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Psalms 120:1 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

1 A Song of the Ascents. Unto Jehovah in my distress I have called, And He answereth me.

Cross Reference

Isaiah 37:14-20 YLT

And Hezekiah taketh the letters out of the hand of the messengers, and readeth them, and Hezekiah goeth up to the house of Jehovah, and Hezekiah spreadeth it before Jehovah. And Hezekiah prayeth unto Jehovah, saying, `Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, inhabiting the cherubs, Thou `art' God Himself -- Thyself alone -- to all kingdoms of the earth, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth. Incline, O Jehovah, Thine ear, and hear; open, O Jehovah, Thine eyes and see; and hear Thou all the words of Sennacherib that he hath sent to reproach the living God. `Truly, O Jehovah, kings of Asshur have laid waste all the lands and their land, so as to put their gods into fire -- for they `are' no gods, but work of the hands of man, wood and stone -- and they destroy them. And now, Jehovah our God, save us from his hand, and all kingdoms of the earth do know that Thou `art' Jehovah, Thyself alone.'

Isaiah 37:3-4 YLT

and they say unto him, `Thus said Hezekiah, A day of distress, and rebuke, and despising, `is' this day; for come have sons unto the birth, and power there is not to bear. `It may be Jehovah thy God doth hear the words of Rabshakeh with which the king of Asshur his lord hath sent him to reproach the living God, and hath decided concerning the words that Jehovah thy God hath heard, and thou hast lifted up prayer for the remnant that is found.'

Psalms 116:3-4 YLT

Compassed me have cords of death, And straits of Sheol have found me, Distress and sorrow I find. And in the name of Jehovah I call: I pray Thee, O Jehovah, deliver my soul,

Psalms 30:7-8 YLT

O Jehovah, in Thy good pleasure, Thou hast caused strength to remain for my mountain,' Thou hast hidden Thy face -- I have been troubled. Unto Thee, O Jehovah, I call, And unto Jehovah I make supplication.

Isaiah 38:2-5 YLT

And Hezekiah turneth round his face unto the wall, and prayeth unto Jehovah, and saith, `I pray thee, O Jehovah, remember, I pray Thee, how I have walked habitually before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and that which `is' good in thine eyes I have done;' and Hezekiah weepeth -- a great weeping. And a word of Jehovah is unto Isaiah, saying, Go, and thou hast said to Hezekiah, Thus said Jehovah, God of David thy father, `I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tear, lo, I am adding to thy days fifteen years,

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 120

Commentary on Psalms 120 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Introduction

Cry of Distress When Surrounded by Contentious Men

This first song of degrees attaches itself to Psalms 119:176. The writer of Ps 119, surrounded on all sides by apostasy and persecution, compares himself to a sheep that is easily lost, which the shepherd has to seek and bring home if it is not to perish; and the writer of Psalms 120:1-7 is also “as a sheep in the midst of wolves.” The period at which he lived is uncertain, and it is consequently also uncertain whether he had to endure such endless malignant attacks from foreign barbarians or from his own worldly-minded fellow-countrymen. E. Tilling has sought to establish a third possible occasion in his Disquisitio de ratione inscript. XV Pss. grad. (1765). He derives this and the following songs of degrees from the time immediately succeeding the Return from the Exile, when the secret and open hostility of the Samaritans and other neighbouring peoples ( Nehemiah 2:10, Nehemiah 2:19; Nehemiah 4:17, Nehemiah 6:1) sought to keep down the rise of the young colony.


Verses 1-4

According to the pointing ויּענני , the poet appears to base his present petition, which from Psalms 120:2 onwards is the substance of the whole Psalm, upon the fact of a previous answering of his prayers. For the petition in Psalms 120:2 manifestly arises out of his deplorable situation, which is described in Psalms 120:5. Nevertheless there are also other instances in which ויענני might have been expected, where the pointing is ויּענני ( Psalms 3:5; Jonah 2:3), so that consequently ויּענני may, without any prejudice to the pointing, be taken as a believing expression of the result (cf. the future of the consequence in Job 9:16) of the present cry for help. צרתה , according to the original signification, is a form of the definition of a state or condition, as in Psalms 3:3; 44:27; Psalms 63:8, Jonah 2:10, Hosea 8:7, and בּצּרתה לּי = בּצּר־לּי , Psalms 18:7, is based upon the customary expression צר לּי . In Psalms 120:2 follows the petition which the poet sends up to Jahve in the certainty of being answered. רמיּה beside לשׁון , although there is no masc . רמי (cf. however the Aramaic רמּי , רמּאי ), is taken as an adjective after the form טריּה , עניּה , which it is also perhaps in Micah 6:12. The parallelism would make לשׁון natural, like לשׁון מרמה in Psalms 52:6; the pointing, which nevertheless disregarded this, will therefore rest upon tradition. The apostrophe in Psalms 120:3 is addressed to the crafty tongue. לשׁון is certainly feminine as a rule; but whilst the tongue as such is feminine, the לשׁון רמיה of the address, as in Psalms 52:6, refers to him who has such a kind of tongue (cf. Hitzig on Proverbs 12:27), and thereby the לך is justified; whereas the rendering, “what does it bring to thee, and what does it profit thee?” or, “of what use to thee and what advancement to thee is the crafty tongue?” is indeed possible so far as concerns the syntax (Ges. §147, e ), but is unlikely as being ambiguous and confusing in expression. It is also to be inferred from the correspondence between מה־יּתּן לך וּמה־יּסיף לך and the formula of an oath כּה יעשׂה־לּך אלהים לכה יוסיף , 1 Samuel 3:17; 1 Samuel 20:13; 1 Samuel 25:22; 2 Samuel 3:35; Ruth 1:17, that God is to be thought of as the subject of יתן and יסיף : “what will,” or rather, in accordance with the otherwise precative use of the formula and with the petition that here precedes: “what shall He (is He to) give to thee ( נתן as in Hosea 9:14), and what shall He add to thee, thou crafty tongue?” The reciprocal relation of Psalms 120:4 to מה־יתן , and of. Psalms 120:4 with the superadding עם to מה־יסיף , shows that Psalms 120:4 is not now a characterizing of the tongue that continues the apostrophe to it, as Ewald supposes. Consequently Psalms 120:4 gives the answer to Psalms 120:3 with the twofold punishment which Jahve will cause the false tongue to feel. The question which the poet, sure of the answering of his cry for help, puts to the false tongue is designed to let the person addressed hear by a flight of sarcasm what he has to expect. The evil tongue is a sharp sword (Psalms 57:5), a pointed arrow (Jeremiah 9:7), and it is like a fire kindled of hell (James 3:6). The punishment, too, corresponds to this its nature and conduct (Psalms 64:4). The “mighty one” (lxx δυνατός ) is God Himself, as it is observed in B. Erachin 15 b with a reference to Isaiah 42:13 : “There is none mighty by the Holy One, blessed is He.” He requites the evil tongue like with like. Arrows and coals (Psalms 140:11) appear also in other instances among His means of punishment. It, which shot piercing arrows, is pierced by the sharpened arrows of an irresistibly mighty One; it, which set its neighbour in a fever of anguish, must endure the lasting, sure, and torturingly consuming heat of broom-coals. The lxx renders it in a general sense, σὺν τοῖς ἄνθραξι τοῖς ἐρημικοῖς ; Aquila, following Jewish tradition, ἀρκευθίναις ; but רתם , Arabic ratam , ratem , is the broom-shrub (e.g., uncommonly frequent in the Belkâ ).


Verses 5-7

Since arrows and broom-fire, with which the evil tongue is requited, even now proceed from the tongue itself, the poet goes on with the deep heaving אויה (only found here). גּוּר with the accusative of that beside which one sojourns, as in Psalms 5:5; Isaiah 33:14; Judges 5:17. The Moschi ( משׁך , the name of which the lxx takes as an appellative in the signification of long continuance; cf. the reverse instance in Isaiah 66:19 lxx) dwelt between the Black and the Caspian Seas, and it is impossible to dwell among them and the inhabitants of Kedar (vid., Psalms 83:7) at one and the same time. Accordingly both these names of peoples are to be understood emblematically, with Saadia, Calvin, Amyraldus, and others, of homines similes ejusmodi barbaris et truculentis nationibus .