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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 60:1 - 60:1
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This first strophe contains complaint and prayer; and establishes the prayer by the greatness of the need and Israel's relationship to God. The sense in which פְּרַצְתָּנוּ is intended becomes clear from 2Sa 5:20, where David uses this word of the defeat of the Philistines, and explains it figuratively. The word signifies to break through what has hitherto been a compact mass, to burst, blast, scatter, disperse. The prayer is first of all timidly uttered in תְּשֹׁובֵב לָנוּ in the form of a wish; then in רְפָה (Psa 60:4) and הֹושִׁיעָה (Psa 60:7) it waxes more and more eloquent. שֹׁובֵב לְ here signifies to grant restoration (like הֵנִיחַ לְ, to give rest; Psa 23:3; Isa 58:12). The word also signifies to make a turn, to turn one's self away, in which sense, however, it cannot be construed with לְ. On פְּצַמְתָּהּ Dunash has already compared Arab. fṣm, rumpere, scindere, and Mose ha-Darshan the Targumic פִּצֵּם = פָרַע, Jer 22:14. The deep wounds which the Edomites had inflicted upon the country, are after all a wrathful visitation of God Himself - reeling or intoxicating wine, or as יַיִן תַּרְעֵלָה (not יֵין), properly conceived of, is: wine which is sheer intoxication (an apposition instead of the genitive attraction, vid., on Isa 30:20), is reached out by Him to His people. The figure of the intoxicating cup has passed over from the Psalms of David and of Asaph to the prophets (e.g., Isa 51:17, Isa 51:21). A kindred thought is expressed in the proverb: Quem Deus perdere vult, eum dementat. All the preterites as far as הִשְׁקִיתָנוּ (Psa 60:5) glance back plaintively at that which has been suffered.
But Psa 60:6 cannot be thus intended; for to explain with Ewald and Hitzig, following the lxx, “Thou hast set up a banner for those who reverence Thee, not for victory, but for flight,” is inadmissible, notwithstanding the fact that מִפְּנֵי קֶשֶׁת nuwc is a customary phrase and the inscribed לְלַמֵּד is favourable to the mention of the bow. For (1) The words, beginning with נָתַתָּ, do not sound like an utterance of something worthy of complaint - in this case it ought at least to have been expressed by עַךְ לְהִתְנֹוסֵס (only for flight, not for victory); (2) it is more than improbable that the bow, instead of being called קֶשֶׁת (feminine of the Arabic masculine kaus), is here, according to an incorrect Aramaic form of writing, called קֹשֶׁט, whereas this word in its primary form קֹשְׁטְ (Pro 22:21) corresponds to the Aramaic קוּשְׁטָא not in the signification “a bow,” but (as it is also intended in the Targum of our passage) in the signification “truth” (Arabic ḳisṭ of strict unswerving justice, root קש, to be hard, strong, firm; just as, vice versa, the word ṣidḳ, coming from a synonymous root, is equivalent to “truth”). We therefore take the perfect predication, like Psa 60:4, as the foundation of the prayer which follows: Thou hast given those who fear Thee a banner to muster themselves (sich aufpanieren), i.e., to raise themselves as around a standard or like a standard, on account of the truth - help then, in order that Thy beloved ones may be delivered, with Thy right hand, and answer me. This rendering, in accordance with which Psa 60:6 expresses the good cause of Israel in opposition to its enemies, is also favoured by the heightened effect of the music, which comes in here, as Sela prescribes. The reflexive התנוסס here therefore signifies not, as Hithpal. of נוּס, “to betake one's self to flight,” but “to raise one's self” - a signification on behalf of which we cannot appeal to Zec 9:16, where מִתְנֹוסֲסֹות is apparently equivalent to מִתְנֹוצֲצֹות “sparkling,” but which here results from the juxtaposition with נֵס (cf. נְסָה, Psa 4:7), inasmuch as נֵס itself, like Arab. naṣṣun, is so called from נָסַס, Arab. naṣṣ, to set up, raise, whether it be that the Hithpo. falls back upon the Kal of the verb or that it is intended as a denominative (to raise one's self as a banner, sich aufpanieren).
(Note: This expression wel illustrates the power of the German language in coining words, so that the language critically dealt with may be exactly reproduced to the German mind. The meaning will at once be clear when we inform our readers that Panier is a banner of standard; the reflexive denominative, therefore, in imitation of the Hebrew, sich aufpanieren signifies to “up-standard one's self,” to raise one's self up after the manner of a standard, which being “done into English” may mean to rally (as around a standard). We have done our best above faithfully to convey the meaning of the German text, and we leave our readers to infer from this illustration the difficulties with which translators have not unfrequently to contend. - Tr.])
It is undeniable that not merely in later (e.g., Neh 5:15), but also even in older Hebrew, מִפְּנֵי denotes the reason and motive (e.g., Deu 28:20). Moreover Ps 44 is like a commentary on this מִפְּנֵי קֹשֶׁט, in which the consciousness of the people of the covenant revelation briefly and comprehensively expresses itself concerning their vocation in the world. Israel looks upon its battle against the heathen, as now against Edom, as a rising for the truth in accordance with its mission. By reason of the fact and of the consciousness which are expressed in Psa 60:6, arises the prayer in Psa 60:7, that Jahve would interpose to help and to rescue His own people from the power of the enemy. יְמִֽינְךָ is instrumental (vid., on Psa 3:5). It is to be read עֲנֵנִי according to the Kerî, as in Psa 108:7, instead of עֲנֵנוּ; so that here the king of Israel is speaking, who, as he prays, stands in the place of his people.