Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/667

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4]]) the Hithpal. can also be used of a loud outcry at violence.

Verses 9-12


The third strophe reverts to prayer; but the prayer now breathes more freely with a self-conscious courage for the strife. The fortified city (עיר מצור) is not Rabbath Ammon; but, as becomes evident from the parallel member of the verse and 2Ki 14:7, the Idumaean chief city of Sela' (סלע) or Petra (vid., Knobel on Gen 36:42, cf. Psa 31:22; 2Ch 8:5; 2Ch 11:5 together with Psa 14:5). The wish: who will conduct me = Oh that one would conduct me (Ges. §136, 1)! expresses a martial desire, joyful at the prospect of victory; concerning מי נחני, quis perduxerit me, vid., on Psa 11:3. What follows is not now to be rendered: Not Thou (who but Thou), Elohim, who...(Hitzig) - for in order to have been understood thus and not as in Psa 60:3, Psa 44:10, the poet could not have omitted אשׁר - on the contrary, the interrogatory הלא is the foundation on which the supplicatory הבה is raised. The king of Israel is hard pressed in the battle, but he knows that victory comes from above, from the God who has hitherto in anger refused it to His people, inasmuch as He has given power to Edom to break through the defensive forces of Israel (vid., Psa 44:10). עזרת (not עזרת = עזרה) is, as in Psa 108:13, equivalent to עזרתה. The view that it is equal to עזרתי, the suffix being cast away, is not confirmed in this instance, vid., on Psa 16:6, cf. Psa 3:3. How vain is human succour, has been seen only very recently in the case of the kings of Zobah and Ammon, who have succumbed in spite of their confederates. Israel prays for its victorious power from above, and also obtains it thence, as is most confidently expressed in v. 14. עשׂה חיל, to do valiantly, to show valour, is equivalent to: to be victorious, as in Psa 118:16. In God does Israel conquer, and God, who is in Israel, will by means of Israel tread down Edom in accordance with its deserts. Prayer and Thanksgiving of an Expelled King on His Way Back to the Throne