Srom t^e Eifirarg of (profefiBor HJ^iffiatn J^^^^J? (Bteen QSequeaf^eb fig ^im to f 3e £i6rarg of (pxxncdon C^eofo^icaf ^etntnarj £S 1430 NOTES, CHIEFLY CHITICAL AND PHILOLOGICAL, APR 29 195^3 HEBEEW PSALMS, y WILLIAM ROSCOE BURGESS, M.A., TICAIt OF HOU-OWKI.L. VOL. I. W I L L I A :M S AS D N O K a A T E , 14, HENRIETTA STllEET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. 1879. B. WESTERMANN & CO. 838 Broadway, New hrk, WARUixexoN : PBUNTED BY GEORGE POWLSON, ADYEETISER OFFICIE, M\T!KET GATE. P K E F A E. This Work, in its original conception, was in- tended as a Supplement to tlie many and valuuble Commentaries that have appeared of late years. "With this end in view I had put together the re- sults of many years' patient study of the harder places of the Hebrew Psalms. 1 had, therefore, seldom reproduced the fruits of other men's labours. Availing myself of them, — I think to the fullest extent, — and gratefully acknowledging my indebtedness to them, — it was my main object to advance this special study by some further steps : — to bestow my attention exclusively upon those difficulties which others had failed either to see or to surmount. Upon consideration, and upon advice of IV. friends, I have to some extent departed from that former plan. A mere collection of original treatises upon the more difficult places would have had a desultory and incomplete appearance, and would have been really insufficient for the purposes of the general student. What is now offered is, for those purposes, complete in itself, in so far as any such work can he regarded as complete. That is to say, I have now annotated every passage that seems to require annotation. That my notes might not be unnecessarily numerous or unnecessarily long, I have nowhere tried to save the reader the trouble of thinking for himself, or of consulting the Grammar and Lexicon for himself. By the thoughtful student some of the results of my labours will, I trust, be found interesting and valuable. I cannot announce them all with equal confidence. Some of the most important, however, are attested by demonstration as conclusive as, in such matter. V. is possible. Such, for example, is the proposed emendation of Ps. xl. 7, But my labours have not been confined to glaring difficulties. There are difficulties that do not glare. And in no human production can we find so many unintelligible things that are not recognised as unintelligible, as in the well- conned and well-thumbed Psalter. Reverence, love, and familiarity, accumulating through many ages, have combined to hide the blemishes of text and versions, or to transform them into beauties. Even competent scholars seem here often unconscious of difficulties and absurdities which they would instantly detect, and submit to critical inquiry, if found in the text or trans- lation of a Greek or Roman author. The detection and elucidation of such latent errors, or occasions of error, have occupied a large share of my attention, and tend often to restore that continuity of thought which we VI. seldom find, and seldom seek, in a Hebrew Psalm. Some fmidaraental principles, of great importance in the study of the Hebrew Scriptures generally, and upon which 1 have based the explanation of many difficulties in the Psalms, are stated at considerable length in my Prolegomena. The plan of my work lays me under few obligations to mention by name either former or contemporary Commentators on the Psalms ; since I have taken up the task for the most part where they have left off. It would, however, seem ungracious, on the part of an English writer, not to mention with gratitude and admiration the noble work of Dean Perowne. In so retired a corner of the great field of literature, such work as this of mine, however arduous and however successful, can expect little recognition and no reward. But without any misgivings do I appeal to VII. the generous judgment of my fellow- students. If they shall judge me to have failed, they will consider that it is only where the greatest scholars have failed before me, since I have addressed myself mainly to those points wherein they have been least successful. If in respect of any of these I shall be found more successful, the labour of many years will not be altogether fruitless. Hollonell, August 6th, 1878. PROLEGOMENA. § 1. Since it is not m J purpose to reproduce, except in so far as it shall be found necessary, that which others have elaborated in connection with the Hebrew Psalter, I must warn the reader not to expect here that which he may easily find else- where. In these introductory remarks many points of interest and importance are left untouched, as, for example, the authorship, the arrangement, the rhythmical system, and the liturgical use, of the Psalms. If any of these points had been inade- quately treated by others, it would have devolved upon me, according to my purpose, to endeavour to supply the deficiency. But this is not the case. All these, and many other, matters bearing upon the Hebrew Psalms, have been carefully and successfully investigated. I have therefore left them alone. There is, however, one part of this subject. and that, perliaps, the most important part of all, which has hitherto been overlooked or but care- lessly considered. I mean the special relationship in which the Psalm-writers stood towards God. It is easy to see tbat even the best of our com- mentators and annotators hold very vague and loose opinions upon this fundamental matter. ft is this, therefore, that I feel it necessary to dwell upon more especially and expressly, in these Prolegomena. The importance of the investiga- tion can hardly be over-estima ed. For the Hebrew Psalmists represent a more perfect intercourse with Deity than has been even imagined by any others. The question occurs at the outset, — Upon whal grounds wai tins inter- course conducted^ or supposed to he conducted P § 2. To suppose that the Hebrew Psalms express the aspirations of untutored and unfet- tered souls towards an indefinite God will be delusive on the one hand ; as, on the other, will be the assumption of Christian principles in these pre-Christian compositions. The truth of the matter is not a very simple one. It is to be gathered both from the historical records of the Jewisli people and from their liturgi- cal(more especially their ^acn^icia/) observances. A. knowledge of these observances is essential, both as bearing upon the general question of relationship towards God, and as throwing direct light upon innumerable passages in the Psalms. With these, therefore, especially with the piacular sacrifices of the Israelites, I shall begin ; passing on from the Levitical directions concern- ing them to the occasions and circumstances of their institution. To these points I must invite the reader's very close and careful attention, with which I shall be able to present him with a distinct view of the somewhat complex rela- tions in which the Psalm-writers stood towards Him whose varied relationship to them is their constant theme. § 3. The Levitical directions concerning Levuicaidirec- ° tions concern- the occasions on which sin-offerings were to be gacrmces?'^'^'*' brought are found in the following places : Exod. xxix. 10 — 14, 36 -, Lev. xvi. ; Numb, xxviii. 1 5 ; xxix. 33. These are directions for stated and solemn occasions of sin-offerings. M lie special occasions are menliuned in Lev. iv.; V. I — 13 j xii, 6—8; xv. 15, 30 j Numb. vi. 9 —11,16. The occasions (always special) of the tres- pass-offering are mentioned in Lev. v. 14 — 19 ; vi. 1—6; xiv. 12 ; xix. 20, 21 ; Numb. vi. 12. An important example of the application of the law of the trespass- offering is to be found in Ezra X. 19. Now if we confine our attention to the abov<;- mentioued passages, supposing that we have in them a complete and systematic enunciation of the law of each kind of sacrifice, we shall find it ex- tremely difiicult, if not impossible, to arrive at a satisfactory definition of either. I cannot, how- ever, suppose that we have in these passages all the information with regard to the import of the sacrifices that was possessed by Moses and the Jewish people generally. Tliey appear to me to be supplementary details of a general law or prin- ciple, well known to them, but nowhere expressly stated in the Levitical records which we possess. Indeed it is not impossible that most, if not all, of the special directions above referred to were given pro re natd^ allhongh they are set down as if they were laws prescribed from the beginning to meet the cases to which they refer. We may observe the same thinjrin some of the mora? statutes of the laWjWherecombinations of circumstances are men- tioned such as could hardly by any possibility have been legislated for before their occurrence. And yet these divine decisions on particular cases are set down as laws prescribed to meet such contin- gencies. Now one thing is quite evident in these pas- sages relating to the sin-oflfering and the trespass- offering, viz., that they assume a knowledge of the principle on which the distinction between the two was originally founded. While, therefore, it is im- possible, as I believe, to ascertain the principle of distinction from these particular cases, yet if we can discover the principle independently of these passages, the cases which they contain will be lound to fall easily and naturally into their proper classes. The occasions on which the sin-offering and trespass -offering, respectively, were commanded, are given us in Smith's Diclionary of the Bible, in a table which we ^hall find useful, although 6 in one or two particulars, as we shall presently see, the arrangement is not perfectly accurate. It is as follows : — " The sin-offerings. " (A) Regular. " (1) For the whole people^ at the new moon, passover, pentecost, feast of trumpets, and feast of tabernacles (Numb, xxviii. 15; xxix. 38) ] besides the solemn offering of the two goats on the great day of atonement (Lev. xvi.). " (2) For the Priests and Leviles at their consecration (Exod. xxix. 10 — 14, 36); besides the yearly sin-offering (a bullock) for the high priest on the great day of atonement (Lev. xvi,). " (B) Special. " (1) For any sin of * ignorance^ against the commandment of the Lord, on the part of priest, people, ruler, or private man (Lev. iv.). " (2) For refusal to hear witness under adjuration (Lev. v. 1.). " (3) For ceremonial defilement not wil- fully contracted (Lev. v. 2, 3), under which may be classed the offerings at the purification of women (xii. 6 — 8), at the cleansing of leprosy (xiv. 19, 31), or the uncleanness of men or womeu (xv. 15, 30,) on the defilement of a Nazarite (Numb. vi. 6 — 11), or the expiration of his vow (16). " (4) For the breach of a rank oath, the keeping of which would involve sin (Lev. v. 4). " The trespass-offerings, on the other hand, were always special, as — "(1) For sacrilege 'in ignorance, with compensation for the harm done, and the gift of a fifth part of the value besides to the priest (Lev. V. 15, 16). " (2) For ignorant transgression against some definite prohibition of the law (Lev. v. 17—19). ** (3) For fraud, suppression of the truth, or perjury against man, with compensation, and with the addition of a fifth part of the value of the property in question to the person wronged (vi. 1—6). "(4) For rape of a betrothed slave (Lev. xix. 20, 21). ** (5) At the purification of the leper (Lev. xiv. 12), and the polluted Nazarite (Numb, vi. 12), offered with the sin-ofi'ering." 8 Attempts that have bren made to (k'fiiie the diftereiice be- tween the two sacrifices. '^ 4. With tills table before us, we can glance briefly at some of the attempts that have been made to define the difference between the two sacrifices. Let me first remark that a difficulty has been felt with regard to Lev. v. 1 — 13, which in this table is rightly included in the law of the siu-offering, since the law of the trespass- offering does not begin until verse 14, where it is introduced with a fresh formula of divine au- thorization. The difficulty arises from verses 5 and 6, which stand thus in our English version : " And it shall be, when he shall be guilty (nwi^^ "^3) in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned (stsn niL^sO in that thing. And he shall bring his trespass-offering (errs) unto the Lord for his sin (inst^n) which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid from the goats, for a sin-offering (nsi:)n); and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin." This passage seems to sink all difference betAveen the sin-offering and the trespass-offer- ing, calling the same sacrifice first by one name and then by another, and designating the offence first as a trespass and then as a sin. 9 The explanation is this : — At the end of the law of the sin-offering, and before the state- ment of the law of the trespass-offering, a few cases are mentioned which come raainlj within the sphere of sin, but have also some slight tinge of trespass. Accordingly, in addi- tion to the sin-offering, a modified form of tres- pass-offering is commanded. The modifica- tion consists (a) in allowing a Jemale victim : — the victim of the proper trespass-offering being in all cases a ratn : — the lamb mentioned in Lev. xiv. 12, and Numb. vi. J 2, being in both cases a male ; — (b) in allowing the substitution of inferior animals, as pigeons, for the proper vic- tim ; — such allowance being made in the sin- offering, in case of poverty, but never in the proper trespass-offering. Another point of difficulty, and one which I shall not attempt to explain in this section, is found in Lev. V. 17, as compared with iv. 2. " This rule for the trespass-offering," says Kurtz, '* is almost exactly the same as that for the sin-offering, with the single exception that in the one we find rT'sbi, * and Icnorveth noty — in the other mstt?^ ' in ignorance » )> 10 Well may he add, that commentators for the most part have here come to their wits' end. Of the whole question Kurtz says :♦ " There is scarcely a single question connected with the whole range of Biblical theology, on which there has been so much pure conjecture, and about the settlement of which theological science was so late in arriving at a correct con- clusion, although the foundations for it evidently existed in the Biblical text, and were not very difficult to find." I shall examine Kurtz's " correct conclu- sion " presently. He goes on to say ; — " Most of the opinions expressed need no refutation. For example, that of Clericus (on Lev. V. 16), who maintains that the difiierence is in the words only, and not in the thing itself; or that of Carpzov, who contents himself with saying, ' Omne istud differ entice genus ex sa- pienlissimo legislatoris arhitrio pendere ;' or that of Saubert (De Sazrif. vel.J, who under- stands by DKTW an intentional and malicious sin, and by nstan an unconscious one ; or that * Kurtz, Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament, § 93. 11 of Micliaelis, who refers the former to sins of omissiou, the latter to sins of commission, in which he is just as arbitrary as Grotius, who does the very opposite. We may put Aben Ezra in the same class, when he refers the sin- offering to sins in which ignorance of the law could be pleaded, and the trespass-offering to those in which the law was forgotten ; and Abrabanel also, wilh other Rabbins, who main- tain that trespass-offerings were presented when the transgression was doubtful, and sin-offerings when this was not the case, Pliilo's opinion is quite as wide of the mark, viz,, that the tres- pass-offering was intended for cases in which the sinner was impelled by his own conscience to accuse himself of the sin. The same opinion, essentially at least, has been advocated by Jo- sephus, and among modern theologians by Ve- nema, Reland, and others, and last of all by Winer, who maintains fii., 432), ' that whoever brought a trespass-offering was convicted by Ids own conscience ; but he who brought a sin-offer- ing was convicted of a definite, but yet uncon- scious sin.' Bahr (ii,, 412) is also of opinion that this view comes the nearest to the truth, though he admits that it by no means removes 12 all the difficulties, and that he does not see how they are to be removed. Gesenins says that nothing more can be determined than that the sin-offerings were presented in gravinrihiis max- ime deliclis, and the trespass-offerings in leviori- bus locum habuisse. Henjjstenberfj's view is by no means satisfactory. It amounts to the following : every sin, even when committed against a neighbour, was a robbery of God, and as such demanded reparation. But the sacrifice could not satisfy tliis demand. For the quiet- ing, however, of anxious consciousness, and the stirring np of sleepy ones, the trespass- (or compensation-) offering was introduced. (Ac- cording to Numb. V. 5, 6, he says, A sham liter- ally means compensation). * The sin was ap- praised, and in the sacrifice, to whicli the same value was ideally attributed, a restitution or compensation was made for the robbery of God, which was connected with every sin. And as the principal object was to represent the idea that sin is a robbery of God, and to establish that idea in the Church, the trespass- or restitu- tion-offering was expressly instituted for a limit- ed number of cases only.' In opposition to thia, we must repeat that Asham does not signify 13 compensation at all ; that bj this view the aton- ing force of the siii-iffering is destroyed ; that, if it were correct, every sin would have required a trespass-offering • and that in that case the trespass-offering would have been mor^ impor- tant than the sin-offering ; whereas, as the ritual clearly proves, the opposite was really the case. Ewahi's view is still more decidedly false. 'A simple sin-offering was sufficient,' he says, * and . no further special act of penance could inter- vene, cither when the transgression of a single individual was first of all observed by others, and then pointed out to him, or when the trans- gression proceeded from the whole congregation, so that no one felt himself to be more guilty than another; whereas, on the other hand, if anything improper or unholy lay at the door of an individual, of which he alone was conscious at first, or which he felt at first as pressing upon him alone, without there being any necessity for others to call upon him to offer an atonement for it, the atonement could not remain so simple an act, but his atoning sacrifice had to be in- creased in a peculiar manner into a trespass- or penitence-offering; and very frequently even this was not sufficient without compensation for 14 an iujiiry that miglit possibly have been deliber- ately inflicted.' " § 5. Now it is very plain that most of these explanations are entirely without warrant from the Biblical notices of these two sacrifices. Some of them are plainly at variance with those notices. But even those which may be made to fit in with the requirements of the Levitical directions are unsatisfactory in this respect, that the principle assumed as the ground of distinc- tion is frivolous and insignificant. Can we imagine, for example, that one kind of sacrifice, with peculiar victims, and a peculiar ritual, would have been assigned to sins of omission, or of unconsciousness, or of involuntary weakness, and another kind to sins of commission, to con- scious, or to voluntary ofi'ences ? No such principle of difference is sufficiently important, or sufficiently worthy of the distinction made by the Divine Wisdom. At least, we have a right, I think, to look further for a more impor- tant principle. An idea that has gained acceptance with most of those who have really studied the ques- tion is, that the principle of the Asham was the 15 salisfaction of a right, either of God or of man, that had been invaded by the offender.* Now it happens that this explanation suits most of the cases in which the Asham is enjoined. But two serious objections lie against it. First, the objection stated above, that the principle is not of sufficient importance ; and, secondly, that it is very indefinite. What conceivable offence is there that could not with the greatest ease be con- sidered as an infringement of ihe rights either of God or of man ? This view, however, is taken by many of those who have a right to be heard in the matter. Thus in the Commentary on ihe Old Testament, by Professors Keil and Delitzsch, we find the following summary (p. 315) :— " If now, in order to obtain a clear view of the much-canvassed difference between the sin- offerings and trespass-offerings, we look at once at the other cases for which trespass-offerings were commanded in the law, we find in Numb. V. 5_8 not only a trespass against Jehovah, but an unjust withdrawal of the property of a * 1 shall shew, further on, how it is that this idea has so generally been entertained. 16 neighbour, clearly mentioned as a crime, for which material compensation was to be made with the addition of a fifth of its value, just as in Lev. vi. 2 — 7. So also the guilt of a man »vho had lain with the slave of another (Lev. xix. 20 — 22) did not come into the ordinary category of adultery, but into that of an unjust invasion of the domain of another's property ; though in this case, as the crime could not be estimated in money, instead of material com- pensation being made, a civil punishment, viz., bodily scourging, was to be inflicted ; and for the same reason nothing is said about the valua- tion of the sacrificial ram. Lastly, in the tres- pass-offerings for the cleansing of a leper or of a Nazarite who had been defiled by a corpse, it is true we cannot shew in what definite way the rights of Jehovah were violated, but the sacri- fices themselves served to procure the restora- tion of the persons in question to certain cove- nant rights which they had lost ; so that even here the trespass-off"ering was to be regarded as a compensation or equivalent for the rights to be restored. From all these cases it is perfectly evident, that the idea of satisfaction for a right which had been violated, but was about to be 17 restored or recovered, lay at the foundation of the trespass-offering, an 1 the ritu il iiho points to this. The animal sacrifici.l was alwa3's a ram, except in the cases mentioned in Lev. xiv. 12, and Num, vi. 12.* This fact alone clearly distinguishes the trespass-offerings from the sin-offerings, for which all kinds of victims were offered, from an ox to a pigeon, the choice of the animal being regulated by the position of the sinner and the magnitude of his sin. But they are distinguislied still more by the fact, that in the case of all the sin-offerino:s the blood was to be put upon the horns of the altar, or even taken into the sanctuary itself; whereas the blood of the trespass-offerings, like that of the burnt and peace-offerings, was merely swung against the wall of the altar (chap. vii. 2), Lastly, they were also distinguished by the fact that in the trespass-offering the ram was in most instances to be valued by the priest, not for the purpose of determining its actual value, which could not vary very materially in rams of * I have already pointed out that these cases form no exception to the rule, which invariably required a ram as the victim of the trespass-ofFeriug. 18 the same kind, bat to fix upon it symbolically the Talue of the trespass for which compensa- tion was required. Hence there can be no doubly that as the idea of expiation of sin, which was embodied in the sprinkling of the bloody was most prominent in the sin-offering ; so the idea of satis/action /or the restoration of rights that had been violated or disturbed came into the foreground in the trespass-offering,''^ I put in italics the last sentence of this paragraph, as expressing a most important dis- tinction between the sin-offering and the tres- pass-offering, and one that comes very near to the whole truth of the matter. Taken as a whole, however, the principle assumed is faulty in the particulars already alluded to. § 6. The view taken by Kurtz is more elaborate. Starting with that most important enunciation of the law of the trespass-offering in Lev. V. 14 — 19; vi. 1 — 7, he points out as a common characteristic of all the offences herein referred to as requiring a trespass- offering, that they are all considered as acts of faithlessness or treachery agamst the Lord (nin''2 b^^n). Thus the first section of this law (v. 14) begins : — 19 b'S'Q hv'an •'D tZ7Q3 and the second (v. 21, or in E. v., vi 2) nin^a bv72 nbirai «:ann ^3 t^DD. He shows that while etymologically the root ^vq is about equivalent to lan,* yet that in actual use tlie former is almost exclusively restricted to breaches of that covenant fidelity that was due from Israel to the Lord their God. This, therefore, he takes to be the characteristic of those offences that required a trespass-offering for their expiation. " But," he adds, " every nin'^s b'D'Q could not be expiated by a trespass- offering. And the design of the passage before us is to give more particular information on this point." It commences, he says, with one par- ticular kind of sins, viz., those committed in connection with " the holy things of the Lord." But this class is restricted to sins committed in ignorance. Now at chap. v. 17 comes the diffi- culty in the fact that this verse appears to ex- press precisely the same rule for the trespass- offering that in chap. iv. 2 is laid down for the * The idea ot covering is common to both roots. Accordingly from the one we have ^^"272 a kind of cloak ; from the other, ly^, a covering generally, and specially an outer garment. 20 siu-ofFeriug. Rielim, who, according to Kurtz, was the first to see the explanation of this diffi- culty, is quoted as saying: *' This passage, viz. chap. V. 17 — 19, has not a new formula of introduction, and therefore is immediately con- nected with wliat precedes ; so that the same class of sins is intended as before." But if the same class, yet not the same species ; for, ac- cording to Kurtz, while ver. 14— 16 refer to fraudulent acts with regard to the holy tilings of the Lord, ver. 17 — 19 refer to fraudulent acts in relation to another persons property, yet still regarded as faithlessness towards the cove- nant God. Coming now to the section in the next chapter, he takes this to refer to the same kind of sins as are referred to in chap. v. 17 — 19, but with this difference, that whereas they were committed ignorantly or involuntarily, these from their nature cannot have this exteuuatiug plea. In Numb. v. 5 — 10, the law of the tres- pass-offering is stated in very general terms. Yet it is still confined to the nine's b57a. But now three special cases remain to be 21 brought under the same category. Tlie first is tliat mentioned in liov. xix. 20 — 22. Upon this case Kurtz remarks : — " The violation of another person's bond- maid, whether of foreign or Tsraelitish descent, is certainly presented in this passage in the light of an injury done to another's property, and therefore as a ^trespass.' Her master, as such, possessed the right to the entire possession of her person, since he could take her, without hesitation, to be his concubine. He was de- frauded of tliis right when another seduced her ; but it was not adultery so long as her ma^^ter had not actually availed himself of the right, and therefore the punishment of death was not inflicted. But the violence done to the property of another had to be expidted, as well as the consequent sin against Jehovah." The remaining two cas3S are those in which trespass-olfa-ings are commanded, first on the purification oj the leper, and, secondly, on the renenal of the Nazariie's vow after de- filement. Kurtz labours (not I think unsuc- cessfullyj to shew the applicability of the idea of trespass, or rather of default, to these two cases. 22 and then sums up the whole matter in these words : — " After all, the idea of the irespass-offerirg must be defined as relating to the violation of the rights and claims of others, or, as we might put it, to some kind of robbery committed upon others, not merely in material possessions and property which it would be possible to restore, but in rightful and obligatory serTices, based upon agreement or covenant, the neglect of which, from their very nature, could not always be compensated afterwards. In the case of the former, as a matter of course, the compensation (augmented by the addition of one-fifth of the value) necessarily preceded the offering ; whilst in that of the latter, it could only be required when, and so far as, it was possible," " This expresses also the point of differ- ence from the sin-offering, which was connected with all such sins as could not be regarded as a robbery (either of God as the covenant ally and Icing of Israel, or of a fellow-man), committed upon earthly possessions, or upon services re- quired by duty or compact. The common canon for sin-offerings and trespass-ofierings 23 wliich is expressed in essentially the same terms, for the former in Lev. iv. 22, 27, and for the latter in Lev. v. 17, enjoins that tliey shall both be presented on the breach of any one of all the commandments of the Lord. But tlie canon of the trespass -offering, in Lev. v. 1 7, is distin- guished and restricted by the clause in ver. 15, bvQ bx'an-''3 2722, which governs the entire sec- tion. Lev. V. 14 — 19 j whereas in the law of the sin-offering no such restriction is laid down. The ^tate of the case, therefore, is the follow- ing : — Originally and primarily a sin-offering was appointed for the transgression of any of the commandments of Jehovah ; but in the fur- ther development of the laws in question, all such breaches of the commandments of God as could be looked upon in the light of a b 27^ were excepted from this rule, and a different kind of sacrifice, viz., the trespass -offering, was appoint- ed. This appears, therefore, as a subordinate species of sin-offering, modified in a peculiar manner." I have given this prominence to Kurtz's theory, because it contains much that is true and valuable. The great and insuperable objection 24 Ciroumsfanceg under which the Two Forms of Sacrifice were Instituted. which appears against it is, that, as Kurtz has left it, it would be practically the most indefinite thing in the world. For if you consider that ** all such breaches of the commandments of God as could be looked upon in the light of a bviz were excepted from the general rule of the sin- offering," and even if your idea of a bvi2 is assisted by the examples given, I would ask. What sin is there in the whole domain of evil that cannot with the greatest ease be looked upon in this light ? Allowing the nin^2 hvt^ to be the distinguishing characteristic of the offences that demanded the A sham, the pro- vince of this sacrifice is not thereby defined, until a definition on a sound principle is given to the cliaracteristic itself. § 7. I have already said that the true an- swer to the question as to the difference between the sin-offering and the trespass-offering, must be looked for in the circumstances under which these two forms of sacrifice were first instituted. And this investigation necessitates a glance at the pre-Mosaic sacrifices. With regard to the earliest sacrifices on record, those of Cain and Abel ; the term Min- 25 chah is applied to both. As for the occurrence of the term ryAi^n in Gen. iv. 7, it appears to me in the highest degree improbable that at such an early stage a sacrifice should be suggested to Cain under this technical name. Noah's sacrifice is called 'Olah. To the altars erected in various places by Abraham and Jacob the term Mizheach is applied ; yet we must not conclude that this points to a Zehach in any technical sense, i.e., as distinct from either 'Olah or Minchah. With regard to the nature of Abraham's sacrifice recorded in Gen. XV. 9, it is difficult to determine anything. Abraham's offering of Isaac is also an extraor- dinary case, deeply interesting in itself, and most important in its bearings upon our general question, yet from its extraordinary nature not to be adduced as an example of patriarchal sa- crifices generally. It is, however, spoken of as an 'Olah, and so is the sacrifice of the ram w]iich was ofiered instead of Isaac. With re- gard to the case in Gen. xxxi. 54, it is probable that this passage refers only to the slaughter of beasts for food. It appears that in patriarchal times there 26 was no regularly recognized distinction between one kind of sacrifice and another ; although it is easy to see how such a distinction would gra- dually spring up from the various occasions and objects of sacrifice. These various occasions would, in course of time, lead to variety in the mode and import of sacrifices. Now without entering into any fanciful speculations, we may assume that two principal ideas found expression in any sacrificial act, — even in one and the same ! sacrifice, — xiz-^ihe ideas oi expiation and ofsatis- Jaciion hy self-surrender. These, I say, miglit both be expressed in one sacrifice ; but according as either would predominate in the mind and intention of the sacrificer, would the import of the sacrifice be modified, until at length the two ideas would find expression in two distinct forms of sacrifice. Accordingly, when two forms do appear, we may safely cousiiler the one as the prominent idea of the one form, and the other of the other. And in this we shall find no diffi- culty. It cannot have been a new idea to the Israelites at the time of the giving of the law, that remission oj sins was represented as the re- sult of bloods heddiny. The blood-shedding was the prominent feature of the Zehach; there- 27 fore I think there can be no doubt that expia- tion was the leading idea of that form of sacri- fice. On the other hand, the entire surrender of body and soul to the will of God could not fail to be the leading idea of the whole burnt- ofiering ('Olah). Now we find that by the time Moses was sent to deliver the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, animal sacrifices were known to them under the names and forms oi'Olah and Zebach (Exod. x. 25). At this point I must remind my readers, first that, as we have just seen, Zebach, when contrasted with 'Olah, denotes a piacular sacri- fice ; but, further, that when antithetical to Minchah, it denotes the victim of a Euchanstic sacrifice as contrasted with the unbloody ele- ments of the same kind of sacrifice. After the giving of the law, the one piacular sacrifice (the Zebach as contrasted with the 'Olah) was split up into two, viz., the sin-off"ering and the tres- pass-offering. That this distinction was then first made seems clear, first, from the use of the terms then for the first time, and, secondly, from the manner in which they are introduced in the Book of Leviticus as neiv forms, whilst ^ M-a-t*- V^'^^-i 28 the other sacrifices are spoken of as things pre- viously existing. But I must not forestall this part of my subject. The point at which we have arrived is the mention of animal sacrifices, im- mediately before the deliverance from Egypt, under the two heads o( Zebach and Olah. But just at this point, a question of great importance forces itself upon us. It is the question of the relationship (or rather of the ienns and conditions of the relationship) in which the chosen people stood to God before and after the giving of the law ; and it is a ques- tion which we should find some difficulty in answering if we were to confine ourselves to the Mosaic records. The deliverance from Egypt and the giving of the law are recorded as par- ticulars of the vicissitudes through which the seed of Abraham were called to pass ; but if they are spoken of as a crisis in their history, they are not represented as effecting or indicat- ing any change of relationship towards their Divine Ruler. For this reason the important fact has been too much overlooked, although, it is so expressly mentioned, and indeed insisted upon, by St. Paul, — that there was a most re- 29 markable difference, not merely in form but in principle, between the patriarchal and the Mosaic dispensations. Wherein this difference consisted, I shall proceed to inquire. § 8. WereadinJer.vii. 22, 23, "I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them, in the day that I brought tbem out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices ; but this thing I commanded them, saying. Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and vvalli ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you." I take this as a type of all those numerous passages in which obedience to the command- ments of God is set up in opposition to sacrifice. Now we might easily suppose, from the tenor of such anti-sacrificial passages, that in the terms of the Mosaic covenant there was something more purely spiritual, — something that comes nearer to our idea of true religion (as that idea has been formed in us by Christian influences), than in the state of things which it superseded, and which these passages were intended to counteract. Such a supposition is very general. Terms of the Ab- rahamicandMo- saic Covenants 30 although 1 believe it is founded on a partial misconception of the import of such passages. There is no doubt that the Israelites were al- ways inclined to a mere formal practice of the law, forgetting its spirit, of which the exhorta- tions of the prophets were intended to remind them. But when we thus speak of the spirit of the law, are we sure tliat we understand what that spirit or principle was ? If we form our idea of it from the ordinary conception of the import of such a passage as that quoted above, understanding it as merely opposing heartj obedience to lifeless formalism, I venture to think that that idea will be fundamentally wrong;. What I mean is this : — that while un- doubtedly it was the will of God, conveyed by His prophets, that His people sliould render to Him not mere oatward service, but the service of the heart, yet that under the terms of the law, from which such prophetic utterances were by no means intended to release them, not only was the outward bodily service not remitted, but the inculcation of obedience was the inculcation of the one essential principle of the Mosaic dis- pensation, — the principle of works as distin- guished from the principle of Jaith. I do not 31 deny the spiritual meaning and intention of such anti-sacrificial passages. On the contrary, I maintain that they " led to Christ," but not immediately. Their immediate effect was to lead to the law, and through the law, as a schoolmaster, to Christ. Their immediate ob- ject was to turn the Jews from mere formalism indeed, but yet to bring them back to the stand- point of tlie law, and as yet to no more advanced point. The reader will see at once that I do not state these views on my own responsibihty, since they are in several places distinctly expressed, and everywhere assumed, by St. Paul. From his words we shall readily obtain a clear view of the point on which we are now engaged. In his Epistle to the Galatians (iii. 6 — 29) it is distinctly asserted that the children of Israel, from the time of Abraham to the giving of the law, were under a dispensation of grace : a covenant of which faith was the condition on their part. Speaking of this covenant St. Paul even goes so far as to say (ver. 8) that the Gospel was preached beforehand unto Abraham. Under this dispensation of grace we must con- 32 sider Abraham's descendants to have lived dur- ing the four hundred and thirty years that elapsed before the giving of the law. And then came the law, which, judging chronologically, we are apt to consider as an advanced dispensa- tion. St. Paul, however, does not put it in this light. The Abrahamic covenant is of faith, liut the law is not of faith, but of works. I think, therefore, I am not going beyond what is written, wlien I represent the law as a dispensa- tion of discipline, superinduced upon the pre- vious dispensation of grace. In such a severe sense was the law a " schoolmaster." For, moreover, the principle of the law was an im- possibility : — TO ahvvarov rov vofjLoVf as it is ex- pressed by St. Paul (Rom. viii. 3). To be under the law was to be under the curse. And, after all, this representation is not one whit stronger than that given by the prophet Ezekiel, (xx. 25), " Wherefore I gave th^em also sta- tutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live." The situation of the Israelites under the law was, therefore, very remarkable, and their relationship towards God to some extent 33 complicated. For we must not forget that the Abrahamic covenant was not annulled by the imposition of the law. For, as St. Paul says (Gal. iii. 1 7), " The covenant that was confirmed of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot dis- annul, that it should make the promise of none effect." The situation of the Israelites under the law was, therefore, this : As the children of Abraham, the promises made to him and to his seed, on the condition of jaiih, were theirs, hut not on the same condition. Although, then, these promises were hy no means annulled by the law, yet in the meantime the Israelites were " shut up "* from them under the law, to which perfect obedience was required as the super- imposed condition of the covenant. 1 his, then, is the point at which I am aim- ing,— a distinct conception of the circumstances under which the piacular sacrifice was split up into the two forms which we are now consider- ing. And now that we have this idea, we shall * Gal. iii. 23,i/7ro vojiov i^povpov^eOa avyKEKXeia^tpoi iiQ T-fiv fxiWovcrav tricTTiv aTTOKaXvcpdijyaL. We must con- nect (TvyKEK, with vTTo vofiov, in accordance with ver. 22. 34 easily see that, as the Israelites under the law Avere under two distinct principles or terras of relationship towards God, one of which, though not annulled by the other, was yet kept in abeyance, so to speak, under that other, — so in the ritual that was founded upon these circum- stances, we may confidently look for outward expressions of these two principles. I say, we may confidently expect this, because if circum- cision, the seal of the Abrahamic covenant, was kept up, as we find it was, under the law, we cannot doubt that the piacular sacrifice of the Abrahamic dispensation would bemaintained,with the same import, under the Mosaic dispensation. But, on the other hand, let us again call to mind that though these emblems of a more gra- cious dispensation were still kept up ; although they pointed to a perfect realization of " grace and truth " in the remote future, yet in the meantime the Israelites were " shut up " from participation in the promises made to their fathers, — shut up under the stringent and humanly-speaking hopeless principle of the law. It follows necessarily from these considera- tions, that those who under the law looked for the future Messiah, must have looked for Him 35 and considered him under these two aspects : — first, as the antitype of the sacrifice of the Abra- hamic dispensation : as the seed concerning whom the promise was made : as Him in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed : as Him who should take away the sins of the whole world ; — and secondly, as Him who should render available all these long-promised bless- ings : as Him who should both expiate their disobedience to the law, and also by His own perfect obedience should remove that dSvi/aTov Tov vofjLovy which otherwise, through the weak- ness of the flesh, would have proved an insuper- able barrier to their attainment of the promises : as Him who in both these ways should deliver them from the curse oi ihe law. I say, that from the very moment of the imposition of the yoke of the law ; from the very moment that they felt the utter impossibility of their fulfilling the law's demands, — from that moment they must have looked to the future Messiah under these two aspects.* And if so, it is also to * Aug TiQril?n b^lb'^ ''3n ibsya"^"!. Here of course the" ac- cursed thing "is a thing Jew/fof /o God. Thesin of Achan had all the characteristics of the sin mentioned in Lev. v. 14 — 19, as committed against the holy things of the Lord, but with the unpardonable aggravation, that it was commit- ted consciously. With this difference, the offence was essen- tially such as would otherwise have demanded an Asham. It was a nirT'S ^Vd. And we must here particularl/ observe that in verses 11 and 15, the character of the nirr^S bl?l!2 is distinctly expressed as transgression of tJie covenant o{ [he L.onl. ■10 of Ananias and Sapphira was essentially a sin in connection with the holy things of the Lord ; and when St. Peter said, " Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God," he meant more than we see at first sight. For of course every lie to man is, in one (and a very important) sense, a lie to God. But his word lie means much the same as the wn'D of Lev. vi. 2, including mate- rial as well as verbal fraud ; and, inasmuch as tliis material fraud was committed against the property, not of man, but of God, the punish- ment of death was divinely and supernaturally inflicted. The distinction in this awful case is precisely the distinction between the cases referred to in Lev. v. 14 — 19, and those in Lev. vi. 1 — 5. The trespass-ofl'ering for the rape of a be- trothed slave (Lev. xix. 20, 21) may be con- sidered as an application, either of the general principle of the trespass-offeiiug being allowed for all wilful ofi'ences against the law which yet did not deserve the punishment of death, or of the particular law we have just been considering (Lev. vi.l — 5). On this case, I refer the reader back to the observations I have quoted from Kurtz under section 6. 50 ^ 13. It remains to examine tlie law of tlie trespass-offering in the two cases of the leper (Lev. xiv. 12), and the polluted Nazirite (Numb. \i. 12). The latter case is distinctly placed under the law of the trespass- offering for .involuntary default in the holy things of the Lord, by the words of the passage referred to : — " He shall bring a Lamb of the first year for a trespass-offering ; for (or because) the days that were before are lost."* That is, the days that had been consecrated to God had been lost to Him : a clear case, therefore, of default in re- spect of the holy things of the Lord. With regard to the case of the leper^ I see no reason why this should not be considered in the same light. It seems to have been assum- ed, that the defilement of leprosy incapacitated a man for the performance of that service which he owed to God, as a member of the covenant nation. Now it is certainly not incumbent on me to say why this disease was so considered. * The T whicli is rendered " but " in E. V., and which I have rendered "for" or " because," frequently adaiits of tliis latter renderhig. See the instances referred to by Gesenius sub v. 51 The difficulty in this case is no difRcully in the way of my view of it. By the express command of God, those who were afflicted with this disease were cut oflf from the services of the sanctuary. If, then, it be asked, why a trespass-offering was required for the uncleanness of leprosy, but only a sin-oflering for the uncleanness of a wo- man in childbirth, or for the uncleanness of men or women under certain circumstances (Lev. xv. 15 — 30), 1 reply that it pleased the Divine Lawgiver to look upon leprosy as a violation of that purity which was a condition of the cove- nant, and therefore as virtually a bi each of the covenant. This considerati< m, therefore, brings it precisely within the sphere of the trespass- offering, according to the views I have pro- pounded.* On the other hand, the cases of * In the case of King Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi. 16 — 21,) we have an example of leprosy inflicted as a punishment for a sin of commission in respect of the holy things of the Lord. Inasmuch as this sin was committed con- sciously and presumptuously, it did not admit of expiation by means of that which would otherwise have been the proper sacrifice for this purpose, viz., the Asham. Let it be observed how expressly the ofience of Uzziah is cha- racterized as a nirr^a blJa (verses 16 and 18). Uzziah 52 uucleanness above mentioned are the natural aud necessary results of our physical constitu- tion, and the impurity of them is the impurity which is inherent in our nature. We cannot, therefore, expect these to be considered as of- fences against the law, or violations of the terms of the covenant. It is true, we could not have expected a priori that leprosy would be so con- sidered ; but, since it is so expressly stamped by God with this character, and thus comes so completely within tlie sphere which I have shewn to be the sphere of the trespass-offering, I repeat that whatever difficulties the case may present, it presents none whatever to my theory, but, on would ipso facto have been cut off from covenant fellow- ship ; but it pleased God to manifest this excommunica- tion by the infliction of that disease which, in itself, was considered incompatible with covenant relationship, and the result of which in this case is emphatically expressed in the words (ver. 21), " he was cut off from the house cj the LonW I may here remark that, although unconscious and involuntary offences against tbe law were not, in general, considered as breaciies of the covenant, aud did not ihereiore demand the offering of the Asham, it can cieale no difficulty to find that ibis consideration does not afply to unconscious offences in conueciion with the holy things of the Lord. 53 the contrary, is most perfectlj in accordance with it. My conclusion, therefore, upon this case is, that inasmuch as leprosy was, in itself, considered as a disturbance of covenant relation- ship, and inasmuch as it did, in fact, incapaci- tate the man for the performance of those duties which he owed to the covenant God, restitution to covenant privileges and to the capability of discharging covenant duties was to be effected by means of the As ham, — the sacrifice provided for precisely such cases. § 14. In concluding this part of my subject, I must call attention to a circumstance which, more than any oilier, has tended, I think, to mislead those who have inquired into the pecu- liar significance of the trespass-offering. This circumstance is, the appearance of fraud, in some form or other, as the characteristic of all offences for which this form of sacrifice was required, A little consideration will both enable us to see the cause of this appearance, and at the same time show that fraud, though the apparent, is not the real and essential characteristic. For, with regard to the first section of the law of tlie tres- pass-offering, a part only of this refers to uncon- 54 scious acts of fraud in respect of sacred things ; the otlier part referring, as I have shewn, to unconscious sins of commission ; that is, not to rights and dues witWield, but to duties improperlj or irreguhirly performed, or to prohibitions un- consciously violated, in connection with the same sacred things. With regard to the next section, which refers to conscious transgressions against one's neighbour, — here we see that, by the very nature of the case, this whole class of trespasses against one's neighbour must be limited to those of which fraud or unfaithfulness is the charac- teristic. For, considering, as of course we may, the whole of the moral law as contained generally in the Decalogue, let us look at the command- ments of the second table. We shall find with regard to these, that wilful dishonouring of one's parents was punishable with deatli ; so, of course, was wilful murder ; so was also adultery. Now it is easy to see that all the three remaining commandments refer to sins of which fraud was the essential characteristic, viz., thefty false wit- nes, and covetousness. Whilst, therefore, as we have seen, the true principle of the trespass- offering is, that it was appointed for all such offences against the law as admitted of expiation 55 at all, it happens as a purely accidental circum- stance, that all expiable offences against one's neighbour have this characteristic of fraud. And hence it has been assumed that the essential principle of the trespass-offering is that of satis- faction for the fraud I dent withholding of rights. It happens, further, that the situation of an Israelite under the law was one of obligation and debt. And if God, who observes His part of the covenant, is Jaithfulsmd true, then man, who fails in his part, is faithless and a liar (see Rom. iii. 4). This view of the matter has corroborated tlie opinion which is almost universally held, and which is expressed by Kurtz in the words I have already quoted, that " the idea of the trespass- offering must be defined as relating to the viola- tion of the liglits and claims of others," One step further would have landed this writer on the true and fundamental principle of which he was in search, and would have brought him to the point at which we have now arrived, — the definition of the sphere of the trespass-offer- ing as relating to the violation of the condition of the Mosaic covenant^ the condition of perfect obedience to the law. 56 >5» 15, The position I have beon labouring to establish is this : — that of the two forms in which piacular sacrifice appeared after the impo- sition of the law, the sin-offering, being a part / of the regnlarly prescribed ritual of the Jewish people on all occasions of public worship, was essentially a covenant sacrifice ; by which I do not mean a sacrifice peculiar to the Mosaic dis- pensation, but a sacrifice on the principle of the covenant made with Abraham and his seed for ever. For let it always be borne in mind, that the law did not annul the Abrahamic covenant, although it superadded the condition of works \ to the previously sole condition of faith. It will be remembered that God gave Abraham " the sign of circumcision, the seal of the righteous- ness of faith" (Rom iv. 11); and that, even under the law of works y circumcision was com- manded to be continued as a sign of that cove- nant (Lev. xii. 3) ; so that this ordinance was thus incorporated with the observances of the law. Jt was just in the same manner that sacri- fices on the principles of the Abrahamic cove- nant were also introduced amongst tlie obser- vances of the law. Now, if we suppose the case of a man perfectly obedient to the law, fulfilling 67 all its requirements ; siicb a man would yet par- take in the general and stated sacrifices of the sin-offering ; but with the trespass-offering he would have nothing whatever to do. This, on the other hand, viz. the trespass-offering, plain- ly has reference to an abnormal condition of things ; being appointed, as I think I have suffi- ciently proved, for the expiation of offences against the law. Now the most cursory consideration of the obvious facts of the case will shew us that Kurtz is wrong when he says (§ 86) : " In connec- '. tion with burnt-offerings and peace-offerings the ' sacrificer always stood upon the ground of sal- vation. ... In conuecliou with sin and tres- pass-offerings he had fallen from a state of grace." The former assertion ought to include the sin-offering, and the latter should have ex- clusive reference to the trespass-offering. In fact, all the sacrifices, with the exception of the Asham, were " sacnjices of righteousness " 1 (Deut. xxxiii. 19; Psalm iv. 5; li. 19), that is, they 'were such as pre-supposed righteousness, or a state of covenant-fellowship, on the part of the sacrificers. In other words, they were cove- nant privileges. On the contrary, the Askant pre-supposed a violation of the covenant. This consideration affords the true explanation of all those passages in which obedience is preferred to sacrifice : in some of which, indeed, sacrifice is utterly disallowed, as being displeasing to God, unless accompanied with obedience to the law. For, until this requirement of obedience was complied with, covenant-fellowship was sus- pended, and therefore covenant privileges were disallowed. This is most clearly expressed in Psalm li., where, after the Psalmist has so em- phatically asserted, "Thou desirest not sacri- fice ; else would I give it : thou delightest not in burnt-offerings," he immediately adds, as the result of his spirit being broken and subdued to the will of God, " Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt- offering and whole burnt-offering : then shall they offer young bullocks upon thine altar." Now let it be particularly observed, that in Psalm xl., where these '* sacrifices of righteous- ness " are fully enumerated, as disallowed so long as the covenant condition of obedience to the law was not fulfilled, the list comprises every one of the Levitical sacrifices, with the single ex- ception of the A sham. 50 § 16. In the fiftj-third chapter of Isaiah, ^jrvid''b'°i'saha»" - — that chapter which contains the most direct and express prophecj of the sacrifice of Christ, and of its character and import, — that sacrifice is spoken o( in its character as, and under the express name of, the trespass offering, Js/iam. Now in the light of all the fore-going considera- tions, we see that Christ as our Asham is the One who " comes to do the will of God," bj ful- filling all the law's demands. Further, He is the One who, bj delivering from the curse of the law, restores (as well as fulfils) the promises of grace : the promises first made to Abraham. Now these promises, so often repeated, culmi- nated in the lon^ continuance of the seed of Abraham. But the one thing wanting to Israel under the law, in order to the fulfilment of these promises of grace, was the expiation of their dis- obedience to the law of works, and the satisfac- tion of God's requirement of obedience. When once such a propitiation and satisfaction could be presented to God,— that is, according to the view I have ail along maintained, when the Messiah should appear as the true A sham, then, and not till then, sliould the promise con- cerniiig the seed be fulfilled. Now all this is 60 briefly, but most expressly aud unmistakaably, set forth in the prophecy before us : " When thou shalt make his soul a trespass-offering (Asham)y he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days,* and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand," — that is, the will of God shall be perfectly fulfilled by Him. I would also call altentidn to St. Paul's language in his Epistle to the Galatians (iii. 19). He here says that " the law was super- added (viz., as a condition, to the previous con- dition of Jailh). . . . until the seed sliould come to whom the promise was made." That is, the fulfilment of the law is coincident with the fulfilment of the promise concerning the seed. But in Is. liii. 10, the fulfilment of the promise concerning the seed is dependent on Christ's sacrifice of Himself as tlie Aiham. Therefore, the fulfilment of the law is dependent on the sacrifice of Christ as the Asham, * U^fy^ TJ'^IM"' 2?~1T n.S~l\ The LXX. render, Jt^erai atipfia fiaKpofliov. (Vulg., videlit semen longcevum). For ^nN"' they probably read TI'^IW, tbe Chaldee form of the participle found in Ezra iv. 14. They tl.us took CD^ 'x\'^'\'i^,=^long(£vumf in connection wiih 2;i~)T- 61 In a note under the 65tli section of his work on the Anliquiiu's of I si a el, Ewald says that '* dsham^ — GuiU — is used even when it is not applicable in its most usual, i e. the legale sense; e.(/. 1 Sam. vi. 3, it is used of the sacri- fice which the Philistines offer, quite in accord- ance with their own usio^es, but yet as men who feel tliey have received corporal chastise- ment from Jahveh, ami are imposing a sacred self-inflicted punishment on themselves. Ano- ther ihstance is in Isaiah liii. 10, of the sacrifice of one's own soul, which is offered up for the sake of otlers iis ai atonement demanded by God. Of course in these cases the word is only used Jii/uraiively." With regard to the first of these cases : — the Fhilistines had committed an offence against the holy things of the Lord, viz, by detaining thr ark of the covenant. It is plain that the Hebrew writer applies to their sacrifice the ap- propriate term for the sacrifice which the He- brews would have ofiered under the same cir- cumstances; tliough of course the proper import of this term could not be applicable to the Philis- tines. 62 With regard to Ewald's observations upon the second instance, from Isaiah liii. 10, I must leave it for the reader to determine for himself whether such statements lose any of their intrin- sic absurdity when they appear under the war- rant of a magnum et venerabile nomen. For further illustration of the method whereby the functions of the future Messiah were connected with the Ashaniy the reader is referred to the note on Psalm xl. 7. Resnit of this §17. luto sucli miuutc details have I luquiry- J thought it necessary to conduct the reader, be- cause I have found by experience that without the knowledge which we have thus obtained, nei- ther learning nor critical sagacity will enable us to enter into the communings of tlie hearts and minds of the Hebrews with the God of the He- brews. We shall now find that many expressions which we have been accustomed to understand in a very loose and general sense, are really appro- priated to special and almost technical meanings. The religious phraseology of modern times is usually so vague, and often so unmeaning, that 63 we have seldom expected anything more precise or more intelligible in that store-house of reli- gious expression, the Hebrew Psalter. In this respect injustice has been done to the Psalms, — very few of which will not appear more distinctly in the light which we have now brought to bear upon them. But the most important result of these pre- liminary investigations is the obtaining a distinct idea of the complex relations of the Jewish peo- ple towards God, from the Giving of the Law to the Advent of the Messiah. Having once grasped the idea, we shall be able to see, in many places that would otherwise be only half under- stood, how the religious aspirations of the He- brews were suppressed by the superimposed con- ditions of the Mosaic Law, and how those aspi- rations nevertheless found exercise in recalling the gracious conditions of the Abrahamic cove- nant, and in anticipating the fuller blessedness of the Messiah's reign. ^ 18. It was not only in consequence of ^//j'^l^^"^® gome few direct promises of the future Messiah that the Israelites under the Mosaic Law looted forward to His coming. It was because they / 64 'had known somewhat of the blessedness which He was to restore to them ; and because, in the meantime, tJiej were in bondage under that yoke which, as St. Peter says, neither they nor their fathers had been able to bear. No wonder then, if, in the writings of the Hebrew prophets and psalmists, we find passages tliat are called Messianic. In truth it could hardly be otherwise. It has sometimes been the fashion for se- vere textual and philological critics of the Scrip- tures, to consider the religious aspects of their subject as beyond their sphere, or even to pro- fess, with Gallio, that they care for none of these things, I think, however, I have abun- ^ dantly shown that, without a due appreciation of \ these things, the labours of such critics will be \ often misdirected, and, just so often, worse than useless. Specific itiean- iiiRs of Ethical Terms. § 19. I shall here institute a short inquiry into the specific meanings of a few of the most important ethical terms found in the Psalms : — an inquiry for which we shall be prepared by the preceding considerations. 65 There are some terms which are appro- priated to the state of covenant relationship with God ; and others that are used to denote such actions or states as are inconsistent with that re- lationship, — implying a breach of the covenant, or the absence of interest in it. § 20. First, of the former class, we place the words ion and T^on. Primarily denoting benignity, ion is very Irequently used specially of the kind- ness with which God regarded His chosen people, and the actual kindness mani- fested towards them. Its special meaniug, therefore, is covenant goodness. It is connected with n'^'in Qlie covenant and the goodness) iu Deut. vii. 9 and 12, as includ- ed with it in God's sworn promise to Israel. See the same words in the same connection in I Kings viii. 23 ; Neli. i. 5 anJ ix. 32 ; Isaiah liv. 10; and Dan. ix. 4. It is connected with ni2« (covenant good- ness with covenant Jaithfulness) in 2 Sam. xv, 20;Ps. XXV. 10; Ivii. 4; Ixi. 8 ; Ixxxv. 11; Ixxxvi. 15; Ixxxix. 15; cxv. 1 ; Prov. iii. 3; 66 xiv. 22; xvi. 6; xx. 128; Isaiah xvi. 5; Hos. iv. 1, In Ps. Ixxxix. it is also frequently asso- ciated with naiaw. And in Isaiah Iv. 3, it is con- nected with the adjectival form of the same word in the well-known phrase, — the sure mercies oj Davids In quoting this last-mentioned place, St. Paul (Acts xiii. 34) identifies him who receives God's ion with the "T'on of Ps. xvi. 10. The ordinary usage of T*Dn warrants the definition thus given by St. Paul. The word assumes the form of the passive participle, as if dilectuSy amatu.s. The same participle, how- ever, may also mean diligendus, amandus^ and this meaning we may assign to it when (as in Ps. cxlv. 17,) it is applied to God. In its usual signification, as applied to men, TDn denotes the Saint of God : — him who continues in the enjoyment of God's covenant goodness, through the exercise of faith and of reciprocal goodness (iDn) towards God. That the "T^Dn stands in this specific relationship, — viz. this covenant relationship, — towards God, appears from the definition of the word in 67 Pa. ]. 5 ; — My Saints : those who have entered into covenant with me by sacrijice. If we make a distinction between the formal and tlie essential requirements of the covenant which God made with Israel, we shall find sacri- jice on the one hand, — denoting all sorts of cere- monial observance ; and on the other hand we shall find the more spiritual qualifications of faithfulness and goodness, — nas and ion : — the latter very frequently comprising the former. Thus in Hos. vi. 6, — / have desired goodness (ion) and not sacrifice, ion seems to imply n)3S also in Ps. Ixii. 13. It is to be regretted that the lxx. have, as a rule, rendered ion by eXeo?. This error of theirs, continued through the Latin Vulgate into most modern versions, is the cause of many misunderstandings. Mercy is an attribute of God independent of any covenant engagements. But God's goodness, as denoted by *TDn, is assured to His people under the cove- nant. There is no such antithesis as is usually supposed between ^D^ and nnw in Ps. Ixxxv. 11. It is not that God's truth on the one hand has to be reconciled somehow with God's mercy on the ( ther ; but that the two stand together, in the same category, as the immutable and insepar- able bases of the covenant between God and His people.* There is, indeed, an antithesis, and a very marked one, in St. Paul's Epistle to the Ro- mans, XV. 9, between God's /ailh/ulness, to Tvliich only they who had received the promise could appeal, and His mercij, as extended to the heathen. There is no difficulty attending the assumption that the eXeog of tliis passage repre- sents the Hebrew Ton. But it is more proba- bly used in the less restricted sense of pity, or compassion, since in the same epistle St. Paul f ppeals to the Gentile converts by the mercies of God, — Stct Toiv oiKTipiioiv Tov Oeov. As if he intended, not God's covenant goodness (which might however be extended to those who were not included in the covenant) but rather what the old divines used to call the uncuvenailed mercies of God. * "Loving-kinduess and faithfulness," says Dr. Per- owne, iu his note oa Ps. xcviii. 3, " are tlie two atii ibuies expressive of God's covenant relationship to His people." 69 In Ps. Ixii. 13, the assertion seems para- doxical, — To Thee, Lord, helongeth mercy, for Thou rewardest every man according to his work. It is not so strange to say that God's rewarding a man according to his work is an instance of His covenanted goodness. This covenanted goodness, ion, is so intimately con- nected with covenant faithfiduess, n^DS, that, as I have just now observed, it partakes somewhat of the meaning of the latter. Tlie meaning of this passage will be, therefore, to this effect, viz., that God's people may be assured that their la- bour is not in vain, since His goodness and faithfulness are pledged for the recompense of such labour. It is remarkable that in Ps. Hi. 3, where the probable reading of the lxx. is -ron b«, im- piety, their rendering is dvofxCa. As if it were understood that in the failure of ion, the mu- tual link of love between God aad man, a breach of the covenant was involved. § 31. The special meanings of riTss and naitoN have been sufficiently indicated, in connec- tion with non, in the preceding section. 70 § 22, pTi^. Whereas ion denotes an affec* tion of man's heart towards God, and something corresponding on the part of God towards man, the word p"7!5 denotes straightforward continu- ance in the covenant. It is used both of God's part and of man's. And, whereas nxsw, on the part of God or man, is an abstract quality, p-r!5 is the actual manifestation of that quality. God, who knows the heart, takes the ni2S of Abraham as equivalent to his pi!j. Gen. xv. 6. The word pi^ denotes a constant charac- teristic and manifestation of a state of covenant- relationship. God's righteous acts (nip"r!s) towards His people, are such as are performed in their behalf in fulfilment of, or in accordance with, His cove- nant promises. In Isaiah xlv. 25, it is said : — Tn the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory, ibbnn^i ipi!i\ Both of these words de- note covenant privileges. See under § 23. See also Deut.vi. 25; Ps. xvii, 15; xl. 10; li. 16 and 17. Sacrifices of righteousness are such as are in accordance with the conditions 71 of ibe covenant. They include all except the Asham, which could not be classed cate- gorically with them, since it was the sacrifice appointed for the expiation of such breaches of the covenant as admitted of expiation. In con- nection with other sacrifices, the sacrificer stood on the ground of covenant privilege. In con- nection with this, he had fallen from grace, and was resorting to this as the means of restora- tion. § 23. rhnn. This word denotes confident boasting : trustful exultation ; and it is used ex- clusively of that exulting, ostentatious, trust which they only could experience and express who stood in covenant-relationship towards God. The verb, bbn, in its various forms, is used with the same restricted reference. See notes on Ps. xxxiii. I andlxiii. 12. § 24. nwran, sin, if repented of, is not incompatible with covenant-relationship. It is assumed, and its continual expiation provided for, under the covenant. The case is far different with Dii7«, to which ra^Q is very frequently equivalent. These words denote violation ot" iho covenant, in greater or less degree. So mucli has been addnced in the preced- inst pagvs, in warratit of this distinction, that I will oidy remark here, npon Isaiah i. 28, where transgressors and sinners seem to be idcntitied, that the assertion ilstdf of their having a common deslrnclion, shoe's tluit the terms have not, pTO- perly, one meaning in common. It wonld not have been said that the desf ruction of the trans- pressors ami of the sinners shall be together, if a lormal distinction between tlie two IkuI not been recognized. The prophet asserts here, as ihrongliout the chapter, that sacri- fices for sirty without real penitence, would not be acceptable with God ; therel'ore, that impenitent sinners, (notwitlistanding their formal sacritices) would be involved in tl^e same punishment wiih transgressors. This, it will be remembered, is precisely the argument of JSt. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, except that in contrast with impenitent sinners under the covenant he places, not transgressors of the covenant, but those who had never been ad- mitted into it. So, too, St. John, in his first 1?> Kpintlo (iii. ^1), Hayn : — Tra? o rcaoiu rqu fxyM^ni'iv K'u Tr/v u^uoij/kiu ttolcI, koa q ajiafyna irrrXv Yf apofun. 'llwHe word», wliil^t ili(;y iflen- tify niri nn'l tljo transgrossiori of t,!i'; law, «n ex- jfence, yet recog^riine a format dihtinction bo- f.wof.ri fliom. Tfio relation of traus^^rosHion to KlnfiilnoHM is woll oxpr«sHcd in Job xxxiv. ^i7, — //e addetk IrauHfjrcfisi'm (vviz) tohh du ("ins'^n). § 25. I"::? in usod for the mo.st part in a ^('Ai(ir:x\ Hense. VVliore it ba.s a more Hpecific rneanin^^, it i.s classed witlj ^^5'J:^ ratber than with zif.-^. Its more ^(enoral and oompreben.sivc sig- nification appears in tbe expreHsion in Exod, xxxiv. 7. rH'i,m vdz^ "ji:? si272. /''orf/iviny irdquUi/y — hoik IrariHfjreHnon and sin. See also Ps. lix. 4 and 5. iir is certainly identified with wxn in Ps. li. 7, and probably in tbe dtb verne of tlie same Psalm. So also in P.s. xxxii. 2, and xxxviii. 4, 5^ 19. Seul, entre tons les peiiples de VOrient, Israel a en le privilege d'ecrire pour le monde entier. Vest cerlainement une admirable poesie que celle des Vedas ; el pourtant ce recueil des premiers chants de la race a laquelle nous ap- parlenons ne remplacera jamais^ dans Vexpres- sion de nos sensations religieusesy les PsaumeSy iBUvres d'une race si differentc de la notre. Renan, Langues Sem. L, II, C. I. NOTES OH THE HEBREW PSALMS. Psalm I. The syntax of this Psalm is remarkable for an amplitude and a precision almost pedantic. These are indications of a somewhat late style of Hebrew Composition. It has the air of a pious reflection, sug- gested by the whole Psalter, rather than that of a component portion of it. As such, it would be a later addition, or rather prefix, to the whole collection. Accordingly, we find that in some manu- scripts it is not numbered with the other Psalms. And it appears not to have been numbered with the others in the earliest ages of Christianity, since we find St. Paul (Acts xiii. 33) quoting Ps. ii. 7 as iv tw npcoTO) x/zaX^a^. / 76 PSALM I. V. 1. The progression of ide as lliat lias often been found here seems to me to be fanciful. Of the words vwn and Ni:in, the former de- notes more positive and actual wickedness than the latter, and ought therefore, upon the sup- position of a climax, to stand in the second place. With regard to V''^ > — the word occurs nowhere else in the Psalter. But in the Pro- verbs, where it is frequently found, it is placed usually in contrast with a^n, and therefore pro- bably denotes a vain babbler rather than an im- pious scoflfer. It seems, however, to bear a stronger meaning in Isaiah xxix. 20. Sinners. The word as used here, and most frequently, denotes impenitent sinners, contented with sinfulness. V. 3. n^biJ^ nbv^ ntt?« b^ = n^biJ"^ vbv}2 b^, in conformity with idii n">b'ia in Ps. xxxvii. 7, and elsewhere. The general meaning, there- fore, is — He doeth everything successfully. But the figure of a tree bearing fruit must be main- tained throughout the verse, if possible. And it is possible, since nffi'V is quite appropriate to this use. The more special rendering, there- PSALM I. 77 fore, may be adopted, — He hringelh forth Jruit to perfeclioriy — rekea^opei rov Kapirov, We may thus discern the fruit-tree in three stages, — (I) in leaf, (2) in show of fruit, (3) in perfect ripening of fruit, — TeXeo-(j)opLa, V. 4. In connection with the preceding verse, ■^12 will mean, not the chaff that is se- parated from the ripened grain by winnovviug, which is its proper meaning, but the chaffy husk of an abortive ear of corn. V. 5. The congregation of the righteous means the representative assembly in its judi- cial capacity. Righteousness was assumed on the part of all Israel. See Numb. xvi. 3. There is, therefore, no idea, in this expression, of a congregation consisting of men more righteous than ordinary men. To the congregation (m2>) appertained judicial functions ; and since it is here placed in parallelism with judgment in the preceding "cISnSeTwe can hardly doubt that its judicial ca- pacity is here its main feature. If, then, tlic former clause means that the ungodly shall not have their ungodly ways judicially confirmed, — - 78 PSALM JI. a meaning wliicli will not be disputed, — tben this latter clause must mean much the same thing, viz., that sinners shall not be confirmed in their sin by an appeal to the congregation in its judicial capacity. The Psalmist looks forward to a time when divine truth and justice shall be more clearly manifested and more s.ar^^ executed in the affairs of men : when there shall be no such mis- carriage of justice as may now result from the imperfection of the most perfect of human tribu- nals. There is perhaps also a reference to the final judgment of the Great Day. The Greek of the lxx., avacrTijcrovTai iv Kpicrei reappears in Matt. xii. 41. The render- ing of the Syriac is also the same in both places. Psalm II. V. 2. Dr. Perowne seems to me to miss the point of the reference to this place in Acts iv. 25 — 27. He says ; — The prophecy " had a real fulfilment, no doubt, in the banding toge- ther of Herod and Pontius Pilate against Christ. But this was not a literal one. Pontius Pilate was not a king, nor was it the heathen nations, PSALM II. 79 but the Jews, who were the chief enemies of Christ." Now if Pontius Pilate was not a king", Herod was ; and it is clear that the correspon- dence intended is that between eOur), XaoC, ySacrtXets, ap)(ovTe-i "jinnKn ni^b nb "^-rnr) na is? This slight alteration gives us their reading, which they translate : — eojs ttotc /SapvKoip^LOL, ivaji ayairare fxaTaLOTTjTa. Comp. Exod. viii. 32, where it is said of Pharaoh, 1:2b ns nnsn. This reading suggests a probable recon- PSALM IV. 83 struction of the text, viz. by the insertion of nxsb before pnnsn . As the text stands, the words nab^b mnD, referring to the Psalmist's own grievance, are too much mixed up with those that express the vain and deceitful pursuits of his enemies. For these words do not mean what they are suppos- ed to mean in our English Version, — How long (will ye turn) my glory into shame. They mean, rather. How long shall my glory be for shame, — opprohrio ; just as, in Ps. xxxvii. 26, n3~inb iV"iT means. His seed is for a blessing. If we could assume the omission of such impor- tant words as those supplied in our English Version, we might even then expect the repeti- tion of n^-i^ befoie innsn . But such re- petition, or the insertion of a similar interroga- tive, is absolutely required by the proper con- struction, as given above. While, therefore, I do not accept the read- ing of the Lxx. as a whole, 1 take it as in- dicating some uncertainty in the text. And it seems not uulikelj that the same sort of thing has happened here as often elsewhere, viz, that 84 PSALM IV. llie interrogative n^b has accidentally dropped out of the text in consequence of the same three letters occurring at the end of the preceding word. The copyist who had written these let- ters once would be yery likely to forget to write them a second lime. I propose to insert this word, not only be- cause it was so read by the Lxx., but also be- cause the construction of our received text requires it. The rendering of the text, thus restored, will be, — O ye sons of men, How long shall my glory he Jor a reproach : Why will ye love, &c. V. 4. Know ye not that the Lord hath dis- tinguished His Saint, for Himself? The idea of excellence was implied in dis- tinction, just as it is with us. The Hebrew word here used meant, however, more than this. It denoted consecration, whether of a man's self or substance to God, on the one hand, or of God's distinctly covenanted goodness to His people on the other. For the latter, see the same expression as in the text, mutatis mutandis, PSALM IV. 85 ill Ps. xvii. 7, and xxxi. 22. Dislinctive favour means, of course, exclusive favour. V. 5. Be ye angry and sin not, &c. The exhortation of this verse is certainly not addressed, as is usually supposed, to the Psalmist's enemies. Because it proceeds iu the same breath to the further exhortation,— ^'acri- fice the sacrifices of righteousness. These sa- crifices of righteousness were the peculiar privi- lege of the Saints of God. Now, as the Psalm- ist has just been distinguished, by an exclusive distinction, as a Saint of God, we can hardly regard his enemies as Saints. It is inconceiv- able, therefore, that the exhortation of the whole passage, or of any part of it, is addressed to the enemies of the Psalmist. The rendering of the lxx. (which is sanc- tioned also by St. Paul) is the right one :— Be ye angry, and sin not, — that is. Do not let your just indignation lead you into sinful passion, — Commune with your own hearts, upon your beds, and wait in patient silence. For the last word, im , see note on Ps. Ixii. 2, and Ixv. 2. 86 PSALM V. V. 6. Sacrifices of rigldeousness. See Ps, LI., and Prolegomena, § 22. V. 8. Lxx. and Syr. both give oil after corn and wine. Psalm V. V. 4 -fb "j~)37S. The usual rendering of these words, / will arrange (sc. my prayer) to TheCy seems unsatisfactory. It is warranted, however, by Isaiah xliv. 7, and a comparison of Job. xxxii. 14, with Job. xxxvii. 19. Since the word is used in Leviticus of setting in order both the wood and the victim for a burnt sacri- fice, there may be here a reference to such a sa- crifice, either literally or metaphorically. V. 8. "fnwT^n is connected with the next verse by the Syr., and possibly by the lxx. V. 9. -ntt? to be strong , Jirm. In Heb. in a bad sense. Thus mi^-iti? (Ps. Ixxxi. 13,) is obstinacy, hardness of heart ; whilst in Syriac the same word means J aiih fulness. For xs'd^y as here used, see note on viii. 3. PSALM VI. 87 Psalm VI. V. 3. '^b^N . The Pulal form of this root is found in Isaiah xvi. 8 ; xix. 8 ; xxiv. 4 and 7 ; xxxiii. 9. In all these places the lxx. render it bj irevOict) Here, however, they give aa-Oevtj^ elfju.. So also in 1 Sam, ii, 5, and Lam. ii. 8. If, as Gesenius supposes, the root is akin to bnw, we may compare the analogous passage from Lat. Jlehilis to French Jaible. See the Preface by M. Littre to Brachet's Grammaire Hisior- ique de la langue Frajicaise. V. 8. ^nv. It is not easy to connect the various meanings of this word with any common idea. Gesenius gives (1) to be removed; hence to wax old : (2) from the idea of removal, that of manumission : hence, freedom, nohilily : (3) from the idea of liberty, licentiousness, superhia. All this is very unsatisfactory. It seems worth while to assign the idea of removal, and hence that of old age (as a passing away) to one root ; and to assume another, i.q. pi:;2) (as •)nr=nttJ3?} for the other meanings. The method by which Gesenius connects the meanings of decrepitude and youthfid and exuberant arrogance, is very unjustifiable. He 88 rSALM VI. gets the idea of manumission (upon which the further ideas of liberty^ licentiousness, arrogance, depend) from the expression t3>iWJ2 "^p\"i^ in Isaiah xxviii. 9. This means, he sajs, " taken away from the mother's breast, as if manu" mitted." It is surely unnecessary to remark that the weanino;' of a child is so far from beiiiof a privilege of liberty conferred upon it, that it is rather a trying deprivation of a privilege. With respect to the use of the word in Isaiah xxiii. 18, — E.V. has durable clothing ; but in the margin old clothing. Now durable might be linked on to old, if duration were the fundamental idea of age, as in some words it is. But in this case, the fundamental idea of age being decrepitude, it is not easy to see how the idea of durability can come out of it. The lxx. do not help us here, as their Hebrew reading seems to have been something quite different from ours. Reading as we do, the context re- quires precisely that meaning of \i'^sr(S which is opposed to durability, — " Her merchandise shall tiot be treasured nor laid up ; for her merchan- dise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for temporary clothing." PSALM VII. 80 I would therefore keep together the mean- ings of removal, decrepitude, age, under the root ^r\i2 (No. ]) and assign the other meanings to a root pr^^ (No. 2) Lq. pa?!? . See the use of the word in Ps. xxxi. 19 j Ixxv. 6; xciv. 4. Psalm VII. V. 3. For V^*a ^"'Si p-i5 the lxx. and the Syr. hoth seem to have read b'^^m p"iD ]'^WT : — both also taking p-12 in the sense which i( bears in Syr., and occasionally also in Hebrew, viz. of delivering. See e.g. Ps. cxxxvi. 24. V. 5. ybn in Pi. to despoil, as in Syriac. Accordingly the Syriac version gives : — // 1 have requited (sc. with evil) him thai hath re- quited me with evil : if I have despoiled him that without a cause is mine enemg. This ren- dering of the first clause, though it requires the substitution of the Pi. ''rhw'D for "^abtz:, is given by the lxx. also, el avrarrihoiKa rot? avTaTTohi^ovcrt (jlol /ca/ca, v. 7. The construction of the latter part of this versfi presents a difficulty. Although the meaning is plainly the same as iu xxxv. 23, — Awake up to mg judgment, — yet the construe- QO PSALM VII. tion seems to require that the words n">"i2 rasti^D should be taken as an independent clause, and perhaps in connection with the next verse, ra- ther than with this : — Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger y and lift up Thyself against the fury of mine enemies, and rvalue up in my behalf. Thou hast appointed a judgment, and (sc. for this judgment) the congregation of the nations is assembled around Thee: for their sakes, return Thou to Thy judgment-seat. I have rendered 011)2 by judgment- seat, because the word is very frequently used of that exalted station from which God beholds and judges manliind. See Isaiah xxxiii, 5, and Jer. xvii. 12, and note on Psalm x, 5, V. 11. My shield is upon God, as if on a shield-bearer. V. 13, He hath bent His bow and direct' edit, sc. the arrow. See Psalm xi. 2 ; xxi. 12. See also the next verse. PSALM VIII. 91 Psalm VIII. V. 2. The antithesis of earth and heaven points to a corresponding antithesis between God's Name and God's Glory. God's Name (Di27 being at least equivalent to crrjjaa, signum) is the indication to man of His existence, power, wis- dom, and goodness. This is displayed upon earth. See note on Psalm xlviii. 11. God's real glorj is above the heavens. It is repre- sented upon earth by God's Name. Upon this antithesis the leading idea of the Psalm is framed, — viz, that God chooses the things of this (comparatively) lower world for the mani- festation of His glory. That, in this world. He, to the same end, makes choice of comparatively lowly things, viz. the lips of children, A literal translation of the words n:in .ntrM -jTin, such as Gesenius gives, — quam tuam mag- nificentiam pone in coelis, — would be liable to the objection brought against it by Delitzsch, that such a use of the imperative after -itt?M is unexampled. But we are warranted in regard- ing the imperative active here as equivalent to a passive, since in Ps. cxv. i, we read. Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy Name give Glory, 1122 )n. Now we cannot understand this 92 PSALM viir, to mean that God is to give the glory to His own Name, but certainly that it is to be giveUy sc. by men. Since, therefore, we are compelled so to understand the expression in the one place, we are at least warranted in so understanding it in the other, viz. in the text : — quce gloria tua sit posita super aelum. Not that this Latin cor- responds with the Hebrew. For the antecedent to the relative "^wh is still God, and the verb is still active, though it seems to have been used by a sort of stereotyped phraseology where a pas- sive form would rather be expected. Perhaps a more adequate rendering would be, Cui detur gloria tua, &c. I suspect, however, some error in the text. V. 3. tl? rnD"*. Lxx. KaTrjpTLcra) aivov. So also the Syr., Jerome, and the Latin Vulgate. In Ps. xxix, 1, and xcix. 4, for T2; the lxx. give Tiii-q ; in Ps. Ixviii. 35, Bo^a, And, according to St. Matthew, xxi. 16, our Lord follows the LXX ; and, in the connection in which He cites the words, the meaning of joraeVe, glory, or 7na- j^styy is the only admissible meaning. Consistently wilh all this, we must yet al- init thai (he word Tl7 docs not mean praise iu the PSALM VIII. 93 sense of that which is offered bj man to God, but rather glory, or Majesty , which may be recog- nised by man, but which appertains to God inde- pendently of such recognition. Now, of this Divine Majesty, which extends far beyond the heavens, it has pleased God to lay the foundations in this lower world, — and in the lowliest things of this lower world, — In the acknowledgment of Thee which proceeds from the mouth of babes and sucJdings, Thou hast laid the foundations of Thy Majesty, To one who can enter into the spiiit of Wordsworth's sublime Ode, it will readily occur that these are not, after all, the meanest, but rather the noblest, things of oar humanity : — that the worthiest of earthly foundations for the grand temple of God's glory are those which are laid in infancy ; whilst still ** 7 railing clouds of glory, we do come From God who is our home,""* The use of the word piab in the sense of ob rather than pro, — on account of, rather than in behalf of, — is almost peculiar to the Psalms, • Intimations of Immcrtalily from Eecollections of early Childhood. 94 PSALM VITI. See, in addition to this place, v. 9 ; xxvii. 11; and Ixix. 19. Two words here found seem inapplicable to God*s enemies, viz. Dn-112, which means literal- ly oppressors, and Dp3ntt, an avenger. The former, however, is so used twice in Ps. Ixxiv. \ and with regard to the latter, which occurs only here and in Ps» xliv. 1 7, it seems probable that its specific meaning is merged in the more general meaning of n''i«, with which it is cou- pled in both places. We cannot, anyhow, avoid taking both words to denote the enemies of God. The statement is, therefore, to this effect, viz. That the foundation of God's glory, (as it is to be manifested in order that all enmity against Him may cease) is laid in the lower things of the world : — in man, as contrasted with the universe of being : — in childhood, as contrasted with the adult state. In shoit, that " God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." There is a further consideration, which we of these later da^ s cannot but dwell upon, if only for the sake of illustration, — That when the Son of God became also the Son of Man, the founda- PSALM IX. 95 lions of that grand manifestation of God's glory upon earth were laid in infancy. Psalm IX. V. 4. In the turning hack of mine enemies r in iheir/all and destruction from hejore Thee, do I rejoice, (from the preceding verse). This is a remarkable example of the change of con- struction, within the limits of the same proposi- tion, which is pointed out bj M, Renan in Ps. xiii. 2; wherein, to use his words, the writer begins his phrase upon one type and finishes it on another. V. 7. The enemy are come to an end : a desolation Jbr ever. And the cities which Thou hast destroyed, — Why the very memory of them is perished — That is what they have come to, I here try to give, by a very free render- ing, an idea of the contempt which is expressed by the last word, ni^n* We have something very similar in the usage of our own language, wherein contempt comes to a climax in an ap» 96 PSALM IX. parentis superfluous repetition of the demon- strative : — e.<7., He cannot Jiatier — He ! King- Lear, Act II. Scene II. V. 10. m!in mn37b. In times of adver- sity. So also in the first verse of the next Psalm. Many would take nn!SS as one word, with the meaning of a state of ** being shut up, cut off from resources." That n is, however, a preposition, and thai this is one of tlie unusual forms which this Psalm and the next have in common, I am the more inclined to suppose from a comparison of the expression ia Ps. x. 6, 5?"Q Sb -1tt7W -IT) -lib. V. 13. The avenger (lit. seeJcer) of hlood remembereth them. This has been connected by some with the taunt of the wicked in Ps, x. 13. For the use of the expression, seeking of bloody in this sense, see Gen.ix. 5; xlii. 22; Ezek. xxxiii. 6. Bememberelh them, sc. " the afflicted^ in the next clause ; the pronoun being placed first, emphatically." Perowne. V. 15. n2?it»"^ is the subject and occasion of nbnn. PSALM X. 91 V. 17. The Lord htih mule Himself known : He hath executed jiidgmeuU Psalm X. See note on ix. 10, V. 3. vw") mn"' v«3, by taking in the first word of the next verse. So the lxx. and it is preferable. The wicked man haleth the Lord: — not vice-versa ; for 37271 is the subject of the previous part of the verse. See also v. 13, Why doth the wicked man hate the Lord ? V. 4. EJiT bn — Will not seek (God). To put these words in the mouth of the wicked — ((7 oJ will not search it oiitj— is plausible, as being con- sistent with V. 13. It must, however, be borne in mind that in the preceding Psalm God's seeldng (i.e. avenging) the blood of His ser- vants is mentioned in immediate connection with the assertion that He forsakes not those who seek Him (Ps. ix. 11 and 13). Moreover, that in this place the wicked is mentioned as not seeking God is of a piece with tliat which is fur- ther asserted, viz., that God is not in all his thoughts. V. 5. ib''n\ Their ways are always firm. 98 PSALM X. Comp. ^"^n "labn in Ps. Ixxiii. 12, where, as here, the presumptuous confidence of the wicked is spoken of. See also Job xx. 21. id. — Thy judgments are a great height, — Jar away from him. Comp. xxxvi. 7, — Thy judgments are a great deep. The two places are exactly parallel ; but in this the connection of Di-iKi with -f'^t:iDtt7a is peculiarly significant ; since, as I have obseryed upon Psalm vii. 8, the former word is frequently usei to denote the exalted station from which God surveys and judges the world. The meaning is in efi'ect the same as with the construction usually assumed, to which it would be pedantic to object (if this were the only objection) that it is not strictly gramma- tical. V. 6. rnn. See note on Ps. ix. 10. V. 8. nsbn. The word occurs here, in v» 10, and in v. 14, and no- where else. Com- mentators have agreed to refer it to an Arabic root, with the meaning to be blacky dark. They have also unanimously passed over this literal meaning to the metaphorical one of poverty, misery. I prefer the obvious meaning of dark- ness. As in Job xxiv, 15, the eye oj the adiil- PSALxM X. 09 ierer rvaiteth for the twilight, so here the eyes of the murderer wait (hide themselves) for the darkness. V. 10. D'^N^bn. The plural form of the same word. It is possible that the « may have been inserted by those who first thought it necessary to divide this word into two. How- ever this may be, the plural form is here used adverbially, as plurals often are, — in darkness, Comp. Isaiah 1, 10, -fbn D^acJn, He walketh in darkness. See also the use of mb^b, hy nighty in Ps. xvi. 7. I render the whole verse thus : — He crouches and skulks and falls prostrate in his Jastnesses in darkness. V. 14. For nDbn nT2?s I propose to read rsbnn rv^ . // is Thou that beholdest violence, ^;c. To recompense it with Thy hand. Jt is against Thee that he rageth in darkness. As Jar the fatherless, Thou art his helper. Compare the use of fv^ in ix. 20. 100 PSALM XI. Psalm XI. V. 3. ii hat hath the righteous wrought ! It is not a question, but a rhetorical exclamation. The powers of evil have prevailed, in such and such matters : — but now, on the part of the righteous, what wonders has not he wrought, in the strength of the Lord and in the power of His might! See the same exclamation, with regard to God, in Numbers xxiii. 23, — What hath God rvrought ! Delitzsch and Dr. Perowne, — the latter reluctantly, I think, — render, When the Jound- alions are destroyed, what can (or nill) the righteous do ? In warrant of which rendering, Delitzsch adduces, amongst other examples not more to the purpose, Ps. xxxix. 8, '^rvMp nD, as if there were any necessity or inducement to swerve from the plain meaning of these words, viz., What have 1 hoped for? Whereas the former part of the Psalm is occupied with the evil that is wrought by the ungodly, the remainder is concerned with the counter-working of the righteous, or rather with God's working in his behalf. PSALM XI. 101 The emphatic position of the word p'^Tj: warrants the rendering given above. It intro- duces the righteous as a counter-worker. The word would have been placed last, ratlier than first, if the righteous had been mentioned here as brought under the power of evil. As it stands, the word bristles up, so to speak, in an- tagonism : — Now /or the righteous — What has he been doing all this time ! V. 5. rus'2: nsab nan nns. The lxx. seem to have read S2tJ?, and render 6 he ayairoiv dStKiav /Ato-et jriv iavTov xpv)(y]v, in accordance with Prov. xxix. 21, Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul. This meaning, how- ever, is clearly inadmissible. V. 6. Dr. Perowne says " It seems a harsh metaphor to speak of raining snares, especially in immediate juxtaposition with fire and brim- stone. Still we must recollect that tbe Hebrew poets were not always careful to avoid in- congruity of metaphor." It may perhaps be found that the incon- gruity is in our own imagination. What is our idea of a snare P Probably something very diflforent from that of the Psalmist. We so fre- quently read, in both the Old Testament and the 102 PSALM XI. New, of snares falling upon people, that we may well believe that the usual snare was some- thing thrown upon the prej from above. Thus the idea of a shower of such snares has no in- congruity in it. V. 7. The upright shall behold His face. This is undoubtedly the right rendering, al- though the Lxx., the Syriac, the Latin Vulgate, and both our English Versions, give the inverse order, viz. — His countenance heholdeth the up- right. Hengstenberg, moreover, and some other modern commentators, adhere to the old error. Compare Ps. Xvii. 15, — " In righteousness shall I behold Thy face,' — the same words as in the text. The word T\'\n is the appropriate word in this connection. See note on Psalm Ixiii. 3. It is true that, in Ps. xvii. 2, we find an expression that seems to warrant the usual ren- dering of the text. But there it is the eyes of God that behold the upright. Here the word is D^'DD, countenance or presence ; and it is well ob- served by Delitzsch, that this word is invariably used of that which is to be seen, not of that which sees. psalm xii. ]03 Psalm XIL V. 2. As ^D^ and n)3N, or nDittw, are fre- quently found together, so here we find i>Dn diid D^Diaw associated. See Prolegomena, § 20. V. 3. The usual rendering of this place, viz. They speak vanity one with another, ia too mild. It seems to denote only idle gossip among neighbours. Whereas the meaning is that, even in the intercourse of a man with his neigh- bour, wherein truth and honesty might be looked for, there is only falsehood found. They tell lieSy even a man with his neighbour. See the same thing asserted, in the same words, of the apparently kind and neighbourly visitor, in Ps. xli. 7, — If he come to see me he telleth lies. V. 4 and 5. Observe here the order, — the lipSy the tongue ■• — the tongue, the lips. Upon which see note on Ps. Ixviii. 21. V. 6 . Because of the oppression, ^c. So in Isaiah liii. 5, He was wounded he- cause of (nj our transgressions, and bruised because of (ii) our iniquities. See also Ps. Ixviii. 30. 104 PSALM XII. Now will 1 arise, saith the Lord, I nill shew him conspicuously in the state of salvation : / will manijest Myself and My salvation to him* I take this as the general meaning of rti'^n n"tz;N. The lxx. seem to have read ^s^'^qim for n"'D\ since they give O-qcroixai iv crcjTTjpia), Trappr)aidcroixaL iv avT(o, just as in Ps. xciv. 1, they give iTrapprjcndaaTo for r'^Din. The reading of the Syriac translator seems to have been mucli the same. In Ps. xciv., as in this place, God shines forth as the God of ven- geance. It is observable, too, as casting some suspicion upon the reading n''D\ that it ought to be followed by n, as in Ps. x. 5, rather than by b, as here. For the meaning I have assigned to rtL?"*, see notes on Ps. iii. V. 7. Silver purified in a furnace from earthy admixlure. See note on xvii. 3, 4. * Upon the use of Dip in Ps ix. 20, Dr. Perowne re- marks that it expresses " a solemn appeal to God to shew Himself to be that which He is, — the Judge of the earth." In more general terms, wo may say thit the word, in this connection, denotes God's solemn process for the vindica- tion either of His own character or of that of His people. PSALM XIII. 105 V. 9. All round about the wicked are scat- i^red abroad, ivhen the tempest arises upon the sons of men. For this meaning of ^:hTl^v see Ps. Iriii. 8, and Ps. Ixxvii. 18. For this meaning of mbt see Gesenius. Psalm XIII. V. 2. M. Renan places this amongst *^ ces nombreuses phrases suspendues, interrompues, doublees par la reprise d'une autre phrase, veritables negligences, qui, sans nuire a la clarte, ajoutent au naturel II y a ici deux phrases qui enjambent I'une sur I'autre : (1) Jusqu' a quand Jehovah m'oublieras-tu ? (2) Jehovah m'oublieras-tu a jamais ? L'auteur a commence sa phrase sur le premier type, etl'a achevee sur le second." See note on Ps. ix. 4. V. 3. The rendering. How long shall I lake counsel in my soul, is inadmissible. Because, in the first place, il is unmean- ing. That God should forget, and hide Him- 106 PSALM XIIT. self from, the Psalmist, was a grievauce. Tbat he should have sorrow in his heart was a grievance. That his enemy should prevail against him was a grievance. In the midst of these, we find it difficult to re- cognize, as a co-ordinate grievance, that he should be compelled to commune with his own heart, and take counsel with his own soul. To avoid the difficulty, Gesenius takes ni!J3? to mean anxious cares : — but the word bears this meaning no- where else. The usually received rendering is inadmis- sible, because, moreover, it puts upon the word u?D3 a meaning that it never bears : — a mean- ing from which its own meaning is always care- fully distinguished. ••tz^DDn m^ir means counsels against my lije, or soul. It cannot mean counsels in my heart, be- cause the word U723 is never used to denote the seat ot intelligent purpose. It denotes (1) ani- mal life (2) animal impulse (3) desire, rather than will, or intention. Upon a careful examination of the places (about six hundred) in which this word occurs, I rSALM XIII. 107 find only oue in which it even seems to bear llie meaning wliich is usually put upon it here, viz. the meaning of mind, as the seat of intelligent purpose. This one place is in Jer. xlii. 20, where our Authorized English Version gives, in the text. Ye dissembled in your hearts ; but in the margin. Ye have used deceit against your souls. Now, no one can read the whole chap- ter in which this place occurs, without seeing that the rendering of the margin is the true one : — that those who, with feigned submission to God's will, sought to know that will through the prophet Jeremiah, were practising deceit against their own souls ; and that this is the import of the prophet's reply : — Be not deceived : God is not mocked : — However you may try to deceive and mock Gody you will find that you are only de- ceiving and mocking yourselves. The place is precisely parallel with Ezek. xiv. 4, 5, Every man that settelh up his idols in his heart, and Cometh to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude oj his idols. That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart. If the writer had intended to mean 108 PSALM XIII. counsels in my heart, he certainly would have written >db:i rather than '^2723^. For the word nb is as constantly used to denote the seat of intellectual purpose as ir7D3 is constantly used to denote the source of animal impulse. With this distinction we find very frequently the ex- pression, with all thy heart (nb) and with all thy soul (t27D3). The expression is usually regard- ed as tautological. It has, however, a meaning, founded upon the distinction between intellectual purpose, on the one hand, and animal and moral inclination on the other. We must, therefore, take the words of the text to mean, How long shall 1 take counsel against my own soul ? The meaning of these words does not lie on the surface. We therefore find that, according to one MS. of Kennicott, the word n'^b^ has been substituted forn"^tr«, so as to make the passage parallel with Isaiah xxx. 1. We find also that the Syriac translator read n!J27, or nn^jy, instead of r\yT3 ', using here the sama word as he uses for n!ir in Gen. xxxiv. 7 ; xlv, 5 ; and Neh. viii. 10,11. PSALM XIII. 109 The Sjr. also read n'^dn for rrw^; so that his rendering is, — Horv long wilt Thou set sorrow in my lije^ or in my soul. There is, however, no further warrant for these readings ; and the reading of the text, though difficult, is so consistent in meaning with the context as to put it beyond suspicion. The context, in the previous verse, is to the effect that God's light and guidance were with- held from the Psalmist ; — in the succeeding verse, that, without that guiding light, his sleep would be death. In the intermediate verse, therefore, we may expect mention of frustrated active purpose, in contrast with this passive idea of sleep. This is just what we do find. How long dost Thou forget me S^c.P How long shall I take counsel against myself? And then. Lighten mine eyes, lest in sleeping I die. That is, lest both waking and sleeping, — both by my active efforts and by my passive ac- quiescence, — 1 be lost. 110 PSALM XIV. I would therefore render this third verse thus : — How long shall I he taking counsel against my own soul, and laying up sorrow in my own heart, continually P The idea of acting against one's own soul, and the expression of this idea by the words of the text, ^dD3n, will be familiar to the reader from many examples. Psalm XIV. The most important points of diflference be- tween this Psalm and the 53rd, occur in verses 6 and 6, which stand thus in the two texts :— Ps. XIV. Ps. LIIL V. 5. nnD nnQ cw v. 6. ino "nns nw "rns n^'H wb pn2 -inn D^nbs ""^ "itd d'^h^'H ^d V. 6 >22? n'2'S I3n n')T2'2's The Psalm in either form is a cento. The component parts are strung together like beads on a thread, with very little appearance of inter- dependence, or continuity of thought. PSALM XIV. Ill It is of little importance or interest to in- quire whether the stringing of the beads in one order was earlier or later than in the other. The main interest lies in the diverse forms of the 5th and 6th verses in the two Psalms. Nothing can be more certain than that, either one of these forms is a corruption of the otlier, or that both are corruptions of some lost original. The latter supposition is the most probable. At the same time, I cannot but think that the form in which these verses appear in Ps. liii. is on the whole very much nearer to the ori- ginal than that of Ps. xiv. In the first place, — there is in Ps. xiv, 6, 6, no such natural sequence of ideas as in Ps. liii. There is, indeed, no sequence at all. Then, the sentiment of xiv. 6, is theologi- callj inadmissible. For w'^nn means to bring to shamey not to tnocky as it is usually rendered in this place. There is this difference, viz. that whereas to mock means to try to put to shame, the word here used means to bring to shame effectually. Now if there is one thing more frequently and emphatically asserted in Holy Scripture than anotlier, it is that those who put 112 PSALM XIV. their trust in God shall never be put to shame. Yet the assertion of Ps. xiv. 6, is that the coun- sel of the poor is brought to shame, because the Lord is his trust. On the other hand, this expression of put- ting to shame is constantly used with peculiar significance, as against the enemies of God and of God's people. Instituting a strict comparative analysis of the two forms in which this relic appears, we must omit p^'ii^ from xiv. 5, — not by assuming here that it is an interpolation ; but because it is not represented in the other text. We thus place these portions of the two texts in this parallelism, viz. xiv. 5, 6. ''3^ n'^v "Tnn liii. 6. -f3n n^72'2V itd It is beyond all doubt, that each of the three words in the one text is a modification of the con*esponding word in the other text. It is also unquestionable, that the diver- gencies of the two texts have arisen in the course of oral transmission, rather than by the obliteration of manuscripts or the errors of tran- PSALM XIV. 113 scribers ; though these also have plajed their part. Now it is well known that in the handing down of traditional poetry, proverbs, or maxims, the rhyme, the rhjthm, the jingle, are retained after the sense is lost. Nay, — the old rliyme and rhythm &c. become often tlie vehicle of a new meaning. The emphasis of a syllable will remain in a new combination, just as it stood in the original, however both the form and the meaning of the original combination may have perished. "With this consideration in view, I remark that the first syllable of ntc, in Ps. liii. 6, is strongly emphatic, — the verb being in the Piel form ; and that the first syllable of -rnn in liv. 5, is utterly without emphasis, so long as it is fol- lowed, in Stat, constr.f by ,Ti!J. Take away this word, aud there is no reason why the first sylla- ble of "Tnn should not be equivalent in emphasis with the first syllable of -itd. We cannot approximate the two texts by the inverse method, viz. by depriving the first syllable of nts of its emphasis ; because, whe- 114 PSALM XIV. ther this verb be Kal or Piel, its first syllable will be overwhelmingly emphatic in comparison with the corresponding syllable in the other text. We must therefore make the mm of Ps. xiv. conform to the -itq of Ps. liii, There is here no difficulty ; since the Aramaic i^ael "nn is the constant equivalent of the Hebrew Piel -iTD. In this very place, viz. Ps. liii. 6, — the Syriac translator so renders the Hebrew. We may thus place in parallehsm with the Piel its of Ps. liii. the Pael mn of Ps. xiv. And we may no PF assume that the pn^s ofPs. xiv. is an interpolation.* *The recapitulatiou of ray argument upon this point may be put thus : — If "1T5 be the original, as I suppose, — the firit change, to Pa. n"T2, is accounted for by oral transmiisioo. There is, accordingly, no change in the position of the emphasis. The further transition, to "iTTla, must bean error or a coi jecture of a transcriber. Conyeriely : — ■ If Tni be assumed as the original, with the first syllable utterly without eraphasis, as it must be according to the construction in which alone it has any meaning,— then we cannot account for its transition to Pa. "TTD in oral transmission. And so the further supposition of a PSALM XIV. 115 "With regard to niDSU and n!iv : — Whe- ther the divergence between these two words arose in the course of oral transmission or of manuscript copying, it is easier to imagine how the syllable id might slip out than how it could slip in. If this syllable has been accidentally dropped from miairi?, we may thus account for n!J2?. Whereas, if n^2? were the original, there would be no necessity, no occasion, and, as I ap- prehend, no inducement, for the interpolation of this syllable. Coming now to the word -f3n, — there is no other example of the verb nan, to encamp against, being followed by the accusative, with- out a preposition. It occurs, therefore, to one's mind that the final consonant may be a radical, and not a pronominal suffix. The Lxx. render this word by dvOptoTrapea- K(ov, and are herein followed by the Syriac and lectioaal charge is checked ; since it will hardly be im- agined that an original ~i"n^ would re-appear a« Pi. "ITS, T?iihout passing through the intermediate form of Pa "i"Q. It is, of course, posiible that the Aramaic Pael "nn may be the original. The argument is not aflfscted by this lupposition. 116 PSALM XIV. the Latin Vulgate. The word is used no-where else by the Lxx , but it occurs twice in the New Testament in such a connexion as to suggest a special meaning in which it may have been used by the lxx. For the dv6po}7rdpe(TKo'2V in the other, we can hardly avoid regarding the latter as a defective reading of p3^. The diverse readings of the two texts will be thus reduced to these forms. Now either of these will account fo^' the rendering of the lxx,; but we have seen what a poor meaning they were able to put upon tlie last word, with all their ingenuity. We are not at such a loss, if we assume p:iV as the original form, and "j3n as a later substitute, supposed to be an equivalent. Because p3^, Anak, is a proper name, — a name which once caused boundless terror in the camp of Israel, and pro- duced a panic most disastrous in its consequen- ces. We can therefore connect this name readily with the context : — There Jeared they greatly SfC, This word. There, is frequently used to in- troduce the mention of some striking event in the remote past. Regarding this passage of Ps. xiv. as an archaic fragment, we are thus, I think, enabled 120 PSALM XIT. to detect both its origin and its meaning in the expression to which we have reduced the various forms in which it appears, in this Psalm, in the 63rd, and in the Septuagint Version : — There Jeared they greatly, where no fear rvas, for God hath scattered the bones (or the forces) of Anak. No one who reads the account of the ten'or which the name of Anak once inspired, and of the calamitous consequences of that fear of man rather than of God, can wonder at the appear- ance of this name in a fragment of traditional Israelitish poetry. The remainder of v. 6, I, of course, reduce to conformity with liii. 6 : — God hath contemned them. The word D«a is so far from being re- stricted to the meaning of rejection^ — a meaning that seems to imply a previous choosing, — that it is more frequently used of God's declining to choose f passing over, so contemning, a people or an individual. The other portions of this Psalm that are noteworthy are, V. 1. nb>bi? "in'^nir'n as compared with □mb^b^y 'ps in^naJn in Zeph. iii. 7. PSALM XIT. 121 V. 4. Who eat up my people as they eat bread, 7 hey call not upon the Lord. In Micah iii. 3, 4, we read. Who eat the flesh of my people. Then shall they cry unto the Lord, hut He will not hear them. There seems here a strangely elliptical transition, which is perhaps to be explained by a reference to this place of Ps. liv. They who eat the flesh of my people (Micah iii. 3), and call not upon the Lord (Ps. xiv. 4), shall then call in vain upon the Lord (Micah iii. 4). V. 5. UD. See note on Ps. xxivi. 13. V. 7. nint^ m27. Delitzsch says that the Kal form is here used for the Hiphil for the sake of the alliteration. Yet the alliteration would not be destroyed by the use of the Hiphil ; and it is certain that in places where no alliteration is in- tended (as in Ps. liv. 7, and Ps, Ixxxv. 5, and elsewhere) the Kal form of this verb is used transitively. 122 PSALM XV. Psalm XV. V, 3. «b3 wb nann sc. vn^b '^r as in y, 4, of the next Psalm. T. 4. D«!33 V3>37n nTn3, LXX, e^ovSeVwrat iu(OTTLOv avTov Trovr)pev6[xevo^. Sucli a render- ing would require the def, art. before d«d3, which would thus have the pregnant meaning of one who is rejected bj God in consequence of his own rejection of God. Such a man is con- temned by the righteous, who, on the other hand, honoureth ("rn^^) them that fear the Lord. Compare the words of Samuel to Saul, 1 Sam. XV. 23, — Because ihou hast rejected (nos?::) the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee ("fDK?2'^l) /rom beinff king', and Saul's entreaty — Yet honour me norv (^Din^) 1 pray thee bejore the elders of my people. The rendering of the lxx. is certainly the right one, in the main. We may put it thus : — In his sight he who is contemned of God is con- temned. The Hebrew words have the same meaning, and therefore I give the one English word for both. But, according to the Hebrew usage, the former of these two Hebrew words is PSALM XVI. 123 appropriate to God's contemning : — the latter to man's. y"inb vnw2. Notwithstanding the ren- dering of the Lxx., the reference is undoubted- ly to the formula in Lev. v. 4 ; and the meaning is, — He swearelh, and changelh not, ihougli it he to his own injury. Psalm XVI. OiV V. 2. *7^b37 bn ^nnita. lxx. ro)v dya$ fxov ov yjidav 9(ets. For "i^bi? bn I would read inbrn (part. pass, lorded over, or orvned, by 7hee; as nbi^n, a woman lorded over, i.e, married). Comp. Ecc, v, 11, where goods and their owners are expressed by these same words, yiz. nmtD and n"^b2?n. It may be observed that, upon this suppo- sition, the b27n of the second clause will corres- pond with the "^siM of the former clause. Comp. caiM I3ibi?n in Isaiah xxvi. 1 3. In connection with the ^etav e^ei? of the LXX., we may observe further that ^(ojxevos is the Septuagint rendering of "jn^ in Pro v. xxv. 1 3, and of bl?n in Prov. xvii. 8. 124 PSALM XVI. The meaning would thus be : — Oh Jeho- vah, Thou art my Lord : my goods are at Thy disposal. The Sjriac version is quite consistent with the reading which I propose, though with a somewhat different meaninq:. The sentiment Thou art Lord of my goods appears in the Syriac as My goods (are derived) from Thee. Sjmmachus and Jerome seem both to have read -ynis^bn bn, since their renderings are ovK enbn3. "With "^bi? n-iDttJ rhu'i Comp. Dan. iv. 24, wd^d V. 9. I think there can be no doubt that ninD as used here and in Ps, xxx. 13 ; Ivii. 9, &c. is the same as ina, the liver. We are in the habit of iracing moral feeling to one only of the internal organs, viz. the hearts But the Hebrew seems to have regarded some others, as PSAP.M XVII. laT the liver, the reins, &c., as the seat of certain affections. Psalm XVII. T. 1. nn^trpn (sc. "73tw), properly, and usually, followed by b or b« , though by n in Ps. Ixvi. 19. Here, and in Job. xiii. 6, it is followed by the ace. The proper usage is represented by the perfectly analogous Greek of the Lxx., Trpocrx^s Trj BetjcreL [xov. The suggestion of Gesenius that the primary idea of the word is that of erecting, or pricking up, the ear, is plausible. He seems to think that the idea is borrowed from the habits of the inferior animals. See, how- ever, what Mr, Darwin has to say upon this sub- ject iu his Descent of Man^ Vol. 1, chap. i. V. 3 and 4. To understand this somewhat difficult passage, we must observe first the difference between inn and ipD (in the one hand, and p^nij on the other. The two first convey the idea of testing and searching. The last denotes the result of the trial. I think that ni!J, wherever it is found, means actual purga- tion. The clauses in which these words occur are 128 PSALM XVII. followed bj parallel clauses iu llie ordinary He- brew sequence, thus : — With A, nVb mpD ^nb nann corresponds a. ^D -Q!?"" bn "TioT N!2r5n bn Jhou hast tried my heart. Thou hast visit- ed me by niyht. May no evil thought, no rebellious word, be Jound in me, I give this, not as a literal translation, but as showing the deprecative force of bn when fol- lowed by a future. The various usages of bn correspond pretty closely with those of the Latin we. Originally, as all such words must have been, it was an absolute negative. Then to it was appropriated the meaning of prohibition or deprecation. Then again hi, like bs, = the archaic Latin ut non, or even ut ne, subsequent- ly ne alone, = English lest. With B. "'^riDniJ corresponds b. v^"i2 mn-is ^mi2W iTiEi» nmn di« mb^Db It will be observed that, whereas the ideas of trial and seaich in A, are followed by the de- precative bn in a, the actual purgation asserted in B is followed by the actual preterite in 6. PSALM XVII. 120 But the two clauses B and b are not onlj parallel in meaning : they must be construed to- gether. Just as in Ps. xii. 7, we find Purified in the furnace^ so jar as earth is con- cerned, i.e. from earthly mixture, (See Gesenius sub V.) so here we find msmbrab ^ans-is Thou hast purified me in respect of "or- dinary human actions. This is the outcome of the trying and test- ing, and it is further described, as a result, in the sequel, — By the Word of Thy lips I have kept J 8^Ct V^i2 mms \'y-\72W. Gesenius, Delitzsch, and most others render, / have observed the ways of the violent man, sc. in order to avoid them. There is, however, absolutely no war- rant for this : but, on the contrary, mm« lati; or -ym, is very frequently and invariably used to denote keeping in a way. The concordance will supply abundance of instances. Amongst others see r]'\r{'' >3-n >m'QW in Ps. xviii. 22. See also Ps. xxxvii. 34, Wait thou on the Lord, and 130 PSALM XVII. keep His way, iDm -1x327, and Prov. ii. 20, ~))att7n G"'p''i!J mn-)W. An instance in Job xxxiii, 11, is different from, but not opposed to, the general use. I would especially compare this place with Ps. cxix. 9. It is there asked. How can a young man cleanse his way, irns ? The answer is. By keeping it according to Thy Wordy -f-im3 -larrb. Now here it is said, that By the Word of Thy lips I have kept (certain) paths, ^i-natt? mms. And from these con- siderations we can hardly avoid the conclusion that the paths which are here spoken of as kept are such as ought to be kept, viz. the ways of God that are so frequently pointed out for man's observance. What, then, becomes of the word y^n^ at thfi end of tliis 4th verse ? It can hardly be re- tained as it stands. The Lxx. read something different, since they give o-KXrjpas, sc. oSov?. It happens that they once give this word as the rendering of v^^in. It is therefore possible that they may have read yi'in in this place instead of v"*"i2. The word y^in is frequently used in the book of Proverbs to denote the diligent, pru- dent. If it was used here in this sense it would PSALM XVII. 131 have an appropriate connection with the refining process just mentioned, since the same word, y^in , means also (/old. I admit that this con- jecture rests upon slender grounds. V. 5. ^i2n. Dr. Perowne well observes that this is an infinitive used for the finite verb. If it were an imperative, as it is usually taken to be, it could not be followed, as it is, bj a preterite. He therefore renders this verse, — Holding Jasl with my goings in Thy pafhs, my footsteps have not slipped. We thus get a continuation, and so a con- firmation, of the meaning which I have assigned to the preceding verse. V. 7. Manifest Thy distinctly covenant goodness. Thou that savest those who trust in Thee from Ihem thai resist Thy right hand. For -fnon nh^n see Ps. iv. 4, and xxxi. 22. We might expect D^Din to be followed by "72. To understand it absolutely, as the trust- ing ones, may seem harsh, but is warranted by Prov. xiv. 32. V. 9. IT , a demonstrative, equivalent to nt, and, like it, sometimes used as a relative. 132 PSALM XVII. So used, both forms may have a plural refer- ence, as here, iu Ps. cxxxii. 12, and Job xix. 19. Observe here the analogy of our English that. We say, " I trusted that man, or those men," but, used as a relative, that answers both purposes : — " The man that I trusted," or " The men that I trusted." id. Mine enemies nith eagerness compass me about* With 'b^ i!:"*p'> ii?D3n in this place compare p\^'pT[ "hv m^JiD, with his net he compasieth me, in Job xix. 6. V. 10. To translate 11:10 ijsnbn, they en- close (themselves) in their own fat, is sufficient- ly awkward and unwarrantable. Since the idea of fatness is frequently connected with that of indolence, we may perhaps render the whole verse. In indolence they shut their mouth : in haughtiness they speak. The Chaldee "i3D is used in this connection. See Dan. vi, 22. And in the same connection the Syriac translator uses the kindred -idd iu this very place. See also Ps. Ixiii. 12, The mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped, "i3D>. PSALM XVII. 133 T. 11. To shed our blood in the land, — taking in the first word of v. 12, thus :— - i3^aT V"^^^ mi32b- The usual word to denote shedding of blood is -jQti7. But we find ntss equivalent to "^^w in Ps. Ixxiii. 2- Moreover the meaning of pour- ing out must be assigned to ni33 in Isaiah Ixvi, 12. Behold I extend (ntD3) peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a Jiorv- ing stream. And again in Gen. xxxix. 21, The Lord was with Joseph and shewed mercy unto him, ion vb« to^l, the lxx, give Karix^ev avTov eXeos. We thus get rid of the difficulty created bj the first word in the next verse, viz. 13>/21, which, as usually pointed and interpreted, means his likeness, but which occurs only in this place. The word must now be banished from our lexicons. ^v. 13. "^mn. With Thy sword. It is thus that the Psalmist prays to be delivered from the wicked, the positive enemy of God and man, viz. raJ-ia. V. 14. ^-r% By Thy hand, i.e. by the or- dinary dispensation of Thy Providence. It is 134 PSALM XVII. thus that the Psahnisl desires to be delivered from the evil influence of mere worldly men, viz. c\nDa. id. ihm2 □\n?:2, men of the world. If we say that the preposition p, as used here, marks the genitive, — this is true in the funda- mental sense of the word genitive. In no other sense does this preposition supersede the or- dinary status constructus. There is here an unconscious reference to the distinction so expressly made in the book of Genesis between the sous ol God and the sons of men. The son of man was born of the earth, y-qyevrj';, the giant of those days. Modern commentators and theologians dwell upon the earthly tendencies of the ungodly. The funda- mental idea of the ibna dtid is rather that of their earthly origin ; though Gesenius and others interpret the words, those who love the things of the world. It may be objected that ibn does not mean the material world, but rather the temporal con- dition of things as contrasted with man's eternal destiny. This is true of the primary meaning PSALM XVII. 135 of the word, which yet, like our word world, may have become synonymous with earth. But — apart from this supposition — the children of (i.e. born of) this present time, are the tvorldlj/y the aliens from the heavenly futurity. And with this view agree the next words of the text, — their portion is in (f.his) life. It is Hkely that the expression so frequent- ly found in St. John's Gospel and Epistles, as denoting the ungodly, — viz. iK tov Koorfiov — -is an imitation of the Hebrew usage. id, nDT:)3 Kbjsn "jsis!?, Their rvomh is jllled rvith Thy hidden treasure. So we are almost com- pelled to translate by the words immediately fol- lowing, — J hey are satisfied with children. It is consistent also with the context, which is concerned with ungodly enjoyment of God's gifts, amongst which the gift of chikh'en is mentioned. Moreover, the specially appropriate usage of -[Dis^ in this sense, may be appreciated by a reference to Ps. cxxxii. 1 3 — 1 6. V. 15. "fnainn n27nb« seems antithetical to c^an irnb"' in the preceding verse. Let the earth- born be satisfied with their earth-born chiklren, 136 PSALM XVIII. made in their own image aurl likeness, I, when I awake in Thy likeness, shall be satisfied therewith. Psalm XVIII. It is certain that a great part of this Psalm is inapplicable to the circumstances of David's personal history. It is equally certain that the whole of it is applicable, circumstantially, to the history of Israel as a people. I therefore sup- pose the Psalmist, who was in all probability David, to have written in the name and person of Israel. Of the Israelitish history, however, David could say — Pars magna fui. It is, therefore, by no means an objection to my sup- position, to find, as we do, that the Psalm begins and ends with circumstances of David's personal history ; this being, in the body of the Psalm, merged in the history of Israel. David's deliverance from the hands of Saul was an er«nt of national, as well as of personal, interest. With the mention of this, which was in part the occasion of the composition of this Psalm, David begins. In v. 7 he enters upon a recapitulation of God's dealings with Israel, PSALM XVI 11, 137 loDg before his own personal experience, yet still speaking in his o vn person. Whoever compares this 7th verse with the account given in Exodas of the cry of God's people in Egypt coming up before Him, will see that this verse is an echo of that account. The following verses relate to God's grand manifestations of Himself in behalf of Israel, and against Egypt. In v. 16, the channels of the waters, or of the sea, as in the other text, are seen, and the buttresses of the earth discovered, plainly referring to the passage prepared for Israel through the Red Sea. If this could be doubted, we might call attention to some expres- sions in this Psalm, which are either taken from, or are appropriated to, the historical account of that event. The word nii?3, in v. 16, is very frequently used with special reference to the re- buke wherewith God dried up the Red Sea. See note on Ps. Ixviii. 31. The expression "^SM rrn, in the same verse, seems to be taken from Moses' song on that occasion (Exodus XV. 8). In the next two verses the words — He drarveth me out of many waters — He de- liverelh me from mine enemies, for they are 138 PSALM xviir. stronger than I — point to the same deliverance. For further illustration, I refer to the notes below. There are many points of difference be- tween the text as here found and that given in 2 Sam. xxii. — some of them being of consider- able importance. For the most part, the Sep- tuagint version of each text shows corresponding diversity. In my notes I sliall indicate the most important points. V. 2. / love Thee, Lord my slrenglh. These words are not found in the other text. V. 4. bbntt. See also Pa. xcvi. 4, and cxlv. 3. According to the Lxx., the word is pointed here as if it were Pael instead of Pual : — alvuiv eTTLKokifTOixai. In the other two Psalms they give aii^erds. The position of the word here inclines me to adopt the pointing of the LXX., — In confident exuliaiion (sc. such as is warranted only by covenant relationship with God) do I call upon Him.— See Prolegomena. V. 5. The reading of 2 Sam. xxii., viz. •^nnu^^a instead of >bnn, is certainly to be pre- ferred. The two figurative expressions in this i»SALM xviii. I;i9 vers3 are tliose of flooding- and overwhelming. The two in the next verse are those of trapping and snaring. The reading of the Psahn puts one of the expressions, whicli is congruous oulv in V. 6, incongruously in v. 5. The reading of the other text puts this right. V. 6. b^^w ">bnn. The snares of Saul. I Jiave el >ewhere remarked that, in accord- ance 'with the law of sequence in Hebrew poetry, wliere there is repeated mention of two sub- jects, A and B, the order is not always as with us, AB, AB; but often AB, BA. Applying the rule here, we find that in v. 5, the terror of death stands as A, — the terror of Belial, i.e. of some ungodly enemy, as B. In v. 6, therefore, we must look for the ungodly enemy in the first clause, and for death in the second. We find death in the second, and biNE; in the first. And since the heading of the Psalm expressly names Saul as tlie ungodly enemy, we can hardly avoid the rendering of the text which I have given above, V. 11. He rode upon a cherub and dldjlij. These words plainly express the riiUng upon some winged creature, and the expression is in 140 PSALM XVI II accordance with what we elsewhere read of the Cherub, V. 13. In the other text the verse stands thus : — At the brightness of His presence coals of fire were kindled, V. 15. Comp. Ps. cxliv. 6. V. 16. n*'D, waters. So lxx. In the other text, D% sea. So also lxx. id. '^mi:'^^' See the same words, used with the same reference, viz. to the deliverance at the Red Sea, in Ps. Ixxvi. 7. See also note onlxviii. 31. V. 19. For >2i^-T,T many copies give ^2^-rp\ as in 2 Sam. xxii. This is, in my opinion, the true reading of both texts, and is to be taken as 3rd person singular, thus : — He (sc. God) prevented me (sc. with help) in the day of my trouble : yea, Jehovah was my stay. My reasons for so understanding the pas- sage are these : — (a) Because the verb (Pi. of mp) is used PSALM XVIII. 141 for the mo8t part in a good sense, — that is, of meeting any one with help. See, for example, Ps. xxi. 3 : — Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. See also below. In the few places where it is not so used, it is allowable to take the word in the neutral sense of being before-hand, whether for good or for evil. (b) Because God is the subject of the two preceding, and of the two succeeding verses. We naturally look for the same subject in this middle verse. It is inconceivable that, in such a position, a new subject should be intro- duced without being expressed. Bearing in mind that the word paja, stay or support^ occurs only here and in Isaiah iii. 1, let the following passages be compared : — Deut. xxiii. 4. D^am nnbn Dsnw lanp Kb. They met you not with bread nor nilh water. Isaiah xxi. 14. n3 i!2np ittnbn. They met the fugitive with their bread. Isaiah iii. 1. d"^d x^wi2 b^i Dnb ]2?K7d bs The whole support of bread and the whole support oj water. 142 PSALM XVIII. Ps. xviii. 19. "'b pti^nb mn'' '•n^i n^« cvn ^^anp*' He met me in the day oj my trouble : yea, Jehovah was my support. The word ivw'a is the connecting link of these passages, and it is of the more value for this purpose inasmuch as it occurs nowhere ex- cept in the places here cited. It is not, therefore, fanciful to find in tliia 19th verse an implied reference to the unkind- ness of Moab and Ammon recorded in Dent, xxiii. 4, These did no! meet Israel with the stay of bread and water. But the Lord did meet Israel, and He was Israel's stay, in bread sent down from heaven : in water fetched from the desert rock. I take this as another confirmation of my theory, viz., that the Psalmist is here speaking in the person of Israel. Some doubt may perhaps be entertained as to the construction of this passage, as I propose to read it: — the one subject of two consecutive propositions being implied in the former, and expressed in the latter. It might be sufficient to meet this difficulty by a comparison of those places where, in the course of predication con- PSALM XVIII. 143 ceruing some oue subject, and before that pre- dication is completed, a second subject is intro- duced. For examples, see note on Ps. Ixviii. 24. The principle is the same in both cases. In the one, the writer begins his proposition with one subject in view, and as another comes in view he engrafts it upon the same proposition. In the other case, the proposition is begun and completed with one subject, implied only in the outset. But there comes into view, not an addi- tional subject, as in the former case, but an occa- sion of empliasizing the one subject. The occa- sion is employed, just where it occurs, viz. in the course of the predication, by expressly nam- ing the subject, which had been only implied in the outset. In the text before us, it is easy to see how an occasion would offer itself, just at this point, for the express naming of Jehovah, whose agency is implied in the preceding verb. As if the Psalmist would say : — He helped me when none else would help me, — Yes, Jehovah was then my support. So far as the construction is concerned, there are, however, instances more directly in 144 PSALM xvin. point to be adduced. See Judges v. 1 3 ; Fs. Ixxviii. 34 ; cii. 20; and [saiah xxv. 8. V. 20. Almost every word of this verse points to God's dealings with Israel, as a nation, and especially to His bringing them from Egypt to Canaan. Byway of illustration let the fol- lowing places be compared, Exod. iii. 8. / am come down to hiing them into a good land and a large (nnn"^), a land that Jioweth with milk and honey. Ps. xviii. 20. He brought me forth into a large land (nmia) ; He delivered me because He delighted in me (^^ y^n). Numb. xiv. 8. If the Lord delight in us (i3n V-n) then He nill bring us into this land n'hich Jioweth with milk and honey. V. 21 to V. 27. These verses contain a elalement of the grounds of God's favour towards Israel. It is not easy to understand such pro- fessions of innocence on the part of Israel : — but on the other hand it seems to me simply im- possible to take them as referring to David per- sonally : — the more so, if we put them in David's own mouth. Taking ihem with a national reference, we PSALM XVIII. 145 may compare the statement in Num. xxiii. 21, He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel. v^ 30. For by Thee 1 shall run, — a troop : and by my God J shall scale the wall. The allusion is to the rapid movements of the 1113, which was a body of light forces em- ployed in predatory warfare, or for foraging pur- poses. The scaling of the wall is, of course, the taking of a fortress. With the text compare Joel ii. 4, 5, 7, — They shall run, — They shall leop, — They shall run, they shall climb the wall. With the expression 1112 V"^w, — T shall run, — a troop, — Compare 2 Kings v. 2. The Syrians went Jorth, — troops. Compare also Gen. xlix, 27. Benjamin shall ravin, — a wolj ; Ps, Ixxiii 6, Violence covereth him, — a garment, Ps. xxix. 10. The Lord sitteth upon the water-flood, — the Lord sitteth a King for ever. Rev, xviii. 7, Kadrjixai jSacriXicrcra, 146 PSALM XVIII. I quote the last as a Hebraism, though it iuevitably reminds one, in classical usage, of the qu I. 46. V. 41. These are the words of the promise to Israel in Ex. xxiii. 27. David, it is true, might take them as applicable lo himself. If so, it is in subordination to his personation of Israel. JSee also Ps. xxi. 13. V. 43. It will be seen that, instead of p"»-iw, 1 tvill pour out, the LXX. read Hiph. of ppi in both texts, and this is a much more suit- able word. 1 will pound them as the mire oj the streets. V. 44. Thou shall make me (Israel) the chief of the nations (d'^12 il'«-)), — just as in Num. xxiv. 20, Amalek is spoken of as the chief of the nations (q"^12 n'^trsn). V. 45. The Piel of K^ns (as used here, in Ps. Ixvi. 3, Ixxxi. 16, and Job xxxi. 28) is usually supposed to have a meaning derived from that oi deceiving y viz. to yield feigned obe- dience. Yet the word may as well ^be under- stood in its primary sense, viz. of failing. It is certain that in no language is the idea of lying PSALM xvin. 147 or deceiving found as a primary idea. The word in question, wti'd, is found in Kal with the meaning of falling away ; sc. of flesh, in Ps, cix. 24. Thus the cognate ins, which means in Piel to hide (See Ps. xl. 11,) and in Hiphil to destroy (Ps. Ixxxiii. 5) had primarily the meaning of to fall : — thence the transitive, to cause to Jail. Quite analogous is Gr. cr^aXXw. The meaning of this passage is, then, sim- ply this : — The children of the stranger submit themselves, — without any notion of deception, V. 46. To n~in, a root found only here, is assigned the meaning of trembling, on the au- thority of the Chaldee usage. Comp. Micah vii. 17. V, 48. Only here and in Ps. xl\ii. 4, is the Hiphil of nm found. See, however, my note on Ps. xlv. 6. The idea of subordinationy which seems to be intended in these places, is easily connected with the fundamental idea of the root, viz. ordination^ The first application of this idea is to aggregates, as a flock of sheep, a swarm of bees, or a people, a tribe, a clan, v. 50. / rvill praise Thee among the na- tions. This must be spoken in the person of 148 PSALM XIX. Israel. David could, as the result of his own personal experience, praise God in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation (Ps. cxi. 1, and elsewhere). He appears thus as a co- ordinate with those amongst whom he praises God. But he who praises God among the na- tions must be a co-ordinate with the nations,— viz. Israel as a nation, and not David personally. Or, even if David himself praise God among the nations, his theme will surely be God's dealings with Israel as one of tlie nations, rather than bis own personal experience. Psalm XIX. V. 4. Whereas in the preceding verse it is said that day unto day uUereth speech &c , it has been proposed to take this fourth verse as a corrective of that figurative statement, thus : — there is indeed no speech, and there are no words : their voice is inaudible. This is perfectly in- credible. For, if we admit such a reudejing of this fourth verse, it will be not merely a correc- tion of figurative language, but a contradiction of the preceding and subsequent propositions in the very terms of the propositions themselves. PSALM XIX. 149 The obvious meaning is surelj the right one, yiz.^-There is no speech, and there are no words, wherein their voice is not heard, "^bn is both akin and equivalent to Tibn, and it is used here in the pregnant sense in which the latter is so often found. V. 5. For mp one feels tempted to read Dbip, from the preceding verse. Yet the <^^oyyos of the LXX. may represent ip, as a cord of a stringed instrument. Not that this is at all likely. The plurals in this verse, viz. their line, their words, — in them, — have reference to the heavens mentioned in v. 2. V. 11. That are to he desired. That is, judgments that are to be desired. This is the force of the definite article at the beginning of the verse. 160 PSALM XX. Psalm XX. Although this Psalm is plainly composed for some special occasiou, it may be nevertheless an example of the ordhiary form and style of sacrificial hymns. It is not, perhaps, fanciful to trace in it the successive stages of the sacrificial process. There is, to begin with, a prayer that God will favourably accept the sacrifice. Then, in V. 7, comes the assurance that it has been so accepted : tliat thus God's saving health is se- cured to him who has offered the sacrifice. We need not suppose any extraordinary manifesta- tion of this assurance. The ordinary consump- tion by fire of the sacrificial elements would be sufficient. The Psalm proceeds to a responsive assertion of trust in God, and concludes with a re-iterated mention of the grounds of that trust. V. 4. May He smell the incense of all thy offerings, and quaff the fat of thy burnt-sacri- fice. The warrant for this rendering cannot be laid before the reader very briefly, and I must therefore bespeak his patience and attention. The two verbs here found are not in them- selves sacrificial terms, but they are distinctly PSALM XX, 151 connected with the terms appropriated to each of the two forms of sacrifice here mentioned. Taking them in the order in whicli they are mentioned, we find, in the ritnal of the Minchah, that the offering was to be accompanied with oil and frankincense : that the offering itself was to belong to the priest ; and that the accompani- ments, viz. the oil and frankincense, with per- haps some small portion of the flour, were to be burned on the altar. This part, devoted to be burned as incense, is spoken of as niDTW, a word wliich is rendered by the Lxx. fivyjiiocrvvov, and which has almost always been supposed to con- vey an idea of bringing to remembrance. It has, Iiowever, been pointed out that the Hebrew word means incense, witliout any notion, — at least, without any direct notion, — of remembrance.* * It is interesting to observe hov/ this original idea of the Hebrew word was retained iu the Hebrew mind, notwithstaiiJing that it became necessary to express it by the Greek ^vrifxoavvov. In New Testament typology, the prayers of the Saints are the most fragrant incense, (Rev. v. 8), and almsgiving is the most acceptable iacrifice(Heb. xiii. 16). Of the two together we read in Acts X. 4, that the prayers and alms of Cornelius ascended to God tiQ nvr]fx6crvvov, that is, in Hebrew mDTWb ', in 152 PSALM XX. This meaniug has been adopted bj EwalJ and bj Hupfeld. It may be sufficient to refer, for the support of this view, to Lev. xxiv. 7, — but in every place where the word occurs the mean- ing of incense will appear, 1 think, more suit- able than that of memorial, whilst in some places the latter is clearly inadmissible. It is in any case certain that in this Psalm the words 1^:^72 and nsr have a connection that is ritually appropriate. We shall be better able to judge whether the verb here means to remember or to smell, if we examine the connec- tion between the parallel pair of terms rib^v and Tlie ritual of the rib^v must be studied in Lev, iii., where it can hardly escape notice that the sacrifice is offered as if it were in itself pleas- ing to God. The Jat and the blood are the Lord's. The one is expressly mentioned as the English, a» incense. The usual rendering, viz. for a memorial, conveys no idea that I can apprehend. For if the almg and prayers were intended to remind God of something,— then of what? Why of the prayers and alms themselves,— which is absurd. Whereas the idea of incense is of some- thing in itself pleasing and acceptable. PSALM XX. 153 focd of ihe ojffermg, — it is clearly implied that the other was regarded as the drinks From this gross conception arose in course of time the truth that the sacrifice is nothing to God apart from the mind and the will of the sacrifices But for the expression of the sublimest truth we must have recourse to those words that were framed for the earliest and grossest purposes. We are not therefore scandalized when we find words of such gross meaning where we look for something more spiritual. It ought not to be re- garded as an objection to my interpretation of this verse that it puts upon the words a meaning that to us seems profane. The fat, then, was regarded as the food of the deity. He was not supposed to eat it, but to inhale with pleasure its unctuous fumes. Bearing this in mind, we shall see that a prayer for the acceptance of a sacrifice will appear as a prayer that God may enjoy it. We must thus understand the verb n3tt?T^. It is certainly al- lowable, grammatically, to lender the word. May He make U Jat, ox May He pronounce it to hejat ; — but the only rendering that will give an adequate meaning is. May He relish it asjat. 154 PSALM XX. I can find no other meaning that the word will bear ; and, admitting this meaning, I return now to the verb of the preceding clause. This too must denote, primarily, some supposed en- joyment of the offering on the part of the deity. Since that which man sends up in this offering is supposed to be a sweet-smelling savour, it is presumed, or hoped, that God will enjoy it as such. This is the object of the prayer. It may help us to bridge over the interval between the fat {)^^) burning on the altar, and the pleasing smell of the same, (implied in n32?T'), if we call to mind that the Homeric KVLar] had the same two -fold meaning. The two verbs must, I think, be regarded as denominatives : — i3t'» from the technical msTM. - n2tJ7T^ from the technical )wi. We may compare the remarkable use of the denominative Ntan, as in Ps, li. 9. An example of more or- dinary use may be found in the bn'z of this twen- tieth Psalm, V. 6. It must not be supposed, from the use of this denominative verb i::v, that the root denot- PSALM XX. 165 edorigiuallj anyidea ofs/we/Z/rtj/.* The origin- al idea of the root is probably that of erecting. Hence the name for the male sex. Hence also the word that denotes memory : — the early idea of a memorial being that of a pillar erected^ either as a land mark or as an identification of an historically interesting spot. From the per- pendicular rising up of the smoke of incense, as in a pillar of vapour, probably comes the word n~)DTW. So the ascending vapour and fire by which the Israelites were led out of Egypt is ipoken of as a pillar^ See the same expression to denote ascending smoke in Judges xx. 40, There is the more reason for supposing that this perpendicular ascending would be the prominent idea to be expressed in the name for incense, because if this did not ascend directly to heaven it did not accomplish its sole purpose. In confirmation of this etymological account of nn^TS, it may further be observed that, to • It is therefore beside the mark to attempt to account for the meaning of n"12TM» as Ewald'does, by reference to the idea of pungency in the corresponding Arabic root. Not to mention that the Arabic word does not convey, so far as I know, any idea of pungency of scent. 156 PSALM XX. denote ascending columns of smoke, another word, viz. niDTi, is found in Cant. iii. 6, and Joel iii. 3 ; and that there is no doubt as to the power of this root, which is that of erection in all the senses in which -idt is used. V. 7. Now do I know thai the Lord has granted His saving health. See note on iii. 8. No other meaning will be appropriate here. If the reference had been to any temporal de- liverance, it would have been sufficient to say The Lord hath saved S^c. It would be absurdly- superfluous to say. Now do T know that the Lord has saved me. But this absurdity will not appear if we consider that the salvation spoken of is the assurance of restoration to saving health. For this state of spiritual health is not manifest to all men ; — not always is it directly manifested to him who experiences it. The Psalmist here mentions with gratitude not only the fact that he was established in spiritual health, but the further fact that he was happily conscious of it. V. 16. 7 he Lord hath saved the king. He heareth us when we call upon Him., The two verbs stand thus in the same form, and with the same meaning, as in v. 7. PSALM XX. 157 It is an anti-climax to understand the word n2?''tt7in here as an imperative, or optative. For the Psalm begins with a prayer that God will hear and answer the King. In the 7th verse we find a verj express assurance that the prayer has been heard and answered, — that God has saved the king. Upon this assurance we may expect the Psalm to proceed, rather than that it should revert to the prayer which has been so expressly answered, — to the wish that has been so literally fulfilled. No sense can be made without some altera- tion of the text. Accordingly the reading of the Lxx, has been very generally adopted, viz. i^ds'I instead of 13d^\ So also the Vulg., and hence probably the versicles in our liturgy, Lord save the king. And mercifully hear us when we call upon Thee, I propose quite as slight a change, viz. the omission of the final n of n^J'^c^in, so as to give the same form and meaning to the verb here as in verse 7. The reasons given above are, I think, quite sufficient to warrant this alteration. But it may be further observed that, in the many instances 158 PSALM XX. in which the imperative form ni7'^tt?in occurs, it is only once followed by an accusative, riz. in Ps. xxviii. 9. Elsewhere it is either followed by b, or it is intransitive, used interjectionally. If the reading which I propose be the true one, then the received reading may be account- ed for by supposing that, the drift of the whole Psalm being lost sight of, it was thought neces- sary to give first an imperative meaning, and then an imperative form, to the verb. Such a change, easy enough under any circumstances, would be facilitated in this case by the initial n of the next word. A copyist who should find the words -Tbr)ni7"^u5in, would be likely enough to connect the n with the verb, and then perhaps unconsciously to furnish the noun with another n, which is absolutely requisite. PSALMS XXI.-XXII. 159 Psalm XXI. V. 4. n>wn. Observe the frequent use of this verb in this Psalm, viz. here, in v, 7, in v, 10, and again in t. 13. T. 7, -f^as-ns. In Thy presence, as in Pa. xvi. 11. V, 12. They intended evil, is a good, as well as a literal, translation. V. 13, Thou wilt cause them to turn their backs. See Ps. xviii. 41. id. Thou seitlest (Thine arrows) upon the strings sc, of the bow. See Ps. xi. 2. Psalm XXII. V. 1. Far from my cry (and from) the words of my complaint. The rendering (according to the received reading) is usually, — Far from my help (and from) the words of my complaint. There is an incongruity here which presents considerable difficulty. To say that God was far from helping him would be intelligible ; and 160 PSALM XXII. SO, slantling by itself, would it be to say tbat God was far from the words of Lis complaint. But to put these two together, without either tlie conjunction i or the repeated preposition a, can hardly have been intended. There is only one way, I believe, of obviating this difficulty ; and that is, by reading Tinrra, from my cry, in- stead of '^nvw^'Q, Jrom my help. This would remove all incongruity ; and the two clauses of this verse would be, like the two clauses of the next, wholly concerned with the crying of the Psalmist. The reading of the text as it stands is, however, confirmed by all the ancient ver- sions. v. 4. Neither the lxx. nor the Vulg. take bsib"^ mbnn as governed by nmv. Moreover, as I have elsewhere pointed out, nbnn usually denotes the object of one's praise : that wherein one glories. So that the glory of Israel here is God Himself. See Deut. x. 21, He is thy praise, -^nbnn «in, and Jer. xvii. 14, ••nbnn nni^ 7 Iiou (0 God) art my praise^ See note on Ps. Ixiii 12. The word 'd.w'^ must therefore be taken ab- PSALM XXTI. 161 solutely : — Thou art Holy : continuing still to he the glory of Israel. For this use of the verb see Jer. xvii. 25, Ihis city shall remain for ever ; and Micah v, 3. See also Ps. ix. 8, The Lord endureth (nti?"^) for ever ; and Ps. xxix. 10. V. 9. It seems certain, from the use of the 3rd person in this verse, that it must be put into the mouth of the enemy ; since, b< ith before and after, the Psalmist speaks constantly in the first person. V. 17, The evidence usually adduced seems in favour of the received rendering, — They pierced my hands and my feet. This result, however, is very unsatisfactory. It is possible that we may be mistaken in understanding D'^nbs in the former part of the verse to mean dogs. It may be rendered, like lions y and considered as a parallel synonym with "»n«3, just as we find w-^nb^i nns3 in Gen. xlix. 9, and «"^nb3i nsD in Num. xxiv. 9. See also Job iv. 10, 11. This rendering will, of course, compel us to render insa like a lion^ and so to abandon the idea o{ piercing. 162 PSALM XXII, V. 18. / may tell all my bones. It would not be easy to imagine a more inane expression. It is impossible to allow such a rendering. The Lxx. suggest something less absurd. They give the verb in the plural : — My bones are num- bered, or reckoned. This is perhaps consistent with the present reading -idds, if this be pointed as for Pual instead of Piel. I am reckoned up quoad ossa. Pual of the same verb occurs in V, 31 of this Psalm. I admit that this notion, — viz. of the ene- mies, like beasts of prey, making their reckon- ings for a division of the spoil, — would seem far- fetched, were it not so clearly expressed in the next verse, — They part my garments amongst them, and upon my vesture they cast lots. Here we have an amplification of all that is implied in the word nsD. The enemies make their reckon- ing for the victim, not only quoad ossa, but also quoad vestimenta. The hands and feet of v. 17 may either remain in connection with that verse, as govern- ed by ^^^p^, or may be transferred to v. 18, so as to be taken in with Tnia^^r. An expression, in general terms, of what PSALM XXII. 163 may thus be gathered from verses 17, 18, and 19, is this: — Like lions do the congregation of the wicked compass me about : like lions do they close upon me. For my hands and my feet, yea for all my hones, do they make count, as they gaze and pry upon me. Yea even my garments do they divide amongst them, and cast lots upon my vesture. It is perhaps superfluous to remark that there is no difficulty created by taking wdb for D'^snb. To go no further than this Psalm, — we find in v. 22 D^'^n for D"^i3W"i. It is not perhaps equally superfluous to re- mind the reader that these words are no-where quoted in the New Testament as applicable to our Lord's crucifixion. V. 21. '•a?D3 .... ^m^n^ . From the parallelism of these two words, here and in Ps. XXXV. 17, it has been supposed that they are used synonymously ; as if m'^n'^ denoted the soul considered as a unique possession : something, as Gesenius says, that cannot be replaced. Yet it seems much more probable that nT^rr^ is to be regarded as an epithet of ^tt7D3 , appropriate only under such circumstances of desolation as 164 PSALM XXIL are described here and in Ps. xxxv. 1 7. It is thus only the fern, form of i^w, desolate, as this ■word occurs in Ps. xxv. 16, and Ixviii. 7. The meaning will then be : — Deliver my soul from the sword : this desolate (soul) of mine from the power of the dog. V. 24. Observe the mention of them that fear the Lord, the seed of Jacob, and the seed of Israel. Compare Ps. cxv. 9, 10, 11, and 12, 13 ; Ps. cxviii. 2, 3, 4, and Ps. cxxxv. 19, 20. V. 26. The occasion of my glorying pro- ceedeth from Thee. V. 27. In seeking the meaning of this verse, and of the remainder of the Psalm, we must observe that with ihis v^erse the mention of Israel closes, and that the rest of the Psalm re- fers to those who from amongst the heathen should turn to God. We must also keep in view what seems to me very obvious, viz. the antithe- sis between the expressions -ri?b crnnb '^XT, in V. 27, and n'^n sb itr^DD in v. 30. This latter observation precludes the view taken by Delitzsch and Dr. Perowne, viz. that V. 27 refers to the feast made by the Psalmist in PSALM XXII. 165 connection with his thank-offering, and in which his poor neighbours were allowed to share. For the contrast is between the humble of God's people who eat to their soul's health and to the sustenance of spiritual life, and the great ones amongst the heathen, who eat and are yet brought down to the dust, and are unable to keep their soul alive. As in the Song of the Blessed Virgin, — He hath filled the hungry rvilh good ihingsy and the rich He hath sent empty away^ — and again in our Lord's words, — Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst ajter righteousness i Jor they shall be filled. The sentiment, and even the expression, will thus be parallel with Isaiah Iv, 1, 2, 3, — wherein all mankind are invited to leave the food that satisfieth not, to accept that which God oflfers, so that their soul may live, — Compare also the entirely parallel passage in Ps. Ixix. 31, &c. It would be an unworthy limitation of the meaning of v. 27, to restrict it to the mere fes- tive eating and drinking that might (or might 166 PSALM XXII. not) be indulged in upon the occasion of the Psalmist's thauk-offering. Notwithstanding what I have observed upon Ps, liii. 3, as to the distinction between E723 and nb , it is certain that there is also a meaning which the two words have in common, viz. the meaning oisoul as the seat of life. This common idea must, I think, be attributed to nb in V. 27, and to tz7D3 in v. 30. V. 29. For the Icingdom is Jehovah's, and it is He that ruleth over the nations^ There is no other admissible interpretation, and the construction will hardly admit of this. After the proposition, Jehovah's is tht Mngdom, we should expect M"in D^inn 'hwM2^ . We must, however, accept this construction with this meaning. Delitzsch refers us to Ps. vii. 10, and Iv. 20, as to parallel constructions ; — but in neither case is the reference satisfactory. V. 30. All the wealthy of the earth have ealertf and are brought low. Before Him do they boTV, — all going down to the dust ; and not one of them has kept his soul alive. It is solely upon the warrant of the preced- ing verse that I thus render the participle here. PSALM xxir. 167 It has been customary to see two classes of the heathen mentioned in this verse, viz. the fat ones, on the one hand, and, on the other, those who are so brought down to the dust of poverty, that they can hardly keep their soul alive. Such a distinction is frivolous. The hea- then are to be called to be partakers with Israel of God's grace. To this occasion it is perti- nent to speak of them as fat in this world's wealth, but as utterly destitute in lack of God's grace. It would be impertinent and frivolous, upon such an occasion, to make a formal dis- tinction of the heathen into the two classes of rich and poor. The grand truth must not be so minced up, viz. that with God's grace the poor are rich (v. 27). — that without God's grace the rich are poor (v. 30.) V. 31. There shall he a seed to serve Him : throughout the coming ages He shall he spoken of as (their) Lord, For ms? and piM are corre- lative terms. A seed is here spoken of indefinitely, as denoting a seed haply remaining when all others are perished. So the lxx. render nnb, a sur- vivor, by o-TTe/o/Aa in Dent. iii. 3, and Isaiah i, 9. 168 PSALM XXIII. With the Lxx. I take m iNn> from the next Terse. See Ps. Ixxi. 18. V. 32. And tliey sliall declare His righteous- ness to a people that is yet unborn, whom He hath made. So the lxx. For this use of >3 see Gesenius, Psalm XXIII. V. 3. He restoreth my sold. See the same expression in Ps. xix. 8. The idea is that of resuscilationy rejreshing. See Ruth iv. 15, Lam. i. 11, and xvi. 19. V. 4. It is true that, as Hupfeld, Dehtzsch, and others, point out, niDb!£ may be pointed as a form of cb!J, with a suitable meaning. It is true, moreover, that the extreme rarity of com- pound words, except in proper names, would in- cline us to prefer this account of the word. But we are not compelled to write it as one word. And it is observable that we have the same authority for taking it to mean shadow oj death as we have for writing it as one word. A more serious difficulty than the rarity of the form is the unusual character of the idea. So very rarely do we find any expression of trust PSALM XXIV. 1C9 in God extending beyond this life. Moreover, if the Psahnist had intended to denote his trust in God even in the hour of death, we should hardly expect him to return, as he does, to the mention of God's dealings with him in this life. Psalm XXIV. We are forbidden by the 1st and 6th verses of this Psalm to restrict its reference to Israel and to Israel's privileges. The leading idea seems to be rather the extension of those privi- leges to the whole world. In answer to the question of v. 3,— Who shall ascend S^c, we might expect to find the chosen people named, with peculiar emphasis upon God's choice of them. Instead of this, we find a moral qualification, (cleanness of hands &c.) for God's favour. It is true that this clean- ness of hands was looked for, even on the part of the chosen people, as a condition of continuance in the grace of God. See note on xxvi. 6. But the mention of this moral qualification here, in connection with the inhabitants of the whole world, (v. 1), and with them especially who seek Israel's God, (v. 6), seems to be an anticipation 170 PSALM XXIV. of the grand truth which it was reserved to St. Peter to declare fully and explicilly, viz, that " in every nation, he that feareth God, and work- eth righteousness, is accepted with Him." T, 4. He who has not perjured his soul. The expression is identical with that which is used in Exod. xx. 7, of taking God's Name in vain. V, 5. He shall receive a Messing from Je^ hovah, &^c. I do not think such an assertion would have been made of Israel. The chosen people were already the blessed of the Lord, even, as they were prone to thiuk, without special moral quali- fication. To say that the blessed people, if they combined worthiness of their calling with the blessedness of that calling, would receive Jeho- vah's blessing, seems a truism. The assertion has a meaning, I apprehend, only if taken in reference to the heathen. v. 6. 7 his is the generation of them that seek Him : of them that seek thy face » O Jacob, I find no diflSiculty here. To seek one's face is an expression that may be used, and is used, with reference to man, as well as to God. PSALM XXIV. 171 And it is by no means aa uncommon thing for the prophets to speak of those who come to God as coming lo Israel, for the sake of Israel's God. See Isaiah Iv. 5, — Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for He hath glorified thee. See also Isaiah xliv. 5. This obvious meaning has been orerlooked. Ewald and Hupfeld follow the Lxx. in introduc- ing the word "•nbs before the word mp^"* , so as to make it, God of Jacob. Delitzsch, dis- approving of this (as he may well do, since it is incredible that such an important word should drop out by accident) — says that Jacob is a summarising predicate, as if thus — those who are admitted into Thy presence are the clean of hands andpure of heart, who have not lifted up their soul to vanity, — who have not sworn de- ceitfully — (in short) Jacob. To this of Delitzsch's it might be sufficient to reply that neither then nor now nor at any time has the name of Jacob been considered as expressing and summarising all that is pure and holy and fair and faithful. But apart from this, such a syntactical device is 172 PSALM XXIV. altogether foreign to the genius of the Hebrew language. V. 7. I can hardly understand this splendid apostrophe as referring merely to the entry of a festal procession, or even of the ark of God, into Zion. ft seems very unlikely that the expres- sion everlasting doors should be applied to the gates of the fortress of Zion because they dated hack to the time of the Jebusiles, or even of Mehhizedehj as Delitzsch says. I would rather understand the Psalmist, in this wonderful passage, as summoning by anti- cipation the ancient fortress of ignorance and prejudice, and as foretelling the removal of those barriers which had kept the heathen from the knowledge of Israel's God. This is in keeping with the import of the first half of the Psalm. And it is only thus that I can see any connec- tion between the two parts, or avoid Ewald's conclusion that two Psalms, or portions of two, have here been welded into one. PSALM XXV. 173 Psalm XXV. V. 2. The words in ^nbs ought certainly to be transposed, since this verse ought to begin with the letter n, — the Psalm being alphabeti- cal. Moreover, the words will then stand in the same order here as in the beginning of the pre- ceding; verse. "o V. 3. cp^n n^iiin. This is not quite the same use of the word as that found in Ps. lix. 6, •JIM nnn. The word "ran means to cover, as with a cloke, — hence to dissemble. In the place before us the word must be taken in its fio^ura- tive sense :— those who in mere vanity are trai- tors (sc, to the covenant God). In Ps. lix. 6, the literal meaning is admis- sible and preferable, viz. clokers of iniquity. V. 6. The vau verse is omitted, — perhaps because the consonantal power of this letter was so weak, and thai its use as an initial is almost limited to the conjunction, in which form it ap- pears in iliQvaa verses of the 119th Psalm. It might, of course, have been so used here and in Ps. xxxiv. ; but it would perhaps appear better to the acrostic writer to omit it altogether ; — 174 PSALM XXV. just as anyone making a similar attempt with the Enghsh alphabet would omit the letter a;. Anyhow, the omission can hardly be regarded as accidental, occurring as it does both here and in the 34th Psalm. V. 7. In this verse, I am glad to find that Delitzsch observes the proper distinction be- tween nist:n and n'^vw^. The Psalmist prays that " God may not remember the faults of his youth, into which lust and thoughtlessness have precipitated him, nor the transgressions by which, even in maturer and more thoughtful years, he has turned the grace of God into licentiousness ^ and broken off his fellowship with Him.'' V. 8, It is upon the ground of God's cove- nant faithfulness that sinners (e^wssh ) may ex- pect God's teaching, and His guidance back into the right way. This is in accordance with the view of Sin, as distinguished from Trans- gression, taken in my Prolegomena. See par- ticularly under ^ 24. For the meaning I have assigned to -id"", see its association with n3ix:« in Ps. xxxiii. 4, T. 11. For Thy name's sake, Lord. . . and pardon my iniquity, for it is great. PSALM XXV. 175 We must understand a prayer of some sort in the former clause to account for the form nnbD"i in the second. The same form of the same word is found in Ex. xxxiv. 9, following and continuing an optative. To that passage in Kxodus this place before us must be referred. There we find an account of God's dreadful ap- pearance to Moses : — how He descended in the cloudy and proclaimed the Name of the Lord ; and how Moses prayed and said, — I pray thee go with uSj and pardon (nnho'^) our iniquity. Here, the Psalmist prays that for God's Name's sake He would pardon (the same word nnboi) his iniquity. See also the same use of the same word in the same form, nnboi, in 1 Kings viii., 34, 36, 39, and always in connection with Israel's pri- vilege of pleading tlie Name of Jehovah : — all, as it is said there, as here, for Thy Name's sake ; ■yiw "X^n^i 1 Kings viii. 41. It would appear that the Psalmist had these passages, or at least that in Exodus, in his mind; and used the same phraseology for his present purpose, regardless of the proprieties of syntax. 176 PSALM XXV. The use of the preterite, following and continuing an imperative or optative, is not in- frequent. V. 12. -inn^ -[-nn in the way (that) he shall choose : that is, — which way he ought to choose. V. 1 7. It is much better to read this verse thus — Expand Thou the straitness of my heart. For the antithesis between nnn and -12 see Ps. iv. 2, -i^n "h nnn-in, Ps. cxviii. 5. and manj other places. vv. 18, 19. It is certain that one of these verses ought to begin with the letter p. De- litzsch can hardly think that he gives a satisfac- tory account of the existing text, when he says merely that " the falling away of the p is made up for by a double ~i strophe." The error, is. indeed, an old one. Both the Lxx. and the Syr. read n^-i as the initial word of each verse. We may therefore believe that the solution of the difficulty is not a proxi- PSALM XXV. 177 mate one. We may expect that the true rcad- iug, if we knew it certainly, would present a difficulty to us, since it presented so great a difficulty to the earliest transcribers and transla- tors that they were compelled to sacrifice the alphabetical order for the sake of retaining some intelligible meaning. Upon a critical examination of these two Terses, I think it will appear very clearly that the former, viz. v. 18, is the original -i verse. There is in it a completeness of thought, and a propriety of expression, that cannot be disturbed. With regard to the prayer of the Psalmist, that God would look upon his sorrow, it is to be ob- served that very frequently God is said to look upon the affliction of His people, sc. with com- passion. But never is God spoken of as looking upon those who afflict His people. Yet in v. 19, as the text stands, it is desired that God should look upon the oppressor in the Tory same terms in which it is desired that He should look with compassion upon the oppressed. The prayer of this verse would not appear 178 PSALM XXV. SO inane, if we could render the first clause, as in our Prayer Book version, Consider mine enemies how many they are. But this is inadmissible. The second clause of the verse comes under the power of '^3, and the meaning of this clause is — Because they hate me ^c. The meaning of ^'D in the first clause must be the same ; so that the rendering of the text, as it stands, can be nothing but this, — Look upon mine enemies, be- cause they are many, and because with violent haired they hale me. This statement of the case will alone suffice to convince us that the initial verb must have denoted some energetic action against the Psalmist's enemies. If this be so, it follows that the order of these two verses has been inverted, If that which now stands as v. 18, was the original n verse, as I think must appear beyond doubt, then V. 19 is the p verse. It is easy to see how this inversion might take place, when the alpha- betical order was lost, and each verse began with the same word. In some copies v. 19 is omitted altogether. So little did it matter which of these two verses should take the precedence, thatit was thought unnecessary to give them both. PSALM XXV. 179 Reversing the order of these two verses, we shall find them in accordance with the or- dinary law of sequence in Hebrew poetry.* The prayers of the Psalm begin with v. 16, which is concerned with the Psalmist's sorrow and sin. The next verse (17) is concerned with outward enemies. Now, according to this law of se- quence, we ought to find v. 18 concerned with outward enemies, and v. 19 with sorrow and sin. But we find this only by inverting the order of the verses, as I propose. Advancing now upon the supposition that V. 19 is the verse that ought to begin with p, we may consider further that, if transcribers and translators found the p verse commencing with a word of which they could not conjecture the meaning, it is extremely improbable that they would cancel this doubtful word and substitute another. So far as the lxx. are concerned, we find invariably that they tried to get a meaning out of some of the materials of a word when they could not reproduce them all. Or even if they felt compelled to provide a * See the law stated in note on Ps. xviii. 6. 180 PSALM XXV. new word, T do not see what inducement there could be to choose a word for their purpose mere- ly because the preceding or succeeding verse happened to begin with that word. The alpha- betical order is as much broken by such repeti- tion as by the introduction of any word what- soever. It is therefore reasonable to assume that in the initial word of the p verse, as it stands, some portion of the true reading may yet be found. So that with regard to this first word of V. 19, which now stands as nw~i, we have reason to suppose, (1) That n«~i represents some portion of the original word. (2) That the original word had p for its initial letter. (3) That the original word denoted some eneraetic action as^aiust the Psalmist's enemies. Now, therefore, I conjecture that the initial word of the p verse (v. 19) was Tiiinp, of which all but the initial letter is found in the existing text. 1 take this word to be the imperative (or hortative) of wnp, ohviani venit, followed by the PSALM XXV. 181 acc. '*:2''W. The verb is found in pret. and fut. Kal, and very frequently in the infin. Kal, — and always followed by the accusative. That it is found nowhere else in the imperative creates no serious difficulty. It is the privilege of poets to use unfamiliar words, and of this privilege an acrostic writer will take full advantage. Yet, though there is little difficulty in as- suming that this was the initial word of the p verse, it is quite enough to account for the per- plexity of transcribers and translators. They would be put off the sceut. first by the unusual form of a familiar word, and then by its identity, in this form, with the other word W")p, to call. In this perplexity, and with an honest desire to use such materials of their reading as could be utilised, they would be very likely to take the letter p as merely marking the order of the verse, and nw~i as the initial word. This was a poor shift ; but it would have been more mislead- ing if they had cancelled the word altogether, and substituted some other that might have made better sense, I therefore render this 19th verse thus : — Do Thou encounter mine enemies, for they are many S(c. 182 PSALM XXV. V. 22. M. Paul de Lagarde makes tlie fol- lowing suggestiou : — In the Prayer-book of the Jews alphabetical hymns are of very frequent occurrence. It is an invariable rule with them to express the name of the author in the verses following the end of the alphabet. If the H" or M" verse (in case the alphabet is used in the inverse order) is fol- lowed by anything else, we are sure to find ]137X2ti;, or nabli?, or pn!J"», or some other name, marked by the acrostic. If we apply this rule to Psal.ns xxv. and xxxiv., where the n verse is followed by a single vcrse, which does not belong to the alphabetical arrangement, we are entitled to say that the author of Psalm xxv. was one bsn"TQ, the author of Psalm xxxiv. one rf^ms, as of course the "1 ot rm2, Psalm xxxiv. 23, did not originally form part of the text. Phadael is undoubtedly the person mentioned in Nehem. viii. 4 as a contemporary of Ezra, and who belJ a high rank in the Jewish community at that time. Phadaias might have been a brother of Pha- dael. The orthography bsm3 is as bsntt;^, TlSmD. The name Phadael itself is written bSHlD, Num. xxxiv. 28. PSALM XXVI. 183 Psalm XXVI. V. 2. nein^. This reading maj be retain- ed, since we are not compelled to take tlie word as an imperative. It may be taken as fem. part. Paulj with reference to \nvb3. It is well known that nouns wliicli are always found in plural form are frequently construed as if they were singular. We may therefore render this verse thus : — Try me, O Lord, and prove me : — my reins are purged and my heart. For, as I have observed in my note on Ps. xvii, 3, the word pp'H does not denote probation, but rather actual piir- gation as the result of probation. V, 6. / will wash my hands in innocency, and so may 1 compass Thine altar. He whose hands are washed in innocency (]Vp3n) is to be identified with the clean o/ hands (d'^D3 "^pi) in xxiv. 4. In both places this clean- ness of hands is mentioned as the warrant of par- ticipation in covenant privileges. In this Psalm the covenant privilege of sacrifice is spoken of; and we gather from hence that, although both kinds of piacular sacrifice presupposed sin, and were intended for the expiation of sin, yet that 184 PSALM XXVI. there was a particular kind of piacular sacrifice that could be approached only by those who were already clear of a particular kind of sin. This particular kind of sin was such as amounted to a breach of the covenant. 8in of this kind could be expiated (if it were expiable at all) only by the Trespass-offering. Freedom from such sin constituted a state of righteousness, in which the Sin-offering , and all other sacrifices and offering."^, excepting the Trespass-offering, — in short, all the Sacrifices of Righteousness, as they are called, — might be approached with confidence. This state of righteousness (p-ri*) is, in the ISth Psalm, twice identified with cleanness of hands, viz. in verses 21 and 2o» I direct attention to these points as both confirming and illustrating the view, which I have indicated in my Prolegomena, of the relations of the Fsalm-writers to God V. 8. 1^V'D Lxx. evTrpeueiav. It is remark- able that ni2 is rendered by the same word in 2 Sam. XV. 25 and Job xviii. 16. V. 9. For sinners, as here mentioned, see note on Ps. I. i. PSALM XXVII. 185 V. 12. -ntf^ttn. My foot standeth on the ground of covenant integrity. Unless the reader prefer this of Delitzsch's, viz. that the Psalmist, ** hitherto shut up, as it were, in trackless gorges, now finds himself upon a pleasant plain." Psalm XXVII. V. 3. nwtn, sc. ^n^a^n &c. in v. 4. It may, however, be allowable to understand this place thus ; — In this (visitation) I am yet trustJuU See Ps. Ixxviii. 32, Lev. xxvi. 27, Job i. 22, and ii. 10. So Delitzsch, who, however, gives In spile oj all this. So too Dr. Perowne, for all this. In all this would mean — In all this dispensation of God's Providence, and through it all. For nr:)^ used intransitively see Isaiah xii. 2. See also note on Ps. xvii. 7. V. 4. -ipn*?. The word here probably means to watch, to keep watch. See note on Ps, Ixiii. 2. V, 8. My heart hath said in Thy behalf seek ye my face. The meaning is that God's request. Seek ye my face, was so heartily re- 186 PSALM XXVIII. sponded to by the Psalmist as to seem to be re- echoed.* The will of man is so merged in that of God, that God's request of man seems like the request of man's own will, V. 12. Dxan ns"*!. In the book of Pro- verbs, he who utters (n^'Qn) lies is frequently mentioned, as here, in connection with -iptz? i^. In this place ns"* stands for n'^e*', as found in Prov. xix. 5 and 9, thus : — onpc? 12? D>nT2 n^s^x See Ps. xxxv. 11. V. 13. What if I had not trusted ! The aposiopesis is not more abrupt in the Hebrew than in the English expression. Psalm XXVIII. V. 2. T^m. Gesenius and others seek the origin of this word in the Arabic, assigning to it the signification of heing behind, hence secretly recessed. This seems to me far-fetched and un- necessary. The word is the archaic form of the passive participle ; and since, as I have pointed out in my note on Ps. xviii. 48, the primary idea of -QT is ordinatiorij and hence appointment, the ♦ Felut Deo succinens, as Calvin expresses it. PSALM XXVIU. 187 meaning is simply the appointed place. In- stances in abundance miglit be cited of the use of -im in the sense of appointing, prescribing. The noun substantive "im is also used of a set task. The old derivation of tliis word from -Q"t in the sense of speaking^ as if it were the place of the divine oracle, wherein God spake to man, incurred this objection, viz. that it does not ap- pear that divine communications were specially made in this place. But for this, the word might be taken to mean the place of speaking, according to the analogy of b"^b37, a place of working, workshop ; ^"Tin, a place oj watching, a watch-tower ; "|'^IS57, a place of lying-dorvn ; "j'^bn a place foi^ walking, a path, S;c. V. 3. "jtt7?3 is used here in much the same sense as vp\n in Ps. xxvi. 9. The Syriac seems to understand the word as of drawing lots, since it gives Number me not with 5fc. As if it were meant, Dra7v not out my lot with ^-c. V. 5. There is an echo of this verse in Isaiah v. 12. See also Jer. xxxi. 28. He sliall pull them down (sc, the vain- 188 PSALM XXVIII. workers) and not build them up. Though we must translate thus, we must yet consider that the reference is to the work rather than to the workers. It is thus that the imprecation of the preceding verse will be accomplished. Those who pride themselves on their own work, with- out caring to be workers together with God, will find their own work pulled down and not built up. V. 7. imn« n^tt?m "'nb i;bv^\ Lxx, /cat aviOakev rj crdp^ fxov, koX e/c OeXijfxaTos fiov i^ofioXoyijcroixaL avroj. Syr. My flesh hath revived ; and in my song will I praise Him. Aquila and Symma- chus give Kaphia, according to our present Heb. text, where the lxx. give a-dp^. Instead of n"^tt7!2i ^nb the lxx. seem to have read >dh72') nsa?, just as we find the same connected mention of my flesh and my heart, ^nnbi nHtrJ, in Ps. Ixxiii. 26. And, as T have shown in my note on Ps. xiii. 3, dh is appropriately used in the sense of willy or intention. In Lam. iii. 33, inba means willingly. So in 1 Cor. vii. 37, eSpato? iv Trj PSALM XXVIII. 189 Kaphia is equivalent to €)((t)v i^ovaCav nepl tov IBCov OeXyjiiaTOS' This reading, however, does not account for the Syriac rendering. The Syr. seems to have read n'^aJni ''"^27, by a play upon words such as is found in Ps. Ixix. 31, 32, upon the words -T'tr; a song and nittJ an ox. These comparisons bring the existing He- brew reading into suspicion. And, apart from these considerations, it is difficult to justify the reading '^'T'XDIZi. I do not, however, pretend even to conjecture the true reading, V. 8. For lab the lxx., Syr., and Vulg, read iias^b as in v. 11 of the next Psalm, Ne- vertheless, we might not feel warranted in making the alteration, so as to assimilate this passage to that, if in this place we could make any sense oi the word i^b. No-one, so far as I know, has done this. 190 PSALM XXIX. Psalm XXIX, V. 1. The Lxx., after D"'bM "'in mn^b I2n iviyKaTe tco Kvpico viol deov, read "'in mrr^b inn D'^b^K, eVey/care tw Kvpi(a viou? Kptcov, and then proceed as in our text. The Syr. read according to our present Heb. text, so far as the number of clauses is concerned. But in the first clause its reading was □">b''«, instead of n^^bs, as in the second clause of tlie lxx., viz. sons of rams ^ instead of sons of gods. V. 2. mnp min. So also in Ps. xcvi. 9. In both places the lxx. read n "rn, and give ev av\y ayta. So also the Syriac in both places. V. 9. mb"'W bbin% causeth the oaks to tremble. The meaning usually given, viz. causeth the hinds to brin^ forth, is incongruous and far-fetched. Supposing it to be true that a violent tempest causes hinds to bring forth pre- maturely, such a circumstance is not to be men- tioned in a passage which is concerned with the phenomena of irresistible power. It is more in accordance with the context to regard bb'in"' as PSALM XXX. 191 having the causative power of Hiphil b'^n'' in the preceding verse ; — just as caTi'' = D''"i\ It is true that the fern, form of the plural occurs only in the proper name mb^^s ; — but this is a very inconsiderable difficulty. Besides, there is a fern, form nb«, and this only stands for nb'^w. Psalm XXX. V. 2. ^DfT^bT. It appears that the primary idea of both nbi and bbi was that o( suspension, as of buckets in a well. The idea itself being in suspense between telling down and drawing up, bbi seems to have been appropriated to the former meaning, — as in Ps. Ixxix, 8, cxvi. 0, cxlii. 7, — and nbi to the latter. The Pi. is found only here. lxx. vni\a/3es /xe. The idea of lifting up is still further expressed in v. 4. V. 8. Thou hast caused my hill to sland firm. The noun substantive r:? is used ad- verbially. With regard to the preposition b be- fore nnn, this is a not infrequent occurrence in such a case, where normally we should ex- pect an accusative. It is as if we should say, Thou hast caused to my kill that it should stand 192 PSALM KS^XI. Jirm. The passage in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 8, is not parallel, as Delitzsch supposes. id. bnn3 Ti'^'^n. Such a construction seems a mark of a later style. " In the later books," says Gesenius, " the verb wn is often added (sc. to the participle) in the designation of past time. See Job. i, 14, and Neh. i. 4 j ii. 13, 15." V. 13. So that my heart sJmll praise Thee, For the word Tin2 or in^, as thus used, admits of this rendering only, in English. We do not regard any internal organs except the heart as seats of moral affections. See note on Ps. xri. 9. Psalm XXXI. Verses 2, 3, 4, of this Psalm, and the first three rerses of Psalm Ixxi., appear to be taken from some common original. The most important divergence occurs in the third verse of each Psalm ; and the question arises, whether the original is represented by A. rmi!iX3 n'^dh of Ps. xxxi., or by B. n"^iu i^'an Hinb of Ps. Ixxi. PSALM xxxr. 193 To me B seems clumsy. It looks like an attempt, not very successful, to make the best of a confused text. In favour of A, I would, more- over, adduce the following considerations. The Hebrew Alphabet, as is well known, consists of consonants only. But before the in- vention of what are called vowel-points, an at- tempt was made to mark the vocalization of words by means of the weak consonants w, i, and \ When, long afterwards, the vowel-point system was invented, these three letters, so used, had become so incorporated into the text that the vowel system, instead of superseding them, was made subservient to them. For critical purposes, however, it is plain that these letters, so used, must be regarded as having but little more authority than the vowel-points. Now in these two places, A and B, if we eliminate such letters, and disregard the division of the words, we shall get (a.) m^sannb- (b.) miJirsnwnb. It will here be observed that a is left quite bare of any letter that could be taken to mark 194 PSALM yxxi. vocalization ; whereas b retains two such letters, viz. w and i : — retaining them, because, accord- ing to the reading B, these are both consonants of radical value. Now if A were the original form — appear- ing in writing as a, — the uncertain vocalization might lead to a conjectural one, such as is found in B. . But if B were the original, — since, even when reduced to 6, it retains necessarily the let- ters s and % it seems as if these two might be used for the purpose of vocalization ; or, at least, that there would be no temptation to assume other letters for that purpose. In short : — B may be a variation from A ; but A can hardly be a variation from B, It may be thought that in retaining both and ") in 6, 1 have no right to count i as against the probability of A being a variation from B ; since, in fact, i does appear in A. Let us then suppose h to be the original, and a to be a variation from it. PSALM XXXI. 195 Up to the time when the consonants above- named began to be used as vowels, there could be no mistaking the consonantal power of i as it appears in b. Afterwards, this i might be either mistaken for, or used as, the vowel of the feminine plural termination. But such a mis- take, or such a purpose, is incompatible with the order of the letters !Ji of b. It is only on the supposition that the order -t!J of a is the right order, that the i can be regarded as a vowel. We cannot, therefore, suppose the i of « to be a vocalization of the radical consonant i of 6, without reflecting discredit upon the order of the other consonants in b, I therefore incline to the opinion that, of these two forms, the one found in Ps. xxxi. 3, is to be preferred. V. 6. Hiphil of ipQ is found more frequent- ly in the book of Jeremiah than in any other writing. V. 10. See Psalm vi. 8. T. 12, The verse presents no difficalty that I can discover. The meaning is very sim- ple : — Because of all mine adversaries I am 196 PSALM XXXI. become a reproach (generally), and la my neigh' hours especially ; yea, and a terror to my aC' quaintances (who) seeing me in the street, Jiee from me, V. 14. n'^norj "112x2. This expression oc- curs frequently in Jeremiah, and all the first part of this verse, including these words, is found in Jeremiah xx. 10. V. 21. n'^D3-i may here mean either snares, nets, S(c. or conspiracies, from D3"i to bind. It might seem difficult to connect the meaning of the word in Isaiah xl. 4, with this meaning of the root. The word is there translated by the Lxx. Tpax^la, — in our English Version rough places. But as in the former part of the verse, the things that are to be lifted up are the valleys : the things that are to be depressed are the hills : the things that are to be made straight are crook- ed ; — so, when we come to the words n^D3"in nypnb, we must surely understand that the things to be so cloven asunder were before bound up. It seems plain that the unusual, perhaps unused, word for smooth ground, viz. bound up ground, could only be suggested by its opposite. PSALM XXXII. ]97 tIz. cloven ground, which was a usual name for the valley. In this place of the Psalms the lxx. give aiTo Tapa)(fj^ avOpcoircov. Perhaps this is a mis- take for the Tpa^eia wherewith they render the Word in Isaiah. Or it is possible that they may here have assumed a connexion of dd"i with wvn, to be disturbed : — a supposition which would seem the more plausible from the fact that the root E?27"i (with the secondary meaning of leap- ing as a horse) has an equivalent form trDi. V. 22. -non S'lbsn, See Ps. iv,, 4, and xvii. 7. V. 23. nan::. In my alarm. Psalm XXXII. V. 1. ra7C, LXX. duofxia, and nstan, Lxx. dfiapTta, are categorically distinct. See my Prolegomena, and notes on Ps, li. The lxx., however, do not always observe the distinction so accurately as they do here. Upon these two Greek words the remarks of Abp. Trench are 198 PSALM XXXII. appropriate and valuable. He says, (Synoujms of New Test, Second Series, § xvi.) — "'Avofxla is never in Scripture the condition of oar living without law, but always the condition or deed of one who acts contrary to law ; and so, of course, Trapavofila, which occurs, however, only once (2 Pet. ii. 16). It will follow, that v^here there is no law (Rom. v. 12,) there may be afiaprla, adiKia, but certainly not avofiia : being', as CEcumenius defines it, rj ittpi ruv dtrbv v6i.iov irXrju^iXeta:* as Fritzsche, ' Legis contemtio aut niorum licentia qua lex vlolatur.' Thus the Gentiles, not having a law (Rom. ii. 14), might sin; but they, sinning without law {av6fiij)Q= j^wpte vofiov, Eom. ii. 12 j iii. 21), conld not be charged with avofxia. It is true, indeed, that behind that law of Moses, which they never had, there is another law, the original law and revelation of the righteousness of God, written on the hearts of all (Roia.ii. 14, 15); and as this in no human heart i« obliterated quite, all sin, even that of the darkest and most ignorant savage, must still in a se- condary sense remain as avon'ia, a violation of this older, though partially obscured, law." V. 2. y\'V is here equivalent to nst^n. See T. 6 of this Psalm, and v. 7 of Ps. Ii. The Lxx. also render it afxaprta. So also the Syr. *It is remarkable that CEcumenius should choose this word (which is that by which the lxx. regularly render the Hebrew Asham) as the definition of hvo^la. PSALM XXXII. 199 id. ntzJns Lxx. XoyLcrrjTat. So St. Paul quotes the passage, Rom. iv. 7. Afterwards, in the course of his argument, he uses a variation of the word that seems to have been more familiar to him, viz. iWoyeo). I presume that this was to St. Paul a more familiar form, because he uses it in his familiar Ep. to Philemon, v. 18. I take it, therefore, that when he says (Rom. v. 13) that sin is not imputed so long as there is no law, (oLfiapTia Se ovk eXXoyeirat, /it) ovTo2-i as a careless repetition of the last letters of the pre- ceding word : — -a mistake which was often committed by copyists. I think so, firstly, be- cause the word is found no-where else. Se- condly, because of the incongruity of the expres- 202 PSALM xxxrr. sion. Thou shall compass me about with songs of deliverance. One may speak of being compass- ed about with favour, as with a shield (Ps. v. 13), or of being compassed about with mercy, as in the 10th verse of this Psalm. But it seems absurd to speak of being compassed about with songs of deliverance, I therefore prefer to cut out the word "'S"), and to translate, not quite Thow dost compass me about with deliverance ^ but ra- ther, For deliverance Thou dost compass me about. The Lxx., however, read according to the- present reading. Their rendering of p by ayaWCajxa is the same as of n2i in Prov. xi. 10. The S}riac version is also in accordance with the Hebrew text, so far as this word is con-^ cerned. vv. 8 and 9. The import of these verse* seems to be this — Be content with the restraint of mine eye, and not like the horse and mule which have no understanding, whose harness is furnished iviih bridle and rein, so as not (bn=^nbnb ) to come near to thee, — or, without coming near to thee. It might seem, liowever, that the purpose PSALM XXXIi. 203 of a bridle is to bring an unruly horse near, ra- ther than to keep it from coming near. So the Lxx. seem to have thought: — eV ^aXti'w /cal /oy/x,a> Tcl? (TLayovas avTwv ay^at twv fxrf lyyiXpvTUiv npo^ ere. For -y'bs at the end of the verse the Sjriac translator read vbw, to it^ 8C. the horse or the mule : — the idea being that men control a horse from a distance, without coming near to it. /Vnd this seems to me to be the idea of the Psalmist, even with the reading •^'•bM. The peculiarity of God's guidance, wherewith he would guide men, is its nearness — exercised upon the heart rather than upou the outer man. In contrast with this is man's guid- ance of brute beasts, which is wholly from with- out, and from some distance, though it be but a small distance. It is true that if the purpose of the Psalmist had been merely to describe the management of horses, it would not have oc- curred to him, perhaps, to say that they are managed with bridles so that you need not come near them. But his purpose is to describe God's management of His people, and therefore the idea of distance in the other case is only intro- duced for the sake of introducing the contrasted nearness in this case. 204 PSALM XXXII. '^iv may be rendered harness. The Lxx. probably read something different. The Syriac translator seems to have understood the word here as equivalent to the same word in Ps. ciii. 6, viz. age, considered in general as a period of life, but here in particular as the time oi youth. Who are reined in from their youths The Syriac translator certainly read no form of obn. This appears to be strong negative evidence against the existing Hebrew reading : — because the root obn occurs in Hebrew only here, and can be accounted for only by a reference to the Syriac. If the Syriac translator had found such a word, no where else occurring in Hebrew, but familiar to him in Syriac, he would certain- ly have used the corresponding Syriac word. If he has not done this, it is surely because he found no such word in his Hebrew text. psalm xxxiii. 205 Psalm XXXTII, V. 1. nbnn mwa nnir^b means The Tehil- lah is hejiuing to those, who stand on the ground of covenant integrity. For the Tehillah see note on Ps. Ixiii, 12, and Prolegomena, § 23. It denotes a sort of boastful confidence in God, and is therefore always represented as a peculiar privilege of God's people. It also always im- plies a reference to the heathen, over whom the Israelite could claim superiority in those matters wherein he so confidently boasted. It is a manifestation to the world of God's power and faithfulness as exercised in His people's behalf. The word is applied both to God's acts^ and to the songs wherein those acts were commemorated. V. 3. A new song. This expression seems to have been appropriated to such a Tehillah as I have just now mentioned. It is made equiva- lent to n'^un in Ps. xl. 4. The new song is also mentioned in Ps. xcviii. 1. In these three Psalms the followina: points of resemblance may be noted : — In Ps. xxxiii. 8, 9, Let all the world fear the Lord, because of the manifestation of His power and faithfulness. 206 PSALM XXXIII. In Ps. xl. V. 8, Many are the wondrous works that God has done. In v. 4, Many shall see and shall fear and shall trust in the Lord. In Ps. xcviii. 1, 2, 3, God hath wrought wonderful things. He has made known His Salvation in the sight of the heathen. He has remembered His mercy and faithfulness towards the house of Israel, and all the ends of the earth have seen the Salvation of our God. We may get a clue as to the origin of this new song from the Book of the Revelation. In Rev. xiv. 3, the redeemed sing a new song, which is further spoken of in the next chapter as the Song of Moses the servant of God, and the Song of the Lamb. The new song here given is this : Great and marvellous are Thy rvarks, Lord God Almighty : just and true are Thy ways, 7hou King of Saints, Who shall not jear Thee, Lardy and glorify 1 hy name P For Thou only art holy : for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manijest. Now if we refer to the Song of Moses, as given in Exod, xv., we find in v. 11, that God, ^SALM xxxrii. so 7 tvlio is spoken of as doing wonders, is in tlie same iDreath spoken of as nbnn s-na. This expression is absurdly rendered in our English Version fearful in praises^ The meaning is rather this, that God is terrible in His manifestations :— - terrible, that is, to all but to those in whose be- half the manifestation is made. The Song of Moses proceeds to describe very vividly the terror that befel Palestine, Edom, Moab, and Canaan, upon the manifestation of God's power, in behalf of Israel, at the Red Sea. The New Song would thus seem to be the Tehillah in its most appropriate sense ; — a sub- ject of confident exultation to Israel, but of terror and dismay to all who were not of Israel, Like the pillar that led the march of the Israelites, to the one it gave light by night : to the other it presented only clouds and darkness. The New Song spoken of in these three Psalms, will also appear to be founded upon the Song of Moses upon the passage of the Red Sea, to which event all three Psalms make more or less direct reference. V. 15. Who fashioneth their heart together. That is, Who shapes their purposes to one end-. 208 PSALM XXXIV. V. 18. The eye of the Lord. See note on Ps. xxxii. 8. Psalm XXXIV. V. 3. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. See note on Ps. xxxiii. 1. V. 6. -)Dn to he ashamed. Gesenius refers it to the idea of blushing, and thinks it may be akin to -irin to be red. But, from the analogy of ti^in, I would refer it to an idea of rvhiteness, and so make it akin to mn. This mean- ing, also, is more suitable to the context : Their faces are not pallid, but glow with the reflected light of God's countenance. Compare the words of Theodoret, — 'O /xera TTtcrrews rat (a>e^ Trpocncuv (f)0)Tos oLKrlvas Se^erat voepov V. 18. They cry, sc. the evil-doers men- tioned in the preceding verse. To suppose a new subject introduced, and an ellipsis of that subject, is hardly satisfactory. Moreover, the context, which speaks of the Lord being nigh unto the contrite, requires that this verb should PSALM XXXV. 209 have the evil-doers (supposed to he contrite) for its subject. The lxx., however, supply ol hiKaioi. V. 23. See note on Ps. xxv. 22. Psalm XXXV. v. 3. n'':in ^nn. " Pour forth the spear.'' This spirited expression is weakened by render- ing it " draw Jorth.'^ The word expresses such a shower of darts or spears as to bar the way against the adversary. id. nno. Some have taken this as a noun subst. i.q. the adyapLS mentioned by Herodotus. To me this seems an unnecessary expedient, since the passage presents no difficulty in the way of the usual rendering. V. 5. nm. The lxx. render it iK6Xi^o)v, whence it may be conjectured that they read nm : — " The angel of the Lord grinding, or threshinff" sc. not the chaff, but the corn, from which the chaff was made to flee. Or, still more pi'obably, some participial form of nn may be conjectured from the use of nn~i, a winnowing, 210 PSALM XXXV. fan^ in Isaiah xxx. 24. We might then read ; het them he as the chaff be/ore the wind, and the angel of the Lord winnowing them out. The parallel passage in Jer. xxiii. 12, (see next note) confirms the reading of the text. V. 6. Corap. Jer. xxiii. 12, ddit tv^tV' V, 7. The transposition of urw^ and nnti? is unaccountable. That the former is governed by ^yii^ and the latter by i-iDn seems certain- Some have regarded this arrangement as inten- tional, and adduce it in confirmation of our Christian interpretation of Is. liii. 9, It is more probable that the dislocation is accidental, though it must have happened before the Septuagint Version was made. V. 10. All my hones shall say ^;c. This somewhat strange expression is perhaps to be taken in connection with the 21st verse of the preceding Psalm, — He keepeth all his hones, so that not one of them is hroken. V. 12. They requite me evil for good, and bereavement (lxx, aTeKvicw) for my goodwills PSALM XXXV. ^11 The meaning of the latter clause is, that, whereas the Psalmist might expect some fruit, (quasi offspring) of his good-will, his enemies returned it abortive, (quasi childless). In ac- cordance with this idea, we read in the next verse that the Psalmist's prayer for his enemies re- turns (because it is fruitless) to his own bosom. In the latter clause of this verse, b is equi- valent to nnn in the former : — the expression being varied for the sake of poetical elegance. See the same use of b in Ps. xxvii. 8. For a;D3, used of one's disposition, favour- able or otherwise, towards another, we need look no further than v. 25 of this Psalm. V. 15. When I stumbled (^vb'^n) they re- joiced,, Comp. Jer. xx. 10, They watched for my stumbling (''^\^), Comp. also Ps. xxxviii. 17, 18. id. n'^22 smiterSy sc. with the tongue, i.e. slanderers. Comp. Jer. xviii. 18, insai isb id. ^nrT «bi, unawares, like 27T sb in v. 8, id, 2?"ip to rend, or tear open, is used by Jeremiah to denote an unnatural or extraor- 212 PSALM XXXV. dinar J expansion, sc. of the eyes^ by tlie use of stibium, Jer. iv. 30 ; or of unusually large win- dows, Jer. xxii. 14. Here, from the context — y^yi «bi — it may be understood of the mouth. Compare v. 21. Our Prayer Book Version, making mouths at me, is much better than the Authorized Version, they did tear me. Proba- bly the same meaning of unnatural expansion is to be attributed to v"ip in v. 19. V. 16, :irtt "'^rb ">D3nn. The lxx. seem to have read 2i7b "'Dias^b >:i3nn, since they give eTretpaordv /xe, i^efJLVKTyjpiadv /xe fjLVKTrjpLajJiov. I think the Syriac translator must have read nsi^bm DQnnn, since he gives In their con- tempt and in their mockery they gnashed 3wan. See Job xxii. 21, and Ps. cxix. 41 and 77. V. 1 3. Behold, the workers of iniquity are Jallen. For Dir?, like all such pronominal ad- verbs, is originally an interjectional demonstra- tive. The word seems to be thus used in Ps, xiv. 5, or liii. 6, and cxxxii. 1 7. The English word there reverts to its ori- ginal interjectional or demonstrative meaning in the Prayer-Book version of Ps. xxxv. 25, and Ps. Ixx. 3. Compare the similar use of nn"^ ; and of ts, which seems to be used synonymously with nw, in Judges v. 11. Psalm XXXVII. v. 3. Dwell in the land and feed in se- curity. This seems the most obvious and na- tural meaning ; though others that have been proposed are allowable. That of the Syr. and of Gesenius is totally inadmissible, viz. Seek ajler truth. The LXX. give koI TroLixavOTJa-r) eVt raJ ttXoutw avTrjs, reading ^:l^^^ instead of n3*)a«. iPSALM XXXVII. ^\9 The word '\^^r^ is occasionally used in this sense, and it is remarkable tliat one of these occasions occurs in V. 16 of this Psalm. See also Ecc. v. P, and Isaiah Ix. 5. In many other places the Lxx. render ptsn by TrXovros, See note on Ps. xxxix. 7. V. 8. i?"inb "[«. These words occur so abruptly as to suggest suspicion. Neither the Syr, nor the LXX. read -i«, but probably both read ^2? or b's . Connecting this verse with the next, we read ima"* D'^r-ia ^3 ...... . nnnn b«. With which compare D^^namnnn bw in v. 1. It would thus seem probable that the gap which is now filled by nnb *!« ought to be filled with something equivalent to d'^27"i^2. Compare now Prov. xxiv. 19, 20. ....;.... D>57n^mnnnbw r-ib nnnw n>nn «b ^3. Here we find 27"in in the latter verse in cor- respondence with }y'V)T2 in the former. We may therefore substitute s^-in bv for r-inb *^w, in accordance with the reading of the LXX. and the Syr,, and with the parallel passage in Prov, xxiv. 19, 20. 220 PSALM xxx\ir. I propose either this or some such altera- tion, according to which the text will run thus : V, 8. Fret not thyself against the evil- doer, V. 9. For the evil-doers shall he cut off, V. 16, "jiian. See note on V. 3. V. 20. n'^-13 np'^3. Gesenius, followed by Delitzsch and others, gives as the glory of the pastures. How the rendering, fat of lambs, was ar- rived at I cannot see, unless by taking -ip> as = inD, the liver, since the roots are equivalent, and since the fatty surroundings of the liver were directed to be burned. It is possible, however, that the expression fat of lambs may all be included in the word CiD, since the Syr, omits the word -ip>3 altoge- ther, and renders nns, here as elsewhere, by fatUngs. The reading of the lxx. seems to have been the same as that of the present text, though they put a different meaning upon it. PSALM XXXVII. 221 It seems to me most probable that for -ip'« we ought to read ip>, a burning : — As the burn- ing of the pastures. Thus with ]ti;37nib3 .... ip^2 in this place, we may compare ipi!D3 )wv:i iba in Ps, cii. 4. That in this latter place the com- parison is with the burning of herbage seems evident from the next verse. That the burning of pasture, accidentallj, or otherwise, was as frequent in Palestine as iu other places similarly situated, might be assum- ed. I find, however, from Kitto's Pictorial Bible, that it is still a common practice, in those parts, to set fire to the dry herbage, before the commencement of the autumnal rains, under tlie impression that this operation is favourable to the next crop. See Kitto's note on Exodus xxii. 6. V. 29. For D"'pn!5 I would read d>i:57. This will preserve the alphabetical arrangement, which, as the text stands, lacks the letter 2?. To account for this fault many expedients have been devised. That the difiicully is solved by my emendation can hardly admit of doubt ; — though 222 PSALM XXXYII. little credit is due to me for it, since the V"is itt?')''"' D'^1317, which I here propose, is only a literal repetition of the V'ls laJn^^ c^i3i? in v. 11. The similarity of the letters 2? and 2 may ac- count for the original error. The importance of the truth that the meek (p^^y^) shall inherit the earth, appears from our Saviour's assertion of it in his Sermon on the Mount. V. 35. mi? lo he naked. Hithpa. to make oneself naked, — See Lam. iv^ 21. Through the meaning of being thus ungirt and dissolute we may trace the signification of the word in this place, viz. of spreading out. id. n-iT«. Since this word is so frequently used of a native, it is likely that the meaning usually assigned to it here is the true one, viz. of an indigenous, untransplanted, tree. For p3?-i n^TSD the lxx. read psnbn tnsD as inPs. xcii. 13. V. 36. For nn^^i the lxx. read nn^«i. So also the Vulg, — transivi. The word is frequently used in both senses, viz. of passing by, as a pas- senger, and of passing away, or vanishing. PSALM XXXVIIT. 223 V. 37. Keep innocency and take heed t9 the thing that is right ; for the man of peace hath a posterity^ So lxx. and Vulg. Delitzsch renders the former clause — Mark the perfect man and observe the upright. This is admissible, but not so probable as the other interpretation, since -latt? is very seldom used in this sense. See my note on Ps. xvii. 4. The rendering of the latter clause is war- ranted by the assertion of the next verse, that the posterity of the wicked is cut off. See also my note on v. 8r Psalm XXXVIII. V. 12. My neighbours have stood afar off. This rendering represents the antithesis, evi- dently intended, between n~ip and pm. V. 16. Thou wilt answer (for mej^ in re- ference to the preceding verse, — In whose mouth are no arguments, V. 18. Ready to halt is a clumsy expres- sion in English ; — but the Hebrew expression ]"132 rb^jb, seems even more clumsy, if we regard the proper meaning of "jiDa. This word, how- 224 PSALM xxxviir. ever, bad plainly overpassed its primary mean- lug, viz. of that which h, founded or established^ and is used here, as frequently elsewhere, in the sense of being prepared or ready, or expectant. Compare Ps. xxxv. 1 5, and my note there. As there the enemies rejoice at his stumbling, so here the Psalmist prays, viz. in the preceding verse, that his enemies may not rejoice when his foot totters, — acknowledging in this verse, that he is in constant expectation of stumbling, V. 19. ^nbfbniD 2S1S. This does not mean merely / am sorry Jor my sin ; but — / am pin- ing away in consequence of my sin. V. 20. For c'^'^n it has been proposed to read Q3n, in correspondence with ip2? in the se- cond clause. The Lxx., however, read accord- ing to the present text, which to me seems con- sistent. For n^'^n seems to be opposed to 2st in the preceding verse, just as 2ST seems to be op- posed to all that is lively and fresh in Jer. xvii. 8. The meaning here seems to be — ]Vhile T am pining away because of my sin, my enemies are lively and mighty. PSALM XXXIX. 225 Psalm XXXIX. V. 2. Delitzscli renders, 1 will keep a bridle on my mouth. It is very doubtful, however, whether the Hebrew -iritt? will bear this mean- ing. The word means to guard. Now the thing to be guarded is the mouthy not the bridle. I therefore prefer our English versions, — J will keep my mouth with for as with) a bridle. The Lxx. give i0e[jL7]v rw aroixari ^lov (jivXaKijv. It seems plain that thej read nii2W, and this as a noun substantive, (as in Ps. cxli, 3, nn'^w "»Db r[iT2w), and that, where we read Diona, they read some verb which they render by idiixrjv, — probably D^'bM or Dibw. V. 3. / kept silence, yea even from good words. This seems the obvious meaning. While the ungodly was before him he would say nothing — either good or evil. v. 4, The meaning seems to be that the heat of the heart in meditation broke out into the Jiame oj utterance, yyn is properly used of sup- 'pressed, as distinguished from uttered, thought. V. 6. bnn seems to be used here, as in ihe next verse, adverbially. Here it is altogether 226 PSALM XXX] X. in vain that any man is establislied in this life. There it is said that men are enriched in vain, Comp. Job vii. 16. The whole of the Psalm recalls to mind Job's complaint. V. 7. ";vrin\ It is strange to find this plural verb standing between two singular verbs, — all three having the same subject. It is strange, too, that -q:j^ is left without an object, especially since the suffix of ddds re- fers to the object ot in!J\ I propose lian, wealthy or some form of this word, as a substitute for )^'"Q^\ See Ps, sxxvii. 3 and 16. The meaning will thus be : — In vain doth he store up riches j not knowing who shall gather Ihem, V. 14. Comp. Job vii, 19, id, nbD, See Job ix: 27, and x. 20, PSALM XL. 227 Psalm XL. There is an apparent inconsistency between the two halves of this Psalm : — the first seeming triumphant, — the second desponding. This will, I think, disappear, if we consider that the Psalm was written by one who had forfeited covenant privileges, who by penitence had been restored to God's favour, but whose restoration was doubted, ignored, and opposed, by his enemies. Under the same circumstances Ps. iii. was written. Of the covenant privileges from which the Psalmist had been debarred, mention is made first of the Tehillah : — the piivilege of sharing in that boastful confidence, and somewhat vaunt- ing superiority over the heathen, wherewith the Israelite recounted God's wondrous works.* *Iu Ps. li., which is written under divine displeasure, and by one who has been excluded from covenant privi- leges, we find the T^ihillah expressly named, as a privilege, for the present forbidden, but to which the Psalmist prays to be restored. See v. 16 and 17: — When God's dis- pleasure is taken away, then *' my tongue shall sing of Thy righteousness." When God shall open his mouth, — that is, when God shall sanction the utterance, then " inij ■month shall utter Thy Tehillah.'* 228 PSALM XL. From this the Psalmist had been debarred -, — * but God had put a new song into his mouth, a Tehillah, as it is designated iu v. 4. He seems, however, not to have used this restored privilege in his accustomed manner, since his enemies reproacli him on this ground. Apologetically he says that, if he sliould attempt to recount God's wondrous works they would be more than he could express. He had, however, not been faultily silent. Then mention is made of the sacrifices of righteousness, from which the Psalmist's trans- gressions had excluded him. Tliey are men- tioned iu detail. Here also there appears a trace of apologetic pleading. If the Psalmist had been, for a time, excluded from formal privileges, he had been restored to something better and more spiritual. Consistently with all this follows the de- precation of the malice of those who were un- willing to believe that the transgressor had really been restored to God's favour. It is true that v. 1 3 is concerned with the writer's sin, rather than with the malice of his enemies. This returning to the contemplation PSALM XL. 229 ef his transgression, whereby he had caused the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, is, however, just what might be expected on the part of one who was still smarting under such reproach and blasphemy. His consciousness of God's return- ing favour is dimmed by the lingering sense of sin ; — so that the deprecation of the reproaches of his enemies is mixed up with an acknowledg- ment that such reproaches had been incurred by his OWQ wickedness. If this be, as I apprehend, the drift of the Psalm, we shall have the less hesitation in as- cribing it to David, since these somewhat extra- ordinary circumstances are precisely those which seem to be almost peculiar to him. The Christian interpretation does not, however, compel us to regard David as its author. I make this remark, because some portions of this Psalm are utterly unintelligible except from the Christian point of view. It is very important to bear in mind, that one who by transgression had forfeited covenant privileges could be restored, formally, only by means of the sacrifice prescribed for this pur- pose,— the Asham, or Trespass-offering. It will 230 PSALM XL. therefore be a most unaccountable thing, if the Psalmist, who enumerates in complete detail every one of these covenant privileges, and ex- pressly mentions every one of the sacrifices from which he had been excluded, but in which he was again permitted to share, should omit all mention of this one sacrifice by which alone he had been formally re-instated. V. 4. A new song. See note on Ps. xxxiii.3. V. 5. Blessed is the man that maketh Jeho- vah his trusty and that looketh not (for help) to the proud y and that turneth not aside after delu' sive (hopes). In support of this meaning, I would observe firstly that bw n3D is frequently used in the sense of looking for help to anyone, and that this sense is required here by the context, □"^sni is thus equivalent to nni nrr, proud helpers, in Job ix. 13. With respect to the last two words of the verse, nta ^tobi, — the Syriac translator takes the 1 as = sbi ; and this is warranted by the He- brew usage. " When one negative sentence follows another," says Gesenius, ** especially PSALM XL. 231 in the poetic parallelism, the negation is often expressed only in the first, whilst its influence extends also to the second." In this case we must read ntatc instead of "'tail?. Since this word is elsewhere followed by a preposition, according as the meaning is to turn aside to or frorUy it might be thought un- warrantable to understand the word here of turning aside lo ^c. But we may perhaps com- pare the expression nmbpbpi^ c^i^^n in Ps. cxxv. 5. Neither the Lxx. nor the Syr, read ^mj. For Db, in the former part of the verse, the Syr. read na?, the name^ sc. of Jehovah. V. 7. For D'^^TS the Lxx. give cra*/>ta, and are followed herein by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Upon this rendering I have something to say hereafter. For the present I mention it in order to shew that the Lxx. read no such word as D"^3TN. It will be observed that in this verse every one of the Levitical sacrifices is mentioned, with 232 PSALM XL. the single exception of the Asham, or Trespass^ For, as I have shown in my Prolegomena, the term n^T, when made antithetical to nbii?, de- notes piacular sacrifice, — that is, either Sin- offering or Trespass-offering, — but, when anti- thetical to nn:n2> it denotes the Slain-offerings of the Eucharistic sacrifices. Thus the expres- sion nn^DT nnT is quite appropriate to denote *The following well-arranged list of the Levitical sacrifices is given in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. (a) The burnt-offering. Self-dedicatory. (b) The meat-otFering (unbloody) ) „ , . . rru a- ■ tu^ A \ r Eucharistic. The peace-otiering (bloody) ) Expiatory. The peace-offering (bloody) (c) The sin-offering The trespass-offering It will be seen that all these are included in the pas- sage under consideration, with the single exception of the Asham. Dr. Perowne on this place says : " The four are here mentioned tvith a view to expi'ess all manner of sa- crifices." We might think so if nST had been coupled with nb^^, and the DSDn had been omitted as well as the Dti?W. Then n^T would have denoted loth the piacular sacrifices. But as it is, we cannot entertain this idea. As the text stands, the Asham alone is omitted from a well- classified list ; and we must account for, or supply, the omission. PSALM XL. 23S both the bloody and the unbloodj offerings of the class (b) given in the table below. Tliis is ad- mitted by Hengstenberg, who says — " The sa- crifice, nnt, here, as often, = Q'^iabtt? nnT, peace^ offerings, united into a pair with the unbloody offering, nn3?2." Then the nbi^, — marked (a) in the table, stands by itself. Then of the two most important sacrifices, viz. the expiatory, only the Sin-offering is named. We can easily understand why the Tres- pass-offering is not classed with all these ; — because these are the Sacrifices of Righteous- ness which could not be approached by the Psalmist, until an Asham, or Trespass-offering, had been accepted in his behalf. Even so, we must expect some mention, direct or indirect, of this Asham, What then if we find that th« smallest stroke of the pen, connecting the lower parts of the letters ''3T , will transform the doubtful and unmeaning word q'^^ts into Dtr?s ? This emendation I propose. 234 PSALM XL. I have described the reading n"*3T« as doubtful and unmeaning. Of its doubtfulness, it is sufficient to say that the lxx. found nothing of the kind in their Hebrew text. That it is un- meaning, it is as unnecessary as it is impossible to show. It is incredible that anyone can be satisfied with any one of the meanings which this luckless word has been tortured to produce. The statement of this verse now appears to be this, viz. that whereas the Psalmist's trans- gression had deprived him of the privileges of the Mosaic covenant, yet a Trespass-otfering had been provided for him. The statement of the next verse is to the efiect that this Trespass-ofi'ering had restored him, not merely to the formal privileges of the Mosaic covenant, but to something higher and better, — to the privileges, in short, of that cove- nant of grace which, as I have shown in my Prolegomena, was both antecedent and subse- quent to the Mosaic dispensation. Now since this dispensation of grace could only be restored when the Messiah should appear as the Antitype of the A.sham, it seems certain PSALM XL. 235 that the Psalmist here speaks in the person of the Messiah. Turning our attention now to the rendering of the LXX., and assuming that Dn7S, and not d^:ts, is the true reading of the Hebrew text, it might seem that the next step would be to show- how, through ignorance or carelessness, the He- brew word Asham might be reproduced in the Greek o-w/xa. But such an attempt would be a waste of ingenuity ; since, as will hereafter ap- pear, the word crw/xa cannot be regarded as a careless introduction. It is a word designedly chosen, and well chosen, to denote the spirit, rather than the letter, of the Hebrew text. Tn order to put this beyond doubt, it will be neces- sary to glance at the distinctive ritual of the Asham, or Trespass -offering. «' In the ritual of the Sin-offering," saysKurtz,* « the presentation, the imposition of hands, and the slaying of the animal, presented no peculiar or unusual features, but in the sprinkling of the blood the distinctions are all the more surely and decidedly marked^ The same writer remarks, on the ritual of the Trespass-offering, that " the * Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament, § 107. 236 PSALM XL. sprinkling of the blood was not carried out ia the same intensified form as in the case of the Sin-oflfering." So in the Commentary of Keil and De- litzsch we read, — " There can be no doubt, that as the idea of expiation of sin, which was em- bodied in the sprinkling of the blood, was most prominent in the Sin-offering ; so the idea of satisfaction, for the restoration of rights that had been violated or disturbed, came into the foreground in the Trespass-offering." It thus appears, at least by implication, on the part of these three writers, — and it will ap- pear still more clearly and expressly to those who study the ritual for themselves, — that whilst the btood was the prominent feature of the Sin- offering, as typifying expiation, — the body was the prominent feature of the Trespass-offering, as denoting satis/action. It is thus to be seen how the word blood might come to be used to denote the Sin-offer- ing, and the word body to denote the Trespass- offering. And we have evidence to shew that this which we have spoken of as a possibility, was an actual use amongst those early Chris- PSALM XL. ' * ~" 237 tians whose minds were embued with Jewish ideas, and whose expression of Christian doc- trine was necessarily cast in the mould of Mosaic ritual. This evidence I now adduce from the writ- ers of the New Testament. I shall present it as briefly as possible, but must nevertheless bespeak both patience and close attention on the part of the reader. In the passage that is directly quoted from this place, viz. Heb. x. 5 — 7, it is to be observed that the word o-w/xa plainly denotes some kind of sacrifice. This is manifest from the context, which is wholly concerned with a comparison of the Trpocr(f)opaL at Kara tov voyiov with the 'npoo-<^opa Tov crcofiaTos tov *lrjcrov XpLcrTov, — See verses 9 and 10. And so Olshausen and Ebrard, in their Commentary on the Ep. to the Hebrews, observe that " in these words the Psalmist evidently intends to place in opposition to the external sacrifices one of an internal and better kind ; and some sacrifice or other of this kind must at least implicitly he designated by the words, ' mine ears hast 7 hou opened.' " We come next to the remarkable passage 238 PSALM XL. which immediately follows the citation from this Psalm, viz. Heb. x. 10 : — 'Eu w OeXyjfjiaTL (that is, the will of God which Christ came to perform) "qyuacTfJievoL icrfxev olol Trjopa/xa as the representative of the Asham, the word ade- quately expresses the prominent idea of the sacrifice) is found in Gal. iv. 4, 5 : " When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem (us who were) under the law, that we might recover our sonship" (Iva tov? vtto vofxop i^ayopaarj, Iva ttjv vlodcaiav aTToXaySwftet'). Now, as is well remarked by Alford, •* it is Christ's humanity wliich is the point insisted on in the words horn of a rvomanC' That is. PSALM XL. 241 Christ's human body (meaning by this His whole humanity ; that wherewith He came to do the will of God) is the means whereby those who are under the law are redeemed from its curse, and restored to that state of sonship which they have forfeited by their disobedience to the law. Sonship is said to be the privilege oi faith (see just above. Gal. iii. 26, compared with John i. 12). But the law is not of jaiih. Not that tlie Israelites would have forfeited their sonship if they could have rendered full obe- dience to the law. The promise remained the same to them under the law as before, only with the superimposed condition of works. The required obedience, however, was an impossi- bility ; and therefore the privilege of sonship was lost under the law, and is here spoken of as a thing to be recovered by those whom Christ re- deems from the curse of the law. It will be seen that St. Paul, as a Jew, includes himself amongst those who have received back the privilege of sonship, using the Jirst person (diroXdjBeoiJLev) . Immediately, however, he turns to the second person (eWe viol) when addressing those who, never having been shut up under the law, re- ceived this sonship for the first time. 242 PSALM XL. Alford denies that dTroXaySw/iey here has the meaning of recovering ; his only reason, ap- parently, heing this :— " that there is no allu- sion to the innocence which we lost in Adam, nor was redemption by Clirist in any sense a recovery of the state before the fall, but a far more glorious thing, the bestowal of an adoption which Adam never had." But even if this were true, it has nothing to do with the question of the meaning of aTToXd^coixev. St. Paul is speak- ing of a recovery, not perhaps of the state before the fall, but of the dispensation of grace whicli had been established more than four hundred years before the imposition of the law. He has been saying that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, but that all in Him are one. For the Gentiles Christ had purchased the sonsliip, and had thus fulfilled the promise made to Abra- ham, viz, that in his seed all nations of the earth should be blessed. For the Jews, also, it had been purchased by tlie same means -, but it was theirs (Exod. iv. 22 ; Rom. ix. 4, oiv rj vloOecria) long before the Gentiles had been called to it. It was theirs on the condition of faith, before the law. Afterwards, it might still have been theirs, on condition of obedience ; hut then it was lost,. PSALM XL. 243 To them, therefore, sonship was restored bj Christ, whilst upon the Geutiles it was then first bestowed. One point of great importance remains to be considered. I have treated of the sacrifice of Christ so i'txx generally, as for all the world, as the antitype of the sin-offering, but also specially for the Jews as the trespass-offering. Yet it must not be thought that the sacrifice of Christ as the Asham, that is, as delivering from the curse of the law, had no reference whatever to the Gentiles. For (apart from the consideration that the Gentiles could hardly plead that their d/xaprta was not avofjLLa) it must be remem- bered, that until Christ had fulfilled the super- imposed condition of obedience, the blessings which were promised to Abraham and his seed, and then to all nations of the earth, on the con- dition of faith, — these blessings, I say, could no more be bestowed on the Gentiles than they could be restored to the Jews. Thus, although the law was directly imposed only on the Jews, yet its effect is no more to be restricted to them than are the promises made to Abraham to be restricted to his seed. And therefore the chang- 244 PSALM XL. ing of the conditions of the covenant from faith to works, (or rather perhaps I ought to say, the addition of works, as a condition, to the previous condition of faith), must have affected all to whom the promises were made ; the Jews im- mediately : the Gentiles more remotely. There- fore, also, the fulfilment of the superimposed condition, and thereby the restoration of the ori- ginal condition, must have affected all, both Jews and Gentiles. Accordingly, St. Paul (Gal. iii. 13, 14) thus extends the effect of the sacrifice of Christ as the A sham (delivering from the curse of the law) to the Gentiles also. He says : — Christ hath delivered us from the curse of the law . , . that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ ; that 7ve (both Jews and Gentiles) might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." It is in this way that we must understand the passage in Ephes. ii. 12 — 17 (compared with Col, i. 20 — 22,) wherein the effects of the sacrifice of Christ are expressed in terms pre- cisely according with the views I have endea- voured to expound. St. Paul is speaking of the manner in which both Jews and Gentiles P8ALM XL. 245 were admitted, on the same terms, into the Christian covenant. The Gentiles were ** brought near " by the blood of Christ. But they could not have been thus brought near until the barrier of the law, which stood between them and the Jews, and between both and God, had been done away by the same sacrifice of Christ. But this sacrifice, looked at from this point, as taking away the curse of the law, is the sacrifice of the Asham. Accordingly we find, that whereas the propitiation for the whole world, by which the Gentiles were brought near, was effected by the blood of Christ, this removal of the barrier of the law is said to have been effect- ed in the flesh or body of Christ. And again, since this was the only thing wanting to com- plete the reconciliation of Jews with Gentiles, and of both with God, it is said that this recon- ciliation was effected in the body of Christ. The consistency of the typology in these two passages precludes the idea of its being either accidental or fanciful ; whilst its perfect agreement with the principles which I have laid down is worthy of observation. For, in the first place, we see that what is here spoken of as the 246 PSALM XL. peace-making efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ is extended equally to Jews and Gentiles^ Thus in Ephes. ii. 14, "This same is our peace," that is, the peace of botli Jews and Gen- tiles. And in verse 17, this peace is proclaimed equally to both. This, then, is the efficacy of Christ's death considered as fulfilling the promise made to Abraham and to his seed, and to all the nations of the earth. It is the efficacy of the sacrifice offered once for all for the sins of the whole world. Now this, according to my view, is the sacrifice of Christ as the antitype of the sin-offering. Consequently, from this point of rieWj the blood of Christ is the most prominent feature : — as affecting the Geutiles, Ephes. ii. 13 : — as affecting both Jews and Gentiles, Col. i. 20. On the other hand, the reconciliation is effected by removing the fxecroTOLxov tov ^pay- fjLov, which is expressly defined as 6 v6ixo<; twp ivTo\a>v eV Boyixacn. What can be more ex- pressive of the Levitical law.^* Accordingly, this reconciliation, resulting from the removal of the law (consequent upon its fulfilment by Christ), is effected a/ rfj aapKl avTov (Eph. ii. PSALM XL. 247 15) : — eV evl crw^art (Eph. ii. 16) : — eV ra> crwjaart Try? crapKo) 0£ov a-K ovpavov. t 8yncnyms of New Testament. Second Series, p. 168. rSALM XL. 251 vice of Deity ] it ever lying in tbe word, as in the Latin * sacer,' that this consecration may be as avdOrjfjLa or dvddeixa. But the thought lies very near, tliat what is set apart from the world and to God, should separate itself h'om the world's defilements, and should share in God's purity ; and in this way aytos speedily acquires a moral significance." There can now, I think, be no doubt with regard to these two propositions, viz., (aj. That in Ps. xl. 7, where we now read d*'2T«, we are not left to conjecture another reading, but are compelled, if not to read, at least to understand, the word nw^. (b). That the crw/ia of the lxx., if not a translation, is a most appropriate representation of the Hebrew ^s/mw; and that the word is frequently used, by those who had only just passed from Judaism lo Christianity, in order to denote the sacrifice of Christ in its character as an Ashanu I now understand this passage in Ps xl., in much the same sense as Isaiah liii. 10. There the pleasure — 7Dn — of the Lord is ac- 252 PSALM XL. complished when the Messiah appears as the Asham^ Here the Asham is provided, and therewith tlie Psalmist, speaking in the person of the Messiah, appears to accompUsh the same divine pleasure. Upon the passage in Isaiah, see Prolego- mena, ^16. Upon its connection with Ps. xl. 7, 8, I adduce the following extract from Bishop Pearson's Exposition of the Creed, Art iv, " In the condition of making His soul an offering for sin, we see propounded whatever He suffered. In the acceptation, Lo, 7 come to do Thy will, we see uudertaken whatsoever was propounded." It is therefore certain that Bishop Pearson, the weight of whose theological authority is in- disputable, referred the prophecy in this place of the fortieth Psalm to the sacrifice of Christ as the Asham, V. 8. The expression n3D-nb:i^ denotes a volume^ of any sort whatsoever, as for example in Jer. xxxvi , and notj as is commonly asserted, the Book of the Law, /car i^oyrqv. We are not therefore hindered, on this PSALM XL. 253 ground, from referring the quotation to 1 Sam. xiii. 14, It is to be admitted that the writings which now stand in Samuel's name are, in all proba- bility, a compilation of later date than even the close of David's life. But it is equally certain that the compiler found ready to his hands a considerable number of pre-existing records. The books are singularly rich in songs, proverbs, speeches, and historical records in a somewhat archaic form. Many of these might have been handed down by oral tradition, and it might be assumed that they were first put into writing by the compiler. But the date of these transac- tions is too late for such a supposition. It is certain that at this time anything that was thought worthy of record would be recorded in writing. Samuel himself is said to have written " the manner of the kingdom in a book, and laid it up before the Lord." 1 Sam. x. 25. One of David's hymns is also quoted from a written record in 2 Sam. i. It is therefore beyond all doubt that the compiler had written materials ; and it will hardly be supposed that the words and deeds of Samuel were not amongst these written re- 254 PSALM TL. cords, when we consider his extraordinary in- fluence and agency, and bear in mind that from his earliest youth it was known from Dan to Beerslieba that he was established to be a pro- phet of the Lord. It is to be considered further that the whole of this passage (Ps. xl. 7, 8, 9), wherein formal sacrifice is subordinated to obedience to the will of God, has been regarded, by a very common and very probable opinion, as an amplification of Samuel's saying, recorded in 1 Sam. xv. 22, — Hath the Lord as great delight (v^n) in hurnl-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. If this be so, it will appear the more proba- ble that the words expressly quoted in this pas- sage are quoted from the same document, or set of documents. Again, — Since the evidence, external and internal, points to David as the author of this Psalm, — let the question be asked, "What writ- ings would David be likely to refer to, when he refers to writings in which his own personal PSALM XL. 255 mission and functions are described ? Surely, it will be answered, to those recorded deeds and words of the prophet Samuel which were almost exclusively concerned with David's mission and functions. Now in 1 Sam. xiii. 14, it is said that God had chosen, in Saul's stead, "a man after His own hearty'' "innbs. In quoting this place, (Acts xiii. 22,) St. Paul adds the words, ** who shall fulfil all my will." It would thus appear, that he, too, referred the -f2i!5-i rmsh of Ps. xl. 9, to the record in 1 Sam. xiii. 14. The difficulty remains, that in this place of the Book of Samuel, no mention is made of doing God's wilL Yet, since St. Paul quotes these words as from that passage, and we have good reason for believing that the Psalmist's words in the text have the same reference, — it might perhaps be assumed that some few words which David and Paul found in the original re- cord had been omitted in the course of transmis- sion, and lost. This supposition is unnecessary, since all that they express is conveyed in the i:inb3 of 1 Sam. xiii. 14. For this expression does not mean a man 256 PSALM XL. after God's own heart, as it is usually traoslated", but a man for God's purpose. For this, which is the only admissible meaning of innb^, see my note on Ps. xiii. 3. In quoting the record, the Psalmist gives the meaning, and not the actual words, whilst St, Paul gives first the actual words and thea the meaning. It is sad to think that an erroneous inter- pretation of Samuel's words has produced far more serious results than those which appear in the ciitical and exegetical aspect. How many have been scandalised by the testimony suppos- ed to be given to the murderer and adulterer, that he was a man after God's own heart : — just the sort of man that God loved ! The in- tense devotion of David's love towards God is en record, and is beyond all doubt. The corres- ponding love of God towards David may be as- sumed : but the solemn sanction of his character, as a whole, which has been found in these words of the prophet Samuel, has no foundation but in ignorance. id. •'b^ mn3. Tt is written concerning me. See the same expression in 2 Kings xxii. 1^. PSALM XL, 257 r. 9. -[ii!j-i mb5?b. J would connect this with the "bv mna of the preceding verse. It is rvrilten of me that 1 should execute Thy n:ilL For this construction see Ps. cxlix. 7, 8, 9, where we find three infinitives with b, depen- dent upon this same word mriD. id. Ti!S3n. / have delightedy sc. to do this will of Thine. The word is such as we might expect from the mouth of God rather than of man. It is the mn'^ v^n (Isaiah liii. 10) that is fulfilled when the great Asham is once for all offered and accepted. It is the mn"^ vsn (1 Sam. XV. 22) that is preferred before sacrifice. The psalmist seems here first to will, as God wills, and then, as man, to perform that will. From the Christian point of view this is intel- ligible, TV. 10 and 11. Only when the Asham is accepted can we make mention of God's righte- ousness, Jaiihjidness, salvation, &c. See the entirely parallel passage in Ps. li. 16, 17. God's righteousness is the ground whereon they stand who remain in covenant with Him, See note on Ps. Ixix. 28, 29, 258 PSALM XL. V. 14, to the end. See Ps. Ixx. V. 16. Dntcnnp^bv. As a reward of their shame is an admissible rendering only if rw'2. is taken to mean a shameful action. But I can find no warrant for this. On account of their shame is perhaps better. For iatt?s at the beginning of the verse, the Lxx. probably read isic\ — KoiJuadcrdcjaav Trapa^pyjfxa alcr^viqv avrSiv. So also the Vulg,, — ferant con/estim conjusionem suam. In the parallel passage in Ps. lxx. instead of 7rapa)(priixa tliey give TrapavTCKa. They there- fore take np27 bv in both places to mean imme- diately, as it were JoUoiving close upon one's heels. For ^12;W'^ the reading of Ps. lxx, is imtt?'*. So also LXX. V. 18. ^b liL'n^ ^Dnw. This is not merely The Lord (hinkeih oj me, or is mindful of me. The word denotes a more active interest. Its most frequent meaning is to plan, devise, plot, and this in a bad sense, followed by bi? of the person plotted against. Here the idea of plan- ning or devising must be kept up, but in a good PSALM XLL 25{> sense. The rendering of our Authorized Ver- sion (The Lord Udnketh upon me) is not so good as that of the Prayer-Book, — 1 he Lord careth Jar me. The full meaning is. The Lord plannelk and deviseth Jor me. Psalm XLI. V. 7. See note on Ps. xii. 3. V. 9. For b^^bnnm see Ps. ci. 3, and Deut, XV. 9. It is not easy to fix the meaning of pvi\ But the crudeness of the rendering proposed by Gesenius (^" a wicked thing is pour- ed out upon him "), is intolerable. The idea of pouring out, sc. molten metal, for the pui-pose of casting an image, pillar &c.,seems to have grown to the idea of setting up (sc. a molten image &c.). And, comparing this passage with Ps. ci. 3, b^y'^bn nm '^s'^S' -raab rV'W^n «b, we may per- haps understand here that the adversary re- proached the Psalmist with having set up an idol of iniquity — a thing of Belial — in his heart. The Lxx. give here KarddevTo, a word which has the same sort of ambiguous meaning, from that of laying down to that of establishing ; just a» 260 PSALM XLT, we speak of laying down a principle in the sense oi selling il up. See Ps. xlv. 3. \v. 11, 12. In V. 9, the enemy exults, saying — Now that he is laid down he shall rise up no more. Here the Psalmist prays that God will raise him up, so that this premature exulta- tion of the enemy may be checked. V. 13. ^n n^T^n ^rjni. The lxx. give e/>(,ov 8e 8ta TTjv OLKaKiav avTekd^ov. But it certainly ought to be in my integrity, not on account oj my integrity. The expression of being upheld in one's integrity may be compared with those expressions in the book of Job (e.g. ii. 3, 9) in which Job is said to hold fast his integrity. See Ps. Ixiii. 9. PSALM XLII. 261 Psalm XLII. V. 2. y-\'2. This word occurs ouly here and in Joel i. 20. Here the lxx. give eTniroOel : there, duefikexjjap ; being giiideu, as it appears, solely by the context. I was at one time inclined to connect the word with the Aramaic 22"), concupivil. But it now appears to me that the old opinion is more probable, viz. that it is an onomatopoetic root, closely akin to s-ip, and to n~ia (whence p-i3, tlte ihroatj. The Syr. gives in both places «2?a, i.q. Heb. ns'^, to low, as an ox. The word min^, which occurs in Ezek. xvii. 7, 10, and Cant. v. 13, vi. 2, is to be refer- red to a root Tiv identical with 2-i«, to intertwine, or weave. The word in all these places denotes a trellis, upon which climbing plants, especially vines, are trained. Tlie places referred to in Ezekiel are decisive as to this meaning. A corresponding Arabic root means, to bend, and with this meaning that of inclination, or desire, might easily be connected. There is a derivative from it denoting a ladder, — not, as Gesenius supposes, from the idea of ascending, 262 PSALM XLIl. but from that of hendingy then weavinsf, or inter- twiuing, as alatlice or a ladder. In most words of weaving, the primary idea is that of bending. Thus mi^, which is identical with nnw, as yi'a with anw, denotes declination, sc. of the sun to- wards the horizon, and also inter-mix lure, as if intertwining. It would not therefore be diffi- cult to refer both the verb ts^, to he bent upon a thing, and nniil?, ct trellis, to the one idea and the one root. On the whole, however, it seems more likely that the former is an onomatopoelic root that is only accidentally identical with that from which r\Tns is derived. V, 5. These things let me call to mind, and pour out my soul (in weeping) within me, — how I went ^c. There are many examples that might be adduced of this use of the word -in37. Otherwise, since the Psalmist writes from beyond Jordan, it might be supposed that the word expresses an imaginary and wishful passing over the river, in order to participate in the sacred festivities. In this case, we might consider >3 as introducing an apodosis of that whereof the protasis would PSALM XLII. 263 be giveu in tlie two conditional verbs, lor wliich usage, see Job. vi. 2 ; viii. 6 ; xxxvii. 20 ; Gen. xxxi.42; xliii. 10; Ex. xxii. 22; Num. xxii. 23; Isaiah vii. 9. id. DTT« ^Dn. LXX. eV ToiTco aKiqvTj^ 0av[JLa(TTrj<;. It is to be noted that they render n^-rs by ^avjuacrro? in Ps. viii. I, xcii. 6, and nin by ^au/>ta^&) in Lev. xix. 15. Moreover, that in Ps. xvi. 3, where we read -^-i^-ts they give idaviMd(TT(0(Tev, and ^av/xao-rw? for T^iw in Ps. Ixxvi. 5. It seems certain that in this place they read an'^iw "jon or nniH or perhaps the equivalent cmn. Now the word -fD, with the received punctuation and rendering (viz. of a crowd of people) occurs nowhere else. Where- as "iDji.q. n^D, occurs inPs. xxvii. 5, and Ixxvi. 3, with the meaning ol a tent or booth, specially a booth made of branches of trees like the covert of a wild beast, Ps. x. 9, Jer. xxv. 38. It is not improbable, therefore, that the Lxx, under- stood the Psalmist here to make special mention of the feast of tabernacles, mson an. The word 3nin, at the end of the verse, favours this con- jecture ; since an is used with almost exclusive reference to the feast of tabernacles ; and, in 264 PSALM XLII. the Talmud, according to Gesenius, it is used of this feast /car i^o^qv. Taking now the reading of the lxx. to be n''"nw "^Dn or nmn, we find this expression also remarkably appropriate to the feast of taber- nacles, since, in the words of the institution of this feast, Lev. xxiii. 40, the Israelites are com- manded to take the boughs of " goodly trees," "nn V"^, for the construction of their booths. We may thus conjecture that the lxx. had a reading n'^"n« "jDn or nmn, and that the meaning of these words was, " in the booth of goodly houghs.^' The usually received account of Dii« is, that it is Hithpa, of mi a supposed root, with the supposed meaning of going slowly : — the sufBx D standing for nnb. In Isaiah xxxviii. 15, we find nns, where the reading of the LXX. must have been something very different. Vulg. Recogitaho tibi — K.V. " I will go softly." Gesenius connects his supposed root mi with the Talmudic Pi, form mi, to lead slowly, as a little child. But this is probably to be referred to 11 (i.q. iw) a breast, pap, by the easy and usual transition from the idea of sucliing to that of nursing and lending. X>SA.LM XLII. ;W5 Instead of tlie literal reuderiug, in the booth iif goodly boughs ^ — siuce these words have a conventional use, we may take the preposition n as indicating time rather than place ; so that the meaning will be, on the occasion of the feast of booths, which was the most important of all festive occasions. This seems necessary in order to connect the words d'^tts -[on with in37N, which is certainly a verb of motion, I therefore give the whole verse thus : — These things let me call to mind, and pour out my soul within me, — how at the joyous feast of booths £ passed along unto the house of God, with shouting and singing y — a holiday troop. id. For V2D the lxx. read "•23 as in v. 12 of this Psalm and v. 5 of the next. V. 7. The land of Jordan. This, says Dr. Perowne, is the special designation of the country East of the Jordan. The same assump- tion is made by Delitzsch. It may be so, but I can find no authority for the statement. This meaning, however, seems to be intended here, from the mention of Hermon. id. -i27^D "in, the hill of refuge. The city *i66 PSALM JtLlI. in which Lot took refuge was called, from its suitability as a refuge, ns^is. From a com- parison of this passage with Gen^ xix. 20, I judge that the idea of littleness is to he exclud- ed from both ; and that the word in each case denotes a mountain fastness, from a root equiva- lent to 120. See the use of mn^D^ in Ps. xviii. 46 ; and obserye that Zoar is called Segor by the lxx. It is possible that the idea of littleness may be derived from that of closeness, siraitness, narrowness, I suppose that Lot preferred taking refuge in Zoar to fleeing to the mountain, because it was an enclosed and sheltered spot, and that he alleges this as a reason for his preference ; — " Behold now this city is near to flee unto, and it is a secluded place : let me escape thither, — is it not a secluded place ?" — i.e. will it not answer my purpose as well as to flee to the mountain ? For the rest, we do not find that Zoar was spared because it was a little place, but because it was a convenient refuge for Lot. The site of the ancient Zoar, as conjectured by Dr. Robin- son, agrees with tlie character of the place, as PHALM XLIIL 267 expressed by its original name, vbnj a gorge. The mention of it in Gen. xiii. 10, and Deut. xxxiv. 3, seems to fix it as the limit of the plain, and therefore as itself occupying higher ground. Moreover it is spoken of as a place of refuge in Isaiah xv. 5 (His fugitives Jlee unto Zoar), and both here and in Jer. xlviii. 34, in connection with Horonaim, the place of caves. I conclude, that Zoar was a place naturally secluded, that this peculiarity is indicated by its name, and by the term nrsa applied to it by Lot ; and that some such naturally secluded place is indicated by the same term in this Psalm. 9. niij>. See Ps. xliv. 5. Psalm XLIII. This Psalm seems to be a continuation of the preceding one. We may therefore consider the writer as still in exile amongst the heathen, and there bemoaning his isolation from God's people. V. 1. Since Ton is the term peculiarly ap- propriated to the saints of God, tliat is to those who stand in covenant-relationship with Him, — 268 PSALM XLIV. tbe expression T^on-wb mast be taken to mean the reverse. It denotes a people, not necessarily cruely nor yet necessarily ungodly, — but ratber alien from God, — baving neitber part nor lot in His covenant, — tbat is, heathen. See Prolego- mena, § 20. V. 3, In contrast witb tbe i>Dn-«b of v. 1, tbe Psalmist bere claims for bimself tbe privilege of a -T>Dn, in asking God to send to bim His Liglit and His Trutb : — perbaps baving in mind tbe words of Moses' blessing in Dent, xxxiii. 8, 3 hy Light and Thy Truth be to Thy saint. Psalm XLIV. V. 3. Thou didst dispossess the heathen and plant them in^ sc. tbe cbosen people, as is clear from tbe comparison of Ps, Ixxx. 9. Gesenius gives tbe same reference to tbe corresponding verb in tbe second member of tbe verse, viz. □nbE?m. So too Delitzscb and Dr. Perowne. It is true tbat tbis word is used of tbe fa- voured vine in Ps. Ixxx. 12 ; but witb tbis difference, tbat wbereas tbere it is tbe vme tbat PSALM XLV. 269 sends out its own branches, here it is God that sends out. I therefore understand this place to mean that God afflicted the heathen and cast them out. So the lxx. and Vulg. V. 5. ni!J, See Ps. xlii. 9, and Ixxi. 3. V. 23. T^v. See Ixix. 8. Psalm XLV. The immediate subject of this Psalm was undoubtedly the marriage of some king of the bouse of David. The personality of the indi- Tidual king is however merged in the grand scope of the Davidic destiny. This being un- mistakably ascertained, it follows that the main reference of the Psalm is to Him in whom the destinies of David's line should culminate, and the hopes of Israel find their fulfilment. The occasion of the marriage of any one member of this royal line is a fitting occasion for the recollection and re-enforcing of the promises made concerning the seed of David. So impossible is it to avoid the Messianic interpretation of this Psalm, that the Targumist points the address of v. 3, — Thou art fairer 270 P6ALM XLV. than the sons ofmeny iSfc, — by interpolating the words, King Messiahs The prophetic assertions here found are, therefore, in close correspondence with those that were made with respect to David personally. Thus, comparing this Psalm with Ps. Ixxxix., we find here the hero spoken of (a) as anointed with God's holy oil, v, 8. (6) as thereby distinguished from his fel- lows, V. 8. (c) as a mighty champion, — ^nina — ,v. 4. In Ps. Ixxxix. we find David (a) as anointed with God's holy oil, v. 21. (6) as thereby chosen from amongst the people, V, 20. (c) as a mighty champion, nina, v. 20. With regard to (c) let it be noted that mn: b« is one of the titles of the Messiah in Isaiah ix. 6. That the house of David was all along re- garded as the vehicle of God's purposes, may be inferred from many passages of Holy Scripture. As directly bearing upon this Psalm, and as throwing light especially upon v. 7, wherein the Messiah is addressed as God, — let me call atten- PSALM XLV. 271 tion to Zechaiiah xii. 8, — The house of David shall he as God, — as the Angel of the Lord be- fore them, V. 3« p b2? &c. According as God hath blessed thee. The meaning is, that the beauty and grace here spoken of were indications of God's blessing. For this use of the expression see Num. xxi. 14 and 27, V. 4. -[-nm "j-nn. See the same combi- nation in Ps. xxi. 6, and xcvi. 6, V, 5. -j-nm. This word, which, as it is pointed, is a repetition of the last word of the preceding verse, and which Olshausen, Hupfeld, and Delitzsch, would omit as a needless repeti- tion, was read bj the lxx. as the imperative Hipb. of the verb -f-n, with the meaning to tread, sc. the bow, — that is, to shoot. They render it by evTeivov. Retaining their reading, apart from their rendering, it can hardly be doubtful that nb!J '^mn is a poetical inversion of the usual expression -j-n n'^b^n, — Prosper Thou Thy way, Tlie LXX. render nD-) by /Sao^tXeve. It is 272 PSALM XLY. not necessary to suppose tliat their reading wa.^ different from ours. The ideas of suhduin(jy triumphing, hence reigning, are so usually asso- ciated with that of riding, that no difficulty can here be suggested. It is, however, not unlikely that since the primary idea of nD^ seems to have been that oi binding (i.q. DSi), — a rider being a horse-hinder, linTohirribD"'n. I should understand this and PSALM XLV. 276 other places where ivory-houses are mentioned, as store-houses of ivory. Such treasure-houses might probably contain other foreign produc- tions, such as the spices here named, and yet keep the more limited designation of ivory houses. It is possible however that oil-houses or spice-houses may be here expressly mention- ed, according to my suggestion in the next note. id. *jinnb ''2)D, Of the accounts that have been given of the word ■'^n, I object to that which makes it stand for WT2y with the meaning of some kind of music, that it is not music that makes the king glad, but the spices named in this verse as the ingredients of the oil oj glad- ness mentioned in the preceding verse. Since the Lxx. render it by i^ Siv, it seems to me not improbable that •'^a may here stand for the Aramaic •>Tia. This Psalm having, in many respects, an Aramaic colouring. There is, however, another conjecture, to which I have alluded above, viz. that linab ^DX2 ^{W stands for The rendering, upon this supposition, will 276 PSALM XLV. be, — Out of the store-houses of perjuming oil do they make thee glad. That which makes glad in this verse, will thus appear to be the oil of gladness mentioned in the preceding verse. The derivation of bD'^n, from bs'' i.q. bi3, to contain, would favour this meaning of the word as here used. To this origin of the word Solomon seems to refer in his prayer at the dedi- cation of the temj)le ; as if the temple were con- sidered as containing the Deity in some sense. Behold, he says, the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, yb'zb'D^ wb, — how much less this house that 1 have built. The Lxx. use here, for b^^n, and elsewhere for pa-is, the word IBdpi stand, by a not unusual transposition, or ,nbn.b i:ns n^n^ Or else, more regularly, for •jDb we ought perhaps toreadi2n. The reading ^3nbnD was probably suggest- ed by, and adopted in consequence of, the mis- 282 PSALM XLVII. understanding of ^^b, To one who read ^^'^? -in2^, and took this to mean He chooseth for us, it would appear necessary to read " our inherit- ance," instead of " His inheritance." Yet, from the general tenor and express statements of the Hebrew Scriptures, nothing can be more certain than that the thing which God chose was Israel for His inheritance, rather than an inheritance for Israel. See amongst many places to the same effect, Deut. iv. 20 ; xxxii. 9 ; 1 Sam. x. I ; xxvi. 19; 1 Kings viii. 51, 53 ; Ps. xxviii. 9; xxxiii. 12,— lb nbmb nnn crn — -, Ixviii. 9 ; Ixxviii. 62, 71 Ixxix. I ; xciv. 5, 14 ; cvi. 40 ; Isaiah xix. 25 xlvii. 6 ; Ixiii. 1 7 ; Jer, ii. 7 ; Joel ii. 1 7 iii. 2. It is true that, on the other hand, many places might be adduced to show that God's gift to Israel is spoken of as Israel's inheritance, rhn:i, But in this place, the use of the word "inn would alone indicate that the inheritance is something that God chooses for Himself, rather than a gift to others. And, if this could be doubted, then we have the express assertion, in this verse, that the thing which God chose was PSALM XLVII. 283 sometLing of Jacob's, — mp37''iiS3, — ralher than something for Jacob. That the expression mpu'^ lisi denotes something of Jacob's^ rather than any excel- lency derived from God's favour, appears from Amos vi. 8, where God is represented as saying, ** I abhor the excellency of Jacob'' The same expression occurs in Amos viii. 7, and Nahum ii. 3. V. 6. God has gone up, ^c. I cannot un- derstand this, as it is usually understood, of God's ascending into heaven after having de- scended to earth for the manifestation of some deliverance for His people. Yov it will thus seem as if God was escorted back again to heaven with the shoutings of men and the blowing of their trumpets. No such unworthy description is ever found in the Hebrew writings. When God appears and moves. He is attended always by a glory of His own, a glory that to men is too suggestive of awe to permit even the thought of their promoting it with shouting and trumpet- ing. The word is rather to be understood of God's exaltation upon that throne from which 284 PSALM XLVII, He over-rules and judges the whole world. This idea of exaltation, as distinguished from that of ascending, is conveyed by the Niphal form of the same verb in the last verse of this Psalm. It will often be found that when God is represented as interposing His direct agency in the affairs of men. He is spoken of as ascending, or sitting upon, His throne of judgment. See notes on Ps. vii. 7 ; and x. 5. The shouting and trumpeting must thus be regarded as proceeding from an angelic escort. I think that St. Paul certainly had this passage in his mind, when, foretelling Christ's descending to judgment, he says, (1 Thes. iv. 16), — The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout : with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God. It is worthy of observation how careful he is to tell us that the shout is an angelic voice, and that it is not man's trumpet- ing that is heard. It will perhaps be said that, if the Apostle used this passage to enforce his description of Christ's descending to judgment, it is likely enough that he took the original word to denote ascension. 1 think so too; — but it does not fol- PSALM XLVII. 335 low tliat tlie proper meaning of the original word, or even St. Paul's conception of that mean- ino", had any reference to the ascension from earth to heaven. V. 10. The princes of the peoples are ga- thered together (to he) a people of the God of Abraham, So Dr. Perowne very well renders the yerse as it stands. There is something, however, to be said in favour of the old reading of u^ (with) instead of u^ (people). The contrast between this Psalm and Ps. ii. is remarkable. And as there we find the peoples with their princes &c. combining against the Lord, here we find them gathered together with God and with God's people. They are glad to assemble themselves unto God, in order that they may be under the agis of His protection. For — V. 1 1 , The shields of all the earth are upon God, That is,— He is the Shield-bearer for the protection of all nations. See Ps. vii. W, My shield is upon God* 2s6 psalm xlvjii. Psalm XLVIII. T. 3. r\^^ ns''. The primary idea of ^^12 is that of height or elevation. All the other mean- ings attributed to this root, as of sprinkling^ wavinffy shaking (Sfc, are derived from that of elevating, sc. the hand, for any of these purposes. From the idea of height comes that of ex- cellence. Thus D'^DT^ nD3 is the prime excellence of the honey, — that which drops spontaneously from the combs. And thus ?ii3 ns"* may mean beautiful even to excellence, i.e. exceedingly beautiful. This will be equivalent to the usual epithet of Zion, viz. "'s^ bb^a, perfection of beauty. And so will this passage be brought into parallelism with Lam, ii. 15. There we read, as a common epithet of Zion, The perfec- tion oj beauty : the joy of the whole earth. Here it is said of Zion, that she is the excel- lence of beauty : the joy of the whole earth, ]1D2 Ti3~i\ See the same expression in Isaiah xiv. 13. Supposing nsn'' to mean an eX' iremity, which may be considered either verti- cally or horizontally, some have proposed to render these words, Northern heights. And in- deed in ong place, (1 Kings vi. 16) aKpov is the PSALM XL VIII. 287 Septuagiiit rendering of this word. Neverthe- less, the meaning of summit is excluded by the marked peculiarity of the primary meaning of this word. It might perhaps be thought that in con- sidering the sides and the ends of a body, the same idea, viz. that of bounding or limiting, would be present to the mind. To the geome- trical mind it is so ; but this is a generalization which is not produced spontaneously. In con- sidering the long sides, the proximate idea is that of extension without limit. In considering the ends, the proximate idea is just that which we express by our word end. It is termination. Now the idea of continuous length is con- veyed by "7-1"^ from its obvious connection with It would seem, therefore, that the word cannot be taken to mean an extremity in the sense of a summit. The word D^riD'^'' has frequently the mean- ing of inner recesses, as of a fortress, a moun- tain, &c., the idea oi length being still discern- ible, since inaccessible places are regarded as 288 PSALM xLVin. remote. For this meaning of the word, see the numerous references in Gesenius sub v. We are thus led to adopt the original, rather than the conventional, meaning of pDi*. The word must here mean a secret place, and has no reference whatever to the north. Here is no difficulty, since the word is used even more frequently with Ihe original than witli the conventional meaning. It is, however, worth while to refer to some of those places in which the word is so used. In Ps. xxvii. 5, Jn the time oj trouble He shall hide me in His divelling : in the secret place of His drcelling shall He hide me. In Ps. xxxi. 21, Thou shalt keep them secretly in Thy tabernacle. Add to these, that, in Ezekiel vii. 22, the Sanctuary of God is ex- pressly mentioned as His secret place, •':3"iD!5. I have, therefore, little hesitation in taking pD^j \n3")"' to mean the recesses of the Sanctuary, The thought is continued into the next verse : — God is rvell known in her palaces as a sure rejuge, V. 5. For lo, the kings were assembled^ ihey passed along together. PSALM XLVIII. 289 It is not necessary to understand -in^ as meaning to pass arvai/. See note on Ps, xlii. 5. And this meaning seems almost forbidden in this place by the word nns together. The kings met in concert, and passed along in con- cert. The word together is inconsistent with the idea of discomfiture and dispersion, the men- tion of which is reserved for the next verse. V. 6. The kings seem overcome by wonder and admiration rather than by terror. This ad- miration they are represented as expressing in V. 9. T. 8. Since the meeting of the kings was at Jerusalem, it seems probable that the ships of Tarshish are mentioned here only by way of illustration. " The description," says Delitzsch, " is framed upon the remembrance of a recent event, viz. the destruction of the merchant-fleet fitted out by Jehoshaphat." And so Dr. Pe- rowne very well gives the meaning of the verse ; (They were broken as) with the east wind which breaketh the ships of Tarshish. It appears that both of these writers assume a latent d before mnn. But such an assump- 290 PSALM XLVIII, tion can be made onlj upon the supposition that the Psalmist intended an idea of similitude to be associated with the words mns, — that, in short, he intended min to stand lor minD, But it is well known that, upon these occasions, an ellipsis is made, not of 2, but of the preposi- tion n. For these reasons it seems to me verj pro- bable that for m~Q we ought to read mn^ ; and this, perhaps, without even assuming the usual ellipsis of n. The comparisons will thus be continued from the preceding verse, thus : — Trembling seized them there : anguish, like (the anguish of) a woman in travail: — Like the east wind that breaks the ships of Tarshish, Many examples of such construction will occur to the reader. That an east wind was regarded as destruc- tive to shipping appears from Ezek. xxvii. 26, and Job xxvii. 21. V. 9. Like as we have heard, so have we seen ^c, I would put these words into the mouth of PSALM XL VI 11. 291 the foreign powers, (1) because they seem to have no meaning in the mouth of the Israelites, and (2) because they give the exact summary of what the Queen of Sheba is reported to have said, when slie was overwhelmed by the sight of Solomon's grandeur. "She said to the King: It was a true report that / heard in mine own land. . . . Hovvbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it." 1 Kings X. 6, 7. The words i3"'nb« "T'yn, must, however, be put parenthetically in the mouth of the exulting Israelite. The Kings say : — " Like as we have heard, so have we seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts.'* The Israelite adds, parenthetically, " this Lord oj hosts of whom they speak is our God "; — ^just as in the last verse of this Psalm it is said — This God .(of whom such glorious things are spoken) is our God. V, 10. In the midst of Thy temple, i.e. in the secret recesses of Thy Sanctuary, as in v. 3, — whilst the enemy was prowling without, — we have remembered Thy covenant-goodness, v. 1 1 , "7^1173 8^c. A ccording to Thy re^ putalien^ so is Thy praise^ The writer of Ps. 292 PSALM XL-VIII. cxxxviii. (v. 2) puts it still more strongly :— Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy reputation. The parallelism of the two places is shown by the context of the latter: — All the Kings of the earth shall praise 7hee,OLord, for they have heard the words of Thy mouth." As in V. 9 of the 48th Psalm the kings acknow- ledge that what they saw was equal to the re- port that they had heard, and as in t. 11 it is said that the praise extorted from them was in accordance with that report; so in the 138th Psalm it is said that the kings of the earth, praised God when they heard the words of His mouth, — meaning probably the words of His earthly representative, — and that in this way the Word of God was magnified ev^en beyond the reputation of it. V. 12, -["^tisitrJia — The Mishpat is a divine- ly authorized judgment ; hence, a precedent of divine sanction ; — hence a custom. Here, and in other places, it means God's accustomed manner of dealing with His people .; — that is. His faithful dealing. See Ps. cxix. 132, ^5 Thou Msest to do (isDttJns) unto those that love Thy name; and v. 149 of the same Psalm, PSALM XLIX. 293 Quicken me according as thou art wont. In the latter place, -ft:iDtt?n3 is found in connection with "^ir^ns, — just as riDS and Ton are usually found. Psalm XLTX. Compare verses 2 and 5 of tliis Psalm with verses 1 and 2 of Ps. Ixxviii. Tt would seem that either one of these passages is an imitation of the other, or else tliat both are imitations oi some common oiighial, There is this important point of difference between the two, viz. that, in Ps. Ixxviii., they who incline the ear are of the one part, and he who opens his month in a parable is of the other part ; — whereas, in this 49th Psalm, one and the same person is represented as inclining the ear, and opening the mouth &c. In this Psalm, therefore, one might suspect some confusion and corruption of the text, but for the consistency of this difficult 5tli verse with that which precedes it. For the antithesis between inclining one's ear and expounding the riddle, corresponds with the antithesis, in v. 4, between the musing of 294 PSALiI XLIX, the heart and the utterance of the mouth. More- over, it is quite in accordance with poetical usage that we find here that the order of ideas in V. 6 is an inversion of the order of v. 4 ; — just as, in V. 3, "jvnb^i "T'K?!? is an inversion of the order, E7"»w "^32 • • • D~rw "^32. For this usage, see note on Ps. xviii. 6. The primary and natural order is that of this 5th verse. Musing on the parable, the fire kindles, and at the last he speaks witli his tongue. See Ps. xxxix. 4. We cannot, therefore, regard this passage as a corrupt imitation of Ps. Ixxviii. 1, 2. V. 6. If P37 is in stat. ccnstr. with "'npS', the meaning seems to be, lite perversity oj my footsteps entangleth wze,— that is, I am ferplex- ed by the intricacy^ the tangled wehy oJ my wan- derings. If not, then the meaning will be. Iniquity doggeih my footsteps, — the double ac- cusative, in such a case, being far from unusual. The question is certainly decided by a con- sideration of the whole scope and tenor of this Psalm. Why should I fear P — In the evil days that follow an evil Ufe, — in the tangled web of error PSALM XLIX. 20ft and of sorrow in which they find themselves in- volved who follow only the devices and desires of their own hearts, — there is surely something to be feared. Bat, Why should I fear, in evil times, when wickedness pursues me, and is just at mu heels to overtake me and to overcome me ? — ^This is a question to which the Psalmist attempts to find an answer in the considerations that follow. I therefore take this to be the meaning of the question. Thd direct answer is found in v. 17. V. 8v No man can redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him. V. 9. For the redemption of man's soul (sc, that which God only can effect, as in v. 16) is a costly thing, and it ceaseth for ever (sc. be- cause it is for ever effectual). The idea being that it is accomplished once for all, Comp. Heb. X. 2, where it is said that the Levitical sacrifices would have ceased to be offered, if they had been effectual. It is observable that the word used in the Syriac version of Heb. x. 2, is "iD2, — a word that, both in Hebrew and in the 596 PSALM XLIX. Aramaic dialects, has the two meanings of (1) to complete, and (2) to leave off, to cease. It seems plain that the idea of cessation is in this word consequent upon that of completion. We may attribute the same pregnant meaning, viz. 0^ cessation upon completion, to the word bin in this place, V. 10. So that he (who is redeemed of God) Itveth for ever and seelh not the grave. V. 11. Yet he seeth that the wise die, just as the fool and brute perish ^c. That is, worldly wisdom can avail no more than worldly wealth for the redemption of the soul. This is God's work, as is stated in v; 10. V. 12. For nmp the lxx. read D-inp, 61 Ttt^ot avToiv. This idea has no connexion with the context. For mp, in the sense of inward thought, see Ps. V. 10, audlxiv. 7. V. 13. For vb^ the lxx. read ^>n% as in the last verse of this Psalm. Those who read ]'^b'> render the passage : — Man being in honour con- tinueth not, or abidelh not. It is to be observed tSALM XLIX. 297 Ijowever, that pb has no such meaning. Its proper meaning is that of temporary sojourning ; and, however such meaning may be in some cases slightly extended, this is certainly the last word that would be chosen to express perma- nence. Allowing due weight to the remark of Delitzsch upon this place, viz. that " there are other instances of refrains that are not exact repetitions," i still think that the Septuagiut reading ought here to be followed. Delitzsch adds, that the reading of rn> '' is at once over- thrown by the fact that bn will not suit ^^n"* : — it will stamp each man of rank, as such, as one deficient in intelligence." But, surely, it is no rare thing to find such sweeping denunciations of human stupidity and wickedness. Take, for example, the assertion of Ps xiv. (or liii.) : — " The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that would understand, or seek after God. But they are all gone out of the way j . . . , there is none that doeth good, no not one."' The pas- sage in question does not stamp a man of rank, as such, but every man nolwiihslanding his rank. 298 tSALM JtLlX. It is possible that the true reading may be, not rn> bn, but r=i '^^. With the sentiment of this versL^, so under- stood, viz. Mariy however high m rank, yet with- out understanding (]'^n), is like the beasts (man:^) that perish, compare that of Psahii Ixxiii, Un- til 1 understood (nras, v. \1) the end of the wicked 1 was as it were a beast (mDnn, v. 22,) before Thee. We may add that the readino^ ^''^s seems to be confirmed by the statement of the next Terse, viz. — V. 14. This way of theirs is (th*i cause of) their stupid confidence (boD), What way ? Surely not the way of insecurity expressed by l^b'' bi2, but rather the way of thoughtlessness expressed by ^^n'> bn or ^^'n ''b^. id. i^"!"" cn^^jn nnnns. The construdion is regular, and we nej I not scruple to take tn>~ins as equivalent to D^2-ins in Job xviii. 20. V. 15. nn^ is found only here and in Psalm Ixxiii. 9. Like the more usual form rr^r, it would be followed by n if it were intended to denote the depositing of a thing in a place. As in Ps. Ixxxviii. 7, "nnn "•sntt?, T/wii hast laid me in the pit, so here we should find biwtz7a, if the meaning was They lay ihein, or They are laid, in Hades. Moreover, sheep are not usually buried. We must therefore look for some other It meaning, if the received reading is to be follow- And, perhaps, siuce b nb n^'W means to con- template a thing, like the Greek Trpoa-ixeiv Tov vovv, we may assume a customary ellipsis of ■^ in the Hebrew, analogous to the customary ellipsis of rov vovu in the Greek : — precisely similar ellipses being of frequent use in the He- brew. This assumption is not quite without war- rant. In Job X. 20, >3nn rr^iz?, the ellipsis is certainly of "jab, rather than of tii^ as Gesenlus suggests. Because, in the entirely parallel pas* sage in Ps. xxxix. 14, the corresponding word is rmn, the meaning of which is to turn the at- tention to or from a tiling. Moreover, in Job vii. 17, 19, there is a dis- 300 PSALM XLIX. tinct antithesis between the expressions I'lVs n'^wn ^nb and •'aDW Tivwn. An ellipsis of the accusative after n'^w is the rule whenever that accusative denotes mili' tary forces, a camp, ^c. This assumption will enable us to link on the sentiment of these opening words of the verse to those which follow, viz. C2?"i^ mn. Like sheep they contemplate their own desttmction : ft is death that pastures them. The idea being, that as sheep look onlv to their pasture, by which thej are prepared for death, so that Death is spoken of as their shep- herd ; in like manner do they contemplate their own destruction who lay up treasure for them- selves and are not rich towards God. The remainder of this verse presents many difficulties, and as many temptations to conjec- tural emendation of the text. I propose none. But "n-i"^"! must be pointed as for the future of i-i\ Seethe same use of this verb in v. 18. Then on means amongst them, according to the very frequent use of the preposition n. Further, bntD must be taken as a noun sub- PSALM XLIX. 301 stantive, of which Si is a preformative consonant, and not the preposition. And the upright shall go down (to the grave) amongst them (sc. amongst the ungodly)^ vntil the morning : — their outward Jorm is (des- tined) for corruption : — the grave is a dwelling' place for it (scfor the outward form). In justification of this rendering, I would urge that in this Psalm, as elsewhere, it is recog- nised that the upright as well as the wicked must descend into Hades. Thus, in v. II, of this Psalm, Wise men die as well as the foolish and the brutish. There is, however, a hope of some sort of deliverance for the righteous, as is stated in v. 16, — God will delii^er my soul from the power of Hades. This surely assumes that the soul of the righteous has descended, to- gether witli the wicked, into Hades. Compare the same assertion, and the same assumption, in Psalm xvi. 10. 1 hou wilt not leave my soul in hell, S^c. Tims the righteous hath hope in his death. Of the wicked, who live and die like the brutes, it is said in v, 20, that when once thej have been gathered to their fathers they shall never 302" PSALM XLIX. see light. It is implied that upon ihe righteous^ souls that dwell iu Hades light shall at length sliine. This then is the morning spoken of in this 15th verse ► That npnb may be rendered until the morn- ing is proved by Deut, xvi. 4, where no other meaning is admissible. If it should be objected to this interpreta- tion that the righteous and the wicked are toa promiscuously mentioned together, I reply that the same objection would lie against v. 11, Let me now attempt a paraphrase of the whole passage. Like sheep thaty in fixing their regards vpon their pasture^ pre}>are themselves Jor ihe slaugh- ter, so do the unwise, in all their doings, have respeJ only to the sepulchre. Their sensuality tends to nothing beyond. It is Death that to this end tends and feeds them. The upright, too, shall descend with them into the same sepulchre ; but only for a while, — until the day dawn. Their outward man shall perish : — the grave shall be a dwelling-place Jor it, but for it alone. Their inward man shall be renewed, God will PSALM L. 303 rescue their soul. He will not leave it in the grave, or suffer it to see corruption. V. 17. To the question in V. 6, Why should r fear Sfc, an indirect reply is given in the form of general considerations. Wicked men die. So do the righteous. But the wicked utterly perisli, whereas the righteous hath hope in liis death. You need not therefore be dis- couraged by the thought that the ungodly have ihe advantage in life, and seem to be under no disadvantage, comparatively, in death. In this 17th verse, a direct answer is given. Be not afraid, though a (wicked) man be enriched, Sfc. Psalm L. The drift of this Psalm is obvious, and i* well-sustained. It is the oft-repeated denuncia- tion of formality and hypocrisy. We must, however, beware of the common error of suppos- ing that the Psalmist intends any disallowance of formal sacrifices. It is most certain that such formalities were of absolute obhgation upon the Israelites from the giving of the Law to its ful- filment by the Messiah. See Prolegomena, § 15, (p. 58). All such passages as seem lo de- 30'4 P.'ALM L. predate and even to disallow formal sacrifice may be explained by the last three verses of the 51st Psalm. There it is said that the sacrifices of God are a contrite heart, &c, ; — but it is im- mediately added that, upon the manifestation of such contrition, God will delight in the usual sacrifices and ofibrings. In this 50th Psalm two classes of Israelites are addressed. The first are the an'^on, the beloved (v. 5) ; and the second the n^'swn, the transgressors, (v. 16). Delitzsch supposes the rvhole people of God to be designated here as D">T^Dn. He says, " The contradiction between their relationship and their conduct makes an undesigned but bitter irony." Now it is true that the chosen people, as a whole, were regarded as both T'Dn and p"*"!!?, as both beloved and righteous. The terms denoted those who continued in covenant relationship to- wards God by the exercise of goodness reciprocal to that which God had manifested towards them. But it is certain that, in the Mosaic system, ac- tions and states were contemplated which should constitute a breach of covenant-relationship.. PSALM L. 305 And it is equally certain tliat the actions and dispositions mentioned in verses 16 to 20, of this Psalm, are of this character. It is therefore in- credible that the Psalmist should intend this word T'Dn to include such gross evil-doers ; and par- ticularly since there was no necessity to use such a word in order to denote the aggregate of God's people. I therefore understand the former part of the address, viz. from v. 5 to v. 16, as an ex- postulation with those who were still worthily regarded as the Saints of God. These need to be reminded that God does not ask for sacrifices because he is hungry or thirsty. Many really pious Israelites might yet entertain somewhat of this gross conception, for which, moreover, they might almost plead the terms of the original institution of sacrifice. 8ee my note on Ps. xx. 4. The expostulation with these is couched in gentle terms. But Divine indignation flashes out, in v. 1 6, against the open transgressor of the covenant. What right has he either to plead that covenant or to make mention of God's statutes ! What part or lot can he have with God's people, who. 306 PSALM L. being a thief, an adulterer, and a slanderer, clokes his villainy under the forms of religion ! It is not likely, I think, that such characters as these are intended to be included in the term "•-i^Dn, in V. 5. Although upon this question of the reference of the term ''Ton, Dr. Perowne's opinion seems to siile with that of Deliizsch, he yet accurately distinguishes between tlie two kinds of evil de- nounced in this Psalm ; very concisely charac- terizing the'ii as (1) superstitious formalism, and (2) conscious hypocrisy. V. 1. Of the three terms here applied to God, viz. (1) bt^, (2) □"^nbs, (3) mn\ it will be observed that tlie second conveys a more specific meaning than the first, and the third more than the second. The expression. From, the risiny of tlie sun to its setting^ either suggests, or is suggested by, the phraseology of the following verse. V. 2, In Ezekiel xsvii. 3, occurs the ex- pression ^D^nb^b^, and in Ezek. xxviii. 12, "'2'' b>bD. In both places Tyre is spoken of. In Lam, ii. 16, the former of these two expressions PSALM L. 307 is given as an usual epithet of Zion. See note on Ps. xlviii. 3. The meaning here is, undoubt- edly, Om^ o/Ziow /Ae j9er/ed/o« oj beauty hath God skilled. It would not be easy to find a reason for the introduction of tlie epithet here other than this, viz. a play upon the two \vords ly'^^in and •'D\ That this was intended will appear more decisively from the consideration that these two words, rc'^and ns% are closely akin. The play might be imitated tlius : — Out of Zion the per- Jevthm oj shining hath God whined, V. 4. It is not quite obvious what is in- tended by the summoning of the heaven and the earth. Yet, since in v. 6 the heavens are repre- sented as testifying to God's righteousness, — that is, to His faithful observance of His part of the covenant, — it is possible that the earth may be. summoned, in a fanciful and poetical corres- pondence, to plead whatever may be pleaded in behalf of Israel. V. 5 ''n"'Dn. See introductory note. V. 6. Compare Ps. xcvii. 6. Not on account of thy sacrifices do I re- 308 PSA.LM L. prove thee, nor for thy hurnt-offeringSy (which are) always before me. V. 10. Fibw mna. On the hills of the oxen. vv. 12 and 13. In my introductory note I have spoken of the extremely gross conception of God as of one who hungered and thirsted after the flesh and blood of the sacrifices. Yet it is not necessary to assume this, hterally, on the part of those who are here reproved. Their conception was probably not so gross ; but it was the same in principle, viz. that the formal sa- crifices were in themselves pleasing to God. V. 14, Sacrijice to God praise^ — T^'^^r\. The same requirement is mentioned in the last verse of this Psalm, [t is quite impossible to understand this iis substituting praise for sacri- fice. If this could by any possibility have been intended, then surely the word that denotes sa- crifice would have been omitted. The iuj unc- tion would have been. Render to God praise, rather than sacrijice. So that the strict inter- pretation of the words as they stand, (indepen- ddntly of the known truth that formal sacrifices- PSALM L. 309 were never disalloweJ ) — gives the meaning tliat sacrifice ought to be the token of, and accom- panied with, a thankful and trustful heart. V. 16. ^pn -iDob. Comp. Ps, ii. 7. V. 19, Ta!jn. The root mesins (I) to bind, and hence, in Hiphil, to weave, as in this place, where the lxx. give TrepteVXcKe. The figura- tive use of the word weaver in connection with snares and plots, is familiar to us, from Greek and Roman, as well as English, phraseology^ The word means (2) to couple together, as a yoke of oxen ^ and then (3) to copulate. In this last sense the word is found in Ps. cvi. 28, in reference to Numb. xxv. 3 and 5. For the Niphal form, in these three places respectively, — where the reference is to Israel b.^ng jr.ined unto Baal'Peor — the lxx. give ireXecrOr^a-av, eTekecrdr), and Terekecrixevov. By this word they denote consecration by prostitution to Baal- Peor. See Herodotus iv. 79 (and the other places referred to in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon, sub v^ Tckeoi) for the meaning oi initiation. That the lxx. intended more particularly to 310 PSALM L, denote consecration by prostitution, appears by their renderini*- nt£?np, a consecrated harlot, by rereXtcr/aeVi^ (for rereXecrjaeV?; ) . See also 1 Kings xxii. 46. It is possible that the same idea was in- tended by St. James, I, 15, — r) ct/xaprta D1. Delitzsch and Dr. Perowne seem to re id "^m, since they understand the word to mean a thrust. The word occurs only here. It is pla'n'y connected, in etymology as well as in meaning, with nm. But I think the lxx. and the Syr. had a different reading. V. 23 Tliis verse contains a summary of the whole Psalm. The first part concerns those who thought that sacrifices, in themselves, ^ere pleasing to God, apart from the disposition in heart and mind of the worshipper. To these the lesson of v. 14 is repeated. IPSALM L. 311 The second clause refers to those who had presumptuously thought that, notwithstanding their gross violation of the covenant, they could claim their part in the salvation of God, so long as they duly offered the formal sacrifices. These are told that only they shall see the salvation of God whose way is ordered according to His will. But, although this plainly seems to be the meaning intended, it seems impossible to put this or any other meaning upon the words -f-n nb. For nb, tiie lxx. and the Syv. seem to have read qw, I here. But neither does this give any sense, except by doing great violence to the context. Considering the close connection between the letters w and n, I have very little doubt that the true reading is tit an, — sincere in his way. See the same words in Pro v. xiii. 6, and the almost identical expression, "-[-n •^D^'Dn, in Ps. cxix, 1, and elsewhere. This expression perfectly denotes him who, under tlie Mosaic covenant, could claim the privileges of that covenant : — privileges which 312 PSALM LI. here, as elsewliere, are siimmed up in the words, 2 he Salvation oj God. Tt is not quite impossible that the Lxx. may have read nn, and understood it as the Aramaic form of nvi. Psalm LI. This Psalm cannot be understood without a recognition of the distinction observed, under the Mosaic dispensation, between sin and trans- gression. For a full consideration of this dis- tinction the reader is referred to my Prolego- mena, and to my notes on Ps. xl. 6. The main points to be borne in mind are these : — (a) That the Jewish people were habituat- ed to a continual sense of sin. But it was the privilege of the covenant into which God had entered with them, that this normal condition of sinfulness should be expiated by a stated sacri- fice, — the Sin-offering . This sacrifice was therefore regarded as a covenant privilege. (b) That certain offences were considered as breaches of the covenant. Until these were expiated, the sin-oflFering was not allowed. For PSALM LI. 313 such of them as were expiable the Trespass- offering was appouited. This was the means of restoration to covenant-privileges ; and, accord- ingly, it was always followed by a special Sin- offering, just as, in the Christian Church, pe- nance restores a man to Communion, and specially to the privilege of participating in the Sacrament of the Holy Communion. The Prayer of this Psalm is a prayer for restoration to covenant privileges by means of the forgiveness of the transgression. To us Uie distinction may seem fanciful, but it was a real and momentous one in the mind of the Psalmist, who prayed that his transgression (of the covenant) might be expiated, in order that his sin might (under the covenant) be for- given. V. 3. The Psalm, then, begins with men- tion of the transgression, which is here spoken of as a 2?ii7D. This word speaks ior itself as a breach. Its relation to sinfulness is well ex- pressed in Job xxxiv. 37, — He addeth trans- gression {vw^) to his sin (inHian). V. 4. In this verse mention is made of 314 PSALM LL n^r:ir\ and pi^y. That this latter word, as well as the former, is to be understood of that siufuhiess which I call normal^ and not of abnormal trans- gression, is proved (not to mention other proof) from V. 7 of this Psalm. See Prolegomena ^ 25. Having in the preceding verse made men- tion of his transgression, whereby he was cut off from covenant privilege, the Psalmist imme- diately turns to that privilege in this fourth verse, earnestly longing for it. V. 5. The writer's situation is here ac- curately described. The verse might be ren- dered, though this is not the only admissible rendering, — When I acknowledge my trans- gressions ("^37^72) then my sin (\nM::)n) is ever before me. Or, Although I acknowledge my transgres- sion , yet S^c. See v. 18 of this Psalm. Taking the usual rendering, viz. 7 acknow- ledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever be- jore me, — this is not a mere balancing of a verse by a tautology. Why was sin ever before him ? It ought not to be so. There was the daily iPSALM iii. 315 i5acrifice for sin : — Could not that afford daily relief from the burden of sin ? No, because from this he was debarred by his transgression, his breacb of the covenant. It was because he was conscious of such transgression that his sin was ever before him, — with no such intermittent relief as the covenant privilege of the daily sa- crifice might have afforded him, if he had not been debarred from it. V. d. From this point of view the difficulty of this verse vanishes, .David's transgression of the covenant involved injury to his fellow- men : — such injury, in truth, was the very es- sence of his offence. How then can he say, addressing God, Against Thee only have 1 sinned ? It is because there is mention made here of sin only — the normal state of sinfulness — not of the transgression. The next words, however, must be referred to the special transgression. Not only because the definite article before 27"i probably means this evil, viz. the crimes in connibtion with Bathsheba, but because the expression ''::"'S'n v^n 316 PSALM LI. n'\Ti'' is commonly used to denote some heinous offence. See the books of Kings, passim. So that Thou art justified in Thy cause* j and clear in Thy judgment. It must be remembered that God had taken this cause in liand, and pronounced judgment upon it. On the whole, it appears that David was almost too willing to let the offence as against his neighbour fall out of sight. His pressing grief was, not so much that offence against his neighbour as the continually accumulatinor bur- den of sin in God's sight, from the periodical expiation of which he was debarred bj that offence. He therefore tries to merge the abnor- mal transgression in the normal sin. My sin is against Thee, against Thee only ; and even my *For 'yy[ in this forensic sense, see Ps. cv. 19, and Exodus xviii. 16, 22 ; xxii. 8; and xxiv. 14. Although St. Paul (Rom. iii. 4) follows the lxx. — kv Toig \6yoLQ aov — yet it is observable that he quotes the passage in immediate connection with, and in confirmation of, his assert^n that God has observed the covenant whilst man has broken it : — God being aXrjdrjg, and every mau ypeiirrrjQ, ?SALM LI. 517 transgression is, (to turn to his present purpose a conventional expression) — evil in Thy sight. So that Tho u, aft justified y^c, Gesenius is indignant at this rendering of pxsb, evidently because it gives some warrant for the same rendering of Iva in the correspond- ing usage of the Gospels, V. 8. Behold, Thou desirest faithfulness in secret tilings, sc. in respect of sexual intercourse, wherein David had transgressed, ninr:i. This word occurs only here and in Job xxxviii. 36. The idea is that of covering, and so hiding. It seems to me that the things denoted by mnt:) and dhd are the things otherwise denoted in the preceding verse, viz. the incidents of conception and birth : — the sexual mysteries which, to those who had undergone Levitical training, presented, under any circumstances, an aspect of sin. But the circumstances under which the Psalm was written were extraor- dinary, and are recognized as such. The Psalm- ist does not shift the blame from himself to his mother (as might be thoughtlessly supposed) or 318 rSALM LT, make excuse for himself on the ground of orisrin- al sin. It is true that in sin (speaking Leviti-- callj) had his mother conceived Mm and brought him forth ^ but this unavoidable sinfulness was consistent with faithfulness towards God and His covenant: This is the meaning of nias — faithfulness towards the covenant-God — and it is in respect of this that the Psalmist acknow- ledges his transgression. His offence was not merely nwtan, it was an ctt?N. Why, then, need his mother's s::in be mentioned ? Simply to in- dicate the sort of things in respect of which David had transgressed. Although, Leviti- cally, such things were under any circumstances tainted with sin, yet even in such things God looked for faithfulness, for such faithfulness as David's mother had observed in respect of such things, but which David himself had violated. V. 11. Hide Thy jace from my sins (•'St^n) and blot out all my iniquities (\"I3127). Still it is the accumulated sin that causes the trouble, rather than the transgression, V. 15. Then shall I teach transgressors (n'-'vwz) 7 hy ways, and sinners (n'^i^^n) shall return to Thea. Surely, it may be said, here PSALM LI. SIQ' the transgressors and the sinners are found in the same category. I think not. His own transgression being pardoned, the Psalmist would be able to shew other transgressors how God will pardon them also. Sinners they will still continue to be ; but sinners standing on the ground of God's covenant mercy, and returning to him in the daily sacrifice for sin. One might paraphase the verse, — I do not say it would be a translation — Then shall I teach transgressors Thy ways, and as sinners they shall return unto Thee, V, 16. See note on Ps. xl, 10. V. 18. 1 hou desirest not sacrifice 8^c. This is commonly understood absolutely, whereas it seems to me that it must be understood condi- tionally. What God desires above all is faith- fulness to the covenant. See v. 8, n!2Qn ni2S ]n. It is only when this faithfulness is not observed that the sacrifices, as covenant privileges, are disallowed. This is clear from the last verse of this Psalm, where it is said — Then — i.e. after the restoration of the transgressor, Then shalt Thou he pleased rvitk the sacrifices of righteous- ness kc> 320 PltJLLM LII. V. 21. Sacrifices of righteousness. The expression includes all the stated sacrifices — every sacrifice, in fact, except the one specially appointed for the expiatian of breaches of the covenant, viz. the Asham. They were such sacrifices as were allowed only to those who stood on the ground of righteousness, that is, of acceptance with God through His covenant mercy. See Prolegomena § 22. Psalm LII. V. 3. ^yhg dost thou exult in wickedness F sc. in the wickedness of God's people. The whole tenor of the Psalm requires that we should so understand these words. The inconsistency of God's people gives great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, and the Psalm seems to be directed against such a blas- phemer. mna is a warrior, skilled especially in the use of the bow. Comp. Ps. xlv. 4, and the reading of the lxx. in v. 6 of the same Psalm. Comp, also Ps. cxx. 4, c^DiDtt? mn^ ^I'n, where, as here, the allusion is to the weapons of a slan- derous tongue. PSALM LII. 321 b« ion. The mention of the goodness of God seems so abrupt, both before and behind, as to suggest a doubt with respect to the reading. These two Hebrew words are represented in the Greek of the lxx. bj the one word avoixiav. Thej seem to have read, by transposition, ion bi^, without 2net I/, i.e. impiety, — taking b« as the word that expresses negation. They are warranted in this use of the word. For exam- ple, in Prov. xii. 28, mra b« is made equivalent to D'>"'n, i,e. not-death = life. So here, not-piety would mean impiety or lawlessness. The Syriac translator read the words in the same order, ion b«, or probably Ton b^, — but he took b« for a preposition, and as equivalent to b^, — against the pious. He is warranted in this use of the preposition b« by many examples that will occur to the reader. I would therefore transpose the words bw ion in accordance with that which seems to have been the reading of the lxx. and of the Syr., and would render these opening verses of the Psalm thus : — 322 PSALM LII. Why boastest thou thyself in wickedness^ thou mighty man ? Against the pious thou devisest mischief all the day long. Thy tongue is like a sharp razor, 6fr. The reading of the Syr. might tempt us to think that he read some form of rvon rather than of TDn. This is not hastily to be assumed, " Caveant sibi lectores," says Michaelis, without reference to this place, " ab errore grammatico qui vel apud doctiores invaluit, hoc verbum (sc. won) cum Heb. T^sn conferentes. Significa- tione conveniunt," &c. Into this error we are not likely to fall. I quote Michtelis here only for the sake of bis testimony as to the equiva- lence of the two words. V. 11. 1^ or TW^ used absolutely, as here> see Ps. xxii, 32; xxvii. 5; and cxix. 126. id. Dr. Perowne gives : — 1 tvill wait on Thy ^ame (for it is good) in the 'presence &c. See Ps. liv. 8. It would, however, be allowable 1o render the passage as it is usually rendered, I will wail on Thy Name, for this (sc. this wait- PSALMS LI1I.~LIV. 323 iug upon God) is pleasing to Thy saints. For ys^ is frequently followed by >3D^, which is equivalent to -rn3, in the sense of being accept- able to any-one. Psalm LIU. See notes on Ps. xiv. Psalm LIV. V. 3. See notes on Ps. iii. V. 8. Undoubtedly a free-will afering is here intended ; — that is, a sacrifice not of legal obligation. V, 9. Mine eye hath gloated vpon my fallen enemy ^ A curious relic of primitive brutality. Not that brutality survived longer with the He- brews than with others. On the contrary, the Hebrews are the first-fruits of humanity. But the relics of barbarism are nevertheless preserved in their language. 334 PSA-LM LV. Psalm LV. Yv. 2 and 3. Hear my prayer, God, and hide not Thyself from my supplication* Heark- en to me and answer me, S^c, The sequel to this entreaty consists of two Hiphil verbs ; and it can hardly be doubted that these two verbs express the activity and impor- tunacy of the Psahnist's prayer. Neither the requirements of the context nor the use of the Hiphil forms will aliovv of such pas^'' ! ^^'^rnre- tations as those of our English Versions, / mourn in my complaint, and make a noise : — / mourn in my prayer and am vexed ; or as that of Delitzsch and Perowne, 1 am tossed to and fro, and must groan. The two verbs ins and nsi'^nw express a sort of vociferous clamour on the part of the Psalmist, for which earnest attention is claimed on the part of God. The Hiphil of iin is found elsewhere ouly in Gen. xxvii. 40, where according to Gesenius it means to roam freely about, to yo free* He renders the passage, Tt shall come to pass, when thou shall go free, thou shall break his yoke from off thy neck, — which is absurd. PSALM LV. 325 It would seem that from the idea of roaming about in search of food comes tlie further idea of earnest request. As it is said that the young ravens call upon God for food, and that the lions roaring after their prey do seek their meat from God; so the urgent prayer of the Psalmist seems here to be expressed by a word that pro- perly denotes the restless craving of ravenous beasts. The meaning of Gen, xxvii. 40 is, that when Esau should show his impatience of his brother's yoke, he should be able to break away from it. The idea of impatience and restless- ness being prominent in both places. v. 7. The use of prz? intransitively is not uncommon. See Pa. Ixviii. 19 and cii. 29. V. 15. With TiD p\ntt3 here, comp.-no ixs'^n^y'' in Ps. Ixxxiii. 4. v. 19. ^Vmpa. The lxx. and the Syr. read '•b-'^nipia : — the former giving aTro roiv fr/yilpvrcMv (jlol : — the latter taking the word in the sense of neighbours and acquaintances. Syr, DDn = Heb. 2?T. This is a preferable reading ; since that of 326 PSALM LV. the text is syntactically unexampled and impro- bable. For D"^mn in this verse the Syr. seems to have read nnnn, in strife. Some such read- ing would be preferable to that of the text, in order to give a consistent meaning to na27. This word might mean against me if taken in connection with some other word of hostile sig- nification. Otherwise it must mean with me, i.e. on my side. Considering that no meaning whatever has yet been put upon the words of the text as it stands, we may venture to gather from the read- ing of the Syriac translator some such meaning as this : — He hath delivered my soul from them that were my familiar neighbours ; for they were with me only for hostile purposes. From verses 13 &c., also 21 and 22, we learn that the enemy who is the subject of the Psalm was a false friend and neighbour. mbti?n is altogether omitted by the Syriac translator, V. 20. D2l?">% LXX. Kol TaireLvcoo'eL avrov?. So also the Syriac. ]PSALM LV. 327 id. For nbo the Syr. read obr, for abiir. The expression nb^v mp, though not elsewhere iound, so far as I know, is yet perfectly allow- able. Considering the difficulties of this place, and the necessity of some textual emendation, which all have acknowledged, I prefer to read here with the Syriac translator. i»b niD^bn v« "^i^^n. These words present little difficulty when the preceding nbo is re- moved. And this little remaining difficulty dis- appears if we consider that izsb stands for ^b as well as for anb. The literal translation will then be precisely in the words of St. James (i. 1 7) Trap CO ovk evi irapaWayq. God who con- iinuetk Jrom eternity : with whom is no chang- ing. It is observable, moreover, that in Psalm cii„ which presents some remarkable points of similarity to this Psalm, the eternity of God, of whom it is safd (v. 13) na^n nbii^b, is contrasted with the mutability of heaven and earth, of which it is said (v. 27) lobn'^i nD^'bnn. The whole verse will read thus : — God shall hear and answer them (sc, ac- 328 PSALM LV, cording to tlieir deserts ; or else, (God shall affiict them) — even He who conlinuetli from eternily : with whom is no changeable ness : — Yet (or although) they do not fear God. It may be that the thought of God's un- changeableuess was suggested by tlie change- ableness of human friendship which is the occa- sion and subject of the Psalm. V. 22. inb n"ip. See note on Psalm xxxvi. 1 and 2. The words seem here to mean the secret purpose of his heart, that is, an insidious purpose. V. 23. nn"*. A burden. See note on Fs. Ixviii. 19. Geseuius, however, takes it in its secondary meaning of gift, as if it were meant : Commit to God that rvhich He has given thee, or laid on thee, i.e. thy lot. The LXX. render the word by ixepLjxva, which is, at least, more consistent with the idea of a burden than with that of a gift. PSALM LVI. 329 Psalm LVI. T. 2. F)Stt7, LXX. KaTtTrdTTjcre. So also the Sjriac, In the same sense tlie lxx. understand the word in Amos ii. 7 and viii. 4, in which places the meaning given by them is probably the right one. In the former, the English version, viz. That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, is absurd, even with Gesenius' explanation, viz. they are urgent that dust may be on the head of the poor. The meaning plain- ly is. They tread upon the dust of the earth : on the head of the poor, i.e. upon the head of the poor as upon the dust of the earth. Just as in Ps. xiv. 4, the expression They eat up my peo- ple : they eat bread, means They eat up my peo- ple as they eat bread. See also lix. 9. I am inclined to adopt the same meaning in this verse and the next, and perhaps in v. 4 of the next Psalm. In this sense, the word is con- nected with 7\r3 as used in Gen. iii. 15. This, again, is probably connected etymologically with n\"i3, a trodden way, with rx^n in Job xvii. 6, and with r\n a lab ret* 330 PSALM LVI. It is impossible to understand di^M here otherwise than in its peculiar signification of com- mon people, rabble. For if we take it to mean marly in general, then the speech is appropriate only in the mouth of one who is not man. It is simply absurd to make the Psalmist say. Have mercy upon me, God^Jor man jighteth against me, as if man were a noxious creature generi- cally distinct from himself. V. 3. DTiia, loftily, disdainfully. The idea of disdain, or contempt, corresponds with that of trampling under one's feet, which I assign here to p^wa?. V. 4. DT' for Dvn, as in v. 10, — here, as well as there, followed by the finite verb. It is possible, however, that m^ may be a mistake, and that we ought to read wb. Since wd find in v. 5, wt^« sb \'-iniin D^nbsn, and the same words again in v. 12, we may perhaps read here, in this 4 th verse, nt^2« -j^bw ^3N s"i"^« «b. v. 5. For -nm I read with the lxx. nm, and render. Through God will I make my cause clear. See note on Ps, Ixiii. 12. PSALM LVI. 331 V. 6. All the day long do they pervert my cause, nni. V. 8. ]i« bv. The lxx. have virep rov fjiy)9eu6<;, and Dr. Perowne thinks they may have taken ps in its original sense of nothingness. It is much more probable that they read ]''«, which on other grounds is preferable. It is here, as is usual, followed by the dative. So that lab ^'^s bi^ would thus mean Because there is not to them. See Tibv wb bv in Isaiah liii. 9, and the same expression in Job xvi. 17. See also Ps. cxix, 136, i-intt? sb by. It is quite according to rule, moreover, that, whereas, in the examples given above, «b is followed by a finite verb, I'^s should be fol- lowed by the infinitive. The meaning then is. Because there is no deliverance for them. The connection of this clause, so rendered, with the rest of the verse will appear more clear- ly, if (as I propose on other grounds) we take ''la from the next verse and retain it in this. I take 13 in tlie sense of refuge, or place of refuge. It is thus used to denote Cain's place of refuge 332 PSALM LVI. in Gen. iv. 16. The verse will thus express a contrast between those who, rejecting God, have no waj of escape, and the Psalmist, who has God for his refuge. The expression thus arrived at, viz. Bring them dowtiy O God, my refuge, was suggested bv the corresponding one in Ps. lix. 12, — Bring them down, Lord our shield. If one might propose a still further (though slight) alteration of the text, viz. the reading of IV for bv, and then take tabs, as it is often used, for ts'-bD, a fugitive from slaughter,— o, still more satisfactory meaning would appear, viz. Until there is none of them escaped, bring them down J God my refuge : — a prayer for such vengeance as Joshua executed upon those cities of Canaan wherein it is said He left them none remaining, V. 9. r{Ty>^ nn-i2D . The abruptness of the verb (thus disconnected from '^ii) may be paralleled by Ps. x. 14, and by Ps. xxxv, 22. V. 11. It is here open to us to understand either iim or nm. In accordance with the note on v. 5, 1 prefer the latter. PSALM LVII. 333 Psalm LVII. V. 3. For -1)23 it is certain that the lxx. read 'jns. Ilie expression >bv ban, is according to rule. V. 4. >DWti? Tpn, He hath rebuked my op- pressor. The grounds upon which Delitzsch and Dr. Perowne would invert this natural order are insufficient. The former says that r]in aU rvays has God as its object, not as its subject. This is not true ; but if it were it would go for nothing. Dr. Perowne says that to render the words in their natural order, is contrary to all usage, according to rvhich men are said to reproach God ; hut God is no-rvhere said to reproach men^ It is clear, then, that >DSt£; is the subject oj the verb Finn. V. 5 . n'lginb nn^tp's. Since it is difficult to account for the final n of the verb, one is tempted to read D'^tonbn n3t2;«. It is not neces- sary, however, to make such an alteration for the sake of famishing the noun with a preposi- tion. See -inp ''n^ia; in Psalm Ixxxviii, 6. V. 8, The remaining verses of this Psalm 334 PSAL,M LVII. are found again in Ps. cviii., with a few varia- tions of little importance. The Lxx. give, for the most part, corre- sponding variations. ''nb T133. See the same expression in Ps. cxii. 7. V. 9. mnD. See note on Ps. x?i. 9. inw m^'^N. It is not easy to choose be- tween the two renderings, viz. (a) 1 myselj would awake right early, and (b) 1 rvould rouse the dawn. Yet, considering that the opening words of the verse — Awake my soid — imply the Psalmist's own awakening, the former rendering would be a somewhat unmeaning redundancy. Adopting the latter, we may compare the ex- pression in Milton's L'AUegro, — Singing startle the dull night. psalm lvtii. 335 Psalm LVIII. V. 2. nbN stands for n''bs, mighty ones, judges. See Ps. Ixxxii. 1 and 6. See also Exod. xxi. 6 ; xxii, 7, 8. pi"^ "QT, which would be in full tastra "Qi p"T!?, means to pronounce a righteous judgment. DIN ''3n is the accusative. If it were voca- tive, it would rather be tr"'S >Dn. It is plain that the expostulation is not addressed to the sons of men in general, but to the rulers and judges of men. The sons of men — qin "»3n — are the as:- grieved persons, who cannot get their wrongs redressed. In accordance with this, we find in the last verse of the Psalm that, when God in- tervenes and arises to judgment, then men — DIN — shall know that there is a God that judgeth in the earth. I therefore render this second verse thus : — Do ye truly pronounce righteous judgment, O ye judges? Do ye with equity judge the sons oj men? V. 3. Nay but in your heart ye jrame ini- quity in the land, and wiih your hands ye mete 336 PSALM LVIIX, out violence. The idea of the latter clause is that iniquity is as formally administered as if it were equity. The same idea occurs in Ps. xciv. 20, — Who mould their mischief according ta law. For F]« in the sense of but, see Ps. xliv. 10. V, 6, DDn?3, wisely. See Pro v. xxx. 24. V. 8. I would connect "jsbnn^ with vsn ra- ther than with q^kj, comparing Ps. Ixxvii. 18, I2bnn> -T"^!Ji*n. And for lab after this verb 1 would read a repetition of i?33. Moreover I propose to take ibban"^ 1723 into the next verse, in connection with bibntt? idd. The verses will then be divided thus : — T. 8. n>12 1tt2 iD«x:^ Let them flow array like tvater : Let them hey one as when one shocteth his arrows. v. 9. Dzsn bibntL' i»3 ibbnn^ las n2?w bD3 -jbn^ oxss) &c. So let them lanyuish as a snail melteth : (as) an abortive birth vanisheth. For lbbx:n*' the lxx. give aadevrjcrovo-LVy — the same word by which they render bb?2« in PSALM LVIII. 337 Ps. vi. 3 ; in 1 Sam. ii 6 ; and in Lam. ii. 8. The word is probably akin to the bbn of bibnti? — the idea being that of mehing into a liquid — consuming in slime — hence of corruption gener- ally. l^D followed by id3 means so — as, or the converse ; unless, as in the next verse, it is a mere repetition of as. V. 10. The present reading of this difficult verse is, with a trifling exception, confirmed by the Lxx. The exigency of the case gives some warrant to a hazardous conjecture. It is some- thing if such conjecture does not interfere with the received text. It may be that D^'^m^'D means pots and n:^« a bramble; — but I cannot satisfy myself that I3''n"' can mean perceive, in the sense of pots perceiving the heat of thorns. With some diffi- culty the words might be made to express some such meaning, according to modern phraseology. But this is not Hebrew phraseology. The confusion into which this verse is thrown seems to have originated in a word, with regard to which I have to make an assumption^ 338 PSALM LVIII. viz. the word ii2K. This word occu'^s elsewhere only in Judges ix. 14 and 15, where it means a bramble, (lxx. pd[xvon is used of the growling of bears in Isaiah lix. 11. V. 8. ir'^n\ The verb is no-where else used absolutely. This, however, would create little difficulty, it the simple utterance of speech were here intended. But tliis is not the case. For what could be more inane than for the Psalmist, in the midst of his passionate denun- ciation of his enemies, to assert of them that they do with their mouths that which all men do with their mouths, viz. speak ? Some suitable word, therefore, must stand as the object of ii?>n\ and in the same relation to Dn"»Dn as mn'in bears to cn^mca^a. Now the sword (mn) and the spear (n"^3n) are so frequently mentioned togetlier, and in Ps, Ivii. 5, are so mentioned togetlier, — the spear PSALM LTX. 343 as tbe teeth, and the sword as the tongue, of the slanderer — as to lead us to conjecture n^zn as the suitable word here required. If this conjecture be adopted, we may substitute rr^in for nin, and translate : — They pour forth spears with their mouths and swords with their lips. The primary meaning of yn: is to pour forth^ Compare Ps. xxxv. 3, — Pour forth the spear (n^in p~in) and slop the way ayairnt (nsipb, see above, v. 5) my persecutors. V. 9. The same observations are applica- ble here as to v. 6. The Lord shall scorn them : He shall contemn all the nations. This means, I apprehend, that God will deal with His people, if thej are unfaithful, just as He will deal with the heathen. See note on Ivi. 2. V. 10. For ')tv we must probably read >Ty, as in V. IS. Yet we need not change n":nt»N to n"i72TS. It should be pointed as the Niphal Optative. We thus have an example of that pregnant usage which is so characteristically Hebrew. mssaJs i'^b« means, (Fleeing) to 7 hee, let me be preserved, just as in Ps. cxliii. 9, \n'^DD "i"^bw means (Fleeing) to Thee T hide my- self. 344 PSALM LIX, The context shews the fitness of this mean- ing. O my Strength, jieeing to Thee let me he preserved. For God is my fortress. V. 11. My God shall prevent me with His favour. V. 12. ^J^v inDC?^ p. The lxx gi\^e fiijirore i-rnXdOcovTat tov v6{ji.ov crov. It is probable that they read-fati? instead of ''ai?. In Jer. xxiii. 27, we find the words "•ntz; "'cr nw n'^^irnb D'^ntrnn translated by the LXX. Tcjp Xoyilpixivoiv TOV eTrikaOecrOaL tov VOfMOV fXOV- In this latter place they have omitted either "^a57 or ^J2^\ Probably, I think, they read '^Dt» without '^'Ci's. In both places, therefore, they seem to have rendered the word nw by vofio^, — I know not why, except on the supposition of some confu- sion between vofios and ovojxa, such as occurs in Isaiah xlii. 4. Whether in this place of Ps. lix. 12, we read ''12W or inir, — my name or Thy name, — is not of so much importance as would appear at rSALM LTX. 345 first sight. The Psahnist, speaking on the part of all Israel, might use the expressions iudiffer- eutlj ; having regard to that which is so fre- quently asserted in the Old Testament, viz. that Israel was called bj the name of God. Slai/ them, noty lest they forget my name will thus mean, lest they forget the name whereby 1 am called, which is God's name. Now in Psalm Ixxxiii, 6, the ohject of the people who were confederate against Israel is said to be That the Name of Israel be remem- bered no more. Then vengeance of all sorts is imprecated upon these enemies, the object of which vengeance is said in v, 17, to be That they may seek Thy name, O Lord. And so, here, the Psalmist may pray, not that Gc 1 would annihilate these enemies at once, for so God's name which He had given to Israel — including all His promises concerning Israel — God's word, God's name, God's promises, would be forgotten. For it must be considered that the object was chiefly to glorify God's name (as so understood) in the sight of the heathen ; — an object which would not be attained by their im- mediate and utter extirpation. 346 PSALM LIX. See note on Ps. xl\ iii. 1 J . Also compare Deut. ix. 28, 29. T would therefore substitute >^w for '^tiv. The apparent inconsistency of the prayer of this 12th verse, — Slay Ihem not — with that of V. 14, Consume Ihem in Thy wrath, may be paralleled and explained by the verses that inter- vene between v. 5 and V. 17 of Psalm Ixxxiii. The expressions used in both places might in- deed be understood to mean immediate and utter extirpation ; — but such meaning is not of ne- cessity in the words. The strongest expression of this Psalm, viz. iJiD'^Hi nb2 of v. 14, may mean. Bring them to an end that they be no more a people ylike the >i3a m^n32 of Ps. Ixxxiii. 5. It is not unlikely, however, that the first half of V. 14 ought to be put into the mouths of the enemies, thus : — V, 13. By the sin of their own mouth and the word of their own lips let them be taken ('nab'') in their pride ; for wilh cursing and lying they say, — V. 14. Consume them, wilh fury. Consume them,, that they bz no more^ PSALM LIX. 347 This saying of theirs is the sin of their own month and the word of their own lips, — the curse that shall be retorted on their own heads, — the trap in which they themselves shall be taken. Comp. Psalm ix. 16, The heathen are sunk in the pit that they made : in the net that they hid is their foot taken (m^ba). This use of "nsD^ in v. 13 may be com- pared with the use of the same word in Ps Ixix, 27. id. Yet ihey (sc. the heathen) shall know, V. 15. The dogs are supposed to be less formidable here than in v, 7. There tliey are the keenly pursuing enemies. Here they are merely begging for food. V. 16, "ii^ii** must be taken in connection with •iD3J"«3n in v. 12. There the Psalmist prays that God will cause his enemies to wander. Here they are represented as so wandering. id. Unless ihey are fed to the full they murmur. Sa the LXX. ; and when we remember how often, in the books ol Exodus and Num- bers, the Israelites are said to have murmured (the same word), for this same reason, viz. that 348 PSALM LIX. they were not fed to the full, — it can hardly be doubted that this is the right rendering. See about the greedy dogs that cannot have enough in Isaiah Ivi. 11, where also we find an illustration of the force of n'tzr^ at the beginning of this verse. It points out the thing intended by the simile. In Isaiah Ivi. 1 1 , as dogs know no satiety, so these are pastors that have no un- derstanding. In this Psalm, as dogs wander for food, so literally do these men. V. 18. n-i?3TW T^s ns?. If this reading be retained, we may compare n^ niian ns? in Ps. cxviii. 14, I am inclined to think that it should be retained, because of its connection with the •^ty "T^n^M of the preceding verse. Otherwise there is a great temptation to adopt one and the same reading here and in v, 10. It would appear from this Psalm that such singular variations are sometimes intentional ; and this must be borne in mind in other cases where the intention is not so clear. For this reason I am not disposed to reduce the reading of the next verse, nan "'nbN, ami that of v. 11, PSALM LX. 349 MUn "»nbs, to one and the same expression. They seem to be two independent expressions, with different meanings. One cannot but acknowledge, however, that the text of this Psalm is in a somewhat un- satisfactory state. Psalm LX. The mingled tones ot triumph and of de* jeclion, found in this Psalm, cannot be better explained than by assuming the historical truth of the title. See the circumstances briefly re- lated in 2 Sam. viii. During David's absence, in his wars against Syria, the Edomites seem to have invaded his territory. Creeping upward along the Eastern shore of the Dead Sea, they would cross the Jordan at the most convenient place, probably by the same ford by which the Israelites had passed over, — " right against Jericho," as it is said in Josh. iii. 16. The territory thus invaded would be that of the tribe of Benjamin. The import of this observation will be found in my note in v. 7 of this Psalm, The observation is confirmed by the note on v. 9. 350 P.SAL M LX Let me remark, in passing, that 2 Sam, viii, 13, should be thus rendered : — '* And David gat liim a reputation (after that he had returned from smiting the Syrians) in tlie valley of salt — eighteen thousand (slain)." Our Authorized Version would lead one to suppose that the Syrians were smitten in the valley of salt. The discrepancy in the numbers as given here and in the title of the Psalm, need not be considered. Numerical accuracy was not much thouglit of by the Hebrews. V. 6. nbrnn^v In Isaiah li. 17, 22, brnnn did. V. 6, DDi^nnb D3, a banner to betake them- selves to : to jlee to : to rally around. It must not be assumed, from this expression, that D3 is derived from a root denoting flight, or refuge. The root expresses rather the idea of lijting up, and is akin and equivalent to NCi?2. On the other hand, it must not be assumed, as by Delitzsch, from this meaning of d3, that DDisnn means to lijt oneself up. The verb is a denominative from D3. id. !iH?p, The lxx. and the Syr. read r.tr'p. PSALM LX. 351 which they took for a noun singular, meaning a borVy or collectively bowmen^ archers. • Adopting their reading, I would take it as fern, plural of ntz?p, with the meaning of hard- skips, adversities. This seems probable, — (1) As connected with the 7iw[^ of the pre- ceding verse, thus : — Thou hasl showed Thy people hardships^ — Thou hast given them a standard around which they may rally from be- fore the hardships,* (2) Because, reading :2tt;p and taking it to mean truth, it is impossible to render the expres- sion ^Wy! ''Scxs because of the truth. Whereas '•isa is precisely the appropriate word to denote from the face o/an enemy. See v. 4 of the next Psalm. (3) Because, if iDtt?p, in the sense of truths had been the reading of the Syriac translator, it could hardly have escaped his notice, since the word seems peculiarly Aramaic. *Hammond says, — " The word CSIT p doth here sure- ly relate to the ntiJp of the preceding verse." He sup- poses only an alliteration; — but, ufon ihis supposition alone, HlTp is a more probable reading than i:tt?p. 352 PSALM Li:. It is indeed possible that the Syriac trans- lator might read \2Wp, and tliat he might take this »vord to mean a bow or how-men : — the id and the n being found almost indiscriminately in the Aramaic forms of these words. But this is possible only on the supposition that he did not know that for such meanings nti?p is ilie only Hebrew form. Yet this he surely must have known ; and, with this knowledge, he would be led to take the unusual Hebrew word :2'2^p with the other meaning, — i.e. the alternati' maic meaning,— -viz. of truth. If he in any doubt, he might have retained ^'> ^^> consonant id, with an equivocal meanin, own dialect. Since he did neither the ^ ^hem- the other, we may presume that he read nryp rather than xctWp. V. 7. T"f'*f "•• This is the epithet expressly appropriated to the tribe of Benjamin by Moses, in his blessing of the ttvelve tribes : Deut. xxxiii. 12. This remark has the more weight from the fact that the word is of very rare occurrence; One place of its occurrence is iu Jer. xii. 7, where the reference is probably to Anathoth, of the tribe of Benjamin. PSALM LX. 363 id. Save with Thy right hand. Upon the supposition that the tribe of Benjamin was in peril, it is not perhaps fanciful to se(3 here an allusion to the name Son of my right hand, V. 8. Upon a divine assurance of victory y I (Da' id) will exult S^c, id. Q^w npbn«. I will divide (my forces) at Shechem. The verb, for this meaning, must be pointed as Niphal. See Gen. xiv. 15, where jo're ifiy'l of Abram that he divided himself (i.e. . vs) against them: nn'hv ^'hn'''\. mean /r. must be remembered that David and sion isttJrre returning from their Syrian campaign, "'^'ne .0 ces would be divided between these two, Shechem and Succoth are mentioned as the bases of the divided forces : the one on the West, the other on the East, of Jordan. There seems to have been easy communication between the two places, since we read of Jacob fording the river at some point between them (Gen, xxxiii. 17, 18). It seems likely that David would lead his army from Shechem to drive the invaders back over Jordan, and that Joab would then descend from Succoth to pursue the fugitives,. 354 PSALM LX. It would appear that David did not join in the pursuit, after the invaders had recrossed the Jordan, since the victory at the Valley of Salt is attributed to Joab. id. Titts. This Piel form is found only here and in 2 Sam. viii. 2, thus forming another link of connection between this Psalm and that history. The word seems to have had some technical military meaning ; as (perhaps) to ex- tend a line of troops across the valley. V. 9. Gilead, Manasseh, Ephraim, and Judah : — these are the complete surroundings of Benjamin, and are all mentioned as reliable auxiliaries. 'Now Benjamin was in such close alliance with Judah, that it certainly would have been mentioned amongst such auxiliaries if the seat of war had been anywhere else than in its own territory. It is perfectly natural that David having to expel an invader from Benjamin should count with exultation, as he here does, upon the fidelity of all the tribes bordering on Benjamin. Under the name of Gilead the two tribes of Gad and Reuben are comprised. I would divide this verse thus : — *' On my PSALM LX. 355 iide is G Heady and on my side are Manasseh and Ephraim : Judah {''ppnn) is the sh englh of my head." That is, I would take ^ppn72 to be an epithet of Judah ; and therefore we must look to the words whicli go before (^w^n t'wa) for the pre- dicate; — this being, moreover, the order in which the predicates of Gilead and Manasseli appear. id. ^ppn72. " The reference is to Gen. xlix. 10; where, as well as in Numb. xxi. 18, the parallelism seems to require the meaning of sceplre." So says Dr. Perowne. I could not, however, assent to this, if I did not perceive a further reference in this place lo Numb, xxiv. 17, 18, where it is said that the sceptre (ti^c?) that shall smite Moab shall also subdue Edom : where also it is added that Israel shall do vaUanlh/yb'^nnbv^— the very same expression that David uses .in v. 14 of this Fsalm, Through God shall we do valianlhjy b^'n ni:7273. It seems plain that in this expedition against Edom, Balaam's prophecy was present, naturally enough, to David's mind; and he certainly seems to identify the ppna of Jacob's blessing (men- tioned as it is in connection with toriC?) with the t:nti7 of Balaam's prophecy. S66 PSALM LX V. 10. Here, after mention of those upon whose help David could rely against his present enemies, comes contemptuous mention of those enemies. These three, Moab, Edom, and Philislia, are expressly mentioned in the corre- sponding history, 2 Sam. viii., as being subdued by David's arms. It has been supposed that the casting of a shoe over Edom denoted symbolically the taking possession of it. But Dr. Perowne well observes that the giving of a shoe, " so far from being symbolical of taking possession, is symbolical of giving up one's rights." He gives as the meaning of this verse, — " Moab is the vessel in which the master washes his feet : Edom is the slave to whom he throws his shoes to be taken away, or to be cleaned j'' — aptly comparing Matt. iii. 11. id. Shout over Philistia. '>bv is here the construct form of by, as in the parallel place in Ps. cviii. There we read. Over Philistia will I shout. See the same word with the same meaning in Ps Ixv. 14. v. 11. "^ani "^D, Who will lead me. The preceding verb being in the future tense, this may also have a future signification, by a not in- PSALM LXI. 357 frequent usage. See Geseuius, Heb. Gramm, § 124. Ti!5tt -)"'27. See Ps. xxxi. 22. It is probably impossible to say what city is here meant. Both the opening and the close of this Psalm seem to indicate that it was written (a) whilst the result of the contest was yet doubtful ; and (b) under some apprehension of God's dis- pleasure. Psalm LXI. V. 6. Thou hast given (me) the heritage of them that fear Thy name, sc. length of daySy as specified in the next verse. This is in many places promised to those that fear the Lord. So Pro v. x. 27, The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, Prov. xiv. 27, The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. Prov. xix. 23, The fear of the Lord tendeth to life. So also Deut. vi. 2, That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, that thy days may be prolonged ; and Deut. xvii. 19, 20, with special reference to the King of Israel, That he may learn to fear the Lord his God to 358 PSALM LX£. the end that he may prolong his days in his. Jcinydom. V. 8. imi^a** p nnsT ion. The word p is usually taken to be the apoc. imperat. Piel of n2D. But ueither the meaning thus assigned to n3ia, nor the construction thus assumed, seems satisfactory. It is also usually supposed that the Lxx., the Syr., and the Latin Vulgate, read 172, since they render it by the interrogative pronoun. They must, however, have known that p has no such meaning in Hebrew. It is therefore far more probable that they read >!3. The Chaldee read 7^>'a (from Jehovah), There is, therefore, reason to believe that the original reading contained the letters '^iii, to- gether with some other letter or letters ; and we may perhaps hit upon the right word by a com- parison of this place with Ps. xl. 12, — thus : — Ps. xl. 12. ^s'n:^"' i^'an ^^f2i^^ '7^D^. Ps. Ixi. 8. in-)!>D^ -^72- nawT ion. It seems to me not unlikely that we ought to read T'Jsn in the latter place, as in the former. PSALM LXII. 369 The initial n of this word might easily have been confounded with the final n of n^w, and so omitted; and the i would be the letter which the Chaldee translator mistook for n. And thus the T'lisn of the second clause of this verse will correspond with the nb^v of the former clause. Psalm LXII. V. 2. ^«, as used so frequently in this Psalm, is, I think, simply an interjectional form. Interjections are, for the most part, of demon- strative origin ; and, as is well known, words of demonstration, indication, pointing out, &c. are in most languages connected with words of holdinc/, having, &c, It is thus easily to be seen how the interjection -js acquires that meaning of limitation which is in many cases rightly as- siffued to it. An obvious illustration is afibrded o by our English word " hold''! — an interjection- al form with a power of limitation. In this Psalm, liowever, I see nothing in the word but the simple and almost unmeaning interjectional expression, Ah! 3^0 PSALM LXII. See the use of -jm and ns in Hos. xii. 1 2, and my note on Ps. Ixiii. 7. id. n^'D'n. The idea of silence is not essen- tial to this root. The same form of the same word is found in Ps. Ixv. 2, where the idea of silence is plainly inapplicable. The succession of ideas seems to be (1) subjection^ submission, (2) patience, (3) patient waiting, nn and Djai, and (in some cases) nrii, seem to be equivalents. V. 4. nm seems to be equivalent to nnn. It occurs only here. V. 10. 3Jen of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are liars, with cheating ba- lances ; — together (high and low) they are of vanity. So the lxx. Compare ais ''an n: in'' ttj^s -^22 D2 in Ps. xlix. 2. I take n^bv for mbii?, fern. pi. of nbir, (as in Ps. Iviii. 3, and Ixiv. 1) frauds, iniquiiies. It might be added that, whereas mbir ''3Tsr) might mean balances accidentally uneven, the expres- sion mbi^yb D'^3TS!3 means balances constructed for the purposes of fraud. With the sentiment of this passage com- pare that of Jer. v. 4, 5. In both places the PSALM LXIII. 361 men of low degree are represented as indeed a mere vanity; — still, nothing is expected of them but vanity. On the other hand, the men of high degree, with their high pretensions, are more than vanity, — they are positive liars, — with standards purposely vitiated. V. 11. Trust not in wrong and robbery : put not a vain hope in your might ; — even when it (sc. your might) revives^ set not your heart upon it. Why? Because (v. \2) power belongelh unto God, ma occurs also in Ps. xcli. 15, with the meaning of strength reviving in old age. V. 13. To Thee, Lord, belongeth coveri' ant goodness, in that Thou rewardest a man accoi'ding to his works. See Prolegomena § 20. Psalm LXIII. V. 2. -7ini27«. Dr. Perowne says that this is to be rendered / seek Thee, — " not," he says, " as the E. V. Early will I seek Thee.'' He adds, — " The noun which signifies the dawn, the early morning, and the verb to seek, are both from the same root, and are both to be referred to the same primitive idea. The meaning of 362 PSALM LXin. the root is to break iriy and hence this in the verb passes into the signification of seeking Cearnest- ly), and in the noun the dawn is so called as that which breaks in upon the darkness." To me this appears far from satisfactory, though it is hacked up by the authority of Gese- nius. For, in the first place, there is no warrant whatever, so far as I know, for assigning to the root the idea of breaking. Then, it is only by the most roundabout way that we can connect the idea o{ seeking with that of breaking in upon,, The sequence of ideas seems more likely to be this : — (1) awakening, (2) ?vatching, (3) watch- ing in the sense of looking out : thence (4) seek- ing. In the first place, the morning is the awakening. Then to wake and to ivafc/i are modi- fications of the same idea, as the English words are modifications of the same root. Here too we may adduce the Syriac inw, to natch. The remaining stages of meaning follow each other naturally enough. If this be the true account of the verb, it may excite surprise to find it followed by an accusative of the thing sought, because the idea PSALM LXIIl. 363 is not that of waking a person, or watching a person, but waking for, or watching /or, a per- son. Occasionally, however, we find what is probably the full and original construction, viz. with b or bs of the thing sought for. The transition from this const*'uction to the other may be seen in Prov. xiii. 24, "nntt?, where Gesenius admits that "the suffix must be re- garded as in the dative." One may therefore take "inna^M here to mean / will awake for Thee : — a meaning which is as well expressed by our English Version, / will seek Thee early. Compare the use of -ipn, as in Ps. xxvii. 4, id. nxsD. The word occurs no-where else, and its meaning can be conjectured only from the context, since the cognate languages throw but little light upon it. The Syriac naa is the representative of Heb. 37it27 in Deut. xxviii. 28 and 34 : — this Hebrew word being appropriated to denote such madness, or ecstasy, as accom- panied a divine inspiration, or a demoniacal possession. Now it was supposed that the soul was then more susceptible of such influences when the bodily powers failed. It is therefore very probable that the 364 PSALM LXIII. word niD2 here denotes such bodily weakness, lan- guor, or faintness, as preparatory to that vision of the Almighty mentioned in the next verse. It will be remembered that it was when St. Peter was faint with hunger that he fell into the trance wherein he saw the vision which taught him to call no man common or unclean. Still more to the present purpose is the case of Balaam, who heard the words of God, and saw the vision of the Almighty, Jailing into a trance, and therein having his eyes opened to behold that great sight. See Numbers xxiv. 4 and 16, and observe the use of the words mn and ntrra. V. 3. So, (i.e. with such ecstasy as is men- tioned in the preceding verse) — So have I seen Thee : The word ntn, here, is the appropriate word for such vision. The Psalmist seems to distinguish between such spiritual vision and that which he denotes by the word nN"i. With his bodily senses he can see (n«"i) God's power and glory. It is only with the spiritual and spiritually exercised sense (ala07}TTijpLa yeyvixvao-fjieva) that he can see (n'in) God. V. 4. Thy loving-kindness is better than life. This is a continuation of the idea of PSALM LXIII. 365 Spiritual power increasing with the decrease of bodily power. So too is v. 6, — My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and Jatness, how- ever my bodily requirements may be unsatisfied. Though God's love is better than this life, yet it is in and with this life that God is to be praised. With the lips, and the uplifted hands, the inner devotion of the soul is to be manifest- ed, — vv. 4, 5, 6. V. 7. Gesenius is probably right in assign- ing to the word dm a demonstrative origin. A demonstrative or interjectional meaning may be retained here ; though perhaps it would be better to regard the word in this place as the usual in- troduction to a rhetorical question. V. 9. pm is followed by "^nns in Jer. xlii, 16. v. 10. Delitzsch would render. These to ('their own) destruction seek after my soul. Our English Version, Those that seek after my soul to destroy it, is not very justifiable syntactically, but is warranted by the consideration that no previous mention of enemies has been made in this Psalm. But for this consideration, the reading and rendering of the lxx. (svi^Jb — ei's 366 PSALM LXIII. fidTr)v) would be preferable : — In vain do they seek after my soul, V. 11. The expression nnn ''T b57 "T^rin is found also in Jer. xviii. 21, and Ezek, xxxv. 5. id. D'^bi^ir, jackals. The word jackal is probably derived (through the Arabic, and the Spanish chacal) from this word. v» 12. They who swear by God challenge the utmost test of their sincerity and truth. They are therefore here mentioned in coutra&t with those who speak lies. There is an appropriateness in the use of ibbnn*' which we shall miss, unless we retain something of the primary meaning of bbn. That meaning is, to be bright , or clear ; and though the idea advances in Piel to that of sing-' ingy celebrating, praising, and in Hithpa. to that of boasting, exulting, yet even here the primary meaning frequently becomes prominent. Thus the Piel tqi bbn, means, 1 have no doubt, to make one's cause clear, as in Ps. Ivi. 5, 1 1. And, in the Psalm before us, they who swear by God, — or, as we might render il, they who are sworn PSALM LXIII. 367 unto God — shall by God be cleared from all im- putations of wickedness. See note on Ps. Ixiv, 1 1. The same idea is expressed in other words in Ps. xxxvii. 6, He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the lights and thy just dealing as the noon-day. The contrast is, thus, between those who, swearing by God, are able to clear themselves, and those who, convicted of telling lies, have their mouths stopped. St, Paul, in his Ep. to the Romans (iii. 19), speaking of this contrast between justification and conviction of sin, uses this same metaphor : — Iva nap crrojuta (^payrj, Kol VTToStKOS yivqrai tto-s 6 Koo-fJios T(o 0ea>. This confident boasting in God is spoken of as the privilege of those who swear by His Name, in Deut. x, 20, 21, where, after the com- mandment. Thou shalt swear by His Namej it is immediately added, For He is thy confident boasting {'-\rbnn). 368 PSALM LXIT. Psalm LXIV. V. 5. "i«-i^^ Nbi. The Sjr. read the verb as Niph. of n«i, ** and are not seen." V. 6. They plot Jor the laying of snares. So in Ps. Ixix. 27. The word in these places seems to mean to talk together for Q^"^ some pur- pose, with perhaps some reminiscence of the an- tecedent idea of calcidaling. We are therefore warranted in rendering it as above. So Dr. Perowne, 7 hey reckon horv they may lay snares^ See also the note on Ps. lix. 13, 14. id. ^'d-> nsT> ^"a. This has been regarded as an indirect question, ]^ho sees them P of which the direct form would be. Who sees us P But I cannot so regard it, since b nsi does not mean to look atf as Dr. Perowne thinks. The very place to which he refers as warranting such meaning, viz. 1 Sam. xvi. 7, suggests rather ihsit o( having respect to, considering, caring for. And so, as I conceive, in this place, W ho careth for them P Who looketh after them P sc. the vic- tims of the plots. V. 7. is^an. Instead of this reading there seems some authority for id^sid. The lxx. and PSALM LXIV. 369 the Syr. read i^n. If we adopt this reading, the meaning will be — They have brought to jyer- fection a device well devised, or, as we might say, an exquisite device, V. 8. But God hath shot at them with an unexpected arrow, — csns "^n, like D«nD ^^c in Prov. iii. 25. So also the Syriac. id. nms^a vn may be rendered, They are their own* plagues, in accordance with what is said in the next verse about their own tongue (the envenomed arrow, the bitter word) being turned against themselves. But I should prefer to read n^n instead of vn, and to translate, — He (i.e. God) is become their plaques ; comparing the remarkably similar expression in Hoseaxiii. 14, — death, 1 mill be thy plagues : grave, I will be thy destruction. The Lxx. read the plural verb, ^>^ ; but it is easy to see how the strangeness of such an ex- pression as DmDD n^n, — which would be almost inexplicably strange to us, but for the passage in Hosea — would tempt to the substitution of a plural verb, to which amaxD should be the nomi- native. 370 PSALM LXIV. The words are altogether omitted in the Syriac Version. V. 9. inb''2?D"'i. Upon Kimchi's explana- tion, viz. They shall make it (sc. their tongue) to fall upon themselves. Dr. Perowne remarks that **in this case the suffix ought to be feminine, as the noun {tongue) is." This difficulty is avoided by taking vn as the noun referred to, — the arrow that is made to recoil upon themselves. A more serious difficulty is that the Hiph» of bti?3 means to cause a man to fall, which is a very different thing from causing something to fall upon him. There is no authority whatever for this latter meaning. Taking the reading as it stands, it may be rendered, — And He (God) shall cause him to fall : their own tongue (is turned) against them- selves. We must, however, suspect some serious corruption of the text ; since, apart from the difficulty of the text as it stands, the lxx. and the Syriac read something widely differing from it, and from the reading of each other. V. 11. The true-hearted shall clear ihem' selves, — shew themselves clear, — he justified, PSALM LXV. 371 This meaning of the word "ibbnns which I have assigned to it in the last verse of the pre- ceding Psalm, is equally appropriate here, viz. as against the slanderous tongue, which is so prominently the subject of this 64th Psalm. Psalm LXV. V. 2. n''Di. See note on Ps. Ixii. 2. The meaning of this rerse seems to be, — Quiet yet exulting confidence waits for Thee, O Gody in Zion, and (thus, by the sacrifice of praise) to Thee shall the vow be performed. See Ps, L 14. Sacrifice to God praise (niMi) and (thus) perform thy vows. See also V. 23 of the same Psalm, The Lxx. and the Syr. seem to have read rhun m«2, as in Ps.xxxiii, 1. The Latin Vulgate gives the second clause of the verse thus ; — et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem, V. 3. I"^il7, ad te tandem. id. "itT'n. This word gives the key-note of the Psalm. See the very distinct meaning with 372 PSALM LXV. wliich the word is used in Gen. vi. vii. and viii. In Gen. vi. 3 we find the first notice of the dis- tinction afterwards so thoroughly obser\red be- tween the flesh and the spirit : — the distinction of the flesh as lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh : — of the carnal mind as at enmity with God. The distinction, to the Jewish mind, would be between those with whom the Spirit of God remained, i.e. the Jews them- selves, and all else : — the all else including not only all other men, but all animated beings. Thus St. Paul distinguishes between the whole creation and those who have received tht first- fruits ol the Spirit, Now this is just the distinction that 's ob- served in this Psalm; and I call attentic to it the more expressly as serving to show tho very admirable largeness of heart that characterises the writer. The first verse of this Psalm expresses the privilege of God's chosen people. This privilege is summed up in the one word Tehillah, expres- sive of confidence within and of defiance to all without. This is the privilege of the blessed ones who are spoken of in v. 5, — of those whom PSALM LXV. 373 Thou choosest and hringest near (nnpn) to Thy- self: the privilege tluit is described in the same terms in Ps, cxlviii. 14, where God is said to be the Jehillah of all His saints, even of the child- ren of Israel, of the people nigh unto Him (imp). See also Deut. x. 21. Il contrast with this exulting Tehillah, comes, in v. 3, the suppliant Tephillah of all flesh. And it is in sympathy with this creature that groanelh and travailleth in pain that thf Psalm proceeds : — To Thee at length even th, in Ps. xxxiv. 9. One is almost tempt- ed to assimilate it to Num. xvi. 6, by omitting the •< of '^-iti7N. Taking the text as it stands, we are at liberty to supply an antecedent and relative of any number or person that may suit the con- 376 PSALM LXV. text. I would therefore assume the first person plural, — Blessed are (we whom) Thou choosest. The meauing of the passage will thus be suffi- ciently clear, though there is probably some fault in the text. The blessedness spoken of has reference to the preceding verse. It is the blessedness of those whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered. It is to be taken also in connection (by some missing link) with this 5th verse ; as if it were,^ Blessed are we whom Thou choosest and hringest near to Thyself^ to dwell in Thy courts ^c. The reading of pbb instead of pb"^ has some MS, authority, and it seems certainly to have been the reading of the Syriac translator. It is preferable. To dwell in Thy courts means that we may dwell 5j-c,, in accordance with which the Psalmist proceeds, — 7 hat we may be satisfied (ni^nbi). V. 6. m«-i^D does not necessarily mean terrible things^ but rather wonders^ miracles. The word is commonly used, as Dr. Perowne observes, " of God's great acts wrought in behalf PSALM LXV. 377 of Israel." See how it is represented as the grounds of Tehillah in Deut. x. 21. id. pi!jn. Gesenius giv^es a long list of places in which pn^ and i?^?"', or npT^ and n37m'% are mentioned together in such a way as to shew that bolh are alike regarded in the same cate- gory as blessings, or states oj blessedness. He therefore assumes for pT!J a meaning of welfare^ felicity. This, however, is unnecessary, if we hear in mind that the Israelites regarded the state of lighteousness as a state of moral and spiritual health, and therefore of happiness. It must be also borne in mind that this righteous- ness was the state of all who were not guilty of breaches of the covenant : — that even the sacri- fices for sin, as prescribed under that covenant, were sacrifices of righteousness, as distinguished from the special sacrifice, the Trespass-offering, that was instituted specially for the expiation of breaches of the covenant. It is in this light that I understand pi!Jn in this verse. So long as we are within the cove- nant, we are on the ground of righteousness. So long, God is the God oJ our salvation, work- ing wonderfully for us. 378 PSALM LXV, Here comes a sudden extension of the view from the limited area of the chosen people to that whose horizon is formed only by the ends of the earth and of the sea. t V. 10. rd'^^n p ""a d321 psn. Since pi is masculine the n of n:i'^:in cannot be referred to it. The Lxx. took the whole word as the noun subst. n3''3n, erot/xaa-ta. And, so taking it, T think we may detect here a play upon the words pT and n2>3n, if not a fanciful etymology such as the Hebrews were prone to imagine. Or it may be that these words introduce the descrip- tion contained in the next verse, — Thus is the preparation (So the lxx,), watering the fur- rows — settling the ridges 8fc. V, 12. Thou hast crowned the year with Thy goodness. Since ir^iV is usually followed by two accusatives, viz, of the person crowned and of that wherewith he is crowned, a difficulty arises here from the apparent status conslructus of n227. I am inclined to think that the word is not in the construct state, but tbat it is a varia- tion from the ordinary form n2tt?, just as the word n32?, sleep^ appears, in Fs. cxxxii. 4, in ihe form n3U7. Compare also ni^t and nbn2. PSALM LXV. 579 The idea of crowning ^ here, is not equiva- lent to consummation. The sentiment is rather to this effect, viz. that the circuit of the year had been accompanied bj God's goodness. With this agree the following words, imi i22?'-i'' -j"'bir», which we may freely but quite accurately trans- late, — Fatness has been dropped down at every stage of Thy i-evolving progress^ sc. through the circling year. The Lxx. give — to. vreSta crov TrXyjcrd-qcrovTai. -*(,or7^Tos. The Syriac took barn as i.q. b:37, and read «tt7T instead of ]wi ; giving — and Thy calves shall be filled with grass. But a consistent idea will appear through- out the passage as it stands, if we consider that "irar means to surround by revolving^ and that b:i37 means to revolve. V. 13, They drop (sc. all the stages of Thy circuit drop) upon the folds of the pasture. So we are almost compelled to translate, since the word e|37-i is always elsewhere used of dropping from above. So that we are not war- ranted in taking the words to mean that the pastures themselves drop, as it were with exuberance of fatness. 380 PSALM LXVI. The want of a preposition before ni«3 pre- sents no serious difficulty. If for the expres- sion drop down we substitute the word sprinkley the two usages of the Hebrew verb will be illus- trated. I therefore propose the following as a translation of these two verses : — Thou encirclest the year with Thy goodness, and the onward rolling stages of Thy progress (sc. through the year) sprinkle fatness. They sprinkle the Jolds of the pasture, h;c. This is plainly identical in meaning with both our English Versions, I have only tried to present more distinctly that which appears to be the leading idea of the Hebrew, viz. that God's goodness has accompanied, by a corres- ponding revolution, the revolution of the year. Psalm LXVl. V, 2, It is remarkable that the Tins of the second clause is not pointed as in stat. constr. with "inbnn, which might have been expected in correspondence with yaw nna in the first clause. The Syriac Version recognizes the status constructus in both clauses, but instead of "la^b in the second, repeats the "nttt of the PSALM LXVI. 3&1 first. The lxx. seem to have read according to the punctuation of our text in the second clause — omitting the Tins of the 6rst. Again — two MSS. of Kennicott omit the i?2>b of the second clause, as if it might be an accidental echo of the ^i^w of the first. Taking the text as it stands, the expression ")tt"'b iins ought, no doubt, to be followed by b of the person to wliom glory is rendered, as in Josh, vii, 19 and Isaiah xlii. 12; with which latter place this may be compared. In this quotation from Isaiah, nbnn instead of being dependent upon tqd is co-ordinate with it, in a parallel clause. It is perhaps owing to these considerations that in the punctuation of our text "fi2D is not taken as in stat. constr. with It is hereupon to be considered whether the first two words of the next verse ought not to be taken into this. We might then compare this place (a) with Isaiah xHi. 1 2, (b) thus :— (a) D^nbsb (i-i^n inbnn) tq3 i^^b (b) •iT'i^ D^^Hn inbnm td3 mn^b ij^^b-' I have enclosed two words of a in brackets^ 382 PSiiLM LXVl. in order to indicate the dislocation of the con- struction, concerning which I refer the reader to my notes on Ps. Ixviii, 24, and Ps. xlv. 6. The meaning will be, — Render glory to God, Speak ye His praise. For this use of law, see Ps, xl. 11, together with which Geseuius places also Isaiah iii. 10, Probably another example is to be found in Ps, xxix. 9 ; It is unnecessary to point out the relief which is thus afforded to the sense of the next verse. The words. Say unto God, O how won" derful, <^c., are surely self-condemned, V. 3, How wonderful art Thou in Thy doings ! id. "^b itrnD% Shall fail hejore Thee. There is no idea oi feigned submission, as some suppose. See note on xviii. 45, V. 6. in nn)2tc3 aa?. Dr. Perowne scrupu- lously, and very lightly, advocates the optative meaning for this optative form. " There let us rejoice in Him. There, pointing as it were to the field in which God made bare His arm," PSALM LXVII. 383 It would not perhaps be unwarrantable to render att? bj therein, sc. in God's wonders, V. 7. In Ps: Ixviii. 7, the D^nniD are men- tioned, as here, in connection with the departure of Israel from Egypt, V. 10. Thou hast tried us — Thou hast purged us. See note on Ps. xvii. S, for the distinction between these words. In this place, the trial, (inn), the process of refinement, con- sisted in Israel's passing through fire and water, &c., vv. 11 and 12. The result of the trial, the actual state of refinement ('l"^^)} is expressed at the end^of the latter versd, — Thou broughtest us Jorth to plenty. Psalm LXVII. This Psalm is an amplification of the formula of blessing given in Num. vi. 24, 25, 26. At the end of that formula it is said, They (sc. Aaron and his sons) shall put My Name upon them (sc, upon the children of Israel). It has been already shown, (See Ps. lix. and elsewhere) that by God's Name is most usually meant God's reputation amongst the hea- then. It is upon this theme that the Psalmist 384 PSALM Lxvir. amplifies the three-fold blessmg of Num. vi, 24, 25, 26, — a theme suggested by Num. vi. 27, The writer prays that God will shew favour to His people, and came His face to shine upon them, with this object in view, viz. that His n'a\j may he known in the earth (v"iNn as in v. 5) and His Salvation (sc. the Salvation wrought for Israel) amongst all the heathen. So again, in the last verse, God's special blessing of His people is mentioned as a cause, if not of fear, yet of reverential wonder, to all the ends of the earth. We find in the. Psalm mention of WJ2V, D'*73«b, and □'^13. The last two terms denote equally the heathen nations. The plural n'^5257 has also often the same reference, whereas the singular d27 is most usually appropriated to God's people, Israel. It seems, however, ex- tremely probable that the plural form, as it occurs in this Psalm, ought also to be thus ap- propriated to Israel. Because, in the first place, the heathen are undoubtedly denoted by the other two terms; so that, unless Israel is denot- ed by the first, it is not mentioned at all. Moreover, in the ancient and oft-repeated PSALM LXVIT. 385 formula. That soul shall be cut off from his people, the word people, (beyond all doubt de- noting Israel exclusively) is invariably in the plural, — n'^'QV. This is mentioned by Ewald (Antiquities of Israel, 278^ as " a standing wit- ness to the ancient feeling that Israel had grown up out of many nations, i.e. clans or tribes," However this may be, it is certain that this plural form was anciently appropriated to Israel, as the singular form was subsequently ; and we may therefore not unwarrantably assume that in this Psalm the ancient usage is maintained. Lastly, if, in v. 5, q'^i^v and D'^?2Nb had been used indifferently to denote the heathen, it would have been superfluous to have added V'^wn to the latter. The addition either serves to emphasize the distinction between God's people and other people, or it serves no purpose at all. And, however this may be, the D'^xasb being so emphati- cally marked as in the earth, we may presume that the wniiV were not so regarded. They were the people of God, as distinguished from the in.- habitants of the earth. If this view be correct, then verseg 4 and 6 refer exclusively to Israel, And the sentiment 386 PSALM Lxviir. of V. 6 will be that of the Song of Moses, Deut. xxxii. 43, as quoted by St. Paul, — Rejoice ye Gentiles with His people. The cause of joy to the Gentiles is two-fold, as arising both from what they witness of God's dealings towards His people, and from what tliey experience of His guidance of themselves. In Ps. xlviii., which is entirely occupied with the thought of God's dealings with Israel as observed by the heathen, the writer concludes with the exulting assertion, — This God is our God. So in this Psalm, of which the subject is the same, it is God, even our God, that doth bless us. Psalm LXVIII. " Au nombre des monuments les plus anciens de c«tte poesie traditionelle, il faiit mettve le psaume Exsurgat Deus (68), admirable serie de fragments lyriques, portant tons un caractere marque de circonstance, tous relatifs a un meme sujet, — I'arche, sa marche dans le desert, le triomphe de Jehovah, et sa protection sur son peuple."— Renan, " Langues Semit." p. 123. To M. Kenan's account of this Psalm PSALM LXV^III. 387 T have only to add that the compilatioD of these fragments seem to have been made for some comparatively recent purpose. It is, however, only towards the end of this Psalm that such purpose appears, and then so faintly as to leave us in doubt as to its character. The most pro- bable opinion seems to me that the compilation was made in celebration of the great overthrow of Edom at the Valley of Salt. See notes on Ps. Ix. This occasion was most suitable for such a retrospect, and would suggest just what we find — viz. prominent mention of Edom's in- veterate obstinacy. The opinion that this Psalm was composed, or compiled, to celebrate the removal of the Ark to Mount Zion, seems to me to be discredited by the fact that another Psalm is assigned to this occasion in the Chronicles. To ascertain the occasion of the composi- tion, as we now possess it, is not to me, how- ever, so much an object as the following up of the allusions to the early history of Israel in which this Psalm abounds ; and the identifica- tion of the various fragments of which it consists 388 PSALM LXVITI. with those snatches of ancient song which are found lodged here and torical records of Israel. found lodged here and there amongst the his- It is difficult to detect any principle of coherence in what appears at first sight a mere jumble of traditional jingles. And I must ad- mit that it is only upon the supposition that the defeat of Edom under David was the occasion of the compilation that [ can trace any continu- ous line of thought. Even so, there is a serious breach of continuity caused by verses 13, 14, and 15, which seem plainly to refer to the de- feat of Sisera as celebrated in the Song of De- borah. That song, however, like this Psalm, consists in great measure of echoes of still older poetry. And it may be that these three verses, which seem to be suggested by that Song, are, with the Song itself, to be referred still further back. The translation which I now give is intend- ed only to facilitate reference to the text in the perusal of the notes. PSALM LXVIIt. 389 2. Let God arise, and Idt His enemies be scattered : let thsm also that hate Him flee before Him. 3. As smoke is driven away, so do Thou drive them away. As wax is melted before the fire, so let the ungodly perish from before the presence of God. 4. And let the righteous rejoice and exult before God; yea, let them be merry in their rejoicing. 6. Sing unto God: praise-upon-the-harp His name. Cast- up-a-way for Him that rideth through the deserts, (de- claring Himself) by his name Jah ; and exult before Him. 6. A Father of the fatherless and a Judge of the widow, is God in His holy home. 7. Tt is God that causeth the lonely to dwell in a house^ that bringeth forth prisoners into happy liberty : — but, behold, stubborn enemies dwell in the desert (sc, through which liberated Israel has to pass). 8. God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people, — when Thou m arched st through the wilderness, 9. The earth trembled, — moreover the heavens dropped from before God, — this Sinai (trembled) from before God, Israel's God. 10. With a shower of free gifts, (sc. manna,) O God, didst Thou rain down upon Thine inheritance, and when it was fainting Thou didst refresh it with Thy living creatures (sc. quails). 390 PSALM LXVIII. 11. Therewith are they filled ; — Thou, of Thy goodness, God, makest provision for the poor, 12. The Lord (Adonai) giveth the word : the women who proclaim it are a great host. 13. Kings of hosts do flee, do flee ; and the stay-at-home (Issachar) divideth the spoil, 14. What though you (Issachar) lie between the sheep- folds, as if they were the wings of a dove, (yourself the dove) thac is covered with silver, and whose fea- thers are yellow gold j 15. When the Almighty (Shaddai) scattered kings therein (sc. within the borders of Issachar), in Salmon there is (as it were) snow. 16. Oyou goodly mountain, you mountain of Bashan : O you mountain of fatness, you mountain of Bashan. 17. Why this suspicion, O ye fat hills? This is the hill that God hath desired for his sojourning: yea Jehovah shall abide (in it) for ever. 18. God, with twice ten thousand chariots, the Lord (Adonai) with manifold thousands of His saints, hath come from Sinai. 19. Thou hast gone up to the height, Thoa hast led cap- tives in captivity. Thou hast received (or rather given) gifts in Edora,yea even amongst the stubborn enemies, that it (sc, the height of Edom, Mount Seir) might be a habitation for God Jehovah, 20. Blessed be the Lord (Adoaai) who daily pardoneth us : this God is our salvation. PSALM LXVin. 301 21, This God is to us a God of salvation; but (on the other hand i,e., towards the enemy) to the same Jehovah Adonai belong the fountains of death. S2. Behold (accordingly) God smiteth the head of His enemies, the head of Seir who continueth still in his (old) offence. 23. The Lord (Adonai) hath said from Basan I restore, I restore from the depths of the sea. 24. That thy foot, — yea also the tongue of thy dogs-^may be dipped (?) in the blood of thine enemies. 25. They (so. tha enemies) have markad, they have seen Thy goings, O God, — the goings of my God, my King, with His saints. 26. The singers go before, the minstrels go behind, in the midst are the maidens beating their tabrets. 27. In the congregation bless ye God, even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel. 28. There is little Benjamin (who was afterwards) their devastator, the princes of Judah (afterwards) their thunderbolt, the princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephtali. 29. Thy God hath appointed that which is the glory of thy strength (sc. the ark of the covenant) ; confirm, O God, that which Thou hast wrought for us. 30. For Thy temple's sake, up to Jerusalem shall Kings bring presents unto Thee. 31. He hath rebuked the beast of the reed (sc Egypt), the herd of the bulls together wiih the calves of the 392 PSALM LXVIII. people (i.e., both hi^h and low) which (sc. Egypt) hurableth itself so far as to offer pieces of silver : — He hatb broken in pieces the people that delight in war. 32. There come fat ones out of Egypt: Cush yieldeth prompt submission unto God. 33. O ye kingdoms of the earth, sing unto God, praise- upon-the-harp the Lord. 34. ( Sing) unto Him that rideth upon the heavens of hea- vens of old; lo He uttereth His voice, a mighty voice. 35. Ascribe ye the power unto God. His excellency is over Israel, and His power is in the skies. 36. Terrible (art Thou) O God (in Thy goings) from Thy holy places : — the God of Israel, it is He that giveth power and might unto His people. Blessed be God. NOTES. V. 2. See Numb. x. 35. V. 3. Instead of r^isn, the lxx. and Sjr, seem to have read 'iqt3> (Niph,). This is pre- ferable, as avoiding the abruptness of the intro- duction of the second person. Still, the reading of the text, as presenting some little difficulty, is therefore perhaps to be retained. It may pos- PSALM LXVIII. 393 sibly be referred to that imperative form of the preceding verse which is found in Numb. x. 35. In such connection it would be quite appropriate. Arise, God, and let Thine enemies he scatter" ed &c. As smuke is driven away, so do Thou, drive (them) arvay. V. 4. With mm^n nDib ibo comp. Isaiah Ivii. 14, and nboia nnns'm-iri;'' in Isaiah xl, 3. V. 5. laii? rr^n. This can hardly be un- derstood, except by a reference to Exod. vi., where God says: — / appeared unto Abraham, nnto Isaac, and unto Jacob as God Almighty (''^r^7 bwn) but (by) my name Jehovah 1 was not known to them. The omission of the preposition before >i2W and its insertion before bw, in this pas- sage, show the same construction as in the Psalm. The appearance of this Divine name Jah in this place is remarkable. The passage in Exodus referred to above, is the introduction of God's solemn promise of deliverance from Egypt and of safe and triumphant conduct to the pro- mised land. It is in connexion with these con- spicuous events of Israelitish history that God is 304 PSALM LXVIII. to be known by His name Jebovah, Now, these events being the subject of the Psalm, the connexion of these events with this Divine Name being also expressly mentioned in this verse of the Psalm — it is remarkable that God is so fre- quently mentioned under the name of Elohim rather than under the name Jehovah, The only explanation that occurs to me is, that the Psalm (being a collection of ancient traditional frag- ments) belongs, on the whole, to the time when the promulgation of the name Jehovah was re- garded as one of the things to be commemorated, but when the name itself had not superseded, in ordinary use, the old and less specific name of El ov Elohim* Id. Observe the use of the two forms, tbv here, and v^r in v. 4. V, 6. The mention of God as the Father of orphans and the Judge of the widow seems out of place here. It may be that these were pro- verbial epithets of God, introduced here as ap- propriate to the next verse, in which God is spoken of as providing a habitation (sc. in Canaan) for the desolate (sc. in the wilder- ness). I'SALM LXVIII. 395 V. 7. Plainly refening to the deliverance of the Israelites from their captivity. For mdiD Comp. "IT-I27D in Ecc. ii. 21, iv. 4 ; and v. 10. The Lxx, render both words by dvSpeia. They also render -:tZ7\ in Prov. xv. 20, by dv8peLon^w,as between the wings oj a dove {yourself 398 PSALM LXVIIT. the dove) that is covered with silver, and whose feathers (are covered) with yellow gold 'i* There was certainly a reason why the tribe of Issachar should bestir itself on this occasion, since the battle or battles commemorated in the Song of Deborah, and probably referred to here, were waged chiefly within its territory. Perhaps some allusion to this is intended here and io the preceding verse. The stay-at-home Issachar divides the spoil, — i.e., without going beyond its own borders : — the flight of the kings being so determined and impetuous that no pursuit waa necessary. With regard to the meaning of D"^nDtz; or D'TiSiiJxs — the derivation of the word, from riDii? i.q» mti7, to place or set, shows how general the primary signification of the root is, and therefore in what various meanings the derivatives may appear. In the places cited above, the word may mean sheep/olds or sfalls for cattle. In Ezek. xl. 43, it perhaps means rows of stones, upon which caldrons were placed, * The mention of silver and gold serves to denote the whiteness of such parts of a dove as are white, and the metallic lustre of other parts. PSALM LXVIII. 399 V. 15. In the preceding verses the tribe of Issachar has been mentioned under a feminine form, first as the stay -at-home y and then as the dove. I therefore find no difficulty in rendering nn " in it,' so. in, or vvithin the borders of, this tribe. ^hen the Almiyhty scattered kings therein, 7l)3b!Jn nbsrn. It seems strange that these words should so commonly be taken to mean, as when there is snow in Salmon, Whereas I suppose that snow in Salmon is very much Hke skiow anywhere else. The statement is that something occurred in Salmon which resulted in an appearance as of snow. Guided by the con- text, we can hardly doubt that the strewing of the ground with corpses is intended. But why should this be likened to snow ? Dr. Perowne says, — " the mention of the bones bleached and whitening the battle-field could only be possible at a time long subsequent to the victory." This is true ; but hones are not mentioned, nor is it necessary to suppose any allusion to them. The aspect of a battle-field immediately after the slaughter, is probably much the same all the world over, and in all times. And the words in. 400 PSALM LXVIir. which Macaulay describes the scene of the battle of Aghrim, occur to me as appropriate to such a ghastly illustratioD. " One who was there," he says, " tells us that, from the top of the hill on which the Celtic camp had been pitched, he saw the country, to the distance of near four miles, white with the naked bodies of the slain. The plain looked, he said, like an immense pas- ture covered by flocks of sheep." This aspect of whiteness, occasioned by the naked condition of the slain, must have been a more constant feature of a recent battle-field amongst people who wore little clothing at any time, and were likely to cast that little away in a headlong flight. We may thus, perhaps, understand from this verse that the chief slaughter took place in and about Salmon, concerning which place see Judges ix, 48. The whole verse seems to be a rhetorical answer to the rhetorical question of the preced- ing verse : — Is this your quiet crouching down as of a dove between its silvery pinions ? Give answer, O Salmon, snowed over, as it were, with corpses ! PSALM LXVIII. 401 V. 16. With respect to the mention of Bashan : — it seems unlikely that, as some have supposed, the mountains of Bashan should be here put for mountains in general. We have then to seek some reason of their being specially mentioned here. Some such reason might per- haps be found in the supposition that the Canaanites, when routed by Deborah and Barak, fled to the hills (»f Bashan for refuge. This has been supposed to be implied in v. 23 ; and for such as escaped (if any did escape) from the slaughter at Harosheth, those hills would offer an obvious shelter. Against this, it is to be considered that the slaughter at Harosheth is said to have been complete : — " There was not a man left.''' Though we need not understand this lite- rally, yet it does not leave such scope for fugitives as to account for the mention of them, and of their place of refuge, in a song of triumph. Considering, further, that this part of the Fsalm is closely akin to those other ancient poems in which the march of the Israelites, from Sinai onwards, is described, I am inclined to think that with this 16th verse recommences the series of fragments which are to be referred 402 PSALM Lxvnr. to that march. And therefore it occurs to me to dissociate the Bashan of this verse from the terri- tory N.E. of Jordan usually understood bj this name ; and to identify it with the Matlanah of Numb. xxi. 18, 19, a station of the Israelites upon (if not within) the borders of Edom. Mat- tanan or Maitanin is the Aramaic form of Bashan ; and Mattanolh in Edom seems to be expressly mentioned in v. 19 of this Psalm. The Lxx. render ^rrn in this verse by mov, and so, inPs. xxii. 13^ V^'^ """^'^^j ravpot iriove^. They also render D^32n2 in here and in the next verse, opos TeTvpcojxevov, In these renderings they at least give us a clue by which we may arrive at the true meaning. Tlie mention of Bashan is so frequently found in connexion with the ideas of fatness and fertility, that it is com- monly said, without any warrant that I know of, that the root itself denotes those ideas. It may be so ; and, in default of other warrant, I would suggest, as above, such an origin of the name, as appears in the form Maltanah, "gift'' "Opos reTvpcofxevov sounds certainly like the gross concrete for the poetical abstract. Yet c:"'33n2 "in means literally " a hill of butter." PSALM LXVIIL 403 Comp. n3'»n2 In Job x. 1 0. It is perhaps worthy of observation that the only two places in which this word occurs have, to say the least, an Edomitish colouring. It is not unlikely that this verse is to be un- derstood ironically. Being refused a passage through Edom, the adoption of such a sneering tone on the part of Israel is easily to be account- ed for. To Israel the father's blessing had as- signed the fatness of the earth. On the same occasion, such fertility had been expressly with- held from Edom. It is most natural, therefore, that Israel should now taunt Edom with this barrenness, and this by way of irony : — O you goodly mountain, you mountain of BasJian : you mountain of fatness, you mountain of Bashan, And the taunt would be all the more point- ed irom the consideration that the only suste- nance that Israel found in this barren region was the direct gift of God. The station at which Israel had arrived when this gift was made was therefore called Mattanah. And since this is the form which even Bashan proper assumes in the Aramaic dialect, we can easily understand 404 PSALM LXVIII. the ironical application of the name Bashan to this place which was enriched solely by God's gift made at this time on behalf of Israel. V. 1 7. Bearing in mind those passages in which God's march through the wilderness is said to have been attended with the trembling of the earth and the shipping of the mountains, one feels strongly tempted here to read, instead of lli^nn, either •jiis'in or p-rpnn. This tempta- tion must be resisted. A difficult reading like this would not have been retained in the face of such plausible alternatives if it had not good authority. Though the Syriac translator read differently, yet his reading certainly included the !J, which would, by the above-named sug- gestion, be eliminated. -t!J~i is explained, by means of the Arabic, to watch as an enemy , to regard with suspicion. We may suppose a re- ference to the unwillingness of Edom to allow Israel to pass through his territory. The ex- postulation may thus be addressed to the moun- tains of Seir — y*^hy, ye Jen hills, do ye look so suspiciously ? This is the hill that God desires to drvell in. PSALM LXVIIT. 405 The meaning of the latter part of the verse seems to be that some part of the territory of Seir was desired for the temporary sojourning of God's people. This being denied, it is added indignantly, — However, Jehovah shall abide in it for ever. Observe the marked distinction between nt»"^ and ptt? ; and see Obadiah, 18 and 21, V. 18. For ^2^D nn it has been ingeniously proposed to read '»3'*d?3 sn. The verse must be compared with Deut. xxxiii. 2; and in both places chp has probably the same meaning. The Lord cometh from Sinai with myriads of His holy ones. V. 19. >nu7 rT^nn/. Comp. yn^ n^ti? in Judges V. 12. Both here and there we seem to hear echoes of some one ancient soug of triumph. It is not easy to conjecture of whom the words of the text are spoken, or upon what occasion. The parallelism of this place with Deut. xxxiii. 2, where Seir is mentioned in connexion with Sinai, will prepare us for the mention of Edom in this place. Accordingly, as suggested above, 1 would render aiwn n^2n72 Mattanolh in ii^c/om, referring it to the Matlanah of Numb. 406 PSALM LXVIII. xxi. 18, 19. Let it be observed that imme- diately before tliis mention of Mattanah occurs that curious bit of itinerary extracted from what is called "The Book of the Wars of the Lord." The extract consists of a few names in an archaic form, the first of which is nsion nm — a name which I believe is identical with Mattanah in Edom. There is, of course, no difficulty in identifying nm with n'lnn ; — it remains to iden- tify nDiD with DIN. From the later Egyptian and the Hebrew name of the Red Sea, j^id-d^ it has become usual to identify the word Suph, wherever it occurs, with this Sea. I shall, however, show that the name is found without mention of any sea, and in reference to places which, though remote from the Red Sea, may not unreason- ably be presumed to lie within the limits of Edom. That the Egyptians would be unlikely to name this sea from its weeds, or from any other physical peculiarity, appears from the considera- tion that peculiarities are discerned only by those who have observed many examples. A people must be familiar with many seas before they PSALM LXVIII. 407 denote their own sea by the peculiarities of its physical phenomena. On the other hand, it is the most natural, and actually the most usual, practice, to denote a narrow sea, or any other such boundary, by the name of the people beyond. Our own island will furnish illustrations of this truth, in the German Ocean, and the Irish Sea. The Eng- lish Channel is no exception, since this name was first given by those on the opposite side. There is thus an antecedent probability that the origin of the name Suph is to be sought in the name of the people who occupied, if not solely yet chiefly, the North-Eastern shores of the Red Sea. That the territory that went under the name of tdom extended to these shores appears from 1 Kings ix. 26, That the territory that went under the name of Suph extended to the northern boundaries of Edom, and that, there- forOj Suph is to be identified with Edom, will sufficiently appear from these citations that fol- low, viz. (a) In Exodus xxiii. 31, God promises to 408 PSALM LXVIII. Israel thus : — / 7vlll set thy bounds from the Sea of Suph even unto the sea of the Philistines. A minor consideration first occurs, viz. that since the Mediterranean Sea is not else- where called the Sea of the Philistines, it is pro- bably a name chosen as antithetical to another ethnological designation. This will put au ethnological meaning upon Suph. But a far more important consideration is that the Red Sea was certainly not one of the prescribed boundaries of the promised land. If it had been, then God's promise would have been discharged immediately upon the passage of this Sea. However the kingdom of Judah may have been long afterwards extended in this direction, it is certain that the promised land was the land of Canaan. Even if it were allow- able to suppose here a strong hyperbole, or in other words a gross exaggeration, — yet this supposition would be precluded by the fact that the promise follows immediately the mention of those nations that inhabited Canaan. " These nations," saith God, " will I drive out from before thee until thou inherit the land." Then immediately comes the mention of the Sea PSALM LXVIII. 409 0/ Suphy as one of the boundaries of the land so evacuated ; and bj this we cannot, I think, avoid understanding the Salt (or Dead) Sea. Any- how, it is incredible that the Red Sea should be intended, (b) With the passage cited above compare Numb, xxxiv. 3, " Then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness Zin, along by the coast of Eclom, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the Salt Sea eastward." Since Edom and the Salt Sea are thus mentioned as contiauous boundaries, it is likely enough that the Salt Sea might be known by the name (amongst many names) of the Sea of Edom. It seems certainly identical with the Sea of Suph mentioned in Exodus xxiii. 3U (c) In Numb. xxi. 4, it is said that Israel '^ journeyed from Mount Seir, by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom.'' So ©ur English Version gives the passage. Now it is certain that the Israelites were making for the Dead Sea, and I suppose this sea to be here intended by the words Yam Suph, The usually accepted itinerary makes the 410 PSALM LXVIII. people return from Mount Hor to the Red Sea, in order to get outside of Edom. But this was surely unnecessary. Their next station men- tioned in this place is Oboth ; although in the more detailed itinerary given in the 33d chapter two stations intervene between Mount Hor and Oboth, viz. Zalmonah and Punon. We have yet another account of these stages, viz. in Deut. ii. 1 — 8. In the 8th verse our English Version gives the course as " through the way of the plain from Elath and from Ezion-Geber." But the express asser- tion of the Hebrew text is that the new course was out of that way, — not through it. That way of the 'Arabah from Ezion-Geber was the way by which the Israelites had come. A con- tinuance in this way would have taken them through Edom. Upon Edom's opposition, they turned out of this way. Yet this passage has always been adduced in support of the opinion that the Israelites retraced their steps from Mount Hor to the Red Sea. Moreover, — if this were the case : — if Israel had really return- ed to Elath and Ezion-Geber, these stations would certainly have been named in the minute PSALM LXVIII. 411 itinerary of Numb, xxxiii., since the compara- tively unimportant names of Zalmonah and Punon are there given. We are thus forbidden, by the accounts in Deuteronomy, to understand the Yam Suph of Numb. xxi. 4 as denoting the Red Sea. It therefore probably denotes the Dead Sea. But if the sea at each extremity of Edom is denoted by the name SupK it would appear that Suph is itself a synonym of Edom. (d) The words immediately in question, viz. Numb. xxi. 14, plainly refer to transactions upon the border of Edom, yet remote from the Red Sea. (e) In Deut. i. 1 , Moses addresses Israel upon the very banks of Jordan, in a place other- wise described as over against Suph. It is per- fectly incredible that, under the circumstances, any reference to the Red Sea is intenJed. It is certain that the situation was just beyond the borders of Edom, and that in such a minute de- scription its position relative to Edom would be mentioned.* * In connection with the observation that the depres- sion known as the 'Arahah is continuous from the Red 412 PSALM LXtlll. (/) In Judges xi. 16, mention is made of the arrival of Israel upon the borders of Edom in these words ; — When Israel came up from Sea to the Dead Sea, aud even beyond, Dr. Robinson says: — "The difficult passage in Deut. i. I, admits in this way an easy explanation. The Israelites were in the plains of Moab opposite Jericho ; and are there described as in the Aralah over against the Red Sea, i.e. in the part opposite to the Red Sea, or towards the other end." Now the Hebrew words are these ;— We are thus expected to believe that the preposition bitt has this very pregnant meaning, — that part of the ^AralaJi which lies at the end opposite to that end at which the Red Sea lies. A scornful non-Hebraist hereupon re- marks that Hebrew is certainly a very wonderful language. It might have occurred to Dr. Robinson that the ex- pression is Suph, aud not Yam Suph, and that this omis- sion of the word Yam ( Sea) is most instructive, as showing that Suph denotes something independent of the Red Sea. The next step would have been obvious. Since Suph gives the name to the Sea at one point and to a station considerably remote from that Sea, the name is certainly proper to the territory or the people that lies mainly be- tween these points. It ought to be added that Dr. Robinson acknowledges that he is indebted to Prof. Hengstenberg for this " easy explanation," FSALM LXVIII. 413 Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Sea of Suph, and came to Kadesh, Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom. I think it will appear that the connection of the Sea of Suph with Edom is the only conceivable reason for its being mentioned here. The case would have been very diflferent if it had been said. When Israel came out of Egypt and had crossed the Sea of Suph &^c. In this case, the crossing of the Sea would have been an inci- dent of the coming out of Egypt. But, as the words stand, they are plainly intended to mark an incident of the arrival on the borders of Edom. In short, the words have a meaning only if we un- derstand the Sea of Suph to be the Sea of Edom, They may be translated thus:— When Israel had arrived at Edoin's boundary, the Red Sea, and, indeed, had advanced as far as Kadesh, then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom. It will already have occurred to the reader, thai the foregoing assumptions are confirmed by the name of the Red Sea, which we have receiv- ed from the Greeks. The attempts that have been made to connect this name with physical phenomena are childish, from beginning to end.. 414 PSALM LXVIir. They are also the more unwarrantable inasmuch as the Greeks themselves referred the name to a mighty ruler, or people, on he Arabian side. It can hardly be doubted that the Greeks derived their knowledge of this Sea from the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians would hear it spoken of by the Egyptians as the Sea of Suph ; but they would know that Suph was one of the many synonyms of Edom. To them, therefore, it was the Sea of Edom, the Sea of the Red Man, — and they communicated this knowledge to the Greeks, who again reproduced the name in their own language. It is easy to see how the name Edom would be more familiar to the Phoenicians than Suph, whilst yet the reference of the latter name would be obvious to them. In modern times, prosper names have lost their meaning. They are used for purposes of denotation, and not at all for connotation. In earlier times, a proper name was expressive of some quality of the person or thing to whom it was applied. It was therefore capable of trans- lation from one dialect or language to another, without losing its personal reference. Thus PSALM LXVIII. 415 Edom was also called Esau. This latter name re-appears as Seir^ with the same meaning. And thus we are brought to a still further iden- tification of Suph with Edom. I mean the exact equivalence oi Suph with Seir : — the idea of vio- lence, roughness, as of a tempest, being common to that Suph which supplies the Hebrew name for the Red Sea and to that name of Seir by which Edom was so frequently denoted: There is no difficulty in referring these names to a time when they were epithets, rather than proper names ; and it is worthy of observa- tion that in the Book of Job, which seems cer- tainly to be of Edomitish origin, these two roots are used, to all appearance, indijOferently, Although this argument depends to some extent upon conjecture, it yet seems to me 1o be sufficient to bear the weight that I would lay upon it, — viz. to show at least the probability of my identification of the m«n mana of the text with the ncionnni of Numb. xxi. 14.* * This passage in Numb. xxi. 14, 15, is almost unin- telligible in consequence of its isolation. A litaral trans- lation is as follows : — A gift in Suphah, and the streams- 416 PSALM LXVIII, There can be no doubt that the well men* tioned in Numb. xxi. 16, is the water of the rock struck at Kadesh. That the gift of water at Kadesh may appropiiatelj be regarded as a gift in Edoin, will appear from the considerations that Kadesh was on the border of Edom, (Numb. XX. 16), and that thus it was when the Israelites had readied the territory of Edom that they felt the want of water. This want they would connect with the well-known barrenness of Edom; and the miraculous supply of that want would naturally be spoken of as a gijt in Edom> Dr. Robinson, in his Biblical Researches, (IT. 582), has identified the Kadesh, at which this gift of water was bestowed, with the import- ant fountains which are now known as Ain-eU Weibeh. So he writes the name, both in Eng- lish and Arabic, following to the best of his Arnon and Eshed ; the streams which He poured forth for the dwelling of Ar. For this meaning of rri23 see note on Ps. xvii, 11. The remainder of this relic, viz. the words nsi»2 binab y^^^T\ must probably be interpreted in connection with the m327tt?K of the 18th verse. PSALM Lxvni. 417 ability the glib pronunciation of bis Arab guides. Bat, according to M. de Bertou, tbe Arabs pro- nounce the word WMbe; and to tbis opinion Dr Robinson seems to assent, (II, 661), not- withstanding that be bas himself adopted the form Weibeh. It is therefore very remarkable that he has thus, unintentionally, and without any etymological clue or bias, identified the Wahab or Mattanah of Num. xxi. with the Am- el-Whebe, or well of the gift, of the present day. Should the reader feel inclined to look fur- ther into this extract from the Book of the Wars of the Lord, I may point out that the song at the dicro-ino- of the well probably belongs to it, and i\ll therefore the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th verses, with half of v. 18, must be regarded as parenthetical. In v. 1 3, the Israelites are in the wilderness. Then comes the poetic interlude, in which mention is made of ns^on nm (in con- nection with the digging of the well), and of the brooks Arnon and Eshed. And then, m the middle of v. 18, the prosaic account is resumed fromv. 13,— viz. from the station in the wilder- ness. And it seems to me that in this resump- 418 PSALM Lxviir. tion of the narrative, the poetical part is repealed, or ignored. The archaic ncion nm appears here as Mattanah, and the brooks as Nahaliel — i.e. brooks of God, so called as proceeding from His ^i// at Mattanah.* Apparently the archaic fragment has been interpolated without disturb- ance of the narrative, which proceeds with the journey from the wilderness to Mattanah and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, just as if these names, and the events connected with them, had not been mentioned in the archaic parenthesis. Take away that parenthesis, and there is no gap. It would appear that this place was sup- posed to derive its fruitfulness solely from this gift of God at this time made, — viz. this well concerning which God said (Numb, xxi, 16)^ " Gather the people together, and / will give them water." This supposition would account more fully for the tone of this 68th Psalm at this point. The expostulation, " Why look ye so suspiciously ?" may be addressed to the hills that are enriched by God's gifts ; nay, which take * So Le Clerc identifies the nm of v. 14 with the mnxs of y. 18. PSALM LXVIII. 419 their name (Bashan quasi Mattanah) in com- memoration of those gifts. And this would further appear from the expression nmiD ?]«. Gifts are bestowed upon Edom, yea even upon the sullen and stubborn; in allusion to their sullen refusal to let Israel pass through their borders. For omiD here means stubborn enemies, as in v. 7, rather than rebels amongst the Israelites, It is beyond my scope to enter at large upon the difficulty that attends St. Paul's sup- posed citation of this passage nnpb mwn m^nia in Eph. iv. 9, as eSw/ce Bofxara rot? dv$pa>7roL<;' But, (passing over, of course, the rendering of DT«n, of which another instance occurs in Acts XV. 17) it seems to me that the prominent idea of mwn msna is most certainly the idea of giving : that the words, being taken, as I sup- pose, from a very ancient record, may perhaps have no essential connexion with the preceding word nnpb, and that therefore St. Paul's cita- tion may have reference solely to that ancient record, and so altogether exclude the word nnpb. It is to be added, however, that the Chaldee Targum and the Syriac give here for impb (in accordance with St. Paul) Ni-Qn\ 420 PSALM LXVIII. And it may perhaps be worthy of inquiry^ whether the npb of the present text may not be a more recent substitution for the archaic nn\ The affirmative supposition is warranted (a) by St. Paul's citation, and (b) by the consideration that the word nn'' seems to have denoted orio:in- ally the idea of bearing or carrying^ — whether to a person, (which is giving) y or from a person,^ (which is taking) » With regard to (a) St. Paul's citation, I will not urge the authority of the Syriac in addi- tion to that of the Apostle, because since the Syriac Version of the Old Testament was made in Christian times, it is not impossible that the translator made his version of this place to cor- respond with St. Paul's quotation. I say this is not impossible; — but it is quite as likely that the Syriac translator acted quite independently of St. Paul's authority, but upon the same grounds, and induced by the same reasons, as those occupied and admitted by the Apostle. With regard to (b)^ — That ^n"" meant originally to bear, appears from the noun sub- stantive nn\ a burden, in Ps. Iv. 23, where no other meaning is admissible. We are war- PSALM LXVIII. 42 J Tanted, also, bj the analogous usage of other languages, in assigning this more general mean- ing to the original word. Thus the Greek (^epa>, meaning in general to hear, branches out into the two specific, and apparently opposite, mean- ings 0^ giving and taking. Comp. the Homeric expressions Swpa (jiipeiv, to give gifts, on the one hand, and aytiv koI cfyepeuv, to plunder, on tlie other. Comp, also the two-fold usage of the word ixiB?H of the next verse. V. 23. Whether we should render this verse "God hath said from Bashan, I will restore^^ &c., or " God hath said, I will restore from Bashan,' &c,, seems lo me doubtful. But what place is meant by Bashan ? If my view of the parallelism of this and the two preceding verses be correct, then we may still understand by Bashan the Mattanah above mentioned, and may suppose a reference again to the same cir- cumstances of Edom's ungracious behaviour. Otherwise, the reference may be to Bashan pro- per, and to the conflict between Israel and Og, the King of Bashan. In either view, the mean- ing seems to be that God, who restored Israel from the depth of the sea, will restore him from these untoward circumstances, whatever they may have been. God hath said — " I restore (thee) from Bashan: I restore (thee) from the depth of the sea." Compare the expression in Psalm xiv. 4, They eat up My people : they eat bread ; which means. As they eat bread, so &c. Thus here As from the Red Sea, so from PSALM LXVIII. 427 Bashan, do 1 restore. The force of this assur- ance to Israel is perceived by comparing it with the denunciation repeated in the first chapter of Amos, and referred to above, I3n^t£?« «b, " I will not restore him," sc. the enemy of Grod's people. See also the note on v. 31. V. 24. That thy footy yea also the tongue of thy dogs, may he dipped in the blood of thine enemies, I remove insQ from this to the next verse. It is altogether omitted in the Syriac. With regard to the remainder, as above render- ed, the construction seems strangely dislocated. Yet a completely parallel construction appears in Numb. xxiv. 18, and another in Judges v. 18. Compare also vv, 9 and 18 of this Psalm, and see my note on Ps. Ixvi. 2. Ps. Ixviii 24, mn lb:-! "^nizn Numb. xxiv. 18. niz?n^ nns n^ni T'n^s n^y&? nttJT' n"'ni) Judges V. 18, "itt?D2 rpn cr ^bnt The peculiarity of all these cases is this — viz., that in the course of predication concerning some one object^ and before that predication is 428 PSALM LXVITI. completed, a second subject is intruded. I have enclosed this second subject in brackets, so as to show its abrupt intrusion in each case. In our text, it may perhaps be permitted to read (with one MS.) ynn for y^nn. See Ps. Iviii. 11, V. 25. Taking in the last word of the pre- ceding verse, I read imi inDD, and render, " They have marked, they have seen.'^ In order to this, the only thing to be assumed is the existence of * a form rT37D, intermediate between the known forms n3a and ron, and with the same meaning — viz., of dividing. From this origin, which is common to all Hebrew verbs of perceiving, the transition to the meaning of accurately observing is obvious. With regard to the assumption of the intermediate form n3!2, it may be thought sufficient to point out that Gesenius, in like manner, assumes a form nbn as intermediate between nbi and nba. aJipn. See note on V. 18. V. 26. This verse seems to show that the goings or processions , spoken of in the preceding verse, as having been observed by the peoples, were of a peaceful character. They were also PSALM LXVIII. 429 jubilant processions. The question obviously arises — With reference to what occasion was it appropriate to remind the nations that thej themselves had observed the peaceful jubilant progress of Israel ? It is possible that this ques- tion may be answered in more than one way ; but one answer, connecting these verses with those that precede, may not be altogether un- warrantable. It is conceivable, then, that the opposition of Edom, the expostulation of Israel, the appeal to Israel's harmlessness, and to the beneficence, within the borders of Edom, of Israel's God, may be referred to here. That there were rejoicings, attested by a national song, upon the opening of the well at Mattanah, we are informed by the history in the book of Numbers. It was therefore regarded as an event worthy of being nationally celebrated. V. 27. Probably this verse is to be put into the mouths of the singers. It may be a part of their song. Upon the supposition given in the preceding note, there is a peculiar signifi- cance here in the expression, " From the /oun- tain of Israel." It is a wanton obliteration of a clue (where the least clue is so valuable) to say^ 430 PSALM LXVIII. as Gesenius does, that the " fountain of Israel " means " the seed of Israel." V. 28. " Four of the tribes," says Dr. Pe- rowne, " are mentioned by name as taking part in the procession, these four being representa- tives of the rest." There must, however, be some historical reason for the mention of these four ; and the reason alleged by Dr. Perowne for the mention ofZebulun and iMaphthali is probably the true one — viz., that it has reference " to the part which they played in the war against Sisera, and the position they occupy in the Song of Deborah/' To this I add, that Benjamin is noted in the history of this period for his predatory attacks upon the enemy, and Judah as being the first tribe that was engaged in the war of extermination in the land of Canaan. We may render ci"i " their devasta- tor," and dnnan " their thundering." a^n means ** to stone — i.e., to pour down stones upon any one." It is certainly not connected with any word meaning " a stone," and we may therefore be justified in connecting it with d2?"i ** to thun- der," as if " to thunder down upon." But wliv should the four most formidable PSALM LXVIII. 431 tribes be mentioned in connexion with the peaceful procession of Israel ? I suppose these verses to belong to a time subsequent to the de- feat of Sisera, though referring to earlier events. The continued enmity of Edora — continued till his disastrous overthrow in the Valley of Salt in David's time — would occasion continual refer- ence to the earlier manifestations of his churlish- ness. This passage seems such a subsequent reminiscence : — " They marked, they saw. Thy goings, O God. There were the singers, the minstrels, &c. There, in peaceful procession, were those who were afterwards so formidable — Etenjamin, Judah, Zebulun, and Naphthali. — These terrible ones were seen, represented by their princes, engaged in the peaceful and bene- ficent occupation of digging a well."* * The striking of the rock by Moses (Numb. xx. 11) and the digging of the well by the princes, by the direction of the lawgiver (Numb, xxi, 18) are not to be regarded as two events. It may serve to reconcile the two accounts if we consider that the rock is not necessarily a mass of stone rising above the ground, but that it is more likely a rocky stratum on or below the ordinary level. To smite this with a rod is much the same as to pierce it with a staff. It is surprising that this preconceived notion of a rock con- siderably prominent above the surface should so far weigh 432 PSALM LXVIII. V. 29. " Thy God hath appointed thy glory,'' that which is the " glory of thy strength," sc. the ark of the covenant. This is called "jTi? iinN in Ps. cxxxii. 8 ; and is denoted, accord- ing to Gesenius, by T37 alone in Ps. Ixxviii. 61i id. " Strengthen, God, thai which Thou hast wrought Jor us.^' V. 30. " For Thy temple's sake, up to Je- rusalem shall kings bring presents unto Thee.'' So Symm., Sta tov vaov crov. For this mean- ing of the prep, p, see note on Ps. xii. 6. ^vo ib'-nv. See the same expression in Ps, Ixxvi. 12. V. 31. -i^a. This word gives a clue by which we may arrive at the meaning of the verse, 1^'or the word is that which is used to denote the drying up of the Red Sea for the pas- sage of the Israelites. See Ps. cvi. 9 ; and, in the same connection, Ixxvi. 7, The " beast of the reed/' ■ni'p n'^n, is, no doubt, the crocodile, symbolizing Egypt. That the crocodile inhabits ^ith Dean Stanley, that he opposes Dr. Robinson's iden- tification of Ain-eL-Weibeh with the well in question, on the grounds that he could there find no rocks more than three or four feet high. PSALM LXVIIL 433 the Nile rather than the Red Sea, is not opposed to this interpretation. If the " beast of the reed " symbolizes Egypt, and Egypt was over- thrown at the Red Sea, then to say that God re- buked the " beast of the reed " is as much as to say that God rebuked Egypt ; and the expres- sion in Ps. cvi. 9 (r]"iD D'^n ir j'^i) tends to iden- tify this rebuke with the overthrow at the Red Sea. -1272 must not be taken as imperative, but as Kal preterite, in accordance with -3s) — the hull-hearted (as we should say the lion-hearted) — " were spmled'' Here, in connection with the same rebuke (1273) the same mighty ones (nn^ns) are mentioned as " bring- ing pieces of silver." This seems surely to point to the " spoiling of the Egyptians " by the Is« raelites, upon their departure from Egypt ; when they "borrowed " of them "jewels of silver and jewels of gold." The meaning of this place seems to be that the rebuke of Egypt bears down upon all alike, high and low, rich and poor, who (collectively, in the singular) submit themselves to the Israelites by these offerings of silver. DD~i to trample : Hithpael, to allow oneself to be trampled upon : — to submit oneself. y>i, a piece, fragment ; from v-"^> to break. PSALM LXVIII. 435 The word may perhaps indicate the haste with which the Egyptians broke off (sc. from their ears) their jewellery; just as afterwards the Israelites broke off theirs for the manufacture of the golden calf. V. 32. This verse seems to be connected in idea with the preceding verses somewhat in this way — viz., that as of old the princes of Egypt submissively offered pieces of silver to Israel, so now also princes shall come out of Egypt, in order, as it is said in v. 30, to bring presents unto the God of Israel. n^2!32:n. Other quadriliterals with an initial n are b!22n (see Ps. Ixxviii. 47), nbsnn, and bpin ; in none of which does the n appear to be radical. Probably therefore th<3 word be- fore us is to be referred to the root i^c?, with the idea oirvealth, richness y derived, as is usual, from that of fatness. The Egyptian origin of the word, which was adopted by some of the older commentators, and which, I observe, finds favour with the writer (sub v.) in Smith's dictionary of the Bible, — is unsuitable, and is ignored by the Lxx., who, if it had been the true origin, could hardly have been ignorant of it. Their i:ender- 436 PSALM LXVIIL ing, 7r/oeo-)8fcts, is adequate, though not literal, A more literal rendering would bring out the pregnant meaning of the word — viz., thus : — ** The fat ones come out of Egypt," as if bring- ing their fatness, i,e. their wealth, with them. D^nb«b in^ y^in tr7i3, " Cusk quickly yields suhmission to God.'' T' '{Hi means to submit oneself, as in Ezek. xvii. 18; Jer. i. 15; Lam. V. 6; 2 Chron. xxx. 8. Now the Hiph. of v"i"i means to yive quickly^ to run to give. See 1 Sam. xvii. 1 7, where Y-in means Run-quickly" wilh-ihe-gift-ofy sc. these cheeses, &c., to thj brethren. Therefore the expression T^ V""'"''^ i^ to be understood as i.q. t"^ |rtD. with the addi- tional idea of promptness, alacrity. Quite analogous is the use of Pi. of-inD in Gen. xviii. 6. The inconsistency between the fem. form of the verb and the masculine suffix of the noun is of such common occurrence as to create no special difficulty here. V, 34. Some have proposed to take nbo from the preceding verse, and prefix it, as ibo, to this verse, so as to read asib ibo as in v. 5. Date Due ^i«»ii m ^^ ^*«sjO i »«N§«i?s« » i m PRINTED IN U. S. A.