Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 33:1 - 33:1

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 33:1 - 33:1


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The call contained in this hexastich is addressed to the righteous and upright, who earnestly seek to live a godly and God-pleasing life, and the sole determining rule of whose conduct is the will and good pleasure of God. These alone know God, whose true nature finds in them a clear mirror; so on their part they are joyfully to confess what they possess in Him. For it is their duty, and at the same time their honour, to praise him, and make their boast in Him. נָאוָה is the feminine of the adjective נָאוֶה (formed out of נַאְוַי), as in Psa 147:1, cf. Pro 19:10. On כִּנֹּור (lxx κιθάρα, κινύρα) and נֵבֶל (lxx ψαλτήριον, νάβλα, ναῦλα, etc.) vid., Introduction §II. נֵבֶל is the name given to the harp or lyre on account of its resemblance to a skin bottle or flash (root נב, to swell, to be distended), and נֵבֶל עָשֹׂור, “harp of the decade,”' is the ten-stringed harp, which is also called absolutely עָשֹׂור, and distinguished from the customary נֵבֶל, in Psa 92:4. By a comparison of the asyndeton expressions in Psa 35:14, Jer 11:19, Aben-Ezra understands by נבל עשור two instruments, contrary to the tenour of the words. Gecatilia, whom he controverts, is only so far in error as that he refers the ten to holes (נקבים) instead of to strings. The בְּ is Beth instrum., just like the expression κιθαρίζειν ἐν κιθάραις, Rev 14:2. A “new song” is one which, in consequence of some new mighty deeds of God, comes from a new impulse of gratitude in the heart, Psa 40:4, and frequently in the Psalms, Isa 42:10, Judith 6:13, Rev 5:9. In הֵיטִיבוּ the notions of scite and strenue, suaviter and naviter, blend. With בִּתְרוּעָה, referring back to רננו, the call to praise forms, as it were, a circle as it closes.