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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 6:8 - 6:8
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(Heb.: 6:9-11) Even before his plaintive prayer is ended the divine light and comfort come quickly into his heart, as Frisch says in his “Neuklingende Harfe Davids.” His enemies mock him as one forsaken of God, but even in the face of his enemies he becomes conscious that this is not his condition. Thrice in Psa 6:9, Psa 6:10 his confidence that God will answer him flashes forth: He hears his loud sobbing, the voice of his weeping that rises towards heaven, He hears his supplication, and He graciously accepts his prayer. The twofold שָׁמַע expresses the fact and יִקָח its consequence. That which he seems to have to suffer, shall in reality be the lot of his enemies, viz., the end of those who are rejected of God: they shall be put to shame. The בֹּושׁ, Syr. behet, Chald. בְּהִת, בְּהֵת, which we meet with here for the first time, is not connected with the Arab. bht, but (since the Old Arabic as a rule has t` as a mediating vowel between ש and t, )ת with Arab. bât, which signifies “to turn up and scatter about things that lie together (either beside or upon each other)” eruere et diruere, disturbare, - a root which also appears in the reduplicated form Arab. bṯṯ: to root up and disperse, whence Arab. battun, sorrow and anxiety, according to which therefore בֹּושׁ (= בָּושׁ as Arab. bâta = bawata) prop. signifies disturbare, to be perplexed, lose one's self-control, and denotes shame according to a similar, but somewhat differently applied conception to confundi, συγχεῖσθαι, συγχύνεσθαι. וְיִבָּֽהֲלוּ points back to Psa 6:2, Psa 6:3 : the lot at which the malicious have rejoiced, shall come upon themselves. As is implied in יֵבֹשׁוּ יָשֻׁבוּ, a higher power turns back the assailants filled with shame (Psa 9:4; Psa 35:4).
What an impressive finish we have here in these three Milels, jashûbu jebôshu rāga), in relation to the tripping measure of the preceding words addressed to his enemies! And, if not intentional, yet how remarkable is the coincidence, that shame follows the involuntary reverse of the foes, and that יבשׁו in its letters and sound is the reverse of ישׁבו! What music there is in the Psalter! If composers could but understand it!!