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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 39:12 - 39:12
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(Heb.: 39:13-14) Finally, the poet renews the prayer for an alleviation of his sufferings, basing it upon the shortness of the earthly pilgrimage. The urgent שִׁמְעָה is here fuller toned, being שִֽׁמֳעָה.
(Note: So Heidenheim and Baer, following Abulwalîd, Efodi, and Mose ha-Nakdan. The Masoretic observation לית קמץ חטף, “only here with Kametzchateph,” is found appended in codices. This Chatephkametz is euphonic, as in לֻֽקֳחָה, Gen 2:23, and in many other instances that are obliterated in our editions, vid., Abulwalîd, חרקמה ס, p. 198, where even מִטֳּהָרֹו = מִטְּהָרֹו, Psa 89:45, is cited among these examples (Ges. §10, 2 rem.).)
Side by side with the language of prayer, tears even appear here as prayer that is intelligible to God; for when the gates of prayer seem to be closed, the gates of tears still remain unclosed (שׁערי דמעות לא ננעלו), B. Berachoth 32b. As a reason for his being heard, David appeals to the instability and finite character of this earthly life in language which we also hear from his own lips in 1Ch 29:15. גֵּר is the stranger who travels about and sojourns as a guest in a country that is not his native land; תֹּושָׁב is a sojourner, or one enjoying the protection of the laws, who, without possessing any hereditary title, has settled down there, and to whom a settlement is allotted by sufferance. The earth is God's; that which may be said of the Holy Land (Lev 25:23) may be said of the whole earth; man has no right upon it, he only remains there so long as God permits him. כְּכָל־אֲבֹותָי glances back even to the patriarchs (Gen 47:9, cf. Psa 23:4). Israel is, it is true, at the present time in possession of a fixed dwelling-place, but only as the gift of his God, and for each individual it is only during his life, which is but a handbreadth long. May Jahve, then - so David prays - turn away His look of wrath from him, in order that he may shine forth, become cheerful or clear up, before he goes hence and it is too late. הָשַׁע is imper. apoc. Hiph. for הַשְׁעֵה (in the signification of Kal), and ought, according to the form הֶרֶב, properly to be הֶשַׁע; it is, however, pointed just like the imper. Hiph. of שָׁעַע in Isa 6:10, without any necessity for explaining it as meaning obline (oculos tuos) = connive (Abulwalîd), which would be an expression unworthy of God. It is on the contrary to be rendered: look away from me; on which compare Job 7:19; Job 14:6; on אַבְלִיגָה cf. ib. Job 10:20; Job 9:27; on אֵלֵךְ בְּטֶרֶם, ib.Job 10:21; on וְאֵינֶנִּי, ib. Job 7:8, Job 7:21. The close of the Psalm, consequently, is re-echoed in many ways in the Book of Job The Book of Job is occupied with the same riddle as that with which this Psalm is occupied. But in the solution of it, it advances a step further. David does not know how to disassociate in his mind sin and suffering, and wrath and suffering. The Book of Job, on the contrary, thinks of suffering and love together; and in the truth that suffering also, even though it be unto death, must serve the highest interests of those who love God, it possesses a satisfactory solution.