1 Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.
4 Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.
5 Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.
6 Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.
8 The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.
9 Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.
1 [[A Psalm of David.]] H1732 Unto thee will I cry, H7121 O LORD H3068 my rock; H6697 be not silent H2814 to me: lest, if thou be silent H2790 to me, I become H4911 like them that go down H3381 into the pit. H953
2 Hear H8085 the voice H6963 of my supplications, H8469 when I cry H7768 unto thee, when I lift up H5375 my hands H3027 toward thy holy H6944 oracle. H1687
3 Draw me not away H4900 with the wicked, H7563 and with the workers H6466 of iniquity, H205 which speak H1696 peace H7965 to their neighbours, H7453 but mischief H7451 is in their hearts. H3824
4 Give H5414 them according to their deeds, H6467 and according to the wickedness H7455 of their endeavours: H4611 give H5414 them after the work H4639 of their hands; H3027 render H7725 to them their desert. H1576
5 Because they regard H995 not the works H6468 of the LORD, H3068 nor the operation H4639 of his hands, H3027 he shall destroy H2040 them, and not build them up. H1129
6 Blessed H1288 be the LORD, H3068 because he hath heard H8085 the voice H6963 of my supplications. H8469
7 The LORD H3068 is my strength H5797 and my shield; H4043 my heart H3820 trusted H982 in him, and I am helped: H5826 therefore my heart H3820 greatly rejoiceth; H5937 and with my song H7892 will I praise H3034 him.
8 The LORD H3068 is their strength, H5797 and he is the saving H3444 strength H4581 of his anointed. H4899
9 Save H3467 thy people, H5971 and bless H1288 thine inheritance: H5159 feed H7462 them also, and lift them up H5375 for ever. H5769
1 Unto thee, O Jehovah, will I call: My rock, be not thou deaf unto me; Lest, if thou be silent unto me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, When I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
3 Draw me not away with the wicked, And with the workers of iniquity; That speak peace with their neighbors, But mischief is in their hearts.
4 Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings: Give them after the operation of their hands; Render to them their desert.
5 Because they regard not the works of Jehovah, Nor the operation of his hands, He will break them down and not build them up.
6 Blessed be Jehovah, Because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
7 Jehovah is my strength and my shield; My heart hath trusted in him, and I am helped: Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; And with my song will I praise him.
8 Jehovah is their strength, And he is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.
9 Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: Be their shepherd also, and bear them up for ever. Psalm 29 A Psalm of David.
1 By David. Unto Thee, O Jehovah, I call, My rock, be not silent to me! Lest Thou be silent to me, And I have been compared With those going down to the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications, In my crying unto Thee, In my lifting up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
3 Draw me not with the wicked, And with workers of iniquity, Speaking peace with their neighbours, And evil in their heart.
4 Give to them according to their acting, And according to the evil of their doings. According to the work of their hands give to them. Return their deed to them.
5 For they attend not to the doing of Jehovah, And unto the work of His hands. He throweth them down, And doth not build them up.
6 Blessed `is' Jehovah, For He hath heard the voice of my supplications.
7 Jehovah `is' my strength, and my shield, In Him my heart trusted, and I have been helped. And my heart exulteth, And with my song I thank Him.
8 Jehovah `is' strength to him, Yea, the strength of the salvation of His anointed `is' He.
9 Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance, And feed them, and carry them to the age!
1 {[A Psalm] of David.} Unto thee, Jehovah, do I call; my rock, be not silent unto me, lest, [if] thou keep silence toward me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward the oracle of thy holiness.
3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbours, and mischief is in their heart.
4 Give them according to their doing, and according to the wickedness of their deeds; give them after the work of their hands, render to them their desert.
5 For they regard not the deeds of Jehovah, nor the work of his hands: he will destroy them, and not build them up.
6 Blessed be Jehovah, for he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
7 Jehovah is my strength and my shield; my heart confided in him, and I was helped: therefore my heart exulteth, and with my song will I praise him.
8 Jehovah is their strength; and he is the stronghold of salvation to his anointed one.
9 Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance; and feed them, and lift them up for ever.
1 > To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don't be deaf to me; Lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you, When I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.
3 Don't draw me away with the wicked, With the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors, But mischief is in their hearts.
4 Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the operation of their hands. Bring back on them what they deserve.
5 Because they don't regard the works of Yahweh, Nor the operation of his hands, He will break them down and not build them up.
6 Blessed be Yahweh, Because he has heard the voice of my petitions.
7 Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him.
8 Yahweh is their strength. He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.
9 Save your people, And bless your inheritance. Be their shepherd also, And bear them up forever.
1 <Of David.> My cry goes up to you, O Lord, my Rock; do not keep back your answer from me, so that I may not become like those who go down into the underworld.
2 Give ear to the voice of my prayer, when I am crying to you, when my hands are lifted up to your holy place.
3 Do not take me away with the sinners and the workers of evil, who say words of peace to their neighbours, but evil is in their hearts.
4 Give them the right reward of their acts, and of their evil doings: give them punishment for the works of their hands, let them have their full reward.
5 Because they have no respect for the works of the Lord, or for the things which his hands have made, they will be broken down and not lifted up by him.
6 May the Lord be praised, because he has given ear to the voice of my prayer.
7 The Lord is my strength and my breastplate, my heart had faith in him and I am helped; for this cause my heart is full of rapture, and I will give him praise in my song.
8 The Lord is their strength, and a strong place of salvation for his king.
9 Be a saviour to your people, and send a blessing on your heritage: be their guide, and let them be lifted up for ever.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 28
Commentary on Psalms 28 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Cry for Help and Thanksgiving, in a Time of Rebellion
To Psalms 26:1-12 and Psalms 27:1-14 a third Psalm is here added, belonging to the time of the persecution by Absolom. In this Psalm, also, the drawing towards the sanctuary of God cannot be lost sight of; and in addition thereto we have the intercession of the anointed one, when personally imperilled, on behalf of the people who are equally in need of help, - an intercession which can only be rightly estimated in connection with the circumstances of that time. Like Psalms 27:1-14 this, its neighbour, also divides into two parts; these parts, however, though their lines are of a different order, nevertheless bear a similar poetic impress. Both are composed of verses consisting of two and three lines. There are many points of contact between this Psalm and Psalms 27:1-14; e.g., in the epithet applied to God, מעוז ; but compare also Psalms 28:3 with Psalms 26:9; Psalms 28:2 with Psalms 31:23; Psalms 28:9 with Psalms 29:11. The echoes of this Psalm in Isaiah are very many, and also in Jeremiah.
This first half of the Psalm (Psalms 28:1) is supplicatory. The preposition מן in connection with the verbs חרשׁ , to be deaf, dumb, and חשׁה , to keep silence, is a pregnant form of expression denoting an aversion or turning away which does not deign to give the suppliant an answer. Jahve is his צוּר , his ground of confidence; but if He continues thus to keep silence, then he who confides in Him will become like those who are going down (Psalms 22:30), or are gone down (Isaiah 14:19) to the pit. The participle of the past answers better to the situation of one already on the brink of the abyss. In the double sentence with פּן , the chief accent falls upon the second clause, for which the first only paratactically opens up the way (cf. Isaiah 5:4; Isaiah 12:1); in Latin it would be ne, te mihi non respondente, similis fiam . Olshausen, and Baur with him, believes that because ונמשׁלתּי has not the accent on the ultima as being perf. consec ., it must be interpreted according to the accentuation thus, “in order that Thou mayst no longer keep silence, whilst I am already become like...” But this ought to be ואני נמשׁל , or at least נמשׁלתּי ואני . And if ונמשלתי were to be taken as a real perfect, it would then rather have to be rendered “and I should then be like.” But, notwithstanding ונמשׁלתּי is Milel , it is still perf . consecuticum (“and I am become like”); for if, in a sentence of more than one member following upon פן , the fut ., as is usually the case (vid., on Psalms 38:17), goes over into the perf ., then the latter, in most instances, has the tone of the perf. consec . (Deuteronomy 4:19, Judges 18:25, Proverbs 5:9-12, Malachi 4:6), but not always. The penultima -accentuation is necessarily retained in connection with the two great pausal accents, Silluk and Athnach , Deuteronomy 8:12; Proverbs 30:9; in this passage in connection with Rebia mugrash , just as we may say, in general, the perf. consec . sometimes retains its penultima -accentuation in connection with distinctives instead of being accented on the ultima ; e.g., in connection with Rebia mugrash , Proverbs 30:9; with Rebia , Proverbs 19:14 (cf. Proverbs 30:9 with Ezekiel 14:17); with Zakeph . 1 Samuel 29:8; and even with Tiphcha Obad. Obadiah 1:10, Joel 3:21. The national grammarians are ignorant of any law on this subject.
(Note: Aben-Ezra ( Moznajim 36 b ) explains the perfect accented on the penult . in Proverbs 30:9 from the conformity of sound, and Kimchi ( Michlol 6 b ) simply records the phenomenon.)
The point towards which the psalmist stretches forth his hands in prayer is Jahve's holy דּביר . Such is the word (after the form בּריח , כּליא , עטין ) used only in the Books of Kings and Chronicles, with the exception of this passage, to denote the Holy of Holies, not as being χρηματιστήριον (Aquila and Symmachus), or λαλητήριον , oraculum (Jerome), as it were, Jahve's audience chamber (Hengstenberg) - a meaning that is not in accordance with the formation of the word, - but as the hinder part of the tent, from דּבר , Arabic dabara , to be behind, whence dubr (Talmudic דּוּבר ), that which is behind (opp. kubl . kibal , that which is in the front), cf. Jesurun p. 87f. In Psalms 28:3, Psalms 28:4 the prayer is expanded. משׁך (instead of which we find אסף in Psalms 26:9), to draw any one down forcibly to destruction, or to drag him to the place of judgment, Ezekiel 32:20, cf. Psalms 10:8; Job 24:22. The delineation of the ungodly David borrows from his actual foes, Should he succumb to them, then his fate would be like that which awaits them, to whom he is conscious that he is radically unlike. He therefore prays that God's recompensing justice may anticipate him, i.e., that He may requite them according to their desert, before he succumbs, to whom they have feigned שׁלום , a good understanding, or being on good terms, whereas they cherished in their heart the רעה that is now unmasked (cf. Jeremiah 9:7). נתן , used of an official adjudication, as in Hosea 9:14; Jeremiah 32:19. The epanaphora of תּן־להם is like Psalms 27:14.
(Note: This repetition, at the end, of a significant word that has been used at the beginning of a verse, is a favourite custom of Isaiah's ( Comment . S. 387; transl. ii. 134).)
The phrase השׁיב גּמוּל ( שׁלּם ) , which occurs frequently in the prophets, signifies to recompense or repay to any one his accomplishing, his manifestation, that is to say, what he has done and merited; the thoughts and expression call to mind more particularly Isaiah 3:8-11; Isaiah 1:16. The right to pray for recompense (vengeance) is grounded, in Psalms 28:5, upon their blindness to God's just and merciful rule as it is to be seen in human history (cf. Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 22:11). The contrast of בּנה and חרס , to pull down (with a personal object, as in Exodus 15:7), is like Jeremiah's style (Psalms 42:10, cf. 1:10; Psalms 18:9, and frequently, Sir. 49:7). In Psalms 28:5 , the prominent thought in David's mind is, that they shamefully fail to recognise how gloriously and graciously God has again and again acknowledged him as His anointed one. He has (2 Sam 7) received the promise, that God would build him a house, i.e., grant perpetual continuance to his kingship. The Absolomites are in the act of rebellion against this divine appointment. Hence they shall experience the very reverse of the divine promise given to David: Jahve will pull them down and not build them up, He will destroy, at its very commencement, this dynasty set up in opposition to God.
The first half of the Psalm prayed for deliverance and for judgment; this second half gives thanks for both. If the poet wrote the Psalm at one sitting then at this point the certainty of being answered dawns upon him. But it is even possible that he added this second part later on, as a memorial of the answer he experienced to his prayer (Hitzig, Ewald). It sounds, at all events, like the record of something that has actually taken place. Jahve is his defence and shield. The conjoined perfects in Psalms 28:7 denote that which is closely united in actual realisation; and in the fut . consec ., as is frequently the case, e.g., in Job 14:2, the historical signification retreats into the background before the more essential idea of that which has been produced. In משּׁירי , the song is conceived as the spring whence the הודות bubble forth; and instead of אודנּוּ we have the more impressive form אהודנּוּ , as in Ps 45:18; Psalms 116:6; 1 Samuel 17:47, the syncope being omitted. From suffering ( Leid ) springs song ( Lied ), and from song springs the praise ( Lob ) of Him, who has “turned” the suffering, just as it is attuned in Psalms 28:6 and Psalms 28:8.
(Note: There is a play of words and an alliteration in this sentence which we cannot fully reproduce in the English. - Tr.)
The αὐτοί , who are intended by למו in Psalms 28:8 , are those of Israel, as in Psalms 12:8; Isaiah 33:2 (Hitzig). The lxx ( κραταίωμα τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ ) reads לעמּו , as in Psalms 29:11, which is approved by Böttcher, Olshausen and Hupfeld; but למו yields a similar sense. First of all David thinks of the people, then of himself; for his private character retreats behind his official, by virtue of which he is the head of Israel. For this very reason his deliverance is the deliverance of Israel, to whom, so far as they have become unfaithful to His anointed, Jahve has not requited this faithlessness, and to whom, so far as they have remained true to him, He has rewarded this fidelity. Jahve is a עז a si evhaJ to them, inasmuch as He preserves them by His might from the destruction into which they would have precipitated themselves, or into which others would have precipitated them; and He is the מעוז ישׁוּעות of His anointed inasmuch as He surrounds him as an inaccessible place of refuge which secures to him salvation in all its fulness instead of the destruction anticipated. Israel's salvation and blessing were at stake; but Israel is in fact God's people and God's inheritance - may He, then, work salvation for them in every future need and bless them. Apostatised from David, it was a flock in the hands of the hireling - may He ever take the place of shepherd to them and carry them in His arms through the destruction. The נשּׂאם coupled with וּרעם (thus it is to be pointed according to Ben-Asher) calls to mind Deuteronomy 1:31, “Jahve carried Israel as a man doth carry his son,” and Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11, “as on eagles' wings.” The Piel , as in Isaiah 63:9, is used of carrying the weak, whom one lifts up and thus removes out of its helplessness and danger. Psalms 3:1-8 closes just in the same way with an intercession; and the close of Psalms 29:1-11 is similar, but promissory, and consequently it is placed next to Psalms 28:1-9.