Psalms 9:1

to brighten the youth Heb. על מות לבן. Some interpret על מות לבן, on the death of Absalom, but this interpretation is not plausible because he [David] states: לבן ; he does not state הבן. Others interpret על מות לבן [as referring to] Nabal. Neither is this plausible, to invert the name. Moreover, no mention is made of him in the psalm. (The preceding paragraph does not appear in most editions.) I saw in the Great Masorah that it is one word, judging by the fact that it is compared to (below 48:15): “He will lead us as in youth (על מות).” Menachem and Dunash interpreted what they interpreted, but it does not seem correct to me. I saw in the Pesikta (d’Rav Kahana, p. 25a) that the chapter deals with Amalek and Esau (as in verse 6): You rebuked nations; You destroyed a wicked man. But I say that this song, למנצח על מות לבן, is for the future, when the childhood and the youth of Israel will be brightened; their righteousness will be revealed and their salvation will draw near, that Esau and his seed will be erased, according to our Torah. (The last phrase does not appear in most editions.) על מות means childhood. לבן is like ללבן, to whiten. Menachem interpreted על מות לבן, melodies to teach, and this is its interpretation: To the conductor למנצח, to the conductor, melodies to teach, in which case לבן is equivalent to להבין ולבונן, to understand and to comprehend; על מות, named for a musical instrument called עלמות, as is stated (below 46:1): “on alamoth-shir.” Dunash (p. 15f) interpreted לבן as the name of a man whose name was Labben, who fought with David in those days, and the Psalmist’s statement, “You rebuked nations, You destroyed a wicked man”this wicked man is Labben, who slew innocent people. Although you do not come upon a man named Labben anywhere else but this place, you find the same with other names, which are found in Scripture only once. (This entire account of Dunash’s interpretation does not appear in early mss. Menachem’s interpretation is presented very briefly.)

For the Precentor: 'al muth labben: A Psalm of David. – The majority of the interpreters (Rabbi Dunash the Levite and Ibn Ezra) say that David uttered it with reference to one of his enemies who died, one of the princes of the heathen, who oppressed Israel and whose name was Labben; and that when he died David uttered this Psalm. Some also say (Ibn Ezra, ad loc.) that Labben (לבן) is an inversion of Nabal (נבל), and they say that David uttered this Psalm when Nabal the Carmelite died. But this is very far-fetched; for the subject-matter of the Psalm tells of a man who did evil to Israel, while Nabal did no harm to anyone, but simply was avaricious. And some say (ibid.) that לבן is to be read as if written with a yodh (לבין), and then the reference is to Goliath, who is called a champion (הַבֵּנַיִם אִישׁ); and when David had killed him he uttered this Psalm. My revered father, of blessed memory, has (also) written that this Psalm was (originally) uttered with reference to Goliath; but he explained לבן (as referring) to a singer whose name was Ben (בֵּן), as it is written in Chronicles (I Chron. 15:1 8): “and with them their brethren of the second degree, Zechariah, Ben, and Jaaziel;” and he explained מות על, which is two words [= on the death of], as one word, עלמות, from (the expression) שׁיר עלמות; and similar instances of words divided into two, but with the significance of a single word, are קוח פקח (= release, Is. lxi. 1), פיה יפה (= very fair, Jer. 46:20), and יונים לגאי (= proud, Ps. 123:4). And although the lamedh of לַבֵּן, is vocalised with the vowel pathah, and this is not in accordance with usage in the case of a man's name – for you do not say ליצחק, לַידותון, because the article is not employed with a proper name – nevertheless the article here is employed to indicate that he speaks with reference to Ben the singer; for if he had said לְבן (pointed) with sheva it would not have been clear that he was speaking of the singer whose name was Ben. At all events, it is admissible to interpret the subject-matter of the Psalm as having reference to Goliath the Philistine.