object, whereas the original signification would lead one to look for a dative of the object (רצד ל), which does also really occur in the common Arabic. Olewejored is placed by גבננים, but what follows is not, after all, the answer: “the mountain - Elohim has chosen it as the seat of His throne,” but ההר is the object of the interrogative clause: Quare indiviose observatis, montes cacuminosi, hunc montem (δεικτικῶς: that Zion yonder), quem, etc. (an attributive clause after the determinate substantive, as in Psa 52:9; Psa 89:50, and many other instances, contrary to the Arabic rule of style). Now for the first time, in Psa 68:17, follows that which is boastfully and defiantly contrasted with the proud mountains: “Jahve will also dwell for ever;” not only that Elohim has chosen Zion as the seat of His throne, it will also continue to be the seat of His throne, Jahve will continue to dwell [there] for ever. Grace is superior to nature, and the church superior to the world, powerful and majestic as this may seem to be. Zion maintains its honour over against the mountains of Bashan.
Verse 18
Psa 68:18 now describes the kind of God, so to speak, who sits enthroned on Zion. The war-chariots of the heavenly hosts are here collectively called רכב, as in 2Ki 6:17. רבּתים (with Dechî, not Olewejored) is a dual from רבּות; and this is either an abstract noun equivalent to רבּוּת (from which comes the apocopated רבּו = רבּוּ), a myriad, consequently רבּתים, two myriads, or a contracted plural out of רבּאחת, Ezr 2:69, therefore the dual of a plural (like הומותים, לוּהותים): an indefinite plurality of myriads, and this again doubled (Hofmann). With this sense, in comparison with which the other is poor and meagre, also harmonies the expression אלפי שׂנאן, thousands of repetition (ἅπαξ λεγομ = שׂנין), i.e., thousands and again thousands, numberless, incalculable thousands; cf. the other and synonymous expression in Dan 7:10.[1]
It is intended to
- ↑ Tradition (Targum, Saadia, and Abulwalîd) takes שׂנאן forthwith as a synonym of מלאך, an angel. So also the lxx (Jerome): χιλιάδες εὐθηνούντων (שׁנאן = שׁאנן), and Symmachus, χιλιάδες ὴχούντων (from שׁאה?). The stem-word is, however, שׁנה, just as שׁנים, Arabic thinân , ithnân, is also formed from a singular that is to be assumed, viz., שׁן, Arab. ṯinun ( iṯnun ), and this from שׁנה, Arab. ṯnâ (cf. בּן from בּנה, Arab. banâ).
