6 The Lord gives decisions in righteousness for all who are in trouble.
In you they have had no respect for father and mother; in you they have been cruel to the man from a strange land; in you they have done wrong to the child without a father and to the widow.
Who gives their rights to those who are crushed down; and gives food to those who are in need of it: the Lord makes the prisoners free;
Do not be hard on a servant who is poor and in need, if he is one of your countrymen or a man from another nation living with you in your land. Give him his payment day by day, not keeping it back over night; for he is poor and his living is dependent on it; and if his cry against you comes to the ears of the Lord, it will be judged as sin in you.
Is not this the holy day for which I have given orders: to let loose those who have wrongly been made prisoners, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the crushed go free, and every yoke be broken? Is it not to give your bread to those in need, and to let the poor who have no resting-place come into your house? to put a robe on the unclothed one when you see him, and not to keep your eyes shut for fear of seeing his flesh?
Come now, you men of wealth, give yourselves to weeping and crying because of the bitter troubles which are coming to you. Your wealth is unclean and insects have made holes in your clothing. Your gold and your silver are wasted and their waste will be a witness against you, burning into your flesh. You have put by your store in the last days. See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies. You have been living delicately on earth and have taken your pleasure; you have made your hearts fat for a day of destruction. You have given your decision against the upright man and have put him to death. He puts up no fight against you.
But you have put the poor man to shame. Are not the men of wealth rulers over you? do they not take you by force before their judges?
You who are haters of good and lovers of evil, pulling off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones; Like meat they take the flesh of my people for their food, skinning them and crushing their bones, yes, cutting them up as if for the pot, like flesh inside the cooking-pot. Then they will be crying to the Lord for help, but he will not give them an answer: yes, he will keep his face veiled from them at that time, because their acts have been evil.
A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power. They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his family, even to a man and his heritage. For this cause the Lord has said, See, against this family I am purposing an evil from which you will not be able to take your necks away, and you will be weighted down by it; for it is an evil time.
In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood; you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me in mind, says the Lord. See, then, I have made my hands come together in wrath against your taking of goods by force and against the blood which has been flowing in you. Will your heart be high or your hands strong in the days when I take you in hand? I the Lord have said it and will do it.
If you are not cruel to the man from a strange country, and to the child without a father, and to the widow, and do not put the upright to death in this place, or go after other gods, causing damage to yourselves: Then I will let you go on living in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers in the past and for ever. See, you put your faith in false words which are of no profit. Will you take the goods of others, put men to death, and be untrue to your wives, and take false oaths, and have perfumes burned to the Baal, and go after other gods which are strange to you; And come and take your place before me in this house, which is named by my name, and say, We have been made safe; so that you may do all these disgusting things? Has this house, which is named by my name, become a hole of thieves to you? Truly I, even I, have seen it, says the Lord. But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I put my name at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil-doing of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I sent my word to you, getting up early and sending, but you did not give ear; and my voice came to you, but you gave no answer: For this reason I will do to the house which is named by my name, and in which you have put your faith, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will send you away from before my face, as I have sent away all your brothers, even all the seed of Ephraim.
This is the punishment of the evil-doer from God, and the heritage given to the cruel by the Ruler of all. If his children are increased, it is for the sword; and his offspring have not enough bread. When those of his house who are still living come to their end by disease, they are not put into the earth, and their widows are not weeping for them. Though he may get silver together like dust, and make ready great stores of clothing; He may get them ready, but the upright will put them on, and he who is free from sin will take the silver for a heritage. His house has no more strength than a spider's thread, or a watchman's tent. He goes to rest full of wealth, but does so for the last time: on opening his eyes, he sees it there no longer. Fears overtake him like rushing waters; in the night the storm-wind takes him away. The east wind takes him up and he is gone; he is forced violently out of his place. God sends his arrows against him without mercy; he goes in flight before his hand. Men make signs of joy because of him, driving him from his place with sounds of hissing.
That you will take up this bitter song against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the cruel overseer come to an end! He who was lifted up in pride is cut off; The stick of the evil-doers, the rod of the rulers, is broken by the Lord; He whose rod was on the peoples with an unending wrath, ruling the nations in passion, with an uncontrolled rule. All the earth is at rest and is quiet: they are bursting into song. Even the trees of the wood are glad over you, the trees of Lebanon, saying, From the time of your fall no wood-cutter has come up against us with an axe. The underworld is moved at your coming: the shades of the dead are awake before you, even the strong ones of the earth; all the kings of the world have got up from their seats. They all make answer and say to you, Have you become feeble like us? have you been made even as we are? Your pride has gone down into the underworld, and the noise of your instruments of music; the worms are under you, and your body is covered with them. How great is your fall from heaven, O shining one, son of the morning! How are you cut down to the earth, low among the dead bodies! For you said in your heart, I will go up to heaven, I will make my seat higher than the stars of God; I will take my place on the mountain of the meeting-place of the gods, in the inmost parts of the north. I will go higher than the clouds; I will be like the Most High. But you will come down to the underworld, even to its inmost parts. Those who see you will be looking on you with care, they will be in deep thought, saying, Is this the troubler of the earth, the shaker of kingdoms? Who made the world a waste, overturning its towns; who did not let his prisoners loose from the prison-house. All the kings of the earth are at rest in glory, every man in his house, But you, like a birth before its time, are stretched out with no resting-place in the earth; clothed with the bodies of the dead who have been put to the sword, who go down to the lowest parts of the underworld; a dead body, crushed under foot. As for your fathers, you will not be united with them in their resting-place, because you have been the cause of destruction to your land, and of death to your people; the seed of the evil-doer will have no place in the memory of man. Make ready a place of death for his children, because of the evil-doing of their father; so that they may not come up and take the earth for their heritage, covering the face of the world with waste places. For I will come up against them, says the Lord of armies, cutting off from Babylon name and offspring, son and son's son, says the Lord. And I will make you a heritage for the hedgehog, and pools of water: and I will go through it with the brush of destruction, says the Lord of armies. The Lord has taken an oath, saying, My design will certainly come about, and my purpose will be effected: To let the Assyrian be broken in my land, and crushed under foot on my mountains: there will his yoke be taken away from them, and his rule over them come to an end. This is the purpose for all the earth: and this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For it is the purpose of the Lord of armies, and who will make it of no effect? when his hand is stretched out, by whom may it be turned back? In the year of the death of King Ahaz this word came to the prophet: Be not glad, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod which was on you is broken: for out of the snake's root will come a poison-snake, and its fruit will be a winged poison-snake. And the poorest of the land will have food, and those in need will be given a safe resting-place: but your seed will come to an end for need of food, and the rest of you will be put to the sword. Send out a cry, O door! Make sounds of sorrow, O town! All your land has come to nothing, O Philistia; for there comes a smoke out of the north, and everyone keeps his place in the line. What answer, then, will my people give to the representatives of the nation? That the Lord is the builder of Zion, and she will be a safe place for the poor of his people.
Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father;
He who is hard on the poor puts shame on his Maker; but he who has mercy on those who are in need gives him honour.
For he is ever at the right hand of the poor, to take him out of the hands of those who go after his soul.
May he be a judge of the poor among the people, may he give salvation to the children of those who are in need; by him let the violent be crushed.
You have seen it; for your eyes are on sorrow and grief, to take it into your hand: the poor man puts his faith in you; you have been the helper of the child who has no father. Let the arm of the sinner and the evil-doer be broken; go on searching for his sin till there is no more. The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations are gone from his land. Lord, you have given ear to the prayer of the poor: you will make strong their hearts, you will give them a hearing: To give decision for the child without a father and for the broken-hearted, so that the man of the earth may no longer be feared.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 103
Commentary on Psalms 103 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Hymn in Honour of God the All-Compassionate One
To the “Thou wilt have compassion upon Zion” of Psalms 102:14 is appended Psalms 103, which has this as its substance throughout; but in other respects the two Psalms stand in contrast to one another. The inscription לדוד is also found thus by itself without any further addition even before Psalms of the First Book (Psalms 26:1, Ps 35, Ps 37). It undoubtedly does not rest merely on conjecture, but upon tradition. For no internal grounds which might have given rise to the annotation לדוד can be traced. The form of the language does not favour it. This pensive song, so powerful in its tone, has an Aramaic colouring like Ps 116; Psalms 124:1-8; Psalms 129:1-8. In the heaping up of Aramaizing suffix-forms it has its equal only in the story of Elisha, 2 Kings 4:1-7, where, moreover, the Kerî throughout substitutes the usual forms, whilst here, where these suffix-forms are intentional ornaments of the expression, the Chethîb rightly remains unaltered. The forms are 2nd sing. fem. ēchi for ēch , and 2nd sing. plur. ājchi for ajich . The i without the tone which is added here is just the one with which originally the pronunciation was אתּי instead of אתּ and לכי for לך . Out of the Psalter (here and Psalms 116:7, Psalms 116:19) these suffix-forms echi and ajchi occur only in Jeremiah 11:15, and in the North-Palestinian history of the prophet in the Book of Kings. The groups or strophes into which the Psalm falls are Psalms 103:1, Psalms 103:6, Psalms 103:11, Psalms 103:15, Psalms 103:19. If we count their lines we obtain the schema 10. 10. 8. 8. 10. The coptic version accordingly reckons 46 CTYXOC , i.e., στίχοι .
In the strophe Psalms 103:1 the poet calls upon his soul to arise to praiseful gratitude for God's justifying, redeeming, and renewing grace. In such soliloquies it is the Ego that speaks, gathering itself up with the spirit, the stronger, more manly part of man ( Psychology , S. 104f.; tr. p. 126), or even, because the soul as the spiritual medium of the spirit and of the body represents the whole person of man ( Psychology , S. 203; tr. p. 240), the Ego rendering objective in the soul the whole of its own personality. So here in Psalms 103:3 the soul, which is addressed, represents the whole man. The קובים which occurs here is a more choice expression for מעים ( מעים ): the heart, which is called קרב κατ ̓ ἐξοχήν , the reins, the liver, etc.; for according to the scriptural conception ( Psychology , S. 266; tr. p. 313) these organs of the cavities of the breast and abdomen serve not merely for the bodily life, but also the psycho-spiritual life. The summoning בּרכי is repeated per anaphoram . There is nothing the soul of man is so prone to forget as to render thanks that are due, and more especially thanks that are due to God. It therefore needs to be expressly aroused in order that it may not leave the blessing with which God blesses it unacknowledged, and may not forget all His acts performed ( גּמל = גּמר ) on it ( גּמוּל , ῥῆμα μέσον , e.g., in Psalms 137:8), which are purely deeds of loving-kindness), which is the primal condition and the foundation of all the others, viz., sin-pardoning mercy. The verbs סלח and רפא with a dative of the object denote the bestowment of that which is expressed by the verbal notion. תּחלוּאים (taken from Deuteronomy 29:21, cf. 1 Chronicles 21:19, from חלא = חלה , root הל , solutum, laxum esse ) are not merely bodily diseases, but all kinds of inward and outward sufferings. משּׁחת the lxx renders ἐκ φθορᾶς (from שׁחת , as in Job 17:14); but in this antithesis to life it is more natural to render the “pit” (from שׁוּח ) as a name of Hades, as in Psalms 16:10. Just as the soul owes its deliverance from guilt and distress and death to God, so also does it owe to God that with which it is endowed out of the riches of divine love. The verb עטּר , without any such addition as in Ps 5:13, is “to crown,” cf. Psalms 8:6. As is usually the case, it is construed with a double accusative; the crown is as it were woven out of loving-kindness and compassion. The Beth of בּטּוב in Psalms 103:5 instead of the accusative (Psalms 104:28) denotes the means of satisfaction, which is at the same time that which satisfies. עדיך the Targum renders: dies senectutis tuae , whereas in Psalms 32:9 it is ornatus ejus ; the Peshîto renders: corpus tuum , and in Psalms 32:9 inversely, juventus eorum . These significations, “old age” or “youth,” are pure inventions. And since the words are addressed to the soul, עדי cannot also, like כבוד in other instances, be a name of the soul itself (Aben-Ezra, Mendelssohn, Philippsohn, Hengstenberg, and others). We, therefore, with Hitzig, fall back upon the sense of the word in Psalms 32:9, where the lxx renders τάς σιαγόνας αὐτῶν , but here more freely, apparently starting from the primary notion of עדי = Arabic chadd , the cheek: τὸν ἐμπιπλῶντα ἐν ἀγαθοῖς τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν σου (whereas Saadia's victum tuum is based upon a comparison of the Arabic gdâ , to nourish). The poet tells the soul (i.e., his own person, himself) that God satisfies it with good, so that it as it were gets its cheeks full of it (cf. Psalms 81:11). The comparison כּנּשׁר is, as in Micah 1:16 (cf. Isaiah 40:31), to be referred to the annual moulting of the eagle. Its renewing of its plumage is an emblem of the renovation of his youth by grace. The predicate to נעוּריכי (plural of extension in relation to time) stands first regularly in the sing. fem .
His range of vision being widened from himself, the poet now in Psalms 103:6 describes God's gracious and fatherly conduct towards sinful and perishing men, and that as it shines forth from the history of Israel and is known and recognised in the light of revelation. What Psalms 103:6 says is a common-place drawn from the history of Israel. משׁפּטים is an accusative governed by the עשׂה that is to be borrowed out of עשׂה (so Baer after the Masora). And because Psalms 103:6 is the result of an historical retrospect and survey, יודיע in Psalms 103:7 can affirm that which happened in the past (cf. Psalms 96:6.); for the supposition of Hengstenberg and Hitzig, that Moses here represents Israel like Jacob , Isaac , and Joseph in other instances, is without example in the whole Israelitish literature. It becomes clear from Psalms 103:8 in what sense the making of His ways known is meant. The poet has in his mind Moses' prayer: “make known to me now Thy way” (Exodus 33:13), which Jahve fulfilled by passing by him as he stood in the cleft of the rock and making Himself visible to him as he looked after Him, amidst the proclamation of His attributes. The ways of Jahve are therefore in this passage not those in which men are to walk in accordance with His precepts (Psalms 25:4), but those which He Himself follows in the course of His redemptive history (Psalms 67:3). The confession drawn from Exodus 34:6. is become a formula of the Israelitish faith (Psalms 86:15; Psalms 145:8; Joel 2:13; Nehemiah 9:17, and frequently). In Psalms 103:9. the fourth attribute ( ורב־חסד ) is made the object of further praise. He is not only long ( ארך from ארך , like כּבד from כּבד ) in anger, i.e., waiting a long time before He lets His anger loose, but when He contends, i.e., interposes judicially, this too is not carried to the full extent (Psalms 78:38), He is not angry for ever ( נטר , to keep, viz., anger, Amos 1:11; cf. the parallels, both as to matter and words, Jeremiah 3:5; Isaiah 57:16). The procedure of His righteousness is regulated not according to our sins, but according to His purpose of mercy. The prefects in Psalms 103:10 state that which God has constantly not done, and the futures in Psalms 103:9 what He continually will not do.
The ingenious figures in Psalms 103:11. (cf. Psalms 36:6; Psalms 57:11) illustrate the infinite power and complete unreservedness of mercy (loving-kindness). הרחיק has Gaja (as have also השׁחיתו and התעיבו , Psalms 14:1; Psalms 53:2, in exact texts), in order to render possible the distinct pronunciation of the guttural in the combination רח . Psalms 103:13 sounds just as much like the spirit of the New Testament as Psalms 103:11, Psalms 103:12. The relationship to Jahve in which those stand who fear Him is a filial relationship based upon free reciprocity (Malachi 3:11). His Fatherly compassion is (Psalms 103:14) based upon the frailty and perishableness of man, which are known to God, much the same as God's promise after the Flood not to decree a like judgment again (Genesis 8:21). According to this passage and Deuteronomy 31:21, יצרנוּ appears to be intended of the moral nature; but according to Psalms 103:14 , one is obliged to think rather of the natural form which man possesses from God the Creator ( ויּיצר , Genesis 2:7) than of the form of heart which he has by his own choice and, so far as its groundwork is concerned, by inheritance (Psalms 51:7). In זכוּר , mindful, the passive, according to Böttcher's correct apprehension of it, expresses a passive state after an action that is completed by the person himself, as in בּטוּה , ידוּע , and the like. In its form Psalms 103:14 reminds one of the Book of Job Job 11:11; Job 28:23, and Psalms 103:14 as to subject-matter recalls Job 7:7, and other passages (cf. Psalms 78:39; Psalms 89:48); but the following figurative representation of human frailty, with which the poet contrasts the eternal nature of the divine mercy as the sure stay of all God-fearing ones in the midst of the rise and decay of things here below, still more strongly recalls that book.
The figure of the grass recalls Psalms 90:5., cf. Isaiah 40:6-8; Isaiah 51:12; that of the flower, Job 14:2. אנושׁ is man as a mortal being; his life's duration is likened to that of a blade of grass, and his beauty and glory to a flower of the field, whose fullest bloom is also the beginning of its fading. In Psalms 103:16 בּו (the same as in Isaiah 40:7.) refers to man, who is compared to grass and flowers. כּי is ἐάν with a hypothetical perfect; and the wind that scorches up the plants, referred to man, is an emblem of every form of peril that threatens life: often enough it is really a breath of wind which snaps off a man's life. The bold designation of vanishing away without leaving any trace, “and his place knoweth him no more,” is taken from Job 7:10, cf. ibid . Job 8:18; Job 20:9. In the midst of this plant-like, frail destiny, there is, however, one strong ground of comfort. There is an everlasting power, which raises all those who link themselves with it above the transitoriness involved in nature's laws, and makes them eternal like itself. This power is the mercy of God, which spans itself above ( על ) all those who fear Him like an eternal heaven. This is God's righteousness, which rewards faithful adherence to His covenant and conscientious fulfilment of His precepts in accordance with the order of redemption, and shows itself even to ( ל ) children's children, according to Exodus 20:6; Exodus 34:7; Deuteronomy 7:9 : on into a thousand generations, i.e., into infinity.
He is able to show Himself thus gracious to His own, for He is the supra-mundane, all-ruling King. With this thought the poet draws on to the close of his song of praise. The heavens in opposition to the earth, as in Psalms 115:3; Ecclesiastes 5:12, is the unchangeable realm above the rise and fall of things here below. On Psalms 103:19 cf. 1 Chronicles 29:12. בּכּל refers to everything created without exception, the universe of created things. In connection with the heavens of glory the poet cannot but call to mind the angels. His call to these to join in the praise of Jahve has its parallel only in Psalms 29:1-11 and Psalms 148:1-14. It arises from the consciousness of the church on earth that it stands in living like-minded fellowship with the angels of God, and that it possesses a dignity which rises above all created things, even the angels which are appointed to serve it (Psalms 91:11). They are called גּבּרים as in Joel 3:11, and in fact גּבּרי כּח , as the strong to whom belongs strength unequalled. Their life endowed with heroic strength is spent entirely - an example for mortals - in an obedient execution of the word of God. לשׁמע is a definition not of the purpose, but of the manner: obediendo (as in Genesis 2:3 perficiendo ). Hearing the call of His word, they also forthwith put it into execution. the hosts ( צבאיו ), as משׁרתיו shows, are the celestial spirits gathered around the angels of a higher rank (cf. Luke 2:13), the innumerable λειτουργικὰ πνεῦματα (Psalms 104:4, Daniel 7:10; Hebrews 1:14), for there is a hierarchia caelestis . From the archangels the poet comes to the myriads of the heavenly hosts, and from these to all creatures, that they, wheresoever they may be throughout Jahve's wide domain, may join in the song of praise that is to be struck up; and from this point he comes back to his own soul, which he modestly includes among the creatures mentioned in the third passage. A threefold בּרכי נפשׁי now corresponds to the threefold בּרכוּ ; and inasmuch as the poet thus comes back to his own soul, his Psalm also turns back into itself and assumes the form of a converging circle.