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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 35:1 - 35:1
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The psalmist begins in a martial and anthropomorphical style such as we have not hitherto met with. On the ultima-accentuation of רִיבָה, vid., on Psa 3:8. Both את are signs of the accusative. This is a more natural rendering here, where the psalmist implores God to subjugate his foes, than to regard את as equivalent to עם (cf. Isa 49:25 with ib. Psa 27:8; Job 10:2); and, moreover, for the very same reason the expression in this instance is לְחַם, (in the Kal, which otherwise only lends the part. לֹחֵם, Psa 56:2., to the Niph. נלחם) instead of the reciprocal form הִלָּחֵם. It is usually supposed that לָחַם means properly vorare, and war is consequently conceived of as a devouring of men; but the Arabic offers another primary meaning: to press close and compact (Niph. to one another), consequently מִלְחָמָה means a dense crowd, a dense bustle and tumult (cf. the Homeric κλόνος). The summons to Jahve to arm, and that in a twofold manner, viz., with the מָגִן for warding off the hostile blow and צִנָּה (vid., Ps 5:13) which covers the body like a testudo - by which, inasmuch as it is impossible to hold both shields at the same time, the figure is idealised - is meant to express, that He is to make Himself felt by the foes, in every possible way, to their own confounding, as the unapproachable One. The ב of בְּעֶזְרַתִי (in the character of help turned towards me) is the so-called Beth essentiae,
(Note: The Hebrew Beth essentiae is used much more freely and extensively than the Arabic, which is joined exclusively to the predicate of a simple clause, where in our language the verb is “to be,” and as a rule only to the predicate of negative clauses: laisa bi-hakı̂mim, he is not wise, or laisa bi-l-hakı̂mi, he is not the wise man. The predicate can accordingly be indeterminate or determinate. Moreover, in Hebrew, where this ב is found with the predicate, with the complement of the subject, or even, though only as a solecism (vid., Gesenius' Thesaurus p. 175), with the subject itself, the word to which it is prefixed may be determinate, whether as an attribute determined by itself (Exo 6:3, בְּאֵל שַׁדַּי), by a suffix (as above, Psa 35:2, cf. Psa 146:5; Exo 18:4; Pro 3:26), or even by the article. At all events no syntactic objection can be brought against the interpretations of בֶעָשָׁן, “in the quality of smoke,” Psa 37:20; cf. בַּהֶבֶל, Psa 78:33, and of בַּנֶּפֶשׁ, “in the character of the soul,” Lev 17:11.)
as in Exo 18:4; Pro 3:26; Isa 48:10 (tanquam argentum), and frequently. הֵרִיק has the same meaning as in Exo 15:9, cf. Gen 14:14, viz., to bring forth, draw forth, to draw or unsheath (a sword); for as a sword is sheathed when not in use, so a spear is kept in the δουροδόκη (Odyss. i. 128). Even Parchon understands סְגֹר to mean a weapon; and the word σάγαρις, in Herodotus, Xenophon, and Strabo, a northern Asiatic, more especially a Scythian, battle-axe, has been compared here;
(Note: Probably one and the same word with the Armenian sakr, to which are assigned the (Italian) meanings mannaja, scure, brando ferro, in Ciakciak's Armenian Lexicon; cf. Lagarde's Gesammelte Abhandlungen, 1866, S. 203.)
but the battle-axe was not a Hebrew weapon, and סְגֹר, which, thus defectively written, has the look of an imperative, also gives the best sense when so taken (lxx σύγκλεισον, Targ. וּטְרֹוק), viz., close, i.e., cut off, interclude scil. viam. The word has Dechî, because לִקְרַאת רֹדְפָי, “casting Thyself against my persecutors,” belongs to both the preceding summonses. Dachselt rightly directs attention to the similar sequence of the accents in Psa 55:19; Psa 66:15. The Mosaic figure of Jahve as a man of war (אישׁ מלחמה, Exo 15:3; Deu 32:41.) is worked out here with brilliant colours, under the impulse of a wrathful spirit. But we see from Psa 35:3 what a spiritual meaning, nevertheless, the whole description is intended to convey. In God's intervention, thus manifested in facts, he would gladly hear His consolatory utterance to himself. The burden of his cry is that God's love may break through the present outward appearance of wrath and make itself felt by him.