TEHILLIM LIGHT

Commentaries

Mizmor 007, Verse 014

וְ֭לוֹ הֵכִ֣ין כְּלֵי־מָ֑וֶת חִ֝צָּ֗יו לְֽדֹלְקִ֥ים יִפְעָֽל

velo heychiyn keleymoves chitzoyv ledolekiym yifʿol

then against himself he readies deadly weapons, his arrows into fiery shafts He makes.

MIDRASH TEHILLIM

1.....(7.10)
The instruments of death he prepares for himself.
Who then are those who burn, referred to in the verse's conclusion, arrows against those who burn does he also provide?
Rabbi Aibu said, they are the wicked men who burn with lust all their lives
Rabbi Jose said, they are the ones that set fire to the Temple
The Rabbies maintained, They are the persecutors of the children of Israel, as it is said: "Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they chased us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness." (Eichah - Lamentations 4:19)

RASHI

1.
And He has prepared deadly weapons for him; He will make arrows for pursuers.
...for him - for the wicked man, God has prepared deadly weapons.
...for pursuers - Heb. לדלקים, for pursuers.
And this is its meaning: His arrows to slay the wicked who pursue the righteous, the Holy One, blessed be He, will make and prepare them to slay them. Every [instance of] דליקה is an expression of pursuit.

RADAK

1.
He has also prepared him the instruments of death; And arrows for the pursuers does he provide:
For himself and those that pursue with him after me he has prepared and provided arrows and instruments of death to kill me. And some explain ולו, for himself as equivalent to בעבורו (on his own account), meaning" on account of his own life," as though saying, the arrows which he has prepared him are against his own life, for he shall die by them.
And דלקים (pursuers) is used as in: "that you has so hotly pursued (דלקת) after me" (Gen. 31:36).

Rabbi HIRSCH

1.
Then he shall have prepared for himself the weapons of death; his arrows which he wanted to turn into swift pursuers.
[velo heychiyn] - Then he has only prepared the tool of his crime for his own destruction. It will become the very weapon that will kill him.
2.
[דָּלַק] (dalaq)
related to [דָלַג] (to jump)
means “to proceed swiftly in one given direction”.
Thus, when used with reference to a fire that is driven on in the direction in which the wind blows, the word indicates “burning".
When employed to describe the pursuer driven by his violent desire, who runs after his victim, it denotes “to pursue”.

dalaq

דָּלַק

to burn, hotly pursue, chase, inflame, kindle, persecutor

WORDS