In the previous parts of the psalm, we saw the first manner of salvation: the Holy One, blessed be He, gives David strength, but in practice tells him to remain in his home and do nothing - "and sets me upon my high places," "the God Who girds me with strength," and despite all that, stay in your place. From here onward, David HaMelech describes the second manner: the Holy One, blessed be He, enables him to run after the enemy, to pursue, fight, and achieve total victory - yet David reiterates in every single verse that everything is through the strength of the Holy One, blessed be He, and not from himself. From here we will continue following the order of the verses.
תַּרְחִיב צַעֲדִי תַחְתָּי וְלֹא מָעֲדוּ קַרְסֻלָּי׃ - You broaden my step beneath me, and my ankles have not faltered.
You, the Holy One, blessed be He, broaden my steps - giving me strength to run after the enemy. But notice the phrasing: "beneath me" (tachtai), meaning in my place. The Malbim explains that despite all this running, it is as if I am standing in my place. How do I reach the enemy? The Holy One, blessed be He, transports me, like a wind of Hashem that carries a person, by way of kefitzat haderech (contraction of the earth). The stride widens - yet I stand beneath myself. As it were, You are doing everything.
Therefore he adds: "and my ankles have not faltered" - the ankles remain firmly in place, not swaying or wobbling as is customary when walking. And how, then, did I arrive? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, sped me along, as if flying me toward the enemies, like a wind carrying me, as if the earth contracted and in that very moment I was already there.
From here, says the Malbim, we can understand Chazal's statement that the strides of Avraham Avinu were three mil. A single stride - roughly three kilometers. How is such a thing understood? In their esoteric wisdom, Chazal often employ expressions that hint at deeper inner meanings. We previously discussed the width of Shimshon's shoulders, which was sixteen cubits plus sixteen, making thirty-two cubits - an immense width that one could not physically live with; how could such a person even enter a doorway? The intention there is that he carried the doors of Gaza, which were that wide, thereby demonstrating the power of his shoulders. It does not mean actual physical shoulder width, but rather strength - just as when people say a car has one hundred and forty horsepower, no one opens the engine expecting to see a single horse. So too here: the power of Shimshon's shoulders was equivalent to having such dimensions. Likewise with Avraham Avinu's strides: it does not mean that he physically spanned three mil in one step, but that the power of his strides was of that measure.
Yet according to the Malbim's approach here, it can also be understood literally: the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were folded the earth beneath him, so that in a single step he traversed three mil. Hashem speeds him along, propels him forward - you take one step, and suddenly you are already there. And "my ankles have not faltered": the ankles do not tire or falter through the physical effort of walking at all, for the Holy One, blessed be He, alone is the One propelling him.
אֶרְדּוֹף אוֹיְבַי וְאַשִּׂיגֵם וְלֹא אָשׁוּב עַד כַּלּוֹתָם׃ - I will pursue my enemies and overtake them, and I will not turn back until they are destroyed.
Through this, I pursue my enemies, and even overtake them, and do not return until I destroy them. Often a king gives chase, but it is enough for him that he routed the enemy and then returns to his place: why continue fighting and suffer more casualties and injuries? He does not achieve a decisive victory - he ensures deterrence, but not decisive resolution. With David it was not so: "and I will not turn back until they are destroyed" - I do not return until I completely eradicate them, until I know that they will never return to wage war again.
There is a very famous Midrash here: Four kings, what this one demanded, that one did not demand, and these are David, Asa, Yehoshaphat, and Chizkiyahu. King David said, "I will pursue my enemies and overtake them." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: I will do so - just as you ask, as it says, "And David struck them from twilight until evening." Asa arose, a king who lived generations later, and said: I do not have the strength to kill. David says, "I will strike them," but Asa says: I will pursue and You will act - Master of the Universe, I will pursue, and You will bring the results. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I will do so, as it says, "And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them" - it does not say "for they were broken before Asa," but rather "for they were broken before Hashem." Asa did the pursuing, and the breaking - the Holy One, blessed be He, did it.
Yehoshaphat arose - notice another decline of the generations - and said: I have the strength neither to kill nor to pursue; I do not even have the strength to pursue. Rather, behold, I will sing praise, and You will act. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: I will do so, as it says, "And when they began to sing and praise, Hashem set ambushes." They offered only joyous song and praise to Hashem, blessed be He, and Hashem set ambushes. Chizkiyahu arose and said: I have the strength neither to kill, nor to pursue, nor to sing praise. Behold, I will sleep in my bed, and You will act - Master of the Universe, I am going to sleep, and by morning everything will be taken care of. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: I will do so, as it says, "And an angel of Hashem went out and struck down in the camp of Assyria one hundred and eighty-five thousand" - and Chazal say that these were one hundred and eighty-five thousand troop commanders - in a single night. And what did Chizkiyahu do? He went to sleep.
We have already pointed out that on the surface, this is an astonishing Midrash, for according to its plain reading it implies that Chizkiyahu was greater than David. King David could not go to sleep; David says, "I will pursue my enemies and overtake them, and I will not return until they are destroyed," doing everything by his own power. Yet with Chizkiyahu, as well as with those in between, you see that they seemingly possessed less power, while on the other hand the Holy One, blessed be He, did everything. Did Chizkiyahu possess greater bitachon than David? Why did David not stay home and say: Master of the Universe, You do everything and I will not go out at all?
The masters of Mussar explain: The exact opposite is true. This is an expression of the weakness of subsequent generations compared to the greatness of David, an expression of the decline of the generations. King David possessed such immense bitachon in Hashem that he could say: Master of the Universe, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will strike - and still, all of us know that everything comes from You. What tremendous bitachon!
By contrast, Asa comes and says: Master of the Universe, my generation is weak. If I both pursue and strike, we will walk away with the feeling of "my power and the might of my hand" - did you see how we slaughtered them? In order for my generation to believe, we will pursue and You will strike them, and then it will be clear to all that this comes from You. Yehoshaphat arrives, representing a generation even weaker in its emunah, and says: I have the strength neither to kill nor to pursue - for if we pursue, even without striking, we might still attribute the success to ourselves and say: Did you see how I chased them, how I terrified them, how they all fled? Therefore, I will sing praise, and if I sit at home and sing praise, it will be clear to everyone that the Holy One, blessed be He, did it. Chizkiyahu arose and said: Master of the Universe, my generation is so weak that if we sing praise and the battle is won, we will immediately take credit for that as well: Did you see that? We sang praise! What power of song we possess, how talented we are, a single word of ours moves all the worlds, we won through mere song! Therefore Chizkiyahu says: For my generation to believe that everything is from Him, blessed be He, my generation needs a situation where we go to sleep. Literally sleep - not awake, so that one cannot say, "I had focused intent" or "by the power of thought." Only when I sleep and You triumph will people ask: What did you do? Did your snoring scare them off? You did nothing at all. Only then will it be clear to everyone that this is from Hashem; in any other way, man attributes the success to himself.
אֶמְחָצֵם וְלֹא יֻכְלוּ קוּם יִפְּלוּ תַּחַת רַגְלָי׃ - I will crush them, and they will not be able to rise; they will fall beneath my feet.
The Malbim consistently emphasizes that the term mechitza, to crush or strike, indicates a lighter blow, a small impact, and he cites proofs for this. And this is David's intent: I will strike them with even a slight blow, and from then on, "they will not be able to rise" - they will already fall beneath my feet on their own and will be unable to stand.
Until this point, David explained to us the nature of the pursuit, the manner in which he pursues. From here on, he describes the nature of the battle itself.
וַתְּאַזְּרֵנִי חַיִל לַמִּלְחָמָה תַּכְרִיעַ קָמַי תַּחְתָּי׃ וְאֹיְבַי נָתַתָּה לִּי עֹרֶף וּמְשַׂנְאַי אַצְמִיתֵם׃ - "You girded me with strength for battle; You subdued beneath me those who rose up against me. And You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hate me I destroyed."
This is unlike the first manner, where we saw "The God Who girds me with strength and makes my way blameless" - Hashem grants me strength, yet tells me to remain at home. Here, Hashem girds me with strength for battle, gives me the power and I go out to fight, and even so, You are the One Who subdues those who rise against me. "Beneath me" (tachtai) - some explain this to mean that I am above them, that when I prevail over them they are beneath me; but according to the Malbim, "You subdued... tachtai" means in my place. You did this instead of me, as if stepping into my place to subdue them. "And You made my enemies turn their backs to me" - as Rashi explains, they turn their backs to me as they flee, and You bring all of this about.
Notice the precise terms: kamai ("those who rise against me"), oyevai ("my enemies"), and mesan'ai ("those who hate me"). The Malbim explains the distinction between them. Those who "rise up" are those actively waging war against him, rising up against him - and they will fall in battle. The "enemies" are those who harbor hostility and wish him harm; an enemy (oyev) harbors enmity inwardly in his heart, but does not come out to fight. When this enemy sees those who rose up fleeing, he flees as well, which is why it says, "And You made my enemies turn their backs to me" - they are already fleeing and do not stay to fight. A "hater" (soneh) simply dislikes him; he does not actively seek his harm like an enemy, but merely dislikes him. Yet here it does not say son'ai, but mesan'ai - related to masni'ai, one who does not merely hate, but actively defames my name in the eyes of others. And David says that Hashem will cut him down as well, and all the more so the enemies, whom He will cut down and wither away.
יְשַׁוְּעוּ וְאֵין מוֹשִׁיעַ עַל יְהֹוָה וְלֹא עָנָם׃ - "They cried out, but there was no savior; to Hashem, but He answered them not."
They will cry out and find no one to champion their cause, neither a nation nor a person who will come to save my enemies. And once they see that no human being can save them, they will turn to Hashem - and there too, "He answered them not": Hashem will not answer them to rescue them from me.
וְאֶשְׁחָקֵם כְּעָפָר עַל פְּנֵי רוּחַ כְּטִיט חוּצוֹת אֲרִיקֵם׃ - "I ground them fine as dust before the wind; like the mire of the streets I crushed them thin."
The warriors who come to fight David, the Malbim explains, will be like fine dust that is ground down and scattered to the winds - thus they will all flee before him. And regarding those who remain in their cities, he says, "like the mire of the streets I crushed them thin." The Malbim explains that this is related to rekikei matzot (thin wafers): arikem is like adikem, from the root for fineness - I will trample them until they become fine as dust. Similarly, Rashi explains arikem as akin to "lean of flesh" (verakot basar), meaning thin, referring again to something as thin as matzah wafers. Thus they will become like the mire of the streets, trodden underfoot by servants and maidservants, and through it all, there will be no one to come to their aid.
תְּפַלְּטֵנִי מֵרִיבֵי עָם תְּשִׂימֵנִי לְרֹאשׁ גּוֹיִם עַם לֹא יָדַעְתִּי יַעַבְדוּנִי׃ - "You delivered me from the strife of the people; You made me the head of nations; a people I did not know shall serve me."
And why will no one come to their aid? Because You deliver me from the strife of peoples: if their allies and supporters arise and wish to come to their rescue, You will deliver me from their hand. And indeed, You make me the head of nations - and the Malbim notes: not only the neighboring nations, but even "a people I did not know shall serve me."
לְשֵׁמַע אֹזֶן יִשָּׁמְעוּ לִי בְּנֵי נֵכָר יְכַחֲשׁוּ לִי׃ - "At the mere hearing of the ear, they obey me; foreigners cower before me."
And even more than this: foreigners living in a distant land, who did not know me. What does "they will dissemble before me" (yikachashu li) mean? It is as if they denied my very existence - that there is no such thing at all, no Israel, no David; they were not aware of it. And now they all hear of me and all gather to me. And note that it was only "at the hearing of the ear" - not that they had seen anything, but rather they merely heard of the mighty acts You perform for me and the salvation with which You deliver me. "They obey me" (yishme'u li) - they will come and listen to my voice. The Malbim explains that the intent is that they will assemble to hear, as in the phrase "vayashma Shaul et ha'am", which means that he gathered the people.
בְּנֵי נֵכָר יִבֹּלוּ וְיַחְרְגוּ מִמִּסְגְּרוֹתֵיהֶם׃ - Foreigners shall wither away, and limp forth from their enclosures.
Those foreigners, who heard only by the hearing of the ear of David's greatness and his battles, will wither away and limp out from their enclosures. They were enclosed in distant mountains, in places that were completely unfamiliar with the Land of Israel and with David, yet they will come and exert themselves to arrive here, to the point that they will virtually wither from the great distance and walk as if lame from the long journey - all to emerge from their enclosures, to come here, to hear and to see the greatness of David. All that greatness which they had merely heard about, they now trouble themselves to reach until they become withered and limping. And "veyachregu" is like "veyachgeru" (they will limp), as other commentators explain, being one of the words with transposed letters, like keves-kesev (sheep) and salmah-simlah (garment): they will limp and come out of the places where they are confined in order to come and listen to me.
חַי יְהֹוָה וּבָרוּךְ צוּרִי וְיָרוּם אֱלוֹהֵי יִשְׁעִי׃ - Hashem lives, and blessed is my Rock, and exalted is the God of my salvation.
Corresponding to the protection from enemies, David says, "Hashem lives, and blessed is my Rock" - Hashem is like a strong, mighty rock protecting me. And corresponding to the fact that He saves me to overcome the enemy, which is a higher level - not merely shielding me from him, but granting me the salvation to defeat him - regarding this he says, "and exalted is the God of my salvation"; the Holy One, blessed be He, exalts my salvation.
הָאֵל הַנּוֹתֵן נְקָמוֹת לִי וַיַּדְבֵּר עַמִּים תַּחְתָּי׃ - The God Who grants vengeance to me, and subdues peoples beneath me.
Corresponding to "and exalted is the God of my salvation," he adds: "The God Who grants vengeance to me" - that I also avenge myself upon the enemies, and am not merely rescued from them. And not only that, but "and subdues (vayadber) peoples beneath me." The Malbim explains that vayadber is related to pestilence and destruction (dever), as in "and destroyed (vatadber) all the royal seed" - meaning extermination or subjection. The Radak, however, offers a different explanation: "and leads peoples beneath me," akin to "one leader (dabar) for a generation," from the language of leadership - the Holy One, blessed be He, directs the nations beneath me, placing them into my hands so that I become their leader.
מְפַלְּטִי מֵאֹיְבָי אַף מִן קָמַי תְּרוֹמְמֵנִי מֵאִישׁ חָמָס תַּצִּילֵנִי׃ - He rescues me from my enemies; You even raise me above those who rise up against me; You deliver me from the man of violence.
Hashem rescues and delivers me from the enemy - and the "enemy," as noted, is the one who secretly seeks my harm, desiring to hurt me and plotting evil in his heart. And not only from him, but also "You raise me above those who rise up against me" - from those who rise up to fight me openly, as we saw earlier. "You deliver me from the man of violence" - and who is the man of violence? The Malbim explains that this refers to Shaul, who treated him unjustly; after all, the psalm was composed "on the day that Hashem delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Shaul," which is why he refers to Shaul as a man of violence. There are those who question this interpretation and reconcile it, but we will not dwell on that here.
עַל כֵּן אוֹדְךָ בַגּוֹיִם יְהֹוָה וּלְשִׁמְךָ אֲזַמֵּרָה׃ - Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, Hashem, and sing praise to Your Name.
For all these salvations, for all the immense kindness You have shown me - "Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, Hashem," I will offer You thanksgiving for all this goodness, and also "sing praise to Your Name," recounting and singing the praises of Hashem.
מַגְדִּל יְשׁוּעוֹת מַלְכּוֹ וְעֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד לִמְשִׁיחוֹ לְדָוִד וּלְזַרְעוֹ עַד עוֹלָם׃ - He magnifies the salvations of His king, and shows chesed to His anointed, to David and to his descendants forever.
The Malbim explains: in proportion to the abundance of thanksgiving, so salvation increases. When Hashem magnifies the salvations of His king - not a minor salvation, but an immense one - thanksgiving increases accordingly, for the measure of thanksgiving corresponds to the measure of salvation. And beyond what Hashem rewards me for the thanksgiving and praise, the Holy One, blessed be He, will also show chesed to His anointed - to David and to his descendants. These are the steadfast mercies of David: Hashem made a covenant with him that kingship would never depart from his seed, but would remain with his descendants forever, and we await Mashiach ben David, as it says, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet." This stems from chesed, as the Malbim explained in II Samuel 2:7, where this matter was discussed at length: it is Hashem's chesed that He promised David that the monarchy would forever stem from him, and this chesed is eternal.
The Malbim emphasizes: "His anointed" is greater than "king," as it signifies that the kingship is also an enduring inheritance. Shaul was a king - but what remained of it? Nothing; the kingdom was not passed on as an inheritance to his descendants. This is the difference between Shaul and David: of Shaul it is written that he was anointed with a flask (pach), and as Chana said, "My horn is exalted in Hashem" - and not "my flask is exalted." Where will the elevation be? In the monarchy of David, who was anointed with a horn (keren). A horn is enduring, lasting, and extremely sturdy, whereas a flask is fragile earthenware. Shaul's anointing was not with the anointing oil from a horn, but from a flask; whereas David is called "His anointed" - the anointed one who was anointed with the sacred anointing oil from a horn. Therefore, "and shows chesed to His anointed, to David and to his descendants forever" is greater than "He magnifies the salvations of His king": Shaul was also a king, but here he is "His anointed," who was anointed with a horn and whose kingdom is eternal.
Having mentioned "Magdil Yeshu'ot Malko," we should note that there is an apparent contradiction between verses: here in Tehillim it is written "Magdil" [מַגְדִּל], whereas in Samuel, at the conclusion of that very same chapter, it is written "Migdol Yeshu'ot Malko" [מִגְדּוֹל]. First, we must understand the difference between Magdil and Migdol, and in this context we will also explain the source of what we recite in Birkat HaMazon: on weekdays one says "Magdil Yeshu'ot Malko" and on Shabbat "Migdol Yeshu'ot Malko," and what underlies this change.
First, it should be noted: this verse entered Birkat HaMazon at a relatively late stage. In the siddurim in our hands from the Geonic era, such as the Siddur of Rav Saadia Gaon, the verse does not appear in Birkat HaMazon at all. By contrast, in Rashi's era, in Machzor Vitry - Rabbeinu Simcha of Vitry was a disciple of Rashi - the verse already appears, but without any distinction: it concludes with "Magdil Yeshu'ot Malko" with the letter yud, as in Tehillim, with no difference between Shabbat and weekdays. Later, about two hundred years afterwards, in the era of the Abudraham, the question arose. The reason: in Tehillim the vocalization is Magdil, while in Samuel it is Migdol. People were more accustomed to the wording of Tehillim - after all, how often do people read Samuel, whereas everyone recites Tehillim? - yet in the siddurim it was printed as "Migdol" as in Samuel. This created confusion: some said Magdil and others said Migdol. Consequently, a distinction was made, and the first to mention it was the Abudraham, who cites in the name of his teachers that on weekdays one should say Magdil and on Shabbat Migdol. That is, on weekdays one recites the text of Tehillim, which is more familiar to people, and on Shabbat Migdol - and this served as a compromise between the two versions circulating among the people.
There were those who suggested that this entire distinction originated from an error. This novel idea was proposed by Rav Baruch Epstein, author of the Torah Temimah, in his work Mekor Baruch: originally the text read "Magdil Yeshu'ot Malko," and in parentheses it had noted "בש"ב מגדול" - meaning, in Samuel II (Be-Shmuel Bet) it is Migdol. People misread this abbreviation, reading "בשב'" as "on Shabbat (be-Shabbat) Migdol." Early scribes often omitted final letters - writing "מיני" without a final mem, and similarly in Rashi one often finds abbreviations without final letters. However, this explanation cannot be correct, and the Steipler and other great authorities rejected it. Although it is quite ingenious, and his father, the author of the Aruch HaShulchan, remarked that it was a brilliant idea, he maintained that it was a novel speculation and that one must adhere to the established practice of saying Migdol on Shabbat, rather than changing it based on a theory of scribal error. Why can this explanation not be correct? Because the Abudraham had already recorded the distinction between Magdil and Migdol, and in the time of the Abudraham, the division into I Samuel and II Samuel did not yet exist - that division was introduced later. If the distinction already existed in his time, when there was no such thing as "Samuel Bet," how could "בש"ב" apply? Thus, the practice predates the division of the book, and this theory must be rejected. Still, we must understand: why was it instituted to say Migdol on Shabbat and Magdil on weekdays?
Let us look at what the Abudraham writes: because Shabbat is a "great king" in contrast to the weekday. As is known in Hebrew grammar, the vowels are divided into long vowels and short vowels, termed in grammatical tradition "great king" (melech gadol) and "small king" (melech katan). A chirik without a yud is a short vowel, while a chirik with a yud is a long vowel. On Shabbat we say "Migdol" - vocalized with a cholem with a vav, full spelling, which is a long vowel, a "great king." By contrast, "Magdil Yeshu'ot Malko" - which the Abudraham notes is spelled without a yud, and indeed such is the written text (ketiv): we read it "Magdil" as if with a yud, but whoever inspects the text will see it is written without a yud - is considered a short vowel, and a weekday corresponds to a "small king" compared to Shabbat, which is a "great king." He also suggests there that "Magdil" was uttered in Tehillim, when David was not yet king, whereas "Migdol" was said in the Prophets, when he was already king. Many question this explanation, and some suggest the reverse, but we will not dwell on this.
In Siddur Otzar HaTefillot, another explanation is cited based on a Midrash brought in Yalkut Shimoni (on Samuel) in the name of Rav Yudan: One verse says "Magdil" and one verse says "Migdol," because the salvation of this nation does not come all at once, but grows gradually. And what is "Migdol"? That He becomes like a great tower for the King Mashiach, as it says, "The name of Hashem is a strong tower (migdal oz); the righteous runs into it and is protected." Based on this, he explains the distinction between Shabbat and weekdays: "Magdil" (magnifying) implies an ongoing process, as Rav Yudan taught that salvation grows incrementally - and a weekday is like the exile, where we gradually build toward salvation, advancing toward it, and the Holy One, blessed be He, progressively builds the Beit HaMikdash for us. But Shabbat and Yom Tov are akin to the Messianic era - Shabbat being a foretaste of the World to Come - and there, there is no need for ongoing magnification, for it is already magnificent: "Migdol Yeshu'ot Malko" - the King Mashiach is already great; it is no longer an unfolding process but already complete, the salvation finalized, having become like a tower of strength. According to this, the distinction between Shabbat and weekdays is beautifully understood. There are other reasons as well, including reasons cited in the name of the Vilna Gaon, but we will not dwell on them; this suffices for us.
In this section, David describes the second manner of salvation: he pursues, overtakes, crushes, and consumes - yet repeatedly emphasizes in every verse that his steps are widened "under me," that his ankles do not slip, and that Hashem is the One Who subdues "beneath me," in my stead. The Midrash of the Four Kings teaches that David's true greatness was his ability to act with all his might while knowing that everything is from Hashem, whereas later generations needed to diminish their own role - even to the point of complete sleep - so that they would not attribute the success to themselves. From here, the psalm proceeds to the complete salvation: the enemies flee with none to save them, distant nations submit to David at the mere hearing of an ear, and he concludes with thanksgiving - for the measure of thanksgiving matches the measure of salvation - and with the eternal chesed of "to His anointed, to David and to his descendants forever," a monarchy anointed with a horn that endures for all eternity.