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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 76:4 - 76:4
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The “mountains of prey,” for which the lxx has ὀρέων αἰωνίων (טֶרֶם?), is an emblematical appellation for the haughty possessors of power who also plunder every one that comes near them,
(Note: One verse of a beautiful poem of the Muḥammel which Ibn Dûchı̂, the phylarch of the Beni Zumeir, an honoured poet of the steppe, dictated to Consul Wetzstein runs thus: The noble are like a very lofty hill-side upon which, when thou comest to it, thou findest an evening meal and protection (Arab. 'l-‛š' w-ḏry).)
or the proud and despoiling worldly powers. Far aloft beyond these towers the glory of God. He is נָאֹור, illustris, prop. illumined; said of God: light-encircled, fortified in light, in the sense of Dan 2:22; 1Ti 6:16. He is the אַדִּיר, to whom the Lebanon of the hostile army of the nations must succumb (Isa 10:34) According to Solinus (ed. Mommsen, p. 124) the Moors call Atlas Addirim. This succumbing is described in Psa 76:6. The strong of heart or stout-hearted, the lion-hearted, have been despoiled, disarmed, exuti; אֶֽשְׁתֹּולֲלוּ
(Note: With orthophonic Gaja, vid., Baer's Metheg-Setzung, §45.)
is an Aramaizing praet. Hithpo. (like אֶתְחַבַּר, 2Ch 20:35, cf. Dan 4:16; Isa 63:3) with a passive signification. From Psa 76:6 we see that the beginning of the catastrophe is described, and therefore נָמוּ (perhaps on that account accented on the ult.) is meant inchoatively: they have fallen into their sleep, viz., the eternal sleep (Jer 51:39, Jer 51:57), as Nahum says (Nah 3:18): thy shepherds sleep, O king of Assyria, thy valiant ones rest. In Psa 76:6 we see them lying in the last throes of death, and making a last effort to spring up again. But they cannot find their hands, which they have lifted up threateningly against Jerusalem: these are lamed, motionless, rigid and dead; cf. the phrases in Jos 8:20; 2Sa 7:27, and the Talmudic phrase, “he did not find his hands and feet in the school-house,” i.e., he was entirely disconcerted and stupefied.
(Note: Dukes, Rabbinische Blumenlese, S. 191.)
This field of corpses is the effect of the omnipotent energy of the word of the God of Jacob; cf. וְגָעַר בֹּו, Isa 17:13. Before His threatening both war-chariot and horse (וְ - וְ) are sunk into motionlessness and unconsciousness - an allusion to Ex. 15, as in Isa 43:17 : who bringeth out chariot and horse, army and heroes - together they faint away, they shall never rise; they have flickered out, like a wick they are extinguished.