Psalms of Solomon

Historical printed page 637

27 25 (22) May He remove them from off the earth, THE PSALMS OF SOLOMON 4. 15—5. 8 To destroy it with words that give wing to (desire). (13) (Yet) with all these his soul, like Sheol, is not sated. 16 Let his portion, O Lord, be dishonoured before thee ; Let him go forth groaning, and come home cursed. (15) Let his life be (spent) in anguish, and penury, and want, O Lord; Let his sleep be (beset) with pains and his awaking with perplexities. (16) Let sleep be withdrawn from his eyelids at night ; Let him fail dishonourably in every work of his hands. (17) Let him come home empty-handed to his house, And his house be void of everything wherewith he could sate his appetite. (18) (Let) his old age (be spent) in childless loneliness until his removal (by death). (19) Let the flesh of the men-pleasers be rent by wild beasts, And (let) the bones of the lawless (lie) dishonoured in the sight of the sun. (20) Let ravens peck out the eyes of the hypocrites. 23 For they have laid waste many houses of men, in dishonour, And scattered (them) in (their) lust ; (21) And they have not remembered God, Nor feared God in all these things ; But they have provoked God’s anger and vexed Him. Because with deceit they beguiled the souls of the flawless. | (23) Blessed are they that fear the Lord in their flawlessness ; The Lord shall deliver them from guileful men and sinners, And deliver us from every stumbling-block of the lawless (men). 28 (24) Let God destroy them that insolently work all unrighteousness, 29 (28) δι 2 3 4 (3) 5 6 (4) 8 (6) For a great and mighty judge is the Lord our God in righteousness, Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon all them that love Thee. V. A Psalm. Of Solomon. O Lord God, I will praise Thy name with joy, In the midst of them that know Thy righteous judgements. For Thou art good and merciful, the refuge of the poor ; When I cry to Thee, do not silently disregard me. For no man taketh spoil from a mighty man; Who, then, can take aught of all that Thou hast made, except Thou Thyself givest ? For man and his portion (lie) before Thee in the balance ; He cannot add to, so as to enlarge, what has been prescribed by Thee. O God, 7 (5) when we are in distress we call upon Thee for help, And Thou dost not turn back our petition, for Thou art our God. Cause not Thy hand to be heavy upon us, Lest through necessity we sin. 15d. like Sheol. SoRLJCS; Hom. Cp. Prov. xxvii. 20, Isa. v. 14. 164. Cp. Deut. xxviii. 19, Ps. civ. 23, cxxi. 8. 19. could. @& ‘shall’. 20. until his removal. Or, perhaps, ‘ that (his family) may be taken away (from the earth)’, i.e. let his old age be at once lonely and hopeless. % renders the entire verse by what is a free and inaccurate paraphrase of @&, ‘ And of his children let not one draw near him.’ 21. rent. Lit. ‘be scattered’; 358 different ? 23. many houses of men. So RJ HS; ‘houses of many men’, LC. The latter rendering may more correctly represent 33. Yet perhaps the original text of # ran rather as follows : For they have laid waste houses in dishonour, And by their lust scattered (i.e. made homeless) many men. V. 4. Cp. Isa. xlix. 24 (&). taketh. & ‘ shall take’. 5. Who, then, can take. && ‘And who shall take’. 6. what has been prescribed by Thee. (ἴ τὸ κρίμα cov, where κρίμα is probably = Pn, intended in the sense area it has in Gen. xlvii. 22, Prov. xxx. 8, xxxi. 15. For the thought of the verse cp. Matt. vi. 27 ; for the phraseology, isd. xi. 21. 7. Ὁ God, In & this goes with v. 6; in ® it probably opened v. 7. call... dost not turn back. In & the tenses are future. 637