Radak (David Kimhi) on Psalms

For the Precentor: 'al muth labben: A Psalm of David. – The majority of the interpreters (Rabbi Dunash the Levite and Ibn Ezra) say that David uttered it with reference to one of his enemies who died, one of the princes of the heathen, who oppressed Israel and whose name was Labben; and that when he died David uttered this Psalm. Some also say (Ibn Ezra, ad loc.) that Labben (לבן) is an inversion of Nabal (נבל), and they say that David uttered this Psalm when Nabal the Carmelite died. But this is very far-fetched; for the subject-matter of the Psalm tells of a man who did evil to Israel, while Nabal did no harm to anyone, but simply was avaricious. And some say (ibid.) that לבן is to be read as if written with a yodh (לבין), and then the reference is to Goliath, who is called a champion (הַבֵּנַיִם אִישׁ); and when David had killed him he uttered this Psalm. My revered father, of blessed memory, has (also) written that this Psalm was (originally) uttered with reference to Goliath; but he explained לבן (as referring) to a singer whose name was Ben (בֵּן), as it is written in Chronicles (I Chron. 15:1 8): “and with them their brethren of the second degree, Zechariah, Ben, and Jaaziel;” and he explained מות על, which is two words [= on the death of], as one word, עלמות, from (the expression) שׁיר עלמות; and similar instances of words divided into two, but with the significance of a single word, are קוח פקח (= release, Is. lxi. 1), פיה יפה (= very fair, Jer. 46:20), and יונים לגאי (= proud, Ps. 123:4). And although the lamedh of לַבֵּן, is vocalised with the vowel pathah, and this is not in accordance with usage in the case of a man's name – for you do not say ליצחק, לַידותון, because the article is not employed with a proper name – nevertheless the article here is employed to indicate that he speaks with reference to Ben the singer; for if he had said לְבן (pointed) with sheva it would not have been clear that he was speaking of the singer whose name was Ben. At all events, it is admissible to interpret the subject-matter of the Psalm as having reference to Goliath the Philistine.

I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart: – for the death of Goliath the Philistine was a great deliverance to David and to Israel; and for this (reason) he says with my whole heart. I will recount all Thy marvellous works: – for, in addition to every individual wonder, a man recounts other wonders which are past; as it says, “He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered” (Ps. 111:4).

I will be glad and exult in Thee: – for in Thee I trusted when I came to the fight with him, though I was a youth and he a man of war. I will sing to Thy Name, Thou Most High: – for Thou art exalted above all, and vain is the might of man.

When my enemies turn back, They stumble and perish at Thy presence. – For all the Philistine armies fled and turned back, as it is written (1 Sam. 17:51): “And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead they fled.”

For Thou hast maintained my right and my cause: – Thou hast fought for me, for it was a great miracle that the stone reached his forehead, as he was altogether clad in iron; and it found an exposed place in his forehead. Thou didst take Thy seat in the throne: – Thou satest on the throne of judgment, Thou who art A judge of righteousness, – to exact Thy judgment from him who reviled the armies of the living God. The lamedh of לכסא is used in the place of beth. And so also lamedh is used in the phrase לחרב לפניכם, “(they shall fall) before you by the sword” (Lev. 26:7), where לחרב is equivalent to בחרב; (and again in the verse) “I have slain (a man) by my wounding” (לפצעי, Gen. 4:23).

Thou hast rebuked the nations (גוִֹיִם גערת): – (The expression for) rebuke when used without the preposition beth has the meaning of destruction, as: “Rebuke the wild beast of the reed” (Ps. 68:31); and as, “Behold, I will rebuke the seed for your sake” (Mal. 2:3); and so Thou hast rebuked (the) nations here. And he says, Thou hast rebuked the nations – these being the Philistines. Thou hast destroyed the wicked (man): – viz. Goliath the Philistine. Thou hast blotted out their name: – speaking of the dead in the war, as it is said (1 Sam. 17:52), “And the despatched of the Philistines fell.” for ever and aye (וָעֶד): – This word (וָעֶד) signifies a longer duration of time than עולם (for ever). Unless immediately before the end of a verse, it is pointed with pathah; (and so also) when without (the accent) ‘athnah, as (in the passage): “And do not for ever (לָעַד) remember iniquity” (Is. 64:8); and (even) with ’athnah, as (in the passage): “Knowest thou this from old time (מִנִּי־עַד)” (Job 20:4); but at the end of a verse (in the form) לעולם ועד, with seghol.

And thou, O Enemy, they have come to an end, they are desolate for ever; Even the cities which thou hast overthrown, Their very memorial is perished. – The he (of הָאוֹיֵב) is he of the vocative, as (in the passage), “O assembly (הקהל), one statute for you” (Num. 15:15); and as, “O generation (הדור), see ye the word of the Lord” (Jer. 20:31). And as he said, their name Thou hast blotted out, so here he addresses the enemy: “thy name is blotted out as the name of the cities thou hast devastated is blotted out; or, as they have come to an end for ever and their memorial is perished, so has thy memorial perished now.” And my revered father, of blessed memory, expounds: destructions have come to an end, חרבות תמו – i.e. the destructions thou wast making shalt thou cause no more. And the learned Rabbi Abraham ben Ezra, of blessed memory, ex-pounds (ad loc.): because the destructions which thou hast made have come to an end and the cities which thou hast uprooted, their memorial is perished, thou hast thought to escape; and hast forgotten that the Lord sitteth enthroned for ever. The explanation (of המה in) המה וזכרם (their very memorial) is, it intensifies the pronominal suffix, for (the sense) would have been represented sufficiently by the mem of זכרם (their memorial). Or its interpretation may be their memorial has perished so (completely) that those who see it shall say: “These surely are not the cities that were built!” And on this interpretation המה will be explained as (to be read) with a mark of interjection.

But the Lord sitteth enthroned for ever: – These every one may perish; but the Lord sitteth enthroned for ever, and judges these every one. And this is what he means when he says: He hath prepared His throne for judgment, – as it says (Ps. 102:27), “they shall perish, but Thou remainest.” And the significance of sitteth enthroned (יֵשֵׁב) is that of enduring and stability; and so (in the passage) “The Lord sat enthroned at the flood” (Ps. 29:10).

And He shall judge the world in righteousness, He shall minister judgment to the people in equity. – תבל (world) is the inhabited part. He says: As He will judge my cause in righteousness, so He judges the peoples in righteousness and in equity always and at all times; and when one people prevails over another it is (equally) a judgment from Him.

The Lord also will be a high tower for the oppressed, A high tower in times of trouble: – On every occasion that He judges the world He is a high tower of refuge for the poor. Although he may be lowly and without power and strength, He dare not leave him to those who are stronger, but is to him a high tower. And the poor has safety in Him as a man finds safety in a strong tower, and as Israel have found safety in Him to-day, and He is to them a strong tower. And a high tower also in times when they are in trouble, for Israel were now in great trouble on account of this Philistine, and Philistines who were making themselves masters over them, as it is said in (the section about) King Saul (i Sam. 9:16), “because their cry is come unto Me.”

And they will trust in Thee: – It is right that they should trust in Thee – viz. those that know Thy Name – as Israel to-day – for they have seen That Thou, Lord, didst not forsake them that seek Thee: – but that Thou wast with them in the time of their trouble.

Sing praises to the Lord which dwelleth in Sion: – He says: which dwelleth in Sion, and (that) in spite of the fact that Sion was still in the hands of the Jebusites, because they had a tradition that the Glory should dwell there and the Sanctuary be built there; and Sion is the principal part (head) of Jerusalem. Declare among the peoples His doings: – In every place whither ye go, tell the doings and the wonders He worked among you.

For He that maketh inquisition for blood remembered them: – God, who makes inquisition for the blood of the poor from their oppressors, remembered that blood which the Philistines had shed in Israel. He did not forget the cry of the meek (ענוים): – The Kethib is written with a yodh (עניים = poor), but the Keri (needs) a waw (ענוים = meek), for the meek are for the most part the poor and helpless.

Have mercy upon me, Lord: – (The word חננני is) pointed with pathah under the heth, shewing that it is from the Piel, though undoubted, as (Gen. 42:21): אלינו בהתחננו See my affliction at the hands of them that hate me: – as Thou hast seen (me suffer) from this enemy – namely, Goliath. Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death: – for all were of opinion that I should fall at the hand of Goliath. The (phrase) gates of death means “near to death,” as the gate is to the house.

That I may recount: – so that, when I am delivered from those that hate me, I may recount all Thy praises: in the gates of the daughter of Sion: – for there shall be the thanks-giving, and songs and psalms shall be uttered there, for there the Glory shall rest. I will exult in Thy deliverance: – i.e. the deliverance which Thou shalt effect for me from every single enemy I have. And he says in the gates of (in the same sense as in the verse) “to the gate unto the elders” (Deut. 25:7); and the word תְּהִלָּתֶיךָ is written with yodh (in the suffix), for he intends to speak of many praises. It lacks the complete sign of the plural feminine, having the plural masculine suffix termination only. And similar examples are: “I am wearied in the multitude of thy counsels” (עֲצָתָיִךְ, Is. 47:13); “And thy sisters (וַאֲחוֹתַיִךְ, Ezek. 16:55), Sodom and her daughters” (see the interpretation our rabbi (ad loc.) gives). And in that he says here all Thy praises; and in another place (Ps. 106:2) asks, “Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord?” David says, I will shew forth all Thy praises. In spite of all the troubles which came upon him, he gave praise and (made) confession to God, who delivered him from the enemies; but when he comes to narrate the wondrous signs He had given Israel generation after generation, he asks, “Who can make known all His praise?” And so the individual alone is not able to tell the wondrous signs of goodness and mercy which the Holy One – Blessed be He! – worketh for him, as he says (ibid. 40:6), “If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.” For sometimes God – Blessed be He! – does a wondrous sign for a man who is unaware of it until later when he reflects upon it. And so our rabbis of blessed memory have said (Babli, Niddah 31a), “Even he to whom the wondrous sign happens does not recognise it.” And when David says all Thy praises, he speaks of the wondrous signs which He had wrought for him which were evident and known to all in the war with the enemies.

The nations are sunk down in the pit that they made: – The Philistines who came to fight against us thought to cause us to fall, and they have fallen themselves In a net which they hid: – and in a net which they hid to take us is their own foot fallen: – And the explanation of the particle זוּ is that it is equivalent to אשׁר; and so (in the passage) לו חטאנו זוּ, “He against whom we have sinned” (Is. 42:24); but it is possible to take it in its usual sense as equivalent to זֶה, this (i.e. in this net).

The Lord hath made Himself known: – Now the Lord has made Himself known in this war, for Israel had conquered them with but little strength and power, compared with theirs; and they would not have been able to conquer them except the Lord had fought for Israel. He hath executed judgment:on the Philistines. The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands: This (wicked one) is Goliath, for with his own sword was he killed. And the word נוֹקֵשׁ (snared) is written (here) with sere equivalent to pathah, and is the niphal form with the same root-meaning as מוֹקְשִׁים, snares. It is possible also to explain the nun as radical, and then it is an intransitive verb, of which the meaning can be exemplified in the verse: “they that seek my life laid snares (וינקשו)” (Ps. 38:13). And נוקשׁ and יקשׁ have the same meaning. Higgayon. Selah:This deliverance is the subject of our meditation (higgayon) and thanksgiving.

The wicked shall return to Sheol, Even all the nations that forget God. The wicked shall return to the grave. And he says, they shall return just as “and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. 3:19). And shall return is used (in the manner of) a prayer, as if saying: Just as all these haters of Israel have died, so let all those perish who forget God. And in the Haggadic interpretation (Babli, Sanhedrin 105a, and Shoher Tod, ad loc.) “to Sheol is Gehinnom. And they say (ibid, with a slight verbal change), Why does he say לשׁאולה, to Sheol? Is not every he at the end of a word equivalent to lamedh at the commencement? Why, then, does he say לשאולה with lamedh? To say that they shall descend to the very heart, or to the lowest degree, of Sheol” (Gen. Rabbah, pars. 50 and 68).

For not for ever snail the needy be forgotten: – If Israel should continue in trouble because of the Philistines, this will not be for any length of time. Nor the expectation of the poor perish for ever: – Not is actually written once only, but is understood twice; and such is the usage of the language in many passages. ענוים (meek), the Kethib has waw, but the Keri is עניים with yodh; and the meanings are cognate, for the poor are generally the meek.

Arise, O Lord: קומה, Arise, with the accent milra. And he says: “Arise.” as he says, “Lift up Thyself”; and all is figurative, (calling to God) that He should rise up to judge the wicked. let not man prevail: – Let not the children of men who possess strength and might against Israel prevail any more. Let the nations be judged before Thy face, – פניך על, equivalent to לפניך. And so, “other gods before Me (פני על)” (Exod. 20:3; Deut. 5:7).

Put them in fear, O Lord: שׁיתה (put) with the accent milra. מורה (fear) is written with he for aleph. He asks that (God) would bring it about that they may fear Him. Let the nations know themselves to be but mortal. Selah: – Let them know that they are mortal (men, אנושׁים) and have not strength as against God, for the sense of אנושׁ is derived from that (of אָנוּשׁ in the passage) (Jer. 30:12): “it is ill (אנושׁ) with thy bruise.”

Why standest Thou afar, O Lord? – David did not utter this Psalm of any one particular occasion; it is rather a prayer which anyone who is in trouble by reason of an enemy might use. In it he tells of the ways of the wicked in his persecution of the poor and him who is helpless to escape him. And because usually the persecutor does not act openly, he tells of the persecution by the wicked, how he oppresses the poor by means of ambush and secret place; and that (the poor) has no means of safeguarding himself from him but (in turning) his eyes upon the Lord. And he tells of the deeds of the wicked individually and generally, for the wicked is one and his helpers many. And he includes in the Psalm likewise (a reference to) the persecution with which the nations of the world would persecute Israel in their land; therefore he says (5:16), the heathen are perished out of his land. And he says: that mortal man (shall no longer) oppress (5:18). He says: Why standest Thou afar, O Lord? For when help comes from Him to the poor and to him that crieth, it is as if He were nigh and helping him, as it says (Deut. 4:7): “that hath a God so nigh unto them”; and it says (Ps. 145:18): “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him”; and when the enemy prevails it is as if God were far away, and hiding His eyes from the poor – therefore he says: Why standest Thou afar, O Lord? And the beth of ברחוק stands really for two words; I mean רחוק במקום, “in a place afar.” Why hidest Thou Thyself in times of trouble (בצרה)? – times, that is, when the poor is in trouble (בצרה).

In the pride of the wicked does he hotly pursue the poor: – that is, in the (bold and) public way with which in his pride he pursues him. Let them be caught in the devices that (זוּ) they have planned: – Let them be caught is a prayer: May it please Thee that the wicked be caught in the devices that they have planned to catch the poor. זוּ is to be explained as the equivalent of אשׁר, and so (Is. 42:24): לו חטאנו זוּ, “He against whom we have sinned.”

For the wicked doth congratulate himself: – because he congratulates himself upon his soul's desire: – When he does it and none denies him, Thou shalt shew him that there is One supreme over him, and he shall be caught in what he proposes to do. And blesses the robber, him who despises the Lord: – The wicked blesses and praises the robber and him who holds on his way and despises God, and says that He is powerless to deliver the oppressed out of his hand, or that there is none who pays regard to him, as it says (5:13), He says in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.

The wicked according to the loftiness of his looks (lit. nose): – The loftiness of the heart displays itself in the face, and the face is indicated by the nose (אף), for it is high upon the face, as (1 Sam 20:41), “and fell on his nose (לאפיו),” where the meaning is on his face;“ and bowed to him nose (אפים) to the earth” (Gen. 42:6), where the meaning is faces. doth not (seek) God: – Because of his haughtiness and pride he does not seek God, neither does he pray to Him. All his thoughts are, There is no God: – All the thoughts of the wicked and his calculations are: that there is no God judging in the earth, and everything which man pleases to do let him do, for there is none to seek (require), and none to search it out, therefore he does not seek God.

His ways are grievous – (יחילו may be explained) from the significance of חיל in “pain (חיל) as of a woman in travail” (Ps. 48:7). He says: that the evil ways of the wicked cause pangs to the poor. always: – for all the while he is in the world they are afraid of him. O Exalted One, Thy judgments are out of his sight: מרום (Exalted) is a vocative addressed to God – Blessed be He! He says: For Thou, O Lord, Exalted One, Thy judgments are out of his sight and do not touch him, therefore he is boastful. All his adversaries: – i.e. the poor. he puffeth at them: – They are as a puff of breath before him. Or it (יפיח) may be interpreted from the meaning (of פח) a trap and a snare: as if to say that he sets a trap among them to take them. And so “they bring a city into a snare (יפיחו)” (Prov. 29:8).

He says in his heart, I shall not be moved: – He thinks in his heart I shall not ever be moved; I shall never be moved from my greatness. generation after generation not be in adversity: – For generation after generation shall I live, for I shall not be in, nor see, adversity; therefore I shall live a long time.

His mouth is full of swearing, deceit, and fraud: – Such is the way of the wicked; when he wishes to deceive others he swears to them with a full mouth, so that he may seem to swear in all sincerity, and this is deceit and fraud. Fraud also is the same as deceit, because there is not really in his heart what he pretends with his mouth. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity: – When he takes an oath with his tongue, under his tongue is mischief and iniquity. The heart is under the tongue, hidden from what is revealed by the tongue. So also (in the verse) “high praise was under my tongue” (Ps. 66:17); he (the Psalmist) is speaking of the heart. And מלא (full) is not an adjective, but a verb, as: “and the glory of the Lord filled (מלא) the tabernacle” (Exod. 40:34). He says: he fills his mouth with swearing so that a man may trust him, and then he plays him false.

He sitteth in the places of ambush of the villages: – The villages are the open towns which are upon the highways: as “her towns (lit. her daughters) and her villages” (Jos. 15:45); “the villages that Kedar doth inhabit” (Is. 42:11). Similarly we find (Zech. 2:8) “Jerusalem shall dwell as open regions.” In the secret places doth he murder the innocent: – for usually the wicked does not do his wicked work openly, but he sits in ambushes and secret places that he may beware of the sons of men so that they may not see him. But he cannot beware of the All-seeing God! His eyes lie in wait for the hapless: – לחלכה is equivalent to חלך with the addition of he; and its interpretation: “for the poor.” He says: that the eyes of the wicked are on the look out for the poor, to take him. And יצפנו (lie in wait for) is an intransitive verb, as if he meant “he sets his eyes in a hidden place (צפון), and from thence looks out over the roads.”

He lieth in ambush in the secret place as a lion in his den: He lieth in ambush to catch the poor: He catcheth the poor, when he draweth him in his net. – He likens him to a lion as he crouches in his den and lieth in wait to catch the passer-by or one near at hand, so that they will not (be able to) guard themselves against him and flee from him when they see him; and when he sees the prey he catcheth (it). And (the word) “catching” here means “seizing quickly,” for the wicked sits in ambush in the secret place. Afterwards he compares him with a fowler who spreads his net and stands at a distance from it so that the bird may not be aware of him, and the cords of the net are in his hand, and when the bird falls into the net he closes the net with the cords in his hand and the bird is taken. So is the way of the wicked. Sometimes he will not be in ambush, but will stand at a distance from the roads, so that men may not beware of him; and then when he sees the poor and the helpless he rushes upon them. Or he stations some members of his band on the roads without any weapons, while he himself is with the armed men some distance off. Then as defenceless people pass these give them a signal and they come; and they (the decoys) are to them as the net to the fowler. He tells of yet another way the wicked adopts, and this is what he says:

He is crushed, he humbleth himself: – ודכה, the Kethib is written with waw, and the Keri (ידכה) with yodh, and the waw and the yodh interchange. He says: that in yet another sense it is the way of the wicked to get the poor into his power. He makes himself (as one) crushed and humble. He and his band pretend that they are weak and crushed, so that the children of men may not be on their guard against them, but go forth with them in the company on the way; and then when they are far from any human habitation they reveal their strength and power and seize them; and this (is the meaning of) And the hapless fall by their strong (ones): – (The Kethib) is written as one word, חלכאים, but the Keri reads as two words, כאים חל; and its interpretation is: “the congregation of the stricken and the weary.” And עצומיו (their strong ones) is an adjective for “their strong limbs” – their hands and feet. And all these are the ways which he narrates in the matter of the wicked, to shew that in all these ways he may be wary of the sons of men, but cannot be wary of God, and (that) he shews himself to be no fearer of God; for he says in his heart that He (God) does not see and does not know, as he says:

He says in his heart, God hath forgotten: He hideth His face; He will never see. – If He knows, He has forgotten. Or its interpretation is: that He does not know at all, like the man who has forgotten a matter and does not know it, or like the man who knows a matter, but hides his face and is unwilling ever to see it; therefore he says:

Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up Thy hand: – Because the wicked says that Thou dost not see, do Thou arise and lift up Thy hand against him. Forget not the meek: – even as the wicked has said, God has forgotten. The Kethib is עניים (poor); the Keri ענוים (meek).

Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God, (And) say in his heart, Thou wilt not require? – For why is he despising Thee? Only because he says in his heart that Thou wilt not require, nor regard what he says and does.

Thou hast seen: – The yodh of the third radical is missing from the form as written. The wicked man says that Thou dost not see; but Thou hast seen all. For Thou – assuredly beholdest mischief and spite: – The mischief and spite which the wicked exhibits towards the poor, Thou beholdest it. To put (the matter) in Thine hand: – when it shall please Thee to. exact the judgment of the poor from the wicked. For To Thee the hapless leaveth: – the hapless, i.e. he that is poor, (leaveth) his cause; for often has he seen that Thou hast been the helper of the fatherless: – for Thou hast been the helper of the fatherless and the weak, therefore he waits for Thee and leaves his cause to Thee. And in חלכה the he is added, as we have (already) explained (supra, 5:8).

Break Thou the arm of the wicked: – Break his arm and his strength. And as for the evil man, do Thou seek out his wickedness and Thou shalt find none: – When he says Thou wilt not require, as he said above (13), shew him that Thou dost require; and if Thou doest so, Thou shalt not find wickedness in the earth, for if Thou shouldest break his arm, then those who remain will hear and fear. And רשע and רע (wickedness and evil) are synonyms (lit., is a double word).

The Lord is King for ever and ever: – When Thou shalt execute judgment upon the wicked who oppress Israel in exile, then Thou shalt be King for ever and ever and none shall rebel against Thy word, as it says (Zech. 14:9), “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth ”; and then The heathen are perished out of his land: – and the kingdom shall return to Israel.

Lord, Thou hast heard the desire of the meek: – Thou hast heard is equivalent (here) to “Thou wilt hear,” and its interpretation (is) Thou hast heard their prayer according to their desire. Or its interpretation is: Thou didst hear their desire before they gave it expression, as it says (Is. 65:24): “And it shall come to pass that, before they call, I will answer”; and so on. Thou wilt establish their heart: – Thou wilt remove from their heart worldly anxiety, for their heart is distracted by reason of their poverty and their wanderings, and Thou wilt help them to establish their heart upon Thee in devotion. And then Thou wilt make Thine ear attend – to their prayer. And the interpretation of אזנך תקשׁיב is: Thou shalt make Thine ears to be attentive.

To judge the fatherless and the downtrodden: – And what was their prayer? (For Thee) to judge the fatherless and downtrodden. And its interpretation is: to exact their judgment from their oppressors. For No longer shall terrify – them or affright them any more man (that is) of the earth: – and they shall only be in fear of Thee. לערץ (terrify) is (here) a transitive verb, and is similarly transitive (in the passages): “when He ariseth to terrify (לערץ) the earth” (Is. 2:19); “Wilt thou harass (תערוץ) a driven leaf?” (Job 13:25).