TEHILLIM LIGHT

Commentaries

Mizmor 003, Verse 008

ק֘וּמָ֤ה יְהוָ֨ה ׀ הוֹשִׁ֘יעֵ֤נִי אֱלֹהַ֗י כִּֽי־הִכִּ֣יתָ אֶת־כָּל־אֹיְבַ֣י לֶ֑חִי שִׁנֵּ֖י רְשָׁעִ֣ים שִׁבַּֽרְתָּ

kumo ʾadonoy hoshiyʿeyniy ʾelohay kiyhikkiyso ʾes–kkol–ʾoyevay lechiy shinney reshoʿiym shibbarto

Arise, O LORD! Save me, my God! For You slap all my enemies on the cheek; You break the teeth of the wicked.

MIDRASH TEHILLIM

1.....(3.7)
Arise, O LORD! Save me, my God!...
Rabbi Phinehas stated in the name of rabbi Hoshaia, in the book of Tehillim, David was moved to say five times to the Holy One blessed be He, Arise, four times against the four kingdoms, and ones in the wars of Gog and Magog. For You have stricken all my enemies upon the jawbone. Strike them, according to rabbi Levi, with strangling, for it is said, And Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not done, he set his house in order, and strangled himself (Shmuel II - II Samuel 17:23)
According to rabbi Abijah, the verse means, You have stricken all my enemies though they were mighty as Samson himself, of whom it is written: "And he found a moist jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand and took it, and killed with it a thousand men" (Shoftim - Judges 15:15)

RASHI

1.
You slap all my enemies on the cheek
This is a disgraceful blow, as you say (Lam. 3:30): “Let him offer his cheek to the smiter” ; (Micah 4:14), “with a rod they strike… on the cheek.” According to the Midrash Aggadah (Mid. Ps. 3:7), this is a sickness of the mouth, [choking, croup] as you say (II Sam. 17:23): "And he [Ahithophel] gave charge to his household and he strangled himself.
2.
the teeth of the wicked
Their might.

WORDS