motive, if indeed it does prompt the petition. Is any one of God’s servants rescued by the Lord his God in order that other people may profit? Would it mean that, in the absence of any who might benefit, God’s servant would not be worth saving? Whichever way I turn, whether to the punishment of the enemies or to their salvation, I do not see the motive for this request, deliver me, on my enemies’ account, except for one way of understanding it which I will put before you, with the Lord’s help. He