Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/1075

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Lev 26:39]], retained in Eze 24:23; Eze 33:10, which is no blunder (Hitzig), but a deliberate change.

Verses 44-46


The poet's range of vision here widens from the time of the judges to the history of the whole of the succeeding age down to the present; for the whole history of Israel has essentially the same fundamental character, viz., that Israel's unfaithfulness does not annul God's faithfulness. That verifies itself even now. That which Solomon in 1Ki 8:50 prays for on behalf of his people when they may be betrayed into the hands of the enemy, has been fulfilled in the case of the dispersion of Israel in all countries (Psa 107:3), Babylonia, Egypt, etc.: God has turned the hearts of their oppressors towards them. On ראה ב, to regard compassionately, cf. Gen 29:32; 1Sa 1:11. בּצּר לחם belong together, as in Psa 107:6, and frequently. רנּה is a cry of lamentation, as in 1Ki 8:28 in Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple. From this source comes Psa 106:6, and also from this source Psa 106:46, cf. 1Ki 8:50 together with Neh 1:11. In ויּנּחם the drawing back of the tone does not take place, as in Gen 24:67. חסדו beside כּרב is not pointed by the Kerî חסדּו, as in Psa 5:8; Psa 69:14, but as in Lam 3:32, according to Psa 106:7, Isa 63:7, חסדו: in accordance with the fulness (riches) of His manifold mercy or loving-kindness. The expression in Psa 106:46 is like Gen 43:14. Although the condition of the poet's fellow-countrymen in the dispersion may have been tolerable in itself, yet this involuntary scattering of the members of the nation is always a state of punishment. The poet prays in Psa 106:47 that God may be pleased to put an end to this.

Verse 47


He has now reached the goal, to which his whole Psalm struggles forth, by the way of self-accusation and the praise of the faithfulness of God. השׁתּבּח (found only here) is the reflexive of the Piel, to account happy, Ecc 4:2, therefore: in order that we may esteem ourselves happy to be able to praise Thee. In this reflexive (and also passive) sense השׁתבח is customary in Aramaic and post-biblical Hebrew.

Verse 48


The closing doxology of the Fourth Book. The chronicler has ואמרוּ before Psa 106:47 (which with him differs only very slightly), an indispensable rivet, so to speak, in the fitting together of Psa 106:1 (Psa 107:1) and Psa 106:47. The means this historian, who joins passages together like mosaic-work, calls