Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 119:17 - 119:17

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 119:17 - 119:17


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The eightfold Gimel. This is his life's aim: he will do it under fear of the curse of apostasy; he will do it also though he suffer persecution on account of it. In Psa 119:17 the expression is only אֶֽחְיֶה as Psa 118:19, not וְאָֽחְיֶה as in Psa 119:77, Psa 119:116, Psa 119:144 : the apodosis imper. only begins with וְאֶשְׁמְרָה, whereas אחיה is the good itself for the bestowment of which the poet prays. גַּל in Psa 119:18 is imper. apoc. Piel for גַּלֵּה, like גַס in Dan 1:12. נִפְלָאֹות is the expression for everything supernatural and mysterious which is incomprehensible to the ordinary understanding and is left to the perception of faith. The Tôra beneath the surface of its letter contains an abundance of such “wondrous things,” into which only eyes from which God has removed the covering of natural short-sightedness penetrate; hence the prayer in Psa 119:18. Upon earth we have no abiding resting-place, we sojourn here as in a strange land (Psa 119:19, Psa 39:13; 1Ch 29:15). Hence the poet prays in Psa 119:19 that God would keep His commandments, these rules of conduct for the journey of life, in living consciousness for him. Towards this, according to Psa 119:20, his longing tends. גָּרַס (Hiph. in Lam 3:16) signifies to crush in pieces, Arab. jrš, and here, like the Aramaic גְּרס, גְּרֵס, to be crushed, broken in pieces. לְתַֽאֲבָה (from תָּאַב, Psa 119:40, Psa 119:174, a secondary form of אָבָה) states the bias of mind in or at which the soul feels itself thus overpowered even to being crushed: it is crushing form longing after God's judgment, viz., after a more and more thorough knowledge of them. In Psa 119:21 the lxx has probably caught the meaning of the poet better than the pointing has done, inasmuch as it draws ἐπικατάρατοι to Psa 119:21, so that Psa 119:21 consists of two words, just like Psa 119:59, Psa 119:89; and Kamphausen also follows this in his rendering. For אֲרוּרִים as an attribute is unpoetical, and as an accusative of the predicate far-fetched; whereas it comes in naturally as a predicate before הַשֹּׁגִים מִמִּצְוֹתֶיךָ: cursed (אָרַר = Arab. harra, detestari), viz., by God. Instead of גֹּל, “roll” (from גָּלַל, Jos 5:9), it is pointed in Psa 119:22 (מעל) גַּל, “uncover” = גַּלֵּה, as in Psa 119:18, reproach being conceived of as a covering or veil (as e.g., in Psa 69:8), cf. Isa 22:8 (perhaps also Lam 2:14; Lam 4:22, if גִּלָּה עַל there signifies “to remove the covering upon anything”). גַּם in Psa 119:23, as in Jer 36:25, has the sense of גַּם־כִּי, etiamsi; and גַּם in Psa 119:24 the sense of nevertheless, ὅμως, Ew. §354, a. On נִדְבַּר בְּ (reciprocal), cf. Eze 33:30. As in a criminal tribunal, princes sit and deliberate how they may be able to render him harmless.