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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 16:6 - 16:6
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The measuring lines (הֲבָלִים) are cast (Mic 2:5) and fall to any one just where and as far as his property is assigned to him; so that נָפַל חֶבֶל (Jos 17:5) is also said of the falling to any one of his allotted portion of land. נְעִמִים (according to the Masora defective as also in Psa 16:11 נְעִמֹות) is a pluralet., the plural that is used to denote a unity in the circumstances, and a similarity in the relations of time and space, Ges. §108, 2, a; and it signifies both pleasant circumstances, Job 36:11, and, as here, a pleasant locality, Lat. amaena (to which נְעִמֹות in Psa 16:11, more strictly corresponds). The lines have fallen to him in a charming district, viz., in the pleasurable fellowship of God, this most blessed domain of love has become his paradisaic possession. With אַף he rises from the fact to the perfect contentment which it secures to him: such a heritage seems to him to be fair, he finds a source of inward pleasure and satisfaction in it. נַֽחֲלָת - according to Ew. §173, d, lengthened from the construct form נַֽהֲלַת (like נְגִינַת Psa 61:1); according to Hupfeld, springing from נַחֲלָתִי (by the same apocope that is so common in Syriac, perhaps like אָמַרְתְּ Psa 16:1 from אָמַרְתִּי) just like זִמְרַת Exo 15:2 - is rather, since in the former view there is no law for the change of vowel and such an application of the form as we find in Ps 60:13 (Psa 108:13) is opposed to the latter, a stunted form of נַֽחֲלָֽתָה: the heritage = such a heritage pleases me, lit., seems fair to me (שָׁפַר, cognate root סָפַר, צָפַר, cognate in meaning בשׂר, Arab. bs̆r, to rub, polish, make shining, intr. שָׁפֵר to be shining, beautiful). עָלַי of beauty known and felt by him (cf. Est 3:9 with 1Sa 25:36 טוב עליו, and the later way of expressing it Dan. 3:32). But since the giver and the gift are one and the same, the joy he has in the inheritance becomes of itself a constant thanksgiving to and blessing of the Giver, that He (אשׁר quippe qui) has counselled him (Psa 73:24) to choose the one thing needful, the good part. Even in the night-seasons his heart keeps watch, even then his reins admonish him (יִסַּר, here of moral incitement, as in Isa 8:11, to warn). The reins are conceived of as the seat of the blessed feeling that Jahve is his possession (vid., Psychol. S. 268; tr. p. 316). He is impelled from within to offer hearth-felt thanks to his merciful and faithful God. He has Jahve always before him, Jahve is the point towards which he constantly directs his undiverted gaze; and it is easy for him to have Him thus ever present, for He is מִימִינִי (supply הוּא, as in Psa 22:29; Psa 55:20; Psa 112:4), at my right hand (i.e., where my right hand begins, close beside me), so that he has no need to draw upon his power of imagination. The words בַּל־אֶמֹּוט, without any conjunction, express the natural effect of this, both in consciousness and in reality: he will not and cannot totter, he will not yield and be overthrown.