incontestable relation of the matter Ps 22 cannot be understood nor can we fully enter into its sentiments.
The inscription runs: To the precentor, upon (after) the hind of the morning's dawn, a Psalm of David. Luther, with reference to the fact that Jesus was taken in the night and brought before the Sanhedrim, renders it “of the hind, that is early chased,” forPatris Sapientia, Veritas divina, Deus homo captus est horâ matutinâ.
This interpretation is certainly a well-devised improvement of the ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀντιλήπσεως τῆς ἑωθινῆς of the lxx (Vulg. pro susceptione matutina), which is based upon a confounding of אילת with אילות (Psa 22:20), and is thus explained by Theodoret: ἀντίληψις ἑωθινὴ ἡ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐπιφάνεια. Even the Midrash recalls Sol 2:8, and the Targum the lamb of the morning sacrifice, which was offered as soon as the watchman on the pinnacle of the Temple cried: ברק ברקאי (the first rays of the morning burst forth). איּלת השּׁחר is in fact, according to traditional definition, the early light preceding the dawn of the morning, whose first rays are likened to the horns of a hind.[1]
But natural as it may be to assign to the inscription a symbolical meaning in the case of this Psalm, it certainly forms no exception to the technical meaning, in connection with the music, of the other inscriptions. And Melissus (1572) has explained it correctly “concerning the melody of a common song, whose commencement was Ajéleth Hasháhar, that is, The hind of the morning's dawn.” And it may be that the choice of the melody bearing this name was designed to have reference to the glory which bursts forth in the night of affliction.
Verses 1-2
According to the course of the thoughts the Psalm falls into three divisions, Psa 22:2, Psa 22:13, Psa 22:23, which are
- ↑ There is a determination of the time to this effect, which is found both in the Jerusalem and in the Babylonian Talmud “from the hind of the morning's dawn till the east is lighted up.” In Jer. Berachoth, ad init., it is explained: ומנהרין לעלמא אילת השחר כמין תרתי קרני דנהורא סלקין ממדינחא, “like two horns of light, rising from the east and filling the world with light.”
