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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 140:1 - 140:1
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The assimilation of the Nun of the verb נָצַר is given up, as in Psa 61:8; Psa 78:7, and frequently, in order to make the form more full-toned. The relative clause shows that אִישׁ חֲמָסִים is not intended to be understood exclusively of one person. בְּלֵב strengthens the notion of that which is deeply concealed and premeditated. It is doubtful whether יָגוּרוּ signifies to form into troops or to stir up. But from the fact that גּוּר in Psa 56:7; Psa 59:4, Isa 54:15, signifies not congregare but se congregare, it is to be inferred that גּוּר in the passage before us, like גֵּרָה (or הִתְגָּרָה in Deu 2:9, Deu 2:24), in Syriac and Targumic גָּרֵג, signifies concitare, to excite (cf. שׂוּר together with שָׂרָה, Hos 12:4.). In Psa 140:4 the Psalm coincides with Psa 64:4; Psa 58:5. They sharpen their tongue, so that it inflicts a fatal sting like the tongue of a serpent, and under their lips, shooting out from thence, is the poison of the adder (cf. Son 4:11). עַכְשׁוּב is a ἅπαξ λεγομ. not from כָּשַׁב (Jesurun, p. 207), but from עָכַשׁ, Arab. ‛ks and ‛kš, root ‛k (vid., Fleischer on Isa 59:5, עַכָּבִישׁ), both of which have the significations of bending, turning, and coiling after the manner of a serpent; the Beth is an organic addition modifying the meaning of the root.
(Note: According to the original Lexicons Arab. ‛ks signifies to bend one's self, to wriggle, to creep sideways like the roots of the vine, in the V form to move one's self like an adder (according to the Ḳamûs) and to walk like a drunken man (according to Neshwân); but Arab. ‛kš signifies to be intertwined, knit or closely united together, said of hairs and of the branches of trees, in the V form to fight hand to hand and to get in among the crowd. The root is apparently expanded into עכשׁוב by an added Beth which serves as a notional speciality, as in Arab. ‛rqûb the convex bend of the steep side of a rock, or in the case of the knee of the hind-legs of animals, and in Arab. charnûb (in the dialect of the country along the coast of Palestine, where the tree is plentiful, in Neshwân churnûb), the horn-like curved pod of the carob-tree (Ceratonia Siliqua), syncopated Arab. charrûb, charrûb (not charûb), from Arab. charn, cogn. qarn, a horn, cf. Arab. chrnâyt, the beak of a bird of prey, Arab. chrnûq, the stork [vid. on Psa 104:17], Arab. chrnı̂n, the rhinoceros [vid. on Psa 29:6], Arab. chrnuı̂t, the unicorn [vid. ibid.]. - Wetzstein.)