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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 139:8 - 139:8
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The future form אֶסַּק, customary in the Aramaic, may be derived just as well from סָלַק (סְלֵק), by means of the same mode of assimilation as in יִסֹּב = יִסְבֹּב, as from נָסַק (נְסֵק), which latter is certainly only insecurely established by Dan 6:24, לְהַנְסָקָה (cf. לְהַנְזָקַת, Ezr 4:22; הַנְפֵּק, Dan 5:2), since the Nun, as in לְהַנְעָלָה, Dan 4:3, can also be a compensation for the resolved doubling (vid., Bernstein in the Lexicon Chrestom. Kirschianae, and Levy s.v. נְסַק). אִם with the simple future is followed by cohortatives (vid., on Psa 73:16) with the equivalent אֶשָּׂא among them: et si stratum facerem (mihi) infernum (accusative of the object as in Isa 58:5), etc. In other passages the wings of the sun (Mal 4:2) and of the wind (Psa 18:11) are mentioned, here we have the wings of the morning's dawn. Pennae aurorae, Eugubinus observes (1548), est velocissimus aurorae per omnem mundum decursus. It is therefore to be rendered: If I should lift wings (נָשָׂא כְנָפַיֶם as in Eze 10:16, and frequently) such as the dawn of the morning has, i.e., could I fly with the swiftness with which the dawn of the morning spreads itself over the eastern sky, towards the extreme west and alight there. Heaven and Hades, as being that which is superterrestrial and subterrestrial, and the east and west are set over against one another. אַֽחֲרִית יָם is the extreme end of the sea (of the Mediterranean with the “isles of the Gentiles”). In Psa 139:10 follows the apodosis: nowhere is the hand of God, which governs everything, to be escaped, for dextera Dei ubique est. וָאִמַר (not וְאֹמַר, Eze 13:15), “therefore I spake,” also has the value of a hypothetical protasis: quodsi dixerim. אַךְ and חֹשֶׁךְ belongs together: merae tenebrae (vid: Psa 39:6.); but יְשׁוּפֵנִי is obscure. The signification secured to it of conterere, contundere, in Gen 3:15; Job 9:17, which is followed by the lxx (Vulgate) καταπατήσει, is inappropriate to darkness. The signification inhiare, which may be deduced as possible from שָׁאַף, suits relatively better, yet not thoroughly well (why should it not have been יִבְלָעֵנִי?). The signification obvelare, however, which one expects to find, and after which the Targum, Symmachus, Jerome, Saadia, and others render it, seems only to be guessed at from the connection, since שׁוּף has not this signification in any other instance, and in favour of it we cannot appeal either to נָשַׁף - whence נֶשֶׁף, which belongs together with נָשַׁב, נָשַׁם, and נָפַשׁ - or to עָטַף, the root of which is עת (עָתָה), or to צָעַף, whence צָעִיף, which does not signify to cover, veil, but according to Arab. ḍ‛f, to fold, fold together, to double. We must therefore either assign to יְשׁוּפֵנִי the signification operiat me without being able to prove it, or we must put a verb of this signification in its place, viz., יְשׂוּכֵנִי (Ewald) or יְעוּפֵנִי (Böttcher), which latter is the more commendable here, where darkness (חֹשֶׁךְ, synon. עֵיפָה, מָעוּף) is the subject: and if I should say, let nothing but darkness cover me, and as night (the predicate placed first, as in Amo 4:13) let the light become about me, i.e., let the light become night that shall surround and cover me (בַּֽעֲדֵנִי, poetic for בַּעֲדִי, like תַּחְתֵּנִי in 2 Sam. 22) - the darkness would spread abroad no obscurity (Psa 105:28) that should extend beyond (מִן) Thy piercing eye and remove me from Thee. In the word יָאִיר, too, the Hiphil signification is not lost: the night would give out light from itself, as if it were the day; for the distinction of day and night has no conditioning influence upon God, who is above and superior to all created things (der Uebercreatürliche), who is light in Himself. The two כ are correlative, as e.g., in 1Ki 22:4. חֲשֵׁיכָה (with a superfluous Jod) is an old word, but אֹורָה (cf. Aramaic אֹורְתָּא) is a later one.