1 Jehovah reigneth: let the peoples tremble. He sitteth [between the] cherubim: let the earth be moved.
The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is completely dissolved, the earth is violently moved. The earth reeleth to and fro like a drunkard, and is shaken like a night hut; and its transgression is heavy upon it; and it falleth and shall not rise again.
And I looked, and behold, in the expanse that was over the head of the cherubim there appeared above them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. And he spoke unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Come in between the wheels, under the cherub, and fill the hollow of thy hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight. And the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. And the glory of Jehovah mounted up from the cherub, [and came] over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of Jehovah's glory. And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty ùGod when he speaketh. And it came to pass when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubim, then he went in, and stood beside the wheel. And the cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim unto the fire that was between the cherubim, and took and put it into the hands of him [that was] clothed with linen; who took [it], and went out. And there appeared in the cherubim the form of a man's hand under their wings. And I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was as the look of a chrysolite stone. And as for their appearance, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel were in the midst of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it: they turned not as they went. And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about, in them four [and] their wheels. As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, Galgal. And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. And the cherubim mounted up. This was the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar. And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them. When they stood, these stood; and when they mounted up, these mounted up with them: for the spirit of the living creature was in them. And the glory of Jehovah departed from over the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight, when they went out; and the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of Jehovah's house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim. Each one had four faces, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I had seen by the river Chebar -- their appearance and themselves: they went every one straight before them.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 99
Commentary on Psalms 99 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Song of Praise in Honour of the Thrice Holy One
This is the third of the Psalms (Psalms 93:1-5, Psalms 97:1-12, Psalms 99:1-9) which begin with the watchword מלך ה . It falls into three parts, of which the first (Psalms 99:1-3) closes with קדושׁ הוּא , the second (Psalms 99:4, Psalms 99:5) with קדושׁ הוּא , and the third, more full-toned, with אלחנוּ קדושׁ ה - an earthly echo of the trisagion of the seraphim. The first two Sanctuses are two hexastichs; and two hexastichs form the third, according to the very same law by which the third and the sixth days of creation each consists of two creative works. This artistic form bears witness against Olshausen in favour of the integrity of the text; but the clare-obscure of the language and expression makes no small demands upon the reader.
Bengel has seen deepest into the internal character of this Psalm. He says, “The 99th Psalm has three parts, in which the Lord is celebrated as He who is to come, as He who is, and as He who was, and each part is closed with the ascription of praise: He is holy.” The Psalm is laid out accordingly by Oettinger, Burk, and C. H. Rieger.
The three futures express facts of the time to come, which are the inevitable result of Jahve's kingly dominion bearing sway from heaven, and here below from Zion, over the world; they therefore declare what must and will happen. The participle insidens cherubis (Psalms 80:2, cf. Psalms 18:11) is a definition of the manner (Olshausen): He reigns, sitting enthroned above the cherubim. נוּט , like Arab. nwd , is a further formation of the root na , nu, to bend, nod. What is meant is not a trembling that is the absolute opposite of joy, but a trembling that leads on to salvation. The Breviarium in Psalterium , which bears the name of Jerome, observes: Terra quamdiu immota fuerit, sanari non potest; quando vero mota fuerit et intremuerit, tunc recipiet sanitatem . In Psalms 99:3 declaration passes over into invocation. One can feel how the hope that the “great and fearful Name” (Deuteronomy 10:17) will be universally acknowledged, and therefore that the religion of Israel will become the religion of the world, moves and elates the poet. The fact that the expression notwithstanding is not קדושׁ אתּה , but קדושׁ הוּא , is explained from the close connection with the seraphic trisagion in Isaiah 6:3. הוּא refers to Jahve; He and His Name are notions that easily glide over into one another.
The second Sanctus celebrates Jahve with respect to His continuous righteous rule in Israel. The majority of expositors construe it: “And (they shall praise) the might of the king, who loves right;” but this joining of the clause on to יודוּ over the refrain that stands in the way is hazardous. Neither can ועז מלך משׁפּט אהב , however, be an independent clause, since אהב cannot be said of עז , but only of its possessor. And the dividing of the verse at אהב , adopted by the lxx, will therefore not hold good. משפט אהב is an attributive clause to מלך in the same position as in Psalms 11:7; and עז , with what appertains to it, is the object to כּוננתּ placed first, which has the king's throne as its object elsewhere (Psalms 9:8, 2 Samuel 7:13; 1 Chronicles 17:12), just as it here has the might of the king, which, however, here at the same time in מישׁרים takes another and permutative object (cf. the permutative subject in Psalms 72:17), as Hitzig observes; or rather, since מישׁרים is most generally used as an adverbial notion, this מישׁרים (Psalms 58:2; Psalms 75:3; Psalms 9:9, and frequently), usually as a definition of the mode of the judging and reigning, is subordinated: and the might of a king who loves the right, i.e., of one who governs not according to dynastic caprice but moral precepts, hast Thou established in spirit and aim (directed to righteousness and equity). What is meant is the theocratic kingship, and Psalms 11:4 says what Jahve has constantly accomplished by means of this kingship: He has thus maintained right and righteousness (cf. e.g., 2 Samuel 8:15; 1 Chronicles 18:14; 1 Kings 10:9; Isaiah 16:5) among His people. Out of this manifestation of God's righteousness, which is more conspicuous, and can be better estimated, within the nation of the history of redemption than elsewhere, grows the call to highly exalt Jahve the God of Israel, and to bow one's self very low at His footstool. להדם רגליו , as in Psalms 132:7, is not a statement of the object (for Isaiah 45:14 is of another kind), but (like אל in other instances) of the place in which, or of the direction (cf. Psalms 7:14) in which the προσκύνησις is to take place. The temple is called Jahve's footstool (1 Chronicles 28:2, cf. Lamentations 2:1; Isaiah 60:13) with reference to the ark, the capporeth of which corresponds to the transparent sapphire (Exodus 24:10) and to the crystal-like firmament of the mercaba (Ezekiel 1:22, cf. 1 Chronicles 28:18).
The vision of the third Sanctus looks into the history of the olden time prior to the kings. In support of the statement that Jahve is a living God, and a God who proves Himself in mercy and in judgment, the poet appeals to three heroes of the olden time, and the events recorded of them. The expression certainly sounds as though it had reference to something belonging to the present time; and Hitzig therefore believes that it must be explained of the three as heavenly intercessors, after the manner of Onias and Jeremiah in the vision 2 Macc. 15:12-14. But apart from this presupposing an active manifestation of life on the part of those who have fallen happily asleep, which is at variance with the ideas of the latest as well as of the earliest Psalms concerning the other world, this interpretation founders upon Psalms 99:7 , according to which a celestial discourse of God with the three “in the pillar of cloud” ought also to be supposed. The substantival clauses Psalms 99:6 bear sufficient evident in themselves of being a retrospect, by which the futures that follow are stamped as being the expression of the contemporaneous past. The distribution of the predicates to the three is well conceived. Moses was also a mighty man in prayer, for with his hands uplifted for prayer he obtained the victory for his people over Amalek (Exodus 17:11.), and on another occasion placed himself in the breach, and rescued them from the wrath of God and from destruction (Psalms 106:23; Exodus 32:30-32; cf. also Numbers 12:13); and Samuel, it is true, is only a Levite by descent, but by office in a time of urgent need a priest ( cohen ), for he sacrifices independently in places where, by reason of the absence of the holy tabernacle with the ark of the covenant, it was not lawful, according to the letter of the law, to offer sacrifices, he builds an altar in Ramah, his residence as judge, and has, in connection with the divine services on the high place ( Bama ) there, a more than high-priestly position, inasmuch as the people do not begin the sacrificial repasts before he has blessed the sacrifice (1 Samuel 9:13). But the character of a mighty man in prayer is outweighed in the case of Moses by the character of the priest; for he is, so to speak, the proto- priest of Israel, inasmuch as he twice performed priestly acts which laid as it were a foundation for all times to come, viz., the sprinkling of the blood at the ratification of the covenant under Sinai (Ex. 24), and the whole ritual which was a model for the consecrated priesthood, at the consecration of the priests (Lev. 8). It was he, too, who performed the service in the sanctuary prior to the consecration of the priests: he set the shew-bread in order, prepared the candlestick, and burnt incense upon the golden altar (Exodus 40:22-27). In the case of Samuel, on the other hand, the character of the mediator in the religious services is outweighed by that of the man mighty in prayer: by prayer he obtained Israel the victory of Ebenezer over the Philistines (1 Samuel 7:8.), and confirmed his words of warning with the miraculous sign, that at his calling upon God it would thunder and rain in the midst of a cloudless season (1 Samuel 12:16, cf. Sir. 46:16f.).
The poet designedly says: Moses and Aaron were among His priests, and Samuel among His praying ones. This third twelve-line strophe holds good, not only of the three in particular, but of the twelve-tribe nation of priests and praying ones to which they belong. For Psalms 99:7 cannot be meant of the three, since, with the exception of a single instance (Numbers 12:5), it is always Moses only, not Aaron, much less Samuel, with whom God negotiates in such a manner. אליהם refers to the whole people, which is proved by their interest in the divine revelation given by the hand of Moses out of the cloudy pillar (Exodus 33:7.). Nor can Psalms 99:6 therefore be understood of the three exclusively, since there is nothing to indicate the transition from them to the people: crying ( קראים , syncopated like חטאים , 1 Samuel 24:11) to Jahve, i.e., as often as they (these priests and praying ones, to whom a Moses, Aaron, and Samuel belong) cried unto Jahve, He answered them-He revealed Himself to this people who had such leaders ( choragi ), in the cloudy pillar, to those who kept His testimonies and the law which He gave them. A glance at Psalms 99:8 shows that in Israel itself the good and the bad, good and evil, are distinguished. God answered those who could pray to Him with a claim to be answered. Psalms 99:7 , is, virtually at least, a relative clause, declaring the prerequisite of a prayer that may be granted. In Psalms 99:8 is added the thought that the history of Israel, in the time of its redemption out of Egypt, is not less a mirror of the righteousness of God than of the pardoning grace of God. If Psalms 99:7-8 are referred entirely to the three, then עלילות and נקם , referred to their sins of infirmity, appear to be too strong expressions. But to take the suffix of עלילותם objectively ( ea quae in eos sunt moliti Core et socii ejus ), with Symmachus ( καὶ ἔκδικος ἐπὶ ταῖς ἐπηρείναις αὐτῶν ) and Kimchi, as the ulciscens in omnes adinventiones eorum of the Vulgate is interpreted,
(Note: Vid., Raemdonck in his David propheta cet. 1800: in omnes injurias ipsis illatas, uti patuit in Core cet .)
is to do violence to it. The reference to the people explains it all without any constraint, and even the flight of prayer that comes in here (cf. Micah 7:18). The calling to mind of the generation of the desert, which fell short of the promise, is an earnest admonition for the generation of the present time. The God of Israel is holy in love and in wrath, as He Himself unfolds His Name in Exodus 34:6-7. Hence the poet calls upon his fellow-countrymen to exalt this God, whom they may with pride call their own, i.e., to acknowledge and confess His majesty, and to fall down and worship at ( ל cf. אל , Psalms 5:8) the mountain of His holiness, the place of His choice and of His presence.