Psalms 119:147,148

KOPH.

Psalms 119:147. I prevented the dawning of the morning Hebrew, בנשׁ Š, the twilight, namely, of the morning. In this sense this word is used 1 Samuel 30:17. Mine eyes prevent the night-watches In the Hebrew it is only the watches, there being nothing for night. “The Jews,” the reader will observe, “anciently divided the night into three watches, which began at what we now call six o'clock in the evening, and consisted each of four hours. The Romans afterward introduced among them the custom of dividing it into four watches, consisting of three hours each, as well as of dividing the day and the night into twelve hours each. David intimates that he meditated on God, not only in the day-time, but also in the several divisions of the night, wherein different soldiers, or different parties of soldiers, were appointed to watch, or keep guard. In all these, or at least during a considerable part of each of them, he was thus wakeful, and employed in meditation and prayer.”