise one’s self” - a signification on behalf of which we cannot appeal to Zec 9:16, where מתנוססות is apparently equivalent to מתנוצצות “sparkling,” but which here results from the juxtaposition with נס (cf.
נסה, Psa 4:7), inasmuch as נס itself, like Arab. naṣṣun , is so called from נסס, Arab. naṣṣ , to set up, raise, whether it be that the Hithpo . falls back upon the Kal of the verb or that it is intended as a denominative (to raise one’s self as a banner, sich aufpanieren ). It is undeniable that not merely in later (e. g. , Neh 5:15), but also even in older Hebrew, מפּני denotes the reason and motive (e.
g. , Deu 28:20). Moreover Ps 44 is like a commentary on this מפּני קשׁט, in which the consciousness of the people of the covenant revelation briefly and comprehensively expresses itself concerning their vocation in the world. Israel looks upon its battle against the heathen, as now against Edom, as a rising for the truth in accordance with its mission. By reason of the fact and of the consciousness which are expressed in Psa 60:6, arises the prayer in Psa 60:7, that Jahve would interpose to help and to rescue His own people from the power of the enemy.
ימינך is instrumental (vid. , on Psa 3:5). It is to be read ענני according to the Kerî , as in Psa 108:7, instead of עננוּ; so that here the king of Israel is speaking, who, as he prays, stands in the place of his people.
Psa 60:1-5 This first strophe contains complaint and prayer; and establishes the prayer by the greatness of the need and Israel’s relationship to God. The sense in which פּרצתּנוּ is intended becomes clear from 2Sa 5:20, where David uses this word of the defeat of the Philistines, and explains it figuratively. The word signifies to break through what has hitherto been a compact mass, to burst, blast, scatter, disperse.
The prayer is first of all timidly uttered in תּשׁובב לנוּ in the form of a wish; then in רפה ( Psa 60:4 ) and הושׁיעה ( Psa 60:7 ) it waxes more and more eloquent. שׁובב ל here signifies to grant restoration (like הניח ל, to give rest; Psa 23:3; Isa 58:12). The word also signifies to make a turn, to turn one’s self away, in which sense, however, it cannot be construed with ל.
On פּצמתּהּ Dunash has already compared Arab. fṣm , rumpere , scindere , and Mose ha-Darshan the Targumic פּצּם = פרע, Jer 22:14. The deep wounds which the Edomites had inflicted upon the country, are after all a wrathful visitation of God Himself - reeling or intoxicating wine, or as יין תּרעלה (not יין), properly conceived of, is: wine which is sheer intoxication (an apposition instead of the genitive attraction, vid.
, on Isa 30:20), is reached out by Him to His people. The figure of the intoxicating cup has passed over from the Psalms of David and of Asaph to the prophets (e. g. , Isa 51:17, Isa 51:21). A kindred thought is expressed in the proverb: Quem Deus perdere vult, eum dementat. All the preterites as far as השׁקיתנוּ ( Psa 60:5 ) glance back plaintively at that which has been suffered.
But Psa 60:6 cannot be thus intended; for to explain with Ewald and Hitzig, following the lxx, “Thou hast set up a banner for those who reverence Thee, not for victory, but for flight,” is inadmissible, notwithstanding the fact that מפּני קשׁת nuwc is a customary phrase and the inscribed ללמּד is favourable to the mention of the bow. For (1) The words, beginning with נתתּ, do not sound like an utterance of something worthy of complaint - in this case it ought at least to have been expressed by עך להתנוסס (only for flight, not for victory); (2) it is more than improbable that the bow, instead of being called קשׁת (feminine of the Arabic masculine kaus ), is here, according to an incorrect Aramaic form of writing, called קשׁט, whereas this word in its primary form קשׁט (Pro 22:21) corresponds to the Aramaic קוּשׁטא not in the signification “a bow,” but (as it is also intended in the Targum of our passage) in the signification “truth” (Arabic ḳisṭ of strict unswerving justice, root קש, to be hard, strong, firm; just as, vice versa , the word ṣidḳ , coming from a synonymous root, is equivalent to “truth”).
We therefore take the perfect predication, like Psa 60:4 , as the foundation of the prayer which follows: Thou hast given those who fear Thee a banner to muster themselves ( sich aufpanieren ), i. e. , to raise themselves as around a standard or like a standard, on account of the truth - help then, in order that Thy beloved ones may be delivered, with Thy right hand, and answer me.
This rendering, in accordance with which Psa 60:6 expresses the good cause of Israel in opposition to its enemies, is also favoured by the heightened effect of the music, which comes in here, as Sela prescribes. The reflexive התנוסס here therefore signifies not, as Hithpal . of נוּס, “to betake one’s self to flight,” but “to raise one’s self” - a signification on behalf of which we cannot appeal to Zec 9:16, where מתנוססות is apparently equivalent to מתנוצצות “sparkling,” but which here results from the juxtaposition with נס (cf.
נסה, Psa 4:7), inasmuch as נס itself, like Arab. naṣṣun , is so called from נסס, Arab. naṣṣ , to set up, raise, whether it be that the Hithpo . falls back upon the Kal of the verb or that it is intended as a denominative (to raise one’s self as a banner, sich aufpanieren ). It is undeniable that not merely in later (e. g. , Neh 5:15), but also even in older Hebrew, מפּני denotes the reason and motive (e.
g. , Deu 28:20). Moreover Ps 44 is like a commentary on this מפּני קשׁט, in which the consciousness of the people of the covenant revelation briefly and comprehensively expresses itself concerning their vocation in the world. Israel looks upon its battle against the heathen, as now against Edom, as a rising for the truth in accordance with its mission. By reason of the fact and of the consciousness which are expressed in Psa 60:6, arises the prayer in Psa 60:7, that Jahve would interpose to help and to rescue His own people from the power of the enemy.
ימינך is instrumental (vid. , on Psa 3:5). It is to be read ענני according to the Kerî , as in Psa 108:7, instead of עננוּ; so that here the king of Israel is speaking, who, as he prays, stands in the place of his people.