16-23) Become utterly useless in himself, he renounces all self-help, for (כּי) he hopes in Jahve, who alone can help him. He waits for His answer, for (כי) he says, etc. - he waits for an answer, for the hearing of this his petition which is directed towards the glory of God, that God would not suffer his foes to triumph over him, nor strengthen them in their mercilessness and injustice. Psa 38:18 appears also to stand under the government of the פּן;[1] but, since in this case one would look for a Waw relat. and a different order of the words, Psa 38:18 is to be regarded as a subject clause: “who, when my foot totters, i.e., when my affliction changes to entire downfall, would magnify themselves against me.” In Psa 38:18, כּי connects what follows with בּמוט רגלי by way of confirmation: he is נכון לצלע, ready for falling (Psa 35:15), he will, if God does not graciously interpose, assuredly fall headlong. The fourth כּי in Psa 38:19 is attached confirmatorily to Psa 38:18: his intense pain or sorrow is ever present to him, for he is obliged to confess his guilt, and this feeling of guilt is just the very sting of his pain. And whilst he in the consciousness of well-deserved punishment is sick unto death, his foes are numerous and withal vigorous and full of life. Instead of חיּים, probably חנּם, as in Psa 35:19; Psa 69:5, is to be read (Houbigant, Hitzig, Köster, Hupfeld, Ewald, and Olshausen). But even the lxx read חיים; and the reading which is so old, although it does not very well suit עצמוּ (instead of which one would look for ועצוּמים), is still not without meaning: he looks upon himself, according to Psa 38:9, more as one dead than living; his foes, however, are חיּים, living, i.e., vigorous. The verb frequently ash this pregnant meaning, and the adjective can also have
- ↑ The following are the constructions of פן when a clause of ore than one member follows it: (1) fut. and perf., the latter with the tone of the perf. consec., e.g., Exo 34:15., or without it, e.g., Psa 28:1 (which see); (2) fut. and fut. as in Psa 2:12, Jer 51:46. This construction is indispensable where it is intended to give special prominence to the subject notion or a secondary notion of the clause, e.g., Deu 20:6. In one instance פן is even followed (3) by the perf. and fut. consec., viz., 2Ki 2:10.
