and file until his strength is well nigh spent. His enfeebled condition attracts the notice of a Philistine warrior remarkable for his stature and vigor,1 who rushes at the breast of the king, and David is rescued from peril by the brother of the commander of the Hebrew forces. Soon intelligence of the danger to which the king had exposed himself reaches the captains of the host, and, apprehensive that the king's impetuous valour might on a similar occasion cost him his life, they determine that henceforth he shall no more be suffered to go forth to the battle-field. "Then the men of David bound themselves by an oath, saying, Thou shalt no more go out with us to battle, so that the light of Israel be not quenched." "

It will be readily seen how much light this narrative throws on the meaning of the opening verse of the 110th Psalm. When the text is set free from theological trammels, and history is made the handmaid for its interpretation, the point of contact between David's forced retirement from active service in the field and the dedicatory ode addressed to him on the occasion by some contemporary poet, encouraging him to hope that, although he has to take no part again in battle, God would subdue his enemies, can hardly fail to be recognised under the process of a rational exegesis of the psalm.3

3 שב לימיני והטעם שב בביתי ועבוד אותי וטעם לימיני כי הימין עושה חיל, והנה הטעם לא תצא עמנו למלחמה כי ימין השם תלחם בעבורך

To be deprived of further service on the field of battle, where he had gained so many laurels, must have cost David bitter disappointment; and it may reasonably be supposed that some obsequious poet dedicated to him Psalm 110, which implies, that although the king would be prevented in future from engaging in active service, God would fight his battles, and make his foes captives and supplicants. I am not aware that any more rational exposition can be assigned to the opening verse: "The Lord said to my Sovereign Master, Sit thou on my right hand until I place thy enemies at thy footstool."

VI.

ON PSALM CX.

SECOND LECTURE.

THE second verse of this psalm reads thus "The Lord

.מטה עזך ישלח יי מציון רדה בקרב אויביך

shall send forth from Zion the sceptre of thy power, saying, Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.”

Here the sense of the passage will be found to harmonise with the exposition assigned to the preceding verse.1 The author of the poem encourages his sovereign to rest confidently that the powerful sceptre wielded by him in Zion will be felt on the battlefield, and that it will carry terror into the ranks of his enemies.

עמך נדבות ביום חליך בהדרי קדש מרחם,Verse 3 is משחר לך טל ילדתך

Of this verse the English authorised version gives the following rendering: Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauty of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth." Here the difficulty of the original must be admitted owing to its elliptical style, but the obscurity in which the authorised version shrouds its own meaning defies all interpretation.

1 Sée preceding Lecture.

Some commentators suggest the change of 777

,בהררי קדש in the beauty of holiness, to " קדש

"on the holy mountains," as, according to B. Kennicott, forty-two codices really had that reading (in order to facilitate the construction of the passage). But as the Masoretic text is quite intelligible, nothing would be gained by doing violence to the traditional reading.

The learned Dr. Munk, who rendered into French the 110th Psalm for M. Cahen's Bible,' gives the following translation to the 3rd verse:— "Ton peuple généreux, au jour de (la réunion de) ton armée sur les saintes montagnes, (afflue) vers toi comme du sein de l'aurore la rosée de ta jeunesse," of which the English would be, "Thy devoted people, on the day when the army is collected on the sacred mountains, shall flow to thee as if they came forth from the womb of the aurora, the dew of thy youth." Although the abruptness of the style of the Hebrew text and the luxuriance of its imagery must ever present difficulties to the Biblical critic, the former part of the verse, describing the day of battle and the people going forth with

1 "La Bible, traduction nouvelle par S. Cahen. Tome 13. Psaumes." Paris, 1846.

2 Here the dew is poetically considered as the offspring of the

66

Beyond the » מרחם משחר לך טל ילדתך morning. Lowth renders

womb of the morning is the dew of thy offspring to thee." ("Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews," p. 105.) According to Ibn Ezra, the word D is to be understood as preceding 127); if so, the sense would be, "Thy people shall come to thee on that

והנכון בעיני כי נדבות דרך קצרה ".day like the generous showers כגשם נדבות והטע' אם הוצרכת לעשות מלחמה עמך יבואו אליך ביום

13. (Ibn Ezra, Comment. in loco.).

enthusiasm to fight for their king, accords well with the general tenor of the psalm, and it can hardly be applied otherwise than to an earthly sovereign whose reign is identified with fierce warfare. To endeavour to force it into compliance with a prediction of Messiah is not only to be in conflict with the text itself, but also with the old prophecies and traditions of the Messianic age, which was to result in one of universal peace, when every offensive weapon was to be converted into an implement of agriculture, and war was to cease from the earth.1

נשבע יי ולא ינחם אתה כהן לעולם על,Verse 4 is The Lord hath sworn, and will » דברתי מלכי צדק

1

not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the manner of Melchisedec."

Of all fantastic modes of exposition, nothing surpasses that in which this verse is commented on in "the Epistle to the Hebrews." Of the personage mentioned in the text, the writer says, "For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of Righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is King of Peace; without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually."

One may read again and again the text passage,

1 Isaiah ii. 4; also Micah iv. 3.

3 Heb. vii. 1—3.

2 paragogic.