nected with each other. Hence it cannot be conceived of otherwise,
but that the Servant of God, who, in His person, represented the
_ideal_ of righteousness, should, in a very special manner, have been
liable to this hostility. Moreover, it can be proved that, in some
Psalms which refer to the suffering righteous one, David has, besides
the individual and the whole people, in view, at the same time, his own
[Pg 244] family, and Him in whom it was to centre; comp. my commentary
on Ps. Vol. iii. p. lxxx. ff. There seems here to be a special
reference to Ps. xxii. 7, 8: "And I am a worm and no man, a reproach of
man and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn,
open their lips, shake their heads;" and it is the more natural to
assume this reference that, in chap. lii. 14; liii. 3, this passage
also is referred to [Hebrew: bzh] is, after the example of _Kimchi_,
viewed by several interpreters as an infinitive form standing in place
of a Noun, "despising or contemning," instead of "contempt," and this
again instead of "object of contempt." Others view it as the _Stat.
construct._ of an adjective [Hebrew: bzh] with a passive signification.
This latter view is more natural; and the reason which _Stier_ adduces
against it, viz., that of verbs [Hebrew: lh] no such forms are found,
cannot be considered as conclusive. [Hebrew: bzh-npw], literally the
"despised one of the _soul_" might, according to Ezek. xxxvi. 5:
"Against Edom who have taken my land into their possession with the joy
of all their heart, with the contempt of their soul," mean, "who is
inwardly and deeply despised," the soul being viewed as the seat of the
affections. But we are led to another explanation by the fundamental
passage, Ps. xxii. 7, and by the circumstance that [Hebrew: npw] is
_here_ parallel to [Hebrew: nvi], and that the latter corresponds to
the [Hebrew: eM] in Ps. xxii. "The despised one of the soul" must,
accordingly, be he who is despised of every one. The soul corresponding
to _man_ in Ps. xxii. is, as it were, conceived of as a great concrete
body. In a similar manner, "soul" is used for all that has a soul, in
Gen. xiv. 21, where the king of Sodom says to Abraham: "Give me the
_soul_, and take the goods to thyself."--"_To the abhorrence of the
people._" [Hebrew: teb] in _Piel_ never has another signification than
"to abhor." Such is the signification in Job ix. 31 also, where the
clothes abhor Job plunged in the dirt, resi