Unto the end. A psalm for David.

“Those who trust in the things of this life are in no better situation than the sparrow, which relies on the wilderness and is prey to all. People who put their hope in money are like that. Just as the sparrow is snared by children with bird lime and trap and countless other devices, so too the wealthy by friend and foe. They are much more vulnerable than a sparrow, with many to set traps for them and, more immediately, evil tendencies of their own. They are migrants, constantly reacting to developments, fearful of the long arm of the law and the emperor's wrath, the wiles of flatterers and the deceit of friends. In time of war their fear is greater than anyone's, in time of peace they suspect treachery, their wealth never being secure of proof against loss. Hence they are always taking to flight and migrating, searching out wilderness and eyries, preferring the dark and looking for the black of night in noontime, adopting disguises to achieve it. Good people, on the contrary, are quite different. "The ways of their righteous shine like the sun," remember. I mean, far from opting for scheming and lawlessness, their souls are at rest.… How then is this darkness to be dissipated? By separating yourself from all these things and coming to depend on hope in God, sinner though you be ten times over.… This is remarkable, in fact, that even sinners who cling to this anchor are invincible. It is, you see, a particular mark of an option for God that though weighed down by such awful evils they are still buoyed up by his lovingkindness. In other words, as the one trusting in man is doubly cursed, so the one trusting in God is blessed. So tear yourself away from all these things, and cling to this anchor.… Let us come before him, and remain ever with our eyes on him.”

“This title does not require a fresh consideration: for the meaning of, "to the end," has already been sufficiently handled. Let us then look to the text itself of the Psalm, which to me appears to be sung against the heretics, who, by rehearsing and exaggerating the sins of many in the Church, as if either all or the majority among themselves were righteous, strive to turn and snatch us away from the breasts of the one True Mother Church: affirming that Christ is with them, and warning us as if with piety and earnestness, that by passing over to them we may go over to Christ, whom they falsely declare they have. Now it is known that in prophecy Christ, among the many names in which notice of Him is conveyed in allegory, is also called a mountain. We must accordingly answer these people, and say, "I trust in the Lord: how say ye to my soul, Remove into the mountains as a sparrow?" (ver. 1). I keep to one mountain wherein I trust, how say ye that I should pass over to you, as if there were many Christs? Or if through pride you say that you are mountains, I had indeed need to be a sparrow winged with the powers and commandments of God: but these very things hinder my flying to these mountains, and placing my trust in proud men. I have a house where I may rest, in that I trust in the Lord. For even "the sparrow hath found her a house," and, "The Lord hath become a refuge to the poor." Let us say then with all confidence, lest while we seek Christ among heretics we lose Him, "In the Lord I trust: how say ye to my soul, Remove into the mountains as a sparrow?"”

“How do you say to my soul, “Wander from your mountain, etc. This is on the order of (I Sam. 26: 19): “for they have driven me today from cleaving to the Lord’s heritage,” for they drove him out of the [Holy] Land to outside the [Holy] Land, and here he says, “I took refuge in the Lord [hoping] that He would restore me to cleave to His heritage. How do You, who drive away my soul, say to me,...“Wander from your mountain”? Pass over your mountain, you wandering bird. For every wandering person is compared to a bird that wanders from its nest, as it is written (in Prov. 27:8): “As a bird wandering from its nest, so is a man wandering from his place.” For your nest has wandered, because we have driven you from the entire mountain like a wandering bird. The masoretic spelling is נודו [plural] because it is also expounded on in reference to Israel, that the nations say that to them.”

“In the preceding Psalms a thanksgiving was set forth for deliverance from enemies; here he shows the confidence conceived from this. And he speaks in the person of a man desiring the benefits of God, who obtains security. The title, "Unto the end, a Psalm of David": Jerome has, "the victor." This was expounded above. This Psalm can be expounded literally of David; mystically, however, of Christ, or allegorically; morally, indeed, of the just man and of heretics, as the Gloss expounds. First, then, David sets forth his confidence, "In the Lord I put my trust," as one delivered by the just judgment of God, which casts down sinners and exalts the poor: Jeremiah 17: "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence"; Daniel 3: "There is no confusion to them that trust in thee." Second, he sets down the assault made upon his confidence, which was made by words: "How say you," etc. For to David as he fled, certain men counseled that he should go to fortified places and mountains, or that he should hide there, as a sparrow is made to do. How? "Behold the sinners," etc. And this is expounded in two ways. First, that these are the words not of David, but of others: as if to say, therefore flee away, because they have bent the bow. Or that they are the words of David, as if to say: I trust in the Lord, because they have bent the bow, the sinners have prepared their arrows, etc. And he does three things: first he sets down their depraved solicitude; second, their perverse intention, that they may shoot; third, their unjust action, "because the things which thou hast made perfect." Mystically, of Christ, thus: I, Christ, trust in the Lord: how then do you Pharisees say, flee into the mountain, that is, to the observances of the Law given on Mount Sinai — Deuteronomy 33: "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose to us from Seir" — and unless thou do this, behold the sinners have bent the bow, etc., that is, they have prepared themselves to kill thee and thy disciples; and this, because the things which thou hast made perfect they have destroyed, that is, they have slain. Or morally, the faithful man says to the heretics, according to the Gloss, "I trust in the Lord," holding to his faith: how then do you heretics say, come over to us, into the mountain, that is, to Christ, whom the heretics believed themselves to possess? Isaiah 2: "The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains"; 2 Kings 1: "Ye mountains of Gilboa, let neither dew nor rain come upon you, neither be there fields of firstfruits, for there was cast away the shield of the valiant," that is, of the Jews, or of the great heretics: Jeremiah 51: "Behold, I am the pestilent mountain, who corrupts the whole earth." Or the mountain is the loftiness of understanding which they feign themselves to have. But if I should do this, I should be a flighty sparrow, not one who abides. For behold, the sinners, that is, the heretics, have bent the bow, that is, they have drawn Sacred Scripture to themselves, as those who bend a bow; they have prepared arrows, poisonous utterances, in the quiver, that is, in memory or knowledge: Jeremiah 5: "Their quiver is as an open sepulchre." Jerome has, "their arrows upon the string," that is, the cord: the perverse intention, that they may shoot at the upright of heart, that is, the just, in the dark, that is, deceitfully: Jeremiah 9: "Their tongue is a wounding arrow." Or, "in the dark," that is, in the subtleties of Sacred Scripture. Another reading has, "in the darkened moon." The moon is the Church: Song of Songs 6: "Fair as the moon," on account of her brightness, and on account of her obscuring. The brightness of the moon is from the sun; so the brightness of the Church is from Christ: John 1: "That was the true light which enlighteneth," etc. Likewise, one half of the moon's globe is bright, and the other half dark; so in the Church some are bright, some are dark. Now the moon is obscured, according to the Gloss, sometimes by its revolution, and thus it becomes dark; sometimes by an eclipse, and then it is turned into blood; sometimes by the interposition of a cloud, and then it becomes black. So the Church becomes dark in her newness, when there are not in her preachers and doctors; bloody through the persecution of tyrants; black through clouds, that is, through the seduction of heretics; and then he wishes to shoot. Here their unjust action is set down, "because the things which thou hast made perfect they have destroyed." Another reading has, "because him whom thou hast made perfect"; but the first is better, and according to Jerome, "because the laws which thou hast made perfect they have destroyed": Isaiah 48: "I know that thou art a transgressor, and I have called thee a transgressor from the womb"; Jeremiah 2: "Of old time thou hast broken the yoke, thou hast burst the bands; thou hast said, I will not serve": as if to say, they will destroy thy law, which thou didst command to be kept. Exodus 33: "The innocent and just thou shalt not condemn"; but these men wish to kill him: Psalm 118: "The wicked have destroyed thy law"; and God made it perfect, because he gave it: Psalm 147: "He hath not done in like manner to every nation"; Matthew 5: "I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill." If it be said, "him whom thou hast made perfect they have destroyed," thus it is understood of Christ, whom thou hast made perfect. Here is set down the reason for his confidence. And first the question is posed; second, the solution, at "The Lord is in his holy temple," etc.; third, the reason for the solution, "because the Lord is just, and hath loved justice." He says, therefore: thus do these men act; but the just Lord, seeing this by his authority, what does he do? Jeremiah 33: "This is the name that they shall call him, The Lord our just one." He resolves the question, and sets down what this just one does. And first, his judiciary power, or the condition of a judge; second, the discussion of judgment, "his eyes," etc.; third, the condemnation of the violent, "but him that loveth," etc. If a judge always punishes, he is cruel; if he always spares, he is lax. But God does both; and therefore the tribunal of mercy has its place, and this is the temple: Hebrews 4: "Let us go with confidence to the throne of grace"; and therefore he says, "the Lord is in his holy temple": 1 Corinthians 3: "Know you not that you are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwelleth in you?" He also has a place of justice, whence he punishes, namely heaven; and this is also, "the Lord, his throne is in heaven," wherein his power is set forth: Isaiah, the last chapter: "Heaven is my throne." The faithful are called a temple on account of devotion, heaven on account of wisdom. Likewise heaven is called the abode in which God sits, so as to make it heaven, that is, one knowing hidden things. Likewise the soul is called the temple of God, because in the temple God is adored; likewise in the faithful soul: Matthew 6: "Enter into thy chamber," that is, into the secret places of thy soul, "and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret." Likewise there sacrifices are offered; likewise in the faithful soul: Psalm 50: "A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit." Likewise in the temple prayers are poured out to God, so in the soul God works: Isaiah 26: "Thou hast wrought all our works in us, O Lord." Likewise, because God sanctifies it, and descends into it as into a temple: Wisdom 4: "The grace of God is upon his saints, and his regard," etc. His eyes. Here he treats of the discussion of judgment. And first he sets down the perfection of divine knowledge; second, the diligent examination, at "his eyelids examine the sons of men"; third, the equity of judgment, at "the Lord trieth the just and the wicked." By the first, no one can be hidden, for he sees the disposition of the poor man and of the wicked, of the sinner and of the just: Ezekiel 23: "The eyes of the Lord are brighter than the sun, beholding round about all the ways of men, and the depth of the abyss, and looking into the hearts of men"; Proverbs 16: "All the ways of men are open to his eyes; the Lord is a weigher of spirits," that is, of thoughts, or of souls, according to the Gloss; and therefore he says, "his eyes look upon the poor man," unto having mercy: Psalm 30: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am afflicted." Likewise Psalm 27: "The Lord is my protector, and in him hath my heart hoped," etc. — also for protecting by testing: Psalm 33: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the just." Likewise Psalm 31: "In this way in which thou shalt walk, I will fix my eyes upon thee." And thus, looking upon them, he examines diligently. "His eyelids examine," etc. By the eyelids discretion is signified, for as the eyelids of the eye direct the sight, so discretion moderates human wisdom: Proverbs 4: "Let thy eyelids go before thy steps." The very discretion of God, therefore, examines, that is, it tries and tests: Wisdom 1: "There shall be an inquiry into the thoughts of the ungodly: and the hearing of his words shall come to God." And how? Because sometimes he punishes, sometimes he spares, sometimes he grants benefits, sometimes he takes them away: Job 6: "The arrows of the Lord," etc. He also closes his eyelids and opens them: Matthew 17: "I have compassion on the multitude," etc.; likewise in the same place, chapter 21: "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you"; Psalm 146: "Who giveth to beasts their food," etc. "He examines the sons of men," because some of them are made better, some worse; or some are made evil by Scripture, some good, because some understand it well and are not wearied, but are exercised by it, while the wicked do the contrary. The equity of judgment is set down, because "he trieth the just and the unjust," since he sends scourges upon the just and the unjust alike, and bestows temporal goods on the good and the wicked: Wisdom 11: "These," namely the good, "thou hast tried as a father admonishing"; "but those," namely the wicked, "as a stern king examining, thou hast condemned." For this reason he says, "the Lord trieth the just and the wicked," that is, he tests through tribulations. Gregory: the punishment inflicted asks whether one placed in tribulation truly loves God. "He trieth the just," that is, the Lord examines him so that he may be rewarded: Wisdom 10: "God rendered the wages of the labors of his saints." But he tries the wicked man or the sinner, so that he may be condemned: Matthew 23: "Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness." Here the condemnation is set down; and concerning this he does two things: first he sets down the fault, second the punishment, at "he shall rain snares upon sinners." He shows that, as far as it is on God's part, the perdition of the wicked is not from him, but from our own part; hence he says, "he that loveth iniquity," that is, sin: John 3: "Whosoever committeth sin, committeth also iniquity, for sin is iniquity." "Hateth his own soul": Wisdom 16: "Man through malice killeth his own soul." But it is asked, how can someone hate himself? It must be said that in a certain way the sinner does hate himself; but absolutely speaking no one hates himself: Ephesians 5: "No man ever hated his own flesh." But that the wicked in a certain way hate themselves, and that even the good in a certain way hate themselves, is made clear in this manner. Our soul has two faces: one turned toward God according to reason, the other turned toward the flesh according to the sensitive nature, which comprehends only corporeal things. And as anything whatsoever loves its own good, so man loves that which he judges to be his own soul. For sinners judge their soul to be that toward which they principally strive, because anything whatsoever is that which is chief in it, just as a king is called the kingdom. Those, therefore, who hold the sensitive nature as chief, love it; but those who hold the intellective nature as chief, love that same one. No one, therefore, hates his soul as regards that which he judges to be chief; the good, therefore, hate themselves as regards the sensitive nature, the wicked as regards the intellective nature. Second, he sets down the punishment. And this we can expound either of the present, or of the future. Of the present, thus, and it preserves the metaphor: he said that the Lord is in heaven, because there is his throne; but from heaven comes rain: therefore their punishment is signified when it is said, "he shall rain upon sinners." And what? "Snares." And if this be expounded here of the present, it must be noted that in sin there are four things. The first is seduction; hence he says: "he shall rain snares upon sinners," as though by a just judgment he permits them to be ensnared and seduced: Isaiah 8: "And many of them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken." The second is concupiscence; and therefore he says, "fire," of concupiscence: Psalm 57: "Fire hath fallen upon them, and they have not seen the sun," namely of carnal concupiscence, etc. The third is the stench of infamy; and therefore he says, "brimstone." Thus the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone. A fourth can also be added, namely the disquiet of the mind; and therefore he says, "storms of wind": Isaiah 57: "The heart of the wicked is like a raging sea." "The portion of their cup": because a cup is a certain measure, and they have punishments according to their sins: Isaiah 27: "In measure against measure, when it shall be cast away, he will judge it." But if it be expounded of the future, then the movements will there be punished, because they will be bound so that they can neither avoid evils, nor attain goods; therefore he says, "he shall rain snares upon sinners," that is, things binding the senses; and thus they are referred, brimstone to smell, fire to touch: Isaiah 66: "Their fire shall not be quenched"; Apocalypse 20: "Cast into the pool of fire." Likewise the affections, because they do not rest, since "the storms of wind are the portion of their cup," that is, the demons disquieting, troubling, and afflicting them. "Because the Lord is just, and hath loved justice," therefore nothing is to be expected from him but justice: Jeremiah 9: "I am the Lord that exercise mercy, judgment, and justice on the earth"; Psalm 114: "The Lord is just in all his ways." "His countenance," or face, "hath beheld equity," that is, equity has been seen by his knowledge; as if to say: to those to whom he makes himself known, and whom he loves, he shows equity.”

“Here is, I. David's fixed resolution to make God his confidence: In the Lord put I my trust, Psa 11:1. Those that truly fear God and serve him are welcome to put their trust in him, and shall not be made ashamed of their doing so. And it is the character of the saints, who have taken God for their God, that they make him their hope. Even when they have other things to stay themselves upon, yet they do not, they dare not, stay upon them, but on God only. Gold is not their hope, nor are horses and chariots their confidence, but God only; and therefore, when second causes frown, yet their hopes do not fail them, because the first cause is still the same, is ever so. The psalmist, before he gives an account of the temptation he was in to distrust God, records his resolution to trust in him, as that which he was resolved to live and die by. II. His resentment of a temptation to the contrary: "How say you to my soul, which has thus returned to God as its rest and reposes in him, Flee as a bird to your mountain, to be safe there out of the reach of the fowler?" This may be taken either, 1. As the serious advice of his timorous friends; so many understand it, and with great probability. Some that were hearty well-wishers to David, when they saw how much Saul was exasperated against him and how maliciously he sought his life, pressed him by all means to flee for the same to some place of shelter, and not to depend too much upon the anointing he had received, which, they thought, was more likely to occasion the loss of his head than to save it. That which grieved him in this motion was not that to flee now would savour of cowardice, and ill become a soldier, but that it would savour of unbelief and would ill become a saint who had so often said, In the Lord put I my trust. Taking it thus, the two following verses contain the reason with which these faint-hearted friends of David backed this advice. They would have him flee, (1.) Because he could not be safe where he was, Psa 11:2. "Observe," say they, "how the wicked bend their bow; Saul and his instruments aim at thy life, and the uprightness of thy heart will not be thy security." See what an enmity there is in the wicked against the upright, in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman; what pains they take, what preparations they make, to do them a mischief: They privily shoot at them, or, in darkness, that they may not see the evil designed, to avoid it, nor others, to prevent it, no, nor God himself, to punish it. (2.) Because he could be no longer useful where he was. "For," say they, "if the foundations be destroyed" (as they were by Saul's mal-administration), "if the civil state and government be unhinged and all out of course" (Psa 75:3, Psa 82:5), "what canst thou do with thy righteousness to redress the grievances? Alas! it is to no purpose to attempt the saving of a kingdom so wretchedly shattered; whatever the righteous can do signifies nothing." Abi in cellam, et dic, Miserere mei, Domine - Away to thy cell, and there cry, Pity me, O Lord! Many are hindered from doing the service they might do to the public, in difficult times, by a despair of success. 2. It may be taken as a taunt wherewith his enemies bantered him, upbraiding him with the professions he used to make of confidence in God, and scornfully bidding him try what stead that would stand him in now. "You say, God is your mountain; flee to him now, and see what the better you will be." Thus they endeavoured to shame the counsel of the poor, saying, There is no help for them in God, Psa 14:6; Psa 3:2. The confidence and comfort which the saints have in God, when all the hopes and joys in the creature fail them, are a riddle to a carnal world and are ridiculed accordingly. Taking it thus, the two following verses are David's answer to this sarcasm, in which, (1.) He complains of the malice of those who did thus abuse him (Psa 11:2): They bend their bow and make ready their arrows; and we are told (Psa 64:3) what their arrows are, even bitter words, such words as these, by which they endeavour to discourage hope in God, which David felt as a sword in his bones. (2.) He resists the temptation with a gracious abhorrence, Psa 11:3. He looks upon this suggestion as striking at the foundations which every Israelite builds upon: "If you destroy the foundations, if you take good people off from their hope in God, if you can persuade them that their religion is a cheat and a jest and can banter them out of that, you ruin them, and break their hearts indeed, and make them of all men the most miserable." The principles of religion are the foundations on which the faith and hope of the righteous are built. These we are concerned, in interest as well as duty, to hold fast against all temptations to infidelity; for, if these be destroyed, if we let these go, What can the righteous do? Good people would be undone if they had not a God to go to, a God to trust to, and a future bliss to hope for.”

“In the Lord put I my trust,.... Not in himself, in his own heart, nor in his own righteousness and strength; nor in men, the greatest of men, the princes of the earth; nor in his armies, or any outward force; but in the Lord, as the God of providence and of grace; and in the Messiah, in his person and righteousness; so the Chaldee paraphrase renders it, "in the Word of the Lord do I hope": and the phrase denotes a continued exercise of faith in the Lord; that he was always looking to him, staying himself on him, and committing himself and all his concerns to him; for he does not say, I "have", or I "will", but I "do", put my trust in the Lord; at all times, even in the worst of times, and in the present one; wherefore he is displeased with his friends for endeavouring to intimidate him, persuading him to flee and provide for his safety, when he had betaken himself to the Lord, and was safe enough; how say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? they compare him to a little, fearful, trembling bird, wandering from its nest, moving through fear from place to place, whereas his heart was fixed, trusting in the Lord; and this gave him a disgust: they advise him to flee either "from" his mountain, so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it; that is, either from Judea, which was a mountainous country, especially some parts of it; or from Mount Zion, or rather from the mountain in the wilderness of Ziph, or the hill of Hachilah, where David sometimes was, Sa1 23:14; or it may be rendered "to your mountain", as we, so the Targum; that is, to the said place or places where he had sometimes hid himself; and this they said to his "soul", which was very cutting and grieving to him; the word rendered "flee" in the "Cetib", or writing of the text, is in the plural, "flee ye"; but is pointed for, and in the "Keri", or marginal reading, is "flee thou"; the latter agrees with this being said to David's soul, the former with the phrase "your mountain", and both are to be taken into the sense of the words; not as if the one respected David's soul only, and the other both soul and body, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe; but the one regards David's person, and the other his companions, or the people with him; and contains an advice, both to him and them, to flee for their safety; the reasons follow.”

“] Hebrew Lamnatseach ledavid, (Haydock) “to the master of music or, or to David.” (Calmet) — St. Jerome supplies the word psalm. That David, or any other, should give the title of master of music to so great a prince may seem strange; and therefore the Vulgate may perhaps be as accurate. St. Jerome and Pagnin have “to the victor of David.” Almost all agree that he composed this psalm (Haydock) when he began to be persecuted by Saul. He expresses his confidence in God; when his friends advised him to flee. (Calmet) — The Fathers take hence occasion to caution the faithful against the insidious speeches of those who pretend that they can procure greater security than the Church affords, (Haydock) and that they teach a doctrine of greater perfection. (Sts. Augustine, Jerome, &c.) (Calmet)”

“David rejects the advice of his friends to save his life by flight. Hidden in Jahve (Psa 16:1; Psa 36:8) he needs no other refuge. However well-meant and well-grounded the advice, he considers it too full of fear and is himself too confident in God, to follow it. David also introduces his friends as speaking in other passages in the Psalms belonging to the period of the Absolom persecution, Psa 3:3; Psa 4:7. Their want of courage, which he afterwards had to reprove and endeavour to restore, showed itself even before the storm had burst, as we see here. With the words "how can you say" he rejects their proposal as unreasonable, and turns it as a reproach against them. If the Chethb, נוּדוּ, is adopted, then those who are well-disposed, say to David, including with him his nearest subjects who are faithful to him: retreat to your mountain, (ye) birds (צפּור collective as in Psa 8:9; Psa 148:10); or, since this address sounds too derisive to be appropriate to the lips of those who are supposed to be speaking here: like birds (comparatio decurtata as in Psa 22:14; Psa 58:9; Psa 24:5; Psa 21:8). הרכס which seems more natural in connection with the vocative rendering of צפור (cf. Isa 18:6 with Eze 39:4) may also be explained, with the comparative rendering, without any need for the conjecture הר כמו צפור (cf. Deu 33:19), as a retrospective glance at the time of the persecution under Saul: to the mountains, which formerly so effectually protected you (cf. Sa1 26:20; Sa1 23:14). But the Ker, which is followed by the ancient versions, exchanges נודו for גוּדי, cf שׁחי Isa 51:23. Even reading it thus we should not take צפור, which certainly is epicoene, as vocative: flee to your mountain, O bird (Hitz.); and for this reason, that this form of address is not appropriate to the idea of those who profer their counsel. But we should take it as an equation instead of a comparison: fly to your mountain (which gave you shelter formerly), a bird, i.e., after the manner of a bird that flies away to its mountain home when it is chased in the plain. But this Ker appears to be a needless correction, which removes the difficulty of נודו coming after לנפשׁי, by putting another in the place of this synallage numeri. (Note: According to the above rendering: "Flee ye to your mountain, a bird" it would require to be accented נודו הרכם צפוז (as a transformation from נודו הרכם צפור vid., Baer's Accentssystem XVIII. 2). The interpunction as we have it, נודו הרכם צפור, harmonises with the interpretation of Varenius as of Lb Spira (Pentateuch-Comm. 1815): Fugite (o socii Davidis), mons vester (h. e. praesidium vestrum, Psa 30:8, cui innitimini) est avis errans.) In Psa 11:2 the faint-hearted ones give as the ground of their advice, the fearful peril which threatens from the side of crafty and malicious foes. As הנּה implies, this danger is imminent. The perfect overrides the future: they are not only already in the act of bending the bow, they have made ready their arrow, i.e., their deadly weapon, upon the string (יתר = מיתר, Psa 21:13, Arab. watar, from יתר, wata ra, to stretch tight, extend, so that the thing is continued in one straight line) and even taken aim, in order to discharge it (ירה with ל of the aim, as in Psa 54:5, with acc. of the object) in the dark (i.e., secretly, like an assassin) at the upright (those who by their character are opposed to them). In Psa 11:3 the faint-hearted still further support their advice from the present total subversion of justice. השּׁתות are either the highest ranks, who support the edifice of the state, according to Isa 19:10, or, according to Psa 82:5, Eze 30:4, the foundations of the state, upon whom the existence and well-being of the land depends. We prefer the latter, since the king and those who are loyal to him, who are associated in thought with צדּיק, are compared to the שׁתות. The construction of the clause beginning with כּי is like Job 38:41. The fut. has a present signification. The perf. in the principal clause, as it frequently does elsewhere (e.g., Psa 39:8; Psa 60:11; Gen 21:7; Num 23:10; Job 12:9; Kg2 20:9) in interrogative sentences, corresponds to the Latin conjunctive (here quid fecerit), and is to be expressed in English by the auxiliary verbs: when the bases of the state are shattered, what can the righteous do? he can do nothing. And all counter-effort is so useless that it is well to be as far from danger as possible.”