Psalms 113

Psa 113:4-6 This praiseworthiness is now confirmed. The opening reminds one of Psa 99:2. Pasek stands between גוים and יהוה in order to keep them apart. The totality of the nations is great, but Jahve is raised above it; the heavens are glorious, but Jahve’s glory is exalted above them. It is not to be explained according to Psa 148:13; but according to Psa 57:6, 12, רם belongs to Psa 113:4 too as predicate.

He is the incomparable One who has set up His throne in the height, but at the same time directs His gaze deep downwards (expression according to Ges. §142, rem. 1) in the heavens and upon earth, i. e. , nothing in all the realm of the creatures that are beneath Him escapes His sight, and nothing is so low that it remains unnoticed by Him; on the contrary, it is just that which is lowly, as the following strophe presents to us in a series of portraits so to speak, that is the special object of His regard.

The structure of Psa 113:5-6 militates against the construction of “in the heavens and upon the earth” with the interrogatory “who is like unto Jahve our God? ” after Deu 3:24.

Psa 113:7-9 The thoughts of Psa 113:7 and Psa 113:8 are transplanted from the song of Hannah. עפר, according to 1Ki 16:2, cf. Psa 14:7, is an emblem of lowly estate (Hitzig), and אשׁפּת (from שׁפת) an emblem of the deepest poverty and desertion; for in Syria and Palestine the man who is shut out from society lies upon the mezbele (the dunghill or heap of ashes), by day calling upon the passers-by for alms, and by night hiding himself in the ashes that have been warmed by the sun ( Job , ii.

152). The movement of the thoughts in Psa 113:8, as in Psa 113:1, follows the model of the epizeuxis. Together with the song of Hannah the poet has before his eye Hannah’s exaltation out of sorrow and reproach. He does not, however, repeat the words of her song which have reference to this (1Sa 2:5), but clothes his generalization of her experience in his own language.

If he intended that עקרת should be understood out of the genitival relation after the form עטרת, why did he not write מושׁיבי הבּית עקרה? הבּית would then be equivalent to בּיתה, Psa 68:7. עקרת הבּית is the expression for a woman who is a wife, and therefore housewife, הבּית (בּעלת) נות, but yet not a mother. Such an one has no settled position in the house of the husband, the firm bond is wanting in her relationship to her husband.

If God gives her children, He thereby makes her then thoroughly at home and rooted-in in her position. In the predicate notion אם הבּנים שׂמחה the definiteness attaches to the second member of the string of words, as in Gen 48:19; 2Sa 12:30 (cf. the reverse instance in Jer 23:26, נבּאי השּׁקר, those prophesying that which is false), therefore: a mother of the children.

The poet brings the matter so vividly before him, that he points as it were with his finger to the children with which God blesses her.

Psa 113:7-9 The thoughts of Psa 113:7 and Psa 113:8 are transplanted from the song of Hannah. עפר, according to 1Ki 16:2, cf. Psa 14:7, is an emblem of lowly estate (Hitzig), and אשׁפּת (from שׁפת) an emblem of the deepest poverty and desertion; for in Syria and Palestine the man who is shut out from society lies upon the mezbele (the dunghill or heap of ashes), by day calling upon the passers-by for alms, and by night hiding himself in the ashes that have been warmed by the sun ( Job , ii.

152). The movement of the thoughts in Psa 113:8, as in Psa 113:1, follows the model of the epizeuxis. Together with the song of Hannah the poet has before his eye Hannah’s exaltation out of sorrow and reproach. He does not, however, repeat the words of her song which have reference to this (1Sa 2:5), but clothes his generalization of her experience in his own language.

If he intended that עקרת should be understood out of the genitival relation after the form עטרת, why did he not write מושׁיבי הבּית עקרה? הבּית would then be equivalent to בּיתה, Psa 68:7. עקרת הבּית is the expression for a woman who is a wife, and therefore housewife, הבּית (בּעלת) נות, but yet not a mother. Such an one has no settled position in the house of the husband, the firm bond is wanting in her relationship to her husband.

If God gives her children, He thereby makes her then thoroughly at home and rooted-in in her position. In the predicate notion אם הבּנים שׂמחה the definiteness attaches to the second member of the string of words, as in Gen 48:19; 2Sa 12:30 (cf. the reverse instance in Jer 23:26, נבּאי השּׁקר, those prophesying that which is false), therefore: a mother of the children.

The poet brings the matter so vividly before him, that he points as it were with his finger to the children with which God blesses her.

Psa 113:7-9 The thoughts of Psa 113:7 and Psa 113:8 are transplanted from the song of Hannah. עפר, according to 1Ki 16:2, cf. Psa 14:7, is an emblem of lowly estate (Hitzig), and אשׁפּת (from שׁפת) an emblem of the deepest poverty and desertion; for in Syria and Palestine the man who is shut out from society lies upon the mezbele (the dunghill or heap of ashes), by day calling upon the passers-by for alms, and by night hiding himself in the ashes that have been warmed by the sun ( Job , ii.

152). The movement of the thoughts in Psa 113:8, as in Psa 113:1, follows the model of the epizeuxis. Together with the song of Hannah the poet has before his eye Hannah’s exaltation out of sorrow and reproach. He does not, however, repeat the words of her song which have reference to this (1Sa 2:5), but clothes his generalization of her experience in his own language.

If he intended that עקרת should be understood out of the genitival relation after the form עטרת, why did he not write מושׁיבי הבּית עקרה? הבּית would then be equivalent to בּיתה, Psa 68:7. עקרת הבּית is the expression for a woman who is a wife, and therefore housewife, הבּית (בּעלת) נות, but yet not a mother. Such an one has no settled position in the house of the husband, the firm bond is wanting in her relationship to her husband.

If God gives her children, He thereby makes her then thoroughly at home and rooted-in in her position. In the predicate notion אם הבּנים שׂמחה the definiteness attaches to the second member of the string of words, as in Gen 48:19; 2Sa 12:30 (cf. the reverse instance in Jer 23:26, נבּאי השּׁקר, those prophesying that which is false), therefore: a mother of the children.

The poet brings the matter so vividly before him, that he points as it were with his finger to the children with which God blesses her.

To the side of the general Hallelujah Psa 113:1-9 comes an historical one, which is likewise adorned in Psa 114:8 with the Chirek compaginis , and still further with Cholem compaginis , and is the festival Psalm of the eighth Passover day in the Jewish ritual. The deeds of God at the time of the Exodus are here brought together to form a picture in miniature which is as majestic as it is charming.

There are four tetrastichs, which pass by with the swiftness of a bird as it were with four flappings of its wings. The church sings this Psalm in a tonus peregrinus distinct from the eight Psalm-tones.

Psa 114:1-4 Egypt is called עם לעז (from לעז, cogn. לעג, לעה), because the people spoke a language unintelligible to Israel (Psa 81:6), and as it were a stammering language. The lxx, and just so the Targum, renders ἐκ λαοῦ βαρβάρου (from the Sanscrit barbaras , just as onomatopoetic as balbus , cf. Fleischer in Levy’s Chaldäisches Wörterbuch , i. 420). The redeemed nation is called Judah , inasmuch as God made it His sanctuary (קדשׁ) by setting up His sanctuary (מקדּשׁ, Exo 15:17) in the midst of it, for Jerusalem ( el ḳuds ) as Benjamitish Judaean, and from the time of David was accounted directly as Judaean.

In so far, however, as He made this people His kingdom (ממשׁלותיו, an amplificative plural with Mem pathachatum ), by placing Himself in the relation of King (Deu 33:5) to the people of possession which by a revealed law He established characteristically as His own, it is called Israel . 1 The predicate takes the form ותּהי, for peoples together with country and city are represented as feminine (cf.

Jer 8:5). The foundation of that new beginning in connection with the history of redemption was laid amidst majestic wonders, inasmuch as nature was brought into service, co-operating and sympathizing in the work (cf. Psa 77:15.) The dividing of the sea opens, and the dividing of the Jordan closes, the journey through the desert to Canaan. The sea stood aside, Jordan halted and was dammed up on the north in order that the redeemed people might pass through.

And in the middle, between these great wonders of the Exodus from Egypt and the entrance into Canaan, arises the not less mighty wonder of the giving of the Law: the skipping of the mountains like rams, of the ills like בּני־צאן, i. e. , lambs (Wisd. 19:9), depicts the quaking of Sinai and its environs (Exo 19:18, cf. supra Psa 68:9, and on the figure Psa 29:6).

Psa 114:1-4 Egypt is called עם לעז (from לעז, cogn. לעג, לעה), because the people spoke a language unintelligible to Israel (Psa 81:6), and as it were a stammering language. The lxx, and just so the Targum, renders ἐκ λαοῦ βαρβάρου (from the Sanscrit barbaras , just as onomatopoetic as balbus , cf. Fleischer in Levy’s Chaldäisches Wörterbuch , i. 420). The redeemed nation is called Judah , inasmuch as God made it His sanctuary (קדשׁ) by setting up His sanctuary (מקדּשׁ, Exo 15:17) in the midst of it, for Jerusalem ( el ḳuds ) as Benjamitish Judaean, and from the time of David was accounted directly as Judaean.

In so far, however, as He made this people His kingdom (ממשׁלותיו, an amplificative plural with Mem pathachatum ), by placing Himself in the relation of King (Deu 33:5) to the people of possession which by a revealed law He established characteristically as His own, it is called Israel . 1 The predicate takes the form ותּהי, for peoples together with country and city are represented as feminine (cf.

Jer 8:5). The foundation of that new beginning in connection with the history of redemption was laid amidst majestic wonders, inasmuch as nature was brought into service, co-operating and sympathizing in the work (cf. Psa 77:15.) The dividing of the sea opens, and the dividing of the Jordan closes, the journey through the desert to Canaan. The sea stood aside, Jordan halted and was dammed up on the north in order that the redeemed people might pass through.

And in the middle, between these great wonders of the Exodus from Egypt and the entrance into Canaan, arises the not less mighty wonder of the giving of the Law: the skipping of the mountains like rams, of the ills like בּני־צאן, i. e. , lambs (Wisd. 19:9), depicts the quaking of Sinai and its environs (Exo 19:18, cf. supra Psa 68:9, and on the figure Psa 29:6).

Psa 114:1-4 Egypt is called עם לעז (from לעז, cogn. לעג, לעה), because the people spoke a language unintelligible to Israel (Psa 81:6), and as it were a stammering language. The lxx, and just so the Targum, renders ἐκ λαοῦ βαρβάρου (from the Sanscrit barbaras , just as onomatopoetic as balbus , cf. Fleischer in Levy’s Chaldäisches Wörterbuch , i. 420). The redeemed nation is called Judah , inasmuch as God made it His sanctuary (קדשׁ) by setting up His sanctuary (מקדּשׁ, Exo 15:17) in the midst of it, for Jerusalem ( el ḳuds ) as Benjamitish Judaean, and from the time of David was accounted directly as Judaean.

In so far, however, as He made this people His kingdom (ממשׁלותיו, an amplificative plural with Mem pathachatum ), by placing Himself in the relation of King (Deu 33:5) to the people of possession which by a revealed law He established characteristically as His own, it is called Israel . 1 The predicate takes the form ותּהי, for peoples together with country and city are represented as feminine (cf.

Jer 8:5). The foundation of that new beginning in connection with the history of redemption was laid amidst majestic wonders, inasmuch as nature was brought into service, co-operating and sympathizing in the work (cf. Psa 77:15.) The dividing of the sea opens, and the dividing of the Jordan closes, the journey through the desert to Canaan. The sea stood aside, Jordan halted and was dammed up on the north in order that the redeemed people might pass through.

And in the middle, between these great wonders of the Exodus from Egypt and the entrance into Canaan, arises the not less mighty wonder of the giving of the Law: the skipping of the mountains like rams, of the ills like בּני־צאן, i. e. , lambs (Wisd. 19:9), depicts the quaking of Sinai and its environs (Exo 19:18, cf. supra Psa 68:9, and on the figure Psa 29:6).