‏ Psalms 122:6

Psa 122:6-9

When the poet thus calls up the picture of his country’s “city of peace” before his mind, the picture of the glory which it still ever possesses, and of the greater glory which it had formerly, he spreads out his hands over it in the distance, blessing it in the kindling of his love, and calls upon all his fellow-countrymen round about and in all places: apprecamini salutem Hierosolymis. So Gesenius correctly (Thesaurus, p. 1347); for just as שׁאל לו לשׁלום signifies to inquire after any one’s well-being, and to greet him with the question: השׁלום לך (Jer 15:5), so שׁאל שׁלום signifies to find out any one’s prosperity by asking, to gladly know and gladly see that it is well with him, and therefore to be animated by the wish that he may prosper; Syriac, שׁאל שׁלמא ד directly: to salute any one; for the interrogatory השׁלום לך and the well-wishing שׁלום לך, εἰρήνη σοί (Luk 10:5; Joh 20:19.), have both of them the same source and meaning. The reading אהליך, commended by Ewald, is a recollection of Job 12:6 that is violently brought in here. The loving ones are comprehended with the beloved one, the children with the mother. שׁלה forms an alliteration with שׁלום; the emphatic form ישׁליוּ occurs even in other instances out of pause (e.g., Psa 57:2). In Psa 122:7 the alliteration of שׁלום and שׁלוה is again taken up, and both accord with the name of Jerusalem. Ad elegantiam facit, as Venema observes, perpetua vocum ad se invicem et omnium ad nomen Hierosolymae alliteratio. Both together mark the Song of degrees as such. Happiness, cries out the poet to the holy city from afar, be within thy bulwarks, prosperity within thy palaces, i.e., without and within. חיל, ramparts, circumvallation (from חוּל, to surround, Arabic hawl, round about, equally correct whether written חיל or חל), and ארמנות as the parallel word, as in Psa 48:14. The twofold motive of such an earnest wish for peace is love for the brethren and love for the house of God. For the sake of the brethren is he cheerfully resolved to speak peace (τὰ πρὸς ἐιρήνην αὐτῆς, Luk 19:42) concerning (דּבּר בּ, as in Psa 87:3, Deu 6:7, lxx περὶ σοῦ; cf. דּבּר שׁלום with אל and ל, to speak peace to, Psa 85:9; Est 10:3) Jerusalem, for the sake of the house of Jahve will he strive after good (i.e., that which tends to her well-being) to her (like בּקּשׁ טובה ל in Neh 2:10, cf. דּרשׁ שׁלום, Deu 23:6, Jer 29:7). For although he is now again far from Jerusalem after the visit that is over, he still remains united in love to the holy city as being the goal of his longing, and to those who dwell there as being his brethren and friends. Jerusalem is and will remain the heart of all Israel as surely as Jahve who has His house there, is the God of all Israel.

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