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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 10:17 - 10:17
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Still standing on this eminence from which he seems to behold the end, the poet basks in the realisation of that which has been obtained in answer to prayer. The ardent longing of the meek and lowly sufferers for the arising, the parusia of Jahve (Isa 26:8), has now been heard by Him, and that under circumstances which find expression in the following futt., which have a past signification: God has given and preserved to their hearts the right disposition towards Himself (הֵכִין, as in Psa 78:8; Job 11:13, Sir. 2:17 ἑτοιμάζειν καρδίας, post-biblical כִּוֵּן
(Note: B. Berachoth 31a: the man who prays must direct his heart steadfastly towards God (יְכַוֵּן לִבֹּו לַשָּׁמַיִם).)
and to be understood according to 1Sa 7:3; 2Ch 20:33, cf. לֵב נָכֹון Psa 51:12; Psa 78:37; it is equivalent to “the single eye” in the language of the New Testament), just as, on the other hand, He has set His ear in the attitude of close attention to their prayer, and even to their most secret sighings (הִקְשִׁיב with אֹזֶן, as in Pro 2:2; to stiffen the ear, from קָשַׁב, Arab. qasuba, root קש to be hard, rigid, firm from which we also have קָשָׁה, Arab. qsâ, קָשַׁה, Arab. qsh, qsn, cf. on Isa 21:7). It was a mutual relation, the design of which was finally and speedily to obtain justice for the fatherless and oppressed, yea crushed, few, in order that mortal man of the earth may no longer (בַּל, as in Isa 14:21, and in post-biblical Hebrew בַּל and לְבַל instead of פֶּן) terrify. From the parallel conclusion, Ps 9:20-21, it is to be inferred that אֱנֹושׁ does not refer to the oppressed but to the oppressor, and is therefore intended as the subject; and then the phrase מִן־הָאָרֶץ also belongs to it, as in Psa 17:14, people of the world, Psa 80:14 boar of the woods, whereas in Pro 30:14 מֵאֶרֶץ belongs to the verb (to devour from off the earth). It is only in this combination that מִן־הָאָרֶץ אֱנֹושׁ forms with לַֽעֲרֹץ a significant paronomasia, by contrasting the conduct of the tyrant with his true nature: a mortal of the earth, i.e., a being who, far removed from any possibility of vying with the God who is in heaven, has the earth as his birth-place. It is not מִן־הָֽאֲדָמָה, for the earth is not referred to as the material out of which man is formed, but as his ancestral house, his home, his bound, just as in the expression of John ὁ ὢν ἐκ τῆς γῆς, Joh 3:31 (Lat. ut non amplius terreat homo terrenus). A similar play of words was attempted before in Psa 9:20 אֱנֹושׁ אַל־יָעֹז. The Hebrew verb עָרַץ signifies both to give way to fear, Deu 7:21, and to put in fear, Isa 2:19, Isa 2:21; Isa 47:12. It does mean “to defy, rebel against,” although it might have this meaning according to the Arabic ‛rḍ (to come in the way, withstand, according to which Wetzstein explains עָרוּץ Job 30:6, like Arab. ‛irḍ, “a valley that runs slantwise across a district, a gorge that blocks up the traveller's way”
(Note: Zeitschrift für Allgem. Erdkunde xviii. (1865) 1, S. 30.)).
It is related to Arab. ‛rṣ, to vibrate, tremble (e.g., of lightning).