10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever? II Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom. 12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. 13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. gifts of inspiration. On the bearing of this verse on the question of the date see Introd. b. Rend. "and there is not one with us who knoweth until when—” i. e. "there is not one enabled by divine inspiration to say how long these afflictions shall last." For the aposiopesis cf. Ps. vi. 3. IO. Rend. "How long, O God, shall the oppressor blaspheme? shall the enemy revile Thy name for ever?" i.e. how long shall these apparently endless profanations continue? II. Rend. "Why withdrawest Thou Thy hand, even Thy right hand? [O bring it] out of the midst of Thy bosom, [and] destroy [the enemy]." Such appears to be the best rendering of this tersely expressed, and curiously constructed verse. "Out of the midst of Thy bosom destroy" is a pregnant expression equivalent to "drawing forth out of Thy bosom the hand that rests inactive there, do Thou destroy." For the conjunction of the terms "hand" and "right hand" Del. cfs. xliv. 3 (“but thy right hand and thy arm"); Ecclus. xxxvi. 6 A.V. ("glorify thy hand and thy right arm”). callêh, "bring to an end," here apparently by destruction. Some however prefer to render callêh as a Piel Inf. used adverbially-" bring it completely out of the midst of Thy bosom." So apparently LXX. εἰς τέλος. “ 12-17. The Psalmist enumerates the former mighty acts of God in Egypt, and the greatest of His works of creation, in proof that He is indeed able to rescue His people from their enemies. 13 b. "dragons" H. tannînîm. It is impossible for us to identify the tannîn with any degree of precision. It is clearly a large wateranimal, and is translated in the A. V. of Gen. i. 21 "whale." More generally it is rendd. “dragon," from LXX. Spákwv, as here. In this passage, as in Is. xxvii. 1, li. 9, Ez. xxix. 3, tannîn is used as a symbolical designation of Egypt; and the Targum paraphrases accordingly "Thou didst drown Egypt in the sea:" cf. Ez. xxix. 3, "I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers." The nickname probably had its origin in the veneration of the Egyptians for their great river the Nile. 14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. 15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers. 16 The day is thine, the night also 14. "Leviathan," here the crocodile of the Nile. The "heads of Leviathan" signifies probably the army of Egypt. Cf. Targ. “Thou didst crush the heads of the mighty men of Pharaoh." For the more extended meaning of "Leviathan" see Ps. civ. 26. It is apparently applied, as here, to Egypt in Is. xxvii. 1. Rend. "Thou gavest him to be meat to the beasts of the desert," lit. "to the people, even to those of the desert:" the term Dy am, "people,” is here applied to the irrational creation, meaning simply a "genus,” as in Prov. xxx. 25, 26 “The ants are a people without strength,” “The conies are a people not powerful." The meaning of this hemistich is that the corpses of the Egyptians became a prey to the wild animals that had their habitation in the desert region surrounding the Red Sea. The term " tsiyyîm is used as a designation of wild beasts in Is. xiii. 21, xxxiv. 14, Jer. 1. 39. On the other hand, in Ps. lxxii. 9, Is. xxiii. 13, the nomad tribes of the wilderness are called tsiyyîm. And in this latter sense it is here taken in this passage by some of the oldest commentators. Thus LXX. λaoîs roîs Ailiovi, and Aben Ezra. But it seems difficult to suppose that the drowned corpses of the Egyptians were literally devoured by cannibal tribes; and indeed no such tribes are known to have existed in this region, while maacâl "food" can hardly be expanded to mean merely "a prey." Still less can we understand the two words l'am l' tsiyyîm to be a concise designation of the "people going out into the wilderness," i.e. the Israelites, as Kimchi suggests. It seems probable therefore that all that is meant is that the stranded corpses of the mighty men of Pharaoh were left to be devoured by the wild beasts. Such a fate, and indeed any deprivation of the ordinary funeral rites, would be regarded by the Hebrews as peculiarly shameful. (Cf. Is. xiv. 20, 2 Kings ix. 10, Jer. passim). The construction l'am l' tsiyyîm is in any case difficult. Am is probably not the constructive but the absolute form, as in many other places; and tsiyyîm is in apposition with it, so that the construction is somewhat akin to that of l'avd'ca l' yaakôb (Gen. xxxii. 18) quoted by Rosenm. 15. Lit. "thou didst cleave both spring and brook: thou didst dry up never-failing rivers." a. This is generally regarded as a kind of ellipse, so that what the Psalmist means is, "thou didst cleave [the rocks so as to produce] is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. 17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter. 18 Remember this, that the enemy both spring and brook." In this case there is a fine antithesis between hemistichs a and b, the former referring to the miraculous effusion of water from the rock at Horeb (Exod. xvii. 6) and Kadesh Numb. xxiv. 8), the latter to the miraculous staying of the waters of the Jordan (Josh. iii. 13-16). The phrase "cleave [H. ypa] the rock," is used with reference to the waters produced by the stroke of the rod of Moses at Horeb or Kadesh in Ps. lxxviii. 15 and Is. xlviii. 21. But does this justify such a strong ellipse as is involved in the phrase bypa❝didst cleave both spring and brook," when explained as above? 66 It appears at least equally probable that the first hemistich is to be understood, not as an antithesis, but as a parallel to that succeeding, and is to be taken literally-"Thou didst cleave [or 'divide'] both spring and stream." yp is the very word employed to express the division of the waters of the Red Sea in Exod. xv. 16 and 21. The first hemistich may refer to the staying of the waters of Jordan, in which case the expression, "spring and stream," may be explained in accordance with Kimchi's exposition of the plural n'harôth "rivers" in the second hemistich, viz. as denoting the several streams of the river; or the subject of the verse may be the drying up of other smaller streams as well as that of the Jordan. Jewish tradition finds in Numb. xxi. 14 an allusion to a miraculous assistance which enabled the Jews to cross the Arnon and other streams (n'châlîm, cf. nachal here), and the Targum understands the plural n'hârôth "rivers" to include these as well as Jordan, rendg. “Thou didst dry up the ford of the streams of Arnon and the ford of Jabbok and Jordan, which are mighty [rivers]." 16. "the light," mâôr, lit. the "luminary." Here, as frequently, the sing. is used to express plural objects collectively. The words mâôr vâshemesh signify " the collection of luminaries, and the sun," or all the luminaries, and notably the sun their chief. In illustration of this abrupt introduction of vâshemesh, Rosenm. cites Ps. xviii. I, “from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul,” and Mark xvi. 7, "Tell his disciples and Peter." Targ. and Ab. Ezra and other Rabb. take mâôr to mean the moon, and so among modern commentators Delitzsch, but the term nowhere else occurs in this signification. The LXX. have σù katηptiow iλiv kaì σeλývŋy; Vulg. tu fecisti auroram et solem. hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name. 19 O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever. 20 Have respect unto the covenant: 18 to end. The prayer is resumed after this survey of the mighty acts of Jehovah in time past, with more of confidence and hopefulness. 18. Rend. "Remember Thou this, that the enemy has blasphemed Jehovah: that the foolish people have reviled Thy name. a. Jehovah is obviously not a vocative, but the object of the verb chêrêf, "blasphemed." So Targ. LXX. Vulg. The change from the 2nd to the 3rd person, though harsh to our ears, is quite in accordance with the usage of Hebrew poetry. b. "the foolish people." This, as Perowne points out, was a term commonly applied by the Hebrews to the Gentile nationalities. Cf. Deut. xxxii. 21, "I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation," and Ecclus. 1. 26, "that foolish people that dwell in Sichem," i.e. the Samaritans. But the use of tiphshâ, “foolish,” by the Targ. as the equivalent to the H. “uncircumcised” in Lev. xxvi. 41 (“if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled"), can hardly be cited in illustration of this phrase, as the figure of uncircumcision of heart here used with reference to Israel itself has nothing to do with literal uncircumcision, but simply denotes crass moral impenetrability; cf. Is. vi. 10. 19. This is apparently best rendd. "Give Thou not up Thy turtledove to that ravenous company: the company of thine afflicted ones, forget not for ever." This is the only rendering which meets the requirements of the Hebrew word 'n chayath, which must bear the same meaning in both hemistichs, and must, as a constructive, be taken with the subst. immediately following. These exigencies have been overlooked more or less by the majority of Commentators, and the fact that chayâh may bear the meanings (1) “life,” (2) a living creature," (3) "a collection of living creatures," "company," while nephesh (which we rend. here " appetite," as in Prov. xxiii. 2, Is. lvi. 11, so that chayath nephesh=“ a hungry" or "ravenous company,") means prim. "soul," has licensed innumerable variations of exegesis in what is, we believe, by no means an intricate verse. The old Rabb. tradition, as may be gathered from the accents and the Targ. translation, treats chayath as a constr. form used as an absol., a usage of which there are in Bible Hebr. some rare instances. Nephesh, "soul," is then taken with tôr'câ, "thy turtle-dove," as in A. V. P. B. V. The best Rabbinical writers, however, defend the isolated chayath by the supposition that an obj. to which it is in construction is to be supplied. for the dark places of the earth are : 22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. 23 Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually. Thus R. D. Kimchi, "Give not up to the company of (subint. "thine enemies") the soul of thy turtle-dove," Aben Ezra, "Give not up to the beast of (subint. " the field ") the soul, etc." LXX. μǹ πapadês rois θηρίοις ψυχὴν ἐξομολογουμένην σοι τῶν ψυχῶν τῶν πενήτων σου μὴ ἐπιλáðŋ eis téλos. So Vulg. Here tôr'câ, “thy turtle-dove," is misread tôd'câ, "will confess thee." Of modern commentators, Del. "Give not over to the wild beast, etc.-thy poor creatures, forget not for ever." Perowne as Del. in 1st hemistich, in 2nd “forget not the life of thine afflicted for ever." 20. Rend. "Have regard to the Covenant: for all the dark places of the earth are filled with the dwellings of violence," i. e. the violence of our enemies has pursued us even to the dark corners and lurkingplaces of the land. This, as Del. shews, was literally the case during the Syrian Persecution. The faithful were, on more than one occasion, dragged out of caves and hiding-places by the officers of Antiochus and relentlessly slain. Cf. 1 Macc. ii. 31, 32, "When it was told the king's servants *** that certain men who had broken the king's commandment were gone down into the secret places of the wilderness, they pursued after them, **** and made war against them." 2 Macc. vi. 11, " Others that had run together into a cave near by to keep the Sabbath day secretly, being discovered to Philip, were all burnt together." 22 b. Targ. "Remember how thy people is reviled all the day by the foolish king," doubtless in allusion to the name Epimanes, frantic," bestowed on King Antiochus by the Jews of the succeeding period. Cf. Athen. X. 438, Polyb. XXVI. 10. See Introd. 23 b. Rend. "[Nor] the clamour of those who rise against Thee, which goes up continually." J. L. P. |