Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

(Heb.: 45:9-10) The song of that which is lovely here reaches the height towards which it aspires from the beginning. It has portrayed the lovely king as a man, as a hero, and as a divine ruler; now it describes him as a bridegroom on the day of his nuptials. The sequence of the thoughts and of the figures corresponds to the history of the future. When Babylon is fallen, and the hero riding upon a white horse, upon whom is inscribed the name "King of kings and Lord of lords," shall have smitten the hostile nations with the sword that goeth out of His mouth, there then follows the marriage of the Lamb, for which the way has been prepared by these avenging victories (Rev 19:7.). It is this final ga'mos which the Psalm, as a song of the congregation, when the light was dawning upon the Old Testament church, sees by anticipation, and as it were goes forth to meet it, rejoicing to behold it afar off. The king's garments are so thoroughly scented with costly spices that they seem to be altogether woven out of them. And מנּי out of the ivory palaces enchant him. This מנּי has been taken mostly, according to Isa 59:18 (cf. also Isa 52:6), as a repetition of the מן: "out of ivory palaces, whence they enchant thee." But this repetition serves no special purpose. Although the apocopated plural in ı̂, instead of ı̂m, is controvertible in Biblical Hebrew (vid., on Psa 22:17; Sa2 22:44), still there is the venture that in this instance מנּי is equivalent to מנּים, the music of stringed instruments (Psa 150:4); and if in connection with any Psalm at all, surely we may venture in connection with this Psalm, which in other respects has such an Aramaic or North-Palestinian colouring, to acknowledge this apocope, here perhaps chosen on account of the rhythm. In accordance with our historical rendering of the Psalm, by the ivory palaces are meant the magnificent residences of the king, who is the father of the bride. Out of the inner recesses of these halls, inlaid within with ivory and consequently resplendent with the most dazzling whiteness, the bridegroom going to fetch his bride, as he approaches and enters them, is met by the sounds of festive music: viewed in the light of the New Testament, it is that music of citherns or harps which the seer (Rev 14:2) heard like the voice of many waters and of mighty thunder resounding from heaven. The Old Testament poet imagines to himself a royal citadel that in its earthly splendour far surpasses that of David and of Solomon. Thence issues forth the sound of festive music zealous, as it were, to bid its welcome to the exalted king. Even the daughters of kings are among his precious ones. יקר is the name for that which is costly, and is highly prized and loved for its costliness (Pro 6:26). The form בּיקּרותיך resembles the form ליקּהת, Pro 30:17, in the appearance of the i and supplanting the Sheba mobile, and also in the Dag. dirimens in the ק (cf. עקּבי, Gen 49:17; מקּדשׁ, Exo 15:17). (Note: It is the reading of Ben-Naphtali that has here, as an exception, become the receptus; whereas Ben-Asher reads בּיקּרותיך. Saadia, Rashi, Simson ha-Nakdan and others, who derive the word from בּקּר (to visit, wait on), follow the receptus, comparing משׁיסּה, Isa 42:24, in support of the form of writing. Also in ליקּהת, Pro 30:17; ויללת, Jer 25:36; כּיתרון, Ecc 2:13, the otherwise rejected orthography of Ben-Naphtali (who pointed ויחלּוּ, Job 29:21, לישׂראל, ויתּן, and the like) is retained, as quite an exception, in the textus receptus. Vide S. D. Luzzatto, Prolegomeni, cxcix., and Grammatica della Lingua Ebraica, 193.) Now, however, he has chosen for himself his own proper wife, who is here called by a name commonly used of Chaldaean and Persian queens, and, as it seems (cf. on Jdg 5:30), a North-Palestinian name, שׁגל, (Note: Bar-Ali says that in Babylonia Venus is called ודלפת שגל, vid., Lagarde, Gesammelte Abhandl. S. 17. Windischmann (Zoroastrische Studien, S. 161) erroneously compares ćagar (pronounced tshagar) as a name of one of the two wives of Zarathustra; but it happens that this is not the name of the wife who holds the first rank (Neo-Persic padishāh-zen), but of the second (ćakir-zen, bond-woman).) instead of גּבירה. From the fact that, glittering with gold of Ophir, she has taken the place of honour at the right hand of the king (נצּבה, 3rd praet., not part.), it is evident that her relationship to the king is at this time just in the act of being completed. Who are those daughters of kings and who is this queen standing in closest relationship to the king? The former are the heathen nations converted to Christ, and the latter is the Israel which is remarried to God in Christ, after the fulness of the heathen is come in. It is only when Israel is won to Him, after the fulness of the heathen is come in (Rom 11:25), that the morning of the great day will dawn, which this Psalm as a song of the church celebrates. בּנות מלכים cannot certainly, like בּת־צר, be a personificative designation of heathen kingdoms, although שׁגל is the believing Israel conceived of as one person. It is actually kings' daughters as the representatives of their nations that are intended; and the relation of things is just the same here as in Isa 49:23, where, of the Israelitish church of the future, it is predicted that kings shall be its foster-fathers and their princesses its nursing-mothers.