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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 7:3 - 7:3
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(Heb.: 7:4-6) According to the inscription זֹאת points to the substance of those slanderous sayings of the Benjamite. With בְּכַפָּי אִם־יֶשׁ־עָוֶל one may compare David's words to Saul אֵין בְּיָדִי רָעָה 1Sa 24:12; 1Sa 26:18; and from this comparison one will at once see in a small compass the difference between poetical and prose expression. שֹׁלְמִי (Targ. לִבְעֵל שְׁלָמִי) is the name he gives (with reference to Saul) to him who stands on a peaceful, friendly footing with him, cf. the adject. שָׁלֹום, Psa 55:21, and אִישׁ שָׁלֹום, Psa 41:10. The verb גָּמַל, cogn. גָּמַר, signifies originally to finish, complete, (root גם, כם ,גם t, cf. כִּימָה to be or to make full, to gather into a heap). One says טֹּוב גָּמַל and גָּמַל רַע, and also without a material object גָּמַל עָלַי or גְּמָלַנִי benefecit or malefecit mihi. But we join גָּמַלְתִּי with רָע according to the Targum and contrary to the accentuation, and not with שֹׁלְמִי (Olsh., Böttch., Hitz.), although שֹׁלֵם beside מְשַׁלֵּם, as e.g., דֹּבֵר beside מְדַבֵּר might mean “requiting.” The poet would then have written: אִם שִׁלַּמְתִּי גֹּמְלִי רָע i.e., if I have retaliated upon him that hath done evil to me. In Psa 7:5 we do not render it according the meaning to הִלֵּץ which is usual elsewhere: but rather I rescued... (Louis de Dieu, Ewald §345, a, and Hupfeld). Why cannot הִלֵּץ in accordance with its primary signification expedire, exuere (according to which even the signification of rescuing, taken exactly, does not proceed from the idea of drawing out, but of making loose, exuere vinclis) signify here exuere = spoliare, as it does in Aramaic? And how extremely appropriate it is as an allusion to the incident in the cave, when David did not rescue Saul, but, without indeed designing to take חֲלִיצָה, exuviae, cut off the hem of his garment! As Hengstenberg observes, “He affirms his innocence in the most general terms, thereby showing that his conduct towards Saul was not anything exceptional, but sprang from his whole disposition and mode of action.” On the 1 pers. fut. conv. and ah, vid., on Psa 3:6. רֵיקָם belongs to צֹֽורֲרִי, like Psa 25:3; Psa 69:5.
In the apodosis, Psa 7:6, the fut. Kal of רָדַף is made into three syllables, in a way altogether without example, since, by first making the Shebâ audible, from יִרְדֹּף it is become יִֽרֲדֹף (like יִֽצֲחַק Gen 21:6, תִּֽהֲלַךְ Psa 73:9; Exo 9:23, שִֽׁמֳעָה Psa 39:13), and this is then sharpened by an euphonic Dag. forte.
(Note: The Dag. is of the same kind as the Dag. in גְּמַלִּים among nouns; Arabic popular dialect farassı̂ (my horse), vid., Wetzstein's Inshriften S. 366.)
Other ways of explaining it, as that by Cahjúg = יתרדף, or by Kimchi as a mixed form from Kal and Piel,
(Note: Pinsker's view, that the pointing יִֽרֲדֹף is designed to leave the reader at liberty to choose between the reading יִרְדֹּף and יְרַדֵּף, cannot be supported. There are no safe examples for the supposition that the variations of tradition found expression in this way.)
have been already refuted by Baer, Thorath Emeth, p. 33. This dactylic jussive form of Kal is followed by the regular jussives of Hiph. יַשַּׂג and יַשְׁכֶּן. The rhythm is similar so that in the primary passage Exo 15:9, which also finds its echo in Psa 18:38, - viz. iambic with anapaests inspersed. By its parallelism with נַפְשִׁי and חַיָּי, כְּבֹודִי acquires the signification “my soul,” as Saadia, Gecatilia and Aben-Ezra have rendered it - a signification which is secured to it by Psa 16:9; 30:13; Psa 57:9; Psa 108:2, Gen 49:6. Man's soul is his doxa, and this it is as being the copy of the divine doxa (Bibl. Psychol. S. 98, [tr. p. 119], and frequently). Moreover, “let him lay in the dust” is at least quite as favourable to this sense of כבודי as to the sense of personal and official dignity (Psa 3:4; Psa 4:3). To lay down in the dust is equivalent to: to lay in the dust of death, Psa 22:16. שֹׁכְנֵי עָפָר, Isa 26:19, are the dead. According to the biblical conception the soul is capable of being killed (Num 35:11), and mortal (Num 23:10). It binds spirit and body together and this bond is cut asunder by death. David will submit willingly to death in case he has ever acted dishonourably.
Here the music is to strike up, in order to give intensity to the expression of this courageous confession. In the next strophe is affirmation of innocence rises to a challenging appeal to the judgment-seat of God and a prophetic certainty that that judgment is near at hand.