Commento su Salmi 10:10

He crouches, he bows down So is the habit of the lurker; he crouches and lowers [himself] and makes himself small in order to be inconspicuous.

He is crushed, he humbleth himself: – ודכה, the Kethib is written with waw, and the Keri (ידכה) with yodh, and the waw and the yodh interchange. He says: that in yet another sense it is the way of the wicked to get the poor into his power. He makes himself (as one) crushed and humble. He and his band pretend that they are weak and crushed, so that the children of men may not be on their guard against them, but go forth with them in the company on the way; and then when they are far from any human habitation they reveal their strength and power and seize them; and this (is the meaning of)

and an army of broken people fall by his signals Heb. חלכאם, an army of broken people. I saw in the great masorah that חלכאים is one of fifteen words that are written as one word and read as two words, as is בגד in the verse (Gen. 30:11) commencing “And Leah said.” Also (in Deut. 33:2), “a fiery Law (אשדת) is to them”; (Isa. 3: 15), “What do you mean (מלכם) that you crush My people?” Also this word means חל כאים, an army of broken people. כאים is an expression of (below 109:16) “and a broken-hearted one (ונכאה לבב) to kill.” If you say that the “nun” is the radical, (Ezek. 13:22) “Because you have broken (הכאות) the heart of the righteous” will prove that [it is not]. We learn that the “nun” of נראה is like the “nun” of (I Sam. 15:9) נמבזה and the “nun” of (Jer. 6:14) נקלה, and so is its interpretation: and...fall by the signals of this wicked man, with his hints and his winks, an expression of (Isa. 41:21) “present your signals (עצמותיכם).” and (ibid. 33:15) “and closes (ועצם) his eyes,” an army of poor people. Another explanation: בעצומיו, by his mighty men. Said Rabbi Simon: This wicked man puts into his “callirus,” meaning army, only mighty men like himself, as it is said (in Dan. 3:20): “And he commanded the mighty warriors who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abed- nego” (Mid. Ps. 10:5). However, Menachem, (p. 89) interprets חלכאים as “poor and weak (וחלך),” the “chaf” being a radical.

And the hapless fall by their strong (ones): – (The Kethib) is written as one word, חלכאים, but the Keri reads as two words, כאים חל; and its interpretation is: "the congregation of the stricken and the weary." And עצומיו (their strong ones) is an adjective for "their strong limbs" – their hands and feet. And all these are the ways which he narrates in the matter of the wicked, to shew that in all these ways he may be wary of the sons of men, but cannot be wary of God, and (that) he shews himself to be no fearer of God; for he says in his heart that He (God) does not see and does not know, as he says: