Komentarz do Psalmów 144:16

Who flattens peoples beneath me Who flattens and spreads out my people to rest in its place, as (Job 12:23): He spreads out (שוטח) the nations.” He makes them great. רוֹדֵד is the Aramaic translation of רוֹקַע, as the Targum renders (Exod. 39:3): וַיְרַקְעוּ, and they spread out; וְרַדִּידוּ. Others interpret הרודד, Who weakens peoples under me. But in an accurate revised version, [the reading is]: עמי, upon which the Masorah states: In three cases, the meaning is עמים, peoples, but the reading is עמי, and on תחתי, it says: the reading is תחתיו, under Him.

what is man What are Persia [Esau, acc. to mss.] and Ishmael before You that You know them to lavish greatness upon them?

his days are as a fleeting shadow Solomon said (Ecc. 6:12): “that he do them like a shadow,” but he did not explain whether [this refers to] the shadow of a palm or the shadow of a wall, which are permanent. His father already explained, “as a fleeting shadow,” the shadow of a flying bird.

deliver me פצני, take me out. That is an expression of saving, and so is (verse 10): “Who delivers (הפוצה) David His servant.” (I found.)

Whose mouth speaks vanity, etc. Scripture connects vanity with the mouth and falsehood with the right hand. When they come to tell with their mouth, they invent exaggerations of vanity, even to misrepresent what is known. If they come to stretch forth their right hand to swear, they refrain from vanity, lest they be caught as thieves, but they do swear falsely, for so is their lot.

Who gives salvation to kings This speaks about the Rock of the Divisions, when David was close to being seized by Saul (I Sam. 23:27): “A messenger came to Saul, saying, ‘Make haste and go, etc.’” He saved Saul from shedding innocent blood, and David from being killed.

Deliver me and rescue me As You delivered me then, so shall You deliver me now.

For our sons are, etc. That is to say that now too this generation is righteous.

our sons are like saplings which have no blemish, so pure are they from sin. (I found.)

grown up in their youth with this good name, that they are like saplings in their youth, growing all their lives; and this praise cannot be substantiated except in the generation of Hezekiah.

our daughters are of tall, beautiful stature like the cornerstones of a stone house, in which the cornerstones are placed exactly one opposite the other, and it ascends upward until the corners are even.

praised as the form of the Temple Praised by those who see them and compare them to the form of the height of the Temple. Our Rabbis, however, explained: Our daughters are like corners Full of desire as the corners of the altar are full of blood, but they are intimate only with their husbands.

Our corners are full The corners of our storehouses are full of goodness.

supplying from harvest to harvest Supplying food from year to year. from harvest to harvest Heb. מזן אל זן, from the time of the ingathering of this year’s food until the time of the ingathering of next year’s food. זַן is gouvernayl in Old French, food, provisions.

produce thousands, yea, ten thousands They produce offspring of thousands and ten thousands.

Our princes are borne The great princes among us are borne by those smaller than they, for the small ones obey the greater ones, the result being that there is no breach among us.

nor rumor going out No bad news goes far away.

nor is there a cry There is no sound of the confusion of war.

Praiseworthy is the people that has this That has all this good.