one, insofar as the braggart becomes a flatterer when it serves his own selfish interest. אשׁר refers to lips and tongue, which are put for their possessors. The Hiph. הגבּיר may mean either to impart strength, or to give proof of strength. The combination with ל, not בּ, favours the former: we will give emphasis to our tongue (this is their self-confident declaration). Hupfeld renders it, contrary to the meaning of the Hiph.: over our tongue we have power, and Ewald and Olshausen, on the ground of an erroneous interpretation of Dan 9:27, render: we make or have a firm covenant with our tongue. They describe their lips as being their confederates (את as in 2Ki 9:32), and by the expression “who is lord over us” they declare themselves to be absolutely free, and exalted above all authority. If any authority were to assert itself over them, their mouth would put it down and their tongue would thrash it into submission. But Jahve, whom this making of themselves into gods challenges, will not always suffer His own people to be thus enslaved.
Verses 5-6
Psa 12:5-6 (Heb.: 12:6-7) In Psa 12:6 the psalmist hears Jahve Himself speak; and in Psa 12:7 he adds his Amen. The two מן in Psa 12:6 denote the motive, עתּה the decisive turning-point from forebearance to the execution of judgment, and ימר the divine determination, which has just now made itself audible; cf. Isaiah's echo of it, Isa 33:10. Jahve has hitherto looked on with seeming inactivity and indifference, now He will arise and place in ישׁע, i.e., a condition of safety (cf. שׂים בּחיּים Psa 66:9), him who languishes for deliverance. It is not to be explained: him whom he, i.e., the boaster, blows upon, which would be expressed by יפיח בּו, cf. Psa 10:5; but, with Ewald, Hengstenberg, Olshausen, and Böttcher, according to Hab 2:3, where הפיח ל occurs in the sense of panting after an object: him who longs for it. יפיח is, however, not a participial adjective = יפח, but the fut., and יפיח לו is therefore a relative clause occupying the place of the object, just as we find the same thing occurring in Job 24:19; Isa 41:2, Isa 41:25, and frequently. Hupfeld's rendering: “in order that he may gain breath (respiret)” leaves אשׁית without an object, and accords more with Aramaic and Arabic than with
