Psalms 59:10

The pot of my hope; or my watering pot. That is, a vessel for meaner uses, by being reduced to serve me, even i nthe meanest employments. (Challoner) (Worthington) --- Plautus (Mort. ii. scen. 1. 40) says, Ego vos pro matula habeo, &c. Symmachus adopts the sense of the Septuagint Greek: amerimnias, as rets, in Syriac means "to trust," (Daniel iii. 28.) and "to wash" in Hebrew. It was customary to throw lots into a pot full of water, and that which came out last was most esteemed. To this custom the psalmist may allude, (Calmet) or he hoped that the fruitful region of Moab would supply him with food. It was subject to David, (2 Kings viii. 2.; Haydock) and to the Machabees, 1 Machabees v. 6. --- Shoe, to be untied, or carried, as by the meanest slaves, (Matthew iii. 11.) or to take possession, Deuteronomy xi. 24. Thus "Alexander threw a javelin, and danced on the shore of Asia, begging that those lands would not receive him unwillingly for king." (Diodorus Arrian. Justin.) --- David conquered Idumea, (2 Kings viii. 14.; Haydock) as Hyrcanus did afterwards. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] xiii. 17.) (Calmet) --- Foreigners, alienigenæ, or, "Allophyli." (St. Augustine) --- "Of another tribe." (Haydock) --- So the Philistines were called, who had no kindred with the Israelites; whereas the Edomites, Moabites, &c., were originally of the same family. (Challoner) --- Subject, or "friends," Psalm cvii. 10. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "Philistia, triumph thou, because of me." Marginal note insinuates this is spoken "by irony;" but (Haydock) Hebrew properly means, "make an alliance with me;" or, Syriac, "I will shout for joy over Palestine." This country was subdued by the Machabees, (1 Machabees iv. 15.; Calmet) as it had been tributary to David, 2 Kings viii. 2. (Berthier) --- "I will make a league against the Philistines." (Houbigant)