{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/kad/psa023.htm","path":"bib/cmt/kad/psa023.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/kad/psa023.htm","text":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsh, [1857-78]\nPraise of the Good Shepherd\nThe arrangement, by which a Psalm that speaks of a great feast of mercy prepared for mankind is followed by a Psalm that praises Jahve as the Shepherd and Host of His own people, could not possibly be more sensible and appropriate. If David is the author, and there is no reason for doubting it, then this Psalm belongs to the time of the rebellion under Absolom, and this supposition is confirmed on every hand. It is like an amplification of Psa 4:8; and Psa 3:7 is also echoed in it. But not only does it contain points of contact with this pair of Psalms of the time mentioned, but also with other Psalms belonging to the same period, as Psa 27:4, and more especially Psa 63:1-11, which is said to have been composed when David had retreated with his faithful followers over Kidron and the Mount of Olives into the plains of the wilderness of Judah, whither Hushai sent him tidings, which counselled him to pass over Jordan with all possible haste. It is characteristic of all these Psalms, that in them David years after the house of God as after the peculiar home of his heart, and, that all his wishes centre in the one wish to be at home again. And does not this short, tender song, with its depth of feeling and its May-like freshness, accord with David's want and wanderings to and fro at that time?\nIt consists of two hexastichs with short closing lines, resembling (as also in Isa 16:9-10) the Adonic verse of the strophe of Sappho, and a tetrastich made up of very short and longer lines intermixed.\nThe poet calls Jahve \u05e8\u05e2\u05d9, as He who uniformly and graciously provides for and guides him and all who are His. Later prophecy announces the visible appearing of this Shepherd, Isa 40:11, Eze 34:23, and other passages. If this has taken place, the \u05e8\u05e2\u05d9 \u05d4 from the mouth of man finds its cordial response in the words \u1f10\u03b3\u1f7c \u03b5\u1f30\u03bc\u1f76 \u1f41 \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03bc\u1f74\u03bd \u1f41 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03cc\u03c2. He who has Jahve, the possessor of all things, himself has all things, he lacks nothing; viz., \u05db\u05bc\u05be\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1, whatever is good in itself and would be good for him, Psa 34:11; Psa 84:12. \u05e0\u05d0\u05d5\u05ea \u05d3\u05bc\u05e9\u05c1\u05d0 are the pastures of fresh and tender grass, where one lies at ease, and rest and enjoyment are combined. \u05e0\u05d0\u05d4 (\u05e0\u05d5\u05d4), according to its primary meaning, is a resting-or dwelling-place, specifically an oasis, i.e., a verdant spot in the desert. \u05de\u05d9 \u05de\u05e0\u05d5\u05bc\u05d7\u05ea are waters, where the weary finds a most pleasant resting-place (according to Hitzig, it is a plural brought in by the plural of the governing word, but it is at any rate a superlative plural), and can at the same time refresh himself. \u05e0\u05d4\u05dc is suited to this as being a pastoral word used of gentle leading, and more especially of guiding the herds to the watering-places, just as \u05d4\u05e8\u05d1\u05bc\u05d9\u05e5 is used of making them to rest, especially at noon-tide, Sol 1:7; cf. \u1f41\u03b4\u03b7\u03b3\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd, Rev 7:17. \u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05d1\u05d1 \u05e0\u05e4\u05e9\u05c1 (elsewhere \u05d4\u05e9\u05c1\u05d9\u05d1) signifies to bring back the soul that is as it were flown away, so that it comes to itself again, therefore to impart new life, recreare. This He does to the soul, by causing it amidst the dryness and heat of temptation and trouble, to taste the very essence of life which refreshes and strengthens it. The Hiph. \u05d4\u05e0\u05d7\u05d4 (Arabic: to put on one side, as perhaps in Job 12:23) is, as in Psa 143:10 the intensive of \u05e0\u05d7\u05d4 (Ps 77:21). The poet glories that Jahve leads him carefully and without risk or wandering in \u05de\u05e2\u05d2\u05bc\u05dc\u05d9\u05be\u05e6\u05d3\u05e7, straight paths and leading to the right goal, and this \u05dc\u05de\u05e2\u05df \u05e9\u05c1\u05de\u05d5 (for His Name's sake). He has revealed Himself as the gracious One, and as such He will prove and glorify Himself even in the need of him who submits to His guidance.\nRod and staff are here not so much those of the pilgrim, which would be a confusing transition to a different figure, but those of Jahve, the Shepherd (\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05d8, as in Mic 7:14, and in connection with it, cf. Num 21:18, \u05de\u05e9\u05c1\u05e2\u05e0\u05ea as the filling up of the picture), as the means of guidance and defence. The one rod, which the shepherd holds up to guide the flock, and upon which he leans and anxiously watches over the flock, has assumed a double form in the conception of the idea. This rod and staff in the hand of God comfort him, i.e., preserve to him the feeling of security, and therefore a cheerful spirit. Even when he passes through a valley dark and gloomy as the shadow of death, where surprises and calamities of every kind threaten him, he hears no misfortune. The lxx narrows the figure, rendering \u05d1\u05d2\u05d9\u05d0 according to the Aramaic \u05d1\u05bc\u05d2\u05d5\u05d0, Dan 3:25, \u1f10\u03bd \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u1ff3. The noun \u05e6\u05dc\u05de\u05d5\u05ea, which occurs in this passage for the first time in the Old Testament literature, is originally not a compound word; but being formed from a verb \u05e6\u05dc\u05dd, Arab. \u1e0flm (root \u05e6\u05dc, Arab. \u1e0fl), to overshadow, darken, after the form \u05e2\u05d1\u05d3\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea, but pronounced \u05e6\u05dc\u05de\u05d5\u05ea (cf. \u05d7\u05e6\u05e8\u05de\u05d5\u05ea, Hadra-m\u00f4t = the court of death, \u05d1\u05bc\u05e6\u05dc\u05d0\u05dc in-God's-shadow), it signifies the shadow of death as an epithet of the most fearful darkness, as of Hades, Job 10:21., but also of a shaft of a mine, Job 28:3, and more especially of darkness such as makes itself felt in a wild, uninhabited desert, Jer 2:6.\nAfter the figure of the shepherd fades away in Psa 23:4, that of the host appears. His enemies must look quietly on (\u05e0\u05d2\u05d3 as in Psa 31:20), without being able to do anything, and see how Jahve provides bountifully for His guest, anoints him with sweet perfumes as at a joyous and magnificent banquet (Psa 92:11), and fills his cup to excess. What is meant thereby, is not necessarily only blessings of a spiritual kind. The king fleeing before Absolom and forsaken by the mass of his people was, with his army, even outwardly in danger of being destroyed by want; it is, therefore, even an abundance of daily bread streaming in upon them, as in Sa2 17:27-29, that is meant; but even this, spiritually regarded, as a gift from heaven, and so that the satisfying, refreshing and quickening is only the outside phase of simultaneous inward experiences.\n(Note: In the mouth of the New Testament saint, especially on the dies viridium, it is the table of the Lord's supper, as Apollinaris also hints when he applied to it the epithet \u1fe5\u03b9\u03b3\u03b5\u03b4\u03b1\u03bd\u1ff6\u03bd \u03b2\u03c1\u03af\u03b8\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd, horrendorum onustam.)\nThe future \u05ea\u05bc\u05e2\u05e8\u05da is followed, according to the customary return to the perfect ground-form, by \u05d3\u05bc\u05e9\u05bc\u05c1\u05e0\u05ea\u05bc, which has, none the less, the signification of a present. And in the closing assertion, \u05db\u05bc\u05d5\u05e1\u05d9, my cup, is metonymically equivalent to the contents of my cup. This is \u05e8\u05d5\u05d9\u05d4, a fulness satiating even to excess.\nFoes are now pursuing him, but prosperity and favour alone shall pursue him, and therefore drive his present pursuers out of the field. \u05d0\u05da, originally affirmative, here restrictive, belongs only to the subject-notion in its signification nil nisi (Psa 39:6, Psa 39:12; Psa 139:11). The expression is remarkable and without example elsewhere: as good spirits Jahve sends forth \u05d8\u05bc\u05d5\u05d1 and \u05d7\u05e1\u05d3 to overtake David's enemies, and to protect him against them to their shame, and that all his life long (accusative of continuance). We have now no need, in connection with our reference of the Psalm to the persecution under Absolom, either to persuade ourselves that \u05d5\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d9 is equivalent to \u05d5\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d9 Psa 27:4, or that it is equivalent to \u05d5\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d9. The infinitive is logically inadmissible here, and unheard of with the vowel \u0101 instead of i, which would here (cf. on the other hand \u05e7\u05d7\u05ea\u05bc\u05d9) be confusing and arbitrary. Nor can it be shown from Jer 42:10 to be probable that it is contracted from \u05d5\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05ea\u05d9, since in that passage \u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05d1 signifies redeundo = rursus. The lxx, certainly, renders it by \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03af\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2, as in Sa1 12:2 by \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03ae\u03c3\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9; but (since so much uncertainty attaches to these translators and their text) we cannot draw a safe inference as to the existing usage of the language, which would, in connection with such a contraction, go out of the province of one verb into that of another, which is not the case with \u05ea\u05bc\u05ea\u05bc\u05d4 = \u05e0\u05ea\u05ea\u05bc\u05d4 in Sa2 22:41. On the contrary we have before us in the present passage a constructio praegnans: \"and I shall return (perf. consec.) in the house of Jahve,\" i.e., again, having returned, dwell in the house of Jahve. In itself \u05d5\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d9 \u05d1 might also even mean et revertam ad (cf. Psa 7:17; Hos 12:7), like \u05e2\u05dc\u05d4 \u05d1, Psa 24:3, adscendere ad (in). But the additional assertion of continuance, \u05dc\u05d0\u05e8\u05da \u05d9\u05de\u05d9\u05dd (as in Psa 93:5; Lam 5:20, \u05d0\u05e8\u05da, root \u05e8\u05da, extension, lengthening = length) favours the explanation, that \u05d1\u05bc is to be connected with the idea of \u05d5\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05ea\u05d9, which is involved in \u05d5\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05ea\u05d9 as a natural consequence.","title":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch: Psalms: Psalms Chapter 23","type":"page"}