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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 48:12 - 48:12
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(Heb.: 48:13-15) The call is addressed not to the enemies of Jerusalem - for it would be absurd to invite such to look round about upon Jerusalem with joy and gladness - but to the people of Jerusalem itself. From the time of the going forth of the army to the arrival of the news of victory, they have remained behind the walls of the city in anxious expectation. Now they are to make the circuit of the city (הִקִּיף, still more definite than סָבַב, Jos 6:3) outside the walls, and examine them and see that its towers are all standing, its bulwark is intact, its palaces are resplendent as formerly. לְחֵילָה, “upon its bulwark,” = לְחֵילָהּ (Zec 9:4), with softened suffix as in Isa 23:17; Psa 45:6, and frequently; Ew. §247, d. פִּסֵּג (according to another reading, הִפְסִיג) signifies, in B. Baba kamma 81b, to cut through (a vineyard in a part where there is no way leading through it); the signification “to take to pieces and examine, to contemplate piece by piece,” has no support in the usage of the language, and the signification “to extol” (erhöhen, Luther following Jewish tradition) rests upon a false deduction from the name פִּסְגָּה. Louis de Dieu correctly renders it: Dividite palatia, h. e. obambulate inter palatia ejus, secando omnes palatiorum vias, quo omnia possitis commode intueri. They are to convince themselves by all possible means of the uninjured state of the Holy City, in order that they may be able to tell to posterity, that זֶה, such an one, such a marvellous helper as is now manifest to them, is Elohim our God. He will also in the future guide us.... Here the Psalm closes; for, although נָהַג is wont to be construed with עַלּ in the signification ἄγειν ἐπὶ (Psa 23:2; Isa 49:10), still “at death” [lit. dying], i.e., when it comes to dying (Hengstenberg), or “even unto (עַל as in Psa 48:11, Psa 19:7) death” [lit. dying] (Hupfeld), forms no suitable close to this thoroughly national song, having reference to a people of whom the son of Sirach says (Psa 37:25): ζωὴ ἀνδρὸς ἐν ἀριθμῷ ἡμερῶν καὶ αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ Ἰσραήλ ἀναρίθμητοι. The rendering of Mendelssohn, Stier, and others, “over death” i.e., beyond death (Syriac), would be better; more accurately: beyond dying = destruction (Bunsen, Bibelwerk, Th. i. S. clxi.). but the expression does not admit of this extension, and the thought comes upon one unexpectedly and as a surprise in this Psalm belonging to the time before the Exile. The Jerusalem Talmud, Megilla, ch. ii. (fol. 73, col. b, ed. Venet.), present a choice of the following interpretations: (1) עַלְמוּת = בַּֽעֲלִימוּת, in youthfulness, adopting which, but somewhat differently applied, the Targum renders, “in the days of youth;” (2) כעילין עלמות, like virgins, with which Luther's rendering coincides: like youth (wie die Jugent); (3) according to the reading עֹלָמֹות, which the lxx also reproduces: in this and the future world, noting at the same time that Akilas (Aquila) translates the word by ἀθανασία: “in a world where there is no death.” But in connection with this last rendering one would rather expect to find אל־מות (Pro 12:28) instead of על־מות. עֹלָמֹות, however, as equivalent to αἰῶνες is Mishnic, not Biblical; and a Hebrew word עַלְמוּת (עֲלִימוּת) in the sense of the Aramaic עֻלֵּימתֶּ cannot be justified elsewhere. We see from the wavering of the MSS, some of which give עַל־מוּת, and others עַלְמוּת, and from the wavering of expositors, what little success is likely to follow any attempt to gain for על־מות, as a substantial part of the Psalm, any sense that is secure and in accordance both with the genius of the language and with the context. Probably it is a marginal note of the melody, an abbreviation for עַל־מוּת לַבֵּן, Psa 9:1. And either this note, as in Hab 3:19 לַמְנַצֵּחַ בִּנְגִינֹותָי, stands in an exceptional manner at the end instead of the beginning (Hitzig, Reggio), or it belongs to the למנצח of the following Psalm, and is to be inserted there (Böttcher, De inferis, §371). If, however, על־מות does not belong to the Psalm itself, then it must be assumed that the proper closing words are lost. The original close was probably more full-toned, and somewhat like Isa 33:22.