Whole Psalm. — This Psalm appears to have been occasioned by the removal of the sanctuary from Shiloh in the tribe of Judah, and the co-incident transfer of pre-eminence in Israel from the former to the latter tribe, as clearly evinced by David's settlement as the head of the church and nation. Though this was the execution of God's purpose, the writer here shows that it also proceeded from the divine judgment on Ephraim, under whose leadership the people had manifested the same sinful and rebellious character which had distinguished their ancestors in Egypt. — B. M. Smith, in "The Critical and Explanatory Pocket Bible." 1867.
Verse 1. — "Give ear, 0 my people, to my law: incline your ears." Inclining the ears does not denote any ordinary sort of hearing, but such as a disciple renders to the words of his master, with submission and reverence of mind, silent and earnest, that whatever is enunciated for the purpose of instruction may be heard and properly understood, and nothing be allowed to escape. He is a hearer of a different stamp, who hears carelessly, not for the purpose of learning or imitation, but to criticise, to make merry, to indulge animosity, or to kill time. — Musculus.
Verse 1. — "Incline your ears." Lay them close to my lips, that no parcel of this sacred language fall to the ground by your default. — John Trapp.
Verse 1. — "To the words of my mouth." Was it not sufficient for the parallelism to say, To my words? Obviously. Why then is there any notice taken of the mouth? Because those who can prescribe laws to their subjects are also those who scorn to address them with their mouth. Such is the custom of kings, princes, pontiffs, both Roman and others. For the higher every one rises in dignity, the less he considers it becoming to him to speak to the people, to teach and instruct them by word of mouth. They think they owe nothing to the people, but are altogether taken up with this, that they may be looked up to as princes, and so retain a certain secular majesty of command. But, with one's own mouth to teach the ignorant, is a singular proof of love and paternal affection, such as becomes the preceptor, pastor and teacher. This Christ most constantly employed, because he was touched with paternal affection towards the lost sheep, and came as a shepherd to seek them. The manner of earthly princes he therefore rejected, and clothed himself with that paternal custom which becomes the shepherd and teacher, going about and opening his mouth in order to give instruction. See Matthew v. 1. Rightly,
therefore, was the prophet not content with saying, "Give ear, O my people, to my law:" he adds, "Incline your ears to the words of my mouth." Thus he indicates that he was about to address and instruct them with paternal affection. — Musculus.
Verse 2. — "Parable." "Dark sayings." S?s, an authoritative weighty speech or saying. The Hebrew term very nearly answers to the Greek, KI'/H<" &c$ai, i.e., authoritative sentences or maxims, or weighty sayings, expressing or implying a com parison, as such sayings frequently do. nrn, an enigma, a parable, which penetrates the mind, and wrhen understood makes a deep impression of what is intended or represented by it. Here rfirn seems to refer to the historical facts mentioned in the subsequent part of the Psalm, considered as enigmas of spiritual concerns. — John Parkhurst.
Verse 2. — "Parable." Parables are the speeches of wise men, yea, they are the extracts and spirits of wisdom. The Hebrew word signifies to rule, or have authority, because such speeches come upon us with authority, and subdue our reason by the weight of theirs. — Joseph Caryl.
Verse 2. — "/ will utter." The metaphor in this word is taken from a fountain which pours forth water abundantly. For «j properly means to gush forth, or bubble up. The heart of teachers in the Church ought to be full, and ready to pour forth those streams by which the Church is watered. Their spring ought not to become exhausted, and fail in the summer. — Mollerus.
Verse 3. — "Which we have heard and known." We have "heard" the law and "known " the facts. — Adam Clarke.
Verse 3. — "Fathers." Those are worthy of the name of fathers in the church, in relation to posterity, who transmit to posterity the truth of God contained in Scripture, such as here is set down in this Psalm: and this is the only infallible sort of tradition, which delivereth to posterity what God delivered to the prophets or their predecessors by Scripture, such as is the doctrine delivered in this Psalm. — David Dickson.
Verse 4. — "We will not hide them from their children," etc. Thou must not only praise God thyself, but endeavour to transmit the memorial of his goodness to posterity. Children are their parents' heirs; it were unnatural for a father, before he dies, to bury up his treasure in the earth, where his children should not find or enjoy it; now the mercies of God are not the least part of a good man's treasure, nor the least of his children's inheritance, being both helps to their faith, matter for their praise, and spurs to their obedience. " Our fathers have told us what works thou didst in their days, how thou didst drive out the heathen," etc., Psalm xliv. 1, 2; from this they ground their confidence, verse 4, " Thou art my King, O God; com mand deliverances for Jacob," and excite their thankfulness, verse 8, " In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever." Indeed, as children are their parents' heirs, so they become in justice liable to pay their parents' debts; now the great debt which the saint at death stands charged with, is that which he owes to God for his mercies, and, therefore, it is but reason he should tie his posterity to the payment thereof. Thus mayest thou be praising God in heaven and earth at the same time. — William Gurnall.
Verses 4 — 6. — The cloth that is dyed in the wool will keep colour best. Disciples in youth wTill prove angels in age. Use and experience strengthen and confirm in any art or science. The longer thy child hath been brought up in Christ's school, the more able he will be to find out Satan's wiles and fallacies, and to avoid them. The longer he hath been at the trade the more skill and delight will he have in wor shipping and enjoying the blessed God. The tree when it is old stands strongly against the wind, just as it was set when it was young.
The children of Merindal so answered one another in the matters of religion, before the persecuting Bishop of Cavailon, that a stander-by said unto the bishop, I must needs confess I have often been at the disputations of the doctors in the Sorbonne, but I never learned so much as by these children. Seven children at one time suffered martyrdom with Symphrosia, a godly matron, their mother. Such a blessing doth often accompany religious breeding; therefore Julian the apostate, to hinder the growth and increase of Christianity, would not suffer children to be taught either human or divine learning.
Philip was glad that Alexander was born whilst Aristotle lived, that he might be instructed by Aristotle in pbilosophy. It is no mean mercy that thy children are born in the days of the gospel, and in a valley of vision, a land of light, where they may be instructed in Christianity. Oh, do not fail, therefore, to acquaint thy children with the nature of God, the natures and oflices of Christ, their own natural sinfulness and misery, the way and means of their recovery, the end and errand for which they were sent into the world, the necessity of regeneration and a holy life, if ever they would escape eternal death I Alas I how is it possible they should ever arrive at heaven if they know not the way thither?
The inhabitants of Mitylene, sometime the lords of the seas, if any of their neighbours revolted, did inflict this punishment, — they forbade them to instruct their children, esteeming this a sufficient revenge. — (JElian.) Reader, if thou art careless of this duty, I would ask thee what wrong thy children have done thee that thou shouldst revenge thyself by denykig them that which is their due. I mean pious instruction.
The Jewish rabbis speak of a very strict custom and method for the instruction of their children, according to their age and capacity. At five years old they were filii legis, sons of the law, to read it. At thirteen they were filii pnccepli, sons of the precept, to understand the law. At fifteen they were Talmudistic, and went to deeper points of the law, even to Talmudic doubts. As thy children grow up, so do thou go on to instruct them in God's will. They are " born like the wild ass's colt," Job xi. 12 — that is, unruly, foolish, and ignorant. We often call a fool an ass, but here it is a " wild ass," which is more silly and untractable than a tame one; nay, it is a " wild ass's colt," which is most rude, unruly, and foolish. How, then, shall thy ignorant children come to know God or themselves without instruction?
Thy duty is to acquaint thy children with the works of God. Teach them his doings as well as his sayings. " Take heed to thyself, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons," Deut. iv. 9. God's wonders should be had in everlasting remembrance. "He hath made. his wonderful works to be remembered," Ps. cxi. 4. Now, one special way to do this is by writing them in our children's memories, hereby they are transmitted to posterity. This was the godly practice of the patriarchs, to instruct their children concerning the creation of the world, transgression of man, destruction of the old world, God's providence, the Messiah to be revealed, and the like. The parents' mouths were large books, in which their children did read the noble acts of the Lord. The precept is here urged [verses 2 — 7] upon a double ground, partly for God's praise, in the perpetuity of his worthy deeds: his words are of great weight, and therefore, as curious pictures or precious jewels, must in memory of him be bequeathed from father to son whilst the world continueth. If they are written on paper or parchment they may perish (and is it not a thousand pities that such excellent records should be lost?); but if they be written by fathers successfully on their children's hearts, no time shall blot or wear them out, Exod. xii. 26, 27. Therefore, as the rabbis observe, the night before the passover the Jews (to keep God's mercies in memory to his honour) were wont to confer with their children on this wise. The child said, Why is it called the passover? The father said, Because the angel passed over us when it slew the Egyptians, and destroyed us not. The child said, Why do we eat unleavened bread? The father answered, Because we were forced to hasten out of Egypt. The child said, Why do we eat bitter herbs? The father answered, To mind us of our afflictions in Egypt.
But the duty is also urged, partly for their own profit, verse 7, "That they might set their hope in God," etc. Acquaintance with God's favour will encourage their faith; knowledge of his power will help them to believe his promise. Header, obedience to this precept may tend much to thy own and thy children's profit. By teaching thy children God's actions, thou wilt fix them the faster, and they will make the greater impression, upon thy own spirit. A frequent mention of things is the best art of memory: what the mouth preacheth often the mind will ponder much. Besides, it may work for thy children's weal; the more they be acquainted with the goodness, wisdom, power, and faithfulness of God which appear in his works, the more they will fear, love, and trust him. — George Swinnock.
Verse 5. — "He established a testimony in Jacob," etc. The meaning is, that God ordained a law, and commanded that the fathers should each one tell his children those things which he had learned from his parents. In this verse therefore we understand by "testimony " and "law," that particular law which is written in
Deut. iv. 9 in these words: " Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons." — Simon de Muis.
Verse 5. — By the "testimony " and "law " are meant the whole contents of the Pentateuch, the direct commandments contained in it, and the deeds of the Lord, which are to be considered as indirect commandments: for all the deeds of God contain a kernel of instruction, of duty, and of warning; " I have done this for thee, what dost thou for me? " — E. W. Hengstenberg.
Verse 5. — "To their children." He who learns the law in his youth, resembles him that writes easily on new and pliable parchment; but he who begins to learn it in his old age, is like a man that tries to write on old and shrivelled parchment. — John Van den Driesche, [Drusius.] 1550—1616.
Verse 6. — Children should earnestly hearken to the instruction of their parents that they themselves may afterwards be able to tell the same to their sons, and so a golden chain be formed, wherewith being bound together, the whole family may seek the skies. Whilst the father draws the son, the son the grandson, the grandson his children to Christ, as the magnet of them all, that they all may be made one. — Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 7. — "Set their hope in God." Their hope was to be set not in the law which punishes, but in grace freely given which redeems; therefore is it added "and not forget the works of God." — Johannes De Turrecremata. 1476.
Verse 8. — "And might not be as their fathers." The warning is taken from an example at home. He does not say, That they might not be as the nations, which know not God: but, That they might not be "as their fathers." Domestic examples of vice are much more pernicious than foreign ones. Hence one says: Sic natura j u.bet, velocius el citius nos corrumpunt vitiorum exempla domestica. Let us learn from this place, that it is not safe in all things to cleave to the footsteps of our fathers. He speaks of those fathers wrho perished in the wilderness: of whom, see Num. xiv., Deut. i., and Ps. Ixviii. 6. — Musculus.
Verse 8. — "As their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation." Forasmuch as this bad emulation of their ancestors is with difficulty plucked from the minds of men, because of our innate reverence for our fathers, the prophet heaps up words in the description of the crimes of their fathers. He says they were n-p -in, that is, a generation detracting from the authority of God, and continually breaking the bonds of the law, and in their petulance shaking off the yoke, as a violent and re fractory horse, or an untamed bullock, enduring not the rein, or refusing to yield its neck to the yoke, but constantly drawing back and rejecting the bridle. — Mollerus.
Verse 8, 9. — Look carefully to the ground of the active obedience, that it be •sound and sincere. The same right principles whereby the sincere soul acts for Christ, will carry him to suffer for Christ, when a call from God comes with such an errand. " The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle." Why? what is the matter? so well armed, and yet so cowardly? This seems strange: read the preceding verse and you will cease wondering; they are called there, "A generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God." Let the armour be what it will, yea, if soldiers were in a castle, whose foundations were rock, and walls brass; yet if their hearts be not right to their prince, an easy storm will drive them from the walls, and a little scare open their gate, which hath not this bolt of sincerity on it to hold it fast. In our late wars we have seen that the honest hearts within thin and weak works have held the town, when no walls could defend treachery from betraying trust. — William Gurnall.
Verse 9. — "The children of Ephraim, being armed," etc. " When ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill. And the Lord said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies. So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, and went presump tuously up into the hill. And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Ilormah." Deut. i. 41 — 44.
Verse 9. — Many persons suppose the passage to refer to the event recorded in 1 Chron. vii. 21, 22, where are mentioned the sons of Ephraim, " whom the men of Gath that were born in the land slew, because they came down to take away their cattle. And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him." The manner of the relation shews that the slaughter must have been great; and this flight and defeat, and their not acknowledging their dependence upon God, it is supposed the Psalmist has in view in this place. But the objection to this interpretation is, that the event referred to in the book of Chronicles, evidently occurred at a time anterior to that of the Israelitish exodus from Egypt; whilst the llth verse of this Psalm speaks of these same Ephraimites being forgetful of God's doings and wonderful works which he did at the time of their exit from Egypt. It is, therefore, more probable that on?x 'j? may designate the Israelitish people generally, which Mendlessohn thinks to be the case. He observes that " the meaning of the noun Ephraim was that of a general term for Israel before the reigning of the bouse of David, because that Joshua the son of Nun, the first judge, was of this tribe; also because the territory assigned to this tribe was in the region of Shiloh: and it is possible that because of the reputation of this tribe in those days, all those who were in high esteem were also called Ephraimites." He might have added another and stronger reason than any of the preceding for this application of the term to Israel, and it is, that Jeroboam, who may be regarded as the founder of the Israelitish monarchy, is said, in 1 Kings xi. 26, to have been a descendant of Ephraim. The war alluded to may have been one of those which were waged between the ten tribes and the people of Judah. — George Phillips.
Verse 10. — "Walk in his law." Note, we must walk in the law of God, this is that narrow and sacred way which Christ traces before us. At Athens there was lepa 65o$, the sacred way, by which, as Harpocratio relates, the priests of the mysteries travelled to Eleusin. At Rome also there was a way which was called Via Sacra. To us also there is a way to the skies, consecrated by the footsteps of the saints. It behoves us therefore not to loiter, but to be ever on the march. — Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 12. — "Zoan." The name of a city in Egypt (Numb. xiii. 22), though it be not set down in the story in Exodus, is twice specified by the writer of this psalm, here, and verse 43, as the scene wherein the wondrous works were wrought on Pharaoh by Moses; either because really the first and principal of the miracles were shewed Pharaoh there, this city being the seat of the king, and a most ancient city, as appears by the expression used of Hebron, in Numbers xiii. 22, where to set out the antiquity of that city, where Abraham, the tenth from Noah, dwelt, 'tis said, that " it was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt; " or perhaps only in poetical style, as " the field " or country of Zoan, is all one with the " land of Egypt " foregoing. Thus, in other prophetic writings, when judgments are threatened, instead of " Egypt" sometimes we find " Zoan " alone, Isa. xix. 11, where " the princes of Zoan " are all one with the counsellors of Pharoah; sometimes " the princes of Zoan," with the addition of some other city, as verse 13, " the princes of Zoan, the princes of Noph," i.e., again, the counsellors of that kingdom, which as it follows, " have seduced Egypt," — brought the whole nation to ruin. So Isa. xxx. 4, where they send to Egypt for relief, 'tis said, their " princes were at Zoan, their ambassadors at Hanes." — Henry Hammond.
Verse 12. — "In the field of Zoan." We see in this passage that it was not without reason that God most powerfully displayed his wondrous works, his virtue and his glory in the more famous cities: not that he despised the humbler and obscure, but that he might more conveniently in this way scatter abroad the knowledge and renown of his name. For this cause he desired Moses to perform his miracles in the royal city, and in its field; for the same reason he afterwards fixed his dwellingplace in the most famous city of Canaan, in which he decreed also that Christ his Son should be crucified and the foundation of his heavenly kingdom laid. — Musculus
Verse 13. — "He made the waters to stand as an heap." The original word imports, those great heaps which are made use of as dykes or banks to restrain the waters.
But the Jews have not only understood these expressions literally, but have likewise taken upon them to add particular circumstances, as if the history had been so concise, that it wanted to be supplied therewith. They say, that the sea had formed, as it were, twelve roads or causeways, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites. — James Saurin.
Verse 13. — "He made the waters to stand as an heap." God did not wish altogether to take the sea from the gaze of the Hebrews, but to interrupt and divide it, that like a wall it might stand firm on either side of the way. This was done, first, that the miracle might be evident, for in that sea there is no tidal rise or fall of the waters. Secondly, that the people might have greater joy at the sight of so great a miracle. Thirdly, that in their whole passage they might depend more upon the providence of God, who, in a single moment, could allow the sea to return to its bed and drown all of them. It is God's will that we should flee to him the more ardently at the aspect of present danger. Fourthly and lastly, that the people might pass over the more rapidly, since they knew not how long God wished the miracle to last. — Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 14. — That there was a mystery in this pillar of cloud and fire is clear from Isaiah iv. 5, 6, for there never was a literal cloud and fire upon Mount Zion. This fiery pillar did cease when they were entered into Canaan; Isaiah therefore intends a spiritual thing under those expressions. So it is represented by the Apostle as representing a gospel-mystery: 1 Cor. x. 2. It signified and shadowed forth, 1. Something of Christ himself; 2. The benefits of Christ; 3. The ordinances of Christ.
1. Christ himself. — Some have noted a shadow both of his Deity and humanity. There was a fiery brightness in the clouds, which yet was but a dark shadow of the glory of his Deity, which was often in visions so represented; but his divine nature was veiled and over-clouded by his human, as in this shadow there was a pillar of cloud as well as fire. In Rev. x. 1, Christ is represented as clothed with a cloud, and his feet as pillars of fire; expressions notably answering this ancient type and shadow. 2. It holds forth something of the benefits of Christ. What benefits had they from this pillar of fire and cloud? They had three: (1) Light and direction. (2) Defence and protection. (3) Ornament and glory. All which we have in a higher manner in Christ by the gospel. 3. It figured also the ordinances, and his presence in and with them; for the ordinances are the outward and visible tokens of God's presence with his people, as this fiery pillar was of old. And, therefore, when the Tabernacle was made and set up, it rested upon the Tabernacle, Exodus xl. 38. There be some duties are secret, which the world sees not, nor may see; as alms-deeds and personal and secret prayer. But the ordinances of institution are things that ought to be practised with all the publickness that may be: they are outward and visible tokens of God's presence, particularly that great ordinance of baptism, as in 1 Cor. x. 2. The cloud, it seems, had a refreshing moisture in it, to shade, refresh, and cool them from the burning heat; and they were bedewed * with it, as we are with the water of baptism; whereby this legal cloud became a type of gospel baptism. And so you see how it represented something of Christ himself, and something of his benefits, and something of all his ordinances under the New Testament. — Samuel Mather.
Verse 14. — "All the night." We need not dwell long upon the thought of what this "all " was to the Israelites. In night marchings, and night restings, it was very precious; whether they were in motion or at rest, it was alike needed, alike good. This light of fire, unless continuous, would have been of comparatively little worth. Were it suddenly extinguished as they marched, all Israel would have been plunged into confusion and dismay; the quenching of the light would have changed into a disordered rabble, the marshalled host. — Philip Bennett Power, in "Breviates: or Short Texts and their Teachings."
* Rather " baptised " in it, as Paul puts it in i Cor. x. 2.
Verse 15. — "Gave them drink as out of the great depths." As if he had formed a lake or an ocean, furnishing an inexhaustible supply. — Albert Barnes.
Vt-rse 16. — "He brought streams also out of the rock," etc. " Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." The second murmuring for water at Kadesh seems to have been a more aggravated act of rebellion than the former, and yet the water is given in greater abundance. Oh, the freeness of the sovereign grace of God! — W. Wilson.
Verse 17. — "And they sinned yet more against him." He does not say that they sinned only, but that they sinned against God. "And they sinned yet more against him," namely, God. Against what God? Against him who had delivered them by great and unheard of wonders out of Egypt, who had led them as free men across the Red Sea with a dry foot, who had continued to lead and to protect them with pillars of cloud and fire by day and night, and had given them to drink abundantly of water drawn from the arid rock. Against this God they had added sin to sin. Simply to sin is human, and happens to the saints even after they have received grace: but to sin against God argues a singular degree of impiety. To sin against God is to injure and dishonour him in things immediately pertaining to himself. So they sinned against God, because after so many distinguished proofs and testi monies of his care made manifest to them, they continued to think and speak evil against him. All sins indeed, of whatever class they may be, are done against God, because they are opposed to his will; but those which are committed peculiarly against God, are certainly greater than others. Such are those wrought against his name, goodness, providence, power, truth, and worship, and against those things which specially concern him, whatever they may be. So we read of the sins of the sons of Eli, 1 Sam. ii. 24, 25: " It is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord's people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? " — Musculus.
Verse 17. — They sinned yet more." Their sin was not murmuring only, sinful as that is, but uncontrolled desire. And for what was that desire? It was for meat. They had grown so weary of the bread of heaven which God so mercifully provided; and they wanted something in addition — something, too, which was not absolutely necessary to their existence. When they murmured for water at Massah, they murmured for something needful. Their sin then was in murmuring, instead of praying. But here they lusted for something unnecessary, and this was an aggravation of their sin. And thus the Psalmist, evidently comparing this sin with the murmuring at Massah, says, " They sinned yet more against him." — George Wagner, in "The Wanderings of the Children of Israel."
Verse 18. — "They tempted God in their heart." They tempted God, tried his patience over and over again, made as it were another experiment upon it; and, from the expression of "tempting him in their heart," it would seem as if they had made it a thing of mental calculation whether he would still bear with them. — Thomas Chalmers (1780 — 1847), in "Daily Scripture Readings."
Verse 18. — "They tempted God." We know that, although " God cannot be tempted with evil," he may justly be said to be tempted, whensoever men, by being dissatisfied with his dealings, virtually ask that he will alter those dealings, and proceed in a way more congenial with their feelings. If you reflect a little, you can hardly fail to peceive, that in a very strict sense, this and the like may be said to be a tempting of God. Suppose a man to be discontended with the appointments of Providence; suppose him to murmur and repine at what the Almighty allots him to do or to bear: is he not to be charged with provoking God to change his purposes? and what is this if it be not " tempting " God — a striving to induce him to swerve from his plans, though every one of those plans has been settled by infinite wisdom? Or, again, if any one of us, notwithstanding multiplied proofs of the Divine lovingkindness, doubt or question whether God do indeed love him; of what is he guilty, if not of tempting the Lord, seeing that he solicits God to give additional evidence, as though there were deficiency, and challenges him to fresh demonstrations of what he has already abundantly displayed? This would be called "templing " amongst men. If a child were to show by his actions that he doubted or disbelieved the affection of his parents, he would be considered as thereby
striving to extort from them fresh proofs of that affection, though they had already done as much as either in justice or in wisdom they ought to have done; this would be a clear tempting of them, and that too in the ordinary sense of the term. In short, unbelief of every kind and degree may be said to be a tempting of God; for not to believe on the evidence which he has seen fit to give, is to tempt him to give more than he has already given — offering our possible assent, if proof were increased, as an inducement to him to go beyond what his wisdom has prescribed.... You cannot distrust God, and not accuse him of a want either of power or of goodness; you cannot repine, — no, not even in thought — without virtually telling him that his plans are not the best, nor his dispensations the wisest, which might have been appointed in respect of yourselves. So that your fear, or your despondency, or your anxiety in circumstances of perplexity, or of peril, is nothing less than a call upon God to depart from his fixed course,— a suspicion, or rather an assertion, that he might proceed in a manner more worthy of himself, and therefore a challenge to him to alter his dealings, if he would prove that he possesses the attributes which he claims. You may not intend thus to accuse, or provoke God, whenever you murmur; but your murmuring does all this, and cannot fail to do it. You cannot be dissatisfied, without virtually saying that God might order things better; you cannot say that he might order things better, without virtually demanding that he change his course of acting, and give other proofs of his infinite perfections. And thus you tempi him, tempt him even as did the Israelites in the wilderness. — Henry Melvill.
Verse 18. — "Asking meal for their lust." God had given them meat for their hunger in the manna, wholesome, pleasant food, and in abundance; he had given them meat for their faith, out of the heads of Leviathan which he brake in pieces, Ps. Ixxiv. 14. But all this would not serve, they must have meat "for their lust; " dainties and varieties to gratify a luxurious appetite. Nothing is more provoking to God, than our quarrelling with our allotment, and indulging the desires of the flesh. — Matthew Henry.
Verse 19. — It is particularly to be observed, that the sin of which the children of Israel were on this occasion guilty, was not in wishing for bread and water, but in thinking for one moment, that after the Lord had brought them out of Egypt, he would suffer them for the lack of any needful thing, to come short of Canaan, It was no sin to be hungry and thirsty; it was a necessity of their nature. There is nothing living that does not desire and require food: when we do not we are dead, and that they did so was no sin. Their sin was to doubt that God could or would support them in the wilderness, or allow those who followed his leadings to lack any good thing. This was their sin. It is just the same with the Christian now. These Israelites did not more literally require a supply of daily food for their bodies, than does the Christian for his soul. Not to do so is a sign of death, and the living soul would soon die without it. And so far from its being a sin, our Lord has pronounced that man blessed who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, adding the most precious promise, that all such shall be satisfied. But it is a sin, and very great sin, should this food not be perceptibly, and to the evidence of our senses, imme diately supplied, to murmur and be fearful. It was for the trial of their faith that these things happened to the Israelites, as do the trials of all Christians in all ages: and it is " after we have suffered awhile " that we may expect to be established, strengthened, settled. — Brownlow North, in "Ourselves. A Picture sketched from the History of the Children of Israel" [1865.]
Verses 19, 20. — After all their experience, they doubted the divine omnipotence, as if it were to be regarded as nothing, when it refused to gratify their lusts. Unbelief is so deeply rooted in the human heart, that when God performs miracles on earth, unbelief doubts whether he can perform them in heaven, and when he does them in heaven, whether he can do them on earth? — Augustus F. Tholuck.
Verse 20. — "Can he give bread also? " They should have said, " Will he serve our lusts? " but that they were ashamed to say. — John Trapp.
Verse 0. — Who will say that a man is thankful to his friend for a past kindness, if he nourishes an ill opinion of him for the future? This was all that ungrateful Israel returned to God, for his miraculously broaching the rock to quench their thirst: " Behold, he smote the rock," — "Can he give bread also? " This, indeed, was their trade all the time they were in the wilderness. Wherefore, God gives them their character, not by what they seemed to be while his mercies were before them; then they could say, " God was their rock, and the High God their Redeemer; " but by their temper and carriage in straits; when the cloth was drawn, and the feast taken out of their sight, what opinion then had they of God? Could they sanctify his name so far as to trust him for their dinner to-morrow who feasted them yesterday? Truly no, as soon as they feel their hunger return, like froward children, they are crying, as if God meant to starve them. "Wherefore, God rejects their praises, and owns not their hypocritical acknowledgments, but sets their ingratitude upon record; they forgot his works, and waited not for his counsel. O how sad is this, that after God hath entertained a soul at his table with choice mercies and deliverances, these should be so ill husbanded, that not a bit of them should be left to give faith a meal, to keep the heart from fainting, when God comes not so fast to deliver as desired. He is the most thankful man that treasures up the mercies of God in his memory, and can feed his faith with what God hath done for him, so as to walk in the strength thereof in present straits. — William Gurnali
Verse 23. — "Opened the doors of heaven." There is an allusion he:e to the flood as in verse 15. — A. R. Fausset.
Verse 23. — "Opened the doors of heaven." God, who has the key of the clouds, "opened the doors of heaven," that is more than opening the windows, which yet is spoken of as a great blessing, Mai. iii. 19. — Matthew Henry.
Verse 23. — "Opened the doors of heaven." This is a metaphor taken from a granary, from which corn is brought; and by opening the doors is signified, that the manna fell very plentifully. Compare Gen. vii. 11. — Thomas Fenlon,
Verses 24, 25. — "Manna." The prophet celebrates this miracle, first, because of the unusual place whence the manna was sent. For he did not produce fruits from the earth wherewith to feed them, but rained down this food from the clouds, and from the depths of the skies. Secondly, because of the facility of the distribution. By the command of God alone, without any labour of men, yea, while they slept, this food was prepared. Therefore is it said, "He gave," etc. Thirdly, he celebrates its great abundance which sufficed to supply so great a multitude. Fourthly, the excellence of the food. He calls it the food of the excellent or the strong, such as was not pleasant merely to the common multitude, but to the princes also, and to the heroes, for it was the food of "the mighty ones." — Mollerus.
Verse 25. — "Man did eat angels' food." 'Tis called "angels' food," not because the angels do daily feed upon it, but because it was both made and ministered by the ministry of angels, and that phrase sets forth the excellency of it. — Christopher Ness (1621 — 1705), in "The Sacred History and Mystery of the Old Testament."
Verse 25. — "Angels' food." Manna is called the bread of angels because it was brought down by their ministry; and it was so pleasant in taste, that if the angels had eaten bread, it might have served them. — John Weemse.
Verse 25. — "Angels' food." So their manna was called, either, 1. because it was provided and sent by the ministry of angels; or, 2. because it seemed to come down from heaven, the dwelling-place of the angels; or, 3. to set forth the excellency of this bread, that it was meat, as one would say, fit for angels, if angels needed meat. And so, indeed, the exceeding glory of Stephen's countenance is set forth by this, that they " saw his face as it had been the face of an angel," Acts vi. 15; and Paul calls an excellent tongue, " the tongue of angels," 1 Cor. xiii. 1. — Arthur Jackson.
Verse 25. — The more excellent the benefit is which God giveth, the greater is the ingratitude of him who doth not esteem of it and make use of it as becometh; as we see in Israel's sin, who did not esteem of manna as they should have done. Had the Lord fed them with dust of earth, or roots of grass, or any other mean thing, they should have had no reason to complain: but when he giveth them a new food, created every morning for their sakes, sent down from heaven as fresh furniture every day, of such excellent colour, taste, smell and wholesomeness;
what a provocation of God was it, not to be content now; in special, when he gave them abundantly of it? " He sent them meat to the full." — David Dickson.
Verse 26. — "He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power tie brought in the south wind." Here, on examining the geographical position of the Israelites, we see exactly how the south-east winds would bring the " quails," The Israelites had just passed the Red Sea, and had began to experience a foretaste of the privations which they were to expect in the desert, through which they had to pass. Passing northwards in their usual migrations, the birds would come to the coast of the Red Sea, and there would wait until a favourable wind enabled them to cross the water. The south-east wind afforded them just the very assistance which they needed, and they would naturally take advantage of it. — J. G. Wood, in "Bible Animals." 1869.
Verse 27. — "As dust." The amazing clouds of fine dust or sand, which a violent wind raises in the deserts of the East, constitute the point of comparison. — William Keatinge Clay.
Verses 27, 31. — If the cemetery on Sarbut-el-Khadem be, what all the antecedent evidences combine to indicate, the workmanship of the Israelites, (a chief burialground of their fatal encampment at Kibroth-Hattaavah), it may most reasonably be expected that its monuments shall contain symbolic representations of the miracle of the " feathered fowls," and of the awful plague which followed it. Now Niebuhr happily enables us to meet this just expectation, by his copies of the hieroglyphics on three of those tombstones, published in the XLVth. and XLVIth. plates of his first volume, and prefaced plate XL IV. by a plan of the cemetery itself, which is of more value than any or all subsequent descriptions. It was discovered by the present writer (as stated in a former work, [" The Voice of Israel "] on the evidence of no less than four Sinaitic inscriptions, that the birds of the miracle, named by Moses, generically, fyv, salu, and by the Psalmist, still more generally, ij? TV, "winged fowls," or more correctly " long-winged fowls," were not (as rendered by all our versions, ancient and modern) "quails," but a crane-like red bird resembling a goose, named in the Arabic nuham. The discovery received subsequently a singular and signal corroboration from the further discovery, by Dean Stanley, and previously by Schubert, of immense flocks of these very nuhams on the reputed scene of the miracle at Kibroth-Hattaavah. With these antecedents in his mind, the reader will now turn to the three monuments copied by Niebuhr in the cemetery of Sarbutel-Khadem. He will at once see that a crane-like bird resembling a goose, with slender body and long-legs, is the leading hieroglyphic symbol in all the three tablets. No fewer than twenty-five of these symbolic birds occur in the first, ten in the second, and fifteen in the third tablet. The goose appears occasionally, but the principal specimens have the air of the goose, but the form of the crane. In a word, they are the very species of birds seen by Dean Stanley, both at this point of Sinai, and at the first cataract of the Nile; and which constantly occur also in Egyptian monu ments: as though the very food of Egypt, after which the Israelites lusted, was sent to be at once their prey and their plague. " And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots." Exod. xvi. 3.
The reader has here before him the irrefragable fact that the very birds which by every kind of evidence stand identified with the salus, or long-legged and longwinged fowls of the miracle, are the very birds depicted on the tombstones of Sarbutel-Khadem, both standing, flying, and apparently even trussed and cooked.... The inevitable inference is... that these tombstones record the miracle of the " feathered fowls," and stand over the graves of the gluttons who consumed them. — Charles Forster, in "Israel in the Wilderness." 1865.
Mr. Forster thus deciphers by his alphabet some of the mixed legends and devices: —
" From the sea the cranes congregate to one spot;
The archers shoot at trie cranes passing over the plain.
Evil-stomached they rush after the prey —
The sepulchre their doom — their marrow corrupted by God.
The sleepy owl, emblem of death, God sends destruction among them.
The mother of sepulchres — the black and white geese,
A sudden death, greedily lusting after flesh, die the gluttons.
The mountain top ascend the Hebrews,
They eat, devour, consume, till nothing is left, exceeding all bounds.
Their bodies corrupted, by gluttony they die."
Verse 29. — Note: The prophet in this Psalm institutes, as it were, a conflict between God and man. God contends with blessings, man with sins. God exerts his power for the benefit of undeserving man, v. 12, " Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers: " man repays the divine power with infidelity, v. 17, " And they sinned yet more against him." And farther on, in v. 19, " Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? " Secondly, God showers down his bounty to overwhelm ungrateful sinners with his gifts, v. 23, " He commanded the clouds from above, etc., and rained down manna upon them." These less than men (homunciones) oppose their gluttony to the liberality of God, and abuse the gifts conferred, v. 29, " They did eat, and were well filled." Thirdly, divine justice renews the conflict to scourge at once stupidity out of them, v. 30, 31, " While their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them." Still obdurate they kick against the goad, v. 32, " For all this they sinned still." Fourthly, mercy flies down from heaven, to invite them to peace, v. 38, " But he being full of compassion." Men are but emboldened by his compassion, and the more easily relapse into sin, v. 40, " How oft did they provoke him in the wilder ness? " Fifthly, and lastly, when all seems lost, love draws nigh, and performs unheard-of wonders, to touch their hardness, and to deliver them from the dangers by which they were pressed, v. 43, " How he set his signs in Egypt." To these shafts of his love sinners oppose a forgetfulness of all his benefits, v. 42, " They remembered not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy." And all this took place before they entered the land of promise. The conflict that happened between the Hebrews and God in the land of promise is related in the next section of the Psalm. — Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 30. — "They were not estranged from their lust." This implies, that they were still burning with their lust. If it is objected that this does not agree with the preceding sentence, where it is said, that " they did eat, and were thoroughly filled," I would answer, that if, as is well known, the minds of men are not kept within the bounds of reason and temperance, they become insatiable; and, therefore, a great abundance will not extinguish the fire of a depraved appetite. — John Calvin.
Verse 30. — "They were not estranged from their lust." Satiated they were, but not satisfied. It is as easy to quench the fire of Etna, as the thoughts set on fire by lust. — John Trapp.
Verse 30. — "They were not estranged from their lust." Consider that there is more real satisfaction in mortifying lusts than in making provision for them or in fulfilling them: there is more true pleasure in crossing and pinching our flesh than in gratifying it; were there any true pleasure in sin, hell would not be hell, for the more sin, the more Joy. You cannot satisfy one lust if you would do your utmost, and make yourself never so absolute a slave to it; you think if you had your heart's desire you would be at rest: you much mistake; they had it. — Alexander Carmichael.
Verse 31. — "The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them." Two things are here worthy of notice. 1. One, Why he gave them abundance and sufficiency of quails, and afterwards punished the murmuring and unbelieving. If he had punished them before, he would have appeared to have had greater ability to destroy them, than to give them flesh. Therefore, that he might first declare his power, and so make the unbelief of the people the more plain, and show how deserving they were of punishment, he first showed he could give, because they believed he could not, and then punished them for their unbelief 2. The other, that he destroyed the fat and the chosen men among the people, although they all are said to have murmured. Without a doubt, they were first in the crime, and therefore they are specially mentioned in the punishment. — Musculus.
Verse 31. — "Slew the fattest of them." They were fed as sheep for the slaughter. The butcher takes the fattest first. We may suppose there were some pious and contented Israelites that did eat moderately of the quails, and were never the worse; for it was not the meat that poisoned them, but their own lust. Let epicures and sensualists here read their doom; they who make "a god of their belly, their end is destruction," Phil. iii. 19. — Matthew Henry.
Verses 31 — 34. — The Christian has more true pleasure from the creature than the wicked, as it comes more refined to him than to the other. The unholy wretch sucks dregs and all, dregs of sin and dregs of wrath, whereas the Christian's cup is not thus spiced. First, dregs of sin; the more he hath of the creature's delights given him, the more he sins with them. Oh, it is sad to think what work they make in his naughty heart! they are but fuel for his lusts to kindle upon; away they run with their enjoyments, as the prodigal with his bags, or like hogs in shaking time; no sight is to be had of them, or thought of their return as long as they can get anything abroad, among the delights of the world. None so prodigiously wicked as those who are fed high with carnal pleasures. They are to the ungodly as the dung and ordure is to the swine which grows fat by lying in it; so their hearts grow gross and fat; their consciences more stupid and senseless in sin by them; whereas the comforts and delights that God gives unto a holy soul by the creature, turn to spiritual nourishment to his graces, and draw these forth into exercise, as they do others' lusts. Secondly, dregs of wrath. The Israelites had little pleasure from their dainties, when the wrath of God fell upon them, before they could get them down their throats. The sinner's feast is no sooner served in but divine justice is preparing to send up a reckoning after it, and the fearful expectation of this cannot but spoil the taste of the other. — William Gurnall.
Verse 32. — "For all this they sinned still." They went on sinning, "and believed not for his wondrous works." That is, even his great wonders or miracles, did not bring them to believe. Neither speculative atheism, nor atheism of heart, nor practical atheism was ever cured by miracle, because they are all founded in a wicked dis position. " Men are not always in a mood to be convinced." It is not want of evidence, but the want of right dispositions that keeps men from believing God. — William S. Plumer.
Verse 32. — They did believe the history of his works, namely, that such things as are there recorded were done; they could not but believe that God had wrought wonders for them in Egypt, that he had drowned Pharaoh in, and brought them safe through, the Red Sea: they saw these things, their senses were witnesses, but yet they did not believe the prophecy or promise which was virtually in those works, namely, that God would do more wonders for them till he had finished and accom plished their deliverance. That history of bringing through the Red Sea had this prophecy in it — that they should be brought safe to Canaan; but they did not believe the voice of this prophecy. When God gave them water out of the rock, this work promised that he would give them meat out of the clouds, if they needed it; but this they believed not. Hence the same Psalm reports their unbelief, under this notion (ver. 19, 20). " They spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters ' gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? " "When the Lord heard this (language of unbelief) he was wroth." — Joseph Caryl.
Verses 32, 33. — What faith can do to a prophecy of judgment, the same can unbelief to a promise of mercy; overthrow it. The Psalmist assigns this to the unbelief of the works of God, as well as of his word. "They believed not his wondrous works. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble: " but are not the days of all men consumed in vanity? Is not man at his best estate altogether vanity? Yes, but here was a special vanity, and somewhat more penal and judicial lay upon that generation for their unbelief, than lies upon mankind as the fruit of sin in general. And what was that? Even the evil threatened in the text [Isa. vii. 9, latter part]: they could not be established. God lets them wander forty years in a wilderness, up and down, forward and backward; now in hope, anon in fear; now in joy, anon in sorrow; now in success, by-and-by in disappointment. — Joseph Caryl.
Verse 32. — Experience ought to strengthen faith; but there must be present faith to use experience. — J. N. Darby, "in Practical Reflections on the Psalms." [1870.]
Verse 33. — "Their days did he consume in vanity." He says with great signifi cance, In vanity their days were consumed, because they were plainly deprived of
their hope, and endured all their sufferings in vain. They did not attain what they had hoped for, but only their children entered the land. — Mollerus.
Verse 33. — "Days " are put in the first place, and then "years; " by which it is intimated, that the duration of their life was cut short by the curse of God, and that it was quite apparent that they failed in the midst of their course. — John Calvin.
Verses 34 — 36. — There are some if they come under afflictions, or if they fall in sickness, or a fever, and God shake death over their head; or if they be at some solemn ordinances, they will be at resolving and purposing, and readily bringing vows on themselves, of personal covenanting with God; but as they are easily gotten, so they easily vanish: " When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God." Several times our afflictions are like a gutter; when there is a great shower we will be running over with purposes after God. "Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant: " and yet when he slew them they sought after him, and they early enquired after him: so that indeliberate actions and covenantings with God, as they are hastily forgotten, they no less suddenly vanish; the action ought then to be deliberate when we indenture with the Cautioner, and oblige ourselves to more watchfulness, and more tenderness, or else it will soon vanish. — Alexander Wedderburn, in "David's Testament, opened up in Fourty Sermons." 1701.
Verses 31 — 37. — In these words you see plainly that these people are very early and earnest in seeking God to take off his hand, to remove judgments that were upon them, but not that God would cure them of those sins that provoked him to draw his sword, and to make it drunk with their blood; for, notwithstanding the sad slaughters that divine justice had made among them, they did but flatter and lie, and play the hypocrites with God; they would fain be rid of their sufferings, but did not care to be rid of their sins. Ah I but a gracious soul cries out, Lord, do but take away my sins, and it will satisfy me and cheer me, though thou shouldst never take off thy heavy hand. A true Nathanael sighs it out under his greatest affliction, as that good man did, A me, me salva, Domine,* deliver me, O Lord, from that evil man myself. No burden to the burden of sin. Lord I says the believing soul; deliver me from my inward burden, and lay upon me what outward burden thou pleasest. — Thomas Brooks.
Verses 34 — 37. — There are a sort of men that lie in the enmity of their natures, and in an unreconciled state, living in the visible church, who are not only much restrained, and bite their enmity in, but who, by means of an inferior work of the word and Spirit of God upon their hearts, are brought to seek unto God for friendship, yea, and do much for him in outward actions, and side and take part with his friends; and yet their hearts being unchanged, the cursed enmity of their nature remaining unkilled and not taken away, they lie still in the gall of bitterness. For instance, look to these in Psalm Ixxviii. 34 — 37. It is said that they ' sought the Lord early as their Redeemer,' whilst he was aslaying of them; yet they did but "flatter him with their mouths," etc. A flatterer, you know, differs from a friend, in that he pretendeth much kindness, yet wants inward good-will, doing it for his own ends. And so do many seek God, that yet he accounts as enemies; for they seek him whilst they see themselves in his lurch.
Now, it is hard to discover these, because they pretend much friendship, and externally (it may be) do as many outward kindnesses as the true friends; as flatters will abound in outward kindnesses as much as true friends, nay, often exceed them, because they may not be discovered. Now, if none of the former signs reach to them, nor touch them, then there is no better way left than to search unto the grounds of all they do, and to examine whether it proceeds from true, inward, pure, and constant good-will, yea or no, or self-respects? As now, when we see an ape do many things that a man doth, how do we therefore distinguish those actions in the one and in the other? Why, by the inward principles from whence they spring, by saying that they proceed from reason in the one, but not so in the other. If, therefore, it can be evinced, that all that any man seems to do for God, comes not from good-will to him, it is enough to convince them to be persons unreconciled; for whereas all outward kindnesses and expressions of friendship proceed not from friend-like dispositions and pure good-will, but altogether from self-respects, it is but feigned flattery, even among men; and when discovered once, it breeds double hatred. And there is much more reason it should do so with God, because he being a God that knows the heart, to flatter him is the greater mockery; for that is it which chiefly provoketh men to hate such as dissemble friendship, because there is mockery joined with it. Now, that God accounteth every one that doth not turn to him out of pure good-will a flatterer is plain by these words in verses 36, 37: "Notwithstanding, they did but flatter him, and dealt falsely in his covenant." If men's hearts be not inwardly for God, and with him, as a friend would be to a friend, in their actions he esteems them against him. " Thy heart," says Peter to Simon Magus, " is not right before the Lord," Acts viii. 22, and therefore he tells him he was " still in the gall of bitterness." — Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 35. — "Redeemer." That is, from Egyptian bondage; for the bulk of the people did not understand the spiritual redemption which was typified by that transaction. — Thomas Scott.
Verse 35. — Between this and the following verse the Masorah puts this note, "half of the book," i.e., half of the Book of Psalms ends here. — John Gill.
The numbering of the verses must differ from ours, for on counting the verses as in our version, we find verse 57 to be the centre verse of the book. — C. H. S.
Verse 36. — "They did flatter him," etc. But could they flatter God? Man is flattered when that is ascribed to him which he hath not, or when he is applauded for what he hath, beyond the worth of it. God cannot be flattered thus: he is as much beyond flatterings as he is beyond sufferings. The Jews, then, are said to flatter God, not because they applauded him by fair speeches more than was his due, but because by fair speeches they hoped to prevent what themselves did deserve; or they flattered God with their own promises, not with his praises. They sinned against him, and he slew them; and when the sword found them they sought God, they creeped to him and fawned upon him, they came as with ropes about their necks, confessing they were worthy to die, yet humbly begging for life: and if God would but humbly sheathe his sword and spare them, O what manner of men they would be in all holy conversation and godliness. Thus " they flattered God with their mouth, while their hearts were not right: " they made great shews of repentance and turning to God, but they meant no such thing; this was their flattery. Neither can the Lord be flattered any other way. And as he cannot be flattered by over-praising him, so his person cannot be unduly honoured by overrespecting him. — Joseph Caryl.
Verse 36. — God may be the object, self is the end, and a heavenly object is made subservient to a carnal design. Hypocrisy passes a compliment on God, and is called "flattery": "They did flatter him with their mouth," etc. They gave him a
parcel of good words for their own preservation An hypocrite may well be
termed a religious atheist, an atheist masked with religion. — Stephen Charnock.
Verse 36. — "They lied unto him with their tongues." The heart is the metal of the bell, the tongue is but the clapper; when the metal of the bell is right and good (as silver) such will the sound be; if the metal of the bell be cracked, or lead, the sound will soon discover it to a judicious car. God can see the diseases and spots of the heart upon the tongue. As Jacob said to his mother, " If I dissemble, my father will find me out, and I shall meet with a curse instead of a blessing." — George Swinnock.
Verses 36 — 38. — There is no disputing the fact which gives accuracy to the text, that God was moved by a repentance which had not in it even the elements of godly sorrow for sin; which could not even, by a casual observer, much less by him who searches the heart, have been mistaken for that penitence which supposes an inward and radical change, and, nevertheless, even such a repentance as this sufficed to procure a recompense at the hands of God. Though the sackcloth was on the body and not on the soul; though it was the punishment of the sin and not the sin itself which led to this outward humiliation, God did not turn away from the forced supplication, but vouchsafed the deliverance which was sought at his hands. Yes, God, who never expresses greater abhorrence of any character than of that of the hypocrite; God, who rejects nothing more indignantly than outward homage when it is not the index of inward prostration — God may be said to have removed the humiliation of the people as though he could not read their hearts, or as though,
having read them, and noted their unsubdued rebellion, he still thought the apparent
contrition deserving of some recompense
If God would not leave the show and semblance of contrition without a recom pense, will he be unmindful of real penitence? If "many a time turned he his anger away " from those who "did but flatter him with their mouths, and lied unto him \vilh their tongues," has he nothing in store for those who are humble in spirit, and who come to him with the sacrifice of a broken heart? Oh 1 the turning away of temporal wrath because idols were outwardly abandoned, this is a mighty pledge that eternal wrath will be averted if we are inwardly stricken, and flee for refuge to the Saviour. God must have eternal good in store for his friends, if even his enemies are recompensed with temporal good. Yes, as I mark the Philistines and the Ammonites oppressing the idolatrous Israelites, and then see the oppressors driven back in return even for heartless service, oh! I learn that true penitence for sin and true faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ will cause all enemies to be scattered; I return from the contemplation of the backsliding people, emancipated notwithstanding the known hollowness of their vows, I return assured that a kingdom which neither Philistine nor Ammonite can invade, shall be the portion of all who seek deliverance through Christ. — Henry Melvill.
Verse 37. — "Their heart was not right with him." God pleases them when he replenishes them with food, not their heart with his graces; therefore they repay him with the mouth, and not with the heart. They are altogether mouth and tongue: but God is all heart and breast. They give words; God gives milk and perfect love. Love does not reach the inner nature of many men, it sticks in the entrance. — Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 37. — "Their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast," etc. This is the ever-repeated complaint, see verses 8, 22. There is no permanence, no stability in the reformation which has been produced. Compare Hosea vi. 4. — J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse 38. — According to B. Kiddushin 30a, this verse is the middle one of the 5896 rp'ns, vrixot, of the Psalter. According to B. Maccoth 226, Ps. Ixxviii. 38, and previously Deut. xxviii. 58, 59; xxix. 9, were recited when the forty strokes of the lash save one, which, according to 2 Cor. xi. 24, Paul received five times, were being counted out to the culprit. — Franz Delitzch.
Verse 38. — "He, being full of compassion," etc. When his hand was up, and he giving the blow, he called it back again, as one that could not find it in his heart to do it; and when he did it, "he did not stir up all his wrath; " he let fall some drops of it, but would not shed the whole shower of it; and he giveth the reason of both, for "they are but flesh; " and, indeed, his primary scope is to show mercy; and that he afllicts is but upon occasion; and therefore he is provoked, and provoked much before he doth it. As it is natural to the bee to give honey, but it stings; but it stings but by occasion when it is provoked; and this we see to be true in God by experience, who suilers men, and suffers them long; they continue in their sins, and yet he continues in his mercies, and withholds his judgments. — John Preston {1587 — 1628), in "The Golden Sceptre held forth to the Humble."
Verse 38. — "Forgave " is a very inadequate translation of the Hebrew word, which necessarily suggests the idea of expiation as the ground of pardon. — Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 38. — "Many a time turned he his anger away." God is provoked every day, yet is he slow to anger. Yea, sometimes when he has determined to bring evil upon a people, and has put himself into a posture of judgment, drawn out the sword, and smitten them; though they cease not to provoke him, he ceaseth to punish them; as a tender father in correcting a rebellious and graceless child, holds his hand sometimes, before the child begs for mercy, and of mere grace forbears: so God did with Israel. Notwithstanding their dissembling with their flattering tongues, and covenant-breaking hearts, "He forgave their iniquity, and destroyed ihem not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath." The words are, "He multiplied to turn away his anger: " as they multiplied to provoke it, he multiplied to turn it away; and so at length overnumbered their sins with his mercies, that they were not destroyed. — John Strickland, in "A Sermon preached before the House of Commons," entitled "Mercy rejoicing against Judgment." 1645.
Verse 38. — "He did not stir up all his wrath." His patience is manifest in
moderating his judgments when he sends them. Doth he empty his quiver of his arrows, or exhaust his magazine of thunder? No; he could roll one thunderbolt successively upon all mankind; it is as easy with him to create a perpetual motion of lightning and thunder, as of the sun and stars, and make the world as terrible by the one as it is delightful by the other. He opens not all his store; he sends out a light party to skirmish with men, and puts not in array his whole army. "He stirs not up all his wrath; " he doth but pinch, where he might have torn asunder; when he takes away much, he leaves enough to support us. If he had stirred up all his anger, he had taken away all, and our lives to boot. He rakes up but a few sparks, takes but one firebrand to fling upon men, when he might discharge the whole furnace upon them; he sends but a few drops out of the cloud, which he might make to break in the gross, and fall down upon our heads to overwhelm us; he abates much of what he might do. — Stephen Charnock.
Verse 39. — "A wind that passeth away."
The secret wheels of hurrying time do give So short a warning, and so fast they drive. That I am dead before I seem to live.
And what's a life? a weary pilgrimage. Whose glory in one day doth fill thy stage With childhood, manhood, and decrepid age.
And what's a life? the flourishing array Of the proud summer-meadow, which to-day Wears her green plush, and is to-morrow hay.
And what's a life? a blast sustained with clothing. Maintained with food, retained with vile self-loathing. Then weary of itself, again to nothing.
Verse 40. — "How oft did they provoke," etc. They provoked God at least ten times (Num. xiv. 22) during the first two years of their journey through the wilder ness: (1) at the Red Sea (Exod. xiv. 11, 12): (2) at the waters of Marah (Exod. xv. 24): (3) in the wilderness of sin (Exod. xvi. 2): (4) when they kept the manna until the following day (Exod. xvi. 10): (5) when the manna was collected on the Sabbath (Exod. xvi. 27): (6) in Rephidim, where there was no water (Num. xx. 2, 13): (7) at Horeb, when a molten calf was made (Exod. xxii. 1, etc.): (8) at Taberah (Num. xi. 1, 2, 3): (9) when they lusted for flesh (Num. xi. 4): (10) when they murmured at the news brought by the men, who had been sent to search the land (Num. xiv. 1, etc.). — Daniel Cresswell.
Verse 40. — "How oft." God kept an account how oft they provoked him, though they did not, Numb. xiv. 22: " They have tempted me these ten times." — Matthew Henry.
Verse 41. — "They turned back." As for that expression, «w;i, which we translate, "and they turned back; that is, say some, to go back again into Egypt, or as others, returned back to their old wont of rebellion; I say, it hath no such meaning here; it is a Hebraism, and should be rendered, "they returned and tempted," that is, stcpius tentauerunt, they oftentimes tempted him, or they tempted him again. — Thomas Froysel, in "Sermons concerning Grace and Temptations." 1678.
Verse 41. — "Tempted God." This only expresses the fact that men act towards him as if he could be tempted, or in a way fitted to put him to the proof, to provoke his righteous displeasure, and make him proceed against them, as it were just for him actually to do because of their offences. It is not in the least degree opposed to the statement of James — " God cannot be tempted with evil," which is to the effect that he cannot be influenced by evil, so as to be drawn into it, turned toward it — so as to feel its power or experience its contamination. He is infinitely far removed from it, raised above it, under all its forms. He is so because of the absolute perfection of his being and blessedness. — John Adam, in "Exposition of the Epistle of James." 1867.
Verse 41. — "Limited the Holy One of Israel." They limited either, 1. God's power, as above, verses 19, 20. Or, 2. God's will, directing and prescribing to him what to do, and when, and in what manner; and murmuring at him if he did not always grant their particular and various desires. — Matthew Pool.
Verse 41. — "They limited the Holy One of Israel." Here, then, is an awful charge, and mysterious it seems to us as awful. How dreadful that man, the worm, should arrogate to himself thai, to say to him that made him, "Thus far shall thon go and no farther." Amazing, I say, the charge 1 to contract the dimensions and operations of the Deity. Ama/ing insolence, to draw a boundary line, beyond which the Creator himself must not pass, to define and prescribe to the Lawgiver of nature himself the pathway of his providence I The turpitude is immense. But we know, my friends, that the crime is not uncommon; and one of the natural results of sin seems to be this, — that the sinful spirit, whether of man or of the lost archangel, unable to shake the firm foundations of the Eternal Throne, amuses its malignity, and seeks a temporary cessation from its withering cares, in putting up barriers on the outskirts and frontiers of the Almighty empire, vainly hoping to annoy the Possessor of the throne they cannot disturb.
Affecting words I Do they affect you as they affect me? "They turned back and templed God, and limited the Holy One of Israel." Somehow, it seems no com bination of words could have been so affecting. They limited God. They limited the Almighty. They limited the Infinite. No I These words have an awful and affecting surge of meaning in them; for while they describe Him, they also convey his relation to us. They limited; — The One; — the solitary, awful and self-contained Being whose essence is eternity and power; whose self-existence is declared by the amazing marvels of nature; whose life was essential being. They limited Him — The One in whose being all being was swallowed up and absorbed — The One before whose glance mountains and hills fled away and were not found — The One from everlasting, God; high over all, blessed for evermore. The One to whom all the nations were as the drop of a bucket, and who took up the isles as a very little thing, — Him "they limited."
They had known his character as "The Holy One "; it was all they knew of his character; but it was surrounded with an awfulness more dread than even the solitary power and self-repose of Deity. In awful words and meanings they had heard his character proclaimed — The Holy One. Him they limited. Him, whose throne was curtained with the dreadful wings of sinless archangels, crying through the darkness of that ineffable brightness, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty 1 and whose holiness was asserted even by the disorders of the rolling world.
They limited him. — More personal, and therefore more wonderful, became the enormity. The generations of their race had testified for Him, the Holy One of Israel; they had beheld the marvels of his holiness and power in Egypt, in the Red Sea; they had heard of the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; they had heard of him who had spoken to their Captain in the bush burning with fire; they beheld his pillar of fire and cloud; they knew themselves divinely selected and chosen; and him who chose they limited! That which should have ensured their faith became only the fountain of their criminality. — E. Paxton Hood.
Verse 41. — "They limited the Holy One of Israel." God cannot bear it with patience, that we should limit him, either to the time, or manner, or means of help. He complains of the Jews for this presumption, they limited the Holy One of Israel. It is insufferable to circumscribe an infinite wisdom and power. He will work, but when he pleases, and how he pleases, and by what instruments he pleases, and if he please, without instruments, and if he please by weak and improbable, by despised and exploded instruments. — Joseph Caryl, in a "Sermon before the House of Commons," entitled, "The Workes of Ephesus."
Verse 41. — (last clause). This was Israel's sin, and has it not often been ours? Our God is the " Holy One," and will do what is most for His glory; he is the Holy One " of Israel," and will therefore consult his people's welfare. We must not limit his wisdom, for it is infinite; we must not limit his power, for it is omnipotent; we must not limit his mercy, for it is as high as heaven and deep as hell; we must not limit him to time, for he will display his sovereignty: he will not be tied to walk by our rules, or be bound to keep our time; but he will perform his word, honour our faith, and reward them that diligently seek him. — James Smith.
Verse 41. — "Limited." In the only other place where the Hebrew word occurs (Ezra ix. 4), it means to set a mark upon a person, which some apply here, in the figurative sense of stigmatising or insulting. — Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 41. — "Limited the Holy One of Israel," or signed him; signed him with a sign, so the Targum; they tempted him by asking a sign of him, as Jarchi interprets it; insisting that a miracle be wrought, by which it might be known whether the
Lord was among them or not, Exod. xvii. 7; with which compare Matt. xv. 1: or they set bounds, so Kimchi, to his power and goodness, saying, this lie could do, and the other he could not; see verses 19, 20; and so men limit the Lord when they fix on a blessing they would have, even that, and not another; and the measure of it, to what degree it should be bestowed on them, as well as the set time when they would have it; whereas the blessing itself, and the degree of it, and the time of giving it, should be all left with the Lord who knows which and what of it is most convenient for us, and when is the best time to bestow it on us. — John Gill.
Verse 41. — "Limited the Holy One of Israel " — mistrust of God's power to effectuate all his grace, to do what is needed in any case for his people, and carry out his purposes for them. The moment I suppose anything cannot be for blessing, I limit God. This is a great sin — doubly, when we think of all he has done for us. The Holy Ghost ever reasons from God's revealed, infinite love to all its consequences. He reconciled; surely he will save to the end. He did not spare his Son; how shall he not give all things? — J. N. Darby.
Verse 42. — "They remembered not his hand," etc. God hates forgetfulness of his blessings. First, because he has commanded that we should not forget them, Deut. iv. 9; and viii. 14. Secondly, because forgetfulness is a sign of contempt. Thirdly, it is the peculiarity of singular carelessness. Fourthly, it springs from unbelief. Fifthly, it is the greatest mark of ingratitude. — Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 42. — "They remembered not his hand," etc. The rallying point of faith in time of trial is the primary manifestation of grace. To an Israelite a remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt is the test of active faith. In like manner, to the tried believer now it is the CROSS that furnishes the outlet of deliverance from the misty darkness with which Satan sometimes is permitted to envelope our conscience, when the Lord has not been kept watchfully before our face. Because Israel forgot that first deliverance, they went on frowardly in the way of evil. Because a Christian sometimes stops short of the Cross in his spiritual conflicts, he fails to defeat the enemy and remains unfruitful and unhappy, until by some special intervention of the great Restorer, he is again brought, in spirit, to that place where God first met him, and welcomed him in Jesus in the fulness of forgiveness and of peace. No intermediate experience, how truthful soever in its character, will meet his case. It is at the cross alone that we regain a thorough right-mindedness about ourselves as well as about God. If we would glorify him, we must " hold fast the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end," Heb. iii. 14. — Arthur Pridham.
Verse 42. — "They remembered not his hand," etc. Eaten bread is soon forgotten..Nihil citius senescit quam gratia. Nothing so soon grows stale as a favour. — John Trap p.
Verse 43. — "Zoan," or San, seems to have been one of the principal capitals, or royal abodes of the Pharaohs (Isaiah xix. 11, 13; xxx. 4): and accordingly "the field of Zoan," or the fine alluvial plain around the city, is described as the scene of the marvellous works which God wrought in the time of Moses. — John Kitto.
Verses 43 — 51. — Moses wrought wonders destructive, Christ wonders preservative; he turned water into blood, Christ water into wine; he brought flies and frogs and locusts and caterpillars, destroying the fruits of the earth, and annoying it; Christ increased a little of these fruits, five loaves and a few fishes, by blessing them, so that he herewith fed five thousand men: Moses smote both men and cattle with hail, and thunder and lightning, that they died, Christ made some alive that were dead, and saved from death the diseased and sick; Moses was an instrument to bring all manner of wrath and evil angels amongst them, Christ cast out devils and did all manner of good, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, limbs to the lame, and cleansing to the leper, and when the sea was tempestuous appeasing it; Moses slew their first-born, thus causing an horrible cry in all the land of Egypt; Christ saveth all the first-born, or by saving makes them so; for thus they are called, Heb. xii. 23. — John Mayer.
Verse 44. — "Turned their rivers into blood," etc. This displays also the folly of creature worship. Pharaoh adores the life-sustaining power of nature, as embodied in the majestic river before him. The God of nature transforms the running water into a river of death before his eyes. It demonstrates, in the way that was most striking to the Hebrew and the Egyptian, that the God of Israel was the true and only God of heaven and earth, and that all other objects of worship were but the creatures of God or the works of men's tiands. — James G. Murphy.
Verse. 44. — "Turned their river into blood," etc. They looked upon their river not only as consecrated to a deity; but, if we may believe some authors, as their
chief national god; and worshipped it accordingly They must have felt the utmost astonishment and horror, when they beheld their sacred stream changed and polluted, and the divinity whom they worshipped so shamefully soiled and debased. And these appearances must have had a salutary effect upon the Israelites; as they were hence warned not to accede to this species of idolatry; but to have it ever in contempt, as well as abhorrence.
It is to be observed, that God might, if it had been the divine pleasure, have many different ways tainted and polluted the streams of Egypt. But he thought proper to change it to blood. Now the Egyptians, and especially their priests, were particularly nice and delicate in their outward habit and rites; and there was nothing which they abhorred more than blood, they seldom admitted any bloody sacrifices; and with the least stain of gore they would have thought themselves deeply polluted. Their affectation of purity was so great that they could not bear to come within contact with a foreigner, or even to handle his clothes; but to touch a dead body was an abomination, and required to be immediately expiated.... On these accounts the priests were continually making ablutions. There were four stated times, twice in the day, and as often in the night, at which they were all obliged to bathe themselves. Many accidents caused them to repeat it much oftener. Hence this evil brought upon them must have been severely felt, as " there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt," Exod. vii. 21. — Jacob Bryant (1715 — 1804), in "Observations upon the Plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians."
Verse 44. — "And their floods, that they could not drink." A third calamity accom panying this plague was the impossibility of drinking the water of the Nile, a vexation the keener felt by them, because the water of the Nile, after having been purified from the slime by a kind of almond-dough is, on the one hand, most agreeable, tasteful and healthy, so that it appears to strangers almost as an artificially prepared drink — whence the Egyptian proverb originated: " the water of the Nile is as sweet as honey and sugar," and the adage, " that if Mohammed had drank of it, he would have besought God to be immortal, that he might always enjoy it; and it is, on the other hand, the only drinkable water which the inhabitants can possibly use; for, says Maillct (I. p. 20): " The well and cistern- water in Egypt is detestable and unwholesome; fountains are so rare, that they are a kind of prodigy in that country; and, as to rain-water, that is out of the question, as scarcely any rain falls in Egypt." — M. M. Kalisch, in "A Historical and Critical Commentary on the Old Testament." 1867.
Verse 45. — "Flies." [Exodus viii. 13, 14. DJ? or D«»]. It is a matter of difficulty precisely to determine the species or kind of animals denoted by that expression; but so much is certain: 1. That they must be a very small kind of insects, as they are represented to arise from the grains of dust; 2. That they are noxious both to man and beasts (ver. 13.) and in a still higher degree than the frogs. The singular, 1?, is used in Isaiah li. 6, where it represents something very frail, weak, and perishable. The etymology leads to the Greek root, «"dw, to gnaw or pinch — and this coincides with the English noun gnats, with which, indeed, all the qualities just mentioned perfectly agree. And the Septuagint, which is naturally of great authority in all matters concerning the natural phenomena of Egypt, its home, translates also ffuwi+tt (musquito gnats); which Philo, likewise an Egyptian, describes thus: " It is an insect although of very small size, yet of a most troublesome nature; for it hurts not only the surface, causing intolerable and protracted itching, but pene trates also into the interior through the ears and noses. It flies even into the eyes of those who do not guard themselves, and produces pain." All which qualities are perfectly applicable to gnats. — Af. A/. Kalisch.
Verse 45. — "He sent divers sorts of flics." " 1 will send swarms of flies upon thee," etc. (Exod. viii. 21.) Heb. aty, arob, a mixture, or mixed swarm, i.e. probably of flies, wasps, hornets, and other vexatious and stinging insects. It will be observed that 'flies " in our version, being printed in italics, is not in the original the
Septuagint renders:ny, arob, by Kw6nvtavt dog fly, from its biting, an insect that fastens its teeth so deep in the flesh, and sticks so very close, that it oftentimes makes cattle run mad..
"He sent (^y, arob) divers sorts of flies among them which devoured them." The arob is described as devouring the Egyptians, which is an act which seems inapplicable to a fly. Upon the whole we strongly incline to the opinion which has found some able supporters of late years, that the Egyptian beetle (blatta jEgyptiaca) is denoted in this place. The beetle, which is almost everywhere a nuisance, is particularly abundant and ofTensive in Egypt, and all the circumstances which the Scriptures in different places intimates concerning the arob, applies with much accuracy to this species. It devours everything that comes in its way, even clothes, books, and plants, and does not hesitate to inflict severe bites on men. If also we conceive that one object of these plagues was to chasten the Egyptians through their own idols, there is no creature of its class which could be more fitly employed than this insect. What precise place it filled in the religious system of that remarkable people has never, we believe, been exactly determined; but that it occupied a conspicuous place among their sacred creatures seems to be evinced by the fact, that there is scarcely any figure which occurs more frequently in Egyptian sculpture and painting. — George Bush.
Verse 45. — "Flies, which devoured them." [See Exodus viii. 24.] "The land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies." Bochart understands by land, the in habitants, whose blood these flies sucked, and left such a poison in it, that their bodies swelled, and many of them died. Le Clerc understands it of the flesh and other eatables, which those vermin having preyed upon, and fly-blown, bred maggots, stench and putrefaction throughout the land. — Jameson's Critical and Practical Exposition of the Pentateuch. 1748.
Verse 45. — "And frogs, which destroyed them." Galerius observes, that the Egyptians were punished in this plague upon all the five senses. The sight was punished, that was offended with the multitude, with the greatness, with the hideous form and colour of these frogs. Their hearing was offended with the croaking of them; for it was but harsh music to dainty ears. Their smell was offended with the stench of them. Their taste was offended that they came into their troughs, the places of their dough, and so hindered them of the food that was provided for their nourishment " The frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants," (Exod. viii. 4.) So that thou Shalt not rid thyself of this annoyance. What 1 in their meat, and drink; and upon their bodies! Then observe with me, beloved, God can lay judgments upon people, that shall not be more painful, and troublesome, than odious, loathsome and noisome. — Josias
Shute, in "Judgment and Mercy: or the Plague of Frogs { removed ~~ 1645-"
Verse 45. — "Frogs." The Egyptians suffered most keenly from the infliction. They were a singularly fastidious people, and abhorred the contact of anything that they held to be unclean. We may well realise, therefore, the effect of a visitation of frogs, which rendered their houses unclean by entering them, and themselves unclean by leaping upon them; which deprived them of rest by getting on their beds, and of food by crawling into their ovens and upon the dough in the kneadingtroughs. And, as if to make the visitation still worse, when the plague was removed, the frogs died in the places into which they had intruded, so that the Egyptians were obliged to clear their houses of the dead carcases, and to pile them up in heaps, to be dried by the sun, or eaten by birds and other scavengers of the East. As to the species of frog which thus invaded the houses of the Egyptians, there is no doubt whatever. It can be but the green, or edible frog (Rana esculenta), which is so well known for the delicacy of its flesh. This is believed to be the only aquatic frog of Egypt, and therefore must be the species which came out of the river into the houses. Both in Egypt and Palestine it exists in very great numbers, swarming in every marshy place, and inhabiting the pools in such numbers that the water can scarcely be seen for the frogs. Thus the multitudes of the frogs which invaded the Egyptians was no matter of wonder, the only miraculous element being that the reptiles were simultaneously directed to the houses, and their simultaneous death when the plague was taken away. — J. G. Wood.
Verse 45. — "Frogs." The rod is lifted up again. Behold, that Nilus, which they had before adored, was never so beneficial as it is now troublesome; yielding them not only a dead, but a living annoyance: it never did so store them with fish as it now plagues them with frogs. Whatsoever any man makes his god, besides the true one, shall be one day his tormentor. Those loathsome creatures leave their own element to punish them which rebelliously detained Israel from their own.
No bed, no table, can be free from them: their dainty ladies cannot keep them out of their bosoms; neither can the Egyptians sooner open their mouths than they are ready to creep into their throats, as if they would tell them, that they came on purpose to revenge the wrongs of their Maker. — Joseph Hall.
Verse 46. — "Caterpiller." H0, chasil, is rendered /SpoOxoi by the LXX, in 2 Chron. vi. 28, and by Aquila here, and also by the Vulgate in Chron. and in Isai. xxxiii. 4, and it is rendered by Jerome here, bruchus, " the chaffer," which everyone knows to be a great devourer of the leaves of trees. The Syriac in Joel i. 4, ii. 25, renders it KTX?* tzartzooro, which Michaelis, from the Arabic •vnn tsartzar, a cricket, interprets the mole-cricket, which, in its grub state, is also very destructive to corn, grass, and other vegetables, by cankering the roots on which it feeds. — Editorial Note to Calvin in loc.
Verse 46. — "Caterpiller." In former times, any destructive, crawling creature occurring in cultivated places was thus called; now, by general consent, we restrict the term to the second stage of insects of the Lepidopterous order, namely, butterflies and moths. These caterpillers, by the voracity with which they attack the leaves, the fruit, and sometimes the solid wood of plants and trees, are made conspicuous even to those who are little acquainted with natural history. — "Biblical Treasury."
Verse 46. — "Locust." Their quantity is incredible to all who have not themselves witnessed their astonishing numbers; the whole earth is covered with them for the space of several leagues. The noise they make in browsing on the trees and herbage may be heard at a great distance, and resembles that of an army plundering in secret. The Tartars themselves are a less destructive enemy than these little animals. One would imagine that lire had followed their progress. Wherever their myriads spread, the verdure of the country disappears; trees and plants stripped of their leaves and reduced to their naked boughs and stems, cause the dreary image of winter to succeed in an instant to the rich scenery of spring. When these clouds of locusts take their flight, to surmount any obstacles, or to traverse more rapidly a desert soil, the heavens may literally be said to be obscured with them. — F. C., Comte de Volney.
Verse 47. — "He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost." The grape vine for the rich, and the sycamore fig for the poor, were cut off by the just judgment of God upon the nation. — W. Wilson.
Verse 47. — The sycomore (not sycamore, for this is altogether different, though, in consequence of a typographical error, often confounded with it in our Bibles) was the name of a tree, common in Egypt, Amos. vii. 14; Luke xix. 4. This tree resembled the mulberry in its leaves, and the fig in its fruit; and on its produce the inferior ranks of people, for the most part, lived. The Psalmist refers to but one sort, still he clearly means every kind, of valuable tree. — William Kcalinge Clay.
Verse 49. — "By sending evil angels." Evils come uncalled, but not unsent. Are they not here called "angels "? they are sent; the word angel means a messenger. Not things only without life, but not living creatures neither, brute, nor men, nor Satan's self can hurt unless God bid. The three days' darkness in Egypt, how came it? " He sent darkness," saith David. Psalm cv. 28. So the hail, thunder, and lightning, the Lord sent them, saith Moses. The frogs, flies, lice, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, that infected Egypt, and the lions that slew the idolators in Samaria (2 Kings xvii.), the text saith of them all, Dominus immisit, the Lord sent them. And for men — " Am I come " (said Rabshakeh) " without the Lord? " He bade me go. Yea, the devil, the arch-evil-angel, who seeks to devour, yet must be sent ere he can do ought. The lying spirit in the mouths of the false prophets longed to seduce Ahab; God must first bid; Egredere, go forth, and do so. The use of this is easy without my help: not to fear, doing well; not man, fiend, any creature, can hurt you, God not sending them. But sinning, to fear everything. The weakest creature can quell the mightiest man, if God bid, go. A mouse (saith the poet) will bite a wicked man. Be it proud Herod, great Antiochus; if God but ask the creatures, Quern mittam, which of you shall I send? the worm will answer, Ecce me, send me; I will devour him. And such poor, silly, despicable creatures are some of these "evil angels " in my text. "He sent: " what sent he? "evil angels," the next thing in this Scripture.
"Evil angels? " Par dispar, a pair of words which seem not well matched. The latter may say to the former, Quid mihi et tibi, what have I to do with thee? Angels were the best and holiest of God's creatures. They all were good, very good, Moses saith; but angels ».•<"•' ^oxf", excellently good. Then is "evil " here an evil epithet for angels. And is never read but here, and here (some think) not well translated. But the phrase of "evil angels " hath other meaning here: evil angels, i.e., the angels, i.e., the messengers of evil. It is in the Hebrew, not D'?*^"?, but %?»^5; insomuch that some expositors think the Psalmist means the words of Moses and Aaron; that they were sent from God to be the messengers of evil, i.e., of all the plagues that God would bring on Egypt. That sense I censure not, but follow not. The Greek Fathers have another — that by the "evil angels " are meant the evil spirits. Christ calls them angels too, the devil's angels. Augustine likes not that sense. The most current exposition is as a Jewish writer speaks: the " evil angels " are the ten several plagues. — Richard Clerke. ( — 1634.)
Verse 49. — "By sending evil angels among them." That the devil and his angels are so very evil, that for them everlasting fire is prepared, no believer is ignorant: but that there should be sent by means of them an infliction from the Lord God upon certain whom he judgeth to be deserving of this punishment, seemeth to be a hard thing to those who are little prone to consider how the perfect justice of God doth use well even evil things. For these indeed, as far as regardeth their substance, what other person but himself hath made? But evil he hath not made them; yet he doth use them, inasmuch as he is good, conveniently and justly; just as on the other hand unrighteous men do use his good creatures in evil manner: God therefore doth use evil angels not only to punish evil men, as in the case of all those concerning whom the Psalm doth speak, as in the case of king Ahab, whom a spirit of lying by the will of God did beguile, in order that he might fall in war; but also to prove and make manifest good men, as he did in the case of Job. — Augustine.
Verse 50. — "He made a way to his anger." Literally — " weighed a way: " implying that God, in punishing the Egyptians so severely, did nothing but what was just and equitable, when weighed in the balance of right. Prov. iv. 26. — A. R. Fausset.
Verse 50. — "He made a way to his anger." As if the Psalmist had said, If there were not "a way " for his anger, that is, for the execution of his anger, he forced his way; though he did not find a way, yet he "made " one, and fought himself through all difficulties which seemed to oppose the destruction of his enemies. We put in the margin, "he weighed a path," he made the path as exact as if he had put it into a balance; the way was fitted to the largeness of his own anger, and 'twas fitted to the dimensions of their wickedness. Thus "he made a way to his anger," both by suiting the way to his anger and by removing all impediments out of the way of his anger. If God will work to save, who shall let it? and if God will work to destroy, who or what shall let it? — Joseph Caryl.
Verse 51. — "The chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham." The sun of the last day of the sojourn of Israel in Egypt had set. It was the fourth day after the interview with Moses. Pharaoh, his princes, and the priests of his idols would doubtless take courage from this unwonted delay. Jehovah and his ministers are beaten at length, for now the gods of Egypt prevail against them. The triumph would be celebrated in pomps and sacrifices, in feasts and dances. Nothing is more likely than that the banquet halls of Pharaoh at Rameses were blazing with lamps, and that he and his princes were pouring forth libations of wine to their gods, and concerting schemes amid their revelry, for the perpetuation of the thraldom of
Israel Pharaoh Sethos started from his couch that night yelling in fierce and bitter agony, and gnawing at the sharp arrow that was rankling in his vitals, like a wounded lion. His son, his first-born, his only son, just arrived at man's estate, just crowned king of Egypt, and associated with his father in the cares of sovereignty writhed before him in mortal throes, and died. His transports of grief were re-echoed, and with no feigned voice, by the princes, the councillors, and the priests that partook of his revelry. Each one rends his garments and clasps to his bosom the quivering corpse of his first-born son. On that fearful night " there was a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt," but if we have rightly read its history, the loudest, wildest wail of remorseful anguish would arise from Pharaoh's banquet hall! — William Osburn, in "Israel in Egypt." 1856.
Explanatory notes and quaint sayings — The Treasury of David (Psalms) · Charles Spurgeon · Cloud of Witnesses
