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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 80:4 - 80:4
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In the second strophe there issues forth bitter complaint concerning the form of wrath which the present assumes, and, thus confirmed, the petition rises anew. The transferring of the smoking (עָשֵׁן) of God's nostrils = the hard breathing of anger (Psa 74:1, Deu 29:19), to God Himself is bold, but in keeping with the spirit of the Biblical view of the wrath of God (vid., on Psa 18:9), so that there is no need to avoid the expression by calling in the aid of the Syriac word עֲשֵׁן, to be strong, powerful (why art Thou hard, why dost Thou harden Thyself...). The perfect after עַד־מָתַי has the sense of a present with a retrospective glance, as in Exo 10:3, cf. עַד־אָנָה, to be understood after the analogy of חָרָה בְּ (to kindle = to be angry against any one), for the prayer of the people is not an object of wrath, but only not a means of turning it aside. While the prayer is being presented, God veils Himself in the smoke of wrath, through which it is not able to penetrate. The lxx translators have read בתפלת עבדיך, for they render ἐπὶ τὴν προσευχήν τῶν δούλων σου (for which the common reading is τοῦ δούλου σου). Bread of tears is, according to Psa 42:4, bread consisting of tears; tears, running down in streams upon the lips of the praying and fasting one, are his meat and his drink. הִשְׁקָה with an accusative signifies to give something to drink, and followed by Beth, to give to drink by means of something, but it is not to be translated: potitandum das eis cum lacrymis trientem (De Dieu, von Ortenberg, and Hitzig). שָׁלִישׁ (Talmudic, a third part) is the accusative of more precise definition (Vatablus, Gesenius, Olshausen, and Hupfeld): by thirds (lxx ἐν μέτρῳ, Symmachus μέτρῳ); for a third of an ephah is certainly a very small measure for the dust of the earth (Isa 40:12), but a large one for tears. The neighbours are the neighbouring nations, to whom Israel is become מָדֹון, an object, a butt of contention. In לָמֹו is expressed the pleasure which the mocking gives them.