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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 129:3 - 129:3
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Elsewhere it is said that the enemies have driven over Israel (Psa 66:12), or have gone over its back (Isa 51:23); here the customary figurative language חָרַשׁ אָוֶן in Job 4:8 (cf. Hos 10:13) is extended to another figure of hostile dealing: without compassion and without consideration they ill-treated the stretched-forth back of the people who were held in subjection, as though it were arable land, and, without restraining their ferocity and setting a limit to their spoiling of the enslaved people and country, they drew their furrow-strip (מַֽעֲנִיתָם, according to the Kerî מַֽעֲנֹותָם) long. But מַֽעֲנָה does not signify (as Keil on 1Sa 14:14 is of opinion, although explaining the passage more correctly than Thenius) the furrow (= תֶּלֶם, גְּדוּד), but, like Arab. ma‛nât, a strip of arable land which the ploughman takes in hand at one time, at both ends of which consequently the ploughing team (צֶמֶד) always comes to a stand, turns round, and ploughs a new furrow; from עָנָה, to bend, turn (vid., Wetzstein's Excursus II p. 861). It is therefore: they drew their furrow-turning long (dative of the object instead of the accusative with Hiph., as e.g., in Isa 29:2, cf. with Piel in Psa 34:4; Psa 116:16, and Kal Psa 69:6, after the Aramaic style, although it is not unhebraic). Righteous is Jahve - this is an universal truth, which has been verified in the present circumstances; - He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked (עֲבֹות as in Psa 2:3; here, however, it is suggested by the metaphor in Psa 129:3, cf. Job 39:10; lxx αὐχένας, i.e., ענוק), with which they held Israel bound. From that which has just been experienced Israel derives the hope that all Zion's haters (a newly coined name for the enemies of the religion of Israel) will be obliged to retreat with shame and confusion.