Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/545

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most pleasing things, which, as שׁיר ידידת says, form the contents of the song. שׁיר ידידת does not signify a marriage-song; this would be called שׁיר חתנּה (cf. Psa 30:1). Nor does it signify a secular erotic song, instead of which the expression שׁיר עגבים, שׁיר דּודים, would have been used. ידיד is a noble word, and used of holy love.

Psalm 45


Verses 1-2

Psa 45:1-2 (Hebrew_Bible_45:2-3) The verb רחשׁ, as מרחשׁת shows, signifies originally to bubble up, boil, and is used in the dialects generally of excited motion and lively excitement; it is construed with the accusative after the manner of verbs denoting fulness, like the synonymous נבע, Psa 119:171 (cf. Talmudic לשׁונך תרחישׁ רננות, let thy tongue overflow with songs of praise). Whatever the heart is full of, with that the mouth overflows; the heart of the poet gushes over with a “good word.” דּבר is a matter that finds utterance and is put into the form of words; and טּוב describes it as good with the collateral idea of that which is cheerful, pleasing, and rich in promise (Isa 52:7; Zec 1:13). The fact that out of the fulness and oppression of his heart so good a word springs forth, arises from the subject in which now his whole powers of mind are absorbed: I am saying or thinking (אני pausal form by Dechî, in order that the introductory formula may not be mistaken), i.e., my purpose is: מעשׁי למלך, my works or creations (not sing., but plur., just as also מקני in Exo 17:3; Num 20:19, where the connection leads one to expect the plural) shall be dedicated to the king; or even: the thought completely fills me, quite carries me away, that they concern or have reference to the king. In the former case למלך dispenses with the article because it is used after the manner of a proper name (as in Psa 21:2; Psa 72:1); in the latter, because the person retires before the office of dignity belonging to it: and this we, in common with Hitzig, prefer on account of the self-conscious and reflecting אמר אני by which it is introduced. He says to himself that it is a king to whom his song refers; and this lofty theme makes his tongue so eloquent and fluent that it is like the style of a γραμματεὺς ὀξύγραφος. Thus it is correctly rendered by the lxx; whereas סופר מהיר as an epithet applied to Ezra (Ezr 7:6) does not denote a rapid writer, but a learned or skilled scribe.