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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 114:1 - 114:1
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Egypt is called עַם לֹעֵז (from לָעַז, cogn. לָעַג, לָעָה), because the people spoke a language unintelligible to Israel (Psa 81:6), and as it were a stammering language. The lxx, and just so the Targum, renders ἐκ λαοῦ βαρβάρου (from the Sanscrit barbaras, just as onomatopoetic as balbus, cf. Fleischer in Levy's Chaldäisches Wörterbuch, i. 420). The redeemed nation is called Judah, inasmuch as God made it His sanctuary (קֹדֶשׁ) by setting up His sanctuary (מִקְדָּשׁ, Exo 15:17) in the midst of it, for Jerusalem (el ḳuds) as Benjamitish Judaean, and from the time of David was accounted directly as Judaean. In so far, however, as He made this people His kingdom (מַמְשְׁלֹותָיו, an amplificative plural with Mem pathachatum), by placing Himself in the relation of King (Deu 33:5) to the people of possession which by a revealed law He established characteristically as His own, it is called Israel. 1 The predicate takes the form וַתְּהִי, for peoples together with country and city are represented as feminine (cf. Jer 8:5). The foundation of that new beginning in connection with the history of redemption was laid amidst majestic wonders, inasmuch as nature was brought into service, co-operating and sympathizing in the work (cf. Psa 77:15.). The dividing of the sea opens, and the dividing of the Jordan closes, the journey through the desert to Canaan. The sea stood aside, Jordan halted and was dammed up on the north in order that the redeemed people might pass through. And in the middle, between these great wonders of the exodus from Egypt and the entrance into Canaan, arises the not less mighty wonder of the giving of the Law: the skipping of the mountains like rams, of the ills like בְּנַי־צֹאן, i.e., lambs (Wisd. 19:9), depicts the quaking of Sinai and its environs (Exo 19:18, cf. supra Psa 68:9, and on the figure Psa 29:6).