Ps. vol. iii. p. lxxvii.) But
especially in Ps. lxxii. does it clearly appear how "blessing oneself
in" is connected with "being blessed by." The very same people who
bless themselves in the glorious King to come, hasten to Him to partake
in the fulness of the blessings which He dispenses. He has dominion
from sea to sea; they that dwell in the wilderness bow before Him; all
kings worship Him; all nations serve Him.

Several commentators (_Clericus_, _Gesenius_, _de Wette_, _Maurer_,
_Knobel_, and, in substance, _Hofmann_ also) attempt to explain the
fundamental passage by the derived ones, and force upon Niphal the
signification of Hithpael; so that the sense would be only that a great
and, as it were, proverbial happiness and prosperity belonged to
Abraham: "Holding up this name as a pattern, most of the eastern
nations will comprehend all blessings in these or similar words: 'God
bless thee as He blessed Abraham.'" But this explanation is, according
to the _usus loquendi_, incorrect, inasmuch as the Niphal is used only
in the signification "to be blessed," and never means "to bless
oneself," or "to have or find one's blessing in something." To a
difference in the significations of the Niphal and the Hithpael, we are
led also by the circumstance that the Hithpael is connected only with
the seed--"they shall bless themselves in thy seed,"--and the Niphal
only with the person of the Patriarch: [Pg 56] "they shall be blessed
in thee," and "in thee and thy seed." The Patriarchs themselves are the
source of blessing, but, if these nations _blessed themselves_, they
wish for themselves the blessing of their descendants exhibited before
their eyes. The reference in Zech. xiv. 17, 18 to the promise made to
the Patriarchs presupposes the Messianic character, and the passive
signification of [Hebrew: nbrkv]. In like manner, all the quotations of
it in the New Testament rest on the passive signification. It is from
this view of it that the Lord says that Abraham saw His day; that, in
Rom. iv. 13, Paul finds, in this promise, the prophecy of His
conquering the world; and that, in Gal. iii. 14, he speaks of the
blessing of Abraham upon the Gentiles through Christ Jesus. Gal. iii. 8
and Acts iii. 25 render [Hebrew: nbrkv] by [Greek: eneulogethesontai].
The explanation, "they shall wish prosperity or happiness to each
other," is destructive of the gradation, so evident in the fundamental
passage,--blessing _for_, _on account of_, an