TEHILLIM LIGHT

Commentaries

Mizmor 008, Verse 003

מִפִּ֤י עוֹלְלִ֨ים ׀ וְֽיֹנְקִים֮ יִסַּ֢דְתָּ֫־עֹ֥ז לְמַ֥עַן צוֹרְרֶ֑יךָ לְהַשְׁבִּ֥ית א֝וֹיֵ֗ב וּמִתְנַקֵּֽם

mippiy ʿoleliym veyonekiym yissadto–ʿoz lemaʿan tzorereycho lehashbiys ʾoyeyv umisnakkeym

From the mouths of infants and sucklings You have established strength because of Your adversaries, to put an end to enemy and avenger.

MIDRASH TEHILLIM

1.....(8.4)
From the mouths of infants and sucklings You have established strength...
...God said to the people of Israel [at the time of giving the Torah], You bring Me sureties who are not in debt to Me.
When the people of Israel asked, Who are those not in debt to You?
God answered, Infants
Whereupon the people of Israel brought sucklings at their mother's breasts, and pregnant women whose wombs become transparent as glass so that the embryos in the wombs could see God and speak with Him.
And God asked the sucklings and the embryos, Will you be sureties for your fathers, so that if I give them the Torah they will live by it, but that if they do not, you will be forfeited because of them?
They replied, Yes.
When God said to them, I am the LORD Your God (Shemot/Exodus 20:2), they replied, Yes.
When God said to them, You will not have any other gods before Me (Shemot/Exodus 20:3), they replied, Yes.
And so, as sureties for their fathers, at every utterance they replied Yes, when God said You will, and they replied, No, when God said You will not.
Thereupon, God declared, Out of your mouths, then, I give the Torah.
Strength here [in this verse] meaning Torah

2.....(8.5)
...because of Your adversaries, to put an end to enemy and avenger.
The term adversaries implying two adversaries, and the phrase - the enemy and the avenger, implying two more adversaries in allusion to the four kingdoms.

RASHI

1.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have established strength:
You caused Your Shechinah to rest in the Temple, and You decreed that we thank You. This is strength [that emerges] from the mouth of the Levites and the priests, who are people raised in filth like babes and sucklings. [The word] עוללים is an expression of (Job 16:15) “and sullied my radiance in the dust,” and because of the filth, all infants are called עוללים.

RADAK

1.
The learned Rabbi Abraham ben Ezra has expounded that he speaks so "on account of man's being honored above all the lower creatures, for from the time that the child begins to speak (and this is the meaning of out of the mouth of babes), then the spirit, by reason of his constitution, begins to receive strength until it discerns the power of its Creator by a deliberate act of judgment, for the soul is strengthened day after day; and this is the meaning of You has laid the foundation of strength. And the meaning of because of Your adversaries (is) to bring to naught the words of the deniers, who say there is no God."
And our teacher Moses ha-Cohen ben Giktilla has expounded thus: out of the mouth of babes, though they cannot speak with their mouths, (yet) in themselves they teach of the multitude of Your loving-kindnesses, for You do sustain them and make them to grow in their bodily development.

Rabbi HIRSCH

1.
[עוֹלֵל] (olel or olal), is that which is still in process of formation, therefore the child
[מִפִּ֤י] (mippiy) "from the recognition which even a mouth of a child may voice intelligently"
[לְמַ֥עַן צוֹרְרֶ֑יךָ ] (lemaʿan tzorereycho )
[צָרַר] (tsarar) is "to confine", "to limit in space
“You has written the proclamation of Your Name upon the heavens above where it cannot be reached by the hands of men, but yet it is intelligible even to children."

WORDS