XCIV.-2. ye dullards among the people, be observant! He who stretched forth the ear, can he not hear? Happy the man whom thou disciplinest, O Yahwè! To be quiet before evil-doers, Until the pit be dug for the ungodly. For Yahwe will not abandon his people, 8 9 ΙΟ 12 13 14 He will not forsake his inheritance ; For the righteous will yet trample on the Zarephathites, 15 Unless Yahwe had been my help, 17 I should have become a dweller in the Gloomy Land. If I say, 'My foot wavers,' 18 Thy lovingkindness, O Yahwè! holds me up. 19 Let Yahwe be to me a sure retreat, 1 Yahwe will make the clans of Edom to know that they are but vanity (v. 11). 2 Yahwè our God will extirpate them. seeing; is it possible that he himself is 7-10. It is doubted whether the 'man' (7) spoken of is the pious Israelite in general or the Israelite community. Probably Smend is right (ZATW, 1888, p. 128) in taking the latter view, cp. Lam. iii. 1, N 7, where the community speaks, and note that the person who says, 'If I say, My foot wavers,' &c. (l. 17 f.), is clearly one who has learned Yahwè's lovingkindness to Israel from his law. This precious volume is in fact the ordinary channel of the divine discipline or admonition (01). The legal and prophetic Tora both inculcate the doctrine that sooner or later punish. ment will overtake the wicked, who will fall into the very 'pit' which he made for others. 16. The Gloomy Land, i.e. Sheol (as cxv. 17). See crit. note. .see on ix) בִּגְדִים Read xciv.1. 4. M Critical Notes. xciv.). 4. M DN. Read 7 (see on ix. 6).— 7. M. Read probably Dy (see on lix. 8).-8. MEN, G Madhoovoi. Bä., 'talk together'; BDB, 'talk proudly'; Driver, 'bear themselves loftily. All very improbable. We might read ayn (lxxxviii. 21, &c.), but this would be too strong. Read probably 'deal craftily' (lxxxiii. 4, with TD).-M. Read probably T: and for וְיָתוֹם read וְגר see on xcii. 8).-II f. For) כָּל־אַלְפִי אוֹן are גר and אלמנה .Gr.). The order as in Gd) וְגָרִים read ויתוֹמִים never combined. ::T: 13. My ovvпрoσéστai σoi Opóvos àvoμías; J, numquid particeps erit tui thronus insidiarum. WF, 'has the throne of wickedness thee for an ally'; Hitz., Bä., 'can the throne of destruction ally itself to thee?' The clause itself, and each word in it, are suspicious. (1) The form cannot be satisfactorily explained; see Kön. i. 257, § 63 m; Perles, Anal. 74; (2) 77 (xci. 36) is possible, because ii. 254a; Ges.(26), is most describes No. Why did for one seated on the tribunal' is extremely awkward. (4) Verse 20, as commonly understood, does not fit into the context; nor is there any part of the psalm where it can conveniently be placed. In such circumstances we have before now found that the text disguises and distorts ethuic names. Assuming this to be the case here, two names at once suggest themselves ירחמאל or ישמעאל and כס for בְּשׁ .in v. 2oe and b respectively, viz for y. Two other ethnics are possible, and become even probable, through their juxtaposition with groups of letters more distinctly intelligible. The first word in v. 20a might come either from 17 (Gen. xiv. 3) or from. The former suits the context best. Taking the N into, ¿.e. ♫ḍND(). T We may plausibly correct .אהוות we get הוות with כסא in M's Passing on .[1]מַאֲכָת ..,,אחמת this into Thus the whole couplet (which .ירחמאל from עלי־חק unintelligible now to . 14, 73" presumably comes from, ie. (see on lxxxiii. 86), and the probably stood between v. 6 and 7. 7 till the supplementer, for editorial purposes, put it elsewhere) should probably run (cp. xcii. l. 13),— 15 f. M. Read (see on Ivi. 6).-M. Read 6 Read 17. M. The wickedness breaks out in words expressing the usual fancy of immunity from punishment (cp. x. 11, 13), which is then refuted in vv. 8 ff.' (Hupfeld). The objection is that v. 8 expressly refers not to those who 'crush' and afflict' Yahwè's people, but to a section of that very people, that v. 10 as expressly relates to God's conduct towards the nations as something which is misunderstood by the unintelligent Israelites, and that vv. 12-15 contain the assurance that Yahwe will not forsake his people, for the pit of retribution will soon be dug for the wicked. Evidently there is an error in the text; for an exact parallel see lxxiii. 11. V. 18. 18 f. , אמרתי .Cp וָאֹמַר The true reading must be . פַּעֲלֵי אָוֶן מְרֵעִים M- מִי יָקוּם עַל־עַם־ Read probably Read (xxvii. 3, Ixiv. 3), 11 (see on 7. 8). xciv.(2) 1. Read perhaps No 2 (Bi.); G σúvete dŋ. No would . נו fall out after 3. My. Read (Gr.). Cp. Isa. li. 16, where for y read ♫ (Houb.). 5. M. Du., . But a recognition of God as the universal Teacher is not to be expected here. According to 7. 7 it is the righteous Israelite whom Yahwè 'disciplines.' Read, not as We. and Roy, p. 58, for an obvious reason (see 7. 4), but . It is as the possessor of the nations, not as their former, that Yahwè punishes them. Neither in sense nor in form is this .הַמְלַמֵד אָדָם דָּעַת 1 .6 clause satisfactory. The 1 of 7. 5 are evidently the hostile nations (as lxxix. 1, lxxx. 9, &c.), but whether DT can be limited to Israel's enemies is extremely doubtful. Having regard to vv. 4, 20, we should almost certainly read DT (xc. 3). But the form of the clause still requires amendment. There is only one remedy; it is a perfectly possible one, and it also improves the sense. Read ON T by הלא ילמד Nearly so Wellh., but he weakens the case for דָּעַת retaining DTN. Now as to the gloss in v. 11. Why should any one have cared to make the trivial comment, 'Yahwè knows that the devices of man are ניוֹדִיעַ דְעַ מִשְׁפְּחוֹת אֲדֹם ,but vanity?? Sense is restored by reading . The 'devices' of the enemy are wicked; the enemy himself is vain, is a 'constructio ad sensum.' indeed is להשקיט .Very difficult .לְהַשְׁקִיט לוֹ מִימֵי רָע M .9 plain; it is the lesson which the Torah constantly teaches (cp. Isa. vii. 4, xxx. 15). But why ? and why? We should expect the line to describe the circumstances which make this lesson difficult to practice. Line 10 suggests that these circumstances are the prosperity of the wicked, for whom the 'pit' of ruin has not yet been visibly 'dug,' and and compare להש' לִפְנֵי מְרֵעִים the adversity of the righteous, Read xxxix. 2. That should become is palæographically very possible, and for the corruption we have a parallel in xlix. 6. 13 f. M is rendered by Driver, For judgment shall return unto righteousness (from which it is now divorced, vv. 20, 21)'; by WF, 'For in the end must judgment be given for righteousness'; by Duhm, 'For the rule will once more turn to the righteous' (p), i.e. to the Pharisees. But is such a forced expression in the psalmist's style? Duhm's p (so S ) is doubtless right, but much more correction is required. Read agrees with M, except that eos ou presupposes. as vii. 7, Ezek. vii. 23. G ,צ'=משפט) כי עוד צַדִּיק יָבוּס צרפתים לב M T 7, and all the upright in heart [shall go] after it' [or, as Du., ' after him'], but we need a verb to correspond to the verb in 7. 13. Wellh. suggests (cp. xxxvii. 37), but the parallelism produced is insufficient. The text must be corrupt, and לב יחדו lxxvi. 6), and אבירי לב (1 .Ixiii) ברי לבב on the analogy of וְיִכָּרְתוּ כָל־ we should most probably read ירחמאלים lxxxiii. 6) for) .ישְׁמְעאלים T If ,[צלמות both probably come from דומה and כמעט .16 why is it never,שאול silence, were one of the synonyms for, דּוּמָה found in Job?, on the other hand, is common in Job, and occurs four times in Pss. (M). 77 occurs again, it is true, in cxv. 17, apparently for W, but when one of these already corrupt passages had convinced the editor that Sheol might be designated Dumah, it was natural that he should introduce this supposed name into the other passage. In both places G has an(s), which in Job xxxviii. 17 = צלמות = .cp) צלמת... למצת comes from כמעט ; למות represents דומה error in lxxiii. 2). ', therefore, was dittographed; or rather a badly written was corrected. 19. My Ready (G S, Gr.). is usually identified with Dy (Job iv. 13, xx. 2) = (1 K. xviii. 21). Cp. Kön., ii. 1, p. 472. All very doubtful. In 1 K. read □' (Klo.; cp. Che., JQR, x. 568 f.; Jastrow, JBL, xvii. 108 ff.). The Job passages cannot be treated here. See also on cxix. 113, cxxxix. 23. 21. M7; so G; cp. Hitzig. Rather 23. M. Rather (Gr.); G drodwσei. end of psalm. .T: (Gr.). Cp. ix. 10.Omit repetition at PSALM XCV.-I. TRIMETERS. Rejoicing in the recovery of its land, to which the N. Arabian border-land has been added (cp. Obadiah), Israel invites its members to praise Yahwè. The psalm is eschatological. Ι Come, let our cries ring unto Yahwè, Let us acclaim the Rock which succours us; In whose hand are the farthest parts of the land, Whose is Jerahmeel-he made it, Ishmael-his hands formed it. I 4 5 Enter ye, let us worship, let us bow down, 6 7 is a proof of omnipotence. N. Arabia, otherwise Jerahmeel or Ishmael, is emphatically a mountainous land. Hence, in lxv. 5, 6, the mention of Mişrim and Jerahineel at once suggests a reference to mountains. II. He made us. In a special sense (as c. 3, cxlix. 2, Isa. xliii. 21, xliv. 2, Dt. xxxii. 6, 15). 1 For Yahwè is a great God, | a great king above Jerahmeel (v. 3).|| |