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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 17:3 - 17:3
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David refers to the divine testing and illumination of the inward parts, which he has experienced in himself, in support of his sincerity. The preterites in Psa 17:3 express the divine acts that preceded the result בַּל־תִּמְצַא, viz., the testing He has instituted, which is referred to in צְרַפְתָּנִי and also בָּחַנְתָּ as a trying of gold by fire, and in פָּקַד as an investigation (Job 7:18). The result of the close scrutiny to which God has subjected him in the night, when the bottom of a man's heart is at once made manifest, whether it be in his thoughts when awake or in the dream and fancies of the sleeper, was and is this, that He does not find, viz., anything whatever to punish in him, anything that is separated as dross from the gold. To the mind of the New Testament believer with his deep, and as it were microscopically penetrating, insight into the depth of sin, such a confession concerning himself would be more difficult than to the mind of an Old Testament saint. For a separation and disunion of flesh and spirit, which was unknown in the same degree to the Old Testament, has been accomplished in the New Testament consciousness by the facts and operations of redemption revealed in the New Testament; although at the same time it must be remembered that in such confessions the Old Testament consciousness does not claim to be clear from sins, but only from a conscious love of sin, and from a self-love that is hostile to God.
With זַמֹּותִי David begins his confession of how Jahve found him to be, instead of finding anything punishable in him. This word is either an infinitive like חַנֹּות (Psa 77:10) with the regular ultima accentuation, formed after the manner of the הל verbs, - in accordance with which Hitzig renders it: my thinking does not overstep my mouth, - or even 1 pers. praet., which is properly Milel, but does also occur as Milra, e.g., Deu 32:41; Isa 44:16 (vid., on Job 19:17), - according to which Böttcher translates: should I think anything evil, it dare not pass beyond my mouth, - or (since זָמַם may denote the determination that precedes the act, e.g., Jer 4:28; Lam 2:17): I have determined my mouth shall not transgress. This last rendering is opposed by the fact, that עָבַר by itself in the ethical signification “to transgress” (cf. post-biblical עֲבֵרָה παράβασις) is not the usage of the biblical Hebrew, and that when יַֽעֲבָר־פִּי stand close together, פי is presumptively the object. We therefore give the preference to Böttcher's explanation, which renders זמותי as a hypothetical perfect and is favoured by Pro 30:32 (which is to be translated: and if thou thinkest evil, (lay) thy hand on thy mouth!). Nevertheless בל יעבר־פי is not the expression of a fact, but of a purpose, as the combination of בל with the future requires it to be taken. The psalmist is able to testify of himself that he so keeps evil thoughts in subjection within him, even when they may arise, that they do not pass beyond his mouth, much less that he should put them into action. But perhaps the psalmist wrote פִּיךְ originally, “my reflecting does not go beyond Thy commandment” (according to Num 22:18; 1Sa 15:24; Pro 8:29), - a meaning better suited, as a result of the search, to the nightly investigation. The ל of לִפְעֻלֹּות fo ל need not be the ל of reference (as to); it is that of the state or condition, as in Psa 32:6; Psa 69:22. אָדָם, as perhaps also in Job 31:33; Hos 6:7 (if אדם is not there the name of the first man), means, men as they are by nature and habit. בִּדְבַר שְׂפָתֶיךְ does not admit of being connected with לִפְעֻלֹּות: at the doings of the world contrary to Thy revealed will (Hofmann and others); for פָּעַל בְּ cannot mean: to act contrary to any one, but only: to work upon any one, Job 35:6. These words must therefore be regarded as a closer definition, placed first, of the שָׁמַרְתִּי which follows: in connection with the doings of men, by virtue of the divine commandment, he has taken care of the paths of the oppressor, viz., not to go in them; 1Sa 25:21 is an instance in support of this rendering, where שׁמרתי, as in Job 2:6, means: I have kept (Nabal's possession), not seizing upon it myself. Jerome correctly translates vias latronis; for פָּרִיץ signifies one who breaks in, i.e., one who does damage intentionally and by violence. The confession concerning himself is still continued in Psa 17:5, for the inf. absol. תָּמֹךְ, if taken as imperative would express a prayer for constancy, that is alien to the circumstances described. The perfect after בַּל is also against such a rendering. It must therefore be taken as inf. historicus, and explained according to Job 23:11, cf. Psa 41:13. The noun following the inf. absol., which is usually the object, is the subject in this instance, as, e.g., in Job 40:2; Pro 17:12; Ecc 4:2, and frequently. It is אֲשׁוּרַי, and not אֲשּׁוּרַי, אשׁור (a step) never having the שׁ dageshed, except in Psa 17:11 and Job 31:7.