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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 140:9 - 140:9
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The strophic symmetry is now at an end. The longer the poet lingers over the contemplation of the rebels the more lofty and dignified does his language become, the more particular the choice of the expressions, and the more difficult and unmanageable the construction. The Hiph. הֵסֵב signifies, causatively, to cause to go round about (Exo 13:18), and to raise round about (2Ch 14:6); here, after Jos 6:11, where with an accusative following it signifies to go round about: to make the circuit of anything, as enemies who surround a city on all sides and seek the most favourable point for assault; מְסִבַּי from the participle מֵסֵב. Even when derived from the substantive מֵסַב (Hupfeld), “my surroundings” is equivalent to אֹיְבַי סְבִיבֹותַי in Psa 27:6. Hitzig, on the other hand, renders it: the head of my slanderers, from סָבַב, to go round about, Arabic to tell tales of any one, defame; but the Arabic sbb, fut. u, to abuse, the IV form (Hiphil) of which moreover is not used either in the ancient or in the modern language, has nothing to do with the Hebrew סבב, but signifies originally to cut off round about, then to clip (injure) any one's honour and good name.
(Note: The lexicographer Neshwân says, i. 279b: Arab. 'l-sbb 'l - šatm w-qı̂l an aṣl 'l-sbb 'l - qaṭ‛ ṯm ṣâr 'l - štm, “sebb is to abuse; still, the more original signification of cutting off is said to lie at the foundation of this signification.” That Arab. qṭ‛ is synonymous with it, e.g., Arab. lı̂štqt‛fı̂nâ, why dost thou cut into us? i.e., why dost thou insult our honour? - Wetzstein.)
The fact that the enemies who surround the psalmist on every side are just such calumniators, is intimated here in the word שְׂפָתֵימֹו. He wishes that the trouble which the enemies' slanderous lips occasion him may fall back upon their own head. רֹאשׁ is head in the first and literal sense according to Psa 7:17; and יְכַסֵּימֹו (with the Jod of the groundform kcy, as in Deu 32:26; 1Ki 20:35; Chethîb יְכַסּוּמֹו,
(Note: Which is favoured by Exo 15:5, jechasjûmû with mû instead of mô, which is otherwise without example.)
after the attractional schema, 2Sa 2:4; Isa 2:11, and frequently; cf. on the masculine form, Pro 5:2; Pro 10:21) refers back to ראשׁ, which is meant of the heads of all persons individually. In Psa 140:11 יָמִיטוּ (with an indefinite subject of the higher punitive powers, Ges. §137, note), in the signification to cause to descend, has a support in Psa 55:4, whereas the Niph. נָמֹוט, fut. יִמֹּט, which is preferred by the Kerî, in the signification to be made to descend, is contrary to the usage of the language. The ἅπ. λεγ. מַֽהֲמֹרֹות has been combined by Parchon and others with the Arabic hmr, which, together with other significations (to strike, stamp, cast down, and the like), also has the signification to flow (whence e.g., in the Koran, mâ' munhamir, flowing water). “Fire” and “water” are emblems of perils that cannot be escaped, Psa 66:12, and the mention of fire is therefore appropriately succeeded by places of flowing water, pits of water. The signification “pits” is attested by the Targum, Symmachus, Jerome, and the quotation in Kimchi: “first of all they buried them in מהמורות; when the flesh was consumed they collected the bones and buried them in coffins.” On בַּל־יָקוּמוּ cf. Isa 26:14. Like Psa 140:10-11, Psa 140:12 is also not to be taken as a general maxim, but as expressing a wish in accordance with the excited tone of this strophe. אִישׁ לָשֹׁון is not a great talker, i.e., boaster, but an idle talker, i.e., slanderer (lxx ἀνὴρ γλωσσώδης, cf. Sir. 8:4). According to the accents, אִישׁ חָמָס רָע is the parallel; but what would be the object of this designation of violence as worse or more malignant? With Sommer, Olshausen, and others, we take רָע as the subject to יְצוּדֶנּוּ: let evil, i.e., the punishment which arises out of evil, hunt him; cf. Pro 13:21, חַטָּאִים תְּרַדֵּף רָעָה, and the opposite in Psa 23:6. It would have to be accented, according to this our construction of the words, אישׁ חמס רע יצודני למדחפְת. The ἅπ. λεγ. לְמַדְחֵפֹת we do not render, with Hengstenberg, Olshausen, and others: push upon push, with repeated pushes, which, to say nothing more, is not suited to the figure of hunting, but, since דָּחַף always has the signification of precipitate hastening: by hastenings, that is to say, forced marches.