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 בְּזֹה 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 בָּזֹה with a passive signification. This latter view is more natural; and the reason which _Stier_ adduces against it, viz., that of verbs לה no such forms are found, cannot be considered as conclusive. בזה־נפש, 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 נפש is _here_ parallel to נוי, and that the latter corresponds to the עם 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._" תעב 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, resist being put on by him; likewise in Ezek. xv. 25, where Judah abhors his beauty, disgracefully tramples under feet his glory, as if he hated it. In favour of the signification: "To cause to abhor" (_Rödiger_: _horrorem incutiens populo, qui abominationi est populo_), interpreters cannot adduce even one apparent passage, except that before us. We are, therefore, only at liberty to explain, after the example of _Kimchi_: "to the ... people abhorring," _i.e._, to him against whom the [Pg 245] people feel an abhorrence. גוי is used of the Jewish people in Is. i. 4 also. _Hofmann_ is of opinion that it ought to have the article, if it were to refer to the Jewish people. But no one asserts a direct reference to them; it designates, in itself, the mass only, in contrast to single individuals, just as עם in Ps. xxii. The abhorrence is felt by the masses--is popular. The fact that it is among Israel that