Psa 45:15-16 | KD | STEP | (Hebrew_Bible_45:14-16) Now follows the description of the manner in which she absolutely leaves her father’s house, and richly adorned and with a numerous train is led to the king and makes her entry into his palace; and in connection therewith we must bear in mind that the poet combines on the canvas of one picture (so to speak) things that lie wide apart both as to time and place. He sees her first of all in her own chamber (פּנימה, prop. towards the inside, then also in the inside, Ges. §90, 2, b ), and how there she is nothing but splendour (כּל־כּבוּדּה, prop. mere splendour, fem. of כבוד as in ; cf. כּל־הבל, , mere nothingness), her clothing is gold-interwoven textures (i.e., such as are interwoven with threads of gold, or woven in squares or diamond patterns and adorned with gold in addition). She, just like Esther ( ), is being led to the king, her husband, and this takes place לרקמות, in variegated, embroidered garments (ל used just as adverbially as in , להדרת), with a retinue of virgins, her companions, who at the same time with herself become the property of her spouse. According to the accents it is to be rendered: virgines post eam, sociae ejus, adducuntur tibi , so that רעותיה is an apposition. This is also in harmony with the allegorical interpretation of the Psalm as a song of the church. The bride of the Lamb, whom the writer of the Apocalypse beheld, arrayed in shining white linen ( byssus ), which denotes her righteousness, just as here the variegated, golden garments denote her glory, is not just one person nor even one church, but the church of Israel together with the churches of the Gentiles united by one common faith, which have taken a hearty and active part in the restoration of the daughter of Zion. The procession moves on with joy and rejoicing; it is the march of honour of the one chosen one and of the many chosen together with her, of her friends or companions; and to what purpose, is shown by the hopes which to the mind of the poet spring up out of the contemplation of this scene.

‏ Psalms 45:15-16

Psa 45:13-15 (Hebrew_Bible_45:14-16) Now follows the description of the manner in which she absolutely leaves her father’s house, and richly adorned and with a numerous train is led to the king and makes her entry into his palace; and in connection therewith we must bear in mind that the poet combines on the canvas of one picture (so to speak) things that lie wide apart both as to time and place. He sees her first of all in her own chamber (פּנימה, prop. towards the inside, then also in the inside, Ges. §90, 2, b), and how there ^{▼▼In Babylonia these words, according to B. Jebamoth 77 a, are cited in favour of domesticity as a female virtue; in Palestine (במערבא), more appropriately, Gen 18:9. The lxx Codd. Vat. et Sinait. has Ἐσεβών (Eusebius), which is meaningless; Cod. Alex. correctly, ἔσωθεν (Italic, Jerome, Syriac, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Apollinaris).} she is nothing but splendour (כּל־כּבוּדּה, prop. mere splendour, fem. of כבוד as in Eze 23:41; cf. כּל־הבל, Psa 39:6, mere nothingness), her clothing is gold-interwoven textures (i.e., such as are interwoven with threads of gold, or woven in squares or diamond patterns and adorned with gold in addition). She, just like Esther (Est 2:12), is being led to the king, her husband, and this takes place לרקמות, in variegated, embroidered garments (ל used just as adverbially as in 2Ch 20:21, להדרת), with a retinue of virgins, her companions, who at the same time with herself become the property of her spouse. According to the accents it is to be rendered: virgines post eam, sociae ejus, adducuntur tibi, so that רעותיה is an apposition. This is also in harmony with the allegorical interpretation of the Psalm as a song of the church. The bride of the Lamb, whom the writer of the Apocalypse beheld, arrayed in shining white linen (byssus), which denotes her righteousness, just as here the variegated, golden garments denote her glory, is not just one person nor even one church, but the church of Israel together with the churches of the Gentiles united by one common faith, which have taken a hearty and active part in the restoration of the daughter of Zion. The procession moves on with joy and rejoicing; it is the march of honour of the one chosen one and of the many chosen together with her, of her friends or companions; and to what purpose, is shown by the hopes which to the mind of the poet spring up out of the contemplation of this scene. Psa 45:16-17 (Hebrew_Bible_45:17-18) All this has its first and most natural meaning in relation to contemporary history but without being at variance with the reference of the Psalm to the King Messiah, as used by the church. Just as the kings of Judah and of Israel allowed their sons to share in their dominion (2Sa 8:18; 1Ki 4:7, cf. 2Ch 11:23; 1Ki 20:15), so out of the loving relationship of the daughter of Zion and of the virgins of her train to the King Messiah there spring up children, to whom the regal glory of the house of David which culminates in Him is transferred, - a royal race among which He divides the dominion of the earth (vid., Psa 149:1-9); for He makes His own people “kings and priests, and they shall reign on the earth” (Rev 5:10). Those children are to be understood here which, according to Psa 110:1-7, are born to Him as the dew out of the womb of the morning’s dawn - the every-youthful nation, by which He conquers and rules the world. When, therefore, the poet says that he will remember the name of the king throughout all generations, this is based upon the twofold assumption, that he regards himself as a member of an imperishable church (Sir. 37:25), and that he regards the king as a person worthy to be praised by the church of every age. Elsewhere Jahve’s praise is called a praise that lives through all generations (Psa 102:13; Psa 135:13); here the king is the object of the everlasting praise of the church, and, beginning with the church, of the nations also. First of all Israel, whom the psalmist represents, is called upon to declare with praise the name of the Messiah from generation to generation. But it does not rest with Israel alone. The nations are thereby roused up to do the same thing. The end of the covenant history is that Israel and the nations together praise this love-worthy, heroic, and divine King: “His name shall endure for ever; as long as the sun shall His name bud, and all nations shall be blessed in Him (and) shall praise Him” (Psa 72:17). A Sure Stronghold Is Our God ^{▼▼“Ein feste Burg is unser Gott.”}

When, during the reign of Jehoshaphat, the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites (more particularly the Maonites, for in 2Ch 20:1 it is to be read מהמּעוּנים) carried war into the kingdom of David and threatened Jerusalem, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziël the Asaphite in the temple congregation which the king had called together, and he prophesied a miraculous deliverance on the morrow. Then the Levite singers praised the God of Israel with jubilant voice, viz., singers of the race of Kohaath, and in fact out of the family of Korah. On the following day Levite singers in holy attire and with song went forth before the army of Jehoshaphat. The enemy, surprised by the attack of another plundering band of the sons of the desert, had turned their weapons against one another, being disbanded in the confusion of flight, and the army of Jehoshaphat found the enemy’s camp turned into a field of corpses. In the feast of thanksgiving for victory which followed in Emek ha - Beracha the Levite singers again also took an active part, for the spoil-laden army marched thence in procession to Jerusalem and to the temple of Jahve, accompanied by the music of the nablas, citherns, and trumpets. Thus in the narrative in 2Ch 22:1-12 does the chronicler give us the key to the Asaphic Ps 83 (76?) and to the Korahitic Ps 46-48. It is indeed equally admissible to refer these three Korahitic Psalms to the defeat of Sennacherib’s army under Hezekiah, but this view has not the same historical consistency. After the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign the congregation could certainly not help connecting the thought of the Assyrian catastrophe so recently experienced with this Psalm; and more especially since Isaiah had predicted this event, following the language of this Psalm very closely. For Isaiah and this Psalm are remarkably linked together.

Just as Psa 2:1-12 is, as it were, the quintessence of the book of Immanuel, Isa 7:1, so is Psa 46:1-11 of Isa. 33, that concluding discourse to Isa 28:1, which is moulded in a lyric form, and was uttered before the deliverance of Jerusalem at a time of the direst distress. The fundamental thought of the Psalm is expressed there in Psa 46:2 in the form of a petition; and by a comparison with Isa 25:4. we may see what a similarity there is between the language of the psalmist and of the prophet. Isa 33:13 closely resembles the concluding admonition; and the image of the stream in the Psalm has suggested the grandly bold figure of the prophet in v. 21, which is there more elaborately wrought up: “No indeed, there dwells for us a glorious One, Jahve - a place of streams, of canals of wide extent, into which no fleet of rowing vessels shall venture, and which no mighty man-of-war shall cross.” The divine determination expressed in ארוּם we also hear in Isa 33:10. And the prospect of the end of war reminds us of the familiar prediction of Isaiah (Isa 2), closely resembling Micah’s in its language, of eternal peace; just as Psa 46:8, Psa 46:11 remind us of the watch-word עמנו אל in Isa 7:1. The mind of Isaiah and that of Jeremiah have, each in its own peculiar way, taken germs of thought (lit., become impregnated) from this Psalm.

We have already incidentally referred to the inscribed words על־עלמות, on Psa 6:1. Böttcher renders them ad voces puberes, “for tenor voices,” a rendering which certainly accords with the fact that, according to 1Ch 15:20, they were accustomed to sing בּנבלים על־עלמות, and the Oriental sounds, according to Villoteau (Description de l'Egypte), correspond aux six sons vers l'aigu de l'octave du medium de la voix de tenor. But עלמות does not signify voces puberes, but puellae puberes (from עלם, Arab. glm, cogn. חלם, Arab. ḥlm, to have attained to puberty); and although certainly no eunuchs sang in the temple, yet there is direct testimony that Levite youths were among the singers in the second temple; ^{▼▼The Mishna, Erachin 13b, expressly informs us, that whilst the Levites sang to the accompanying play of the nablas and citherns, their youths, standing at their feet below the pulpit, sang with them in order to give to the singing the harmony of high and deep voices (תּבל, condimentum). These Levite youths are called צערי or סועדי הלויים, parvuli (although the Gemara explains it otherwise) or adjutores Levitarum.} and Ps 68 mentions the עלמות who struck the timbrels at a temple festival. Moreover, we must take into consideration the facts that the compass of the tenor extends even into the soprano, that the singers were of different ages down to twenty years of age, and that Oriental, and more particularly even Jewish, song is fond of falsetto singing. We therefore adopt Perret-Gentil’s rendering, chant avec voix de femmes, and still more readily Armand de Mestral’s, en soprano; whereas Melissus’ rendering, “upon musical instruments called Alamoth (the Germans would say, upon the virginal),” has nothing to commend it.