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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 35:4 - 35:4
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Throughout the next two strophes follow terrible imprecations. According to Fürst and others the relation of בֹּושׁ and חָפֵר is like that of erblassen, to turn pale (cf. Isa 29:22 with Psa 34:6), and erröthen, to turn red, to blush. בושׁ has, however, no connection with בוץ, nor has חפר, Arab. chfr, chmr, any connection with Arab. hmr, to be red; but, according to its radical notion, בֹּושׁ means disturbari (vid., Ps 6:11), and חָפֵר, obtegere, abscondere (vid., Psa 34:6). יִסֹּגוּ, properly “let them be made to fall back” (cf. e.g., Isa 42:17). On the figure on Psa 35:5 cf. Psa 83:14. The clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve, Psa 35:5 and Psa 35:6, are circumstantial clauses, viz., clauses defining the manner. דֹּחֶה (giving, viz., them, the push that shall cause their downfall, equivalent to דֹּחָם or דֹּחֵם, Psa 68:28) is closely connected with the figure in Psa 35:6, and רֹדְפָם, with the figure in Psa 35:5; consequently it seems as though the original position of these two clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve had been disturbed; just as in Ps 34, the ע strophe and the פ strophe have changed their original places. It is the Angel, who took off Pharaoh's chariot wheels so that they drave them heavily (Exo 14:25) that is intended here. The fact that this Angel is concerned here, where the point at issue is whether the kingship of the promise shall be destroyed at its very beginning or not, harmonises with the appearing of the מלאך ה at all critical junctures in the course of the history of redemption. חֲלַקְלַקֹּות, loca passim lubrica, is an intensive form of expression for חֲלָקֹות rof noisserp, Psa 73:18. Just as דֹּחֶה recalls to mind Ex 15, so רֹדְפָם recalls Judg 5. In this latter passage the Angel of Jahve also appears in the midst of the conquerors who are pursuing the smitten foe, incarnate as it were in Deborah.