Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/393

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not the Temple. In the Jewish ritual, Psa 30:1-12 is certainly, as is even stated in the Tractate Sofrim xviii. §2, the Psalm for the feast of Chanucca, or Dedication, which refers to 1 Macc. 4:52ff.

Verses 1-3

Psa 30:1-3 (Hebrew_Bible_30:2-4) The Psalm begins like a hymn. The Piel דּלּה (from דּלה, Arab. dlâ, to hold anything long, loose and pendulous, whether upwards or downwards, conj. V Arab. tdllâ =, to dangle) signifies to lift or draw up, like a bucket (דּלי, Greek ἀντλίον, Latin tollo, tolleno in Festus). The poet himself says what that depth is into which he had sunk and out of which God had drawn him up without his enemies rejoicing over him (לי as in Psa 25:2), i.e., without allowing them the wished for joy at his destruction: he was brought down almost into Hades in consequence of some fatal sickness. חיּה (never: to call into being out of nothing) always means to restore to life that which has apparently or really succumbed to death, or to preserve anything living in life. With this is easily and satisfactorily joined the Kerî מיּרדי בור (without Makkeph in the correct text), ita ut non descenderem; the infinitive of ירד in this instance following the analogy of the strong verb is ירד, like יבשׁ, ישׁון, and with suffix jordi (like josdi, Job 38:4) or jaaredi, for here it is to be read thus, and not jordi (vid., on Psa 16:1; Psa 86:2).[1]
The Chethîb מיורדי might also be the infinitive, written with Cholem plenum, as an infinitive Gen 32:20, and an imperative Num 23:8, is each pointed with Cholem instead of Kamtez chatuph; but it is probably intended to be read as a participle, מיּורדי: Thou hast revived me from those who sink away into the grave (Psa 28:1), or out of the state of such (cf. Psa 22:22) - a perfectly admissible and pregnant construction.

Verses 4-5

Psa 30:4-5 (Hebrew_Bible_30:5-6) Psa 30:4 call upon all the pious to praise this God, who after a short season of anger is at once and henceforth gracious. Instead of שׁם of Jahve, we find the expression זכר

  1. The Masora does not place the word under יו וחטפין קמציןאלין תיבותא יתירין ו (Introduction 28b), as one would expect to find it if it were to be read mijordi, and proceeds on the assumption that mijārdi is infinitive like עמדך (read ‛amādcha) Oba 1:11, not participle (Ewald, S. 533).