PRAYER THAT JEHOVAH WILL VINDICATE HIS JUSTICE 'He lieth in ambush like a lion in a thicket, He lieth in wait to catch the afflicted, He catcheth the afflicted by drawing him into his net; 10 He watcheth," he lieth in wait, he croucheth, And unfortunate are they who fall into his clutches." "He saith to himself, 'God hath forgotten, He hath hidden his face, he never seeth.' 12 Arise, O Jehovah,' lift up thy hand, O God, never forget the afflicted. 13Why doth the wicked contemn God, And think to himself, "Thou wilt not punish'?" 14Thou hast seen, even thou, the trouble and grief, Thou givest heed to requite with thine hand, To thee the unfortunate leaveth his cause; Of the orphan thou art, indeed, the helper. 15Break the arm of the evil and wicked," Let his wickedness be sought out until none can be found.▾ 16Jehovah is king forever and ever! Out of his land the heathen have vanished." 17Thou hast heard, O Jehovah, the desire of the afflicted, Prayer that Jehovah may vindi cate the right Triumph of faith Thou settest thy mind upon them, thou art attentive, 18 To give justice to the orphan and the oppressed, No more to make earth-borny man tremble. § 123. Prayer for Deliverance from Deceitful Oppressors, Ps. 12 Ps. 12 'Save, O Jehovah, for goodness is no more, For fidelity hath vanished from the sons of men; 1010 Restoring the verb suggested by the acrostic structure of the ps. and the demands of the Heb. and metre. Cf. also Ps. 3732. P1010 Following the marginal reading of the Heb. a 101 Or power. The meaning of the Heb. word is not certain. 102 The Heb. adds God; but this makes an unusually long line and appears to have been transferred through some scribal error from the next line where it completes the parallelism and metre. 1013 Lit., seek. 104 Jehovah is the one addressed. u 1015 Following the order of the Gk. and Lat. 1015 The exact translation is doubtful; possibly it should be rendered, if one seeks his wickedness, he shall not find. 1016 Lit., perished. 1017 Slightly correcting the text so as to read thy instead of their. y 1018 So Gk. Heb., from the earth. The original form of this vs. is doubtful. Some read to make earth-born man ever tremble. §123 This ps. is introduced by the superscription, For the musical director. For the bass voice. Psalm of David. The psalmist expresses the feeling of the faithful in the community who are suffering at the hands of the arrogant, deceitful leaders. His language is that of the post-exilic writers, and he is acquainted with the late passages in Is. Cf. and Is. 3310. The ps. probably comes from the dark days immediately preceding the advent of Nehemiah. The four-beat measure is used with great regularity. Also the original ps. appears to have contained four regular stanzas of four lines each. It opens with a cry for help and a lament over the prevailing insincerity, but in succeeding stanzas faith in Jehovah gains the ascendancy and, as in so many of the pss., the poet realizes that his prayer is answered. 121 Slightly correcting the pointing of the Heb. as the context demands. The lack of sin cerity O Lord, put away deceit and false hood Jehovah's quick deliver ance Faith triumphant O Lord, how long? Save me from mortal danger Assurance of God's answer "They speak empty lies each man to his neighbor, May Jehovah cut off every flattering lip, And tongue that speaks words that are boastful, 5 Because of the spoiling of the afflicted and the sighing of the poor 'I will set him in safety, I will breathe upon him.'b "The speech of Jehovah is speech that is pure. When thrust down to earth, 7thou, O Jehovah, wilt preserve him, "Even though the wicked strut about on every side, When thou arisest, then dost thou lightly esteemd the sons of men. § 124. Petition for God's Help in Affliction, Ps. 13 Ps. 13 'How long, O Jehovah, wilt thou continue to forget me? 3Regard me, answer me, O Jehovah, my God,h b125 The meaning is doubtful. It may be translated in the safety for which he longs. 128 Again the Heb. is difficult. The phrases Refined silver,-seven times purified are apparently additions by a scribe acquainted with 1830, 198-10. d128 This clause is doubtful. Gk., Thou wast very angry with. § 124 This ps. has the simple superscription, For the chief musician. Psalm of David. The tone is distinctly individual, although the psalmist also doubtless voices the painful experience of many deeply afflicted souls who, like himself, were persecuted to the point of despair by their powerful, pitiless foes. Vs. indicates that he is one of the pious who feel that Jehovah's honor would be endangered by their ultimate downfall. The ps. as a whole expresses the invincible faith of the true lovers of Jehovah, whose prayers constitute the basis of the Psalter. Its date is to be found in the discouraging years immediately before Nehemiah's advent. The ps. in its final form consists of three stanzas. The first two are in the four-beat measure and stand in antithetic relation to the third stanza in which faith proclaims its victory in the quicker, prevailingly three-beat measure. 131 Lit., ever forget me. 1132 Following a text revised as the context suggests. Heb., counsels. 8132 So Gk. and Syr. Heb. omits and night, but this addition is supported by the metrical structure of the vs. and the implications of the context. b 133 This line is the antithesis of 1b. i133 As in I Sam. 1427, 29, this idiom evidently means refresh, receive physical vigor. It is a common figure in the pss. Cf. 46, 3116. 1134 I. e., tottering to my ruin. 135 The Gk. and Lat. add, Yea, I will praise the name of the Lord Most High. GOD'S HELP IN AFFLICTION "Praises I will sing to Jehovah, Because he hath dealt liberally with me. § 125. Prayer That God Intervene for the Righteous, Ps. 17 Ps. 17 'Hearken, O Jehovah, to the right;' attend to my cry; Listen to my prayer from lips that are free from guile. 2Let my judgment come forth from thy presence, that minem eyes may behold it. With equity" thou hast proved my heart, thou hast searched me by night, Thou hast tested me and not found me thinking evil nor my mouth uttering it,P "By the word of thy mouth I have kept myself from the way of the violent; "My steps follow close in thy tracks, my footsteps slip not. "I call upon thee, O God, for thou wilt answer me. "Reveal thy marvellous kindness, thou helper of those seeking refuge, Protes tation of inno cence Prayer for divine deliver ance and protec tion 10 They shut themselves up in their own fat, with their mouth they speak Treachinsolently, 11They advance in hostile array" against me, now they surround me, They take aim with their eyes in order to strike me to earth;" 12They come suddenly upon me" as a lion, they are greedy for prey, They are like a young lion lurking in ambush. x 13 Arise, O Jehovah, confront them, cast them down, O deliver my life with thy sword from the power of the wicked, 14 May they be slain by thy hand, slain for eternity, 125 The author of this ps. was a protagonist of the pious. His assailants are the same class who figure in the immediately preceding pss. Like those pss., 17 is from the middle of the Persian period. It presents, however, a high ideal of piety and emphasizes purity of heart and utterance rather than ceremonial piety. 1171 Lit., righteousness, possibly it stands for righteous man. m 172 So Gk. Heb., thine. 172 The Heb. joins this word to the preceding line, but the parallelism and the metre favor the above division. o 173 I. e., as in a furnace. P17 Slightly correcting the Heb. 17 Here again the text is corrupt and the reconstruction is doubtful. The clause as to the deeds of men, at the beginning, has no connection with the context. 177 Lit., make wonderful. 178 Cf. Dt. 3210, Lam. 218 1710 Especially the midriff. The meaning is that they are irresponsive to all feelings of pity. u 1711 Correcting the evidently corrupt Heb. according to suggestions furnished by the VSS. and supported by the context. The vs. is difficult and doubtful. 1711 Lit., they put their eyes to stretch out in the earth. 1712 Following the Gk. The Heb. is clearly corrupt. The above translation is also strongly supported by the context. Another possible rendering of the Heb. is they are like. 1713 Heb. has sing. throughout this vs. 1713 Heb., from the wicked. the ery of wicked May they be punished Let their portion be during life, and fill them with what thou hast stored up for them," May their sons be sated, and may they leave the residue to their offspring. 15But I, in my righteousness, shall behold thy face, I shall be satisfied when I awake beholding thy form. § 126. The Cry of the Supreme Sufferer, Ps. 221-26 Ps. 22 'My God, why hast thou forsaken me? 2By day I call, but thou answerest not, "Yet thou, O my God, art the Holy One, They trusted, and thou didst deliver them; In thee they trusted and were not ashamed. "But I indeed am a worm and no man,' Reproached by men" and despised by the people. #1714 Lit., their belly. 1714 I. e., of judgment. b 1715 With RV supplying the verb beholding. Possibly this last vs. is a later addition. § 126 Ps. 22 is one of the most quoted pss. of the Psalter. It also quotes largely from earlier O.T. writings. Cobb, in Bk. of Pss., pp. 59-61, has indicated in parallel columns this close relationship. The majority of the quotations in the ps. are from Jer., Ezek., Lam., Job, and espe cially II Is. Here the servant of Jehovah speaks, as in Is. 42-53. He is, however, not the idealized servant but the exiled race, the worm, reproached by men and despised by the people, 6, of Is. 41, 497, and 533. Here the feelings of the Jewish race are laid bare in its hour of mortal anguish. Its memories, its doubts, its pains, and its hopes are set forth with a frankness and dramatic power that have arrested the attention of generations of readers. As in Is. 53, the portrait is individual and the woes of the sufferer are portrayed in superlative colors. Cf. 12-18. But the experiences here reflected are too varied to fit any one individual. Rather they picture collectively the woes that came to the community and especially to the faithful. The date and background of the ps. are clearly the same as in Is. 40-55 and the poem of Job. It is the period of bitter persecution that followed the rebuilding of the second temple (516 B.C.) and the disappointment of the popular hopes of attaining independence under Zerubbabel. Heathen neighbors attacked the helpless Judean community, while within the cruel, rapacious leaders preyed upon those who remained faithful to Jehovah, seizing their lands, forcing their children into slavery, cf. Neh. 5, and taunting them because of their piety. The original prayer apparently ended with the petition in 20, 21 for divine deliverance. To this is appended a doxology, 22-28, in which the sufferer declares that his prayer has been answered. This appendix was evidently written in the light of the deliverance wrought by Nehemiah in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and in correcting the social evils. A second appendix, in the five-beat measure, 27-31, proclaims Jehovah's universal rule and voices the hope that the time was coming when all nations would worship him. This was probably suggested by Is. 5213-5312 and added in the Gk. period. These appendices indicate how deep was the impression that the original ps. made upon later readers. It is not strange that the early Christian writers, searching the Scriptures for references to the work of Jesus, regarded this ps. as a detailed prediction of his shame and sufferings on the cross. 221 This line is quoted in Mt. 274, Mk. 153, The repetition of my God in the Heb. is probably due to a later scribe. d221 Heb., words of my roaring (in anguish). The metre, the context, and the allusion in 24 favor the shorter text followed above. The meaning appears to be that there is no sign of approaching deliverance in response to his cries of pain. Duhm (Psalmen, 48), by a radical revision of the text, secures a more harmonious reading: Thou remainest afar, O my help, the object of my cry, my God. 22 Transposing my God from the beginning of 2 to 3 where the metre and context require it. 1226 Cf. Is. 414, 533, 497. 228 Lit., a reproach of mankind. CRY OF THE SUPREME SUFFERER "Whoever seeth me derideth me, They sneer as they toss the head: "Yet it was thou who took me from the womb, Thou art my God from my mother's womb. 12 Many bulls encircle me about, Yea, all of my bones are out of joint, 15 My palate" is dried up like a potsherd, 15cIn the dust of death thou dost lay me. A gang of evil-doers enclose me; Yet care has been from the first The prey of malicious foes 17b They stare, they gloat over me; 18They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots among themselves. 227 Lit., separate with the lip. If the text is correct it refers to the curling lip of scorn. 1228 Lit., he rolled, i. e., his cares. So Gk, and Lat. and a different vocalization of the Heb. This is strongly supported by the context. 12210 Lit., womb. The reference in 9. 10 is probably to the Semitic custom by which at birth the father acknowledged and preserved the life of the child by taking it on his knee. 2211 Dividing this vs. as the balanced parallelism and the regular metre demand. 12212 The Heb. verb conveys the idea of waiting expectantly. m 2214 Lit., inwards. 2215 Correcting a scribal error in the Heb. as the context demands. • 2217 Transferring this line as the context and poetic structure of the passage demand. P2216 Cf. Is. 5610 for the same contemptuous designation of the vicious Jewish rulers. 42216 Or mar. Gk. and current translation, dig through, pierce. The meaning of the Heb. verb is doubtful. Aquila and Sym. favor the reading bind or fetter, which better suits the context. 2220 Lit., my only one. Cf. 21 and 3516. I. e., my life. 22 The present Heb. text reads thou hast answered me; but the Gk., Sym., and Lat. suggest that this is a scribal error for the very similar Heb., my affliction. |