elegant style of expression (= מעוזי מעוז חיל), like Psa 71:7; Lev 6:3; Lev 26:42; vid., Nägelsbach §63, g, where it is correctly shown, that this mode of expression is a matter of necessity in certain instances.[1]
The form of writing, מעוּזי, seems here to recognise a מעוז, a hiding-place, refuge, = Arab. m‛âd, which is different from מעז a fortress (from עזז); but just as in every other case the punctuation confuses the two substantives (vid., on Psa 31:3), so it does even here, since מעוז, from עוּז, ought to be inflected מעוּזי, like מנוּסי, and not מעוּזי. Nevertheless the plena scriptio may avail to indicate to us, that here מעוז is intended to by a synonym of מחסה. Instead of (תמים דרכי) ויּתּן we have ויּתּר here; perhaps it is He let, or caused, my way to be spotless, i.e., made it such. Thus Ewald renders it by referring to the modern Arabic hllâ, to let, cause Germ. lassen, French faire = to make, effect; even the classic ancient Arabic language uses trk (Lassen) in the sense of j'l (to make), e.g., “I have made (Arab. taraktu) the sword my camp-companion,” i.e., my inseparable attendant (lit., I have caused it to be such), as it is to be translated in Nöldeck'e Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber, S. 131.[2]
Or does התּיר retain its full and
- ↑ In the present instance מעוז חילי, like מחסה עזּי in Psa 71:7 (cf. Eze 16:27; Eze 18:7, and perhaps Hab 3:8) would not be inadmissible, although in the other mode of expression greater prominence is given to the fact of its being provided and granted by God. But in cases like the following it would be absolutely inadmissible to append the suffix to the nom. rectum, viz., שׂואי שׁקר, Psa 38:20; בּריתי יעקב my covenant with Jacob, Lev 26:42; מדּו בד his garment of linen, Lev 6:3; כּתבם המּתיחשׂים their ancestral register, Ezr 2:62; and it is probable that this transference of the pronominal suffix to the nom. regens originated in instances like these, where it was a logical necessary and then became transferred to the syntax ornata. At the same time it is clear from this, that in cases like שׂנאי שׁקר, and consequently also שׂנאי חנּם, the second notion is not conceived as an accusative of more precise definition, but as a governed genitive.
- ↑ Ibid. S. 133, Z. 13 is, with Fleischer, to be rendered: ye have made (Arab. trktm) my milk camels restless, i.e., caused them to be such, by having stolen them and driven them away so that they now yearn after home and their young ones.
