Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

Such is the conduct of his enemies; he, however, prays to his God and gets his weapons from beside Him. The day of equipment is the day of the crisis when the battle is fought in full array. The perfect סכּותה states what will then take place on the part of God: He protects the head of His anointed against the deadly blow. Both Psa 140:8 and Psa 140:8 point to the helmet as being מעוז ראשׁ, Psa 60:9; cf. the expression "the helmet of salvation" in Isa 59:17. Beside מאויּי, from the ἅπ. λεγ. מאוה, there is also the reading מאויי, which Abulwald found in his Jerusalem codex (in Saragossa). The regular form would be מאוי, and the boldly irregular ma'awajjê follows the example of מחשׁכּי, מחמדּי, and the like, in a manner that is without example elsewhere. זממז for מזמּתו is also a hapaxlegomenon; according to Gesenius the principal form is זמם, but surely ore correctly זמם (like קרב), which in Aramaic signifies a bridle, and here a plan, device. The Hiph. חפיק (root פק, whence נפק, Arab. nfq) signifies educere in the sense of reportare, Pro 3:13; Pro 8:35; Pro 12:2; Pro 18:22, and of porrigere, Psa 144:13, Isa 58:10. A reaching forth of the plan is equivalent to the reaching forth of that which is projected. The choice of the words used in this Psalm coincides here, as already in מעגּל, with Proverbs and Isaiah. The future ירוּמוּ expresses the consequence (cf. Psa 61:8) against which the poet wishes to guard.