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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 45:10 - 45:10
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(Heb.: 45:11-13) The poet next turns to address the one bride of the king, who is now honoured far above the kings' daughters. With שִׁמְעִי he implores for himself a hearing; by רְאִי yb ;gni he directs her eye towards the new relationship into which she is just entering; by הַטִּי אָזְנֵךְ he bespeaks her attention to the exhortation that follows; by בַּת he puts himself in a position in relation to her similar to that which the teacher and preacher occupies who addresses the bridal pair at the altar. She is to forget her people and her father's house, to sever her natural, inherited, and customary relationships of life, both as regards outward form and inward affections; and should the king desire her beauty, to which he has a right, - for he, as being her husband (1Pe 3:6), and more especially as being king, is her lord, - she is to show towards him her profoundest, reverent devotion. וְיִתְאָו is a hypothetical protasis according to Ges. §128, 2, c. The reward of this willing submission is the universal homage of the nations. It cannot be denied on the ground of syntax that וּבַת־צֹר admits of being rendered “and O daughter of Tyre” (Hitzig), - a rendering which would also give additional support to our historical interpretation of the Psalm, - although, apart from the one insecure passage, Jer 20:12 (Ew. §340, c), there is no instance to be found in which a vocative with ו occurs (Pro 8:5; Joe 2:23; Isa 44:21), when another vocative has not already preceded it. But to what purpose would be, in this particular instance, this apostrophe with the words בַּת־צֹר, from which it looks as though she were indebted to her ancestral house, and not to the king whose own she is become, for the acts of homage which are prospectively set before her? Such, however, is not the case; “daughter of Tyre” is a subject-notion, which can all the more readily be followed by the predicate in the plural, since it stands first almost like a nomin. absol. The daughter, i.e., the population of Tyre - approaching with presents shall they court (lit., stroke) thy face, i.e., meeting thee bringing love, they shall seek to propitiate thy love towards themselves. (פְּנֵי) חִלָּה corresponds to the Latin mulcere in the sense of delenire; for חָלָה, Arab. ḥlâ (root חל, whence חָלַל, Arab. ḥll, solvit, laxavit), means properly to be soft and tender, of taste to be sweet (in another direction: to be lax, weak, sick); the Piel consequently means to soften, conciliate, to make gentle that which is austere. Tyre, however, is named only by way of example; עֲשִׁירֵי עָם is not an apposition, but a continuation of the subject: not only Tyre, but in general those who are the richest among each separate people or nation. Just as אֶבְיֹונֵי אָדָם (Isa 29:19) are the poorest of mankind, so עשׁירי עם are the richest among the peoples of the earth.
As regards the meaning which the congregation or church has to assign to the whole passage, the correct paraphrase of the words “and forget thy people” is to be found even in the Targum: “Forget the evil deeds of the ungodly among thy people, and the house of the idols which thou hast served in the house of thy father.” It is not indeed the hardened mass of Israel which enters into such a loving relationship to God and to His Christ, but, as prophecy from Deut. 32 onward declares, a remnant thoroughly purged by desolating and sifting judgments and rescued, which, in order to belong wholly to Christ, and to become the holy seed of a better future (Isa 6:13), must cut asunder all bonds of connection with the stiff-neckedly unbelieving people and paternal house, and in like manner to Abram secede from them. This church of the future is fair; for she is expiated (Deu 32:43), washed (Isa 4:4), and adorned (Isa 61:3) by her God. And if she does homage to Him, without looking back, He not only remains her own, but in Him everything that is glorious belonging to the world also becomes her own. Highly honoured by the King of kings, she is the queen among the daughters of kings, to whom Tyre and the richest among peoples of every order are zealous to express their loving and joyful recognition. Very similar language to that used here of the favoured church of the Messiah is used in Psa 72:10. of the Messiah Himself.