Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 18:37

Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 18:37 - 18:37

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 18:37 - 18:37

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(Heb.: 18:38-41) Thus in God's strength, with the armour of God, and by God's assistance in fight, he smote, cast down, and utterly destroyed all his foes in foreign and in civil wars. According to the Hebrew syntax the whole of this passage is a retrospect. The imperfect signification of the futures in Psa 18:38, Psa 18:39 is made clear from the aorist which appears in Psa 18:40, and from the perfects and futures in what follows it. The strophe begins with an echo of Exo 15:9 (cf. supra Psa 7:6). The poet calls his opponents קָמַי, as in Psa 18:49, Psa 44:6; Psa 74:23, cf. קִימָנוּ Job 22:20, inasmuch as קוּם by itself has the sense of rising up in hostility and consequently one can say קָמַי instead of עָלַי קָמִים (קֹומִים 2Ki 16:7).

(Note: In the language of the Beduins kôm is war, feud, and kômānı̂ (denominative from kōm) my enemy (hostis); kōm also has the signification of a collective of kōmānı̂, and one can equally well say: entum waijânâ kôm, you and we are enemies, and: bênâtnâ kôm, there is war between us.)

The frequent use of this phrase (e.g., Ps 36:13, Lam 1:14) shows that קום in Psa 18:39 does not mean “to stand (resist),” but “to rise (again).” The phrase נָתַן עֹרֶף, however, which in other passages has those fleeing as its subject (2Ch 29:6), is here differently applied: Thou gavest, or madest me mine enemies a back, i.e., those who turn back, as in Exo 23:27. From Psa 21:13 (תְּשִׁיתֵמֹו שֶׁכֶם, Symm. τάξεις αὐτοὺς ἀποστρόφους) it becomes clear that עֹרֶף is not an accusative of the member beside the accusative of the person (as e.g., in Deu 33:11), but an accusative of the factitive object according to Ges. §139, 2.