Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/484

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his own will. On תּמעד, followed by the subject in the plural, compare Psa 18:35; Psa 73:2 Chethîb.

Verses 32-33


The Lord as ἀνακρίνων is, as in 1Co 4:3., put in contrast with the ἀνακρίνειν of men, or of human ἡμέρᾳ. If men sit in judgment upon the righteous, yet God, the supreme Judge, does not condemn him, but acquits him (cf. on the contrary Psa 109:7). Si condemnamur a mundo, exclaimed Tertullian to his companions in persecution, absolvimur a Deo.

Verse 34


Let the eye of faith directed hopefully to Jahve go on its way, without suffering thyself to be turned aside by the persecution and condemnation of the world, then He will at length raise thee out of all trouble, and cause thee to possess (לרשׁת, ut possidas et possideas) the land, as the sole lords of which the evil-doers, now cut off, conducted themselves.

Verses 35-36

Psa 37:35-36 עריץ (after the form צדּיק) is coupled with רשׁע, must as these two words alternate in Job 15:20 : a terror-inspiring, tyrannical evil-doer; cf. besides also Job 5:3. The participle in Psa 37:35 forms a clause by itself: et se diffundens, scil. erat. The lxx and Jerome translate as though it were כארז הלבנן, “like the cedars of Lebanon,” instead of כאזרח רענן. But אזרח רענן is the expression for an oak, terebinth, or the like, that has brown from time immemorial in its native soil, and has in the course of centuries attained a gigantic size in the stem, and a wide-spreading overhanging head. ויּעבר does not mean: then he vanished away (Hupfeld and others); for עבר in this sense is not suitable to a tree. Luther correctly renders it: man ging vorüber, one (they) passed by, Ges. §137, 3. The lxx, Syriac, and others, by way of lightening the difficulty, render it: then I passed by.

Verses 37-38

Psa 37:37-38 תּם might even be taken as neuter for תּם, and ישׂר for ישׁר; but in this case the poet would have written רעה instead of ראה; שׁמר is therefore used as, e.g., in 1Sa 1:12. By כּי that to which attention is specially called is introduced. The man of peace has a totally different lot from the evil-doer who delights in contention and persecution. As the fruit of his love of peace he has אחרית, a future, Pro 23:18; Pro 24:14, viz., in his posterity, Pro 24:20; whereas the apostates are altogether blotted out; not merely they themselves, but even the posterity of the ungodly is cut off, Amo 4:2; [[Bible_(King_James)/Amos|Amo 9: