Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 30:6 - 30:6

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 30:6 - 30:6


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(Heb.: 30:7-8) David now relates his experience in detail, beginning with the cause of the chastisement, which he has just undergone. In וַאֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי (as in Psa 31:23; Psa 49:4) he contrasts his former self-confidence, in which (like the רשׁע, Psa 10:6) he thought himself to be immoveable, with the God-ward trust he has now gained in the school of affliction. Instead of confiding in the Giver, he trusted in the gift, as though it had been his own work. It is uncertain, - but it is all the same in the end, - whether שַׁלְוִי is the inflected infinitive שְלַו of the verb שָׁלֵי (which we adopt in our translation), or the inflected noun שֶׁלֶו (שָֽׁלוּ) = שַׁלְוְ, after the form שָֽׂחוּ, a swimming, Eze 47:5, = שַׁלְוָה, Jer 22:21. The inevitable consequence of such carnal security, as it is more minutely described in Deu 8:11-18, is some humbling divine chastisement. This intimate connection is expressed by the perfects in Psa 30:8, which represent God's pardon, God's withdrawal of favour, which is brought about by his self-exaltation, and the surprise of his being undeceived, as synchronous. הֶֽעֶמִיד עֹז, to set up might is equivalent to: to give it as a lasting possession; cf. 2Ch 33:8, which passage is a varied, but not (as Riehm supposes) a corrupted, repetition of 2Ki 21:8. It is, therefore, unnecessary, as Hitzig does, to take לְ as accusatival and עֹז as adverbial: in Thy favour hadst Thou made my mountain to stand firm. The mountain is Zion, which is strong by natural position and by the additions of art (2Sa 5:9); and this, as being the castle-hill, is the emblem of the kingdom of David: Jahve had strongly established his kingdom for David, when on account of his trust in himself He made him to feel how all that he was he was only by Him, and without Him he was nothing whatever. The form of the inflexion הַֽרֲרִי, instead of הָרִי = harri, is defended by Gen 14:6 and Jer 17:3 (where it is הֲרָרִי as if from הָרָר). The reading להדרי (lxx, Syr.), i.e., to my kingly dignity is a happy substitution; whereas the reading of the Targum להררֵי, “placed (me) on firm mountains,” at once refutes itself by the necessity for supplying “me.”