Psalms · Psalm 123

"Who dwell" — Heb. הישבי.The “yud” is superfluous.

"A Song of Ascents. To You I lift up" — the poet speaks concerning the great one of the generation, who is in exile or under siege; therefore [he says], "to You I lift up." And the meaning of "who is enthroned in the heavens" — for all decrees come from there.

"I lift up" — when he speaks in the voice of the exiles, sometimes he speaks in the singular, as a general expression, and sometimes in the plural. "O You who are enthroned [ha-yoshvi]" — the yod is extra, and it is [equivalent to] "ha-yoshev" (the One who is enthroned). He says: I have no help on earth, and I hope for help from none but You.

"To You I lift up, etc." — In order to watch and look for help. "Who are enthroned" — You who dwell enthroned in the heavens.

"O You who are enthroned" (ha-yoshevi) — the letter "yod" is superfluous.

"A Song of Ascents" — a request for salvation, given that his trust is in Hashem alone. "To You I lift up my eyes" — that is to say, one who trusts in Hashem to save him by natural means lifts his heart to Hashem, but his eyes are upon the means, from and through which he hopes to obtain His help (which is why they said that one who prays must set his eyes below and his heart above — meaning, one who prays for the needs of the world, even though he sets his eyes below upon lowly matters, must nonetheless have his heart above, toward the One who guides and moves everything). But I have lifted up my eyes only to You; I hope that You will choose the means to salvation, not by means of the lowly world, but rather because You are "He who is enthroned in the heavens," who guides and moves the [whole] order [of creation].

"Behold" — after this he speaks on his own behalf and on behalf of his people, for a servant has no power to escape from the hand of those who come to kill him, unless his master saves him.

"servants" — who have no sustenance or livelihood except from them [their masters], and their eyes are fixed upon them. And my father, of blessed memory, explained: "to the hand of their master ... to the hand of her mistress" — that if they [the masters] strike them, they have no one to whom to lift their eyes except to themselves, that they should have mercy on them and hold back their hand from them. So too with us: who struck us, and who put us into exile — He [alone] will have mercy on us and bring us out of it.

"To the hand" — They watch the hand of their master, waiting for him to give them something, and they do not cease watching until he gives to them.

"Her mistress" (gevirtah) — that is the wife of the master, as in "because of Sarai my mistress" (Genesis 17).

"Behold" — he expresses this by means of two very fitting parables. Behold, servants lift their eyes only to the hand of their master, for that hand sometimes strikes them with a rod and sometimes gives them bread and food; "so our eyes look to Hashem our God" — whether He is "Hashem" who shows compassion, or "our God," the Judge who reproves and chastises. And he says that we are compared not only "as servants to the hand of their master" — where the master is the primary provider — but also "as the eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress," where the mistress herself is not the essential, primary provider, for she [too] receives from the master, and yet the maidservant still lifts her eyes to her. "So our eyes look to Hashem" — whether insofar as we consider Him the Master who first brings forth the good, or insofar as He is like the mistress who is the intermediary between the provider and the recipient, conveying the good she received from the provider into the hand of the recipient. So too You: insofar as You are Hashem who brings all existence into being, You are the primary Provider who brings forth the good; and insofar as You are our God who watches over us and conveys the good to us, You are also the intermediary who conveys the good to us — such that You both bring the good into being and also bring it to us. And so we wait "until He be gracious to us" — for even though we are not worthy by merit, He will do this out of grace.

"Be gracious to us... for greatly" — [greatly means] a long period of time.

"Be gracious to us" — the repetition is to strengthen the request, for a great, long span of time we have been sated with the contempt of exile.

"For [we are] greatly [sated]" — Much contempt has come upon us, until we are sated from it because of its great abundance; this is a figure of speech.

"Be gracious to us, Hashem" — even though we have no merits by which it would be fitting that You be gracious to us, add [further] grace on account of the fact that "we are greatly sated with contempt." And beyond the contempt with which we are sated, behold —

"the ridicule of the complacent" — [With] the ridicule of the complacent heathens we are sated. "the contempt" — that they despised the valley of doves, which is Jerusalem. "the complacent" — Heb. לגאיונים. It is written as one word and read as two.

"Greatly" [in "our soul is greatly sated"] — a measure of time. "The scorning of those at ease" — like [the construction] "the record, the purchase" [cf. Jeremiah 32:12]. "The scorning" — [means] the scorn of those at ease. "And the contempt" — [means] contempt for the proud (ge'eyonim); and [ge'eyonim] is a single word, like "elyonim" ["the supreme ones"], from the root ga'ah ["to be haughty"].

"the scorning of those at ease [ha-la'ag ha-sha'ananim]" — the construct noun is missing, like "ha-aron ha-badim" ["the ark, the poles," i.e., "the poles of the ark"]. He says, "our soul is sated with the scorning" — [meaning] the scorn of those at ease, who mock us. Or, the heh of "ha-sha'ananim" stands in place of a lamed, [so that it reads] "we are sated with the scorn belonging to those at ease," meaning we are sated with the contempt coming from those at ease. And "those at ease" are the nations, who are tranquil and at ease, while we are poor and suffering among them, and they mock us. "and of the proud oppressors [uligeyonim]" — it is one word in the text, and it is like "ge'im" (proud ones), except that its final root letter appears as a yod, and a nun is added. And it follows the same pattern as "elyonim" (those above), except that its vowels changed on account of the guttural letter. And in the qeri [reading tradition] it is [divided into] two words, "l'gei yonim," which adds a further meaning in the qeri: for "ga'i" is like "gei" (valley), and "yonim" is from the sense of "ha-ir ha-yonah" (the oppressing city), which is an expression of oppression (ona'ah).

"Greatly" — Greatly has our soul been sated from the mockery of the Babylonians, who dwell tranquil and at ease. "The contempt" — From the contempt which belongs to the proud oppressors, that is to say, from that which the proud and the scornful have shown us in contempt; and the matter is repeated in what is stated, to indicate the abundance of the contempt.

"Those who are at ease" (ha-sha'ananim) — an expression of quiet and rest, as in "Moab has been at ease" (Jeremiah 48:11). "The proud oppressors" (la-ge'yonim) — this is a compound word, from the language of "ga'avah" (pride) and the language of "onaah" (wronging) and robbery, as in "and does not wrong any man" (Ezekiel 18:7).

"Greatly" — this is something worse and greater: that which "our soul is full sated with" (for this is something that pierces and cuts into the depths of the soul) is that "the scorning of those who are at ease" becomes "the contempt of the proud." For we have already sunk to so low a level that the very fact that the complacent mock our troubles becomes, in turn, a source of contempt directed at the proud among them — that is, the haughty among them despise their fellows for troubling to mock so lowly a people as us, since we are not even significant enough in their eyes to be worthy objects of mockery — just as one would scorn a distinguished man for mocking someone utterly lowly.