sight, 1Sa 3:2; 1Sa 4:15; 1Ki 14:4). The interpretation adopted by Hupfeld and Hitzig: I am not able to survey, viz., their number, puts into the expression more than it really expresses in the common usage of the language. His heart, i.e., the power of vital consistence, has forsaken him he is disconcerted, dejected, as it were driven to despair (Psa 38:11). This feeling of the misery of sin is not opposed to the date of the Psalm being assigned to the time of Saul, vid., on Psa 31:11.
Verses 14-16
In the midst of such sufferings, which, the longer they last, discover him all the more to himself as a sinner, he prays for speedy help. The cry for help in Psa 40:14 turns with רצה towards the will of God; for this is the root of all things. As to the rest, it resembles Psa 22:20 (38:23). The persecuted one wishes that the purpose of his deadly foes may as it were rebound against the protection of God and miserably miscarry. לספּותהּ, ad abripiendam eam (with Dagesh in the פ according to Ges. §45, 2, Ew. §245, a, and not as Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 1235, states, aspirated),[1] is added to מבקשׁי נפשׁי by way of explanation and definiteness. ישׁמּוּ, from שׁמם, to become torpid, here used of outward and inward paralysis, which is the result of overpowering and as it were bewitching surprise or fright, and is called by the Arabs ro‛b or ra‛b (paralysis through terror) cf. Job, note at Psa 18:12. An על following upon ישׁמּוּ looks at first sight as though it introduced the object and reason of this fright; it is therefore not: as a reward, in consequence of their infamy, which would not be על־עקב, but merely the accusative עקב (Isa 5:23, Arabic ‛qîba), it is rather: on account of the reward (Psa 19:12) of their disgrace (cf. as belonging to the same period, Psa 109:29; Psa 35:26), i.e., of the reward which consists in their being put to shame (Hitzig). לי as in Psa 3:3; Psa 41:6 : with reference to me. האח האח (Aquila, ἀὰ ἀὰ, αὐτῇ συγχρησάμενος,
- ↑ After ל the aspirate usually disappears, as here and in Psa 118:13; but there are exceptions, as לנתושׁ ולנתוץ, Jer 1:10, and frequently, לשׁדוד, ib. Psa 57:4. After ב and כ it usually remains, as in Psa 87:6, Job 4:13; Job 33:15; 2Sa 3:34; 1Ki 1:21; Ecc 5:10; but again there are exceptions, as בּשׁכּן, Gen 35:22, בּזכּר, Jer 17:2. In Gen 23:2 it is pointed לבכּתהּ according to the rule, and in my Comment. S. 423 it is to be read “with a Dagesh.”
