{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/kad/psa095.htm","path":"bib/cmt/kad/psa095.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/kad/psa095.htm","text":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsh, [1857-78]\nJahve is called the Rock of our salvation (as in Psa 89:27, cf. Psa 94:22) as being its firm and sure ground. Visiting the house of God, one comes before God's face; \u05e7\u05d3\u05bc\u05dd \u05e4\u05bc\u05e0\u05d9, praeoccupare faciem, is equivalent to visere (visitare). \u05ea\u05bc\u05d5\u05d3\u05d4 is not confessio peccati, but laudis. The Beth before \u05ea\u05d5\u05d3\u05d4 is the Beth of accompaniment, as in Mic 6:6; that before \u05d6\u05de\u05e8\u05d5\u05ea (according to Sa2 23:1 a name for psalms, whilst \u05de\u05d6\u05de\u05e8 can only be used as a technical expression) is the Beth of the medium.\nThe adorableness of God receives a threefold confirmation: He is exalted above all gods as King, above all things as Creator, and above His people as Shepherd and Leader. \u05d0\u05dc\u05d4\u05d9\u05dd (gods) here, as in Psa 96:4., Psa 97:7, Psa 97:9, and frequently, are the powers of the natural world and of the world of men, which the Gentiles deify and call kings (as Moloch Molech, the deified fire), which, however, all stand under the lordship of Jahve, who is infinitely exalted above everything that is otherwise called god (Psa 96:4; Psa 97:9). The supposition that \u05ea\u05bc\u05d5\u05e2\u05e4\u05d5\u05ea \u05d4\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd denotes the pit-works (\u03bc\u03ad\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1) of the mountains (B\u03c6ttcher), is at once improbable, because to all appearance it is intended to be the antithesis to \u05de\u05d7\u05e7\u05e8\u05d9\u05be\u05d0\u05e8\u05e5, the shafts of the earth. The derivation from \u05d5\u05e2\u05e3 (\u05d9\u05e2\u05e3), \u03ba\u03ac\u03bc\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, \u03ba\u03bf\u03c0\u03b9\u1fb6\u03bd, also does not suit \u05ea\u05d5\u05e2\u05e4\u05d5\u05ea in Num 23:22; Num 24:8, for \"fatigues\" and \"indefatigableness\" are notions that lie very wide apart. The \u05db\u05bc\u05e1\u05e3 \u05ea\u05bc\u05d5\u05e2\u05e4\u05d5\u05ea of Job 22:25 might more readily be explained according to this \"silver of fatigues,\" i.e., silver that the fatiguing labour of mining brings to light, and \u05ea\u05d5\u05e2\u05e4\u05d5\u05ea \u05d4\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd in the passage before us, with Gussetius, Geier, and Hengstenberg: cacumina montium quia defatigantur qui eo ascendunt, prop. ascendings = summits of the mountains, after which \u05db\u05e1\u05e3 \u05ea\u05d5\u05e2\u05e4\u05d5\u05ea, Job 22:25, might also signify \"silver of the mountain-heights.\" But the lxx, which renders \u03b4\u03cc\u03be\u03b1 in the passages in Numbers and \u03c4\u1f70 \u1f55\u03c8\u03b7 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f40\u03c1\u03ad\u03c9\u03bd in the passage before us, leads one to a more correct track. The verb \u05d9\u05e2\u05e3 (\u05d5\u05e2\u05e3), transposed from \u05d9\u05e4\u05e2 (\u05d5\u05e4\u05e2), goes back to the root \u05d9\u05e3, \u05d5\u05e3, to stand forth, tower above, to be high, according to which \u05ea\u05d5\u05e2\u05e4\u05d5\u05ea = \u05ea\u05d5\u05e4\u05e2\u05d5\u05ea signifies eminentiae, i.e., towerings = summits, or prominences = high (the highest) perfection (vid., on Job 22:25). In the passage before us it is a synonym of the Arabic m\u0131\u0302fan, m\u0131\u0302f\u00e2tun, pars terrae eminens (from Arab. wf\u00e2 = \u05d9\u05e4\u05e2, prop. instrumentally: a means of rising above, viz., by climbing), and of the names of eminences derived from Arab. yf' (after which Hitzig renders: the teeth of the mountains). By reason of the fact that Jahve is the Owner (cf. Sa1 2:8), because the Creator of all things, the call to worship, which concerns no one so nearly as it does Israel, the people, which before other peoples is Jahve's creation, viz., the creation of His miraculously mighty grace, is repeated. In the call or invitation, \u05d4\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea\u05bc\u05d7\u05d5\u05d4 signifies to stretch one's self out full length upon the ground, the proper attitude of adoration; \u05db\u05bc\u05e8\u05e2, to curtsey, to totter; and \u05d1\u05bc\u05e8\u05da, Arabic baraka, starting from the radical signification flectere, to kneel down, in genua (\u03c0\u03c1\u03cc\u03c7\u03bd\u03c5, pronum = procnum) procumbere, Ch2 6:13 (cf. Hlemann, Bibelstudien, i. 135f.). Beside \u05e2\u05dd \u05de\u05e8\u05e2\u05d9\u05ea\u05d5, people of His pasture, \u05e6\u05d0\u05df \u05d9\u05d3\u05d5 is not the flock formed by His creating hand (Augustine: ipse grati\u00e2 su\u00e2 nos oves fecit), but, after Gen 30:35, the flock under His protection, the flock led and defended by His skilful, powerful hand. Bttcher renders: flock of His charge; but \u05d9\u05d3 in this sense (Jer 6:3) signifies only a place, and \"flock of His place\" would be poetry and prose in one figure.\nThe second decastich begins in the midst of the Masoretic Psa 95:7. Up to this point the church stirs itself up to a worshipping appearing before its God; now the voice of God (Heb 4:7), earnestly admonishing, meets it, resounding from out of the sanctuary. Since \u05e9\u05c1\u05de\u05e2 \u05d1\u05bc signifies not merely to hear, but to hear obediently, Psa 95:7 cannot be a conditioning protasis to what follows. Hengstenberg wishes to supply the apodosis: \"then will He bless you, His people;\" but \u05d0\u05dd in other instances too (Psa 81:9; Psa 139:19; Pro 24:11), like \u05dc\u05d5\u05bc, has an optative signification, which it certainly has gained by a suppression of a promissory apodosis, but yet without the genius of the language having any such in mind in every instance. The word \u05d4\u05d9\u05bc\u05d5\u05dd placed first gives prominence to the present, in which this call to obedience goes forth, as a decisive turning-point. The divine voice warningly calls to mind the self-hardening of Israel, which came to light at Mer\u05debah, on the day of Massah. What is referred to, as also in Psa 81:8, is the tempting of God in the second year of the Exodus on account of the failing of water in the neighbourhood of Horeb, at the place which is for this reason called Massah u-Mer\u0131\u0302bah (Exo 17:1-7); from which is to be distinguished the tempting of God in the fortieth year of the Exodus at Mer\u0131\u0302bah, viz., at the waters of contention near Kadesh (written fully M\u00ea-Mer\u0131\u0302bah Kadesh, or more briefly M\u00ea-Mer\u0131\u0302bah), Num 20:2-13 (cf. on Psa 78:20). Strictly \u05db\u05de\u05e8\u05d9\u05d1\u05d4 signifies nothing but instar Meribae, as in Psa 83:10 instar Midianitarum; but according to the sense, \u05db\u05bc is equivalent to \u05db\u05bc\u05e2\u05dc. Psa 106:32, just as \u05db\u05bc\u05d9\u05d5\u05dd is equivalent to \u05db\u05bc\u05d1\u05d9\u05d5\u05dd. On \u05d0\u05e9\u05c1\u05e8, quum, cf. Deu 11:6. The meaning of \u05d2\u05bc\u05dd\u05be\u05e8\u05d0\u05d5\u05bc \u05e4\u05e2\u05dc\u05d9 is not they also (\u05d2\u05dd as in Psa 52:7) saw His work; for the reference to the giving of water out of the rock would give a thought that is devoid of purpose here, and the assertion is too indefinite for it to be understood of the judgment upon those who tempted God (Hupfeld and Hitzig). It is therefore rather to be rendered: notwithstanding (ho'moos, Ew. 354, a) they had (= although they had, cf. \u05d2\u05dd in Isa 49:15) seen His work (His wondrous guiding and governing), and might therefore be sure that He would not suffer them to be destroyed. The verb \u05e7\u05d5\u05bc\u05d8 coincides with \u03ba\u03bf\u03c4\u03ad\u03c9, \u03ba\u03cc\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2. \u05d1\u05bc\u05d3\u05bc\u05d5\u05e8 .\u05e2\u05df, for which the lxx has \u03c4\u1fc7 \u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03b5\u1fb7 \u1f10\u03ba\u03b5\u03af\u03bd\u03b7, is anarthrous in order that the notion may be conceived of more qualitatively than relatively: with a (whole) generation. With \u05d5\u05d0\u05de\u05e8 Jahve calls to mind the repeated declarations of His vexation concerning their heart, which was always inclined towards error which leads to destruction - declarations, however, which bore no fruit. Just this ineffectiveness of His indignation had as its result that (\u05d0\u05e9\u05c1\u05e8, not \u1f45\u03c4\u03b9 but \u1f65\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5, as in Gen 13:16; Deu 28:27, Deu 28:51; Kg2 9:37, and frequently) He sware, etc. (\u05d0\u05dd = verily not, Gesen. 155, 2, f, with the emphatic future form in n which follows). It is the oath in Num 14:27. that is meant. The older generation died in the desert, and therefore lost the entering into the rest of God, by reason of their disobedience. If now, many centuries after Moses, they are invited in the Davidic Psalter to submissive adoration of Jahve, with the significant call: \"To-day if ye will hearken to His voice!\" and with a reference to the warning example of the fathers, the obedience of faith, now as formerly, has therefore to look forward to the gracious reward of entering into God's rest, which the disobedient at that time lost; and the taking possession of Canaan was, therefore, not as yet the final \u05de\u05e0\u05d5\u05bc\u05d7\u05d4 (Deu 12:9). This is the connection of the wider train of thought which to the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb 3:1, Heb 4:1, follows from this text of the Psalm.","title":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch: Psalms: Psalms Chapter 95","type":"page"}