Page:02.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.A.vol.2.EarlyProphets.djvu/559

 The first three clauses of 1Sa 2:8 are repeated verbatim in Psa 113:7-8. Dust and the dunghill are figures used to denote the deepest degradation and ignominy. The antithesis to this is, sitting upon the chair or throne of glory, the seat occupied by noble princes. The Lord does all this, for He is the creator and upholder of the world. The pillars (מצקי, from צוּק = יצק) of the earth are the Lord's; i.e., they were created or set up by Him, and by Him they are sustained. Now as Jehovah, the God of Israel, the Holy One, governs the world with His almighty power, the righteous have nothing to fear. With this thought the last strophe of the song begins:

Verses 9-10
1Sa 2:9-10   9  The feet of His saints He will keep, And the wicked perish in darkness; For by power no one becomes strong. 10  The Lord - those who contend against Him are confounded. He thunders above him in the heavens; The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, That He may lend might to His king, And exalt the horn of His anointed. The Lord keeps the feet of the righteous, so that they do not tremble and stumble, i.e., so that the righteous do not fall into adversity and perish therein (vid., Ps. 56:14; Psa 116:8; Psa 121:3). But the wicked, who oppress and persecute the righteous, will perish in darkness, i.e., in adversity, when God withdraws the light of His grace, so that they fall into distress and calamity. For no man can be strong through his own power, so as to meet the storms of life. All who fight against the Lord are destroyed. To bring out the antithesis between man and God, “Jehovah” is written absolutely at the commencement of the sentence in 1Sa 2:10 : “As for Jehovah, those who contend against Him are broken,” both inwardly and outwardly (חתת, as in 1Sa 2:4). The word עלו, which follows, is not to be changed into עליהם. There is simply a rapid alternation of the numbers, such as we frequently meet with in excited language. “Above him,” i.e., above every one who contends against God, He thunders. Thunder is a premonitory sign of the approach of the Lord to judgment. In the thunder, man is made to feel in an alarming way the presence of the omnipotent God. In the words, “The Lord will judge the ends of the earth,” i.e., the earth to its utmost extremities, or the whole world, Hannah's