Tehillim 72:20

20 The tefillot Dovid Ben Yishai are ended. [T.N. The next Psalm concerns a revelation received in the Holy Place, namely the fate of the wicked whose prosperity is delusional since the riches of G-d’s house is wealth they can never attain to, revealing their true eternal poverty. See Ps 73:24 on afterlife in G-d’s presence.]

Tehillim 72:20 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 72:20

The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.
] The Septuagint version renders it, the hymns. This psalm is thought by some to be the last that was written by David, though put in this place; and it is certain that the psalms are not always placed in the order of time in which they were written: this being, as is supposed, made by him in his old age, when Solomon his son was appointed and set upon his throne by his order; on account of which he composed it, with a view to the Messiah, the antitype of Solomon. Or, as others, this is the last of the psalms, which were put together and digested in order by David himself; the rest that follow being collected by Hezekiah or the Levites. Aben Ezra mentions it as the sense of some of their interpreters,

``then shall be fulfilled the prayers of the son of Jesse;''

that is, as R. Joseph Kimchi explains it, when those consolations are completed, then the prayers of David the son of Jesse shall be fulfilled. The sense is, when all the things spoken of in this psalm, concerning the Messiah and his kingdom, should be accomplished, then the prayers of David, and so of every good man, his hearty wishes and desires, will then be answered, and have their full effect, and not till then. This verse seems to be written not by David, for the psalm itself ends with "Amen and Amen"; but by some collector of the Psalms: it is not in the Arabic version, in the room of which is "Hallelujah"; and in the Syriac version it is, "the end of the second book". The first book of Psalms ends with the forty first Psalm. The whole is divided into five parts by the Jews; observed by Origen F24 and Hilarius F25, and others.


FOOTNOTES:

F24 Apud Montfaucon. Praelim. ad Hexapla Origen. p. 78, 79.
F25 Prolog. in Psalm. p. 33.

Tehillim 72:20 In-Context

18 Baruch Hashem Elohim, Elohei Yisroel, who only doeth nifla’ot (wondrous things).
19 And baruch Shem kevodo l’olam (and blessed be His Glorious Name forever); and let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Omein, and Omein.
20 The tefillot Dovid Ben Yishai are ended. [T.N. The next Psalm concerns a revelation received in the Holy Place, namely the fate of the wicked whose prosperity is delusional since the riches of G-d’s house is wealth they can never attain to, revealing their true eternal poverty. See Ps 73:24 on afterlife in G-d’s presence.]
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