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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 9:15 - 9:15
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(Heb.: 9:16-17) And, as this ט-strophe says, the church is able to praise God; for it is rescued from death, and those who desired that death might overtake it, have fallen a prey to death themselves. Having interpreted the ה-strophe as the representation of the earlier צַֽעֲקַת עֲנִיִּים we have no need to supply dicendo or dicturus, as Seb. Schmidt does, before this strophe, but it continues the praett. preceding the ח-strophe, which celebrate that which has just been experienced. The verb טָבע (root טב, whence also טָבַל) signifies originally to press upon anything with anything flat, to be pressed into, then, as here and in Psa 69:3, Psa 69:15, to sink in. טָמָנוּ זוּ (pausal form in connection with Mugrash) in the parallel member of the verse corresponds to the attributive עָשׂוּ (cf. יִפְעָל, Psa 7:16). The union of the epicene זוּ with רֶשֶׁת by Makkeph proceeds from the view, that זוּ is demonstrative as in Psa 12:8 : the net there (which they have hidden). The punctuation, it is true, recognises a relative זוּ, Psa 17:9; Psa 68:29, but it mostly takes it as demonstrative, inasmuch as it connects it closely with the preceding noun, either by Makkeph (Psa 32:8; Psa 62:12; Psa 142:4; Psa 143:8) or by marking the noun with a conjunctive accent (Psa 10:2; Psa 31:5; Psa 132:12). The verb לָכַד (Arabic to hang on, adhere to, IV to hold fast to) has the signification of seizing and catching in Hebrew.
In Psa 9:17 Ben Naphtali points נֹודָע with ā: Jahve is known (part. Niph.); Ben Asher נֹודַע, Jahve has made Himself known (3 pers. praet. Niph. in a reflexive signification, as in Eze 38:23). The readings of Ben Asher have become the textus receptus. That by which Jahve has made Himself known is stated immediately: He has executed judgment or right, by ensnaring the evil-doer (רָשָׁע, as in Psa 9:6) in his own craftily planned work designed for the destruction of Israel. Thus Gussetius has already interpreted it. נֹוקֵשׁ is part. Kal from נָקַשׁ. If it were part. Niph. from יָקַשׁ the ē, which occurs elsewhere only in a few עע verbs, as נָמֵם liquefactus, would be without an example. But it is not to be translated, with Ges. and Hengst.: “the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands,” in which case it would have to be pointed נֹוקַשׁ (3 praet. Niph.), as in the old versions. Jahve is the subject, and the suffix refers to the evil-doer. The thought is the same as in Job 34:11; Isa 1:31. This figure of the net, רֶשֶׁת (from יָרַשׁ capere), is peculiar to the Psalms that are inscribed לדוד. The music, and in fact, as the combination הגיון סלה indicates, the playing of the stringed instruments (Psa 92:4), increases here; or the music is increased after a solo of the stringed instruments. The song here soars aloft to the climax of triumph.