In prose we should have a relative antecedent clause instead, viz., qui (quisquis)talis est qui Dominum vereatur.[1]
The attributive יבהר, (viam)quam eligat (cf. Isa 48:17), might also be referred to God: in which He takes delight (lxx); but parallels like Psa 119:30, Psa 119:173, favour the rendering: which he should choose. Among all the blessings which fall to the lot of him who fears God, the first place is given to this, that God raises him above the vacillation and hesitancy of human opinion.
Verse 13
The verb לין (לוּן), probably equivalent to ליל (from ליל) signifies to tarry the night, to lodge. Good, i.e., inward and outward prosperity, is like the place where such an one turns in and finds shelter and protection. And in his posterity will be fulfilled what was promised to the patriarchs and to the people delivered from Egypt, viz., possession of the land, or as this promise runs in the New Testament, of the earth, Mat 5:5 (cf. Psa 37:11), Rev 5:10.
Verse 14
The lxx renders סוד, κραταίωμα, as though it were equivalent to יסוד. The reciprocal נוסד, Psa 2:2 (which see), leads one to the right primary signification. Starting from the primary meaning of the root סד, “to be or to make tight, firm, compressed,” סוד signifies a being closely pressed together for the purpose of secret communication and converse, confidential communion or being together, Psa 89:8; Psa 111:1 (Symm. ὁμιλία), then the confidential communication itself, Psa 55:15, a secret (Aquila ἀπόῤῥητον, Theod. μυστήριον). So here: He opens his mind without any reserve, speaks confidentially with those who fear Him; cf. the derivative passage Pro 3:32, and an example of the thing itself in Gen 18:17. In Psa 25:14 the infinitive with ל, according to Ges. §132, rem. 1, as in Isa 38:20, is an expression for the fut. periphrast.: faedus suum notum facturus est iis; the position of the words is like Dan 2:16, Dan 2:18; Dan 4:15. הודיע is used of the imparting of not merely intellectual, but experimental knowledge. Hitzig renders it differently, viz.,
- ↑ The verb ver-eri, which signifies “to guard one's self, defend one's self from anything” according to its radical notion, has nothing to do with ירא (ורא).
