Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/363

 to enlighten them. But the Hiph. is not intended to be used thus absolutely even in 2Sa 7:21. בּריתו is the object; it is intended of the rich and deep and glorious character of the covenant revelation. The poet has now on all sides confirmed the truth, that every good gift comes down from above, from the God of salvation; and he returns to the thought from which he started.

Verse 15
He who keeps his eyes constantly directed towards God (Psa 141:8; Psa 123:1), is continually in a praying mood, which cannot remain unanswered. תּמיד corresponds to ἀδιαλείπτως in 1Th 5:17. The aim of this constant looking upwards to God, in this instance, is deliverance out of the enemy's net. He can and will pull him out (Psa 31:5) of the net of complicated circumstances into which he has been ensnared without any fault of his own.

Verse 16
The rendering “regard me,” so far as פּנה אל means God's observant and sympathising turning to any one (lxx ἐπιβλέπειν), corresponds to Psa 86:16; Lev 26:9. For this he longs, for men treat him as a stranger and refuse to have anything to do with him. יחיד is the only one of his kind, one who has no companion, therefore the isolated one. The recurrence of the same sounds עני אני is designedly not avoided. To whom could he, the isolated one, pour forth his affliction, to whom could he unveil his inmost thoughts and feelings? to God alone! To Him he can bring all his complaints, to Him he can also again and again always make supplication.

Verse 17
The Hiph. הרחיב signifies to make broad, and as a transitive denominative applied to the mind and heart: to make a broad space = to expand one's self (cf. as to the idea, Lam 2:13, “great as the sea is thy misfortune”), lxx ἐπληθύνθησαν, perhaps originally it was ἐπλατηύνθησαν. Accordingly הרחיבוּ is admissible so far as language is concerned; but since it gives only a poor antithesis to צרות it is to be suspected. The original text undoubtedly was הרחיב וממצוקותי (הרחיב, as in Psa 77:2, or הרחיב, as e.g., in 2Ki 8:6): the straits of my heart do Thou enlarge (cf. Psa 119:32; 2Co 6:11) and bring me out of my distresses (Hitzig and others).

Verses 18-19
The falling away of the ק is made up for by