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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 10:10 - 10:10
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The comparison to the lion is still in force here and the description recurs to its commencement in the second strophe, by tracing back the persecution of the ungodly to its final cause. Instead of the Chethîb ודכה (וְדָכָה perf. consec.), the Kerî reads יִדְכֶּה more in accordance with the Hebrew use of the tenses. Job 38:40 is the rule for the interpretation. The two futures depict the settled and familiar lying in wait of the plunderer. True, the Kal דָּכָה in the signification “to crouch down” finds no support elsewhere; but the Arab. dakka to make even (cf. Arab. rṣd, firmiter inhaesit loco, of the crouching down of beasts of prey, of hunters, and of foes) and the Arab. dagga, compared by Hitzig, to move stealthily along, to creep, and dugjeh a hunter's hiding-place exhibit synonymous significations. The ταπεινώσει αὐτὸν of the lxx is not far out of the way. And one can still discern in it the assumption that the text is to be read יָשֹׁחַ וְדָכֶה: and crushed he sinks (Aquila: ὁ δὲ λασθεὶς καμφθήσεται); but even דָּכֶה is not found elsewhere, and if the poet meant that, why could he not have written דָּכֶה? (cf. moreover Jdg 5:27). If דָּכָה is taken in the sense of a position in which one is the least likely to be seen, then the first two verbs refer to the sculker, but the third according to the usual schema (as e.g., Psa 124:5) is the predicate to חֶלְכָּאִים (חָלְכָּאִים) going before it. Crouching down as low as possible he lies on the watch, and the feeble and defenceless fall into his strong ones, עֲצוּמָיו, i.e., claws. Thus the ungodly slays the righteous, thinking within himself: God has forgotten, He has hidden His face, i.e., He does not concern Himself about these poor creatures and does not wish to know anything about them (the denial of the truth expressed in Psa 9:13, Psa 9:19); He has in fact never been one who sees, and never will be. These two thoughts are blended; עָב with the perf. as in Job 21:3, and the addition of לָנֶצַח (cf. Psa 94:7) denies the possibility of God seeing now any more than formerly, as being an absolute absurdity. The thought of a personal God would disturb the ungodly in his doings, he therefore prefers to deny His existence, and thinks: there is only fate and fate is blind, only an absolute and it has no eyes, only a notion and that cannot interfere in the affairs of men.