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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 105:12 - 105:12
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The poet now celebrates the divine preservation which had sway over the small beginnings of Israel, when it made the patriarchs proof against harm on their wanderings. “Men of number” are such as can be easily counted, vid., the confessions in Gen 34:30; Deu 26:5; וַיִּתְהַלְּכוּ places the claim upon the hospitality at one time of this people and at another time of that people in the connection with it of cause and effect. כִּמְעַט, as a small number, only such a small number, signifies, as being virtually an adjective: inconsiderable, insignificant, worthless (Pro 10:20). בָּהּ refers to Canaan. In Psa 105:13 the way in which the words גֹּוי and עַם alternate is instructive: the former signifies the nation, bound together by a common origin, language, country, and descent; the latter the people, bound together by unity of government.
(Note: For this reason a king says עַמִּי, not גֹּויִי; and גֹּוי only occurs twice with a suffix, which refers to Jahve (Psa 106:5; Zep 2:9); for this reason גֹּוי, frequently side by side with עַם, is the nobler word, e.g., in Deu 32:21; Jer 2:11; for this reason עַם is frequently added to גֹּוי as a dignitative predicate, Exo 33:13; Deu 4:6; and for this reason גֹּויִם and עַם ה are used antithetically.)
The apodosis does not begin until Psa 105:14. It is different in connection with בִּֽהְיֹֽותְכֶם in the text of the chronicler, and in this passage in the Psalter of the Syriac version, according to which Psa 105:12 ought to be jointed to the preceding group. The variation ומממלכה instead of מממלכה is of no consequence; but לְאִישׁ (to any one whomsoever) instead of אָדָם, in connection with הניח, restores the current mode of expression (Ecc 5:11; 2Sa 16:11; Hos 4:17) instead of one which is without support elsewhere, but which follows the model of נָתַן, נָטַשׁ, Gen 31:28 (cf. supra p. 171); whilst on the other hand ובִנְביאי instead of ולִנְביאי substitutes an expression that cannot be supported for the current one (Gen 19:9; Rth 1:21). In Psa 105:14 the poet has the three histories of the preservation of the wives of the patriarchs in his mind, viz., of Sarah in Egypt (Gen. 12), and of Sarah and of Rebekah both in Philistia (Psa 20:1-9, Psa 26:1-12, cf. especially Psa 26:11). In the second instance God declares the patriarch to be a “prophet” (Psa 20:7). The one mention has reference to this and the other to Gen. 17, where Abram is set apart to be the father of peoples and kings, and Sarai to be a princess. They are called מְשִׁיהִים (a passive form) as eing God-chosen princes, and נְבִיאִים (an intensive active form, from נָבָא, root נב, to divulge), not as being inspired ones (Hupfeld), but as being God's spokesmen (cf. Exo 7:1. with Exo 4:15.), therefore as being the recipients and mediators of a divine revelation.