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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 12:3 - 12:3
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(Heb.: 12:4-5) In this instance the voluntative has its own proper signification: may He root out (cf. Psa 109:15, and the oppositive Psa 11:6). Flattering lips and a vaunting tongue are one, insofar as the braggart becomes a flatterer when it serves his own selfish interest. אֲשֶׁר refers to lips and tongue, which are put for their possessors. The Hiph. הִגְבִּיר may mean either to impart strength, or to give proof of strength. The combination with לְ, not בְּ, favours the former: we will give emphasis to our tongue (this is their self-confident declaration). Hupfeld renders it, contrary to the meaning of the Hiph.: over our tongue we have power, and Ewald and Olshausen, on the ground of an erroneous interpretation of Dan 9:27, render: we make or have a firm covenant with our tongue. They describe their lips as being their confederates (אֵת as in 2Ki 9:32), and by the expression “who is lord over us” they declare themselves to be absolutely free, and exalted above all authority. If any authority were to assert itself over them, their mouth would put it down and their tongue would thrash it into submission. But Jahve, whom this making of themselves into gods challenges, will not always suffer His own people to be thus enslaved.