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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 118:1 - 118:1
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The Hodu-cry is addressed first of all and every one; then the whole body of the laity of Israel and the priests, and at last (as it appears) the proselytes (vid., on Psa 115:9-11) who fear the God of revelation, are urgently admonished to echo it back; for “yea, His mercy endureth for ever,” is the required hypophon. In Psa 118:5, Israel too then begins as one man to praise the ever-gracious goodness of God. יָהּ, the Jod of which might easily become inaudible after קָרָאתִי, has an emphatic Dagesh as in Psa 118:18, and הַמֵּצַֽר has the orthophonic stroke beside צַר (the so-called מַקֵּל), which points to the correct tone-syllable of the word that has Dechî.
(Note: Vid., Baer's Thorath Emeth, p. 7 note, and p. 21, end of note 1.)
Instead of עָנַנִי it is here pointed עָנָנִי, which also occurs in other instances not only with distinctive, but also (though not uniformly) with conjunctive accents.
(Note: Hitzig on Pro 8:22 considers the pointing קָנָנִי to be occasioned by Dechî, and in fact עָנָנִי in the passage before us has Tarcha, and in 1Sa 28:15 Munach; but in the passage before us, if we read במרחביָה as one word according to the Masora, עָנָנִי is rather to be accented with Mugrash; and in 1Sa 28:15 the reading עָנַנִי is found side by side with עָנָנִי (e.g., in Bibl. Bomberg. 1521). Nevertheless צרפתָני Psa 17:3, and הרָני Job 30:19 (according to Kimchi's Michlol, 30a), beside Mercha, show that the pointing beside conjunctive as beside disjunctive accents wavers between a& and a4, although a4 is properly only justified beside disjunctive accents, and צִוָּנִי also really only occurs in pause.)
The constructions is a pregnant one (as in Psa 22:22; Psa 28:1; Psa 74:7; 2Sa 18:19; Ezr 2:62; 2Ch 32:1): He answered me by removing me to a free space (Psa 18:20). Both lines end with יָהּ; nevertheless the reading בַמֶּרְחַבְיָה is attested by the Masora (vid., Baer's Psalterium, pp. 132f.), instead of בַּמֶּרְחָב יָהּ. It has its advocates even in the Talmud (B. Pesachim 117a), and signifies a boundless extent, יה expressing the highest degree of comparison, like מַאְפֵּלְיָה in Jer 2:31, the deepest darkness. Even the lxx appears to have read מרחביה thus as one word (εἰς πλατυσμόν, Symmachus εἰς εὐρυχωρίαν). The Targum and Jerome, however, render it as we do; it is highly improbable that in one and the same verse the divine name should not be intended to be used in the same force of meaning. Psa 56:1-13 (Psa 56:10; Psa 56:5, Psa 56:12) echoes in Psa 118:6; and in Psa 118:7 Psa 54:1-7 (Psa 54:6) is in the mind of the later poet. In that passage it is still more clear than in the passage before us that by the Beth of בְּעֹֽזְרֵי Jahve is not meant to be designated as unus e multis, but as a helper who outweighs the greatest multitude of helpers. The Jewish people had experienced this helpful succour of Jahve in opposition to the persecutions of the Samaritans and the satraps during the building of the Temple; and had at the same time learned what is expressed in Psa 118:7-8 (cf. Psa 146:3), that trust in Jahve (for which חָסָה בְ is the proper word) proves true, and trust in men, on the contrary, and especially in princes, is deceptive; for under Pseudo-Smerdis the work, begun under Cyrus, and represented as open to suspicion even in the reign of Cambyses, was interdicted. But in the reign of Darius it again became free: Jahve showed that He disposes events and the hearts of men in favour of His people, so that out of this has grown up in the minds of His people the confident expectation of a world-subduing supremacy expressed in Psa 118:10.
The clauses Psa 118:10, Psa 118:11, and Psa 118:12, expressed in the perfect form, are intended more hypothetically than as describing facts. The perfect is here set out in relief as a hypothetical tense by the following future. כָּל־גֹּויִם signifies, as in Psa 117:1, the heathen of every kind. דְּבֹרִים (in the Aramaic and Arabic with )ז are both bees and wasps, which make themselves especially troublesome in harvest time. The suffix of אֲמִילָם (from מוּל = מָלַל, to hew down, cut in pieces) is the same as in Exo 29:30; Exo 2:17, and also beside a conjunctive accent in Psa 74:8. Yet the reading אֲמִילַם, like יְחִיתַן Hab 2:17, is here the better supported (vid., Gesenius, Lehrgebäude, S. 177), and it has been adopted by Norzi, Heidenheim, and Baer. The כִּי is that which states the ground or reason, and then becomes directly confirmatory and assuring (Psa 128:2, Psa 128:4), which here, after the “in the name of Jahve” that precedes it, is applied and placed just as in the oath in 1Sa 14:44. And in general, as Redslob has demonstrated, כִּי has not originally a relative, but a positive (determining) signification, כ being just as much a demonstrative sound as ד, ז, שׁ, and ת (cf. ἐκεῖ, ἐκεῖνος, κει'νος, ecce, hic, illic, with the Doric τηνεί, τῆνος). The notion of compassing round about is heightened in Psa 118:11 by the juxtaposition of two forms of the same verb (Ges. §67, rem. 10), as in Hos 4:18; Hab 1:5; Zep 2:1, and frequently. The figure of the bees is taken from Deu 1:44. The perfect דֹּֽעֲכוּ (cf. Isa 43:17) describes their destruction, which takes place instantly and unexpectedly. The Pual points to the punishing power that comes upon them: they are extinguished (exstinguuntur) like a fire of thorns, the crackling flame of which expires as quickly as it has blazed up (Psa 58:10). In Psa 118:13 the language of Israel is addressed to the hostile worldly power, as the antithesis shows. It thrust, yea thrust (inf. intens.) Israel, that it might fall (לִנְפֹּל; with reference to the pointing, vid., on Psa 40:15); but Jahve's help would not suffer it to come to that pass. Therefore the song at the Red Sea is revived in the heart and mouth of Israel. Psa 118:14 (like Isa 12:2) is taken from Exo 15:2. עָזִּי (in MSS also written עָזִּי) is a collateral form of עֻזִּי (Ew. §255, a), and here signifies the lofty self-consciousness which is united with the possession of power: pride and its expression an exclamation of joy. Concerning זִמְרַת vid., on Psa 16:6. As at that time, the cry of exultation and of salvation (i.e., of deliverance and of victory) is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of Jahve - they sing - עֹשָׂה חָיִל (Num 24:18), practises valour, proves itself energetic, gains (maintains) the victory. רֹומֵמָה is Milra, and therefore an adjective: victoriosa (Ew. §120 d), from רָמַם = רוּם like שֹׁומֵם from שָׁמֵם. It is not the part. Pil. (cf. Hos 11:7), since the rejection of the participial Mem occurs in connection with Poal and Pual, but not elsewhere with Pilel (רֹומֵם = מְרֹומֵם from רוּם). The word yields a simpler sense, too, as adject. participle Kal; romēmā́h is only the fuller form for ramā́h, Exo 14:8 (cf. rā́mah, Isa 26:11). It is not its own strength that avails for Israel's exultation of victory, but the energy of the right hand of Jahve. Being come to the brink of the abyss, Israel is become anew sure of its immortality through Him. God has, it is true, most severely chastened it (יִסְּרַנִּי with the suffix anni as in Gen 30:6, and יָהּ with the emphatic Dagesh, which neither reduplicates nor connects, cf. Psa 118:5, Psa 94:12), but still with moderation (Isa 27:7.). He has not suffered Israel to fall a prey to death, but reserved it for its high vocation, that it may see the mighty deeds of God and proclaim them to all the world. Amidst such celebration of Jahve the festive procession of the dedication of the Temple has arrived at the enclosure wall of the Temple.