Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
And consider, and incline thy ear; and forget thy own people and thy father's house. 11. And the King shall greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord, and thou shalt worship him. 164 12. And the daughter of Tyre with a gift: the rich among the people shall entreat thy face.
8. All thy garments smell of myrrh As to the signification of the words I am not disposed to contend much, for I find that even the Jews are not agreed among themselves as to the meaning of the third word, except that from the similarity of pronunciation it may be conjectured to denote cassia. It is sufficient that we understand the prophet as meaning that the garments of the king are perfumed with precious and sweet-smelling odours. He describes Solomon coming forth from his ivory palace amidst shoutings of universal applause and joy. I explain not the word,מניminni, Out of me, because no tolerable meaning can be drawn from this. I translate it whence, 165 and refer it to the ivory palaces Superfluity and excess in pleasures cannot be justified, not only in the common people, but not even in kings; yet, on the other hand, it is necessary to guard against too much austerity, that we may not condemn the moderate display of grandeur which is suitable to their dignity, even as, a little after, the prophet describes the queen sumptuously and royally apparelled. 166 We must, however, at the same
",אופורOphir; in gold of Ophir, in a golden garment. Ophir, a country in India abounding in precious gold, 1 Kings 9:28, whose gold was obryzum, or ophrizum, i e most excellent." — Bythner's Lyra
"C'est, luy porteras reverence." — Fr. marg. That is, thou shalt do him reverence."
Calvin here seems to take the word,מניMinni, which has somewhat perplexed commentators, to be the particle,מןmin, out of, with,יyod, paragogic, as it is in Psalm 44:19, and many other places; and to suppose that the relative,אשרasher, which, a pronoun frequently omitted, is to be understood, — "out of which palaces they have made thee glad." This is the view taken by many interpreters. Others understand the word,מניminni, to be a noun; (and from Jeremiah 51:27, it appears that,מניminni, was the proper name of a territory, which Bochart shows was a district of Armenia;) and they translate the words thus, "From the ivory palaces of Armenia they make thee glad," make thee glad with presents. Others suppose that,מניminni, is here the name of a region, Minnaea in Arabia Felix, which abounded in myrrh and frankincense; and according to this view, the clause may be rendered, "The Minnaeitas from their ivory palaces make thee glad;" that is, coming to thee from their ivory palaces they gladden thee with presents. Rosenmüller thinks with Schmidt, De Wette, and Gesenius, that a more elegant sense will be brought out if we understand,מניminni, as a plural noun in a form somewhat unusual, but of which there are several other examples in the Old Testament, such as,שכשי2 Samuel 23:8;,כרי2 Kings 9:4, 19;,עמי2 Samuel 22:44; Psalm 144:2. "The word," says he, "according to these examples, stands for,מניםand signifies, as in the Syriac, Psalm 150:4, chords, stringed instruments of music. The sense of the clause will thus be, 'From the palaces of ivory, musical instruments — players on musical instruments — make thee glad.'" — Rosenmüller on the Messianic Psalms, pp. 213-215. — Biblical Cabinet, volume 32.