Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 44:17 - 44:17

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 44:17 - 44:17


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(Heb.: 44:18-22) If Israel compares its conduct towards God with this its lot, it cannot possibly regard it as a punishment that it has justly incurred. Construed with the accusative, בֹּוא signifies, as in Psa 35:8; Psa 36:12, to come upon one, and more especially of an evil lot and of powers that are hostile. שִׁקֵּר, to lie or deceive, with בְּ of the object on whom the deception or treachery is practised, as in Psa 89:34. In Psa 44:19 אַשּׁוּר is construed as fem., exactly as in Job 31:8; the fut. consec. is also intended as such (as e.g., in Job 3:10; Num 16:14): that our step should have declined from, etc.; inward apostasy is followed by outward wandering and downfall. This is therefore not one of the many instances in which the לֹא of one clause also has influence over the clause that follows (Ges. §152, 3). כִּי, Psa 44:20, has the sense of quod: we have not revolted against Thee, that Thou shouldest on that account have done to us the thing which is now befallen us. Concerning תַּנִּיּם vid., Isa 13:22. A “place of jackals” is, like a habitation of dragons (Jer 10:22), the most lonesome and terrible wilderness; the place chosen was, according to this, an inhospitable מדבר, far removed from the dwellings of men. כִּסָּה is construed with עַל of the person covered, and with בְּ of that with which (1Sa 19:13) he is covered: Thou coveredst us over with deepest darkness (vid., Psa 23:4). אִם, Psa 44:21, is not that of asseveration (verily we have not forgotten), but, as the interrogatory apodosis Psa 44:22 shows, conditional: if we have (= should have) forgotten. This would not remain hidden from Him who knoweth the heart, for the secrets of men's hearts are known to Him. Both the form and matter here again strongly remind one of Job 31, more especially Job 31:4; cf. also on תַּֽעֲלֻמֹות, Job 11:6; Job 28:11.