1 To the Overseer, by David. -- `To cause to remember.' O God, to deliver me, O Jehovah, for my help, haste.
Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me, O Jehovah, for my help make haste. They are ashamed and confounded together, Who are seeking my soul to destroy it, They are turned backward, And are ashamed, who are desiring my evil. They are desolate because of their shame, Who are saying to me, `Aha, aha.' All seeking Thee rejoice and are glad in Thee, Those loving Thy salvation say continually, `Jehovah is magnified.' And I `am' poor and needy, The Lord doth devise for me. My help and my deliverer `art' Thou, O my God, tarry Thou not.
A Psalm of David, `To cause to remember.' Jehovah, in Thy wrath reprove me not, Nor in Thy fury chastise me.
And Ahithophel said unto Absalom, `Let me choose, I pray thee, twelve thousand men, and I arise and pursue after David to-night, and come upon him, and he weary and feeble-handed, and I have caused him to tremble, and all the people have fled who `are' with him, and I have smitten the king by himself, and I bring back all the people unto thee -- as the turning back of the whole `is' the man whom thou art seeking -- all the people are peace. And the thing is right in the eyes of Absalom, and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel. And Absalom saith, `Call, I pray thee, also for Hushai the Archite, and we hear what `is' in his mouth -- even he.' And Hushai cometh in unto Absalom, and Absalom speaketh unto him, saying, `According to this word hath Ahithophel spoken; do we do his word? if not, thou -- speak thou.' And Hushai saith unto Absalom, `Not good `is' the counsel that Ahithophel hath counselled at this time.' And Hushai saith, `Thou hast known thy father and his men, that they `are' heroes, and they are bitter in soul as a bereaved bear in a field, and thy father `is' a man of war, and doth not lodge with the people; lo, now, he is hidden in one of the pits, or in one of the places, and it hath been, at the falling among them at the commencement, that the hearer hath heard, and said, There hath been a slaughter among the people who `are' after Absalom; and he also, the son of valour, whose heart `is' as the heart of the lion, doth utterly melt, for all Israel doth know that thy father is a hero, and sons of valour `are' those with him. `So that I have counselled: Let all Israel be diligently gathered unto thee, from Dan even unto Beer-Sheba, as the sand that `is' by the sea for multitude, and thou thyself art going in the midst; and we have come in unto him in one of the places where he is found, and we `are' upon him as the dew falleth on the ground, and there hath not been left of him and of all the men who `are' with him even one. And if unto a city he is gathered, then they have caused all Israel to bear unto that city ropes, and we have drawn it unto the brook till that there hath not been found there even a stone.' And Absalom saith -- and all the men of Israel -- `Better `is' the counsel of Hushai the Archite than the counsel of Ahithophel;' and Jehovah willed to make void the good counsel of Ahithophel for the sake of Jehovah's bringing unto Absalom the evil. And Hushai saith unto Zadok and unto Abiathar the priests, `Thus and thus hath Ahithophel counselled Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus and thus I have counselled; and now, send hastily, and declare to David, saying, Lodge not to-night in the plains of the wilderness, and also, certainly pass over, lest there be a swallowing up of the king and of all the people who are with him.' And Jonathan and Ahimaaz are standing at En-Rogel, and the maid-servant hath gone and declared to them -- and they go and have declared `it' to king David -- for they are not able to be seen to go in to the city. And a youth seeth them, and declareth to Absalom; and they go on both of them hastily, and come in unto the house of a man in Bahurim, and he hath a well in his court, and they go down there, and the woman taketh and spreadeth the covering over the face of the well, and spreadeth on it the ground corn, and the thing hath not been known. And the servants of Absalom come in unto the woman to the house, and say, `Where `are' Ahimaaz and Jonathan?' and the woman saith to them, `They passed over the brook of water;' and they seek, and have not found, and turn back to Jerusalem. And it cometh to pass, after their going on, that they come up out of the well, and go and declare to king David, and say unto David, `Rise ye, and pass over hastily the waters, for thus hath Ahithophel counselled against you.'
Be near unto my soul -- redeem it, Because of mine enemies ransom me.
O God, be not far from me, O my God, for my help make haste.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 70
Commentary on Psalms 70 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Cry of a Persecuted One for Help
This short Psalm, placed after Ps 69 on account of the kindred nature of its contents (cf. more especially v. 6 with Psalms 69:30), is, with but few deviations, a repetition of Psalms 40:14. This portion of the second half of Ps 40 is detached from it and converted into the Elohimic style. Concerning להזכּיר , at the presentation of the memorial portion of the mincha , vid., Psalms 38:1. It is obvious that David himself is not the author of the Psalm in this stunted form. The לדוד is moreover justified, if he composed the original Psalm which is here modified and appropriated to a special liturgical use.
We see at once at the very beginning, in the omission of the רצה (Psalms 40:14), that what we have here before us is a fragment of Ps 40, and perhaps a fragment that only accidentally came to have an independent existence. The להצּילני , which was under the government of רצה , now belongs to הוּשׁה , and the construction is without example elsewhere. In Psalms 70:3 (= Psalms 40:15) יחד and לספּותהּ are given up entirely; the original is more full-toned and soaring. Instead of ישׁמּוּ , torpescant , Psalms 70:4 has ישׁוּבוּ , recedant (as in Ps 6:11, cf. Psalms 9:18), which is all the more flat for coming after יסגו אחור . In Psalms 70:4 , after ויאמרים the לי , which cannot here (cf. on the contrary, Psalms 35:21) be dispensed with, is wanting.
ויאמרו instead of יאמרו is unimportant. But since the divine name Jahve is now for once chosen side by side with Elohim , it certainly had a strong claim to be retained in Psalms 70:5 . Instead of תּשׁועתך we have ישׁועתך here; instead of עזרתי , here עזרי . And instead of אדני יחשׁב לי we have here אלהים חוּשׁה־לּי - the hope is turned into petition: make haste unto me , is an innovation in expression that is caused by the taking over of the לי .