Commentary on the Psalms

dominion), is clear from the mention of the servants as distinct from the handmaid; it occurs in the sense of masters also in Jerem. xxvii. 4. The hand of the masters and of the mistress can only mean the punishing hand; and the eyes are directed to it in the attitude of entreaty and supplication that the punishment may soon come to an end, and pity be shown to the miserable. This is evident, 1, from the passage from which this figurative expression originated. This is, Gen. ch. xvi., comp. ver. 6: "And Abraham said to Sarai, Behold thine handmaid is in thine hand, do to her what seemeth good to thee, and Sarai evilentreated her, and she fled from her. . . . Ver 8 . . . . I flee from Sarai my mistress. Ver. 9. And the angel of the Lord said to her, Return to thy mistress, and humble thyself under her hands." 2. From the expression her mistress. If the language referred to friendly gifts and grants, the term used would not denote a severe mistress. From the expression, "till he be gracious to us." This clause leads us to regard the masters and the mistress as not gracious. Now the hand of ungracious dominion can only be a punishing hand. From such a hand it is not gifts, but only an amelioration of punishment, that may be expected. These reasons are decisive against the idea of several expositors that the hand is the hand bestowing gifts, as it is at Ps. cxlv. 15, 16, civ. 27, 28. The same remark applies to the view taken by Calvin and others, who explain the looking to the hand as a seeking of protection; the mention of the relation of the handmaid to the mistress is also against this. The passage paints in a striking manner the right position of those who sigh under the judgments of God. They do not rage and murmur, because they know that they suffer what they deserve; but they humble themselves, according to the exhortation of the angel to Hagar, under the hand which afflicts them, and only entreat that they may receive favour instead of justice. Ver. 3-4.—Ver. 3. Be gracious to us, 0 Lord, be gracious to us, for we are very much filled with contempt. Ver. 4. Our soul was exceedingly filled with the contempt of those at ease, the scorning of the proud.—On the tkr, in ver. 4, comp. Ps. cxx. 6. The irregularity, that the gfl is marked in a double manner by the art. and the stat. constr. (comp. Ew. § 290), is relieved as soon as we conceive of a comma being placed after it: the con434 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. tempt of the secure. At the Mynvyxg it is avoided by the insertion of the l which limits the stat. constr. The reading in the text is to be pointed MniOyxEga. The Masorites who suspected the uncommon form divided the word, and read Mynvy yxg the proud ones of the oppressors.