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14. To caft down the poor.-He feems to allude to Saul's and Achitophel's attempts against himself.

20. As fmoke.-So all the ancient interpreters, except the Chaldee. See alfo Kennicott.

21. Payeth not again.--This relates to the ability, not the difpofition. The wicked fhall be fo poor, as to be obliged to borrow, without being able to repay; whereas the righteous fhall have wherewithal to be generous. Kennicott.

22. Blefs him.--Viz. the righteous, agreeably to Gen. xii. 3. "I will blefs them, that bless thee, &c." Thus the lxx. Vulg. and Arab.

גבר

23. Good man.-- fignifies a man in regard to his excellence and fuperiority.

25. Saw I never.-It was the Jewish doctrine, that the good were upon the whole to be rewarded in this life, and the wicked punished. This hope with Chriftians refpects a future life, not this.

29. Tranfgreffors.-The firft hemiftich of the verse beginning with the letter y is loft here. Houbigant and Dr. Kennicott, following the lxx read

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, which fupplies the deficient member.

37. I passed by.—So the lxx. Syr. Vulg. Jerom, Kennicott and Dathe, reading

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38. Innocency. So the Chald. Ixx. Æth. Syr. Vulg. Arab..

Pofterity. tria fignificat, 1. finem. 2. mer

cedem, quæ in fine operis perfolvitur, præmium. 3. Pofteritas, Pf. cxix. 13. Leigh's Crit. Sacr.

Man of peace.av@gwww sign vina lxx. homini pacifico. Vulg. Viris pacis. Syr. Viro pacifico. Arab. 40. The falvation.-The structure of this Pfalm requires that the letter prefixed to yn fhould be expunged. It is omitted by the Syr. Arab, and two MSS. of Kennicott.

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PSALM XXXVIII.

14. Reproof.-Refutation of his adversary. 15. Because in thee.-David did not openly oppose Abfalom and his affociates, but trusted the iffue to God, 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26.

16. He here affigns the different reafons for his trusting the issue to God, rather than openly oppofing Abfalom: 1st. If he failed in any point however trivial, it would be a fresh caufe of triumph to his enemies. 2d. He was confcious of having merited punishment for his fins. 3. He hoped for the divine pardon, in confequence of his contrition.

Left they should.-The lxx. Vulg. and Arab. fupply the nominative 2 inimici.

17. In affliction.-See note on Pf. xxxv. 15.

19. Without a caufe.-Hare, Houbigant, Lowth, Kennicott and Street for read on. See Pf. xxxv. 19. lxix. 5.

PSALM XXXIX.

3. With my tongue. The words rather of ardent paffion than of fober reason.

6. In a fhadow.-In the purfuit of vain imaginations, in which there is nothing folid or fatisfactory.

And knoweth not for whom.-Ignorat cui congregat eas. Syr. fo alfo the Arab.

12. I am a stranger and fojourner.-He means that he dwelleth in the promised land by the favour and under the protection of God, without any fort of allufion to a future ftate, according to Lev. xxv. "The land fhall not be fold for ever; 23. the land is mine; for ye are strangers and fojourners with me.

13. Tafte of joy.-Lætitiâ perfundar. Cocceius.

PSALM XL.

for

2. Brought me out of an horrible pit.-When he was arraigned by the priests and prophets, as being a falfe prophet, and therefore worthy of death.

6. Sacrifice and offering.-See Jerem. vii. 21, 22, 23. Mine ears didft thou open.―That is, Thou haft fitted and difpofed my ears to hear thy will. So the Chald. adds, to hearken to thy falvation.

And R. Ifaac,

Mun. Fidei, p. 369. explains it of hearkening to God's voice, which is better than facrifice; and quotes very pertinently, 1 Sam. xv. 22. Jer. vii. 22, 23. to which may be added, Pf. li. 16. Hof. vi. 6. Gataker understood the phrafe in the fame manner, as appears from his obfervations on If. 1. 5. which passage is very analogous to this: "The Lord hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious." Some commentators are of opinion, that the verb here fignifies to perforate, and that it alludes to the Hebrew cuftom of boring a fervant's car, Ex. xxi. 6. Deut. xv. 17. But Archbishop Secker refutes this conjecture; he says, that if the Pfalmift had alluded to this cuftom, he would probably have faid, not my ears, but my ear; for one only was bored; and he would also have used the word which Mofes does, not one fo little appropriated to the purpose as 12.

7. What is written in the volume.-In the book of the Law.

Is my duty.y debitionis notabile eft. Cocceius. 9. I have preached righteoufnefs.-The Pfalmift seems to reprefent it as his great duty to preach repentance to the people; which exactly correfponds with the cafe of Jeremiah; but is by no means fuited to David, when he fled from Abfalom, at which time he is fuppofed to have written this Pfalm, by thofe who think him the author of it. See Jerem. xxvi. 8. xxxvi. 3.

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12. Innumerable evils.-He was fmote and caft into prifon, Jer. xxxvii. 15.

17. I am poor and in affliction.This character does not fuit David, at the time when he is fupposed to have written this Pfalm.

PSALM XLI.

4. For I have finned.-For I acknowledge that I have finned. The act is here put for the declaration of it, as in Ex. xxxiii. 13. Pf. li. 5.

8. Sentence of guilt.-The word of Belial is the disease fent upon him, in vengeance for his crimes. Poole.

10. For this.-The word N is taken from the beginning of the fubfequent verfe. Street.

13. Bleffed be the Lord God.-This doxology was added by the collector of the first Book of the Pfalms which ends here.

PSALM XLII.

4. Within me.-See Job. xxx. 16. Pf. xlii. 6. 11. I went in proceffion.-N is the future tenfe in Hithpael for N from 17 lente proceffit. See Buxtorf's Lex. Talm. The affix is to be refolved into : fee Glaffius, p. 167.

5. And my God.-Verfe 11. of this Pfalm, and

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