Psalms 109

Psa 109:6-10 The writer now turns to one among the many, and in the angry zealous fervour of despised love calls down God’s judgment upon him. To call down a higher power, more particularly for punishment, upon any one is expressed by על (הפקיד) פּקד, Jer 15:3; Lev 26:16. The tormentor of innocence shall find a superior executor who will bring him before the tribunal (which is expressed in Latin by legis actio per manus injectionem ).

The judgment scene in Psa 109:6 , Psa 109:7 shows that this is what is intended in Psa 109:6 : At the right hand is the place of the accuser, who in this instance will not rest before the damnatus es has been pronounced. He is called שׂטן, which is not to be understood here after 1Sa 29:4; 2Sa 19:22, but after Zec 3:1; 1Ch 21:1, if not directly of Satan, still of a superhuman (cf.

Num 22:22) being which opposes him, by appearing before God as his κατήγωρ; for according to Psa 109:7 the שׂטן is to be thought of as accuser, and according to Psa 109:7 God as Judge. רשׁע has the sense of reus , and יצא refers to the publication of the sentence. Psa 109:7 wishes that his prayer, viz. , that by which he would wish to avert the divine sentence of condemnation, may become לחטאה, not: a missing of the mark, i.

e. , ineffectual (Thenius), but, according to the usual signification of the word: a sin, viz. , because it proceeds from despair, not from true penitence. In Psa 109:8 the incorrigible one is wished an untimely death (מעטּים as in one other instance, only, Ecc 5:1) and the loss of his office. The lxx renders: τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ λάβοι ἕτερος. פּקדּה really signifies the office of overseer, oversight, office, and the one individual must have held a prominent position among the enemies of the psalmist.

Having died off from this position before his time, he shall leave behind him a family deeply reduced in circumstances, whose former dwelling - place-he was therefore wealthy - becomes “ruins. ” His children wander up and down far from these ruins (מן as e. g. , in Jdg 5:11; Job 28:4) and beg (דּרשׁ, like προσαιτεῖν ἐπαιτεῖν, Sir. 40:28 = לחם בּקּשׁ, Psa 37:25).

Instead of ודרשׁוּ the reading ודרשׁוּ is also found. A Poel is now and then formed from the strong verbs also, in the inflexion of which the Cholem is sometimes shortened to Kametz chatuph ; vid. , the forms of לשׁן, to slander, in Psa 101:5, תּאר, to sketch, mark out in outline, Isa 44:13, cf. also Job 20:26 (תּאכלהוּ) and Isa 62:9 (according to the reading מאספיו).

To read the Kametz in these instances as ā , and to regard these forms as resolved Piels , is, in connection with the absence of the Metheg , contrary to the meaning of the pointing; on purpose to guard against this way of reading it, correct codices have ודרשׁוּ (cf. Psa 69:19), which Baer has adopted.

Psa 109:6-10 The writer now turns to one among the many, and in the angry zealous fervour of despised love calls down God’s judgment upon him. To call down a higher power, more particularly for punishment, upon any one is expressed by על (הפקיד) פּקד, Jer 15:3; Lev 26:16. The tormentor of innocence shall find a superior executor who will bring him before the tribunal (which is expressed in Latin by legis actio per manus injectionem ).

The judgment scene in Psa 109:6 , Psa 109:7 shows that this is what is intended in Psa 109:6 : At the right hand is the place of the accuser, who in this instance will not rest before the damnatus es has been pronounced. He is called שׂטן, which is not to be understood here after 1Sa 29:4; 2Sa 19:22, but after Zec 3:1; 1Ch 21:1, if not directly of Satan, still of a superhuman (cf.

Num 22:22) being which opposes him, by appearing before God as his κατήγωρ; for according to Psa 109:7 the שׂטן is to be thought of as accuser, and according to Psa 109:7 God as Judge. רשׁע has the sense of reus , and יצא refers to the publication of the sentence. Psa 109:7 wishes that his prayer, viz. , that by which he would wish to avert the divine sentence of condemnation, may become לחטאה, not: a missing of the mark, i.

e. , ineffectual (Thenius), but, according to the usual signification of the word: a sin, viz. , because it proceeds from despair, not from true penitence. In Psa 109:8 the incorrigible one is wished an untimely death (מעטּים as in one other instance, only, Ecc 5:1) and the loss of his office. The lxx renders: τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ λάβοι ἕτερος. פּקדּה really signifies the office of overseer, oversight, office, and the one individual must have held a prominent position among the enemies of the psalmist.

Having died off from this position before his time, he shall leave behind him a family deeply reduced in circumstances, whose former dwelling - place-he was therefore wealthy - becomes “ruins. ” His children wander up and down far from these ruins (מן as e. g. , in Jdg 5:11; Job 28:4) and beg (דּרשׁ, like προσαιτεῖν ἐπαιτεῖν, Sir. 40:28 = לחם בּקּשׁ, Psa 37:25).

Instead of ודרשׁוּ the reading ודרשׁוּ is also found. A Poel is now and then formed from the strong verbs also, in the inflexion of which the Cholem is sometimes shortened to Kametz chatuph ; vid. , the forms of לשׁן, to slander, in Psa 101:5, תּאר, to sketch, mark out in outline, Isa 44:13, cf. also Job 20:26 (תּאכלהוּ) and Isa 62:9 (according to the reading מאספיו).

To read the Kametz in these instances as ā , and to regard these forms as resolved Piels , is, in connection with the absence of the Metheg , contrary to the meaning of the pointing; on purpose to guard against this way of reading it, correct codices have ודרשׁוּ (cf. Psa 69:19), which Baer has adopted.

Psa 109:6-10 The writer now turns to one among the many, and in the angry zealous fervour of despised love calls down God’s judgment upon him. To call down a higher power, more particularly for punishment, upon any one is expressed by על (הפקיד) פּקד, Jer 15:3; Lev 26:16. The tormentor of innocence shall find a superior executor who will bring him before the tribunal (which is expressed in Latin by legis actio per manus injectionem ).

The judgment scene in Psa 109:6 , Psa 109:7 shows that this is what is intended in Psa 109:6 : At the right hand is the place of the accuser, who in this instance will not rest before the damnatus es has been pronounced. He is called שׂטן, which is not to be understood here after 1Sa 29:4; 2Sa 19:22, but after Zec 3:1; 1Ch 21:1, if not directly of Satan, still of a superhuman (cf.

Num 22:22) being which opposes him, by appearing before God as his κατήγωρ; for according to Psa 109:7 the שׂטן is to be thought of as accuser, and according to Psa 109:7 God as Judge. רשׁע has the sense of reus , and יצא refers to the publication of the sentence. Psa 109:7 wishes that his prayer, viz. , that by which he would wish to avert the divine sentence of condemnation, may become לחטאה, not: a missing of the mark, i.

e. , ineffectual (Thenius), but, according to the usual signification of the word: a sin, viz. , because it proceeds from despair, not from true penitence. In Psa 109:8 the incorrigible one is wished an untimely death (מעטּים as in one other instance, only, Ecc 5:1) and the loss of his office. The lxx renders: τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ λάβοι ἕτερος. פּקדּה really signifies the office of overseer, oversight, office, and the one individual must have held a prominent position among the enemies of the psalmist.

Having died off from this position before his time, he shall leave behind him a family deeply reduced in circumstances, whose former dwelling - place-he was therefore wealthy - becomes “ruins. ” His children wander up and down far from these ruins (מן as e. g. , in Jdg 5:11; Job 28:4) and beg (דּרשׁ, like προσαιτεῖν ἐπαιτεῖν, Sir. 40:28 = לחם בּקּשׁ, Psa 37:25).

Instead of ודרשׁוּ the reading ודרשׁוּ is also found. A Poel is now and then formed from the strong verbs also, in the inflexion of which the Cholem is sometimes shortened to Kametz chatuph ; vid. , the forms of לשׁן, to slander, in Psa 101:5, תּאר, to sketch, mark out in outline, Isa 44:13, cf. also Job 20:26 (תּאכלהוּ) and Isa 62:9 (according to the reading מאספיו).

To read the Kametz in these instances as ā , and to regard these forms as resolved Piels , is, in connection with the absence of the Metheg , contrary to the meaning of the pointing; on purpose to guard against this way of reading it, correct codices have ודרשׁוּ (cf. Psa 69:19), which Baer has adopted.

Psa 109:6-10 The writer now turns to one among the many, and in the angry zealous fervour of despised love calls down God’s judgment upon him. To call down a higher power, more particularly for punishment, upon any one is expressed by על (הפקיד) פּקד, Jer 15:3; Lev 26:16. The tormentor of innocence shall find a superior executor who will bring him before the tribunal (which is expressed in Latin by legis actio per manus injectionem ).

The judgment scene in Psa 109:6 , Psa 109:7 shows that this is what is intended in Psa 109:6 : At the right hand is the place of the accuser, who in this instance will not rest before the damnatus es has been pronounced. He is called שׂטן, which is not to be understood here after 1Sa 29:4; 2Sa 19:22, but after Zec 3:1; 1Ch 21:1, if not directly of Satan, still of a superhuman (cf.

Num 22:22) being which opposes him, by appearing before God as his κατήγωρ; for according to Psa 109:7 the שׂטן is to be thought of as accuser, and according to Psa 109:7 God as Judge. רשׁע has the sense of reus , and יצא refers to the publication of the sentence. Psa 109:7 wishes that his prayer, viz. , that by which he would wish to avert the divine sentence of condemnation, may become לחטאה, not: a missing of the mark, i.

e. , ineffectual (Thenius), but, according to the usual signification of the word: a sin, viz. , because it proceeds from despair, not from true penitence. In Psa 109:8 the incorrigible one is wished an untimely death (מעטּים as in one other instance, only, Ecc 5:1) and the loss of his office. The lxx renders: τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ λάβοι ἕτερος. פּקדּה really signifies the office of overseer, oversight, office, and the one individual must have held a prominent position among the enemies of the psalmist.

Having died off from this position before his time, he shall leave behind him a family deeply reduced in circumstances, whose former dwelling - place-he was therefore wealthy - becomes “ruins. ” His children wander up and down far from these ruins (מן as e. g. , in Jdg 5:11; Job 28:4) and beg (דּרשׁ, like προσαιτεῖν ἐπαιτεῖν, Sir. 40:28 = לחם בּקּשׁ, Psa 37:25).

Instead of ודרשׁוּ the reading ודרשׁוּ is also found. A Poel is now and then formed from the strong verbs also, in the inflexion of which the Cholem is sometimes shortened to Kametz chatuph ; vid. , the forms of לשׁן, to slander, in Psa 101:5, תּאר, to sketch, mark out in outline, Isa 44:13, cf. also Job 20:26 (תּאכלהוּ) and Isa 62:9 (according to the reading מאספיו).

To read the Kametz in these instances as ā , and to regard these forms as resolved Piels , is, in connection with the absence of the Metheg , contrary to the meaning of the pointing; on purpose to guard against this way of reading it, correct codices have ודרשׁוּ (cf. Psa 69:19), which Baer has adopted.

Psa 109:6-10 The writer now turns to one among the many, and in the angry zealous fervour of despised love calls down God’s judgment upon him. To call down a higher power, more particularly for punishment, upon any one is expressed by על (הפקיד) פּקד, Jer 15:3; Lev 26:16. The tormentor of innocence shall find a superior executor who will bring him before the tribunal (which is expressed in Latin by legis actio per manus injectionem ).

The judgment scene in Psa 109:6 , Psa 109:7 shows that this is what is intended in Psa 109:6 : At the right hand is the place of the accuser, who in this instance will not rest before the damnatus es has been pronounced. He is called שׂטן, which is not to be understood here after 1Sa 29:4; 2Sa 19:22, but after Zec 3:1; 1Ch 21:1, if not directly of Satan, still of a superhuman (cf.

Num 22:22) being which opposes him, by appearing before God as his κατήγωρ; for according to Psa 109:7 the שׂטן is to be thought of as accuser, and according to Psa 109:7 God as Judge. רשׁע has the sense of reus , and יצא refers to the publication of the sentence. Psa 109:7 wishes that his prayer, viz. , that by which he would wish to avert the divine sentence of condemnation, may become לחטאה, not: a missing of the mark, i.

e. , ineffectual (Thenius), but, according to the usual signification of the word: a sin, viz. , because it proceeds from despair, not from true penitence. In Psa 109:8 the incorrigible one is wished an untimely death (מעטּים as in one other instance, only, Ecc 5:1) and the loss of his office. The lxx renders: τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ λάβοι ἕτερος. פּקדּה really signifies the office of overseer, oversight, office, and the one individual must have held a prominent position among the enemies of the psalmist.

Having died off from this position before his time, he shall leave behind him a family deeply reduced in circumstances, whose former dwelling - place-he was therefore wealthy - becomes “ruins. ” His children wander up and down far from these ruins (מן as e. g. , in Jdg 5:11; Job 28:4) and beg (דּרשׁ, like προσαιτεῖν ἐπαιτεῖν, Sir. 40:28 = לחם בּקּשׁ, Psa 37:25).

Instead of ודרשׁוּ the reading ודרשׁוּ is also found. A Poel is now and then formed from the strong verbs also, in the inflexion of which the Cholem is sometimes shortened to Kametz chatuph ; vid. , the forms of לשׁן, to slander, in Psa 101:5, תּאר, to sketch, mark out in outline, Isa 44:13, cf. also Job 20:26 (תּאכלהוּ) and Isa 62:9 (according to the reading מאספיו).

To read the Kametz in these instances as ā , and to regard these forms as resolved Piels , is, in connection with the absence of the Metheg , contrary to the meaning of the pointing; on purpose to guard against this way of reading it, correct codices have ודרשׁוּ (cf. Psa 69:19), which Baer has adopted.

Psa 109:11-15 The Piel נקּשׁ properly signifies to catch in snares; here, like the Arabic Arab. nqš , II, IV, corresponding to the Latin obligare (as referring to the creditor’s right of claim); nosheh is the name of the creditor as he who gives time for payment, gives credit (vid. , Isa 24:2). In Psa 109:12 משׁך חסד, to draw out mercy, is equivalent to causing it to continue and last, Psa 36:11, cf.

Jer 31:3. אחריתו, Psa 109:13 , does not signify his future, but as Psa 109:13 (cf. Psa 37:38) shows: his posterity. יהי להכרית is not merely exscindatur , but exscindenda sit (Eze 30:16, cf. Jos 2:6), just as in other instances חיה ל corresponds to the active fut. periphrasticum , e. g. , Gen 15:12; Isa 37:26. With reference to ימּח instead of ימּח (contracted from ימּחה), vid.

, Ges. §75, rem. 8. A Jewish acrostic interpretation of the name ישׁוּ runs: ימּח שׁמו וזכרו. This curse shall overtake the family of the υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας. All the sins of his parents and ancestors shall remain indelible above before God the Judge, and here below the race, equally guilty, shall be rooted out even to its memory, i. e. , to the last trace of it.

Psa 109:11-15 The Piel נקּשׁ properly signifies to catch in snares; here, like the Arabic Arab. nqš , II, IV, corresponding to the Latin obligare (as referring to the creditor’s right of claim); nosheh is the name of the creditor as he who gives time for payment, gives credit (vid. , Isa 24:2). In Psa 109:12 משׁך חסד, to draw out mercy, is equivalent to causing it to continue and last, Psa 36:11, cf.

Jer 31:3. אחריתו, Psa 109:13 , does not signify his future, but as Psa 109:13 (cf. Psa 37:38) shows: his posterity. יהי להכרית is not merely exscindatur , but exscindenda sit (Eze 30:16, cf. Jos 2:6), just as in other instances חיה ל corresponds to the active fut. periphrasticum , e. g. , Gen 15:12; Isa 37:26. With reference to ימּח instead of ימּח (contracted from ימּחה), vid.

, Ges. §75, rem. 8. A Jewish acrostic interpretation of the name ישׁוּ runs: ימּח שׁמו וזכרו. This curse shall overtake the family of the υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας. All the sins of his parents and ancestors shall remain indelible above before God the Judge, and here below the race, equally guilty, shall be rooted out even to its memory, i. e. , to the last trace of it.

Psa 109:11-15 The Piel נקּשׁ properly signifies to catch in snares; here, like the Arabic Arab. nqš , II, IV, corresponding to the Latin obligare (as referring to the creditor’s right of claim); nosheh is the name of the creditor as he who gives time for payment, gives credit (vid. , Isa 24:2). In Psa 109:12 משׁך חסד, to draw out mercy, is equivalent to causing it to continue and last, Psa 36:11, cf.

Jer 31:3. אחריתו, Psa 109:13 , does not signify his future, but as Psa 109:13 (cf. Psa 37:38) shows: his posterity. יהי להכרית is not merely exscindatur , but exscindenda sit (Eze 30:16, cf. Jos 2:6), just as in other instances חיה ל corresponds to the active fut. periphrasticum , e. g. , Gen 15:12; Isa 37:26. With reference to ימּח instead of ימּח (contracted from ימּחה), vid.

, Ges. §75, rem. 8. A Jewish acrostic interpretation of the name ישׁוּ runs: ימּח שׁמו וזכרו. This curse shall overtake the family of the υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας. All the sins of his parents and ancestors shall remain indelible above before God the Judge, and here below the race, equally guilty, shall be rooted out even to its memory, i. e. , to the last trace of it.

Psa 109:11-15 The Piel נקּשׁ properly signifies to catch in snares; here, like the Arabic Arab. nqš , II, IV, corresponding to the Latin obligare (as referring to the creditor’s right of claim); nosheh is the name of the creditor as he who gives time for payment, gives credit (vid. , Isa 24:2). In Psa 109:12 משׁך חסד, to draw out mercy, is equivalent to causing it to continue and last, Psa 36:11, cf.

Jer 31:3. אחריתו, Psa 109:13 , does not signify his future, but as Psa 109:13 (cf. Psa 37:38) shows: his posterity. יהי להכרית is not merely exscindatur , but exscindenda sit (Eze 30:16, cf. Jos 2:6), just as in other instances חיה ל corresponds to the active fut. periphrasticum , e. g. , Gen 15:12; Isa 37:26. With reference to ימּח instead of ימּח (contracted from ימּחה), vid.

, Ges. §75, rem. 8. A Jewish acrostic interpretation of the name ישׁוּ runs: ימּח שׁמו וזכרו. This curse shall overtake the family of the υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας. All the sins of his parents and ancestors shall remain indelible above before God the Judge, and here below the race, equally guilty, shall be rooted out even to its memory, i. e. , to the last trace of it.

Psa 109:11-15 The Piel נקּשׁ properly signifies to catch in snares; here, like the Arabic Arab. nqš , II, IV, corresponding to the Latin obligare (as referring to the creditor’s right of claim); nosheh is the name of the creditor as he who gives time for payment, gives credit (vid. , Isa 24:2). In Psa 109:12 משׁך חסד, to draw out mercy, is equivalent to causing it to continue and last, Psa 36:11, cf.

Jer 31:3. אחריתו, Psa 109:13 , does not signify his future, but as Psa 109:13 (cf. Psa 37:38) shows: his posterity. יהי להכרית is not merely exscindatur , but exscindenda sit (Eze 30:16, cf. Jos 2:6), just as in other instances חיה ל corresponds to the active fut. periphrasticum , e. g. , Gen 15:12; Isa 37:26. With reference to ימּח instead of ימּח (contracted from ימּחה), vid.

, Ges. §75, rem. 8. A Jewish acrostic interpretation of the name ישׁוּ runs: ימּח שׁמו וזכרו. This curse shall overtake the family of the υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας. All the sins of his parents and ancestors shall remain indelible above before God the Judge, and here below the race, equally guilty, shall be rooted out even to its memory, i. e. , to the last trace of it.

Psa 109:16-20 He whom he persecuted with a thirst for blood, was, apart from this, a great sufferer, bowed down and poor and נכאה לבב, of terrified, confounded heart. lxx κατανενυγμένον (Jerome, compunctum ); but the stem-word is not נכא (נכה), root נך, but כּאה, Syriac bā'ā' , cogn. כּהה, to cause to come near, to meet. The verb, and more especially in Niph .

, is proved to be Hebrew by Dan 11:30. Such an one who without anything else is of a terrified heart, inasmuch as he has been made to feel the wrath of God most keenly, this man has persecuted with a deadly hatred. He had experienced kindness (חסד) in a high degree, but he blotted out of his memory that which he had experienced, not for an instant imagining that he too on his part had to exercise חסד.

The Poel מותת instead of המית points to the agonizing death (Isa 53:9, cf. Eze 28:10 מותי) to which he exposes God’s anointed. The fate of the shedder of blood is not expressed after the manner of a wish in Psa 109:16-18, but in the historical form, as being the result that followed of inward necessity from the matter of fact of the course which he had himself determined upon.

The verb בּוא seq. acc . signifies to surprise, suddenly attack any one, as in Isa 41:25. The three figures in Psa 109:18 are climactic: he has clothed himself in cursing, he has drunk it in like water (Job 15:16; Job 34:7), it has penetrated even to the marrow of his bones, like the oily preparations which are rubbed in and penetrate to the bones. n In Psa 109:19 the emphasis rests upon יעטּה and upon תּמיד.

The summarizing Psa 109:20 is the close of a strophe. פּעלּה, an earned reward, here punishment incurred, is especially frequent in Isa 40:1, e. g. , Psa 49:4; Psa 40:10; it also occurs once even in the Tôra, Lev 19:13. Those who answer the loving acts of the righteous with such malevolence in word and in deed commit a satanic sin for which there is no forgiveness.

The curse is the fruit of their own choice and deed. Arnobius: Nota ex arbitrio evenisse ut nollet, propter haeresim, quae dicit Deum alios praedestinasse ad benedictionem, alios ad maledictionem.

Psa 109:16-20 He whom he persecuted with a thirst for blood, was, apart from this, a great sufferer, bowed down and poor and נכאה לבב, of terrified, confounded heart. lxx κατανενυγμένον (Jerome, compunctum ); but the stem-word is not נכא (נכה), root נך, but כּאה, Syriac bā'ā' , cogn. כּהה, to cause to come near, to meet. The verb, and more especially in Niph .

, is proved to be Hebrew by Dan 11:30. Such an one who without anything else is of a terrified heart, inasmuch as he has been made to feel the wrath of God most keenly, this man has persecuted with a deadly hatred. He had experienced kindness (חסד) in a high degree, but he blotted out of his memory that which he had experienced, not for an instant imagining that he too on his part had to exercise חסד.

The Poel מותת instead of המית points to the agonizing death (Isa 53:9, cf. Eze 28:10 מותי) to which he exposes God’s anointed. The fate of the shedder of blood is not expressed after the manner of a wish in Psa 109:16-18, but in the historical form, as being the result that followed of inward necessity from the matter of fact of the course which he had himself determined upon.

The verb בּוא seq. acc . signifies to surprise, suddenly attack any one, as in Isa 41:25. The three figures in Psa 109:18 are climactic: he has clothed himself in cursing, he has drunk it in like water (Job 15:16; Job 34:7), it has penetrated even to the marrow of his bones, like the oily preparations which are rubbed in and penetrate to the bones. n In Psa 109:19 the emphasis rests upon יעטּה and upon תּמיד.

The summarizing Psa 109:20 is the close of a strophe. פּעלּה, an earned reward, here punishment incurred, is especially frequent in Isa 40:1, e. g. , Psa 49:4; Psa 40:10; it also occurs once even in the Tôra, Lev 19:13. Those who answer the loving acts of the righteous with such malevolence in word and in deed commit a satanic sin for which there is no forgiveness.

The curse is the fruit of their own choice and deed. Arnobius: Nota ex arbitrio evenisse ut nollet, propter haeresim, quae dicit Deum alios praedestinasse ad benedictionem, alios ad maledictionem.

Psa 109:16-20 He whom he persecuted with a thirst for blood, was, apart from this, a great sufferer, bowed down and poor and נכאה לבב, of terrified, confounded heart. lxx κατανενυγμένον (Jerome, compunctum ); but the stem-word is not נכא (נכה), root נך, but כּאה, Syriac bā'ā' , cogn. כּהה, to cause to come near, to meet. The verb, and more especially in Niph .

, is proved to be Hebrew by Dan 11:30. Such an one who without anything else is of a terrified heart, inasmuch as he has been made to feel the wrath of God most keenly, this man has persecuted with a deadly hatred. He had experienced kindness (חסד) in a high degree, but he blotted out of his memory that which he had experienced, not for an instant imagining that he too on his part had to exercise חסד.

The Poel מותת instead of המית points to the agonizing death (Isa 53:9, cf. Eze 28:10 מותי) to which he exposes God’s anointed. The fate of the shedder of blood is not expressed after the manner of a wish in Psa 109:16-18, but in the historical form, as being the result that followed of inward necessity from the matter of fact of the course which he had himself determined upon.

The verb בּוא seq. acc . signifies to surprise, suddenly attack any one, as in Isa 41:25. The three figures in Psa 109:18 are climactic: he has clothed himself in cursing, he has drunk it in like water (Job 15:16; Job 34:7), it has penetrated even to the marrow of his bones, like the oily preparations which are rubbed in and penetrate to the bones. n In Psa 109:19 the emphasis rests upon יעטּה and upon תּמיד.

The summarizing Psa 109:20 is the close of a strophe. פּעלּה, an earned reward, here punishment incurred, is especially frequent in Isa 40:1, e. g. , Psa 49:4; Psa 40:10; it also occurs once even in the Tôra, Lev 19:13. Those who answer the loving acts of the righteous with such malevolence in word and in deed commit a satanic sin for which there is no forgiveness.

The curse is the fruit of their own choice and deed. Arnobius: Nota ex arbitrio evenisse ut nollet, propter haeresim, quae dicit Deum alios praedestinasse ad benedictionem, alios ad maledictionem.

Psa 109:16-20 He whom he persecuted with a thirst for blood, was, apart from this, a great sufferer, bowed down and poor and נכאה לבב, of terrified, confounded heart. lxx κατανενυγμένον (Jerome, compunctum ); but the stem-word is not נכא (נכה), root נך, but כּאה, Syriac bā'ā' , cogn. כּהה, to cause to come near, to meet. The verb, and more especially in Niph .

, is proved to be Hebrew by Dan 11:30. Such an one who without anything else is of a terrified heart, inasmuch as he has been made to feel the wrath of God most keenly, this man has persecuted with a deadly hatred. He had experienced kindness (חסד) in a high degree, but he blotted out of his memory that which he had experienced, not for an instant imagining that he too on his part had to exercise חסד.

The Poel מותת instead of המית points to the agonizing death (Isa 53:9, cf. Eze 28:10 מותי) to which he exposes God’s anointed. The fate of the shedder of blood is not expressed after the manner of a wish in Psa 109:16-18, but in the historical form, as being the result that followed of inward necessity from the matter of fact of the course which he had himself determined upon.

The verb בּוא seq. acc . signifies to surprise, suddenly attack any one, as in Isa 41:25. The three figures in Psa 109:18 are climactic: he has clothed himself in cursing, he has drunk it in like water (Job 15:16; Job 34:7), it has penetrated even to the marrow of his bones, like the oily preparations which are rubbed in and penetrate to the bones. n In Psa 109:19 the emphasis rests upon יעטּה and upon תּמיד.

The summarizing Psa 109:20 is the close of a strophe. פּעלּה, an earned reward, here punishment incurred, is especially frequent in Isa 40:1, e. g. , Psa 49:4; Psa 40:10; it also occurs once even in the Tôra, Lev 19:13. Those who answer the loving acts of the righteous with such malevolence in word and in deed commit a satanic sin for which there is no forgiveness.

The curse is the fruit of their own choice and deed. Arnobius: Nota ex arbitrio evenisse ut nollet, propter haeresim, quae dicit Deum alios praedestinasse ad benedictionem, alios ad maledictionem.

Psa 109:16-20 He whom he persecuted with a thirst for blood, was, apart from this, a great sufferer, bowed down and poor and נכאה לבב, of terrified, confounded heart. lxx κατανενυγμένον (Jerome, compunctum ); but the stem-word is not נכא (נכה), root נך, but כּאה, Syriac bā'ā' , cogn. כּהה, to cause to come near, to meet. The verb, and more especially in Niph .

, is proved to be Hebrew by Dan 11:30. Such an one who without anything else is of a terrified heart, inasmuch as he has been made to feel the wrath of God most keenly, this man has persecuted with a deadly hatred. He had experienced kindness (חסד) in a high degree, but he blotted out of his memory that which he had experienced, not for an instant imagining that he too on his part had to exercise חסד.

The Poel מותת instead of המית points to the agonizing death (Isa 53:9, cf. Eze 28:10 מותי) to which he exposes God’s anointed. The fate of the shedder of blood is not expressed after the manner of a wish in Psa 109:16-18, but in the historical form, as being the result that followed of inward necessity from the matter of fact of the course which he had himself determined upon.

The verb בּוא seq. acc . signifies to surprise, suddenly attack any one, as in Isa 41:25. The three figures in Psa 109:18 are climactic: he has clothed himself in cursing, he has drunk it in like water (Job 15:16; Job 34:7), it has penetrated even to the marrow of his bones, like the oily preparations which are rubbed in and penetrate to the bones. n In Psa 109:19 the emphasis rests upon יעטּה and upon תּמיד.

The summarizing Psa 109:20 is the close of a strophe. פּעלּה, an earned reward, here punishment incurred, is especially frequent in Isa 40:1, e. g. , Psa 49:4; Psa 40:10; it also occurs once even in the Tôra, Lev 19:13. Those who answer the loving acts of the righteous with such malevolence in word and in deed commit a satanic sin for which there is no forgiveness.

The curse is the fruit of their own choice and deed. Arnobius: Nota ex arbitrio evenisse ut nollet, propter haeresim, quae dicit Deum alios praedestinasse ad benedictionem, alios ad maledictionem.

Psa 109:21-25 The thunder and lightning are now as it were followed by a shower of tears of deep sorrowful complaint. Ps 109 here just as strikingly accords with Ps 69, as Ps 69 does with Ps 22 in the last strophe but one. The twofold name Jahve Adonaj (vid. , Symbolae , p. 16) corresponds to the deep-breathed complaint. עשׂה אתּי, deal with me, i. e. , succouring me, does not greatly differ from לי in 1Sa 14:6.

The confirmation, Psa 109:21 , runs like Psa 69:17 : Thy loving-kindness is טּוב, absolutely good, the ground of everything that is good and the end of all evil. Hitzig conjectures, as in Psa 69:17, חסדך כּטוב, “according to the goodness of Thy loving-kindness;” but this formula is without example: “for Thy loving-kindness is good” is a statement of the motive placed first and corresponding to the “for thy Name’s sake.

” In Psa 109:22 (a variation of Psa 55:5) חלל, not חלל, is traditional; this חלל, as being verb. denom. from חלל, signifies to be pierced, and is therefore equivalent to חולל (cf. Luk 2:35). The metaphor of the shadow in Psa 109:23 is as in Psa 102:12. When the day declines, the shadow lengthens, it becomes longer and longer (Virgil, majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae ), till it vanishes in the universal darkness.

Thus does the life of the sufferer pass away. The poet intentionally uses the Niph . נהלכתּי (another reading is נהלכתּי); it is a power rushing upon him from without that drives him away thus after the manner of a shadow into the night. The locust or grasshopper (apart from the plague of the locusts) is proverbial as being a defenceless, inoffensive little creature that is soon driven away, Job 39:20.

ננער, to be shaken out or off (cf. Arabic na‛ûra , a water-wheel that fills its clay-vessels in the river and empties them out above, and הנּער, Zec 11:16, where Hitzig wishes to read הנּער, dispulsio = dispulsi ). The fasting in Psa 109:24 is the result of the loathing of all food which sets in with deep grief. כּחשׁ משּׁמן signifies to waste away so that there is no more fat left.

In Psa 109:25 אני is designedly rendered prominent: in this the form of his affliction he is the butt of their reproaching, and they shake their heads doubtfully, looking upon him as one who is punished of God beyond all hope, and giving him up for lost. It is to be interpreted thus after Psa 69:11.

Psa 109:21-25 The thunder and lightning are now as it were followed by a shower of tears of deep sorrowful complaint. Ps 109 here just as strikingly accords with Ps 69, as Ps 69 does with Ps 22 in the last strophe but one. The twofold name Jahve Adonaj (vid. , Symbolae , p. 16) corresponds to the deep-breathed complaint. עשׂה אתּי, deal with me, i. e. , succouring me, does not greatly differ from לי in 1Sa 14:6.

The confirmation, Psa 109:21 , runs like Psa 69:17 : Thy loving-kindness is טּוב, absolutely good, the ground of everything that is good and the end of all evil. Hitzig conjectures, as in Psa 69:17, חסדך כּטוב, “according to the goodness of Thy loving-kindness;” but this formula is without example: “for Thy loving-kindness is good” is a statement of the motive placed first and corresponding to the “for thy Name’s sake.

” In Psa 109:22 (a variation of Psa 55:5) חלל, not חלל, is traditional; this חלל, as being verb. denom. from חלל, signifies to be pierced, and is therefore equivalent to חולל (cf. Luk 2:35). The metaphor of the shadow in Psa 109:23 is as in Psa 102:12. When the day declines, the shadow lengthens, it becomes longer and longer (Virgil, majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae ), till it vanishes in the universal darkness.

Thus does the life of the sufferer pass away. The poet intentionally uses the Niph . נהלכתּי (another reading is נהלכתּי); it is a power rushing upon him from without that drives him away thus after the manner of a shadow into the night. The locust or grasshopper (apart from the plague of the locusts) is proverbial as being a defenceless, inoffensive little creature that is soon driven away, Job 39:20.

ננער, to be shaken out or off (cf. Arabic na‛ûra , a water-wheel that fills its clay-vessels in the river and empties them out above, and הנּער, Zec 11:16, where Hitzig wishes to read הנּער, dispulsio = dispulsi ). The fasting in Psa 109:24 is the result of the loathing of all food which sets in with deep grief. כּחשׁ משּׁמן signifies to waste away so that there is no more fat left.

In Psa 109:25 אני is designedly rendered prominent: in this the form of his affliction he is the butt of their reproaching, and they shake their heads doubtfully, looking upon him as one who is punished of God beyond all hope, and giving him up for lost. It is to be interpreted thus after Psa 69:11.

Psa 109:21-25 The thunder and lightning are now as it were followed by a shower of tears of deep sorrowful complaint. Ps 109 here just as strikingly accords with Ps 69, as Ps 69 does with Ps 22 in the last strophe but one. The twofold name Jahve Adonaj (vid. , Symbolae , p. 16) corresponds to the deep-breathed complaint. עשׂה אתּי, deal with me, i. e. , succouring me, does not greatly differ from לי in 1Sa 14:6.

The confirmation, Psa 109:21 , runs like Psa 69:17 : Thy loving-kindness is טּוב, absolutely good, the ground of everything that is good and the end of all evil. Hitzig conjectures, as in Psa 69:17, חסדך כּטוב, “according to the goodness of Thy loving-kindness;” but this formula is without example: “for Thy loving-kindness is good” is a statement of the motive placed first and corresponding to the “for thy Name’s sake.

” In Psa 109:22 (a variation of Psa 55:5) חלל, not חלל, is traditional; this חלל, as being verb. denom. from חלל, signifies to be pierced, and is therefore equivalent to חולל (cf. Luk 2:35). The metaphor of the shadow in Psa 109:23 is as in Psa 102:12. When the day declines, the shadow lengthens, it becomes longer and longer (Virgil, majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae ), till it vanishes in the universal darkness.

Thus does the life of the sufferer pass away. The poet intentionally uses the Niph . נהלכתּי (another reading is נהלכתּי); it is a power rushing upon him from without that drives him away thus after the manner of a shadow into the night. The locust or grasshopper (apart from the plague of the locusts) is proverbial as being a defenceless, inoffensive little creature that is soon driven away, Job 39:20.

ננער, to be shaken out or off (cf. Arabic na‛ûra , a water-wheel that fills its clay-vessels in the river and empties them out above, and הנּער, Zec 11:16, where Hitzig wishes to read הנּער, dispulsio = dispulsi ). The fasting in Psa 109:24 is the result of the loathing of all food which sets in with deep grief. כּחשׁ משּׁמן signifies to waste away so that there is no more fat left.

In Psa 109:25 אני is designedly rendered prominent: in this the form of his affliction he is the butt of their reproaching, and they shake their heads doubtfully, looking upon him as one who is punished of God beyond all hope, and giving him up for lost. It is to be interpreted thus after Psa 69:11.

Psa 109:21-25 The thunder and lightning are now as it were followed by a shower of tears of deep sorrowful complaint. Ps 109 here just as strikingly accords with Ps 69, as Ps 69 does with Ps 22 in the last strophe but one. The twofold name Jahve Adonaj (vid. , Symbolae , p. 16) corresponds to the deep-breathed complaint. עשׂה אתּי, deal with me, i. e. , succouring me, does not greatly differ from לי in 1Sa 14:6.

The confirmation, Psa 109:21 , runs like Psa 69:17 : Thy loving-kindness is טּוב, absolutely good, the ground of everything that is good and the end of all evil. Hitzig conjectures, as in Psa 69:17, חסדך כּטוב, “according to the goodness of Thy loving-kindness;” but this formula is without example: “for Thy loving-kindness is good” is a statement of the motive placed first and corresponding to the “for thy Name’s sake.

” In Psa 109:22 (a variation of Psa 55:5) חלל, not חלל, is traditional; this חלל, as being verb. denom. from חלל, signifies to be pierced, and is therefore equivalent to חולל (cf. Luk 2:35). The metaphor of the shadow in Psa 109:23 is as in Psa 102:12. When the day declines, the shadow lengthens, it becomes longer and longer (Virgil, majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae ), till it vanishes in the universal darkness.

Thus does the life of the sufferer pass away. The poet intentionally uses the Niph . נהלכתּי (another reading is נהלכתּי); it is a power rushing upon him from without that drives him away thus after the manner of a shadow into the night. The locust or grasshopper (apart from the plague of the locusts) is proverbial as being a defenceless, inoffensive little creature that is soon driven away, Job 39:20.

ננער, to be shaken out or off (cf. Arabic na‛ûra , a water-wheel that fills its clay-vessels in the river and empties them out above, and הנּער, Zec 11:16, where Hitzig wishes to read הנּער, dispulsio = dispulsi ). The fasting in Psa 109:24 is the result of the loathing of all food which sets in with deep grief. כּחשׁ משּׁמן signifies to waste away so that there is no more fat left.

In Psa 109:25 אני is designedly rendered prominent: in this the form of his affliction he is the butt of their reproaching, and they shake their heads doubtfully, looking upon him as one who is punished of God beyond all hope, and giving him up for lost. It is to be interpreted thus after Psa 69:11.

Psa 109:21-25 The thunder and lightning are now as it were followed by a shower of tears of deep sorrowful complaint. Ps 109 here just as strikingly accords with Ps 69, as Ps 69 does with Ps 22 in the last strophe but one. The twofold name Jahve Adonaj (vid. , Symbolae , p. 16) corresponds to the deep-breathed complaint. עשׂה אתּי, deal with me, i. e. , succouring me, does not greatly differ from לי in 1Sa 14:6.

The confirmation, Psa 109:21 , runs like Psa 69:17 : Thy loving-kindness is טּוב, absolutely good, the ground of everything that is good and the end of all evil. Hitzig conjectures, as in Psa 69:17, חסדך כּטוב, “according to the goodness of Thy loving-kindness;” but this formula is without example: “for Thy loving-kindness is good” is a statement of the motive placed first and corresponding to the “for thy Name’s sake.

” In Psa 109:22 (a variation of Psa 55:5) חלל, not חלל, is traditional; this חלל, as being verb. denom. from חלל, signifies to be pierced, and is therefore equivalent to חולל (cf. Luk 2:35). The metaphor of the shadow in Psa 109:23 is as in Psa 102:12. When the day declines, the shadow lengthens, it becomes longer and longer (Virgil, majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae ), till it vanishes in the universal darkness.

Thus does the life of the sufferer pass away. The poet intentionally uses the Niph . נהלכתּי (another reading is נהלכתּי); it is a power rushing upon him from without that drives him away thus after the manner of a shadow into the night. The locust or grasshopper (apart from the plague of the locusts) is proverbial as being a defenceless, inoffensive little creature that is soon driven away, Job 39:20.

ננער, to be shaken out or off (cf. Arabic na‛ûra , a water-wheel that fills its clay-vessels in the river and empties them out above, and הנּער, Zec 11:16, where Hitzig wishes to read הנּער, dispulsio = dispulsi ). The fasting in Psa 109:24 is the result of the loathing of all food which sets in with deep grief. כּחשׁ משּׁמן signifies to waste away so that there is no more fat left.

In Psa 109:25 אני is designedly rendered prominent: in this the form of his affliction he is the butt of their reproaching, and they shake their heads doubtfully, looking upon him as one who is punished of God beyond all hope, and giving him up for lost. It is to be interpreted thus after Psa 69:11.

Psa 109:26-31 The cry for help is renewed in the closing strophe, and the Psalm draws to a close very similarly to Ps 69 and Ps 22, with a joyful prospect of the end of the affliction. In Psa 109:27 the hand of God stands in contrast to accident, the work of men, and his own efforts. All and each one will undeniably perceive, when God at length interposes, that it is His hand which here does that which was impossible in the eyes of men, and that it is His work which has been accomplished in this affliction and in the issue of it.

He blesses him whom men curse: they arise without attaining their object, whereas His servant can rejoice in the end of his affliction. The futures in Psa 109:29 are not now again imprecations, but an expression of believingly confident hope. In correct texts כּמעיל has Mem raphatum . The “many” are the “congregation” (vid. , Psa 22:23). In the case of the marvellous deliverance of this sufferer the congregation or church has the pledge of its own deliverance, and a bright mirror of the loving-kindness of its God.

The sum of the praise and thanksgiving follows in Psa 109:31, where כּי signifies quod , and is therefore allied to the ὅτι recitativum (cf. Psa 22:25). The three Good Friday Psalms all sum up the comfort that springs from David’s affliction for all suffering ones in just such a pithy sentence (Psa 22:25; Psa 69:34). Jahve comes forward at the right hand of the poor, contending for him (cf.

Psa 110:5), to save (him) from those who judge (Psa 37:33), i. e. , condemn, his soul. The contrast between this closing thought and Psa 109:6. is unmistakeable. At the right hand of the tormentor stands Satan as an accuser, at the right hand of the tormented one stands God as his vindicator; he who delivered him over to human judges is condemned, and he who was delivered up is “taken away out of distress and from judgment” (Isa 53:8) by the Judge of the judges, in order that, as we now hear in the following Psalm, he may sit at the right hand of the heavenly King.

Ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι... ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ! (1Ti 3:16).

Psa 109:26-31 The cry for help is renewed in the closing strophe, and the Psalm draws to a close very similarly to Ps 69 and Ps 22, with a joyful prospect of the end of the affliction. In Psa 109:27 the hand of God stands in contrast to accident, the work of men, and his own efforts. All and each one will undeniably perceive, when God at length interposes, that it is His hand which here does that which was impossible in the eyes of men, and that it is His work which has been accomplished in this affliction and in the issue of it.

He blesses him whom men curse: they arise without attaining their object, whereas His servant can rejoice in the end of his affliction. The futures in Psa 109:29 are not now again imprecations, but an expression of believingly confident hope. In correct texts כּמעיל has Mem raphatum . The “many” are the “congregation” (vid. , Psa 22:23). In the case of the marvellous deliverance of this sufferer the congregation or church has the pledge of its own deliverance, and a bright mirror of the loving-kindness of its God.

The sum of the praise and thanksgiving follows in Psa 109:31, where כּי signifies quod , and is therefore allied to the ὅτι recitativum (cf. Psa 22:25). The three Good Friday Psalms all sum up the comfort that springs from David’s affliction for all suffering ones in just such a pithy sentence (Psa 22:25; Psa 69:34). Jahve comes forward at the right hand of the poor, contending for him (cf.

Psa 110:5), to save (him) from those who judge (Psa 37:33), i. e. , condemn, his soul. The contrast between this closing thought and Psa 109:6. is unmistakeable. At the right hand of the tormentor stands Satan as an accuser, at the right hand of the tormented one stands God as his vindicator; he who delivered him over to human judges is condemned, and he who was delivered up is “taken away out of distress and from judgment” (Isa 53:8) by the Judge of the judges, in order that, as we now hear in the following Psalm, he may sit at the right hand of the heavenly King.

Ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι... ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ! (1Ti 3:16).

Psa 109:26-31 The cry for help is renewed in the closing strophe, and the Psalm draws to a close very similarly to Ps 69 and Ps 22, with a joyful prospect of the end of the affliction. In Psa 109:27 the hand of God stands in contrast to accident, the work of men, and his own efforts. All and each one will undeniably perceive, when God at length interposes, that it is His hand which here does that which was impossible in the eyes of men, and that it is His work which has been accomplished in this affliction and in the issue of it.

He blesses him whom men curse: they arise without attaining their object, whereas His servant can rejoice in the end of his affliction. The futures in Psa 109:29 are not now again imprecations, but an expression of believingly confident hope. In correct texts כּמעיל has Mem raphatum . The “many” are the “congregation” (vid. , Psa 22:23). In the case of the marvellous deliverance of this sufferer the congregation or church has the pledge of its own deliverance, and a bright mirror of the loving-kindness of its God.

The sum of the praise and thanksgiving follows in Psa 109:31, where כּי signifies quod , and is therefore allied to the ὅτι recitativum (cf. Psa 22:25). The three Good Friday Psalms all sum up the comfort that springs from David’s affliction for all suffering ones in just such a pithy sentence (Psa 22:25; Psa 69:34). Jahve comes forward at the right hand of the poor, contending for him (cf.

Psa 110:5), to save (him) from those who judge (Psa 37:33), i. e. , condemn, his soul. The contrast between this closing thought and Psa 109:6. is unmistakeable. At the right hand of the tormentor stands Satan as an accuser, at the right hand of the tormented one stands God as his vindicator; he who delivered him over to human judges is condemned, and he who was delivered up is “taken away out of distress and from judgment” (Isa 53:8) by the Judge of the judges, in order that, as we now hear in the following Psalm, he may sit at the right hand of the heavenly King.

Ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι... ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ! (1Ti 3:16).

Psa 109:26-31 The cry for help is renewed in the closing strophe, and the Psalm draws to a close very similarly to Ps 69 and Ps 22, with a joyful prospect of the end of the affliction. In Psa 109:27 the hand of God stands in contrast to accident, the work of men, and his own efforts. All and each one will undeniably perceive, when God at length interposes, that it is His hand which here does that which was impossible in the eyes of men, and that it is His work which has been accomplished in this affliction and in the issue of it.

He blesses him whom men curse: they arise without attaining their object, whereas His servant can rejoice in the end of his affliction. The futures in Psa 109:29 are not now again imprecations, but an expression of believingly confident hope. In correct texts כּמעיל has Mem raphatum . The “many” are the “congregation” (vid. , Psa 22:23). In the case of the marvellous deliverance of this sufferer the congregation or church has the pledge of its own deliverance, and a bright mirror of the loving-kindness of its God.

The sum of the praise and thanksgiving follows in Psa 109:31, where כּי signifies quod , and is therefore allied to the ὅτι recitativum (cf. Psa 22:25). The three Good Friday Psalms all sum up the comfort that springs from David’s affliction for all suffering ones in just such a pithy sentence (Psa 22:25; Psa 69:34). Jahve comes forward at the right hand of the poor, contending for him (cf.

Psa 110:5), to save (him) from those who judge (Psa 37:33), i. e. , condemn, his soul. The contrast between this closing thought and Psa 109:6. is unmistakeable. At the right hand of the tormentor stands Satan as an accuser, at the right hand of the tormented one stands God as his vindicator; he who delivered him over to human judges is condemned, and he who was delivered up is “taken away out of distress and from judgment” (Isa 53:8) by the Judge of the judges, in order that, as we now hear in the following Psalm, he may sit at the right hand of the heavenly King.

Ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι... ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ! (1Ti 3:16).

Psa 109:26-31 The cry for help is renewed in the closing strophe, and the Psalm draws to a close very similarly to Ps 69 and Ps 22, with a joyful prospect of the end of the affliction. In Psa 109:27 the hand of God stands in contrast to accident, the work of men, and his own efforts. All and each one will undeniably perceive, when God at length interposes, that it is His hand which here does that which was impossible in the eyes of men, and that it is His work which has been accomplished in this affliction and in the issue of it.

He blesses him whom men curse: they arise without attaining their object, whereas His servant can rejoice in the end of his affliction. The futures in Psa 109:29 are not now again imprecations, but an expression of believingly confident hope. In correct texts כּמעיל has Mem raphatum . The “many” are the “congregation” (vid. , Psa 22:23). In the case of the marvellous deliverance of this sufferer the congregation or church has the pledge of its own deliverance, and a bright mirror of the loving-kindness of its God.

The sum of the praise and thanksgiving follows in Psa 109:31, where כּי signifies quod , and is therefore allied to the ὅτι recitativum (cf. Psa 22:25). The three Good Friday Psalms all sum up the comfort that springs from David’s affliction for all suffering ones in just such a pithy sentence (Psa 22:25; Psa 69:34). Jahve comes forward at the right hand of the poor, contending for him (cf.

Psa 110:5), to save (him) from those who judge (Psa 37:33), i. e. , condemn, his soul. The contrast between this closing thought and Psa 109:6. is unmistakeable. At the right hand of the tormentor stands Satan as an accuser, at the right hand of the tormented one stands God as his vindicator; he who delivered him over to human judges is condemned, and he who was delivered up is “taken away out of distress and from judgment” (Isa 53:8) by the Judge of the judges, in order that, as we now hear in the following Psalm, he may sit at the right hand of the heavenly King.

Ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι... ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ! (1Ti 3:16).

Psa 109:26-31 The cry for help is renewed in the closing strophe, and the Psalm draws to a close very similarly to Ps 69 and Ps 22, with a joyful prospect of the end of the affliction. In Psa 109:27 the hand of God stands in contrast to accident, the work of men, and his own efforts. All and each one will undeniably perceive, when God at length interposes, that it is His hand which here does that which was impossible in the eyes of men, and that it is His work which has been accomplished in this affliction and in the issue of it.

He blesses him whom men curse: they arise without attaining their object, whereas His servant can rejoice in the end of his affliction. The futures in Psa 109:29 are not now again imprecations, but an expression of believingly confident hope. In correct texts כּמעיל has Mem raphatum . The “many” are the “congregation” (vid. , Psa 22:23). In the case of the marvellous deliverance of this sufferer the congregation or church has the pledge of its own deliverance, and a bright mirror of the loving-kindness of its God.

The sum of the praise and thanksgiving follows in Psa 109:31, where כּי signifies quod , and is therefore allied to the ὅτι recitativum (cf. Psa 22:25). The three Good Friday Psalms all sum up the comfort that springs from David’s affliction for all suffering ones in just such a pithy sentence (Psa 22:25; Psa 69:34). Jahve comes forward at the right hand of the poor, contending for him (cf.

Psa 110:5), to save (him) from those who judge (Psa 37:33), i. e. , condemn, his soul. The contrast between this closing thought and Psa 109:6. is unmistakeable. At the right hand of the tormentor stands Satan as an accuser, at the right hand of the tormented one stands God as his vindicator; he who delivered him over to human judges is condemned, and he who was delivered up is “taken away out of distress and from judgment” (Isa 53:8) by the Judge of the judges, in order that, as we now hear in the following Psalm, he may sit at the right hand of the heavenly King.

Ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι... ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ! (1Ti 3:16).

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them: What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? They say unto Him: David's. He saith unto them: How then doth David in the spirit call Him Lord, saying: “The Lord hath said unto my Lord: Sit Thou on My right hand until I make Thine enemies the stool of Thy feet? ” If David then calls Him Lord, how is He his Son?

And no man was able to answer Him a word, neither durst any one from that day forth question Him further. So we read in Mat 22:41-46; Mar 12:35-37; Luk 20:41-44. The inference which it is left for the Pharisees to draw rests upon the two premises, which are granted, that Psa 110:1-7 is Davidic, and that it is prophetico-Messianic, i. e. , that in it the future Messiah stands objectively before the mind of David.

For if those who were interrogated had been able to reply that David does not there speak of the future Messiah, but puts into the mouth of the people words concerning himself, or, as Hofmann has now modified the view he formerly held ( Schriftbeweis , ii. 1, 496-500), concerning the Davidic king in a general way, (Note: Vid. , the refutation of this modified view in Kurtz, Zur Theologie der Psalmen , in the Dorpater Zeitschrift for the year 1861, S.

516. Supplementary Note. - Von Hofmann now interprets Psa 110:1-7 as prophetico-Messianic. We are glad to be able to give it in his own words. “As the utterance of a prophet who speaks the word of God to the person addressed, the Psalm begins, and this it is then all through, even where it does not, as in Psa 110:4, expressly make known to the person addressed what God swears to him.

God intends to finally subdue his foes to him. Until then, until his day of victory is come, he shall have a dominion in the midst of them, the sceptre of which shall be mighty through the succour of God. His final triumph is, however, pledged to him by the word of God, which appoints him, as another Melchizedek, to an eternal priesthood, that excludes the priesthood of Aaron, and by the victory which God has already given him in the day of His wrath.

“This is a picture of a king on Zion who still looks forward to that which in Psa 72:8. has already taken place, - of a victorious, mighty king, who however is still ruling in the midst of foes, - therefore of a king such as Jesus now is, to whom God has given the victory over heathen Rome, and to whom He will subdue all his enemies when he shall again reveal himself in the world; meanwhile he is the kingly priest and the priestly king of the people of God.

The prophet who utters this is David, He whom he addresses as Lord is the king who is appointed to become spoken according to 2Sa 23:3. David beholds him in a moment of his ruling to which the moment in his own ruling in which we find him in 2Sa 11:1 is typically parallel. ”) then the question would lack the background of cogency as an argument. Since, however, the prophetico-Messianic character of the Psalm was acknowledged at that time (even as the later synagogue, in spite of the dilemma into which this Psalm brought it in opposition to the church, has never been able entirely to avoid this confession), the conclusion to be drawn from this Psalm must have been felt by the Pharisees themselves, that the Messiah, because the Son of David and Lord at the same time, was of human and at the same time of superhuman nature; that it was therefore in accordance with Scripture if this Jesus, who represented Himself to be the predicted Christ, should as such profess to be the Son of God and of divine nature.

The New Testament also assumes elsewhere that David in this Psalm speaks not of himself, but directly of Him, in whom the Davidic kingship should finally and for ever fulfil that of which the promise speaks. For Psa 110:1 is regarded elsewhere too as a prophecy of the exaltation of Christ at the right hand of the Father, and of His final victory over all His enemies: Act 2:34.

, 1Co 15:25; Heb 1:13; Heb 10:13; and the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 5:6; Heb 7:17, Heb 7:21) bases its demonstration of the abrogation of the Levitical priesthood by the Melchizedek priesthood of Jesus Christ upon Psa 110:4. But if even David, who raised the Levitical priesthood to the pinnacle of splendour that had never existed before, was a priest after the manner of Melchizedek, it is not intelligible how the priesthood of Jesus Christ after the manner of Melchizedek is meant to be a proof in favour of the termination of the Levitical priesthood, and to absolutely preclude its continuance.

We will not therefore deceive ourselves concerning the apprehension of the Psalm which is presented to us in the New Testament Scriptures. According to the New Testament Scriptures, David speaks in Psa 110:1-7 not merely of Christ in so far as the Spirit of God has directed him to speak of the Anointed of Jahve in a typical form, but directly and objectively in a prophetical representation of the Future One.

And would this be impossible? Certainly there is no other Psalm in which David distinguishes between himself and the Messiah, and has the latter before him: the other Messianic Psalms of David are reflections of his radical, ideal contemplation of himself, reflected images of his own typical history; they contain prophetic elements, because David there too speaks ἐν πνεύματι, but elements that are not solved by the person of David.

Nevertheless the last words of David in 2Sa 23:1-7 prove to us that we need not be surprised to find even a directly Messianic Psalm coming from his lips. After the splendour of all that pertained to David individually had almost entirely expired in his own eyes and in the eyes of those about him, he must have been still more strongly conscious of the distance between what had been realized in himself and the idea of the Anointed of God, as he lay on his death-bed, as his sun was going down.

Since, however, all the glory with which God has favoured him comes up once more before his soul, he feels himself, to the glory of God, to be “the man raised up on high, the anointed of God of Jacob, the sweet singer of Israel,” and the instrument of the Spirit of Jahve. This he has been, and he, who as such contemplated himself as the immortal one, must now die: then in dying he seizes the pillars of the divine promise, he lets go the ground of his own present, and looks as a prophet into the future of his seed: The God of Israel hath said, to me hath the Rock of Israel spoken: “A ruler of men, a just one, a ruler in the fear of God; and as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, a cloudless morning, when after sunshine, after rain it becomes green out of the earth .

” For not little (לא־כן to be explained according to Job 9:35, cf. Num 13:33; Isa 51:6) is my house with God, but an everlasting covenant hath He made with me, one ordered in all things and sure, for all my salvation and all my favour - ought He not to cause it to sprout? The idea of the Messiah shall notwithstanding be realized, in accordance with the promise, within his own house.

The vision of the future which passes before his soul is none other than the picture of the Messiah detached from its subjectivity. And if so there, why may it not also have been so even in Psa 110:1-7? The fact that Psa 110:1-7 has points of connection with contemporaneous history is notwithstanding the less to be denied, as its position in the Fifth Book leads one to suppose that it is taken out of its contemporary annalistic connection.

The first of these connecting links is the bringing of the Ark home to Zion. Girded with the linen ephod of the priest, David had accompanied the Ark up to Zion with signs of rejoicing. There upon Zion Jahve, whose earthly throne is the Ark, now took His place at the side of David; but, spiritually considered, the matter stood properly thus, that Jahve, when He established Himself upon Zion, granted to David to sit henceforth enthroned at His side.

The second connecting link is the victorious termination of the Syro-Ammonitish war, and also of the Edomitish war that came in between. The war with the Ammonites and their allies, the greatest, longest, and most glorious of David’s wars, ended in the second year, when David himself joined the army, with the conquest of Rabbah. These two contemporary connecting links are to be recognised, but they only furnish the Psalm with the typical ground-colour for its prophetical contents.

In this Psalm David looks forth from the height upon which Jahve has raised him by the victory over Ammon into the future of his seed, and there He who carries forward the work begun by him to the highest pitch is his Lord. Over against this King of the future, David is not king, but subject. He calls him, as one out of the people, “my Lord. ” This is the situation of the prophetico-kingly poet.

He has received new revelations concerning the future of his seed. He has come down from his throne and the height of his power, and looks up to the Future One. He too sits enthroned on Zion. He too is victorious from thence. But His fellowship with God is the most intimate imaginable, and the last enemy is also laid at His feet. And He is not merely king, who as a priest provides for the salvation of His people, He is an eternal Priest by virtue of a sworn promise.

The Psalm therefore relates to the history of the future upon a typical ground-work. It is also explicable why the triumph in the case of Ammon and the Messianic image have been thus to David’s mind disconnected from himself. In the midst of that war comes the sin of David, which cast a shadow of sorrow over the whole of his future life and reduced its typical glory to ashes.

Out of these ashes the phoenix of Messianic prophecy here arises. The type, come back to the conscious of himself, here lays down his crown at the feet of the Antitype. Psa 110:1-7 consists of three sevens, a tetrastich together with a tristich following three times upon one another. The Rebia magnum in Psa 110:2 is a security for this stichic division, and in like manner the Olewejored by חילך in Psa 110:3, and in general the interpunction required by the sense.

And Psa 110:1 and Psa 110:2 show decisively that it is to be thus divided into 4 + 3 lines; for Psa 110:1 with its rhyming inflexions makes itself known as a tetrastich, and to take it together with Psa 110:2 as a heptastich is opposed by the new turn which the Psalm takes in Psa 110:2. It is also just the same with Psa 110:4 in relation to Psa 110:3 : these seven stichs stand in just the same organic relation to the second divine utterance as the preceding seven to the first utterance.

And since Psa 110:1-4 give twice 4 + 3 lines, Psa 110:5-7 also will be organized accordingly. There are really seven lines, of which the fifth, contrary to the Masoretic division of the verse, forms with Psa 110:7 the final tristich. The Psalm therefore bears the threefold impress of the number seven, which is the number of an oath and of a covenant. Its impress, then, is thoroughly prophetic.

Two divine utterances are introduced, and that not such as are familiar to us from the history of David and only reproduced here in a poetic form, as with Ps 89 and 132, but utterances of which nothing is known from the history of David, and such as we hear for the first time here. The divine name Jahve occurs three times. God is designedly called Adonaj the fourth time.

The Psalm is consequently prophetic; and in order to bring the inviolable and mysterious nature even of its contents into comparison with the contemplation of its outward character, it has been organized as a threefold septiad, which is sealed with the thrice recurring tetragamma.

Psa 110:1-2 In Psa 20:1-9 and Psa 21:1-13 we see at once in the openings that what we have before us is the language of the people concerning their king. Here לאדני in Psa 110:1 does not favour this, and נאם is decidedly against it. The former does not favour it, for it is indeed correct that the subject calls his king “my lord,” e. g. , 1Sa 22:12, although the more exact form of address is “my lord the king,” e.

g. , 1Sa 24:9; but if the people are speaking here, what is the object of the title of honour being expressed as if coming from the mouth of an individual, and why not rather, as in Ps 20-21, <, למלך or למשׁיחו? נאם is, however, decisive against the supposition that it is an Israelite who here expresses himself concerning the relation of his king to Jahve. For it is absurd to suppose that an Israelite speaking in the name of the people would begin in the manner of the prophets with נאם, more particularly since this נאם ה placed thus at the head of the discourse is without any perfectly analogous example (1Sa 2:30; Isa 1:24 are only similar) elsewhere, and is therefore extremely important.

In general this opening position of נאם, even in cases where other genitives that יהוה follow, is very rare; נאם Num 24:3. , Num 24:15, of David in 2Sa 23:1, of Agur in Pro 30:1, and always (even in Psa 36:2) in an oracular signification. Moreover, if one from among the people were speaking, the declaration ought to be a retrospective glance at a past utterance of God.

But, first, the history knows nothing of any such divine utterance; and secondly, נאם ה always introduces God as actually speaking, to which even the passage cited by Hofmann to the contrary, Num 14:28, forms no exception. Thus it will consequently not be a past utterance of God to which the poet glances back here, but one which David has just now heard ἐν πνεύματι (Mat 22:43), and is therefore not a declaration of the people concerning David, but of David concerning Christ.

The unique character of the declaration confirms this. Of the king of Israel it is said that he sits on the throne of Jahve (1Ch 29:23), viz. , as visible representative of the invisible King (1Ch 28:5); Jahve, however, commands the person here addressed to take his place at His right hand. The right hand of a king is the highest place of honour, 1Ki 2:19. Here the sitting at the right hand signifies not merely an idle honour, but reception into the fellowship of God as regards dignity and dominion, exaltation to a participation in God’s reigning (βασιλεύειν, 1Co 15:25).

Just as Jahve sits enthroned in the heavens and laughs at the rebels here below, so shall he who is exalted henceforth share this blessed calm with Him, until He subdues all enemies to him, and therefore makes him the unlimited, universally acknowledged ruler. עד as in Hos 10:12, for עד־כּי or עד־אשׁר, does not exclude the time that lies beyond, but as in Psa 112:8, Gen 49:10, includes it, and in fact so that it at any rate marks the final subjugation of the enemies as a turning-point with which something else comes about (vid.

, Act 3:21; 1Co 15:28). הדם is an accusative of the predicate. The enemies shall come to lie under his feet (1Ki 5:17), his feet tread upon the necks of the vanquished (Jos 10:24), so that the resistance that is overcome becomes as it were the dark ground upon which the glory of his victorious rule arises. For the history of time ends with the triumph of good over evil, - not, however, with the annihilation of evil, but with its subjugation.

This is the issue, inasmuch as absolute omnipotence is effectual on behalf of and through the exalted Christ. In Psa 110:2, springing from the utterance of Jahve, follow words expressing a prophetic prospect. Zion is the imperial abode of the great future King (Psa 2:6). מטּה עזּך (cf. Jer 48:17; Eze 19:11-14) signifies “the sceptre (as insignia and the medium of exercise) of the authority delegated to thee” (1Sa 2:10, Mic 5:3).

Jahve will stretch this sceptre far forth from Zion: no goal is mentioned up to which it shall extend, but passages like Zec 9:10 show how the prophets understand such Psalms. In Psa 110:2 follow the words with which Jahve accompanies this extension of the dominion of the exalted One. Jahve will lay all his enemies at his feet, but not in such a manner that he himself remains idle in the matter.

Thus, then, having come into the midst of the sphere (בּקרב) of his enemies, shall he reign, forcing them to submission and holding them down. We read this רדה in a Messianic connection in Psa 72:8. So even in the prophecy of Balaam (Num 24:19), where the sceptre (Num 24:17) is an emblem of the Messiah Himself.

Psa 110:3-4 In order that he may rule thus victoriously, it is necessary that there should be a people and an army. In accordance with this union of the thoughts which Psa 110:3 anticipates, בּיום חילך signifies in the day of thy arriere ban, i. e. , when thou callest up thy “power of an army” (2Ch 26:13) to muster and go forth to battle. In this day are the people of the king willingnesses (נדבת), i.

e. , entirely cheerful readiness; ready for any sacrifices, they bring themselves with all that they are and have to meet him. There is no need of any compulsory, lengthy proclamation calling them out: it is no army of mercenaries, but willingly and quickly they present themselves from inward impulse (מתנדּב, Jdg 5:2, Jdg 5:9). The punctuation, which makes the principal caesura at חילך with Olewejored , makes the parallelism of חילך and ילדוּתך distinctly prominent.

Just as the former does not signify roboris tui , so now too the latter does not, according to Ecc 11:9, signify παιδιότητός σου (Aquila), and not, as Hofmann interprets, the dew-like freshness of youthful vigour, which the morning of the great day sheds over the king. Just as גּלוּת signifies both exile and the exiled ones, so ילדוּת, like νεότης, juventus, juventa , signifies both the time and age of youth, youthfulness, and youthful, young men (the youth).

Moreover one does not, after Psa 110:3 , look for any further declaration concerning the nature of the king, but of his people who place themselves at his service. The young men are likened to dew which gently descends upon the king out of the womb ( uterus ) of the morning-red. משׁחר is related to שׁחר just as מחשׁך is to חשׁך; the notion of שׁחר and חשׁך appears to be more sharply defined, and as it were apprehended more massively, in משׁחר and מחשׁך.

The host of young men is likened to the dew both on account of its vigorousness and its multitude, which are like the freshness of the mountain dew and the immense number of its drops, 2Sa 17:12 (cf. Num 23:10), and on account of the silent concealment out of which it wondrously and suddenly comes to light, Mic 5:7. After not having understood “thy youth” of the youthfulness of the king, we shall now also not, with Hofmann, refer בּהדרי־קדשׁ to the king, the holy attire of his armour.

הדרת קדשׁ is the vestment of the priest for performing divine service: the Levite singers went forth before the army in “holy attire” in 2Ch 20:21; here, however, the people without distinction wear holy festive garments. Thus they surround the divine king as dew that is born out of the womb of the morning-red. It is a priestly people which he leads forth to holy battle, just as in Rev 19:14 heavenly armies follow the Logos of God upon white horses, ἐνδεδυμένοι βύσσινον λευκὸν καθαρόν - a new generation, wonderful as if born out of heavenly light, numerous, fresh, and vigorous like the dew-drops, the offspring of the dawn.

The thought that it is a priestly people leads over to Psa 110:4. The king who leads this priestly people is, as we hear in Psa 110:4, himself a priest ( cohen ). As has been shown by Hupfeld and Fleischer, the priest is so called as one who stands (from כּחן = כּוּן in an intransitive signification), viz. , before God (Deu 10:8, cf. Psa 134:1; Heb 10:11), like נביא the spokesman, viz.

, of God. To stand before God is the same as to serve Him, viz. , as priest. The ruler whom the Psalm celebrates is a priest who intervenes in the reciprocal dealings between God and His people within the province of divine worship the priestly character of the people who suffer themselves to be led forth to battle and victory by him, stands in causal connection with the priestly character of this their king.

He is a priest by virtue of the promise of God confirmed by an oath. The oath is not merely a pledge of the fulfilment of the promise, but also a seal of the high significance of its purport. God the absolutely truthful One (Num 13:19) swears - this is the highest enhancement of the נאם ה of which prophecy is capable (Amo 6:8). He appoints the person addressed as a priest for ever “after the manner of Melchizedek” in this most solemn manner.

The i of דברתי is the same ancient connecting vowel as in the מלכי of the name Melchizedek; and it has the tone, which it loses when, as in Lam 1:1, a tone-syllable follows. The wide-meaning על־דּברת, “in respect to, on account of,” Ecc 3:18; Ecc 7:14; Ecc 8:2, is here specialized to the signification “after the manner, measure of,” lxx κατὰ τὴν τάξιν. The priesthood is to be united with the kingship in him who rules out of Zion, just as it was in Melchizedek, king of Salem, and that for ever.

According to De Wette, Ewald, and Hofmann, it is not any special priesthood that is meant here, but that which was bestowed directly with the kingship, consisting in the fact that the king of Israel, by reason of his office, commended his people in prayer to God and blessed them in the name of God, and also had the ordering of Jahve’s sanctuary and service. Now it is true all Israel is a “kingdom of priests” (Exo 19:6, cf.

Num 16:3; Isa 61:6), and the kingly vocation in Israel must therefore also be regarded as in its way a priestly vocation. Btu this spiritual priesthood, and, if one will, this princely oversight of sacred things, needed not to come to David first of all by solemn promise; and that of Melchizedek, after which the relationship is here defined, is incongruous to him; for the king of Salem was, according to Canaanitish custom, which admitted of the union of the kingship and priesthood, really a high priest, and therefore, regarded from an Israelitish point of view, united in his own person the offices of David and of Aaron.

How could David be called a priest after the manner of Melchizedek, he who had no claim upon the tithes of priests like Melchizedek, and to whom was denied the authority to offer sacrifice inseparable from the idea of the priesthood in the Old Testament? (cf. 2Ch 26:20). If David were the person addressed, the declaration would stand in antagonism with the right of Melchizedek as priest recorded in Gen.

14, which, according to the indisputable representation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, was equal in compass to the Levitico-Aaronic right, and, since “after the manner of” requires a coincident reciprocal relation, in antagonism to itself also. One might get on more easily with Psa 110:4 by referring the Psalm to one of the Maccabaean priest-princes (Hitzig, von Lengerke, and Olshausen); and we should then prefer to the reference to Jonathan who put on the holy stola , 1 Macc.

10:21 (so Hitzig formerly), or Alexander Jannaeus who actually bore the title king (so Hitzig now), the reference to Simon, whom the people appointed to “be their governor and high priest for ever, until there should arise a faithful prophet” (1 Macc. 14:41), after the death of Jonathan his brother - a union of the two offices which, although an irregularity, was not one, however, that was absolutely illegal.

But he priesthood, which the Maccabaeans, however, possessed originally as being priests born, is promised to the person addressed here in Psa 110:4; and even supposing that in Psa 110:4 the emphasis lay not on a union of the priesthood with the kingship, but of the kingship with the priesthood, then the retrospective reference to it in Zechariah forbids our removing the Psalm to a so much later period. Why should we not rather be guided in our understanding of this divine utterance, which is unique in the Old Testament, by this prophet, whose prophecy in Zec 6:12.

is the key to it? Zechariah removes the fulfilment of the Psalm out of the Old Testament present, with its blunt separation between the monarchical and hierarchical dignity, into the domain of the future, and refers it to Jahve’s Branch (צמח) that is to come. He, who will build the true temple of God, satisfactorily unites in his one person the priestly with the kingly office, which were at that time assigned to Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the prince.

Thus this Psalm was understood by the later prophecy; and in what other sense could the post-Davidic church have appropriated it as a prayer and hymn, than in the eschatological Messianic sense? but this sense is also verified as the original. David here hears that the king of the future exalted at the right hand of God, and whom he calls his Lord, is at the same time an eternal priest.

And because he is both these his battle itself is a priestly royal work, and just on this account his people fighting with him also wear priestly garments.

Psa 110:3-4 In order that he may rule thus victoriously, it is necessary that there should be a people and an army. In accordance with this union of the thoughts which Psa 110:3 anticipates, בּיום חילך signifies in the day of thy arriere ban, i. e. , when thou callest up thy “power of an army” (2Ch 26:13) to muster and go forth to battle. In this day are the people of the king willingnesses (נדבת), i.

e. , entirely cheerful readiness; ready for any sacrifices, they bring themselves with all that they are and have to meet him. There is no need of any compulsory, lengthy proclamation calling them out: it is no army of mercenaries, but willingly and quickly they present themselves from inward impulse (מתנדּב, Jdg 5:2, Jdg 5:9). The punctuation, which makes the principal caesura at חילך with Olewejored , makes the parallelism of חילך and ילדוּתך distinctly prominent.

Just as the former does not signify roboris tui , so now too the latter does not, according to Ecc 11:9, signify παιδιότητός σου (Aquila), and not, as Hofmann interprets, the dew-like freshness of youthful vigour, which the morning of the great day sheds over the king. Just as גּלוּת signifies both exile and the exiled ones, so ילדוּת, like νεότης, juventus, juventa , signifies both the time and age of youth, youthfulness, and youthful, young men (the youth).

Moreover one does not, after Psa 110:3 , look for any further declaration concerning the nature of the king, but of his people who place themselves at his service. The young men are likened to dew which gently descends upon the king out of the womb ( uterus ) of the morning-red. משׁחר is related to שׁחר just as מחשׁך is to חשׁך; the notion of שׁחר and חשׁך appears to be more sharply defined, and as it were apprehended more massively, in משׁחר and מחשׁך.

The host of young men is likened to the dew both on account of its vigorousness and its multitude, which are like the freshness of the mountain dew and the immense number of its drops, 2Sa 17:12 (cf. Num 23:10), and on account of the silent concealment out of which it wondrously and suddenly comes to light, Mic 5:7. After not having understood “thy youth” of the youthfulness of the king, we shall now also not, with Hofmann, refer בּהדרי־קדשׁ to the king, the holy attire of his armour.

הדרת קדשׁ is the vestment of the priest for performing divine service: the Levite singers went forth before the army in “holy attire” in 2Ch 20:21; here, however, the people without distinction wear holy festive garments. Thus they surround the divine king as dew that is born out of the womb of the morning-red. It is a priestly people which he leads forth to holy battle, just as in Rev 19:14 heavenly armies follow the Logos of God upon white horses, ἐνδεδυμένοι βύσσινον λευκὸν καθαρόν - a new generation, wonderful as if born out of heavenly light, numerous, fresh, and vigorous like the dew-drops, the offspring of the dawn.

The thought that it is a priestly people leads over to Psa 110:4. The king who leads this priestly people is, as we hear in Psa 110:4, himself a priest ( cohen ). As has been shown by Hupfeld and Fleischer, the priest is so called as one who stands (from כּחן = כּוּן in an intransitive signification), viz. , before God (Deu 10:8, cf. Psa 134:1; Heb 10:11), like נביא the spokesman, viz.

, of God. To stand before God is the same as to serve Him, viz. , as priest. The ruler whom the Psalm celebrates is a priest who intervenes in the reciprocal dealings between God and His people within the province of divine worship the priestly character of the people who suffer themselves to be led forth to battle and victory by him, stands in causal connection with the priestly character of this their king.

He is a priest by virtue of the promise of God confirmed by an oath. The oath is not merely a pledge of the fulfilment of the promise, but also a seal of the high significance of its purport. God the absolutely truthful One (Num 13:19) swears - this is the highest enhancement of the נאם ה of which prophecy is capable (Amo 6:8). He appoints the person addressed as a priest for ever “after the manner of Melchizedek” in this most solemn manner.

The i of דברתי is the same ancient connecting vowel as in the מלכי of the name Melchizedek; and it has the tone, which it loses when, as in Lam 1:1, a tone-syllable follows. The wide-meaning על־דּברת, “in respect to, on account of,” Ecc 3:18; Ecc 7:14; Ecc 8:2, is here specialized to the signification “after the manner, measure of,” lxx κατὰ τὴν τάξιν. The priesthood is to be united with the kingship in him who rules out of Zion, just as it was in Melchizedek, king of Salem, and that for ever.

According to De Wette, Ewald, and Hofmann, it is not any special priesthood that is meant here, but that which was bestowed directly with the kingship, consisting in the fact that the king of Israel, by reason of his office, commended his people in prayer to God and blessed them in the name of God, and also had the ordering of Jahve’s sanctuary and service. Now it is true all Israel is a “kingdom of priests” (Exo 19:6, cf.

Num 16:3; Isa 61:6), and the kingly vocation in Israel must therefore also be regarded as in its way a priestly vocation. Btu this spiritual priesthood, and, if one will, this princely oversight of sacred things, needed not to come to David first of all by solemn promise; and that of Melchizedek, after which the relationship is here defined, is incongruous to him; for the king of Salem was, according to Canaanitish custom, which admitted of the union of the kingship and priesthood, really a high priest, and therefore, regarded from an Israelitish point of view, united in his own person the offices of David and of Aaron.

How could David be called a priest after the manner of Melchizedek, he who had no claim upon the tithes of priests like Melchizedek, and to whom was denied the authority to offer sacrifice inseparable from the idea of the priesthood in the Old Testament? (cf. 2Ch 26:20). If David were the person addressed, the declaration would stand in antagonism with the right of Melchizedek as priest recorded in Gen.

14, which, according to the indisputable representation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, was equal in compass to the Levitico-Aaronic right, and, since “after the manner of” requires a coincident reciprocal relation, in antagonism to itself also. One might get on more easily with Psa 110:4 by referring the Psalm to one of the Maccabaean priest-princes (Hitzig, von Lengerke, and Olshausen); and we should then prefer to the reference to Jonathan who put on the holy stola , 1 Macc.

10:21 (so Hitzig formerly), or Alexander Jannaeus who actually bore the title king (so Hitzig now), the reference to Simon, whom the people appointed to “be their governor and high priest for ever, until there should arise a faithful prophet” (1 Macc. 14:41), after the death of Jonathan his brother - a union of the two offices which, although an irregularity, was not one, however, that was absolutely illegal.

But he priesthood, which the Maccabaeans, however, possessed originally as being priests born, is promised to the person addressed here in Psa 110:4; and even supposing that in Psa 110:4 the emphasis lay not on a union of the priesthood with the kingship, but of the kingship with the priesthood, then the retrospective reference to it in Zechariah forbids our removing the Psalm to a so much later period. Why should we not rather be guided in our understanding of this divine utterance, which is unique in the Old Testament, by this prophet, whose prophecy in Zec 6:12.

is the key to it? Zechariah removes the fulfilment of the Psalm out of the Old Testament present, with its blunt separation between the monarchical and hierarchical dignity, into the domain of the future, and refers it to Jahve’s Branch (צמח) that is to come. He, who will build the true temple of God, satisfactorily unites in his one person the priestly with the kingly office, which were at that time assigned to Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the prince.

Thus this Psalm was understood by the later prophecy; and in what other sense could the post-Davidic church have appropriated it as a prayer and hymn, than in the eschatological Messianic sense? but this sense is also verified as the original. David here hears that the king of the future exalted at the right hand of God, and whom he calls his Lord, is at the same time an eternal priest.

And because he is both these his battle itself is a priestly royal work, and just on this account his people fighting with him also wear priestly garments.