Psa 9:1-6 | KD | STEP | Just as Ps 7 is placed after as exemplifying it, so Ps 9 follows as an illustration of the glorifying of the divine name on earth. And what a beautiful idea it is that , the Psalm which celebrates Jahve’s name as being glorious in the earth, is introduced between a Psalm that closes with the words “I will sing of the name of Jahve, the Most High” (Ps 7:18) and one which begins: “I will sing of Thy name, O Most High!” ( ). The lxx translates the inscription על־מות לכן by ὑπὲρ τῶν κρυφίων τοῦ υἱοῦ (Vulg. pro occultis filii ) as though it were על־עלמות. Luther’s rendering is still bolder: of beautiful (perhaps properly: lily-white) youth. Both renderings are opposed to the text, in which על occurs only once. The Targum understands בן of the duellist Goliath (= אישׁ הבּנים); and some of the Rabbis regard לבן even as a transposition of נבל: on the death of Nabal. Hengstenberg has revived this view, regarding נבל as a collective designation of all Nabal-like fools. All these and other curious conceits arise from the erroneous idea that these words are an inscription referring to the contents of the Psalm. But, on the contrary, they indicate the tune or melody, and that by means of the familiar words of the song, - perhaps some popular song, - with which this air had become most intimately associated. At the end of this indication of the air is simply expressed by על־מוּת. The view of the Jewish expositors, who refer לבּן to the musician בּן mentioned in , has, therefore, some probability in its favour. But this name excites critical suspicion. Why may not a well-known song have begun מוּת לבּן “dying (is) to the son...,” or (if one is inclined to depart from the pointing, although there is nothing to render this suspicious) מות לבּן “Death makes white?” Even Hitzig does not allow himself to be misled as to the ancient Davidic origin of Ps 9 and 10 by the fact of their having an alphabetical arrangement. These two Psalms have the honour of being ranked among the thirteen Psalms which are acknowledge by him to be genuine Davidic Psalms. Thus, therefore, the alphabetical arrangement found in other Psalms cannot, in itself, bring us down to “the times of poetic trifling and degenerated taste.” Nor can the freedom, with which the alphabetical arrangement is handled in Ps 9 and 10 be regarded as an indication of an earlier antiquity than these times. For the Old Testament poets, even in other instances, do not allow themselves to be fettered by forms of this character (vid., on Ps 145, cf. on ); and the fact, that in the alphabetical arrangement is not fully carried out, is accounted for otherwise than by the license in which David, in distinction from later poets, indulged. In reality this pair of Psalms shows, that even David was given to acrostic composition. And why should he not be? Even among the Romans, Ennius (Cicero, De Divin . ii. 54 §111), who belongs not to the leaden, but to the iron age, out of which the golden age first developed itself, composed in acrostics. And our oldest Germanic epics are clothed in the garb of alliteration, which Vilmar calls the most characteristic and most elevated style that the poetic spirit of our nation has created. Moreover, the alphabetical form is adapted to the common people, as is evident from Augustine’s Retract . i. 20. It is not a paltry substitute for the departed poetic spirit, not merely an accessory to please the eye, an outward embellishment - it is in itself indicative of mental power. The didactic poet regards the array of the linguistic elements as the steps by which he leads his pupils up into the sanctuary of wisdom, or as the many-celled casket in which he stores the pearls of the teachings of his wisdom. The lyric writer regards it as the keys on which he strikes every note, in order to give the fullest expression to his feelings. Even the prophet does not disdain to allow the order of the letters to exert an influence over the course of his thoughts, as we see from -7. Therefore, when among the nine alphabetical Psalms ( , , , , , , , , ) four bear the inscription לדוד ( , , , ), we shall not at once regard them as non-Davidic just because they indicate an alphabetical plan which is more or less fully carried out. This is not the place to speak of the relation of the anonymous Ps 10 to Ps 9, since Ps 9 is not in any way wanting in internal roundness and finish. It is thoroughly hymnic. The idea that passes from thanksgiving into supplication rests on a misinterpretation, as we shall presently see. This Psalm is a thoroughly national song of thanksgiving for victory by David, belonging to the time when Jahve was already enthroned on Zion, and therefore, to the time after the ark was brought home. Was it composed after the triumphant termination of the Syro-Ammonitish war? - The judgment of extermination already executed, Psa 9:8., harmonises with what is recorded in ; and the גוים, who are actually living within the borders of Israel, appear to be Philistines according to the annalistic passage about the Philistine feuds, 2Sa 21:15., cf. in connection with 1Sa 13:6.

‏ Psalms 9:1-6

Hymn to the Righteous Judge after a Defeat of Hostile Peoples

Just as Ps 7 is placed after Psa 6:1-10 as exemplifying it, so Ps 9 follows Psa 8:1-9 as an illustration of the glorifying of the divine name on earth. And what a beautiful idea it is that Psa 8:1-9, the Psalm which celebrates Jahve’s name as being glorious in the earth, is introduced between a Psalm that closes with the words “I will sing of the name of Jahve, the Most High” (Ps 7:18) and one which begins: “I will sing of Thy name, O Most High!” (Psa 9:3).

The lxx translates the inscription על־מות לכן by ὑπὲρ τῶν κρυφίων τοῦ υἱοῦ (Vulg. pro occultis filii) as though it were על־עלמות. Luther’s rendering is still bolder: of beautiful (perhaps properly: lily-white) youth. Both renderings are opposed to the text, in which על occurs only once. The Targum understands בן of the duellist Goliath (= אישׁ הבּנים); and some of the Rabbis regard לבן even as a transposition of נבל: on the death of Nabal. Hengstenberg has revived this view, regarding נבל as a collective designation of all Nabal-like fools. All these and other curious conceits arise from the erroneous idea that these words are an inscription referring to the contents of the Psalm. But, on the contrary, they indicate the tune or melody, and that by means of the familiar words of the song, - perhaps some popular song, - with which this air had become most intimately associated. At the end of Psa 48:1-14 this indication of the air is simply expressed by על־מוּת. The view of the Jewish expositors, who refer לבּן to the musician בּן mentioned in 1Ch 15:18, has, therefore, some probability in its favour. But this name excites critical suspicion. Why may not a well-known song have begun מוּת לבּן “dying (is) to the son...,” or (if one is inclined to depart from the pointing, although there is nothing to render this suspicious) מות לבּן “Death makes white?”

Even Hitzig does not allow himself to be misled as to the ancient Davidic origin of Ps 9 and 10 by the fact of their having an alphabetical arrangement. These two Psalms have the honour of being ranked among the thirteen Psalms which are acknowledge by him to be genuine Davidic Psalms. Thus, therefore, the alphabetical arrangement found in other Psalms cannot, in itself, bring us down to “the times of poetic trifling and degenerated taste.” Nor can the freedom, with which the alphabetical arrangement is handled in Ps 9 and 10 be regarded as an indication of an earlier antiquity than these times. For the Old Testament poets, even in other instances, do not allow themselves to be fettered by forms of this character (vid., on Ps 145, cf. on Psa 42:2); and the fact, that in Psa 9:1 the alphabetical arrangement is not fully carried out, is accounted for otherwise than by the license in which David, in distinction from later poets, indulged. In reality this pair of Psalms shows, that even David was given to acrostic composition. And why should he not be? Even among the Romans, Ennius (Cicero, De Divin. ii. 54 §111), who belongs not to the leaden, but to the iron age, out of which the golden age first developed itself, composed in acrostics. And our oldest Germanic epics are clothed in the garb of alliteration, which Vilmar calls the most characteristic and most elevated style that the poetic spirit of our nation has created. Moreover, the alphabetical form is adapted to the common people, as is evident from Augustine’s Retract. i. 20. It is not a paltry substitute for the departed poetic spirit, not merely an accessory to please the eye, an outward embellishment - it is in itself indicative of mental power. The didactic poet regards the array of the linguistic elements as the steps by which he leads his pupils up into the sanctuary of wisdom, or as the many-celled casket in which he stores the pearls of the teachings of his wisdom. The lyric writer regards it as the keys on which he strikes every note, in order to give the fullest expression to his feelings. Even the prophet does not disdain to allow the order of the letters to exert an influence over the course of his thoughts, as we see from Nah 1:3-7. ^{▼▼This observation is due to Pastor Frohnmeyer of Würtemberg.}

Therefore, when among the nine ^{▼▼The Psalterium Brunonis (ed. by Cochleus, 1533) overlooks Ps 9-10, reckoning only seven alphabetical Psalms.} alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9:1, Psa 10:1, Psa 25:1, Psa 34:1, Psa 37:1, Psa 111:1, Psa 112:1, Psa 119:1, Psa 145:1) four bear the inscription לדוד (Psa 9:1, Psa 25:1, Psa 34:1, Psa 145:1), we shall not at once regard them as non-Davidic just because they indicate an alphabetical plan which is more or less fully carried out.

This is not the place to speak of the relation of the anonymous Ps 10 to Ps 9, since Ps 9 is not in any way wanting in internal roundness and finish. It is thoroughly hymnic. The idea that Psa 9:14 passes from thanksgiving into supplication rests on a misinterpretation, as we shall presently see. This Psalm is a thoroughly national song of thanksgiving for victory by David, belonging to the time when Jahve was already enthroned on Zion, and therefore, to the time after the ark was brought home. Was it composed after the triumphant termination of the Syro-Ammonitish war? - The judgment of extermination already executed, Psa 9:8., harmonises with what is recorded in 2Sa 12:31; and the גוים, who are actually living within the borders of Israel, appear to be Philistines according to the annalistic passage about the Philistine feuds, 2Sa 21:15., cf. Psa 8:1 in connection with 1Sa 13:6. Psa 9:1-2 (Hebrew_Bible_9:2-3) In this first strophe of the Psalm, which is laid out in tetrastichs-the normative strophe-the alphabetical form is carried out in the fullest possible way: we have four lines, each of which begins with א. It is the prelude of the song. The poet rouses himself up to a joyful utterance of Jahve’s praise. With his whole heart (Psa 138:1), i.e., all his powers of mind and soul as centred in his heart taking part in the act, will he thankfully and intelligently confess God, and declare His wondrous acts which exceed human desire and comprehension (Psa 26:7); he will rejoice and be glad in Jahve, as the ground of his rejoicing and as the sphere of his joy; and with voice and with harp he will sing of the name of the Most High. עליון is not an attributive of the name of God (Hitz.: Thine exalted name), but, as it is everywhere from Gen 14:18-22 onward (e.g., Psa 97:9), an attributive name of God. As an attributive to שׁמך one would expect to find העליון. Psa 9:3-4 (Hebrew_Bible_9:4-5) The call upon himself to thanksgiving sounds forth, and the ב-strophe continues it by expressing the ground of it. The preposition בּ in this instance expresses both the time and the reason together (as in Psa 76:10; 2Ch 28:6); in Latin it is recedentibus hostibus meis retro. אחור serves to strengthen the notion of being driven back, as in Psa 56:10, cf. Psa 44:11; and just as, in Latin, verbs compounded of re are strengthened by retro. In Psa 9:4 finite verbs take the place of the infinitive construct; here we have futt. with a present signification, just as in 2Ch 16:7 we find a praet. intended as perfect. For the rendering which Hitzig adopts: When mine enemies retreat backwards, they stumble... is opposed both by the absence of any syntactic indication in Psa 9:4 of an apodosis (cf. Psa 27:2); and also by the fact that יכּשׁלוּ is well adapted to be a continuation of the description of שׁוּב אחור (cf. Joh 18:6), but is tame as a principal clause to the definitive clause בשוב אויבי אחור. Moreover, אחור does not signify backwards (which would rather be אחרנּית Gen 9:23; 1Sa 4:18), but back, or into the rear. The מן of מפּניך is the מן of the cause, whence the action proceeds. What is intended is God’s angry countenance, the look of which sets his enemies on fire as if they were fuel (Psa 21:10), in antithesis to God’s countenance as beaming with the light of His love. Now, while this is taking place, and because of its taking place, will be sing praise to God. From Psa 9:2 we see that the Psalm is composed directly after the victory and while the destructive consequences of it to the vanquished are still in operation. David sees in it all an act of Jahve’s judicial power. To execute any one’s right, משׁפּט (Mic 7:9), to bring to an issue any one’s suit or lawful demand, דּין (Psa 140:13), is equivalent to: to assist him and his good cause in securing their right. The phrases are also used in a judicial sense without the suffix. The genitive object after these principal words never denotes the person against whom, but the person on whose behalf, the third party steps forward with his judicial authority. Jahve has seated Himself upon His judgment-seat as a judge of righteousness (as in Jer 11:20), i.e., as a judge whose judicial mode of procedure is righteousness, justice, ^{▼▼Also Pro 8:16 is probably to be read צדק כּל־שׁכּטי, with Norzi, according to the Targum, Syriac version, and old Codices; at any rate this is an old various reading, and one in accordance with the sense, side by side with כל־שׁפטי ארץ.} and has decided in his favour. In ישׁב ל (as in Psa 132:11), which is distinguished in this respect from ישׁב על (Psa 47:9), the idea of motion, considere, comes prominently forward. Psa 9:5-6 (Hebrew_Bible_9:6-7) The strophe with ג, which is perhaps intended to represent ד and ה as well, continues the confirmation of the cause for thanksgiving laid down in Psa 9:4. He does not celebrate the judicial act of God on his behalf, which he has just experienced, alone, but in connection with, and, as it were, as the sum of many others which have preceded it. If this is the case, then in Psa 9:6 beside the Ammonites one may at the same time (with Hengstenb.) think of the Amalekites (1Sa 8:12), who had been threatened since the time of Moses with a “blotting out of their remembrance” (Exo 17:14; Deu 25:19, cf. Num 24:20). The divine threatening is the word of omnipotence which destroys in distinction from the word of omnipotence that creates. רשׁע in close connection with גּוים is individualising, cf. Psa 9:18 with Psa 9:16, Psa 9:17. ועד is a sharpened pausal form for ועד, the Pathach going into a Segol (קטן פתח); perhaps it is in order to avoid the threefold a-sound in לעולם ועד (Nägelsbach §8 extr.). In Psa 9:7 האויב (with Azla legarme) appears to be a vocative. In that case נתשׁתּ ought also to be addressed to the enemy. But if it be interpreted: “Thou hast destroyed thine own cities, their memorial is perished,” destroyed, viz., at the challenge of Israel, then the thought is forced; and if we render it: “the cities, which thou hast destroyed, perished is the remembrance of them,” i.e., one no longer thinks of thine acts of conquest, then we have a thought that is in itself awkward and one that finds no support in any of the numerous parallels which speak of a blotting out and leaving no trace behind. But, moreover, in both these interpretations the fact that זכרם is strengthened by המּה is lost sight of, and the twofold masculine זכרם המּה is referred to ערים (which is carelessly done by most expositors), whereas עיר, with but few exceptions, is feminine; consequently זכרם המה, so far as this is not absolutely impossible, must be referred to the enemies themselves (cf. Psa 34:17; Psa 109:15). האויב might more readily be nom. absol.: “the enemy - it is at end for ever with his destructions,” but חרבּה never has an active but always only a neuter signification; or: “the enemy - ruins are finished for ever,” but the signification to be destroyed is more natural for תּמם than to be completed, when it is used of ruinae. Moreover, in connection with both these renderings the retrospective pronoun (חרבותיו) is wanting, and this is also the case with the reading חרבות (lxx, Vulg., Syr.), which leaves it uncertain whose swords are meant. But why may we not rather connect האויב at once with תּמּוּ as subject? In other instances תּמּוּ is also joined to a singular collective subject, e.g., Isa 16:4; here it precedes, like הארב in Jdg 20:37. חרבות לנצח is a nominative of the product, corresponding to the factitive object with verbs of making: the enemies are destroyed as ruins for ever, i.e., so that they are become ruins; or, more in accordance with the accentuation: the enemy, destroyed as ruins are they for ever. With respect to what follows the accentuation also contains hints worthy of our attention. It does not take נתשׁתּ (with the regular Pathach by Athnach after Olewejored, vid., on Psa 2:7) as a relative clause, and consequently does not require זכרם המה to be referred back to ערים.

We interpret the passage thus: and cities (viz., such as were hostile) thou hast destroyed (נתשׁ evellere, exstirpare), perished is their (the enemies') memorial. Thus it also now becomes intelligible, why זכרם, according to the rule Ges. §121, 3, is so remarkably strengthened by the addition of המּה (cf. Num 14:32; 1Sa 20:42; Pro 22:19; Pro 23:15; Eze 34:11). Hupfeld, whose interpretation is exactly the same as ours, thinks it might perhaps be the enemies themselves and the cities set over against one another. But the contrast follows in Psa 9:8 : their, even their memorial is perished, while on the contrary Jahve endures for ever and is enthroned as judge. This contrast also retrospectively gives support to the explanation, that זכרם refers not to the cities, but to האויב as a collective. With this interpretation of Psa 9:7 we have no occasion to read זכרם מהמּה (Targ.), nor זכר מהמּה (Paul., Hitz.). The latter is strongly commended by Job 11:20, cf. Jer 10:2; but still it is not quite admissible, since זכר here is not subjective (their own remembrance) but objective (remembrance of them). But may not ערים perhaps here, as in Psa 139:20, mean zealots = adversaries (from עיר fervere, zelare)? We reply in the negative, because the Psalm bears neither an Aramaising nor a North Palestinian impress. Even in connection with this meaning, the harshness of the ערים without any suffix would still remain. But, that the cities that are, as it were, plucked up by the root are cities of the enemy, is evident from the context.