Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 10:3 - 10:3

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 10:3 - 10:3


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The prominent features of the situation are supported by a detailed description. The praett. express those features of their character that have become a matter of actual experience. הִלֵּל, to praise aloud, generally with the accus., is here used with עַל of the thing which calls forth praise. Far from hiding the shameful desire or passion (Psa 112:10) of his soul, he makes it an object and ground of high and sounding praise, imagining himself to be above all restraint human or divine. Hupfeld translates wrongly: “and he blesses the plunderer, he blasphemes Jahve.” But the רָשָׁע who persecutes the godly, is himself a בֹּצַעַ a covetous or rapacious person; for such is the designation (elsewhere with בֶּצַע Pro 1:19, or רַע בֶּצַע Hab 2:9) not merely of one who “cuts off” (Arab. bḍ‛), i.e., obtains unjust gain, by trading, but also by plunder, πλεονέκτης. The verb בֵּרֵךְ (here in connection with Mugrash, as in Num 23:20 with Tiphcha בֵּרֵךְ) never directly signifies maledicere in biblical Hebrew as it does in the alter Talmudic (whence בִּרְכַּת הַשֵּׁם blasphemy, B. Sanhedrin 56a, and frequently), but to take leave of any one with a benediction, and then to bid farewell, to dismiss, to decline and abandon generally, Job 1:5, and frequently (cf. the word remercier, abdanken; and the phrase “das Zeitliche segnen” = to depart this life). The declaration without a conjunction is climactic, like Isa 1:4; Amo 4:5; Jer 15:7. נִאֵץ, properly to prick, sting, is sued of utter rejection by word and deed.

(Note: Pasek stands between נאץ and יהוה, because to blaspheme God is a terrible thought and not to be spoken of without hesitancy, cf. the Pasek in Psa 74:18; Psa 89:52; Isa 37:24 (2Ki 19:23).)

In Psa 10:4, “the evil-doer according to his haughtiness” (cf. Pro 16:18) is nom. absol., and בַּל־יִדְרֹשׁ אֵין אֱלֹהִים (contrary to the accentuation) is virtually the predicate to כָּל־מְזְמֹּותָיו. This word, which denotes the intrigues of the ungodly, in Psa 10:2, has in this verse, the general meaning: thoughts (from זמם, Arab. zmm, to join, combine), but not without being easily associated with the secondary idea of that which is subtly devised. The whole texture of his thoughts is, i.e., proceeds from and tends towards the thought, that he (viz., Jahve, whom he does not like to name) will punish with nothing (בַּל the strongest form of subjective negation), that in fact there is no God at all. This second follows from the first; for to deny the existence of a living, acting, all-punishing (in one word: a personal) God, is equivalent to denying the existence of any real and true God whatever (Ewald).