Psalm 51:12-19 – The Sacrifices Of The Forgiven

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 5 Nov. 2023

Introduction

vs. 12-15 The Sacrifice Of The Fruit Of Lips

vs. 16-17 Not Broken Animals But A Broken Spirit

vs. 18-19 Then You Will Delight In the Sacrifices of the Righteous

Conclusion

Psalm 51:12-19 Side-by side comparison of versionsA

Vulgate (Ps. 50)B

LXXC
(Ps. 50)

Brenton (Vaticanus)D

KJVE

NAW

Masoretic TxtF

PeshittaG

14 redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui et spiritu principali confirma me

14 ἀπόδος μοι τὴν ἀγαλλίασιν τοῦ σωτηρίου σου καὶ πνεύματι ἡγεμονικῷH στήρισόν με.

12 Restore to me the joy of thy salvation: establish me with [thy] directing Spirit.

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

12 Please bring back to me the joy of Your salvation, and lay upon me a spirit of nobility.

(יד)הָשִׁיבָהI לִּי שְׂשׂוֹןJ יִשְׁעֶךָ וְרוּחַ נְדִיבָהK Lתִסְמְכֵנִי.

14 [אלא] אהפך לי בוסמ[ךM ו]פורקנך ורוח[ך] משׁבחתאN תסמכני

15 docebo iniquos vias tuas et impii ad te convertentur

15 διδάξω ἀνόμους τὰς ὁδούς σου, καὶ ἀσεβεῖς ἐπὶ σὲ ἐπιστρέψουσιν.

13 [Then] will I teach transgressors thy ways; and ungodly men shall turn to thee.

13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

13 Let me teach transgressors Your ways, and then sinners will return to You!

(טו) אֲלַמְּדָה פֹשְׁעִים דְּרָכֶיךָ וְחַטָּאִים אֵלֶיךָ יָשׁוּבוּ.

15 דאלף לעולא אורחךO וחטיא לותך נתפנון

16 libera me de sanguinibus Deus Deus salutis meae exultabit lingua mea iustitiam tuam

16 ῥῦσαί με ἐξ αἱμάτων, ὁ θεὸς ὁ θεὸς τῆς σωτηρίας μου· ἀγαλλιάσεται ἡ γλῶσσά μου τὴν δικαιοσύνην Pσου.

14 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation: [and] my tongue shall joyfully declare thy righteousness.

14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

14 O God – God of my salvation, rescue me from blood-guiltiness! My tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness.

(טז) הַצִּילֵנִי מִדָּמִיםQ אֱ‍לֹהִים אֱלֹהֵי תְּשׁוּעָתִיR תְּרַנֵּןS לְשׁוֹנִי צִדְקָתֶךָT.

16 פצני מן דמא אלה[י] אלהא דזדיקותי [ו]נשׁבח לשׁני זדיקותך

17 Domine X labia mea aperies et os meum adnuntiabit laudem tuam

17 κύριε X, τὰ χείλη μου ἀνοίξεις, καὶ τὸ στόμα μου ἀναγγελεῖ τὴν αἴνεσίν σου.

15 O Lord, thou shalt open my lips; and my mouth shall declare thy praise.

15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

15 {} Master, You will open my lips, and my mouth will communicate your praise.

(יז) אֲדֹנָיU שְׂפָתַיV תִּפְתָּח וּפִי יַגִּידW תְּהִלָּתֶךָ.

17 מריא פתח [לי] ספותי ופומי נפק תשׁבחתךX

18 quoniam si voluisses sacrificium X dedissem utique holocaust[is] non delectaberis

18 ὅτι εἰ ἠθέλησας θυσίαν, X ἔδωκα ἄν· ὁλοκαυτώματα οὐκ εὐδοκήσεις.

16 For if thou desiredst sacrifice, X I would have given [it]: thou wilt not take pleasure in whole-burnt-offering[s].

16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

16 For You do not delight in a sacrifice (which I would have donated!); a whole-burnt-offering is not what pleases You.

(יח)כִּי לֹאY תַחְפֹּץ
זֶבַח וְאֶתֵּנָהZ עוֹלָה לֹא תִרְצֶה.

18 מטל דלא צבית [ב]דבחא Xאפלא ביקדא שׁלמא AAאתרעית

19 sacrifi-cium Deo spiritus contribulatus cor contritum et humiliatum Deus non spernet

19 θυσία τῷ θεῷ πνεῦμα συντετριμμένονAB, καρδίαν συντετριμμένην καὶ τεταπεινωμένηνAC ὁ θεὸς οὐκ ἐξ ουθενώσειAD.

17 SacrificeX to God is a broken spirit: a broken and humbled heart God X will not despise.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

17 God’s sacrifices are of a broken spirit. A heart broken and {humbled}, God {Himself} will not despise.

(יט) זִבְחֵי אֱלֹהִיםAE רוּחַ נִשְׁבָּרָה לֵב נִשְׁבָּר וְנִדְכֶּהAF אֱלֹהִים לֹא תִבְזֶהAG.

19 דבחוהי דאלהא רוחא הי מכיכתא לבא שׁחיקא XX אלהא לא מסלאAH

20 benigne fac [Domine] in bona voluntate tua Sion [et] aedificentur muri Hierusalem

20 ἀγάθυνον, [κύριεAI], ἐν τῇ εὐδοκίᾳ σου τὴν Σιων, [καὶ] οἰκοδομηθήτω τὰ τείχη Ιερουσαλημ·

18 Do good, [O Lord], to Sion in thy good pleasure; [and] let the walls of Jerusalem be built.

18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

18 Please bring good to Zion in Your good-pleasure, and build the walls of Jerusalem.

(כ) הֵיטִיבָה בִרְצוֹנְךָAJ אֶת צִיּוֹן תִּבְנֶהAK חוֹמוֹת יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִםAL.

20 אטאב בצבינך לצהיון [ו]בני שׁוריה דאורשׁלם

21 tunc acceptabis sacrificium iustitiae oblationes et holocausta tunc inponent super altare tuum vitulos

21 τότε εὐδοκήσειςAM θυσίαν δικαιοσύνης, ἀναφορὰν καὶ ὁλοκαυτώματα·AN τότε ἀνοίσουσιν ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριόν σου μόσχους.

19 Then shalt thou be pleased with a sacrificeX of righteousness, offering, and whole-burnt-sacrifice[s]: then shall they offer calves upon thine altar.

19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

19 Then You will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous – in whole and entire burnt-offering; then they will offer up bullocks on Your altar.

(כא) אָז תַּחְפֹּץ זִבְחֵי צֶדֶקAO עוֹלָה וְכָלִילAP אָז יַעֲלוּ עַל מִזְבַּחֲךָ פָרִיםAQ.

21 הי דין תצטבא [ב]דבחא דקושׁתא [וב]יקדא Xשׁלמא הי דין נסקון תורא על מדבחך


1If you narrow it down to Qal spellings, as this one is, there are about 39 verses: 2/3 of which are generally agreed to mean “lay,” just under 26% of which could be translated “lay” although most English translations translate with another word (totaling over 92%), and just under 8% which necessitate a translation other than “lay.”

2As were Augustine, J. Calvin, M. Henry (who connected the Hebrew adjective to 2 Cor. 3:17 “...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”), and Spurgeon. Fausset disagreed (“that is... a soul willingly conformed to God’s law.”) as did Delitzsch (“not the Holy Spirit, but the human spirit made free from the dominion of sin by the Holy Spirit”).

3Datta cited The Psalms in Human Life by Rowland Prothero, p.338, as the source of this anecdote.

5Underlined words are also in the MT & LXX of Psalm 51:13, and dotted-underlined words are also in the LXX.
(Note that the English reference Psalm 51:13 is actually 51:15 in the Hebrew Bible and 50:15 in the Greek Bible.)

6The Greek word here is ἁμαρτωλὸν, a synonym to the word ἀσεβεῖς in the LXX of Psalm 51:13, but the same Greek root for “sin” in Psalm 51:2,3,4,5,&9.

7Matthew 6:13 “...do not begin to lead us into temptation, but rather rescue us from the evil.” (NAW)

9See Endnotes on v.18 for extended commentary which had to be omitted from the sermon due to time constraints.

10Leviticus 6:23 “So every grain-offering of a priest shall be entirely [committed]. It shall not be eaten." (NAW)
Deuteronomy 33:10 “They [the Levites] shall teach Jacob Your judgments, And Israel Your law. They shall put incense before You, And a whole burnt sacrifice on Your altar.” (NKJV)
1 Sam. 7:8-10 “And the children of Israel said to Samuel, ‘Don't let there be silence from us; you keep crying out to Yahweh our God so He will save us from the control of the Philistines!’ So Samuel took one suckling lamb and offered it up whole as a burnt offering [
עולה] to Yahweh, and Samuel cried out to Yahweh in behalf of Israel, and Yahweh answered him! So, there was Samuel, offering up the whole burnt offering [עולה]…” (NAW)

AMy original chart includes the NASB, NIV, and ESV, but their copyright restrictions force me to remove them from the publicly-available edition of this chart. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different from all the other translations, I underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between the various editions and versions when there are more than two different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea Scrolls containing Psalm 51 are 4Q85 Psalmsc (which contains parts of verses 1-3) and 4Q91 Psalms (containing parts of vs. 1-4), both of which date around 50 AD. Where the DSS is legible and reads the same as the MT, the Hebrew text is colored purple. Where the DSS and ancient versions support each other against the MT in such a way that I suspect they are the original reading, I have highlighted them with yellow.

BJerome's Latin Vulgate w/ Deuterocanon using Gallican Psalter, 405 AD. As published electronically by E-Sword.

CThis Greek New Testament (GNT) is the 1904 "Patriarchal" edition of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine majority text of the GNT and the Textus Receptus are very similar. The Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, and UBS editions are a slightly-different family of GNTs developed in the modern era as a break from the traditional Greek Bible by compiling just a few of the oldest-known manuscripts, but even so, the practical differences in the text between these two editing philosophies are minimal.

DEnglish translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851, “based upon the text of the Vaticanus” but not identical to the Vaticanus. As published electronically by E-Sword.

E1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published electronically by E-Sword.

FFrom the Wiki Hebrew Bible https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8_%D7%AA%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D.
DSS text comes from https://downloads.thewaytoyahuweh.com

GThe Leiden Peshitta, Copyright © 2012 by The Peshitta Foundation c/o Leiden University Institute for Religious Studies, as published electronically in BibleWorks.

HAquila = eudokhton (“good-will”). LXX translation focuses more on the aspect of “leading,” but both meanings are in the Hebrew word.

IAfter 8 imperatives and two prohibitives without a paragogic he, it is curious that the paragogic he should be added to this imperative. Often the he suffix on an imperative denotes respectfulness or urgency, like the added “please” to an English imperative. There is only one other paragogic-he-imperative in this psalm, and it is “do good” in v.18. (“Teach” in v.13 is imperfect but has a cohortative he.) So why would these two imperatives in particular have the paragogic he, but not the other imperatives?
In verses 12-15, David offers three reasons why God should forgive him. In order to do this, David has to draw upon all that God has revealed about Himself and think about what God cares about, in order to argue the case that God’s interests would be served by forgiving David. His three reasons are 1) it would make David a good leader of God’s people again, 2) God’s forgiveness of David would instruct many other sinners how to get right with God, and 3) it would result in more glory and praise to God.

Jcf. v.8 – which also contains sisown and, interestingly, a homonym for סמך (“support”), שמח (“happy”). Was that intentional?

KDelitzsch denied that “spirit” could be the subject of “uphold,” asserting that it is a “second accusative of the object… ‘with a spirit of willingness… sustain me.’” He also denied that “willing” was an adjective but asserted that it was in a genitive relationship to “spirit” “since the poet has just used רוח in the same personal sense in [the previous verse].”

LI suspect that what we have here hearkens back to Joshua’s ordination in Numbers 27:18-23. Practically every instance of this verb in the Qal stem previous to this in the O.T. involves “laying a hand upon” something else. Following is a breakdown of verses with this verb in the Qal stem in the Hebrew O.T.:

MBauscher correctly translated the Leiden Peshitta “But return your sweetness to me and your salvation…” (Greyed-out words are not in the Masoretic Hebrew text.) Lamsa’s translation follows the MT, which makes me wonder if he defaulted to his memory of the KJV instead of actually translating the Peshitta here, or if he was translating a different Peshitta.

NBauscher and Lamsa both translated this word “glorious.”

O“your way” is singular here, whereas it is plural in the MT, LXX, and Vulgate.

PSymmachus’ 2nd century Greek translation offered the synonyms “dialogue” dialalhsei instead of “sing out” and “mercy” elehmosunhn instead of “righteousness.” The LXX is a more-literal translation of the MT here.

QThis plural form of “blood” seems to denote the guilt of a crime worthy of death. (It is singular in the Peshitta, but plural in the LXX and Vulgate versions.) Cf. Leviticus 20:7-11, where this principle of legal blood-guilt is delineated.

R“There is much emphasis and vehemency in the mode of his address, O God! the God of my salvation, intimating at once how tremblingly he was alive to the danger of his situation, and how strongly his faith terminated upon God as the ground of his hope.” ~Calvin

SSyriac inserts a conjunction which improves readability (and is thus followed by the NIV and ESV), but the Vulgate and LXX agree with the MT which has no “and.” This Piel form is preceded by three other instances of this verb in the Piel in the Psalms: 5:11 (Heb v.12), 20:5 (Heb. v.6), and 33:1. There are two more instances of this verb in a stem other than Piel, Psalm 32:11 (Hiphil) and Psalm 35:27 (Qal).

T“God's righteousness is often put for his grace, especially in the great business of justification and sanctification.” ~Henry
“David can see the divine way of justification, that righteousness of God which Paul afterwards spoke of by which the ungodly are justified, and he vows to sing, yea, and to sing lustily of that righteous way of mercy. “ ~Spurgeon

UAccording to both the Groves-Wheeler Morphology and the Open Source Hebrew Bible Morphology, the final yod is a first person pronoun “my,” but every version omits it – the ancient Latin, Greek, and Syriac versions as well as the modern English versions.

VThere are only three other verses with this subject and verb in the O.T., all having to do with beginning to say something: Job 11:5, Job 32:20, and Dan. 10:16. This verb is not a Hebrew imperative form, nor is it imperative in the LXX or Vulgate (thus Augustine rendered it as a simple future tense, but every other commentator I read interpreted it as imperative.). The Peshitta, appears to interpret it as an imperative, as do all standard English versions.

WAll the other O.T. verses which contain “mouth” and “praise” are Ps. 34:2; 40:4; 71:8, and 145:21. The only other containing “declare” and “praise” is Isa. 42:12. And the only others containing “mouth” and “declare” in the same phrase are Gen. 43:7, Deut. 17:10-11, Isa. 48:3, and Jer. 9:11.

XLamsa’s translation “will show forth Thy praise” parallels the MT, but Bauscher’s translation “will sing your glory” is slightly different, although ultimately synonymous.

YSeptuagint & Vulgate translate this as though it were “if” instead of “not,” but Peshitta agrees with “not.”

Z“The common interpretation, ‘Else would I give it thee,’ says Rogers, ‘is harsh.’ Gesenius attributes... the sense of a gift, reward. It is used only in Hosea 2:14. If this sense might be given to the word in this passage, the verse might be translated, ‘For thou desirest no sacrifice or gift, [In] a burnt-offering thou hast no delight.’” Book of Psalms in Hebrew, volume 2, p. 208. As quoted in a footnote in Calvin’s commentary. In another footnote, Anderson suggests that David is saying that there is no provision for the forgiveness of murder and adultery by means of a sacrifice because they instead deserve the death penalty. But that sidesteps the whole point of forgiveness of sin applied to eternity, implying erroneously that no murderer can have eternal life.

AALit. “nor (mistaking ‘I would give’ for a negative?) sacrifice of peace (instead of MT ‘not’) chosen”

ABSymmachus used the synonym sunteqlasmenon.

ACSymmachus used the synonym kateaguian.

ADLater Greek versions spelled this word with a delta instead of a theta. The spelling with the theta is peculiar, but it is related to the delta (both letters are lingua-dental phonemes), so it is merely a spelling change, not a meaning change.

AEThis seems to be an abbreviated form of זבחים לאלהים "sacrifices to/for/belonging to God” (found in Gen. 46:1 & Ex. 18:12 – and with the singular “sacrifice” in 2 Ki. 5:17 & Judges 16:23) in which the two greyed-out letters fell out. This abbreviated form is found only here and Num. 25:2.
“Nothing more is necessary, on the part of the sinner, than to prostrate himself in supplication for Divine mercy. The plural number is used in the verse to express more forcibly the truth, that the sacrifice of repentance is enough in itself without any other” ~Calvin

AFBoth here and where this same word occurs in v.10, the Peshitta, Septuagint, and Vulgate all render a word which means “humbled” rather than “crushed.” The Hebrew word in the MT is not found outside the Psalms and occurs in only three other places: Ps. 10:10, 38:9, 44:20. Cf. a synonymous passage in Isaiah 66:1-2.
“The inward part of a man is said to be broken and crushed when his sinful nature is broken, his ungodly self slain, his impenetrable hardness softened, his haughty vainglorying brought low, - in fine, when he is in himself become as nothing, and when God is everything to him. Of such a spirit and heart, panting after grace or favour, consist the sacrifices that are truly worthy God's acceptance and well-pleasing to Him (cf. Isa. 57:15, where such a spirit and such a heart are called God's earthly temple).” ~Delitzsch

AGWe see this verb in Nathan’s message to David in 2 Sam. 12:9-10. He had “despised” God, but he knew that if he repented and asked God for mercy, God would not despise him! (Psalm 22:23-24, 102:17) the means of which is explained in the vicarious atonement described in Isaiah 53:3-5.
LXX, Vulgate, and Peshitta all render this verb 3rd person, whereas the MT, Targums, and English versions render it 2nd person. The referent is the same in either case, namely God, so the meaning is not subverted.
In the Hebrew poetry of this verse there’s a root-play between “sacrifice” zbh and “despise” bzh.
Calvin guarded against taking this doctrine too far: “‘If the contrite heart,’ it may be said, ‘hold a higher place in the estimation of God than all sacrifices, does it not follow that we acquire pardon by our penitence, and that thus it ceases to be gratuitous?’ In reply to this, I might observe, that David is not speaking at this time of the meritorious condition by which pardon is procured, but, on the contrary, asserting our absolute destitution of merit by enjoining humiliation and contrition of spirit, in opposition to everything like an attempt to render a compensation to God.”

AHBauscher seems to have the right translation for this text, omitting “and contrite” and changing the verb from 2nd to 3rd person. Lamsa appears to have defaulted to the KJV here. The Targum supports the MT.

AIAquila and Symmachus followed the MT tradition by omitting the vocative “Lord” added in the LXX.

AJLXX & Vulgate add “O Lord,” whereas the MT, Targum, and Peshitta do not, but it is already obvious from the rest of the Psalm that God is the addressee, so it makes no difference in meaning.
Spurgeon advanced an interesting hypothesis concerning David’s mention of “Zion”: “He felt he had hindered the project of honouring the Lord there as he desired, but he prayed God still to let the place of his ark be glorious, and to establish his worship and his worshipping people.”
The word for “good-will/pleasure/eudokia,in the Greek translation of Psalm 51:18, is a catchphrase throughout the New Testament for God’s plan to save us and to use us in the salvation of others, from the angel’s announcement of the birth of Jesus with “peace and goodwill towards men” in Luke 2:14, to Jesus’ explanation in Luke 10:21 that the good results of his disciple’s ministries was a result of the Father’s “good pleasure,” again affirmed by Paul in Philippians 2:13 that it is “God who works in us to accomplish His good pleasure,” and in Ephesians 1:5-9, God the Father, “...predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace...” (NKJV)

AKSyriac, LXX, and Vulgate all add an “and” here (Targum doesn’t). Psalm 55 contains the only other mention of this sort of “wall” in the Psalms, but the building of these walls in Jerusalem is mentioned in 1 Kings, the Chronicles, Isaiah, and Nehemiah, so the mere mention of building the wall is not proof in itself of post-exilic authorship. The phrases in the first half of this verse are not found anywhere else in Scripture. Concerning “building,” some key Psalms appear to be: 69:33-35 (while Israel was still seeking to occupy Canaan), 102:16-17 (during the monarchy), and 147:2-3 (after the exile).
“David’s son, Solomon, supplied a protecting wall to the city (1 Kings 9:15, 33:1). However, banah often means “rebuild, repair’ as well as ‘build,’ and that appears to be its intention here.” ~ A. Cohen, Soncino Books of the Bible: The Psalms
cf. Delitzsch: “
בָּנָה signifies not merely to build up what has been thrown down, but also to go on and finish building what is in the act of being built (Ps. 89:3).”
This blessing David prays over his people in Psalm 51:18, in the second half of the verse, pictures God building a defensive wall around the capitol city. We know from archaeology that David made additions to the walled city of the Jebusites when he took it over and made Jerusalem his capitol city, and from Biblical history, we know that Solomon and other Judean kings after him also did construction on the outer wall of the city, but I think there is something more going on here, because God wasn’t literally out there with a trowel, working on the wall of Jerusalem. When we look at how the same imagery is employed throughout the Psalms (e.g. Psalm 69:33-35, 102:16-17, and 147:2-3), we see that it is a metaphor for God’s deliverance from enemies and blessings on the communities of His people. In the New Testament, Jesus’ work of saving sinners and blessing them with spiritual blessings is also portrayed with the imagery of building construction (e.g. Matthew 16:18b, 21:42, John 2:19-21, and 1 Peter 2:4-5)

ALSome modern scholars have suggested that these last two verses belong to a time period much later than David’s, perhaps an additional prayer scribbled in by a Jew during the Babylonian exile (Venema, Green, Street, French, Skinner, Morison, G. Wilson), or perhaps the whole Psalm is post-exilic and just written in imitation of David (Hoersley, Calmet, Mudge, Dahood, Oesterly, Datta), or perhaps it really was written by David but lapses here into a prophecy about the future of Jerusalem (Ibn Ezra). But Theodoret, Augustine, Calvin, Anderson, Henry, Spurgeon, Fausset, Delitzsch, Barker, and I saw no need to distance this Psalm from David’s pen. Delitzsch argued forcefully, “[S]ince the Isaianic echoes of [Psalm 51] extend equally from the first verse to the last, it existed in the same complete form even in [Isaiah’s] day as in ours... consequently the close, just like the whole Psalm, so beautifully and touchingly expressed, is not the mere addition of a later age.”
Application was split between those who saw this as Davidic (e.g. Frank Barker: “Walking With the Lord… a plea for God to bless Zion – His true people, or Church… David would seek to influence the nation through God’s power… [in] true worship…”) and those who saw this as exilic (e.g. Gerald Wilson, who saw it as Jews in the Babylonian exile finding points of identification with David – their grief over the broken walls of Jerusalem matching David’s broken heart, their longing to be able to start temple worship back up matching David’s desire to be admitted to worship at the tabernacle after his sin, and, above all, the exilic community’s realization that, just like David, it was the sin in their own hearts which had brought God’s judgment and for which they needed God’s mercy.) - although all agree that it was certainly a propos for the exilic believers to use in their context, just as it is for us.

AMCuriously, Symmachus rendered this verb prosdexh (“he will receive”), diverging slightly from the LXX & MT (“you will be pleased”).

ANSymmachus used the same words as the LXX to translate the two offerings, but Aquila rendered them with the synonyms olokautwma and oloteleV.

AO“Sacrifices of righteousness/a righteous man” occurs elsewhere only in Psalm 4:5 and Deut. 33:19. Since “righteousness” is singular and “sacrifices” is plural, “righteousness” cannot be an adjective describing “sacrifices,” rather it should be translated as a genitive phrase (“of righteousness”). Psalm 4:3-5 “...Yahweh caused to separate a godly man for Himself. Yahweh will heed when I call to Him. Y'all should shudder and stop sinning! ...sacrifice sacrifices of righteousness and trust to Yahweh.” (NAW)
Delitzsch explained: “זִבְחֵי־צֶדֶק are here, as in Psa. 4:6; Deu. 33:19, those sacrifices which not merely as regards their outward character, but also in respect of the inward character of him who causes them to be offered on his behalf, are exactly such as God the Lawgiver will have them to be.” But, in light of the fact that no sinner has that completely lawful inward character, this must point to one who has been made righteous through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
Augustine, however, interpreted “sacrifice of righteousness” as “praise alone,” i.e. the NT practice in Heb. 13:15.

APOSHB cantillation places the major punctuation here, by which it may be inferred that the ‘olah and the kuliyl are epexegetical, explaining the nature of the “sacrifices of righteousness” (cf. Delitzsch, who called them an “explicative addition”). The Kuliyl sacrifice is a rare word in the sacrificial vocabulary of the Bible, with a root meaning of “whole/entire.” It shows up only three other times describing sacrifices – all three offered by priests, and all three given over to God entirely without any portion reserved for the priests: Leviticus 6:23, Deuteronomy 33:10, and 1 Sam. 7:8-10
The complete absence of this word in the late-monarchic, exilic, and post-exilic cultic vocabulary of the Old Testament is be a point in favor of Davidic authorship of this Psalm (as opposed to a later author).
Calvin commented, “Although some consider calil, and olah, to be both of one signification, others maintain with more correctness, that the first is to be understood as meaning the priest’s sacrifice…”
Delitzsch, I think unnecessarily, limited it to the priest’s grain-offering in Lev. 6.

AQThe sacrifices in the Pentateuch which required these bullocks were the [sin and?] peace offering used to consecrate the people before the covenant at Sinai (Ex. 24), the offering to consecrate priests for service at the tabernacle (Ex. 29/Lev. 8/Num. 8), the offering when a priest sins or when the whole people sin unintentionally (Lev. 4, 16/Num. 15), and the daily burnt offering on holidays (Num. 28, 29). Augustine interpreted these bullocks analogically as “necks freed from the yoke of the law,” but Calvin disparaged such figurative applications as “unnatural and too refined.” Henry (followed by Spurgeon) applied it in terms of bullocks being the “costliest sacrifices,” but I think the consecration idea is more likely.

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