Radak (David Kimhi) on Psalms

A Prayer of David. Hear right, Lord, attend unto my ringing cry: Give ear to my prayer, that goeth out of no feigned lips. – Hear my prayer, which is (uttered) in righteousness; Hear it for my mouth and heart are at one; and this is the meaning of righteousness, and of no feigned lips. The whole verse is a repetition of the one idea in different terms. רנתי (my ringing cry) also is of the same meaning as צעקתי (my cry), for he who prays sometimes cries with a ringing voice and sometimes in a low tone. Every use of the expression רנה denotes a cry, such being employed sometimes of singing and rejoicing, sometimes of public announcement, sometimes of prayer and entreaty, and sometimes of weeping and groaning; and each (nuance) is distinct, according to its context.

Let my sentence come forth from Thy presence: – My revered father, of blessed memory, has interpreted: that this prayer has reference to the incident of Bathsheba; and that he (David) is interceding before the Holy – One Blessed be He! – and says: יצא משׁפטי מלפניך, i-e. May this sentence pass forth from Thee, so that Thou wilt not condemn me in it. Let Thine eyes regard the right: – Behold the right that I have done, and regard not this iniquity; and judge me in the multitude of my good deeds, and not for this iniquity. And he says:

Thou hast proved my heart; Thou hast visited me by night; Thou hast tried me, and findest nothing: – In that night Thou didst prove, and visit my heart, and try me and didst not find me clean. And he says: I purposed let not my mouth transgress! – What I thought to say was: “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me” (ibid. 26:2). Oh that my mouth had not transgressed, and that I had not been one to say this thing of which I boasted and at which I stumbled! And he says:

As for the works of men, by the word of Thy lips – in what Thou hast commanded and forbidden- I have observed the ways of the violent: – meaning, I have done according to the work of the wicked and the violent. The learned Rabbi Abraham ben Ezra expounds: “Let my sentence come forth from Thy presence so that Thou punish me if Thine eyes regard not the right!” But all this seems to me far-fetched, and to me it seems more probable that it should be taken as (ibid. 9:5) “For Thou hast maintained my right and my cause” of which the interpretation is: Thou shalt exact judgment for me from my enemies; and so, from Thy presence let my judgment come forth may mean that Thou wilt exact judgment for me from mine enemies. Thine eyes regard right: Thou seest that with me is right and with them wickedness and violence. And so the greater part of the Psalm has reference to (his) enemies, as he says (infra, 7), “From those that rise up against Thy right hand.” And he says (also) (ibid. 9): “From the wicked that spoil me.” You see that the Psalm speaks of his enemies, and it was on account of them he was seeking mercy; and he says that God will look upon the uprightness of his deeds and see that his enemies hate him without cause. He says also, Thou hast proved my heart, for Thou dost prove hearts, and knowest if my words are (those of) truth. Thou hast visited me in the night: and in the night – i.e. at a time when a man thinks of so many matters, when he is free from the business of the world and has no work to do – at night and at the time when he is awake and thinks – and Thou hast visited my heart and my thoughts, and hast tried me and found in me only good. And from my thoughts no word has proceeded save only according to the tenor of my heart, as he says: out of no feigned lips; and this is the meaning of I have resolved that my mouth shall not offend. And as I am strict with myself, so I warn others of what I see. This is the meaning of what he says: As for the works of man, by the word of Thy lips: in (the light of) what Thou hast commanded and warned, I am considering the works of man and keeping from them transgressions. And this is the meaning of: I have marked the paths of the violent: I have prevented a man from walking in the paths of the violent and wicked. And similarly, (שמר is used in the verse) “to keep (guard) the way of the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24), “so that one should not walk in it”; so also “the keeper of the park” (Neh. 2:8). After setting forth before God the uprightness of his mouth and heart and deeds, he supplicates God to support his steps lest they stumble before his enemies, and says:

Maintain: – המוך is an infinitive in the place of an imperative, as “Keep (שמור) the sabbath day” (Deut. 5:12); “Go (הלוך) and call” (Jer. 2:2). And he says: my treadings in Thy paths: – meaning, my treadings as they go in Thy paths, and in Thy way do Thou maintain. (so that) my footsteps have not slipped: – There is some disagreement as to the reading of the word נמטו (slipped). There are some MSS. which daghesh the teth, and if this be so it will be derived from a double ayin verb; there are MSS., however, (where the word appears) without the daghesh, and then it will be derived from a verb 'ayin waw.

I have called upon Thee, for Thou wilt answer me, God: – Therefore I have called upon Thee because I trusted in Thee that Thou wouldest answer me and art able to help me. This also is the sense of Incline Thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. –

Make signal: – make distinct, as, “and I will divide (make distinct) in that day” (Exod. 8:18); “and we be separated (made distinct), I and Thy people, from all the people” (ibid, 33:16). Thy loving-kindnesses, O Thou that savest them that put their trust (in Thee): – He says: Thou, who art a Saviour of them that trust, separate and cause Thy loving-kindnesses to pass From those that rise up at Thy right hand: – from those men who rise up against Thy right hand, for all know the sovereignty is mine from Thee, and those who are rebelling against me rebel against Thee.

Keep me as the pupil (אישׁון) of the ball of the eye: – as a man guards the pupil of his eye – that is, the black part through which the light (passes). It is called the אישׁון (lit. little man), because the image of a man is seen in it; and the waw and nun mark the diminutive, because the image is diminutive; so also the ון of שׁבתון (sabbath keeping), with the idea of emphasising its holiness. So also, with the addition of yodh, אמינון in 2 Sam. 13:20. אישון is in the construct before בת, and (with it) forms one expression; בת (lit. daughter) is a substantive, (denoting) the eyeball through which the light (passes), while pupil is a descriptive term because the image of a man is seen in it. And hide me in the shadow of Thy wings, –

From the wicked that spoil me: – Keep me from the enemies who spoil me. The word זוּ is in meaning the same as אשר; and so (we find): “He against whom (זוּ) we have sinned” (Isaiah 42:24). My soul's enemies that compass me about: – Keep me from my enemies who encompass and surround me against my soul, meaning, “to take my life.”

With their fat they have enclosed their mouth; they speak proudly. – Their great sleekness has enclosed their mouth. By reason of their great luxury they speak proudly.

At our steps: – אַשֻּׁרֵינוּ with a daghesh in the shin; and so: “if my step (אַשֻּׁרִי) has turned aside from Thy way” (Job 31:7). now have they surrounded us: – The Kethib (סבבוני = they have surrounded me) is written with yodh, but the Keri reads with waw (סבבונו = they have surrounded us); (the expression) is plural (us) as referring to himself and his friends who collected together with him as he fled before Saul, and singular as referring to himselt, for he is the principal. And he says: our steps, because when they have come to know our way in which we go now they have surrounded us, (i.e.) at once they pursue us and surround us. They set their eyes to cast us down in the earth: – They set their eyes upon our way to cast their net in the earth to take us.

He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, As it were a young lion lurking in secret places: – He is like, singular, of Saul. He says, as he said of him in the Psalm Concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite (7:3): “Lest he tear my soul like a lion.”

Arise, O Lord: – when he comes to pursue and tear me. Confront him and cast him down: – so that he shall not have the strength to harm me. Deliver my soul from the wicked, Thy sword: – i.e. from the wicked which is Thy sword, as it is said (Isaiah 10:5): “Ho, Assyrian, the rod of Mine anger,” etc.; for the sword, and escape from it, is all from Thee; as it is written, “I have wounded, and I heal” (Deut. 32:39).

From men, Thy hand, O Lord: – And deliver my soul from men who are Thy hand: he means, “(who are) Thy stroke,” as “Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon” (Exod. 9:3). Just as he speaks of them as Thy sword, he speaks of them as Thy hand. From men of the world: – from men who are of this world, whose whole desire and delight is in this world, whose portion is in (this) life, And whose belly Thou flllest with Thy treasure: – Their portion is in the life of this world, for they look not to the world to come, but with Thy treasure and Thy bounty Thou fittest their belly in this world. (Their) children are satisfied: – And whose children are satisfied by their life with them. And they leave the rest of their substance for their babes: – i.e. after their death, and these are their children's children. In the Haggadic interpretation (Babli, Berakhoth 61b) the verse is interpreted in reference to Rabbi Akiba and his companions, martyred under the Roman government: the ministering angels said before the Holy One – Blessed be He! – “Lord of the world, From men, Thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world?” The Holy One Blessed be He! answered them: “Their portion (is) in life; their portion is in the life of the world to come!”

As for me, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness: – says David. The wicked have no delight in the world to come, but it is not so with me, for I am looking forward to and hoping to see Thy face in the world to come; and when he says As for me, in righteousness, (he means) for I am looking forward to and hoping to see Thy face in the world to come in (reward for the) righteousness I do in this world in not eating and living in luxury as they do. I shall be satisfied: – He says, I shall be satisfied, balancing Their children are satisfied: they shall be satisfied in this world, while I shall be satisfied in the world to come. On awaking: – for my soul shall not die and sleep; the opposite of “they shall sleep a perpetual sleep” (Jer. 51:39, 57). (with.) Thy likeness: – as “and the likeness of the Lord shall he behold” (Num. 12:8), which is the same as saying, “the likeness of the Lord he has seen.” (What is meant) is mental apprehension of the glory of God according to the soul's capacity after its separation from the body. Moses our teacher (upon him be peace!) experienced this during the lifetime of the body, which was not the case as regards the rest of the Prophets; for his intelligence was active, while all the functions of the body were suspended – “he did neither eat bread nor drink water” (Exod. 34:28) and then the face of the Lord did he behold. This was not so with Elijah, when it is related of him that“ in the strength of that meat,” as we have interpreted in Kings (1. 19:8). And as regards the rest of the Prophets, this (experience) will be theirs after death. The learned Rabbi Abraham ben Ezra has expounded this verse of this world, and he expounds it thus: “I delight to behold Thy face, for the righteousness which I have observed has become the cause of the delight I feel in seeing Thy face. The sense (of the phrase) is the recognition and contemplation of the works of God that they in general are wrought in wisdom and endure for ever. I then am satisfied with the enjoyment of Thy likeness” being in this unlike the wicked men of the world, who are satisfied “when Thou fillest their belly; and this is not in dream, but only when I am awake. And this beholding is not in visions of the eye, but only in visions of the mind, which are visions of God in truth.”