Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Awit 12:1

she arose and destroyed - Heb. וַתְּדַבֵּר, an expression of דֶּבֶר, pestilence. In II Kings (11:1), it is written: וַתְּאַבֵּד. Concerning this generation, David recited: (Ps. 12:1): “For the conductor on the sheminith,” for David foresaw with the holy spirit that in the eighth generation [of his dynasty] all his descendants would be slain by Athaliah, for there are eight generations from Solomon till here. And he prayed that his seed would survive for a remembrance, and said, (ibid. verse 2): “Save, O Lord, for the pious are gone, etc.” In II Kings (11:2), Scripture states that she killed them by poisoning them, for it is written: “and she stole him away from the dying (הַמְמוֹתִים) children of the king”; we read: הַמּוּמָתִים the slain. Both the traditional reading and the masoretic text have authority. הַמּוּמָתִים means that they already died, and the masoretic text in which the word used is הַמְמוֹתִים means that they were dying in agony. This is written in the continuous present tense, i.e., not all at once but continuously being crushed by illnesses, and then dying. An example is (Jer. 16:4): “Dying of (מְמוֹתֵי) sicknesses they shall die, etc. and with famine,” because they too will not die immediately.

Ahaziah his son, Joash From Solomon to Joash were eight generations, and since David foresaw that his seed would perish in the days of Joash through Athaliah, as is written in this Book (II Chron. 22:10): “... she arose and destroyed (וַתְּדַבֵּר),” (from the expression of דֶּבֶר pestilence, through poison), he stood in prayer and uttered a psalm (Ps. 12): “For the conductor on the sheminith,” [alluding to an] eight stringed [instrument] (other editions: in number) “for the eighth generation.” (v. 2): “Save, O Lord, for the pious are gone, etc.” And Joash escaped, and from Joash to Josiah are eight generations, for David foresaw that Josiah and his sons would all go to their doom: this one was slain [i.e., Josiah. Perhaps he means Jehoiakim and Zedekiah’s sons as well] and this one’s eyes were gouged out [Zedekiah]. And he [David] prayed again on the sheminith, for the eighth generation (Ps. 6:1f.): “O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger,” and because of his prayer, the sons of Jehoiakim survived, and throughout the entire Book of Psalms, there are only these two mentions of the sheminith. And from Jeconiah (other editions: Jehoiakim) until (verse 24): “Anani seven,” which is [an allusion to] the King Messiah, as it is written: (Dan. 7:13): “... and behold, with the clouds of (עֲנָנֵי) the heavens,” are thirty eight sons, including both sons and generations of the sons. The Holy One, blessed be He, did this because he [David] recited thirty eight praises to Him, as it is written in the Book of Ezra (sic) (I Chron. 29:10 13). From “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, etc.” until “and to strengthen,” are thirty eight words.

And Mattithiah and Eliphelehu, etc. with harps on the sheminith to conduct those musical instruments upon which they play the psalms entitled: “For the conductor, on the sheminith.”