TEHILLIM LIGHT

Commentaries

Mizmor 009, Verse 007

MIDRASH TEHILLIM

1.....(9.8)
As for the enemy, they are come to an end, yet the fallen cities endure for ever
That is, Israel's enemies have perished, but their cities which deserve to fall remain.
But You, if one dare speak reproachfully, the cities which You did destroy, their memorial is perished with them. Even the ruins of Jerusalem and Zion are perished, as it is written: "Your holy cities have become a desert; Zion has become a desert, Jerusalem a desolation." (Yeshayahu - Isaiah 64:9).

RASHI

1.
The enemy has been destroyed:
A.
the swords of hatred are perpetually upon him like a sharp sword.
B.
[chorovos lonetzach] (ruins everlasting): that enemy, the swords of whose hatred were upon us forever.
C.
[חרבות ] (chorovos) is an expression of destruction, which can be interpreted as: The enemy has been destroyed, his ruins are perpetual.
2.
and You have uprooted the cities:
"Should Edom say, "We were poor, but we will return and build the ruins"? So said the Lord of Hosts: They shall build, but I will demolish;..." (Malachi 1:4)

RADAK

1.
And you, O Enemy, they have come to an end, they are desolate for ever; Even the cities which you have overthrown, Their very memorial is perished.
The he (of hoʾoyeyv) is he of the vocative. Here he addresses the enemy: "your name is blotted out as the name of the cities you have devastated is blotted out; or, as they have come to an end for ever and their memorial is perished, so has your memorial perished now."

Rabbi HIRSCH

1.
O enemy, the waste places will have come to an end forever; and for the cities which you have destroyed - their very memorial was lost even before.
(hoʾoyeyv)is vocative, and most likely does not refer to one specific enemy of Israel in particular, but to the character of a nation that is inimical to mankind and jeopardizes the welfare of other peoples.
(lonetzach) actually means “to victory”; i.e., in the future which will have overcome the past, a future emerging victoriously from the depths of the past. “At that future day which is the ultimate destination of all history,” says David, “all the destruction by which the nations now strive to attain power shall come to an end. Destruction is not the means by which nations should prove their strength. As for the cities which you succeeded in laying waste, their memorial was lost even before.”
(heymmo) has a certain connotation of - “their memorial was already lost when 'they' still existed, before you ever turned them into ruins.” That which can be made to perish with a world-conquering kick of the foot must have been based upon a principle that had no future to begin with. It is merely the case of a stronger tyrant overcoming a weaker despot. Such a victor is merely a tool in the hands of God for the destruction of something that is doomed to ruin just as he himself must eventually fall.

WORDS