lifting up of his hands (משׂאת, the construct with the reduplication given up, from משּׂאת, or even, after the form מתּנת, from משּׂאה, here not oblatio, but according to the phrase נשׂא כפּים ידים, elevatio, Jdg 20:38, Jdg 20:40, cf. Psa 28:2, and frequently) as an evening mincha, just as it was added to the evening tamı̂d according to Exo 29:38-42, and concluded the work of the service of the day.[1]
Verses 3-4
The prayer now begins to be particularized, and that in the first instance as a petition fore the grace of silence, calling to mind old Davidic passages like Psa 39:2; Psa 34:14. The situation of David, the betrayed one, requires caution in speaking; and the consciousness of having sinned, not indeed against the rebels, but against God, who would not visit him thus without his deserving it, stood in the way of any outspoken self-vindication. In pone custodiam ori meo שׁמרה is ἅπ. λεγ., after the infinitive form דּבקה, עזבה, עצמה. In Psa 141:3 דּל is ἅπ. λεγ. for דּלת; cf. “doors of the mouth” in Mic 7:5, and πύλαι στόματος in Euripides. נצּרה might be imper. Kal: keep I pray, with Dag. dirimens as in Pro 4:13. But נצר על is not in use; and also as the parallel word to שׁמרה, which likewise has the appearance of being imperative, נצּרה is explicable as regards its pointing by a comparison of יקּהה in Gen 49:10, דּבּרה in Deu 33:3, and קרבה in Psa 73:28. The prayer for the grace of silence is followed in Psa 141:4 by a prayer for the breaking off of all fellowship with the existing rulers. By a flight of irony they are called אישׁים, lords, in the sense of בּני אישׁ, Psa 4:3 (cf. the Spanish hidalgos = hijos d'algo, sons of somebody). The evil thing (רע | דּבר, with Pasek between the two ר, as in Num 7:13; Deu 7:1 between the two מ, and in 1Ch 22:3 between the two )ל, to which Jahve may be pleased never to incline his heart (תּט, fut. apoc. Hiph. as in Psa 27:9), is forthwith more particularly designated: perpetrare facinora
- ↑ The reason of it is this, that the evening mincha is oftener mentioned than the morning mincha (see, however, 2Ki 3:20). The whole burnt-offering of the morning and the meat-offering of the evening (2Ki 16:15; 1Ki 18:29, 1Ki 18:36) are the beginning and close of the daily principal service; whence, according to the example of the usus loquendi in Dan 9:21; Ezr 9:4., later on mincha directly signifies the afternoon or evening.
