15 Let them wander up and down H5128 H5128 for meat, H398 and grudge H3885 if they be not satisfied. H7646
And thou shalt eat H398 the fruit H6529 of thine own body, H990 the flesh H1320 of thy sons H1121 and of thy daughters, H1323 which the LORD H3068 thy God H430 hath given H5414 thee, in the siege, H4692 and in the straitness, H4689 wherewith thine enemies H341 shall distress H6693 thee: So that the man H376 that is tender H7390 among you, and very H3966 delicate, H6028 his eye H5869 shall be evil H3415 toward his brother, H251 and toward the wife H802 of his bosom, H2436 and toward the remnant H3499 of his children H1121 which he shall leave: H3498 So that he will not give H5414 to any H259 of them of the flesh H1320 of his children H1121 whom he shall eat: H398 because he hath nothing left H7604 him in the siege, H4692 and in the straitness, H4689 wherewith thine enemies H341 shall distress H6693 thee in all thy gates. H8179 The tender H7390 and delicate H6028 woman among you, which would not adventure H5254 to set H3322 the sole H3709 of her foot H7272 upon the ground H776 for delicateness H6026 and tenderness, H7391 her eye H5869 shall be evil H3415 toward the husband H376 of her bosom, H2436 and toward her son, H1121 and toward her daughter, H1323 And toward her young one H7988 that cometh out H3318 from between her feet, H7272 and toward her children H1121 which she shall bear: H3205 for she shall eat H398 them for want H2640 of all things secretly H5643 in the siege H4692 and straitness, H4689 wherewith thine enemy H341 shall distress H6693 thee in thy gates. H8179 If thou wilt not observe H8104 to do H6213 all the words H1697 of this law H8451 that are written H3789 in this book, H5612 that thou mayest fear H3372 this glorious H3513 and fearful H3372 name, H8034 THE LORD H3068 THY GOD; H430
And there was a great H1419 famine H7458 in Samaria: H8111 and, behold, they besieged H6696 it, until an ass's H2543 head H7218 was sold for fourscore H8084 pieces of silver, H3701 and the fourth part H7255 of a cab H6894 of dove's dung H1686 H3123 H2755 for five H2568 pieces of silver. H3701 And as the king H4428 of Israel H3478 was passing by H5674 upon the wall, H2346 there cried H6817 a woman H802 unto him, saying, H559 Help, H3467 my lord, H113 O king. H4428 And he said, H559 If the LORD H3068 do not help H3467 thee, whence H370 shall I help H3467 thee? out of the barnfloor, H1637 or out of the winepress? H3342 And the king H4428 said H559 unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, H559 This woman H802 said H559 unto me, Give H5414 thy son, H1121 that we may eat H398 him to day, H3117 and we will eat H398 my son H1121 to morrow. H4279 So we boiled H1310 my son, H1121 and did eat H398 him: and I said H559 unto her on the next H312 day, H3117 Give H5414 thy son, H1121 that we may eat H398 him: and she hath hid H2244 her son. H1121
But now they that are younger H6810 H3117 than I have me in derision, H7832 whose fathers H1 I would have disdained H3988 to have set H7896 with the dogs H3611 of my flock. H6629 Yea, whereto H4100 might the strength H3581 of their hands H3027 profit me, in whom old age H3624 was perished? H6 For want H2639 and famine H3720 they were solitary; H1565 fleeing H6207 into the wilderness H6723 in former time H570 desolate H7722 and waste. H4875 Who cut up H6998 mallows H4408 by the bushes, H7880 and juniper H7574 roots H8328 for their meat. H3899 They were driven forth H1644 from among H1460 men, (they cried H7321 after them as after a thief;) H1590 To dwell H7931 in the clifts H6178 of the valleys, H5158 in caves H2356 of the earth, H6083 and in the rocks. H3710 Among the bushes H7880 they brayed; H5101 under the nettles H2738 they were gathered together. H5596
The tongue H3956 of the sucking child H3243 cleaveth H1692 to the roof of his mouth H2441 for thirst: H6772 the young children H5768 ask H7592 bread, H3899 and no man breaketh H6566 it unto them. They that did feed H398 delicately H4574 are desolate H8074 in the streets: H2351 they that were brought up H539 in scarlet H8438 embrace H2263 dunghills. H830
They that be slain H2491 with the sword H2719 are better H2896 than they that be slain H2491 with hunger: H7458 for these H1992 pine away, H2100 stricken H1856 through for want of the fruits H8570 of the field. H7704 The hands H3027 of the pitiful H7362 women H802 have sodden H1310 their own children: H3206 they were their meat H1262 in the destruction H7667 of the daughter H1323 of my people. H5971
For G1063 nation G1484 shall rise G1453 against G1909 nation, G1484 and G2532 kingdom G932 against G1909 kingdom: G932 and G2532 there shall be G2071 famines, G3042 and G2532 pestilences, G3061 and G2532 earthquakes, G4578 in divers G2596 places. G5117 All G1161 G3956 these G5023 are the beginning G746 of sorrows. G5604
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 59
Commentary on Psalms 59 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Prayer of an innocent Man Whom Men Are Trying to Take
This Michtam , after the melody Al-tashcheth , coinciding with Psalms 57:5 and Psalms 58:7 in the figure used in Psalms 59:8, is the earliest among the Davidic Psalms which are dated from the time of Saul's persecution. When Saul sent and they (those who were sent by him) watched the house in order to slay him (David); it therefore belongs to the time spoken of in 1 Samuel 19:11. This inscription is no more intended to imply that the Psalm was composed on that night before the flight, which was rendered possible by the artifice of Michal, than the inscription of Ps 51 is meant to imply that the origin of the Psalm was coincident with the arrival of Nathan. The בּ of such inscriptions only sets forth in a general way the historical groundwork of the song. If we consider the contents of the Psalm from this point of view, we shall obtain a tolerably distinct picture of the situation. We must imagine that Saul, even before he issued that command to watch David's house the night through and to slay him in the morning, i.e., to assassinate him behind Michal's back (1 Samuel 19:11), sought to get rid of him in some more secret way; that the venal men of his court, themselves not less ill-disposed towards David, had offered him their hand for the deed; and that in consequence of this, great activity, which was probably seen through by him whose life was threatened, was observable in Gibea, and that more especially every evening, when the bandits strolled through the city in order to meet with the dreaded rival and give him his deathblow. The Psalms and the Prophets are often the medium through which we gain a deeper insight into events which are only sketched in the historical books after their most prominent outward features.
In consideration of the fact that the description of the nightly proceedings of the enemies is repeated after the manner of a refrain, and that the poet in Psalms 59:17 contrasts his believingly joyous prospects for the coming morning with the ineffectual ardour with which they pass the night patrolling the streets, Psalms 59 seems to be an evening song belonging to those perilous days spent in Gibea.
First part. As far as Psalms 59:4 we recognise strains familiar in the Psalms. The enemies are called מתקוממי as in Job 27:7, cf. Psalms 17:7; עזּים as shameless, עזּי פנים or עזּי נפשׁ ; as in Isaiah 56:11, on account of their bold shameless greediness, dogs. On לא in a subordinate clause, vid., Ewald, §286, g : without there being transgression or sin on my side, which might have caused it. The suffix (transgression on my part) is similar to Psalms 18:24. בּליּ־עון (cf. Job 34:6) is a similar adverbial collateral definition: without there existing any sin, which ought to be punished. The energetic future jeruzûn depicts those who servilely give effect to the king's evil caprice; they run hither and thither as if attacking and put themselves in position. הכונן = התכונן , like the Hithpa . הכּסּה , Proverbs 26:26, the Hothpa . הכּבּס , Leviticus 13:55., and the Hithpa. נכּפּר , Deuteronomy 21:8. Surrounded by such a band of assassins, David is like one besieged, who sighs for succour; and he calls upon Jahve, who seems to be sleeping and inclined to abandon him, with that bold עוּרה לקראתי וּראה , to awake to meet him, i.e., to join him with His help like a relieving army, and to convince Himself from personal observation of the extreme danger in which His charge finds himself. The continuation was obliged to be expressed by ואתּה , because a special appeal to God interposes between עוּרה and הקיצה . In the emphatic “Thou,” however, after it has been once expressed, is implied the conditional character of the deliverance by the absolute One. And each of the divine names made use of in this lengthy invocation, which corresponds to the deep anxiety of the poet, is a challenge, so to speak, to the ability and willingness, the power and promise of God. The juxtaposition Jahve Elohim Tsebaoth (occurring, besides this instance, in Psalms 80:5, 20; Psalms 84:9), which is peculiar to the Elohimic Psalms, is to be explained by the consideration that Elohim had become a proper name like Jahve , and that the designation Jahve Tsebaoth , by the insertion of Elohim in accordance with the style of the Elohimic Psalms, is made still more imposing and solemn; and now צבאות is a genitive dependent not merely upon יהוה but upon יהוה אלהים (similar to Psalms 56:1 , Isaiah 28:1 ; Symbolae , p. 15). אלהי ישׂראל is in apposition to this threefold name of God. The poet evidently reckons himself as belonging to an Israel from which he excludes his enemies, viz., the true Israel which is in reality the people of God. Among the heathen, against whom the poet invokes God's interposition, are included the heathen-minded in Israel; this at least is the view which brings about this extension of the prayer. Also in connection with the words און כּל־בּגדי the poet, in fact, has chiefly before his mind those who are immediately round about him and thus disposed. It is those who act treacherously from extreme moral nothingness and worthlessness ( און genit. epexeg .). The music, as Sela directs, here becomes more boisterous; it gives intensity to the strong cry for the judgment of God; and the first unfolding of thought of this Michtam is here brought to a close.
The second begins by again taking up the description of the movements of the enemy which was begun in Psalms 59:4, Psalms 59:5. We see at a glance how here Psalms 59:7 coincides with Psalms 59:5, and Psalms 59:8 with Psalms 59:4, and Psalms 59:9 with Psalms 59:6. Hence the imprecatory rendering of the futures of Psalms 59:7 is not for a moment to be entertained. By day the emissaries of Saul do not venture to carry out their plot, and David naturally does not run into their hands. They therefore come back in the evening, and that evening after evening (cf. Job 24:14); they snarl or howl like dogs ( המה , used elsewhere of the growling of the bear and the cooing of the dove; it is distinct from נבח , Arab. nbb , nbḥ , to bark, and כלב , to yelp), because they do not want to betray themselves by loud barking, and still cannot altogether conceal their vexation and rage; and they go their rounds in the city (like סובב בּעיר , Song of Solomon 3:2, cf. supra Psalms 55:11), in order to cut off their victim from flight, and perhaps, what would be very welcome to them, to run against him in the darkness. The further description in Psalms 59:8 follows them on this patrol. What they belch out or foam out is to be inferred from the fact that swords are in their lips, which they, as it were, draw so soon as they merely move their lips. Their mouth overflows with murderous thoughts and with slanders concerning David, by which they justify their murderous greed to themselves as if there were no one, viz., no God, who heard it. But Jahve, from whom nothing, as with men, can be kept secret, laughs at them, just as He makes a mockery of all heathen, to whom this murderous band, which fears the light and in unworthy of the Israelitish name, is compared. This is the primary passage to Psalms 37:13; Psalms 2:4; for Ps 59 is perhaps the oldest of the Davidic Psalms that have come down to us, and therefore also the earliest monument of Israelitish poetry in which the divine name Jahve Tsebaoth occurs; and the chronicler, knowing that it was the time of Samuel and David that brought it into use, uses this name only in the life of David. Just as this strophe opened in Psalms 59:7 with a distich that recurs in Psalms 59:15, so it also closes now in Psalms 59:10 with a distich that recurs below in v. 18, and that is to be amended according to the text of that passage. For all attempts to understand עזּי as being genuine prove its inaccuracy. With the old versions it has to be read עזּי ; but as for the rest, אשׁמרה must be retained in accordance with the usual variation found in such refrains: my strength, Thee will I regard (1 Samuel 26:15; observe, 2 Samuel 11:16), or upon Thee will I wait (cf. ל , Psalms 130:6); i.e., in the consciousness of my own feebleness, tranquil and resigned, I will look for Thine interposition on my behalf.
In this second half of the Psalm the cry of fear is hushed. Hope reigns, and anger burns more fiercely. The Kerמ says that Psalms 59:11 is to be read: אלהי חסדּי יקדּמני , my gracious God will anticipate me, - but with what? This question altogether disappears if we retain the Chethîb and point אלהי הסדּו : my God will anticipate me with His mercy (cf. Psalms 21:4), i.e., will meet me bringing His mercy without any effort of mine. Even the old translators have felt that chcdw must belong to the verb as a second object. The lxx is perfectly correct in its rendering, ὁ Θεὸς μου τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ προφθάσει με . The Kerî has come into existence in looking to v. 18, according to which it seems as though אלהי הסדּי ought to be added to the refrain, Psalms 59:10 (cf. a similar instance in Psalms 42:6-7). But Psalms 59:11 would be stunted by doing this, and it accords with Biblical poetic usage that the refrain in v. 18 should be climactic in comparison with Psalms 59:10 (just as it also does not altogether harmonize in its first half); so that Olshausen's proposal to close Psalms 59:10 with אלהי חסדי and to begin Psalms 59:11 with חסדו (cf. Psalms 79:8) is only just to be put on record. The prayer “slay them not” does not contradict the prayer that follows for their destruction. The poet wishes that those who lie in wait for him, before they are totally swept away, may remain for a season before the eyes of this people as an example of punishment. In accordance with this, הניעמו , by a comparison of the Hiph . in Numbers 32:13, and of the Kal in Psalms 59:16, Psalms 109:10, is to be rendered: cause them to wander about (Targum, cf. Genesis Rabba , ch. 38 init ., טלטלמו ); and in connection with בחילך one is involuntarily reminded of Psalms 10:10, Psalms 10:14, and is tempted to read בחלך or בחלך : cause them to wander about in adversity or wretchedness, = Arab. ‛umr ḥâlik , vita caliginosa h. e. misera ), and more especially since בחילך occurs nowhere else instead of בּזרעך or בּימינך . But the Jod in בחילך is unfavourable to this supposition; and since the martial apostrophe of God by “our shield” follows, the choice of the word is explained by the consideration that the poet conceives of the power of God as an army (Joel 2:25), and perhaps thinks directly of the heavenly host (Joel 3:11), over which the Lord of Hosts holds command (Hitzig). By means of this He is first of all to cause them to go astray ( נע ונד , Genesis 4:12), then utterly to cast them down (Psalms 56:8). The Lord ( אדני ) is to do this, as truly as He is Israel's shield against all the heathen and all pseudo-Israelites who have become as heathen. The first member of Psalms 59:13 is undoubtedly meant descriptively: “the sin of their mouth (the sin of the tongue) is the word of their lips” (with the dull-toned suffix mo , in the use of which Ps 59 associates itself with the Psalms of the time of Saul, Psalms 56:1-13, Psalms 11:1-7, Psalms 17:1-15, 22, 35, Psalms 64:1-10). The combination ולילּכדוּ בגאונם , however, more readily suggests parallel passages like Proverbs 11:6 than Proverbs 6:2; and moreover the מן of the expression וּמאלה וּמכּחשׁ , which is without example in connection with ספּר , and, taken as expressing the motive (Hupfeld), ought to be joined with some designations of the disposition of mind, is best explained as an appended statement of the reason for which they are to be ensnared, so that consequently יספּרוּ (cf. Psalms 69:27; Psalms 64:6) is an attributive clause; nor is this contrary to the accentuation, if one admits the Munach to be a transformation of Mugrash . It is therefore to be rendered: “let them, then, be taken in their pride, and on account of the curse and deceit which they wilfully utter.” If, by virtue of the righteousness of the Ruler of the world, their sin has thus become their fall, then, after they have been as it were a warning example to Israel, God is utterly to remove them out of the way, in order that they (it is unnecessary to suppose any change of subject), while perishing, may perceive that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob ( בּ , used elsewhere of the object, e.g., Micah 5:1, is here used of the place of dominion), and as in Jacob, so from thence unto the ends of the earth ( ל like על , Psalms 48:11) wields the sceptre. Just like the first group of the first part, this first group of the second part also closes with Sela .
The second group opens like the second group in the first part, but with this exception, that here we read וישׁבוּ , which loosely connects it with what precedes, whereas there it is ישׁוּבוּ . The poet's gaze is again turned towards his present straitened condition, and again the pack of dogs by which Saul is hunting him present themselves to his mind. המּה points towards an antithesis that follows, and which finds its expression in ואני . ויּלינוּ and לבּקר stand in direct contrast to one another, and in addition to this לערב has preceded. The reading of the lxx (Vulgate, Luther, [and authorized version]), καὶ γογγύσουσιν = ויּלּינוּ or ויּלּנוּ , is thereby proved to be erroneous. But if ויּלינוּ is the correct reading, then it follows that we have to take Psalms 59:16 not as foretelling what will take place, but as describing that which is present; so that consequently the fut. consec . (as is frequently the case apart from any historical connection) is only a consecutive continuation of ינוּעוּן (for which the Kerî has יניעוּן ; the form that was required in Psalms 59:12, but is inadmissible here): they wander up and down ( נוּע as in Psalms 109:10, cf. נוּד , Job 15:23) to eat (that is to say, seeking after food); and if they are not satisfied, they pass the night, i.e., remain, eager for food and expecting it, over night on the spot. This interpretation is the most natural, the simplest, and the one that harmonizes best not only with the text before us (the punctuation ישׂבּעוּ , not ישׂבּעוּ , gives the member of the clause the impress of being a protasis), but also with the situation. The poet describes the activity of his enemies, and that by completing or retouching the picture of their comparison to dogs: he himself is the food or prey for which they are so eager, and which they would not willingly allow to escape them, and which they nevertheless cannot get within their grasp. Their morbid desire remains unsatisfied: he, however, in the morning, is able to sing of the power of God, which protects him, and exultantly to praise God's loving-kindness, which satiates and satisfies him (Psalms 90:14); for in the day of fear, which to him is now past, God was his inaccessible stronghold, his unapproachable asylum. To this God, then, even further the play of his harp shall be directed ( אזמּרה ), just as was his waiting or hoping ( אשׁמרה , Psalms 59:10).