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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 72:16 - 72:16
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Here, where the futures again stand at the head of the clauses, they are also again to be understood as optatives. As the blessing of such a dominion after God's heart, not merely fertility but extraordinary fruitfulness may be confidently desired for the land פִּסָּה (ἁπ. λεγ..), rendered by the Syriac version sugo, abundance, is correctly derived by the Jewish lexicographers from פָּסַס = פָּשָׂה (in the law relating to leprosy), Mishnic פָּסָה, Aramaic פְּסָא, Arabic fšâ, but also fšš (vid., Job, at Psa 35:14-16), to extend, expandere; so that it signifies an abundance that occupies a broad space. בְּרֹאשׁ, unto the summit, as in Psa 36:6; Psa 19:5. The idea thus obtained is the same as when Hofmann (Weissagung und Erfüllung, i. 180f.) takes פִסָּה (from פָּסַס = אָפֵס) in the signification of a boundary line: “close upon the summit of the mountain shall the last corn stand,” with reference to the terrace-like structure of the heights. פִּרְיֹו does not refer back to בארץ (Hitzig, who misleads one by referring to Joe 2:3), but to בַּר: may the corn stand so high and thick that the fields, being moved by the wind, shall shake, i.e., wave up and down, like the lofty thick forest of Lebanon. The lxx, which renders huperarthee'setai, takes ירעשׁ for יראשׁ, as Ewald does: may its fruit rise to a summit, i.e., rise high, like Lebanon. But a verb רָאַשׁ is unknown; and how bombastic is this figure in comparison with that grand, but beautiful figure, which we would not willingly exchange even for the conjecture יֶעְשַׁר (may it be rich)! The other wish refers to a rapid, joyful increase of the population: may men blossom out of this city and out of that city as the herb of the earth (cf. Job 5:25, where צֶֽאֱצָאֶיךָ also accords in sound with יָצִיצוּ), i.e., fresh, beautiful, and abundant as it. Israel actually became under Solomon's sceptre as numerous “as the sand by the sea” (1Ki 4:20), but increase of population is also a settled feature in the picture of the Messianic time (Psa 110:3, Isa 9:2; Isa 49:20, Zec 2:8 [4]; cf. Sir. 44:21). If, however, under the just and benign rule of the king, both land and people are thus blessed, eternal duration may be desired for his name. May this name, is the wish of the poet, ever send forth new shoots (יָנִין Chethib), or receive new shoots (יִנֹּון Kerî, from Niph. נָנֹון), as long as the sun turns its face towards us, inasmuch as the happy and blessed results of the dominion of the king ever afford new occasion for glorifying his name. May they bless themselves in him, may all nations call him blessed, and that, as וְיִתְבָּֽרְכוּ בֹו
(Note: Pronounce wejithbārchu, because the tone rests on the first letter of the root; whereas in Psa 72:15 it is jebārachenu with Chateph. vid., the rule in the Luther. Zeitschrift, 1863, S. 412.)
implies, so blessed that his abundance of blessing appears to them to be the highest that they can desire for themselves. To et benedicant sibi in eo we have to supply in thought the most universal, as yet undefined subject, which is then more exactly defined as omnes gentes with the second synonymous predicate. The accentuation (Athnach, Mugrash, Silluk) is blameless.