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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 73:3 - 73:3
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Now follows the occasion of the conflict of temptation: the good fortune of those who are estranged from God. In accordance with the gloominess of the theme, the style is also gloomy, and piles up the full-toned suffixes amo and emo (vid., Psa 78:66; Psa 80:7; Psa 83:12, Psa 83:14); both are after the example set by David. קִנֵּא with Beth of the object ion which the zeal or warmth of feeling is kindled (Psa 37:1; Pro 3:31) here refers to the warmth of envious ill-feeling. Concerning הֹֽולֵל vid., Psa 5:6. Psa 73:3 tells under what circumsntaces the envy was excited; cf. so far as the syntax is concerned, Psa 49:6; Psa 76:11. In Psa 73:4 חַרְצֻצבֹּות (from חַרְצֹב = חַצֹּב from חָצַב, cognate עָצַב, whence עֶצֶב, pain, Arabic ‛aṣâbe, a snare, cf. חֵבֶל, ὠδίς, and חֶבֶל σχοινίον), in the same sense as the Latin tormenta (from torquere), is intended of pains that produce convulsive contractions. But in order to give the meaning “they have no pangs (to suffer) till their death,” לָהֶם (לָמֹו) could not be omitted (that is, assuming also that לְ, which is sometimes used for עַד, vid., Psa 59:14, could in such an exclusive sense signify the terminus ad quem). Also “there are no pangs for their death, i.e., that bring death to them,” ought to be expressed by לָהֶם לַמָּוֶת. The clause as it stands affirms that their dying has no pangs, i.e., it is a painless death; but not merely does this assertion not harmonize with Psa 73:18., but it is also introduced too early here, since the poet cannot surely begin the description of the good fortune of the ungodly with the painlessness of their death, and then for the first time come to speak of their healthy condition. We may therefore read, with Ewald, Hitzig, Böttcher, and Olshausen:
כי אין חרצבות לָמֹו
תָּם ובריא אולם
i.e., they have (suffer) no pangs, vigorous (תָּם like תֹּם, Job 21:23, תָמִים, Pro 1:12) and well-nourished is their belly; by which means the difficult לְמֹותָם is got rid of, and the gloomy picture is enriched by another form ending with mo. אוּל, here in a derisive sense, signifies the body, like the Arabic allun, âlun (from âl, coaluit, cohaesit, to condense inwardly, to gain consistency).
(Note: Hitzig calls to mind οὖλος, “corporeal;” but this word is Ionic and equivalent to ὅλος, solidus, the ground-word of which is the Sanscrit sarvas, whole, complete.)
The observation of Psa 73:4 is pursued further in Psa 73:5 : whilst one would have thought that the godly formed an exception to the common wretchedness of mankind, it is just the wicked who are exempt from all trouble and calamity. It is also here to be written אֵינֵמֹו, as in Psa 59:14, not אֵינֵימֹו. Therefore is haughtiness their neck-chain, and brutishness their mantle. עָנַק is a denominative from עֹנֶק = αὐχήν: to hang round the neck; the neck is the seat of pride (αὐχεῖν): haughtiness hangs around their neck (like עֲנָק, a neck-ornament). Accordingly in Psa 73:6 הָמָס is the subject, although the interpunction construes it differently, viz., “they wrap round as a garment the injustice belonging to them,” in order, that is, to avoid the construction of יעטף (vid., Ps 65:14) with לָמֹו; but active verbs can take a dative of the object (e.g., אָהֵב לְ ,, רָפָא לְ) in the sense: to be or to grant to any one that which the primary notion of the verb asserts. It may therefore be rendered: they put on the garment of violence (שִׁית חָמָס like בִּגְדֵי נָקָם, Isa 59:17), or even by avoiding every enallage numeri: violence covers them as a garment; so that שִׁית is an apposition which is put forth in advance.