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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 9:11 - 9:11
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(Heb.: 9:12-13) Thus then the z-strophe summons to the praise of this God who has done, and will still do, such things. The summons contains a moral claim, and therefore applies to all, and to each one individually. Jahve, who is to be praised everywhere and by every one, is called יֹשֵׁב צִיֹּון, which does not mean: He who sits enthroned in Zion, but He who inhabiteth Zion, Ges. §138, 1. Such is the name by which He is called since the time when His earthly throne, the ark, was fixed on the castle hill of Jerusalem, Psa 76:3. It is the epithet applied to Him during the period of the typical kingship of promise. That Jahve's salvation shall be proclaimed from Zion to all the world, even outside Israel, for their salvation, is, as we see here and elsewhere, an idea which throbs with life even in the Davidic Psalms; later prophecy beholds its realisation in its wider connections with the history of the future. That which shall be proclaimed to the nations is called עֲלִילֹותָיו, a designation which the magnalia Dei have obtained in the Psalms and the prophets since the time of Hannah's song, 1Sa 2:3 (from עָלַל, root על, to come over or upon anything, to influence a person or a thing, as it were, from above, to subject them to one's energy, to act upon them).
With כִּי, quod, in Psa 9:13, the subject of the proclamation of salvation is unfolded as to its substance. The praett. state that which is really past; for that which God has done is the assumption that forms the basis of the discourse in praise of God on account of His mighty acts. They consist in avenging and rescuing His persecuted church-persecuted even to martyrdom. The אֹותָם, standing by way of emphasis before its verb, refers to those who are mentioned afterwards (cf. Psa 9:20): the Chethîb calls them עֲנִיִּים, the Keri עֲנָוִים. Both words alternate elsewhere also, the Kerî at one time placing the latter, at another the former, in the place of the one that stands in the text. They are both referable to עַנָה to bend (to bring low, Isa 25:5). The neuter signification of the verb עָנָה = עָנַו, Arab.. ‛nâ, fut o., underlies the noun עָנָו (cf. שָׁלֵו), for which in Num 12:3 there is a Kerî עָנָיו with an incorrect Jod (like שָׁלֵיו Job 21:23). This is manifest from the substantive עֲנָוָה, which does not signify affliction, but passiveness, i.e., humility and gentleness; and the noun עָנִי is passive, and therefore does not, like עָנָו, signify one who is lowly-minded, in a state of עֲנָוָה, but one who is bowed down by afflictions, עָנִי. But because the twin virtues denoted by עֲנָוָה are acquired in the school of affliction, there comes to be connected with עָנִי - but only secondarily - the notion of that moral and spiritual condition which is aimed at by dispensations of affliction, and is joined with a suffering life, rather than with one of worldly happiness and prosperity, - a condition which, as Num 12:3 shows, is properly described by עָנָו (ταπεινός and πραΰ́ς). It shall be proclaimed beyond Israel, even among the nations, that the Avenger of blood, דָּמִים דֹּרֵשׁ, thinks of them (His דֹּרִשִׁים), and has been as earnest in His concern for them as they in theirs for Him. דָּמִים always signifies human blood that is shed by violence and unnaturally; the plur. is the plural of the product discussed by Dietrich, Abhandl. S. 40. דָּרַשׁ to demand back from any one that which he has destroyed, and therefore to demand a reckoning, indemnification, satisfaction for it, Gen 9:5, then absolutely to punish, 2Ch 24:22.