Jehovah, יְהוָה לִי

6., among those that sustain my soul. The sense in this place is not that God is one among a number of supporters, but that He is the only supporter; and the construction, which is somewhat peculiar, bears out this interpretation by the usage it obtains in other places. Thus Judg. xi. 35, where Jephthah says to his daughter, Thou art among the troublers of me (y); by which is to be understood that she very much grieved and troubled him. Ps. cxviii. 7, a, Jehovah is to me among my helpers, i. e. He is my helper. Isaiah xli. 4, where God saith of Himself, I am with the last; the meaning is simply, I am the last. So Hos. xi. 4, I was to them as they that take off the yoke, i. e. I eased them. In the New Testament, we have the same idiom in John xi. 19, Many of the Jews came πρὸς τὰς περὶ Μάρθαν καὶ Μαρίαν, to those about Martha and Mary, i. e. as we render it, to Martha and Mary. See Hammond on this verse, p. 279. Others interpret the expression thus: God is with those who sustain my soul, i. e. He assists all who sustain me. But the former exposition is more in unison with the context, and is better.

Some crities prefer the one . יָשִׁיב The kri reading is שוב .7

reading, and some the other. On the sense of the passage in either case Kimchi has lucidly written as follows: "The Kthibh is of the Kal conj., a neuter verb, and its subject is y, but the K'ri " is of the Hiph. conj., and its subject N. The meaning of the latter is, that the evil which they do to me, He will cause to return to them." See Ps. xxviii. 4; lxxix. 12. The noun, to my enemies, is from the verb 77, to twist, to oppress; and this word very fitly designates the enemies of David at this time, both as regards Saul and his army, who were watching all his movements in order to apprehend him, and as regards the Ziphites, who spied out his lurking-places in order to inform Saul. In the second member is a sudden change in the construction. The Psalmist passes from the fut. to the imper., or rather to the language of entreaty; for he addresses himself at once to God, and prays for the extermina

tion of those who were bent on taking away his life. In the first part of the verse he states his belief that God would reward the evil-doer according to his works, as if this was one great object in God's moral government, and therefore he prays that the Divine judgments so just, may be duly executed, as being most conducive to the general welfare of mankind. See Ps. v. 11, where a precisely similar construction exists.

8. I will voluntarily sacrifice to Thee., voluntarily. So Luther, freywillig; Mendelssohn, mit Freymuth; Piscator, alacriter. The noun 27 is a gift freely offered, i.e. not required by any statute. See Ex. xxxv. 29; Deut. xxiii. 23. The word is used adverbially, with the preposition prefixed in Numb. xv. 3, and without, in Hosea xiv. 5. The last words i admit of a double interpretation; either that the name of God is good, or that it is good to praise His name. The ancient versions are equally indefinite in their renderings of the words.

9. We have here as to God a change of person, viz. from the second to the third., and my eye hath looked on my enemies. The Chald., supposing an ellipsis, has my eye hath seen revenge (?) upon mine enemies; and agreeably thereto our Eng. version has his desire; but the LXX. have literally interpreted the passage, and so have the Syr. and Vulg., in which they are right. David's enemies, we learn from the history, were not at this time destroyed, but had only retired from their pursuit on account of Saul receiving the news of the Philistines having entered the land; and it is therefore most probable that David had reference only to the fact of having seen (of course with pleasure), perhaps from a hill in Maon, that his adversaries were marching away, and so he himself was delivered from his trouble.

VOL. I.

D D

PSALM LV.

FROM the general tenour of this Psalm it appears to have been composed by David at a time when he had to flee from Jerusalem, and seek safety in some distant region. There is allusion in the 13th and following verses to some person who was his counsellor and intimate friend, but who was now found in the ranks of those who were seeking his life; and it is supposed that this faithless man was Ahithophel, who figured as a principal actor in the insurrection of Absalom, to which event this Psalm is consequently referred. Some persons have objected to this application of the Psalm, but without much reason. The prayer of David (2 Sam. xv. 31), it has been said, does not agree with the tone of this Psalm, in which is expressed a sense of personal wrong. The answer to this is, that although David's prayer was heard, and Ahithophel's second counsel was turned into foolishness, yet his first counsel, recorded in 2 Sam. xvi. 21, was carried out, and surely that counsel was a personal wrong to David. Again, David, it is urged, must have written this Psalm in Jerusalem, before the treachery of Ahithophel appeared; because we read in v. 10, I have seen violence and strife in the city. David might surely have seen violence and strife before he left the city. The verb is in the past tense. The objection is puerile. In the concluding verses, David expresses his faith in God, and foretells both the overthrow of the faction, and his own re-establishment in the kingdom.

2. Both members of this verse contain the same petition to God, viz. for a hearing; the one is expressed affirmatively, and the other negatively. Dyn, hide not thyself. Withdraw not thy countenance. In Lam. iii. 56 the prayer is; hide not

thine ear.

is from אָרִיד .I cander in my meditation , אָרִיד בְּשִׁיחִי .3

NON,

Münster

, the Hiph.; although Hupfeld says it is Kal. It seems to be cognate in meaning with 1,, which denotes running to and fro, as, and hence to wander, Jer. ii. 31. Here it is applied to the wandering of the mind. The LXX. have for this verb, évπý◊ŋv; and agreeably thereto, Rashi has I mourn. Kimchi says it has the sense of . translates the expression: "rugiam in oratione mea." But the verb has undoubtedly the Arabic signification in some places where it is found, and may have in all; and such fact most probably constitutes a sufficient reason for concluding that the word in the two languages has a common meaning. The noun , Syr. as, primarily signifies a branch, then speech, and meditation. The idea is probably obtained from the Arab.

root

to pour forth, and hence to pour forth words, or to shoot forth as the shooting forth of the branch of a tree. Here the best sense to attach to it is meditation. See Ps. civ. 34. The Psalmist is here describing the state of mental agony and melancholy to which he was brought by contemplating the sad condition of his domestic circumstances, and those of the country.

4. Both the of hipp, and before py, evidently connect this verse with the preceding, and express the cause of David's sorrows. By ip, we understand the threatening, boastful, and insulting words of the enemy. p, oppression of, is construct. form from py, Syr. s. The root is py, to press, a Chald. form for py. Another derivation is p, and is used in Ps. lxvi. 11, as a weight pressing on the loins. The

noun p occurs only in this place. , they cause to decline, i. e. they send down, they cast, viz. iniquity upon me. See Ps. cxl. 11. "h. e. dolosa adversus me cudunt consilia, iniquissimis me undique obruunt calumniis ac injuriis, plenos quasi miseriarum indignissimarum gurgites in me derivant." Geier.

, and in anger they persecute me. They are inflamed with anger against me, and desire to seize every occasion of injuring me. The verb D, both in sound and signification, is cognate with 1, and is used in Gen. 1. 15, of Joseph, whose indignation his brethren feared. See also Gen. xxvii. 41; Job xvi. 9; xxx. 21.

5. . Instead of taking this verb in the sense of sore pained, as in the English translation, it will accord better with the context to assign to it the notion of trembling. See Ges. Thesaurus. So Münster, "Cor meum contremiscit in medio mei." So Ps. cxiv. 7, we have, tremble thou. 1 Chron. x. 3, speaking of the archers who pressed upon Saul, it is said , and he trembled. In this verse, the Chald. has ЛA, my heart trembleth; the Syr.io, and fear fell upon me. So also by giving this sense to the verb b, the two members of this verse correspond respectively with the two members of verse 6. "The terrors of death have fallen (5) upon me." "Verbo, cecidit, utitur, ut significet, de improviso et de repente formidinem in se irruere, nam repentina mala timorem augent, et sic ab animo lucem consilii auferunt." Rosenmüller.

6.

and

כָּלָה and terror hath covered me. The verb ,וַתְּכַסֵּנִי פַּלָצוּת

is employed in Numb. ix. 15, to express the covering by a cloud, thereby excluding entirely the light. In Ex. xv. 10, it is used of the sea swallowing up entirely the Egyptians. Here it denotes the greatness of the terror which had fallen upon the Psalmist., terror, trembling, from . The noun itself occurs three times besides this place: Job xxi. 6; Is. xxi. 4; Ezek. vii. 18.