Radak (David Kimhi) on Psalms

For the Chief Musician. Set to “The Hind of the Morning.” A Psalm of David. – There are those who say (Rashi, and others beside him) that השׁהר אילת (hind of the morning) is a kind of musical instrument. There are also interpreters (Targumist, Menahem, and others besides) who explain אילת from (אילותי in) My succour (אילותי), haste Thee to help me (infra, 20), meaning that this Psalm was uttered in the strength of the morning's dawn. And some interpret אילת as the name of the morning star. So we have in the words of our Rabbis of blessed memory (Jerushalami, Berakhoth 1:1; Yoma 3:2): “They call the morning star Ayyeleth.” They say also (ibid.; Canticles Rabbah 6; Esther Rabbah 10 end; and Shoher Tob, ad loc.) that this Psalm was uttered with reference to Esther and to Israel, who were in exile at that time. Some also interpret it of David while he was still a fugitive before Saul. The correct view is that the title The Hind of the Morning is used of the congregation of Israel while in this (present) exile, and the end of the Psalm proves this. It calls her a hind, just as the comparison is applied to her in the Song of Songs (2:7; 3:5): “among the roes or among the hinds of the field” The meaning also of השחר (the morning) is beauty and brightness, as it says concerning her (ibid. 6:10): “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning?” And now she is in darkness in this exile, as if forgotten and abandoned; and she cries out from exile:

My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? – (The address) in the singular refers to the people of Israel as a whole, for they were as one man in exile and of one mind. My God, my God: the repetition is after the manner of those who call out and cry, as: “Hear me, O Lord, hear me” (1 Kings 18:37); “Abraham, Abraham” (Gen. 22:11); “Moses, Moses” (Exod. 3:4). Israel says also אלי (my God or my Strength), meaning: Thou wast my Strength and my Rock before, and now, why hast Thou forsaken me? (Why art Thou) far from helping me: – and why art Thou so far from helping me when Thou hearest (When Thou hearest) the words of my roaring? –

my God, I call by day: – i.e. in the day; but Thou answerest not; And at night: – and in the night I call; but there is no rest for me: – from my crying, and Thou dost not answer, דמיה (rest) is a noun, not an adjective.

And Thou continuest holy: – How, then, is it that Thou dost not answer now, seeing that Thou continuest holy and abidest for ever? Thou hast been so often (Thou) the praises of Israel: – for they praised Thee when Thou didst deliver them out of their troubles. For praise and thanks-giving shall be (given) for deliverance. How is it that Thou dost not save him now? for Thou abided for ever, and as Thy power was then, so is Thy power now. (Thou) continuest, abidest that is, eternally; and so, “Thou, Lord, continuest for ever” (Lam. 5:19).

Our fathers trusted in Thee: They trusted: – for many times did our fathers trust in Thee, and Thou didst deliver them – from their trouble, and their confidence did not prove false. The repetition of trusted is (intended) to emphasise the (thought of) confidence, for they had confidence in none other but in Thee; and so

They cried unto Thee, and escaped: – not to other gods. Therefore In Thee they trusted, and were not ashamed: – They shall not be put to shame by reason of their ruin.

But I am a worm: – I am despised in the sight of the nations as the worm, and no man: – and I am not a man in their sight, but A reproach of men and the despised of the people: – (Thus are) we in exile;

All that see me laugh me to scorn: – This is true of Israel, for all who see them laugh them to scorn; They shoot out with the lip: – and shoot out upon them with the lip words of mockery and insult; They shake the head: – and they shake the head at them. They shoot out (יפטירי): i-e. they send out words with the lip. (This meaning may be illustrated) from “the shooting out (פוטר) of water” (Prov. 17:14). “Sending out” applies also to water, as “He sendeth forth springs” (Ps. 104:10); and it applies also to words, as “Thou sendest out thy mouth to evil” (ibid. 1. 19). cf. also the Targum of שלחו והאנשׁים (and the men were sent away) (Gen. 44:3), which is אתפטרו וגובריא.

One that is committed to the Lord: – גל (one that is committed) is an adjective of similar form to (חם) in “bread that is hot (חם)” (1 Sam. 21:7); (and to תֹּם in) “the way of the Lord is a strong-hold to the upright (תֹּם)” (Prov. 10:29). (One is meant) who turns his ways and his requests and prayers unto the Lord; Him He will deliver, He will rescue him: seeing He delighteth in him: – seeing that the Lord delighteth in him and hears his prayer, cf “If the Lord delight in us” (Num. 14:8). Or its interpretation may be: “seeing he, man, delighteth in God”; as “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him” (Ps. 91:14). It is equivalent to saying: “Many a time have we seen and heard this, that when one turns his ways and prayer unto God, He delivers him. If this be so, why dost Thou not save us, for, as for ourselves, our eyes (look) unto Thee?”

Thou art He that drew me forth out of the womb; Thou didst make me trust upon my mother's breasts: – גֹּחִי (that drew me forth) = מוֹצִיאִי (that caused me to issue forth), as “And thou didst burst forth (וַתָּנַח) with thy rivers” (Ezek. 32:2). He says: How is it that Thou dost not save us while we confess Thee and know and acknowledge that strength is from Thee, and that Thou art He that helps and brings to the birth and causes the babe, whose sustenance is received only at the hands of others, to trust upon its mother's breasts? And Thou art He who makes him trust also, so that gradually he will grow and his strength and (power of) use increase in him until he can seek his sustenance of himself, and the man is mature in marvellous wisdom – from his mother's breasts until he grows up. And all is by the direction of a Director and the guidance of a Guide, and not as is asserted by those who say that everything is by nature and chance, without the direction of a Director and the guidance of a Guide. We also are the people who confess Thee.

Upon Thee I was cast from the womb: – for Thou art He who fed my mother with her sustenance, so that she could feed and bring me up. I was cast: the one who actually “casts” is the father and the mother, for he (the child) has not himself the understanding to cast his burden upon God. And so From my mother's womb my God art Thou: – for they confess Thee on my behalf.

Be not far from me: – Now also in exile be not far from me; since Thou hast been nigh me from my mother's womb as I grew up, be not far from me in the time of my trouble; for trouble is near: – but if Thou art near it will be far off. For there is none to help: – apart from Thee.

Bulls have surrounded me: – This is the trouble that is near at hand, that bulls have compassed me – a figure for lusty and powerful and wicked enemies. The interpretation of (רבים is) mighty (ones): – that is, great in strength. So also strong ones of Bashan: – Bashan is a district in the land of Israel, a district of fat and rich pasture, and the cattle that feed there are fat and strong. He compares the wicked enemies with them. And so it says (Amos 4:1) in a figure “kine of Bashan” with reference to the women who oppress the poor, who crush the needy. have beset me around (כתרוני): – equivalent to have surrounded me; just as the crown (כתר) surrounds (encircles) the head. And so we have (Judges 20:43): “they beset (כתרו) Benjamin around.”

They open their mouth against me: – These bulls just mentioned open their mouth against me and tear me. Although it is not the way of bulls to tear, yet these bulls are like A tearing and roaring lion: – i.e. a lion which is tearing and roaring, אריה (lion) (here) lacks the kaph of comparison. Similarly we have, “Judah is a lion's whelp” (Gen. 49:9); “Issachar is a strong ass” (ibid. 14); “Naphtali is a hind let loose” (ibid. 21), and such like. The roaring of the lion after he has torn is for joy and pride, as (says) the text (Amos. 3:4): “Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he have taken nothing?” So it is with enemies; after killing and plundering us, they rejoice and behave as insolent boasters.

I am poured out like water: – For fear of them I am, figuratively, poured out like water – as if I had been melted, and all my bones are parted asunder: – Bones are more substantial than water, and therefore he says of them they are parted asunder, for they are parted asunder from the ligaments by which they are bound one to the other. So also, “Our bones are scattered at the mouth ofSheol” (Ps. 141:7). My heart has become like melting wax: – דונג is the wax which is easily melted by heat. in the midst of my bowels: – All the inner parts are called bowels.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd: – My revered father of blessed memory, quoting the words of our Rabbis of blessed memory (Babli, Baba Kamma 3b), wrote to כחי (= my strength), כיחי i.e. “his phlegm (כיחי) and his effort to remove it.” And some have explained it (one of the Geonim, according to the testimony of Ibn Ezra) as a metathesis equivalent to on (= my palate), as though he said, I am not able to speak, just as when he says “and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws.” The learned Rabbi Abraham ben Ezra expounds כחי (my strength) literally: “because man's life consists in the moisture implanted at birth which binds the whole together and sustains the body. He calls (this) moisture by the name strength (כח). And see (he says) it is dried up, as happens to an old man advanced in years.” And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws (מדבק מלקוחי): – The servile lamedhis wanting (here). The regular usage would be מדבק מלקוחי for מֻדְבָּק (cleaveth) has kames, and is not in construction with jaws. The jaws are the palates above and below the tongue. The expression is used (here) in the same way as “and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth” (Job 29:10). The jaws (מלקוחים = “takers”) also are so called because they “take” the food during mastication. In the Haggadic interpretation (Shoher Too): “and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws” because my tongue cleaveth to my gullet (throat). Another interpretation: Because I have ceased from the two Laws, the written Law and the oral, 10 as it is said (Prov. 4:2): “For I give you good doctrine (לקח), forsake ye not my Law,” i.e. by reason of the persecution of the exile. And in the dust of death: – meaning, I am as near death as if Thou didst destine me, and I were destined, to be put in the grave, which is the dust of death. Thou settest me: – תשׁפתני is to be understood from (the verse) “set on (שפת) the cauldron” (2 Kings 4:38; Ezek. 24:3). In the Haggadic interpretation (Shoher Tod, with slight verbal alteration): “I am like a stove which is set between two roads on which the travellers do their cooking (שׁופתים)”

For there have surrounded me: – They are the enemies, and I am in the midst of them like one who is surrounded by dogs: – from whom there is no way of escape. And (the clause) For dogs have surrounded me is to be explained after a figurative manner; and the metaphorical interpretation is The assembly of evil-doers have encircled me like a lion my hands and my feet: – for they have encircled me like the lion which makes a circuit with his tail in the forest, and no creature which sees that circle moves out thence for fear of the lion and the terror he inspires, but they fold their hands and their feet, and the lion finds his prey in the midst of his circle. So we in exile are in the midst of a circle from which we cannot emerge lest we fall into the hand of the spoilers; for if we should escape from the power of the Mohammedans we should fall into the power of the uncircumcised, and so we fold our hands and feet and stand fearful and terror-stricken before them; for we have no power either to escape on foot or to fight with our hands. Behold, it is just as if our hands and feet were in fetters!

(If) I declare all my strong reasons (of complaint) They look and gaze upon me: – Then if I come to declare my troubles before their great ones, arising from the way their underlings oppress me, they, the great ones, look at me and they gaze upon me with the eye of scorn and hatred. They look (upon me) is here used like “Look not upon me because I am swarthy” (Song of Songs 1:6); “that they may look at thee” (Ezek. 28:17), where the expression (ראוה) has the sense of looking at with contempt and mockery. עצמתי (my strong reasons) is used here as in “Produce your cause, saith the Lord, bring forth your strong reasons (עצמותיכם)” (Is. 41:21). There are, however, those who interpret עצמותי (here) quite literally as from עצם (bone), and explain אספר from the sense of מספר (number); and then its interpretation will be: Because of my great weakness I can count all my bones and they look and gaze upon me, meaning upon my flesh and woeful appearance, and they mock me.

They part my garments among them, And for my clothes do they cast lots: – They take our money and the labour of our hands to such an extent that they even part our garments and our clothes and take them for themselves and cast lots for them.

But Thou, O Lord – when Thou dost see these sorrows – be not far off: – for Thou art My succour, – and my strength, and I have put my trust in Thee only; wherefore haste Thee to help me. –

Deliver my soul from the sword; – from the sword of exile, lest I be exterminated in exile: My only one from the power of the dog: – Dog, lion, and wild oxen are figurative for the kings of the nations of the world among whom we are in exile. And he describes each one in accordance with its importance (greatness). My only one is the spirit which is solitary dwelling in houses of clay, and there is nothing else like it; for the lustful soul (נפט) is the body.

Deliver me from the lion's mouth; Yea, from the horns of the wild oxen Thou hast answered me. – The wild ox will gore with his horns, as it says (Deut. 33:17): “With them shall he gore peoples.” Thou hast answered me is equivalent to “Thou wilt answer me,” and of this there are many similar examples in the words of prophecy. Or its interpretation may be: Because Thou hast delivered me many times from great troubles, the deliverance from which was like being saved from the horns of the wild oxen; and as Thou didst bring me out from the other exiles, so save me now from the lion's mouth.

I will declare Thy name to my brethren: In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. – When Thou shalt deliver me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen, when Thou dost bring me out of exile, then I will declare Thy name to my brethren, I will praise Thee in the midst of the congregation. My brethren are the children of Edom, amongst whom we are in exile. So also the children of Ishmael and the children of Keturah, for all are the children of our father Abraham. Or its interpretation may be: We who are in exile will declare the miracles and wonders God has wrought for us in our exile to the Ten Tribes who are in exile, in refreshment and union, and upon whom the hand of the nations has not pressed heavily as upon us.

Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him; All ye of the seed of Jacob, glorify Him: – So shall they say in the time of their deliverance. The interpretation of ye that fear the Lord is “ye of Israel,” and this division is like “Ye that fear the Lord, bless ye the Lord” (Ps. 135:20); “house of Levi” (ibid.); “house of Aaron” (ibid. 19); “house of Israel” (ibid.). The reason is that each separate one is mentioned according to its gradation and significance, and according to its relative nearness to God. Notice also that in this verse he mentions love and fear, for “glory” is equivalent to love, and those that fear the Lord from fear will attain to love. And stand in awe of Him, all ye seed of Israel: – i.e. those who have not yet attained to love. In the Haggadic interpretation (Shoher Tod, with a slight verbal alteration) (it is said): “Rabbi Joshua ben Levi says: Ye that fear the Lord – these are the fearers of Heaven; Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani says: These are proselytes of righteousness in the age to come. Our Rabbis say: The fearers of the Lord are the priests, all the seed of Jacob are the Levites, and all the seed of Israel is to be understood literally.”

For He hath not despised: – And so will they say when they give thanks as they come forth from the exile: “When we were in exile He did not despise nor abhor our affliction wherewith we were afflicted.” nor abhorred (שׁקץ): – (This word) has the meaning of תועבה (abomination), as (Lev. 11:43): “Ye shall not make yourselves abominable (תשׁקצו).” the affliction: – (עֱנוּת here) is a noun having the sense of עני (afflicted). Some, however (Targumist, Rashi, and others besides), interpret ענות as the “prayer.” of the afflicted: – viz. that which he answers with his mouth, as (Prov. 16:1): “the answer (מענה) of the tongue.” Neither hath He hid His face from him; But when he cried unto Him, He heard: – (שָׁמֵעַ here) is perfect of the verb of the form (חָפֵץ in) “because he had delight (חָפֵץ) in Jacob's daughter” (Gen. 34:19).

Of Thee is my praise: – The speaker is every individual Israelite, or else all Israel as one, inasmuch as they are the subject of the Psalm: my praise, i.e. with which I praise Thee: in the great congregation – of the nations; it (my praise) is of Thee, for Thou hast been to me the occasion of praise because Thou didst deliver me. My vows – which I vowed – will I pay before them that fear Him: – for all the nations will fear Him then, as he says (infra): All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord.

The meek shall eat and be satisfied: They shall praise the Lord that seek after Him: – i.e. Israel, because they are meek, for the Gentiles have been proud until the time of the redemption of Israel; so also Israel is identical with those that seek after Him, for they are seeking after Him in the exile; and when they are redeemed they shall eat and be satisfied with the spoil of their enemies, and delight themselves – the reverse of what they experienced in exile – and they shall say to them: Let your heart live: – the interpretation of which is on the lines of, “and the spirit of Jacob lived” (ibid. 45:27), the converse of “and his heart died” (1 Sam. 25:37); for the living spirit is in the heart, and when man is in trouble his heart dies, as he (the Psalmist) says (Ps. 109:22), and when he passes out from trouble to relief, behold, his heart lives. And the significance of for ever (is): – they shall be no longer in exile, but shall be in their own land, rejoicing and glad of heart, they and their children, for ever.

They shall remember: – The nations (shall remember) the poverty and weakness in which Israel was while in exile; they shall see the great deliverance. and all the ends of the earth shall turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee: – The Prophet addresses the Name directly.

For the Kingdom is the Lord's: – Then all the Gentiles shall recognise that the Kingdom is the Lord's. And He is the ruler over the Gentiles: – and then He shall be ruler over the Gentiles, as it says (Zech. 14:9): “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.”

All the fat ones of earth shall eat and worship: All that go down to the dust shall bow before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. – My revered father of blessed memory explained the verse as having two applications: that the Gentiles – those, that is, who are prosperous and flourishing and who turn to the Lord – shall remain so then, for God will accept them on their repentance, and they shall eat, and worship God, and praise Him for all the goodness; but there are some of the Gentiles whom He will not receive, even if they should bow before Him – those, namely, who have harried Israel; for they are those that go down to the dust, meaning they shall be in Gehenna; neither will God preserve alive the soul of one of them, as the Prophet says (Joel 4:21): “I will cleanse – (but of) their blood I do not cleanse.” For for all the evil things they have done to Israel they shall be able to give indemnity, as it says (Is. 60:17): “For brass I will bring gold”; but the blood of man they shall not be able to indemnify, therefore their life shall be (taken) in the place of their life: and this interpretation is correct. The learned Rabbi Abraham, however, has expounded the whole verse in another sense. He says: “the fat ones of the earth are those who enjoy themselves in this world, in eating every kind of delicacy; and if they have their delight in this world, in their latter days they shall worship and bow down before the angel who gathers their spirit, and not one of them shall be able to save his soul alive. And this is an intimation that their soul shall perish in the world to come, in contradistinction to the meek, of whom he says that their soul shall live for ever.” And what he says about (bowing down) “before the angel who gathers their spirit” is Midrashic (interpretation): and so they say in the Haggadic interpretation (Babli, Niddah 30 b; Shoher Tob, with a slight change): “For to Me every knee shall bow” (Is. 45:23) that is, at the day of death, as it is said, “before Him shall they bow, all that go down to the dust.”

A seed shall serve Him: – Still there is a seed that shall serve Him – that is, the seed of Israel, who serve Him continually. It shall he counted as the Lord's for the generation(s): – It shall be called and counted by the name of the Lord, and men shall speak of them as “the people of the Lord”; for even though the rest of the nations should turn unto the Lord, only Israel shall be called “the people of the Lord,” and he alone shall be counted as the Lord's to all generations.

They shall come and shall declare: – Those who come up from the exile, who shall come from all the ends of the earth, shall declare His righteousness unto a people – which hath been born of them: – to their children they shall declare His righteousness, how He hath done: – what He has done for them; for, because these will not have seen the work of the Lord that He did in the case of themselves and their fathers, they shall declare it to them. The uncircumcised have interpreted this Psalm of Jesus (in the sense that) it tells of all the evils which Israel did to him. Lo! the Son cries to the Father out of his troubles and says: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? and so all the Psalm. They corrupt the word כארי (as a lion) in the clause ורגלי ידי כארי (as a lion my hands and my feet), and read כארו (they pierce), giving it the meaning (of כרה in) “if a man shall dig (יכרה) a pit” (Exod. 21:33), because they drove nails through his hands and feet when they hanged him. Also the verse and his soul he hath not kept alive has led them astray, for they say that this one is God, before whom all who go down to the dust shall bow, and he did not wish to keep his soul alive, because he came down to assume (human) flesh conditionally that they might kill the flesh, and that by this those who go down to Gehenna might be saved. So, forsooth, he did not desire to keep his soul alive, but surrendered himself into the power of those who slew him. Now let them hear what is involved in their words! They say that he did not wish to keep his soul alive nor rescue it from the power of those who slew him. If so, why did he cry: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? (Why art Thou so) far from helping me? if he had no desire to be saved? Has he not forgotten the condition (of his taking flesh)? He says also: but Thou answerest not, and perhaps does not wish to be answered? And further, if he were really God, he would be able to save himself; and further, when he says the praises of Israel, when it is they who are doing him evil? How could he say that they are praising God? Once again he says: Our fathers trusted in Thee; and if he was what they allege, he had only one father. Again, this God says of himself that he is a worm and no man, forsooth! Lo! he says: One that is committed to the Lord, him He will deliver, He will rescue him. If (he spoke) of the (human) flesh. He did not deliver nor rescue him; and if of the Godhead, there was no need of rescue. He says also: But Thou art He that took me out of the womb i.e. he himself it was who brought out of the womb. And he says: I will declare Thy name to my brethren, although God has no brethren. And notice it is false, for the declaring and praising and thanksgiving are to follow the rescuing, and you know he was not rescued. He also says: All ye of the seed of Jacob, glorify Him.... For He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, while Israel it was who did him evil; and his affliction the Father despised and abhorred, and hid His face from him, and on his crying unto Him did not hearken. Behold, all his words are belied. Then he says, All the kindreds of the nations, while, as you see, the Jews and the Mohammedans do not believe in him.