{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/kad/psa123.htm","path":"bib/cmt/kad/psa123.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/kad/psa123.htm","text":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsh, [1857-78]\nUpward Glance to the Lord in Times of Contempt\nThis Psalm is joined to the preceding Psalm by the community of the divine name Jahve our God. Alsted (died 1638) gives it the brief, ingenious inscription oculus sperans. It is an upward glance of waiting faith to Jahve under tyrannical oppression. The fact that this Psalm appears in a rhyming form, \"as scarcely any other piece in the Old Testament\" (Reuss), comes only from those inflexional rhymes which creep in of themselves in the tephilla style.\nThe destinies of all men, and in particular of the church, are in the hand of the King who sits enthroned in the unapproachable glory of the heavens and rules over all things, and of the Judge who decides all things. Up to Him the poet raises his eyes, and to Him the church, together with which he may call Him \"Jahve our God,\" just as the eyes of servants are directed towards the hand of their lord, the eyes of a maid towards the hand of her mistress; for this hand regulates the whole house, and they wait upon their winks and signs with most eager attention. Those of Israel are Jahve's servants, Israel the church is Jahve's maid. In His hand lies its future. At length He will take compassion on His own. Therefore its longing gaze goes forth towards Him, without being wearied, until He shall graciously turn its distress. With reference to the i of \u05d4\u05d9\u05bc\u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05d9, vid., on Psa 113:1-9, Psa 114:1-8. \u05d0\u05d3\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05d4\u05dd is their common lord; for since in the antitype the sovereign Lord is meant, it will be conceived of as plur. excellentiae, just as in general it occurs only rarely (Gen 19:2, Gen 19:18; Jer 27:4) as an actual plural.\nThe second strophe takes up the \"be gracious unto us\" as it were in echo. It begins with a Kyrie eleison, which is confirmed in a crescendo manner after the form of steps. The church is already abundantly satiated with ignominy. \u05e8\u05d1 is an abstract \"much,\" and \u05e8\u05d1\u05bc\u05d4, Psa 62:3, something great (vid., B\u05e6ttcher, Lehrbuch, \u0597624). The subjectivizing, intensive \u05dc\u05d4\u05bc accords with Psa 120:6 - probably an indication of one and the same author. \u05d1\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05d6 is strengthened by \u05dc\u05e2\u05d2, like \u05d1\u05bc\u05d6 in Eze 36:4. The article of \u05d4\u05dc\u05bc\u05e2\u05d2 is restrospectively demonstrative: full of such scorn of the haughty (Ew. \u0597290, d). \u05d4\u05d1\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05d6 is also retrospectively demonstrative; but since a repetition of the article for the fourth time would have been inelegant, the poet here says \u05dc\u05d2\u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd with the Lamed, which serves as a circumlocution of the genitive. The Masora reckons this word among the fifteen \"words that are written as one and are to be read as two.\" The Ker\u05de runs viz., \u05dc\u05d2\u05d0\u05d9 \u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd, superbis oppressorum (\u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd, part. Kal, like \u05d4\u05d9\u05bc\u05d5\u05e0\u05d4 Zep 3:1, and frequently). But apart from the consideration that instead of \u05d2\u05bc\u05d0\u05d9, from the unknown \u05d2\u05bc\u05d0\u05d4, it might more readily be pointed \u05d2\u05bc\u05d0\u05d9, from \u05d2\u05bc\u05d0\u05d4 (a form of nouns indicating defects, contracted \u05d2\u05bc\u05d0), this genitival construction appears to be far-fetched, and, inasmuch as it makes a distinction among the oppressors, inappropriate. The poet surely meant \u05dc\u05d2\u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd or \u05dc\u05d2\u05bc\u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd. This word \u05d2\u05bc\u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05df (after the form \u05e8\u05e2\u05d9\u05d5\u05df, \u05d0\u05d1\u05d9\u05d5\u05df, \u05e2\u05dc\u05d9\u05d5\u05df) is perhaps an intentional new formation of the poet. Saadia interprets it after the Talmudic \u05dc\u05d2\u05d9\u05d5\u05df, legio; but how could one expect to find such a Grecized Latin word (\u03bb\u03b5\u03b3\u03b5\u03ce\u03bd) in the Psalter! dunash ben-Labrat (about 960) regards \u05d2\u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd as a compound word in the signification of \u05d4\u05d2\u05bc\u05d0\u05d9\u05dd \u05d4\u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd. In fact the poet may have chosen the otherwise unused adjectival form \u05d2\u05bc\u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd because it reminds one of \u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd, although it is not a compound word like \u05d3\u05bc\u05d1\u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd. If the Psalm is a Maccabaean Psalm, it is natural to find in \u05dc\u05d2\u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd an allusion to the despotic domination of the \u05d9\u05d5\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd.","title":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch: Psalms: Psalms Chapter 123","type":"page"}