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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 91:3 - 91:3
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יָקושׁ, as in Pro 6:5; Jer 5:26, is the dullest toned from for יָקֹושׁ or יֹוקֵשׁ, Psa 124:7. What is meant is death, or “he who has the power of death,” Heb 2:14, cf. 2Ti 2:26. “The snare of the fowler” is a figure for the peril of one's life, Ecc 9:12. In connection with Psa 91:4 we have to call to mind Deu 32:11 : God protects His own as an eagle with its large strong wing. אֶבְרָה is nom. unitatis, a pinion, to אֵבֶר, Isa 40:31; and the Hiph. הֵסֵךְ, from סָכַךְ, with the dative of the object, like the Kal in Psa 140:8, signifies to afford covering, protection. The ἅπαξ λεγ. סֹחֵרָה, according to its stem-word, is that which encompasses anything round about, and here beside צִנָּה, a weapon of defence surrounding the body on all sides; therefore not corresponding to the Syriac sḥārtā', a stronghold (סֹהַר, מִסְגֶּרֶת), but to Syriac sabrā', a shield. The Targum translates צִנָּה with תְּרֵיסָא, θυρεός, and סֹחֵרָה with עֲגִילָא, which points to the round parma. אֲמִתֹּו is the truth of the divine promises. This is an impregnable defence (a) in war-times, Psa 91:5, against nightly surprises, and in the battle by day; (b) in times of pestilence, Psa 91:6, when the destroying angel, who passes through and destroys the people (Exo 11:4), can do no harm to him who has taken refuge in God, either in the midnight or the noontide hours. The future יַֽהֲלֹךְ is a more rhythmical and, in the signification to rage (as of disease) and to vanish away, a more usual form instead of יֵלֵךְ. The lxx, Aquila, and Symmachus erroneously associate the demon name שֵׁד with יָשׁוּד. It is a metaplastic (as if formed from שׁוּד morf de) future for יָשֹׁד, cf. Pro 29:6, יָרוּן, and Isa 42:4, יָרוּץ, frangetur. Psa 91:7 a hypothetical protasis: si cadant; the preterite would signify cediderint, Ew. §357, b. With רַק that which will solely and exclusively take place is introduced. Burk correctly renders: nullam cum peste rem habebis, nisi ut videas. Only a spectator shalt thou be, and that with thine own eyes, being they self inaccessible and left to survive, conscious that thou thyself art a living one in contrast with those who are dying. And thou shalt behold, like Israel on the night of the Passover, the just retribution to which the evil-doers fall a prey. שִׁלֻּמָה, recompense, retribution, is a hapaxlegomenon, cf. שִׁלֻּמִים, Isa 34:8. Ascribing the glory to God, the second voice confirms or ratifies these promises.