Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 55:17

Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 55:17 - 55:17

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 55:17 - 55:17

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In the third group confidence prevails, the tone that is struck up in Psa 55:17 being carried forward. Evening morning, and noon, as the beginning, middle, and close of the day, denote the day in its whole compass or extent: David thus gives expression to the incessancy with which he is determined to lay before God, both in the quiet of his spirit and in louder utterances, whatsoever moves him. The fut. consec. וַיִּשְׁמַע connects the hearing (answer) with the prayer as its inevitable result. Also in the praet. פָּדָה expression is given to the certainty of faith; and בְּשָׁלֹום side by side with it denotes, with the same pregnancy of meaning as in Psa 118:5, the state of undisturbed outward and inward safety and prosperity, into which God removes his soul when He rescues him. If we read mi-kerob, then קרב is, as the ancient versions regard it, the infinitive: ne appropinquent mihi; whereas since the time of J. H. Michaelis the preference has been given to the pronunciation mi-kerāb: a conflictu mihi sc. parato, in which case it would be pointed מִקְּרָֽב־ (with Metheg), whilst the MSS, in order to guard against the reading with ā, point it מִקְּרָֽב־. Hitzig is right when he observes, that after the negative מִן the infinitive is indicated beforehand, and that לִי = עָלַי, Psa 27:2, is better suited to this. Moreover, the confirmatory clause Psa 55:19 is connected with what precedes in a manner less liable to be misunderstood if מקרב is taken as infinitive: that they may not be able to gain any advantage over me, cannot come near me to harm me (Psa 91:10). For it is not until now less precarious to take the enemies as the subject of הָיוּ, and to take עִמָּדִי in a hostile sense, as in Job 10:17; Job 13:19; Job 23:6; Job 31:13, cf. עִם Psa 94:16, and this is only possible where the connection suggests this sense. Heidenheim's interpretation: among the magnates were those who succoured me (viz., Hushai, Zadok, and Abiathar, by whom the counsel of Athithopel was frustrated), does not give a thought characteristic of the Psalms. And with Aben-Ezra, who follows Numeri Rabba 294a, to think of the assistance of angels in connection with בְּרַבִּים, certainly strongly commends itself in view of 2Ki 6:16 (with which Hitzig also compares 2Ch 32:7); here, however, it has no connection, whereas the thought, “as many (consisting of many) are they with me, i.e., do they come forward and fight with me,” is very loosely attached to what has gone before. The Beth essentiae serves here, as it does frequently, e.g., Psa 39:7, to denote the qualification of the subject. The preterite of confidence is followed in Psa 55:20 by the future of hope. Although side by side with שָׁמַע, ענה presumptively has the signification to answer, i.e., to be assured of the prayer being heard, yet this meaning is in this instance excluded by the fact that the enemies are the object, as is required by Psa 55:20 (even if Psa 55:19 is understood of those who are on the side of the poet). The rendering of the lxx: εἰσακούσεται ὁ Θεὸς καὶ ταπεινώσει αὐτοὺς ὁ ὑπάρχων πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων, is appropriate, but requires the pronunciation to be וִיעַשֵנּם, since the signification to bow down, to humble, cannot be proved to belong either to Kal or Hiphil. But even granted that יַֽעֲנֵם might, according to 1Ki 8:35 (vid., Keil), signify ταπεινώσει αὐτοὺς, it is nevertheless difficult to believe that ויענם is not intended to have a meaning correlative with ישׁמע, of which it is the continuation. Saadia has explained יַֽעֲנֵם in a manner worthy of attention, as being for יַֽעֲנֶה בָם, he will testify against them; an interpretation which Aben-Ezra endorses. Hengstenberg's is better: “God will hear (the tumult of the enemies) and answer them (judicially).” The original text may have been וְיַעֲנֵמֹו יֹשֵׁב קֶדֶם. But as it now stands, וְיֹשֵׁב קֶדֶם represents a subordinate clause, with the omission of the הוּא, pledging that judicial response: since He it is who sitteth enthroned from earliest times (vid., on Psa 7:10). The bold expression ישׁב קדם is an abbreviation of the view of God expressed in Psa 74:12, Hab 1:12, cf. Deu 33:27, as of Him who from primeval days down to the present sits enthroned as King and Judge, who therefore will be able even at the present time to maintain His majesty, which is assailed in the person of His anointed one.

Psa 55:19-23

In spite of this interruption and the accompanying clashing in of the music. אֲשֶׁר .ci with its dependent clause continues the ויאנם, more minutely describing those whom God will answer in His wrath. The relative clause at the same time gives the ground for this their fate from the character they bear: they persevere in their course without any regard to any other in their godlessness. The noun חֲלִיפָה, which is used elsewhere of a change of clothes, of a reserve in time of war, of a relief of bands of workmen, here signifies a change of mind (Targum), as in Job 14:14 a change of condition; the plural means that every change of this kind is very far from them. In Psa 55:21 David again has the one faithless foe among the multitude of the rebels before his mind. שְׁלֹמָיו is equivalent to שְׁלֵמִים אִתֹּו, Gen 34:21, those who stood in peaceful relationship to him (שָׁלֹום, Psa 41:10). David classes himself with his faithful adherents. בְּרִית is here a defensive and offensive treaty of mutual fidelity entered into in the presence of God. By שָׁלַח and חִלֵּל is meant the intention which, though not carried out as yet, is already in itself a violation and profanation of the solemn compact. In Psa 55:22 the description passes into the tone of the caesural schema. It is impossible for מַֽחֲמָאֹת, so far as the vowels are concerned, to be equivalent to מֵחמאות, since this change of the vowels would obliterate the preposition; but one is forbidden to read מֵחמאות (Targum, Symmachus, Jerome) by the fact that פִּיו (lxx τοῦ προσώπου αὐτοῦ, as in Pro 2:6) cannot be the subject to חָֽלְקוּ. Consequently מ belongs to the noun itself, and the denominative מחמאות (from חֶמְאָה), like מַֽעֲדַנֹּות (from עֵדֶן), dainties, signifies articles of food prepared from curdled milk; here it is used figuratively of “milk-words” or “butter-words” which come from the lips of the hypocrite softly, sweetly, and supplely as cream: os nectar promit, mens aconita vomit. In the following words וּֽקְרָב־לִבֹּו (וּֽקֲרָב) the Makkeph (in connection with which it would have to be read ukerob just the same as in Psa 55:19, since the - has not a Metheg) is to be crossed out (as in fact it is even wanting here and there in MSS and printed editions). The words are an independent substantival clause: war (קְרָב, a pushing together, assault, battle, after the form כְּתָב mrof eh with an unchangeable â) is his inward part and his words are swords; these two clauses correspond. רַכּוּ (properly like Arab. rkk, to be thin, weak, then also: to be soft, mild; root רךְ, רק, tendere, tenuare) has the accent on the ultima, vid., on Psa 38:20. פְּתִיחָה is a drawn, unsheathed sword (Psa 37:14).

The exhortation, Psa 55:23, which begins a new strophe and is thereby less abrupt, is first of all a counsel which David gives to himself, but at the same time to all who suffer innocently, cf. Psa 27:14. Instead of the obscure ἅπαξ γεγραμ. יְהָֽבְךָ, we read in Psa 37:5 דרכך, and in Pro 16:3 מעשׂיךְ, according to which the word is not a verb after the form יְדָֽעֲךָ (Chajug', Gecatilia, and Kimchi), but an accusative of the object (just as it is in fact accented; for the Legarme of יהוה has a lesser disjunctive value than the Zinnor of יהבך). The lxx renders it ἐπίῤῥιψον ἐπὶ κύριον τὴν μέριμνάν σου. Thus are these words of the Psalm applied in 1Pe 5:7. According to the Talmud יְהָב (the same form as קְרָב) signifies a burden. “One day,” relates Rabba bar-Chana, B. Rosh ha-Shana, 26b, and elsewhere, “I was walking with an Arabian (Nabataean?) tradesman, and happened to be carrying a heavy pack. And he said to me, שׁקיל יהביך ושׁדי אגמלאי, Take thy burden and throw it on my camel.” Hence it is wiser to refer יְהָב to יָהַב, to give, apportion, than to a stem יָהַב = יָאַב, Psa 119:131 (root אב, או), to desire; so that it consequently does not mean desiring, longing, care, but that which is imposed, laid upon one, assigned or allotted to one (Böttcher), in which sense the Chaldee derivatives of יְהַב (Targum Psa 11:6; Psa 16:5, for מְנָת) do actually occur. On whomsoever one casts what is allotted to him to carry, to him one gives it to carry. The admonition proceeds on the principle that God is as willing as He is able to bear even the heaviest burden for us; but this bearing it for us is on the other side our own bearing of it in God's strength, and hence the promise that is added runs: He will sustain thee (כִּלְכֵּל), that thou mayest not through feebleness succumb. Psa 55:23 also favours this figure of a burden: He will not give, i.e., suffer to happen (Psa 78:66), tottering to the righteous for ever, He will never suffer the righteous to totter. The righteous shall never totter (or be moved) with the overthrow that follows; whereas David is sure of this, that his enemies shall not only fall to the ground, but go down into Hades (which is here, by a combination of two synonyms, בְּאֵר שַׁחַת, called a well, i.e., an opening, of a sinking in, i.e., a pit, as e.g., in Pro 8:31; Eze 36:3), and that before they have halved their days, i.e., before they have reached the half of the age that might be attained under other circumstances (cf. Psa 102:25; Jer 16:11). By וְאַתָּה אלהים prominence is given to the fact that it is the very same God who will not suffer the righteous to fall who casts down the ungodly; and by וַאֲנִי David contrasts himself with them, as being of good courage now and in all time to come.