The Lord Contends for His Servant Against Malicious Enemies

Psa 35:4-8 Throughout the next two strophes follow terrible imprecations. According to Fürst and others the relation of בּושׁ and חפר is like that of erblassen , to turn pale (cf. Isa 29:22 with Psa 34:6), and erröthen , to turn red, to blush. בושׁ has, however, no connection with בוץ, nor has חפר, Arab. chfr, chmr , any connection with Arab. hmr , to be red; but, according to its radical notion, בּושׁ means disturbari (vid.

, Ps 6:11), and חפר, obtegere, abscondere (vid. , Psa 34:6). יסּגוּ, properly “let them be made to fall back” (cf. e. g. , Isa 42:17). On the figure on Psa 35:5 cf. Psa 83:14. The clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve, Psa 35:5 and Psa 35:6 , are circumstantial clauses, viz. , clauses defining the manner. דּחה (giving, viz. , them, the push that shall cause their downfall, equivalent to דּחם or דּחם, Psa 68:28) is closely connected with the figure in Psa 35:6 , and רדפם, with the figure in Psa 35:5 ; consequently it seems as though the original position of these two clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve had been disturbed; just as in Ps 34, the ע strophe and the פ strophe have changed their original places.

It is the Angel, who took off Pharaoh’s chariot wheels so that they drave them heavily (Exo 14:25) that is intended here. The fact that this Angel is concerned here, where the point at issue is whether the kingship of the promise shall be destroyed at its very beginning or not, harmonises with the appearing of the מלאך ה at all critical junctures in the course of the history of redemption.

חלקלקּות, loca passim lubrica , is an intensive form of expression for חלקות rof noisserp, Psa 73:18. Just as דּחה recalls to mind Ex 15, so רדפם recalls Judg 5. In this latter passage the Angel of Jahve also appears in the midst of the conquerors who are pursuing the smitten foe, incarnate as it were in Deborah.

Psa 35:4-8 Throughout the next two strophes follow terrible imprecations. According to Fürst and others the relation of בּושׁ and חפר is like that of erblassen , to turn pale (cf. Isa 29:22 with Psa 34:6), and erröthen , to turn red, to blush. בושׁ has, however, no connection with בוץ, nor has חפר, Arab. chfr, chmr , any connection with Arab. hmr , to be red; but, according to its radical notion, בּושׁ means disturbari (vid.

, Ps 6:11), and חפר, obtegere, abscondere (vid. , Psa 34:6). יסּגוּ, properly “let them be made to fall back” (cf. e. g. , Isa 42:17). On the figure on Psa 35:5 cf. Psa 83:14. The clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve, Psa 35:5 and Psa 35:6 , are circumstantial clauses, viz. , clauses defining the manner. דּחה (giving, viz. , them, the push that shall cause their downfall, equivalent to דּחם or דּחם, Psa 68:28) is closely connected with the figure in Psa 35:6 , and רדפם, with the figure in Psa 35:5 ; consequently it seems as though the original position of these two clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve had been disturbed; just as in Ps 34, the ע strophe and the פ strophe have changed their original places.

It is the Angel, who took off Pharaoh’s chariot wheels so that they drave them heavily (Exo 14:25) that is intended here. The fact that this Angel is concerned here, where the point at issue is whether the kingship of the promise shall be destroyed at its very beginning or not, harmonises with the appearing of the מלאך ה at all critical junctures in the course of the history of redemption.

חלקלקּות, loca passim lubrica , is an intensive form of expression for חלקות rof noisserp, Psa 73:18. Just as דּחה recalls to mind Ex 15, so רדפם recalls Judg 5. In this latter passage the Angel of Jahve also appears in the midst of the conquerors who are pursuing the smitten foe, incarnate as it were in Deborah.

Psa 35:4-8 Throughout the next two strophes follow terrible imprecations. According to Fürst and others the relation of בּושׁ and חפר is like that of erblassen , to turn pale (cf. Isa 29:22 with Psa 34:6), and erröthen , to turn red, to blush. בושׁ has, however, no connection with בוץ, nor has חפר, Arab. chfr, chmr , any connection with Arab. hmr , to be red; but, according to its radical notion, בּושׁ means disturbari (vid.

, Ps 6:11), and חפר, obtegere, abscondere (vid. , Psa 34:6). יסּגוּ, properly “let them be made to fall back” (cf. e. g. , Isa 42:17). On the figure on Psa 35:5 cf. Psa 83:14. The clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve, Psa 35:5 and Psa 35:6 , are circumstantial clauses, viz. , clauses defining the manner. דּחה (giving, viz. , them, the push that shall cause their downfall, equivalent to דּחם or דּחם, Psa 68:28) is closely connected with the figure in Psa 35:6 , and רדפם, with the figure in Psa 35:5 ; consequently it seems as though the original position of these two clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve had been disturbed; just as in Ps 34, the ע strophe and the פ strophe have changed their original places.

It is the Angel, who took off Pharaoh’s chariot wheels so that they drave them heavily (Exo 14:25) that is intended here. The fact that this Angel is concerned here, where the point at issue is whether the kingship of the promise shall be destroyed at its very beginning or not, harmonises with the appearing of the מלאך ה at all critical junctures in the course of the history of redemption.

חלקלקּות, loca passim lubrica , is an intensive form of expression for חלקות rof noisserp, Psa 73:18. Just as דּחה recalls to mind Ex 15, so רדפם recalls Judg 5. In this latter passage the Angel of Jahve also appears in the midst of the conquerors who are pursuing the smitten foe, incarnate as it were in Deborah.

Psa 35:9-10 This strophe, with which the first part of the song closes, contains the logical apodosis of those imprecatory jussives. The downfall of the power that is opposed to God will be followed by the joy of triumph. The bones of the body, which elsewhere are mentioned as sharing only in the anguish of the soul (Psa 6:3; Psa 31:11; Psa 32:3; Psa 51:10), are here made to share (as also in Psa 51:10) in the joy, into which the anxiety, that agitated even the marrow of the bones, is changed.

The joy which he experiences in his soul shall throb through every member of his body and multiply itself, as it were, into a choir of praiseful voices. כּל with a conjunctive accent and without Makkeph , as also in Pro 19:7 (not כּל־, vid. , the Masora in Baer’s Psalterium p. 133), is to be read cāl (with קמץ רחב, opp . קמץ חטוף) according to Kimchi. According to Lonzano, however, it is to be read col , the conjunctive accent having an equal power with Makkeph ; but this view is false, since an accent can never be placed against Kametz chatuph .

The exclamation מי כמוך is taken from Exo 15:11, where, according to the Masora, it is to be pointed מי כמוך, as Ben Naphtali also points it in the passage before us. The Dagesh , which is found in the former passage and is wanting here, sharpens and hardens at the same time; it requires that the expression should be emphatically pronounced (without there being any danger in this instance of its being slurred over); it does not serve to denote the closer connection, but to give it especial prominence.

חזק ממּנוּ, stronger than he, is equivalent to: strong, whereas the other is weak, just as in Jer 31:11, cf. Hab 1:13, צדּיק ממּנוּ, righteous, whereas he is ungodly. The repetition of ועני is meant to say: He rescues the עני, who is אביון (poor) enough already, from him who would take even the few goods that he possesses.

Psa 35:9-10 This strophe, with which the first part of the song closes, contains the logical apodosis of those imprecatory jussives. The downfall of the power that is opposed to God will be followed by the joy of triumph. The bones of the body, which elsewhere are mentioned as sharing only in the anguish of the soul (Psa 6:3; Psa 31:11; Psa 32:3; Psa 51:10), are here made to share (as also in Psa 51:10) in the joy, into which the anxiety, that agitated even the marrow of the bones, is changed.

The joy which he experiences in his soul shall throb through every member of his body and multiply itself, as it were, into a choir of praiseful voices. כּל with a conjunctive accent and without Makkeph , as also in Pro 19:7 (not כּל־, vid. , the Masora in Baer’s Psalterium p. 133), is to be read cāl (with קמץ רחב, opp . קמץ חטוף) according to Kimchi. According to Lonzano, however, it is to be read col , the conjunctive accent having an equal power with Makkeph ; but this view is false, since an accent can never be placed against Kametz chatuph .

The exclamation מי כמוך is taken from Exo 15:11, where, according to the Masora, it is to be pointed מי כמוך, as Ben Naphtali also points it in the passage before us. The Dagesh , which is found in the former passage and is wanting here, sharpens and hardens at the same time; it requires that the expression should be emphatically pronounced (without there being any danger in this instance of its being slurred over); it does not serve to denote the closer connection, but to give it especial prominence.

חזק ממּנוּ, stronger than he, is equivalent to: strong, whereas the other is weak, just as in Jer 31:11, cf. Hab 1:13, צדּיק ממּנוּ, righteous, whereas he is ungodly. The repetition of ועני is meant to say: He rescues the עני, who is אביון (poor) enough already, from him who would take even the few goods that he possesses.

Psa 35:11-16 The second part begins with two strophes of sorrowful description of the wickedness of the enemy. The futures in Psa 35:11, Psa 35:12 describe that which at present takes place. עדי חמס are μάρτυρες ἄδικοι (lxx). They demand from him a confession of acts and things which lie entirely outside his consciousness and his way of acting (cf. Psa 69:5): they would gladly brand him as a perjurer, as an usurper, and as a plunderer.

What David complains of in Psa 35:12 , we hear Saul confess in 1Sa 24:18; the charge of ingratitude is therefore well-grounded. שׁכול לנפשׁי is not dependent on ישׁלּמוּני, in which case one would have looked for כּשׁול rather than שׁכול, but a substantival clause: “bereavement is to my soul,” its condition is that of being forsaken by all those who formerly showed me marks of affection; all these have, as it were, died off so far as I am concerned.

Not only had David been obliged to save his parents by causing them to flee to Moab, but Michal was also torn from him, Jonathan removed, and all those at the court of Saul, who had hitherto sought the favour and friendship of the highly-gifted and highly-honoured son-in-law of the king, were alienated from him. And how sincerely and sympathisingly had he reciprocated their leanings towards himself!

By ואני in Psa 35:13, he contrasts himself with the ungrateful and unfeeling ones. Instead of לבשׁתּי שׁק, the expression is לבוּשׁי שׁק; the tendency of poetry for the use of the substantival clause is closely allied to its fondness for well-conceived brevity and pictorial definition. He manifested towards them a love which knew no distinction between the ego and tu , which regarded their sorrow and their guilt as his own, and joined with them in their expiation for it; his head was lowered upon his breast, or he cowered, like Elijah (1Ki 18:42), upon the ground with his head hanging down upon his breast even to his knees, so that that which came forth from the inmost depths of his nature returned again as it were in broken accents into his bosom.

Riehm’s rendering, “at their ungodliness and hostility my prayer for things not executed came back,” is contrary to the connection, and makes one look for אלי instead of אל־חיקי. Perret-Gentil correctly renders it, Je priai la tête penchée sur la poitrine . The Psalmist goes on to say in Psa 35:14, I went about as for a friend, for a brother to me, i. e. , as if the sufferer had been such to me.

With התחלּך, used of the solemn slowness of gait, which corresponds to the sacredness of pain, alternates שׁחח used of the being bowed down very low, in which the heavy weight of pain finds expression. כּאבל־אם, not: like the mourning (from אבל, like הבל from הבל) of a mother (Hitzig), but, since a personal אבל is more natural, and next to the mourning for an only child the loss of a mother (cf.

Gen 24:67) strikes the deepest wound: like one who mourns (אבל־, like לבן־, Gen 49:12, from אבל, construct state, like טמא) for a mother (the objective genitive, as in Gen 27:41; Deu 34:8; Amo 8:10; Jer 6:26). קדר signifies the colours, outward appearance, and attire of mourning: with dark clothes, with tearful unwashed face, and with neglected beard. But as for them - how do they act at the present time, when he finds himself in צלע (Psa 38:17; Job 18:12), a sideway direction, i.

e. , likely to fall (from צלע, Arab. ḍl‛ , to incline towards the side)? They rejoice and gather themselves together, and this assemblage of ungrateful friends rejoicing over another’s misfortune, is augmented by the lowest rabble that attach themselves to them. The verb נכה means to smite; Niph . נכּא, Job 30:6, to be driven forth with a whip, after which the lxx renders it μάστιγες, Symm.

πλῆκται, and the Targum conterentes me verbis suis ; cf. הכּה בּלשׂון, Jer 18:18. But נכים cannot by itself mean smiters with the tongue. The adjective נכה signifies elsewhere with רגלים, one who is smitten in the feet, i. e. , one who limps or halts, and with רוּח, but also without any addition, in Isa 16:7, one smitten in spirit, i. e. , one deeply troubled or sorrowful.

Thus, therefore, נכים from נכה, like גּאים from גּאה, may mean smitten, men, i. e. , men who are brought low or reduced (Hengstenberg). It might also, after the Arabic nawika , to be injured in mind, anwak , stupid, silly (from the same root נך, to prick, smite, wound, cf. ichtalla , to be pierced through = mad), be understood as those mentally deranged, enraged at nothing or without cause.

But the former definition of the notion of the word is favoured by the continuation of the idea of the verbal adjective נכים by ולא ידעתּי, persons of whom I have hitherto taken no notice because they were far removed from me, i. e. , men belonging to the dregs of the people (cf. Job 19:18; Job 30:1). The addition of ולא ידעתי certainly makes Olshausen’s conjecture that we should read נכרים somewhat natural; but the expression then becomes tautological, and there are other instances also in which psalm-poesy goes beyond the ordinary range of words, in order to find language to describe that which is loathsome, in the most glaring way.

פרע, to tear, rend in pieces, viz. , with abusive and slanderous words (like Arab. qr‛ II) also does not occur anywhere else. And what remarkable language we now meet with in Psa 35:16 ! מעוג does not mean scorn or buffoonery, as Böttcher and Hitzig imagine, but according to 1Ki 17:12, a cake of a round formation (like the Talmudic עגּה, a circle); לעג, jeering, jesting.

Therefore לעגי מעוג means: mockers for a cake, i. e. , those who for a delicate morsel, for the sake of dainty fare, make scornful jokes, viz. , about me, the persecuted one, vile parasites; German Tellerlecker, Bratenriecher , Greek κνισσοκόλακες, ψωμοκόλακες, Mediaeval Latin buccellarii . This לעגי מלוג, which even Rashi interprets in substantially the same manner, stands either in a logical co-ordinate relation (vid.

, on Isa 19:11) or in a logical as well as grammatical subordinate relation to its regens חנפי. In the former case, it would be equivalent to: the profane, viz. , the cake-jesters; in the latter, which is the more natural, and quite suitable: the profane (= the profanest, vid. , Psa 45:13; Isa 29:19; Eze 7:24) among cake-jesters. The בּ is not the Beth of companionship or fellowship, to express which עם or את (Hos 7:5) would have been used, but Beth essentiae or the Beth of characterisation: in the character of the most abject examples of this class of men do they gnash upon him with their teeth.

The gerund חרק (of the noise of the teeth being pressed together, like Arab. ḥrq , of the crackling of a fire and the grating of a file), which is used according to Ges. §131, 4, b , carries its subject in itself. They gnash upon him with their teeth after the manner of the profanest among those, by whom their neighbour’s honour is sold for a delicate morsel.

Psa 35:11-16 The second part begins with two strophes of sorrowful description of the wickedness of the enemy. The futures in Psa 35:11, Psa 35:12 describe that which at present takes place. עדי חמס are μάρτυρες ἄδικοι (lxx). They demand from him a confession of acts and things which lie entirely outside his consciousness and his way of acting (cf. Psa 69:5): they would gladly brand him as a perjurer, as an usurper, and as a plunderer.

What David complains of in Psa 35:12 , we hear Saul confess in 1Sa 24:18; the charge of ingratitude is therefore well-grounded. שׁכול לנפשׁי is not dependent on ישׁלּמוּני, in which case one would have looked for כּשׁול rather than שׁכול, but a substantival clause: “bereavement is to my soul,” its condition is that of being forsaken by all those who formerly showed me marks of affection; all these have, as it were, died off so far as I am concerned.

Not only had David been obliged to save his parents by causing them to flee to Moab, but Michal was also torn from him, Jonathan removed, and all those at the court of Saul, who had hitherto sought the favour and friendship of the highly-gifted and highly-honoured son-in-law of the king, were alienated from him. And how sincerely and sympathisingly had he reciprocated their leanings towards himself!

By ואני in Psa 35:13, he contrasts himself with the ungrateful and unfeeling ones. Instead of לבשׁתּי שׁק, the expression is לבוּשׁי שׁק; the tendency of poetry for the use of the substantival clause is closely allied to its fondness for well-conceived brevity and pictorial definition. He manifested towards them a love which knew no distinction between the ego and tu , which regarded their sorrow and their guilt as his own, and joined with them in their expiation for it; his head was lowered upon his breast, or he cowered, like Elijah (1Ki 18:42), upon the ground with his head hanging down upon his breast even to his knees, so that that which came forth from the inmost depths of his nature returned again as it were in broken accents into his bosom.

Riehm’s rendering, “at their ungodliness and hostility my prayer for things not executed came back,” is contrary to the connection, and makes one look for אלי instead of אל־חיקי. Perret-Gentil correctly renders it, Je priai la tête penchée sur la poitrine . The Psalmist goes on to say in Psa 35:14, I went about as for a friend, for a brother to me, i. e. , as if the sufferer had been such to me.

With התחלּך, used of the solemn slowness of gait, which corresponds to the sacredness of pain, alternates שׁחח used of the being bowed down very low, in which the heavy weight of pain finds expression. כּאבל־אם, not: like the mourning (from אבל, like הבל from הבל) of a mother (Hitzig), but, since a personal אבל is more natural, and next to the mourning for an only child the loss of a mother (cf.

Gen 24:67) strikes the deepest wound: like one who mourns (אבל־, like לבן־, Gen 49:12, from אבל, construct state, like טמא) for a mother (the objective genitive, as in Gen 27:41; Deu 34:8; Amo 8:10; Jer 6:26). קדר signifies the colours, outward appearance, and attire of mourning: with dark clothes, with tearful unwashed face, and with neglected beard. But as for them - how do they act at the present time, when he finds himself in צלע (Psa 38:17; Job 18:12), a sideway direction, i.

e. , likely to fall (from צלע, Arab. ḍl‛ , to incline towards the side)? They rejoice and gather themselves together, and this assemblage of ungrateful friends rejoicing over another’s misfortune, is augmented by the lowest rabble that attach themselves to them. The verb נכה means to smite; Niph . נכּא, Job 30:6, to be driven forth with a whip, after which the lxx renders it μάστιγες, Symm.

πλῆκται, and the Targum conterentes me verbis suis ; cf. הכּה בּלשׂון, Jer 18:18. But נכים cannot by itself mean smiters with the tongue. The adjective נכה signifies elsewhere with רגלים, one who is smitten in the feet, i. e. , one who limps or halts, and with רוּח, but also without any addition, in Isa 16:7, one smitten in spirit, i. e. , one deeply troubled or sorrowful.

Thus, therefore, נכים from נכה, like גּאים from גּאה, may mean smitten, men, i. e. , men who are brought low or reduced (Hengstenberg). It might also, after the Arabic nawika , to be injured in mind, anwak , stupid, silly (from the same root נך, to prick, smite, wound, cf. ichtalla , to be pierced through = mad), be understood as those mentally deranged, enraged at nothing or without cause.

But the former definition of the notion of the word is favoured by the continuation of the idea of the verbal adjective נכים by ולא ידעתּי, persons of whom I have hitherto taken no notice because they were far removed from me, i. e. , men belonging to the dregs of the people (cf. Job 19:18; Job 30:1). The addition of ולא ידעתי certainly makes Olshausen’s conjecture that we should read נכרים somewhat natural; but the expression then becomes tautological, and there are other instances also in which psalm-poesy goes beyond the ordinary range of words, in order to find language to describe that which is loathsome, in the most glaring way.

פרע, to tear, rend in pieces, viz. , with abusive and slanderous words (like Arab. qr‛ II) also does not occur anywhere else. And what remarkable language we now meet with in Psa 35:16 ! מעוג does not mean scorn or buffoonery, as Böttcher and Hitzig imagine, but according to 1Ki 17:12, a cake of a round formation (like the Talmudic עגּה, a circle); לעג, jeering, jesting.

Therefore לעגי מעוג means: mockers for a cake, i. e. , those who for a delicate morsel, for the sake of dainty fare, make scornful jokes, viz. , about me, the persecuted one, vile parasites; German Tellerlecker, Bratenriecher , Greek κνισσοκόλακες, ψωμοκόλακες, Mediaeval Latin buccellarii . This לעגי מלוג, which even Rashi interprets in substantially the same manner, stands either in a logical co-ordinate relation (vid.

, on Isa 19:11) or in a logical as well as grammatical subordinate relation to its regens חנפי. In the former case, it would be equivalent to: the profane, viz. , the cake-jesters; in the latter, which is the more natural, and quite suitable: the profane (= the profanest, vid. , Psa 45:13; Isa 29:19; Eze 7:24) among cake-jesters. The בּ is not the Beth of companionship or fellowship, to express which עם or את (Hos 7:5) would have been used, but Beth essentiae or the Beth of characterisation: in the character of the most abject examples of this class of men do they gnash upon him with their teeth.

The gerund חרק (of the noise of the teeth being pressed together, like Arab. ḥrq , of the crackling of a fire and the grating of a file), which is used according to Ges. §131, 4, b , carries its subject in itself. They gnash upon him with their teeth after the manner of the profanest among those, by whom their neighbour’s honour is sold for a delicate morsel.

Psa 35:11-16 The second part begins with two strophes of sorrowful description of the wickedness of the enemy. The futures in Psa 35:11, Psa 35:12 describe that which at present takes place. עדי חמס are μάρτυρες ἄδικοι (lxx). They demand from him a confession of acts and things which lie entirely outside his consciousness and his way of acting (cf. Psa 69:5): they would gladly brand him as a perjurer, as an usurper, and as a plunderer.

What David complains of in Psa 35:12 , we hear Saul confess in 1Sa 24:18; the charge of ingratitude is therefore well-grounded. שׁכול לנפשׁי is not dependent on ישׁלּמוּני, in which case one would have looked for כּשׁול rather than שׁכול, but a substantival clause: “bereavement is to my soul,” its condition is that of being forsaken by all those who formerly showed me marks of affection; all these have, as it were, died off so far as I am concerned.

Not only had David been obliged to save his parents by causing them to flee to Moab, but Michal was also torn from him, Jonathan removed, and all those at the court of Saul, who had hitherto sought the favour and friendship of the highly-gifted and highly-honoured son-in-law of the king, were alienated from him. And how sincerely and sympathisingly had he reciprocated their leanings towards himself!

By ואני in Psa 35:13, he contrasts himself with the ungrateful and unfeeling ones. Instead of לבשׁתּי שׁק, the expression is לבוּשׁי שׁק; the tendency of poetry for the use of the substantival clause is closely allied to its fondness for well-conceived brevity and pictorial definition. He manifested towards them a love which knew no distinction between the ego and tu , which regarded their sorrow and their guilt as his own, and joined with them in their expiation for it; his head was lowered upon his breast, or he cowered, like Elijah (1Ki 18:42), upon the ground with his head hanging down upon his breast even to his knees, so that that which came forth from the inmost depths of his nature returned again as it were in broken accents into his bosom.

Riehm’s rendering, “at their ungodliness and hostility my prayer for things not executed came back,” is contrary to the connection, and makes one look for אלי instead of אל־חיקי. Perret-Gentil correctly renders it, Je priai la tête penchée sur la poitrine . The Psalmist goes on to say in Psa 35:14, I went about as for a friend, for a brother to me, i. e. , as if the sufferer had been such to me.

With התחלּך, used of the solemn slowness of gait, which corresponds to the sacredness of pain, alternates שׁחח used of the being bowed down very low, in which the heavy weight of pain finds expression. כּאבל־אם, not: like the mourning (from אבל, like הבל from הבל) of a mother (Hitzig), but, since a personal אבל is more natural, and next to the mourning for an only child the loss of a mother (cf.

Gen 24:67) strikes the deepest wound: like one who mourns (אבל־, like לבן־, Gen 49:12, from אבל, construct state, like טמא) for a mother (the objective genitive, as in Gen 27:41; Deu 34:8; Amo 8:10; Jer 6:26). קדר signifies the colours, outward appearance, and attire of mourning: with dark clothes, with tearful unwashed face, and with neglected beard. But as for them - how do they act at the present time, when he finds himself in צלע (Psa 38:17; Job 18:12), a sideway direction, i.

e. , likely to fall (from צלע, Arab. ḍl‛ , to incline towards the side)? They rejoice and gather themselves together, and this assemblage of ungrateful friends rejoicing over another’s misfortune, is augmented by the lowest rabble that attach themselves to them. The verb נכה means to smite; Niph . נכּא, Job 30:6, to be driven forth with a whip, after which the lxx renders it μάστιγες, Symm.

πλῆκται, and the Targum conterentes me verbis suis ; cf. הכּה בּלשׂון, Jer 18:18. But נכים cannot by itself mean smiters with the tongue. The adjective נכה signifies elsewhere with רגלים, one who is smitten in the feet, i. e. , one who limps or halts, and with רוּח, but also without any addition, in Isa 16:7, one smitten in spirit, i. e. , one deeply troubled or sorrowful.

Thus, therefore, נכים from נכה, like גּאים from גּאה, may mean smitten, men, i. e. , men who are brought low or reduced (Hengstenberg). It might also, after the Arabic nawika , to be injured in mind, anwak , stupid, silly (from the same root נך, to prick, smite, wound, cf. ichtalla , to be pierced through = mad), be understood as those mentally deranged, enraged at nothing or without cause.

But the former definition of the notion of the word is favoured by the continuation of the idea of the verbal adjective נכים by ולא ידעתּי, persons of whom I have hitherto taken no notice because they were far removed from me, i. e. , men belonging to the dregs of the people (cf. Job 19:18; Job 30:1). The addition of ולא ידעתי certainly makes Olshausen’s conjecture that we should read נכרים somewhat natural; but the expression then becomes tautological, and there are other instances also in which psalm-poesy goes beyond the ordinary range of words, in order to find language to describe that which is loathsome, in the most glaring way.

פרע, to tear, rend in pieces, viz. , with abusive and slanderous words (like Arab. qr‛ II) also does not occur anywhere else. And what remarkable language we now meet with in Psa 35:16 ! מעוג does not mean scorn or buffoonery, as Böttcher and Hitzig imagine, but according to 1Ki 17:12, a cake of a round formation (like the Talmudic עגּה, a circle); לעג, jeering, jesting.

Therefore לעגי מעוג means: mockers for a cake, i. e. , those who for a delicate morsel, for the sake of dainty fare, make scornful jokes, viz. , about me, the persecuted one, vile parasites; German Tellerlecker, Bratenriecher , Greek κνισσοκόλακες, ψωμοκόλακες, Mediaeval Latin buccellarii . This לעגי מלוג, which even Rashi interprets in substantially the same manner, stands either in a logical co-ordinate relation (vid.

, on Isa 19:11) or in a logical as well as grammatical subordinate relation to its regens חנפי. In the former case, it would be equivalent to: the profane, viz. , the cake-jesters; in the latter, which is the more natural, and quite suitable: the profane (= the profanest, vid. , Psa 45:13; Isa 29:19; Eze 7:24) among cake-jesters. The בּ is not the Beth of companionship or fellowship, to express which עם or את (Hos 7:5) would have been used, but Beth essentiae or the Beth of characterisation: in the character of the most abject examples of this class of men do they gnash upon him with their teeth.

The gerund חרק (of the noise of the teeth being pressed together, like Arab. ḥrq , of the crackling of a fire and the grating of a file), which is used according to Ges. §131, 4, b , carries its subject in itself. They gnash upon him with their teeth after the manner of the profanest among those, by whom their neighbour’s honour is sold for a delicate morsel.

Psa 35:11-16 The second part begins with two strophes of sorrowful description of the wickedness of the enemy. The futures in Psa 35:11, Psa 35:12 describe that which at present takes place. עדי חמס are μάρτυρες ἄδικοι (lxx). They demand from him a confession of acts and things which lie entirely outside his consciousness and his way of acting (cf. Psa 69:5): they would gladly brand him as a perjurer, as an usurper, and as a plunderer.

What David complains of in Psa 35:12 , we hear Saul confess in 1Sa 24:18; the charge of ingratitude is therefore well-grounded. שׁכול לנפשׁי is not dependent on ישׁלּמוּני, in which case one would have looked for כּשׁול rather than שׁכול, but a substantival clause: “bereavement is to my soul,” its condition is that of being forsaken by all those who formerly showed me marks of affection; all these have, as it were, died off so far as I am concerned.

Not only had David been obliged to save his parents by causing them to flee to Moab, but Michal was also torn from him, Jonathan removed, and all those at the court of Saul, who had hitherto sought the favour and friendship of the highly-gifted and highly-honoured son-in-law of the king, were alienated from him. And how sincerely and sympathisingly had he reciprocated their leanings towards himself!

By ואני in Psa 35:13, he contrasts himself with the ungrateful and unfeeling ones. Instead of לבשׁתּי שׁק, the expression is לבוּשׁי שׁק; the tendency of poetry for the use of the substantival clause is closely allied to its fondness for well-conceived brevity and pictorial definition. He manifested towards them a love which knew no distinction between the ego and tu , which regarded their sorrow and their guilt as his own, and joined with them in their expiation for it; his head was lowered upon his breast, or he cowered, like Elijah (1Ki 18:42), upon the ground with his head hanging down upon his breast even to his knees, so that that which came forth from the inmost depths of his nature returned again as it were in broken accents into his bosom.

Riehm’s rendering, “at their ungodliness and hostility my prayer for things not executed came back,” is contrary to the connection, and makes one look for אלי instead of אל־חיקי. Perret-Gentil correctly renders it, Je priai la tête penchée sur la poitrine . The Psalmist goes on to say in Psa 35:14, I went about as for a friend, for a brother to me, i. e. , as if the sufferer had been such to me.

With התחלּך, used of the solemn slowness of gait, which corresponds to the sacredness of pain, alternates שׁחח used of the being bowed down very low, in which the heavy weight of pain finds expression. כּאבל־אם, not: like the mourning (from אבל, like הבל from הבל) of a mother (Hitzig), but, since a personal אבל is more natural, and next to the mourning for an only child the loss of a mother (cf.

Gen 24:67) strikes the deepest wound: like one who mourns (אבל־, like לבן־, Gen 49:12, from אבל, construct state, like טמא) for a mother (the objective genitive, as in Gen 27:41; Deu 34:8; Amo 8:10; Jer 6:26). קדר signifies the colours, outward appearance, and attire of mourning: with dark clothes, with tearful unwashed face, and with neglected beard. But as for them - how do they act at the present time, when he finds himself in צלע (Psa 38:17; Job 18:12), a sideway direction, i.

e. , likely to fall (from צלע, Arab. ḍl‛ , to incline towards the side)? They rejoice and gather themselves together, and this assemblage of ungrateful friends rejoicing over another’s misfortune, is augmented by the lowest rabble that attach themselves to them. The verb נכה means to smite; Niph . נכּא, Job 30:6, to be driven forth with a whip, after which the lxx renders it μάστιγες, Symm.

πλῆκται, and the Targum conterentes me verbis suis ; cf. הכּה בּלשׂון, Jer 18:18. But נכים cannot by itself mean smiters with the tongue. The adjective נכה signifies elsewhere with רגלים, one who is smitten in the feet, i. e. , one who limps or halts, and with רוּח, but also without any addition, in Isa 16:7, one smitten in spirit, i. e. , one deeply troubled or sorrowful.

Thus, therefore, נכים from נכה, like גּאים from גּאה, may mean smitten, men, i. e. , men who are brought low or reduced (Hengstenberg). It might also, after the Arabic nawika , to be injured in mind, anwak , stupid, silly (from the same root נך, to prick, smite, wound, cf. ichtalla , to be pierced through = mad), be understood as those mentally deranged, enraged at nothing or without cause.

But the former definition of the notion of the word is favoured by the continuation of the idea of the verbal adjective נכים by ולא ידעתּי, persons of whom I have hitherto taken no notice because they were far removed from me, i. e. , men belonging to the dregs of the people (cf. Job 19:18; Job 30:1). The addition of ולא ידעתי certainly makes Olshausen’s conjecture that we should read נכרים somewhat natural; but the expression then becomes tautological, and there are other instances also in which psalm-poesy goes beyond the ordinary range of words, in order to find language to describe that which is loathsome, in the most glaring way.

פרע, to tear, rend in pieces, viz. , with abusive and slanderous words (like Arab. qr‛ II) also does not occur anywhere else. And what remarkable language we now meet with in Psa 35:16 ! מעוג does not mean scorn or buffoonery, as Böttcher and Hitzig imagine, but according to 1Ki 17:12, a cake of a round formation (like the Talmudic עגּה, a circle); לעג, jeering, jesting.

Therefore לעגי מעוג means: mockers for a cake, i. e. , those who for a delicate morsel, for the sake of dainty fare, make scornful jokes, viz. , about me, the persecuted one, vile parasites; German Tellerlecker, Bratenriecher , Greek κνισσοκόλακες, ψωμοκόλακες, Mediaeval Latin buccellarii . This לעגי מלוג, which even Rashi interprets in substantially the same manner, stands either in a logical co-ordinate relation (vid.

, on Isa 19:11) or in a logical as well as grammatical subordinate relation to its regens חנפי. In the former case, it would be equivalent to: the profane, viz. , the cake-jesters; in the latter, which is the more natural, and quite suitable: the profane (= the profanest, vid. , Psa 45:13; Isa 29:19; Eze 7:24) among cake-jesters. The בּ is not the Beth of companionship or fellowship, to express which עם or את (Hos 7:5) would have been used, but Beth essentiae or the Beth of characterisation: in the character of the most abject examples of this class of men do they gnash upon him with their teeth.

The gerund חרק (of the noise of the teeth being pressed together, like Arab. ḥrq , of the crackling of a fire and the grating of a file), which is used according to Ges. §131, 4, b , carries its subject in itself. They gnash upon him with their teeth after the manner of the profanest among those, by whom their neighbour’s honour is sold for a delicate morsel.

Psa 35:11-16 The second part begins with two strophes of sorrowful description of the wickedness of the enemy. The futures in Psa 35:11, Psa 35:12 describe that which at present takes place. עדי חמס are μάρτυρες ἄδικοι (lxx). They demand from him a confession of acts and things which lie entirely outside his consciousness and his way of acting (cf. Psa 69:5): they would gladly brand him as a perjurer, as an usurper, and as a plunderer.

What David complains of in Psa 35:12 , we hear Saul confess in 1Sa 24:18; the charge of ingratitude is therefore well-grounded. שׁכול לנפשׁי is not dependent on ישׁלּמוּני, in which case one would have looked for כּשׁול rather than שׁכול, but a substantival clause: “bereavement is to my soul,” its condition is that of being forsaken by all those who formerly showed me marks of affection; all these have, as it were, died off so far as I am concerned.

Not only had David been obliged to save his parents by causing them to flee to Moab, but Michal was also torn from him, Jonathan removed, and all those at the court of Saul, who had hitherto sought the favour and friendship of the highly-gifted and highly-honoured son-in-law of the king, were alienated from him. And how sincerely and sympathisingly had he reciprocated their leanings towards himself!

By ואני in Psa 35:13, he contrasts himself with the ungrateful and unfeeling ones. Instead of לבשׁתּי שׁק, the expression is לבוּשׁי שׁק; the tendency of poetry for the use of the substantival clause is closely allied to its fondness for well-conceived brevity and pictorial definition. He manifested towards them a love which knew no distinction between the ego and tu , which regarded their sorrow and their guilt as his own, and joined with them in their expiation for it; his head was lowered upon his breast, or he cowered, like Elijah (1Ki 18:42), upon the ground with his head hanging down upon his breast even to his knees, so that that which came forth from the inmost depths of his nature returned again as it were in broken accents into his bosom.

Riehm’s rendering, “at their ungodliness and hostility my prayer for things not executed came back,” is contrary to the connection, and makes one look for אלי instead of אל־חיקי. Perret-Gentil correctly renders it, Je priai la tête penchée sur la poitrine . The Psalmist goes on to say in Psa 35:14, I went about as for a friend, for a brother to me, i. e. , as if the sufferer had been such to me.

With התחלּך, used of the solemn slowness of gait, which corresponds to the sacredness of pain, alternates שׁחח used of the being bowed down very low, in which the heavy weight of pain finds expression. כּאבל־אם, not: like the mourning (from אבל, like הבל from הבל) of a mother (Hitzig), but, since a personal אבל is more natural, and next to the mourning for an only child the loss of a mother (cf.

Gen 24:67) strikes the deepest wound: like one who mourns (אבל־, like לבן־, Gen 49:12, from אבל, construct state, like טמא) for a mother (the objective genitive, as in Gen 27:41; Deu 34:8; Amo 8:10; Jer 6:26). קדר signifies the colours, outward appearance, and attire of mourning: with dark clothes, with tearful unwashed face, and with neglected beard. But as for them - how do they act at the present time, when he finds himself in צלע (Psa 38:17; Job 18:12), a sideway direction, i.

e. , likely to fall (from צלע, Arab. ḍl‛ , to incline towards the side)? They rejoice and gather themselves together, and this assemblage of ungrateful friends rejoicing over another’s misfortune, is augmented by the lowest rabble that attach themselves to them. The verb נכה means to smite; Niph . נכּא, Job 30:6, to be driven forth with a whip, after which the lxx renders it μάστιγες, Symm.

πλῆκται, and the Targum conterentes me verbis suis ; cf. הכּה בּלשׂון, Jer 18:18. But נכים cannot by itself mean smiters with the tongue. The adjective נכה signifies elsewhere with רגלים, one who is smitten in the feet, i. e. , one who limps or halts, and with רוּח, but also without any addition, in Isa 16:7, one smitten in spirit, i. e. , one deeply troubled or sorrowful.

Thus, therefore, נכים from נכה, like גּאים from גּאה, may mean smitten, men, i. e. , men who are brought low or reduced (Hengstenberg). It might also, after the Arabic nawika , to be injured in mind, anwak , stupid, silly (from the same root נך, to prick, smite, wound, cf. ichtalla , to be pierced through = mad), be understood as those mentally deranged, enraged at nothing or without cause.

But the former definition of the notion of the word is favoured by the continuation of the idea of the verbal adjective נכים by ולא ידעתּי, persons of whom I have hitherto taken no notice because they were far removed from me, i. e. , men belonging to the dregs of the people (cf. Job 19:18; Job 30:1). The addition of ולא ידעתי certainly makes Olshausen’s conjecture that we should read נכרים somewhat natural; but the expression then becomes tautological, and there are other instances also in which psalm-poesy goes beyond the ordinary range of words, in order to find language to describe that which is loathsome, in the most glaring way.

פרע, to tear, rend in pieces, viz. , with abusive and slanderous words (like Arab. qr‛ II) also does not occur anywhere else. And what remarkable language we now meet with in Psa 35:16 ! מעוג does not mean scorn or buffoonery, as Böttcher and Hitzig imagine, but according to 1Ki 17:12, a cake of a round formation (like the Talmudic עגּה, a circle); לעג, jeering, jesting.

Therefore לעגי מעוג means: mockers for a cake, i. e. , those who for a delicate morsel, for the sake of dainty fare, make scornful jokes, viz. , about me, the persecuted one, vile parasites; German Tellerlecker, Bratenriecher , Greek κνισσοκόλακες, ψωμοκόλακες, Mediaeval Latin buccellarii . This לעגי מלוג, which even Rashi interprets in substantially the same manner, stands either in a logical co-ordinate relation (vid.

, on Isa 19:11) or in a logical as well as grammatical subordinate relation to its regens חנפי. In the former case, it would be equivalent to: the profane, viz. , the cake-jesters; in the latter, which is the more natural, and quite suitable: the profane (= the profanest, vid. , Psa 45:13; Isa 29:19; Eze 7:24) among cake-jesters. The בּ is not the Beth of companionship or fellowship, to express which עם or את (Hos 7:5) would have been used, but Beth essentiae or the Beth of characterisation: in the character of the most abject examples of this class of men do they gnash upon him with their teeth.

The gerund חרק (of the noise of the teeth being pressed together, like Arab. ḥrq , of the crackling of a fire and the grating of a file), which is used according to Ges. §131, 4, b , carries its subject in itself. They gnash upon him with their teeth after the manner of the profanest among those, by whom their neighbour’s honour is sold for a delicate morsel.

Psa 35:11-16 The second part begins with two strophes of sorrowful description of the wickedness of the enemy. The futures in Psa 35:11, Psa 35:12 describe that which at present takes place. עדי חמס are μάρτυρες ἄδικοι (lxx). They demand from him a confession of acts and things which lie entirely outside his consciousness and his way of acting (cf. Psa 69:5): they would gladly brand him as a perjurer, as an usurper, and as a plunderer.

What David complains of in Psa 35:12 , we hear Saul confess in 1Sa 24:18; the charge of ingratitude is therefore well-grounded. שׁכול לנפשׁי is not dependent on ישׁלּמוּני, in which case one would have looked for כּשׁול rather than שׁכול, but a substantival clause: “bereavement is to my soul,” its condition is that of being forsaken by all those who formerly showed me marks of affection; all these have, as it were, died off so far as I am concerned.

Not only had David been obliged to save his parents by causing them to flee to Moab, but Michal was also torn from him, Jonathan removed, and all those at the court of Saul, who had hitherto sought the favour and friendship of the highly-gifted and highly-honoured son-in-law of the king, were alienated from him. And how sincerely and sympathisingly had he reciprocated their leanings towards himself!

By ואני in Psa 35:13, he contrasts himself with the ungrateful and unfeeling ones. Instead of לבשׁתּי שׁק, the expression is לבוּשׁי שׁק; the tendency of poetry for the use of the substantival clause is closely allied to its fondness for well-conceived brevity and pictorial definition. He manifested towards them a love which knew no distinction between the ego and tu , which regarded their sorrow and their guilt as his own, and joined with them in their expiation for it; his head was lowered upon his breast, or he cowered, like Elijah (1Ki 18:42), upon the ground with his head hanging down upon his breast even to his knees, so that that which came forth from the inmost depths of his nature returned again as it were in broken accents into his bosom.

Riehm’s rendering, “at their ungodliness and hostility my prayer for things not executed came back,” is contrary to the connection, and makes one look for אלי instead of אל־חיקי. Perret-Gentil correctly renders it, Je priai la tête penchée sur la poitrine . The Psalmist goes on to say in Psa 35:14, I went about as for a friend, for a brother to me, i. e. , as if the sufferer had been such to me.

With התחלּך, used of the solemn slowness of gait, which corresponds to the sacredness of pain, alternates שׁחח used of the being bowed down very low, in which the heavy weight of pain finds expression. כּאבל־אם, not: like the mourning (from אבל, like הבל from הבל) of a mother (Hitzig), but, since a personal אבל is more natural, and next to the mourning for an only child the loss of a mother (cf.

Gen 24:67) strikes the deepest wound: like one who mourns (אבל־, like לבן־, Gen 49:12, from אבל, construct state, like טמא) for a mother (the objective genitive, as in Gen 27:41; Deu 34:8; Amo 8:10; Jer 6:26). קדר signifies the colours, outward appearance, and attire of mourning: with dark clothes, with tearful unwashed face, and with neglected beard. But as for them - how do they act at the present time, when he finds himself in צלע (Psa 38:17; Job 18:12), a sideway direction, i.

e. , likely to fall (from צלע, Arab. ḍl‛ , to incline towards the side)? They rejoice and gather themselves together, and this assemblage of ungrateful friends rejoicing over another’s misfortune, is augmented by the lowest rabble that attach themselves to them. The verb נכה means to smite; Niph . נכּא, Job 30:6, to be driven forth with a whip, after which the lxx renders it μάστιγες, Symm.

πλῆκται, and the Targum conterentes me verbis suis ; cf. הכּה בּלשׂון, Jer 18:18. But נכים cannot by itself mean smiters with the tongue. The adjective נכה signifies elsewhere with רגלים, one who is smitten in the feet, i. e. , one who limps or halts, and with רוּח, but also without any addition, in Isa 16:7, one smitten in spirit, i. e. , one deeply troubled or sorrowful.

Thus, therefore, נכים from נכה, like גּאים from גּאה, may mean smitten, men, i. e. , men who are brought low or reduced (Hengstenberg). It might also, after the Arabic nawika , to be injured in mind, anwak , stupid, silly (from the same root נך, to prick, smite, wound, cf. ichtalla , to be pierced through = mad), be understood as those mentally deranged, enraged at nothing or without cause.

But the former definition of the notion of the word is favoured by the continuation of the idea of the verbal adjective נכים by ולא ידעתּי, persons of whom I have hitherto taken no notice because they were far removed from me, i. e. , men belonging to the dregs of the people (cf. Job 19:18; Job 30:1). The addition of ולא ידעתי certainly makes Olshausen’s conjecture that we should read נכרים somewhat natural; but the expression then becomes tautological, and there are other instances also in which psalm-poesy goes beyond the ordinary range of words, in order to find language to describe that which is loathsome, in the most glaring way.

פרע, to tear, rend in pieces, viz. , with abusive and slanderous words (like Arab. qr‛ II) also does not occur anywhere else. And what remarkable language we now meet with in Psa 35:16 ! מעוג does not mean scorn or buffoonery, as Böttcher and Hitzig imagine, but according to 1Ki 17:12, a cake of a round formation (like the Talmudic עגּה, a circle); לעג, jeering, jesting.

Therefore לעגי מעוג means: mockers for a cake, i. e. , those who for a delicate morsel, for the sake of dainty fare, make scornful jokes, viz. , about me, the persecuted one, vile parasites; German Tellerlecker, Bratenriecher , Greek κνισσοκόλακες, ψωμοκόλακες, Mediaeval Latin buccellarii . This לעגי מלוג, which even Rashi interprets in substantially the same manner, stands either in a logical co-ordinate relation (vid.

, on Isa 19:11) or in a logical as well as grammatical subordinate relation to its regens חנפי. In the former case, it would be equivalent to: the profane, viz. , the cake-jesters; in the latter, which is the more natural, and quite suitable: the profane (= the profanest, vid. , Psa 45:13; Isa 29:19; Eze 7:24) among cake-jesters. The בּ is not the Beth of companionship or fellowship, to express which עם or את (Hos 7:5) would have been used, but Beth essentiae or the Beth of characterisation: in the character of the most abject examples of this class of men do they gnash upon him with their teeth.

The gerund חרק (of the noise of the teeth being pressed together, like Arab. ḥrq , of the crackling of a fire and the grating of a file), which is used according to Ges. §131, 4, b , carries its subject in itself. They gnash upon him with their teeth after the manner of the profanest among those, by whom their neighbour’s honour is sold for a delicate morsel.

Psa 35:17-18 Just as the first part of the Psalm closed with wishes, and thanksgiving for their fulfilment, so the second part also closes with a prayer and thanksgiving. כּמּה (compounded of כּ, instar , and the interrogative מה which is drawn into the genitive by it; Aramaic כּמא, Arabic kam , Hebrew, like בּמּה, with Dag. forte conjunct . , properly: the total of what?)

, which elsewhere means quot , here has the signification of quousque , as in Job 7:19. משּׁאיהם from שׁאה, the plural of which may be both שׁאים and שׁאות (this latter, however, does not occur), like the plural of אימה, terror, אימים and אימות. The suffix, which refers to the enemies as the authors of the destructions (Pro 3:25), shows that it is not to be rendered “from their destroyers” (Hitzig).

If God continues thus to look on instead of acting, then the destructions, which are passing over David’s soul, will utterly destroy it. Hence the prayer: lead it back, bring that back, which is already well night borne away to destruction. On יהידה vid. , Psa 22:21. The כּפירים, which is intended literally in Psa 34:11, is here emblematical. אודך is the cohortative.

עצוּם as a parallel word to רב always refers, according to the context, to strength of numbers or to strength of power.

Psa 35:17-18 Just as the first part of the Psalm closed with wishes, and thanksgiving for their fulfilment, so the second part also closes with a prayer and thanksgiving. כּמּה (compounded of כּ, instar , and the interrogative מה which is drawn into the genitive by it; Aramaic כּמא, Arabic kam , Hebrew, like בּמּה, with Dag. forte conjunct . , properly: the total of what?)

, which elsewhere means quot , here has the signification of quousque , as in Job 7:19. משּׁאיהם from שׁאה, the plural of which may be both שׁאים and שׁאות (this latter, however, does not occur), like the plural of אימה, terror, אימים and אימות. The suffix, which refers to the enemies as the authors of the destructions (Pro 3:25), shows that it is not to be rendered “from their destroyers” (Hitzig).

If God continues thus to look on instead of acting, then the destructions, which are passing over David’s soul, will utterly destroy it. Hence the prayer: lead it back, bring that back, which is already well night borne away to destruction. On יהידה vid. , Psa 22:21. The כּפירים, which is intended literally in Psa 34:11, is here emblematical. אודך is the cohortative.

עצוּם as a parallel word to רב always refers, according to the context, to strength of numbers or to strength of power.

Psa 35:19-21 I the third part, Psa 35:19 the description of the godlessness of his enemies is renewed; but the soul of the praying psalmist has become more tranquil, and accordingly the language also is more clear and moves on with its accustomed calmness. שׁקר and חנּם are genitives, having an attributive sense (vid. , on 2Sa 22:23). The verb קרץ signifies both to pinch = nip, Job 33:6 (cf.

the Arabic karada , to cut off), and to pinch together, compress = to wink, generally used of the eyes, but also of the lips, Pro 16:30, and always as an insidiously malicious gesture. אל rules over both members of the verse as in Psa 75:6, and frequently. שׁלום in Psa 35:20 is the word for whatever proceeds from good intentions and aims at the promotion or restoration of a harmonious relationship.

רגעי־ארץ (from רגע, cf. ענוי־ארץ, Psa 76:10, Zep 2:3, צפוּניך, Psa 83:4) are those who quietly and unostentatiously walk in the ways of God. Against such they devise mischievous, lying slanders and accusations. And with wide-opened mouth, i. e. , haughty scorn, they cry, as they carouse in sight of the misfortune of those they have persecuted: now we have that which we have longed to see.

האח (composed of ההּ and אח) is a cry of joy, and more especially of malignant joy at another’s hurt (cf. Eze 25:3).

Psa 35:19-21 I the third part, Psa 35:19 the description of the godlessness of his enemies is renewed; but the soul of the praying psalmist has become more tranquil, and accordingly the language also is more clear and moves on with its accustomed calmness. שׁקר and חנּם are genitives, having an attributive sense (vid. , on 2Sa 22:23). The verb קרץ signifies both to pinch = nip, Job 33:6 (cf.

the Arabic karada , to cut off), and to pinch together, compress = to wink, generally used of the eyes, but also of the lips, Pro 16:30, and always as an insidiously malicious gesture. אל rules over both members of the verse as in Psa 75:6, and frequently. שׁלום in Psa 35:20 is the word for whatever proceeds from good intentions and aims at the promotion or restoration of a harmonious relationship.

רגעי־ארץ (from רגע, cf. ענוי־ארץ, Psa 76:10, Zep 2:3, צפוּניך, Psa 83:4) are those who quietly and unostentatiously walk in the ways of God. Against such they devise mischievous, lying slanders and accusations. And with wide-opened mouth, i. e. , haughty scorn, they cry, as they carouse in sight of the misfortune of those they have persecuted: now we have that which we have longed to see.

האח (composed of ההּ and אח) is a cry of joy, and more especially of malignant joy at another’s hurt (cf. Eze 25:3).

Psa 35:19-21 I the third part, Psa 35:19 the description of the godlessness of his enemies is renewed; but the soul of the praying psalmist has become more tranquil, and accordingly the language also is more clear and moves on with its accustomed calmness. שׁקר and חנּם are genitives, having an attributive sense (vid. , on 2Sa 22:23). The verb קרץ signifies both to pinch = nip, Job 33:6 (cf.

the Arabic karada , to cut off), and to pinch together, compress = to wink, generally used of the eyes, but also of the lips, Pro 16:30, and always as an insidiously malicious gesture. אל rules over both members of the verse as in Psa 75:6, and frequently. שׁלום in Psa 35:20 is the word for whatever proceeds from good intentions and aims at the promotion or restoration of a harmonious relationship.

רגעי־ארץ (from רגע, cf. ענוי־ארץ, Psa 76:10, Zep 2:3, צפוּניך, Psa 83:4) are those who quietly and unostentatiously walk in the ways of God. Against such they devise mischievous, lying slanders and accusations. And with wide-opened mouth, i. e. , haughty scorn, they cry, as they carouse in sight of the misfortune of those they have persecuted: now we have that which we have longed to see.

האח (composed of ההּ and אח) is a cry of joy, and more especially of malignant joy at another’s hurt (cf. Eze 25:3).

Psa 35:22-24 The poet takes up this malignant “now our eye sees it” and gives another turn to it. With יהוה, alternates in Psa 35:22, Psa 35:23, cf. Psa 35:17, אדני, the pronominal force of which is revived in the combination אלחי ואדני (vid., Psa 16:2). חעיר, carrying its object within itself, signifies to stir, rouse up, and הקיץ, to break off, tear one’s self away, gather one’s self up from, sleep. “To my right,” viz., to prove it by facts; “to my cause,” to carry it on in my defence.

Psa 35:22-24 The poet takes up this malignant “now our eye sees it” and gives another turn to it. With יהוה, alternates in Psa 35:22, Psa 35:23, cf. Psa 35:17, אדני, the pronominal force of which is revived in the combination אלחי ואדני (vid., Psa 16:2). חעיר, carrying its object within itself, signifies to stir, rouse up, and הקיץ, to break off, tear one’s self away, gather one’s self up from, sleep. “To my right,” viz., to prove it by facts; “to my cause,” to carry it on in my defence.

Psa 35:22-24 The poet takes up this malignant “now our eye sees it” and gives another turn to it. With יהוה, alternates in Psa 35:22, Psa 35:23, cf. Psa 35:17, אדני, the pronominal force of which is revived in the combination אלחי ואדני (vid., Psa 16:2). חעיר, carrying its object within itself, signifies to stir, rouse up, and הקיץ, to break off, tear one’s self away, gather one’s self up from, sleep. “To my right,” viz., to prove it by facts; “to my cause,” to carry it on in my defence.

Psa 35:25-26 On the metonymical use of נפשׁ, like τὸ ὀρεκτικόν for ὄρεξις, vid. , Psychol . S. 203 tr. p. 239. The climax of desire is to swallow David up, i. e. , to overpower him and clear him out of the way so that there is not a trace of him left. בּלּענוּהוּ with ע before נ, as in Psa 132:6, and frequently; on the law of the vowels which applies to this, vid.

, Ewald, §60, a . שׂמחי רעתי is a short form of expression for רעתי שׂמחים (בּ) על. To put on shame and dishonour (Psa 109:29, cf. Ps 18), so that these entirely cover them, and their public external appearance corresponds with their innermost nature.

Psa 35:25-26 On the metonymical use of נפשׁ, like τὸ ὀρεκτικόν for ὄρεξις, vid. , Psychol . S. 203 tr. p. 239. The climax of desire is to swallow David up, i. e. , to overpower him and clear him out of the way so that there is not a trace of him left. בּלּענוּהוּ with ע before נ, as in Psa 132:6, and frequently; on the law of the vowels which applies to this, vid.

, Ewald, §60, a . שׂמחי רעתי is a short form of expression for רעתי שׂמחים (בּ) על. To put on shame and dishonour (Psa 109:29, cf. Ps 18), so that these entirely cover them, and their public external appearance corresponds with their innermost nature.

Psa 35:27-28 Those who wish that David’s righteousness may be made manifest and be avenged are said to take delight in it. When this takes place, Jahve’s righteousness is proved. יגדּל, let Him be acknowledged and praised as great, i.e., let Him be magnified! David desires that all who remain true to him may thus speak; and he, on his part, is determined to stir up the revelation of God’s righteousness in his heart, and to speak of that of which his heart is full (Psa 71:24).

Psa 35:27-28 Those who wish that David’s righteousness may be made manifest and be avenged are said to take delight in it. When this takes place, Jahve’s righteousness is proved. יגדּל, let Him be acknowledged and praised as great, i.e., let Him be magnified! David desires that all who remain true to him may thus speak; and he, on his part, is determined to stir up the revelation of God’s righteousness in his heart, and to speak of that of which his heart is full (Psa 71:24).

The preceding Psalm, in the hope of speedy deliverance, put into the lips of the friends of the new kingship, who were now compelled to keep in the background, the words: “Jahve, be magnified, who hath pleasure in the well-being of His servant . ” David there calls himself the servant of Jahve, and in the inscription to Psa 36:1-12 he bears the very same name: To the Precentor, by the servant of Jahve, by David .

The textus receptus accents למנצח with a conjunctive Illuj ; Ben-Naphtali accents it less ambiguously with a disjunctive Legarme (vid. , Psalter , ii. 462), since David is not himself the מנצח. Psa 12:1-8; Psa 14:1-7 (Psa 53:1-6), Psa 36:1-12, Ps 37, form a group. In These Psalms David complains of the moral corruption of his generation. They are all merely reflections of the character of the time, not of particular occurrences.

In common with Psa 12:1-8, the Psalm before us has a prophetic colouring; and, in common with Ps 37, allusions to the primeval history of the Book of Genesis. The strophe schema is 4. 5. 5. 6. 6.

Psa 36:1-4 (Hebrew_Bible_36:1-4) At the outset the poet discovers to us the wickedness of the children of the world, which has its roots in alienation from God. Supposing it were admissible to render Psa 36:2 : “A divine word concerning the evil-doing of the ungodly is in the inward parts of my heart” (נאם with a genitive of the object, like משּׂא, which is compared by Hofmann), then the difficulty of this word, so much complained of, might find the desired relief in some much more easy way than by means of the conjecture proposed by Diestel, נעם (נעם), “Pleasant is transgression to the evil-doer,” etc.

But the genitive after נאם (which in Psa 110:1; Num 24:3. , 15f. , 2Sa 23:1; Pro 30:1, just as here, stands at the head of the clause) always denotes the speaker, not the thing spoken. Even in Isa 5:1 שׁירת דודי לכרמו is not a song concerning my beloved in relation to His vineyard, but a song of my beloved (such a song as my beloved has to sing) touching His vineyard.

Thus, therefore, פּשׁע must denote the speaker, and לרשׁע, as in Psa 110:1 לאדני, the person or thing addressed; transgression is personified, and an oracular utterance is attributed to it. But the predicate בּקרב לבּי, which is intelligible enough in connection with the first rendering of פשׁע as genit. obj. , is difficulty and harsh with the latter rendering of פשׁע as gen.

subj. , whatever way it may be understood: whether, that it is intended to say that the utterance of transgression to the evil-doer is inwardly known to him (the poet), or it occupies and affects him in his inmost parts. It is very natural to read לבּו, as the lxx, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and Jerome do. In accordance therewith, while with Von Lengerke he takes נאם as part of the inscription, Thenius renders it: “Sin is to the ungodly in the midst of his heart,” i.

e. , it is the inmost motive or impulse of all that he thinks and does. But this isolation of נאם is altogether at variance with the usage of the language and custom. The rendering given by Hupfeld, Hitzig, and at last also by Böttcher, is better: “The suggestion of sin dwells in the ungodly in the inward part of his heart;” or rather, since the idea of בקרב is not central, but circumferential, in the realm of (within) his heart, altogether filling up and absorbing it.

And in connection with this explanation, it must be observed that this combination בקרב לבו (instead of בקרבו, or בלבו, בלבבו) occurs only here, where, together with a personification of sin, an incident belonging to the province of the soul’s life, which is the outgrowth of sin, is intended to be described. It is true this application of נאם does not admit of being further substantiated; but נאם (cognate נהם, המה), as an onomatopoetic designation of a dull, hollow sound, is a suitable word for secret communication (cf.

Arabic nemmâm , a tale-bearer), or even - since the genius of the language does not combine with it the idea of that which is significantly secretly, and solemnly silently communicated, but spoken out - a suitable word for that which transgression says to the ungodly with all the solemn mien of the prophet or the philosopher, inasmuch as it has set itself within his heart in the place of God and of the voice of his conscience. לרשׁע does not, however, denote the person addressed, but, as in Psa 32:10, the possessor.

He possesses this inspiration of iniquity as the contents of his heart, so that the fear of God has no place therein, and to him God has no existence (objectivity), that He should command his adoration. Since after this נאם פּשׁע we expect to hear further what and how transgression speaks to him, so before all else the most probable thing is, that transgression is the subject to החליק.

We do not interpret: He flatters God in His eyes (with eye-service), for this rendering is contrary both to what precedes and to what follows; nor with Hupfeld (who follows Hofmann): “God deals smoothly (gently) with him according to his delusions,” for the assumption that החליק must, on account of בּעיניו, have some other subject that the evil-doer himself, is indeed correct. It does not, however, necessarily point to God as the subject, but, after the solemn opening of Psa 36:2 , to transgression, which is personified.

This addresses flattering words to him (אל like על in Pro 29:5) in his eyes, i. e. , such as are pleasing to him; and to what end? For the finding out, i. e. , establishing (מצא עון, as in Gen 44:16; Hos 12:9), or, - since this is not exactly suited to פשׁע as the subject, and where it is a purpose that is spoken of, the meaning assequi , originally proper to the verb מצא, is still more natural - to the attainment of his culpability , i.

e. , in order that he may inculpate himself, to hating , i. e. , that he may hate God and man instead of loving them. לשׂנא is designedly used without an object just as in Ecc 3:8, in order to imply that the flattering words of פשׁע incite him to turn into an object of hatred everything that he ought to love, and to live and move in hatred as in his own proper element.

Thenius endeavours to get rid of the harshness of the expression by the following easy alteration of the text: למצא עון ולשׂנא; and interprets it: Yea, it flatters him in his own eyes (it tickles his pride) to discover faults in others and to make them suffer for them. But there is no support in the general usage of the language for the impersonal rendering of the החליק; and the בּעיניו, which in this case is not only pleonastic, but out of place, demands a distinction between the flatterer and the person who feels himself flattered.

The expression in Psa 36:3 , in whatever way it may be explained, is harsh; but David’s language, whenever he describes the corruption of sin with deep-seated indignation, is wont to envelope itself in such clouds, which, to our difficult comprehension, look like corruptions of the text. In the second strophe the whole language is more easy. להשׂכּיל להיטיב is just such another asyndeton as למצא עונו לשׂנא.

A man who has thus fallen a prey to the dominion of sin, and is alienated from God, has ceased (חדל ל, as in 1Sa 23:13) to act wisely and well (things which essentially accompany one another). His words when awake, and even his thoughts in the night-time, run upon און (Isa 59:7), evil, wickedness, the absolute opposite of that which alone is truly good. Most diligently does he take up his position in the way which leads in the opposite direction to that which is good (Pro 16:29; Isa 65:2); and his conscience is deadened against evil: there is not a trace of aversion to it to be found in him, he loves it with all his soul.

Psa 36:1-4 (Hebrew_Bible_36:1-4) At the outset the poet discovers to us the wickedness of the children of the world, which has its roots in alienation from God. Supposing it were admissible to render Psa 36:2 : “A divine word concerning the evil-doing of the ungodly is in the inward parts of my heart” (נאם with a genitive of the object, like משּׂא, which is compared by Hofmann), then the difficulty of this word, so much complained of, might find the desired relief in some much more easy way than by means of the conjecture proposed by Diestel, נעם (נעם), “Pleasant is transgression to the evil-doer,” etc.

But the genitive after נאם (which in Psa 110:1; Num 24:3. , 15f. , 2Sa 23:1; Pro 30:1, just as here, stands at the head of the clause) always denotes the speaker, not the thing spoken. Even in Isa 5:1 שׁירת דודי לכרמו is not a song concerning my beloved in relation to His vineyard, but a song of my beloved (such a song as my beloved has to sing) touching His vineyard.

Thus, therefore, פּשׁע must denote the speaker, and לרשׁע, as in Psa 110:1 לאדני, the person or thing addressed; transgression is personified, and an oracular utterance is attributed to it. But the predicate בּקרב לבּי, which is intelligible enough in connection with the first rendering of פשׁע as genit. obj. , is difficulty and harsh with the latter rendering of פשׁע as gen.

subj. , whatever way it may be understood: whether, that it is intended to say that the utterance of transgression to the evil-doer is inwardly known to him (the poet), or it occupies and affects him in his inmost parts. It is very natural to read לבּו, as the lxx, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and Jerome do. In accordance therewith, while with Von Lengerke he takes נאם as part of the inscription, Thenius renders it: “Sin is to the ungodly in the midst of his heart,” i.

e. , it is the inmost motive or impulse of all that he thinks and does. But this isolation of נאם is altogether at variance with the usage of the language and custom. The rendering given by Hupfeld, Hitzig, and at last also by Böttcher, is better: “The suggestion of sin dwells in the ungodly in the inward part of his heart;” or rather, since the idea of בקרב is not central, but circumferential, in the realm of (within) his heart, altogether filling up and absorbing it.

And in connection with this explanation, it must be observed that this combination בקרב לבו (instead of בקרבו, or בלבו, בלבבו) occurs only here, where, together with a personification of sin, an incident belonging to the province of the soul’s life, which is the outgrowth of sin, is intended to be described. It is true this application of נאם does not admit of being further substantiated; but נאם (cognate נהם, המה), as an onomatopoetic designation of a dull, hollow sound, is a suitable word for secret communication (cf.

Arabic nemmâm , a tale-bearer), or even - since the genius of the language does not combine with it the idea of that which is significantly secretly, and solemnly silently communicated, but spoken out - a suitable word for that which transgression says to the ungodly with all the solemn mien of the prophet or the philosopher, inasmuch as it has set itself within his heart in the place of God and of the voice of his conscience. לרשׁע does not, however, denote the person addressed, but, as in Psa 32:10, the possessor.

He possesses this inspiration of iniquity as the contents of his heart, so that the fear of God has no place therein, and to him God has no existence (objectivity), that He should command his adoration. Since after this נאם פּשׁע we expect to hear further what and how transgression speaks to him, so before all else the most probable thing is, that transgression is the subject to החליק.

We do not interpret: He flatters God in His eyes (with eye-service), for this rendering is contrary both to what precedes and to what follows; nor with Hupfeld (who follows Hofmann): “God deals smoothly (gently) with him according to his delusions,” for the assumption that החליק must, on account of בּעיניו, have some other subject that the evil-doer himself, is indeed correct. It does not, however, necessarily point to God as the subject, but, after the solemn opening of Psa 36:2 , to transgression, which is personified.

This addresses flattering words to him (אל like על in Pro 29:5) in his eyes, i. e. , such as are pleasing to him; and to what end? For the finding out, i. e. , establishing (מצא עון, as in Gen 44:16; Hos 12:9), or, - since this is not exactly suited to פשׁע as the subject, and where it is a purpose that is spoken of, the meaning assequi , originally proper to the verb מצא, is still more natural - to the attainment of his culpability , i.

e. , in order that he may inculpate himself, to hating , i. e. , that he may hate God and man instead of loving them. לשׂנא is designedly used without an object just as in Ecc 3:8, in order to imply that the flattering words of פשׁע incite him to turn into an object of hatred everything that he ought to love, and to live and move in hatred as in his own proper element.

Thenius endeavours to get rid of the harshness of the expression by the following easy alteration of the text: למצא עון ולשׂנא; and interprets it: Yea, it flatters him in his own eyes (it tickles his pride) to discover faults in others and to make them suffer for them. But there is no support in the general usage of the language for the impersonal rendering of the החליק; and the בּעיניו, which in this case is not only pleonastic, but out of place, demands a distinction between the flatterer and the person who feels himself flattered.

The expression in Psa 36:3 , in whatever way it may be explained, is harsh; but David’s language, whenever he describes the corruption of sin with deep-seated indignation, is wont to envelope itself in such clouds, which, to our difficult comprehension, look like corruptions of the text. In the second strophe the whole language is more easy. להשׂכּיל להיטיב is just such another asyndeton as למצא עונו לשׂנא.

A man who has thus fallen a prey to the dominion of sin, and is alienated from God, has ceased (חדל ל, as in 1Sa 23:13) to act wisely and well (things which essentially accompany one another). His words when awake, and even his thoughts in the night-time, run upon און (Isa 59:7), evil, wickedness, the absolute opposite of that which alone is truly good. Most diligently does he take up his position in the way which leads in the opposite direction to that which is good (Pro 16:29; Isa 65:2); and his conscience is deadened against evil: there is not a trace of aversion to it to be found in him, he loves it with all his soul.

Psa 36:1-4 (Hebrew_Bible_36:1-4) At the outset the poet discovers to us the wickedness of the children of the world, which has its roots in alienation from God. Supposing it were admissible to render Psa 36:2 : “A divine word concerning the evil-doing of the ungodly is in the inward parts of my heart” (נאם with a genitive of the object, like משּׂא, which is compared by Hofmann), then the difficulty of this word, so much complained of, might find the desired relief in some much more easy way than by means of the conjecture proposed by Diestel, נעם (נעם), “Pleasant is transgression to the evil-doer,” etc.

But the genitive after נאם (which in Psa 110:1; Num 24:3. , 15f. , 2Sa 23:1; Pro 30:1, just as here, stands at the head of the clause) always denotes the speaker, not the thing spoken. Even in Isa 5:1 שׁירת דודי לכרמו is not a song concerning my beloved in relation to His vineyard, but a song of my beloved (such a song as my beloved has to sing) touching His vineyard.

Thus, therefore, פּשׁע must denote the speaker, and לרשׁע, as in Psa 110:1 לאדני, the person or thing addressed; transgression is personified, and an oracular utterance is attributed to it. But the predicate בּקרב לבּי, which is intelligible enough in connection with the first rendering of פשׁע as genit. obj. , is difficulty and harsh with the latter rendering of פשׁע as gen.

subj. , whatever way it may be understood: whether, that it is intended to say that the utterance of transgression to the evil-doer is inwardly known to him (the poet), or it occupies and affects him in his inmost parts. It is very natural to read לבּו, as the lxx, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and Jerome do. In accordance therewith, while with Von Lengerke he takes נאם as part of the inscription, Thenius renders it: “Sin is to the ungodly in the midst of his heart,” i.

e. , it is the inmost motive or impulse of all that he thinks and does. But this isolation of נאם is altogether at variance with the usage of the language and custom. The rendering given by Hupfeld, Hitzig, and at last also by Böttcher, is better: “The suggestion of sin dwells in the ungodly in the inward part of his heart;” or rather, since the idea of בקרב is not central, but circumferential, in the realm of (within) his heart, altogether filling up and absorbing it.

And in connection with this explanation, it must be observed that this combination בקרב לבו (instead of בקרבו, or בלבו, בלבבו) occurs only here, where, together with a personification of sin, an incident belonging to the province of the soul’s life, which is the outgrowth of sin, is intended to be described. It is true this application of נאם does not admit of being further substantiated; but נאם (cognate נהם, המה), as an onomatopoetic designation of a dull, hollow sound, is a suitable word for secret communication (cf.

Arabic nemmâm , a tale-bearer), or even - since the genius of the language does not combine with it the idea of that which is significantly secretly, and solemnly silently communicated, but spoken out - a suitable word for that which transgression says to the ungodly with all the solemn mien of the prophet or the philosopher, inasmuch as it has set itself within his heart in the place of God and of the voice of his conscience. לרשׁע does not, however, denote the person addressed, but, as in Psa 32:10, the possessor.

He possesses this inspiration of iniquity as the contents of his heart, so that the fear of God has no place therein, and to him God has no existence (objectivity), that He should command his adoration. Since after this נאם פּשׁע we expect to hear further what and how transgression speaks to him, so before all else the most probable thing is, that transgression is the subject to החליק.

We do not interpret: He flatters God in His eyes (with eye-service), for this rendering is contrary both to what precedes and to what follows; nor with Hupfeld (who follows Hofmann): “God deals smoothly (gently) with him according to his delusions,” for the assumption that החליק must, on account of בּעיניו, have some other subject that the evil-doer himself, is indeed correct. It does not, however, necessarily point to God as the subject, but, after the solemn opening of Psa 36:2 , to transgression, which is personified.

This addresses flattering words to him (אל like על in Pro 29:5) in his eyes, i. e. , such as are pleasing to him; and to what end? For the finding out, i. e. , establishing (מצא עון, as in Gen 44:16; Hos 12:9), or, - since this is not exactly suited to פשׁע as the subject, and where it is a purpose that is spoken of, the meaning assequi , originally proper to the verb מצא, is still more natural - to the attainment of his culpability , i.

e. , in order that he may inculpate himself, to hating , i. e. , that he may hate God and man instead of loving them. לשׂנא is designedly used without an object just as in Ecc 3:8, in order to imply that the flattering words of פשׁע incite him to turn into an object of hatred everything that he ought to love, and to live and move in hatred as in his own proper element.

Thenius endeavours to get rid of the harshness of the expression by the following easy alteration of the text: למצא עון ולשׂנא; and interprets it: Yea, it flatters him in his own eyes (it tickles his pride) to discover faults in others and to make them suffer for them. But there is no support in the general usage of the language for the impersonal rendering of the החליק; and the בּעיניו, which in this case is not only pleonastic, but out of place, demands a distinction between the flatterer and the person who feels himself flattered.

The expression in Psa 36:3 , in whatever way it may be explained, is harsh; but David’s language, whenever he describes the corruption of sin with deep-seated indignation, is wont to envelope itself in such clouds, which, to our difficult comprehension, look like corruptions of the text. In the second strophe the whole language is more easy. להשׂכּיל להיטיב is just such another asyndeton as למצא עונו לשׂנא.

A man who has thus fallen a prey to the dominion of sin, and is alienated from God, has ceased (חדל ל, as in 1Sa 23:13) to act wisely and well (things which essentially accompany one another). His words when awake, and even his thoughts in the night-time, run upon און (Isa 59:7), evil, wickedness, the absolute opposite of that which alone is truly good. Most diligently does he take up his position in the way which leads in the opposite direction to that which is good (Pro 16:29; Isa 65:2); and his conscience is deadened against evil: there is not a trace of aversion to it to be found in him, he loves it with all his soul.