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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 68:7 - 68:7
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In Psa 68:7. the poet repeats the words of Deborah (Jdg 5:4.), and her words again go back to Deu 33:2, cf. Exo 19:15.; on the other hand, our Psalm is the original to Hab. 3. The martial verb יָצָא represents Elohim as, coming forth from His heavenly dwelling-place (Isa 26:21), He places Himself at the head of Israel. The stately verb צָעַד represents Him as He accompanies the hosts of His people with the step of a hero confident of victory; and the terrible name for the wilderness, יְשִׁימֹון, is designedly chosen in order to express the contrast between the scene of action and that which they beheld at that time. The verb to זֶה סִינַי is easily supplied; Dachselt's rendering according to the accents is correct: hic mons Sinai (sc. in specie ita tremuit). The description fixes our attention upon Sinai as the central point of all revelations of God during the period of deliverance by the hand of Moses, as being the scene of the most gloriously of them all (vid., on Hab. p. 136f.). The majestic phenomena which proclaimed the nearness of God are distributed over the whole journeying, but most gloriously concentrated themselves at the giving of the Law of Sinai. The earth trembled throughout the extended circuit of this vast granite range, and the heavens dropped, inasmuch as the darkness of thunder clouds rested upon Sinai, pierced by incessant lightnings (Ex. 19). There, as the original passages describe it, Jahve met His people; He came from the east, His people from the west; there they found themselves together, and shaking the earth, breaking through the heavens, He gave them a pledge of the omnipotence which should henceforth defend and guide them. The poet has a purpose in view in calling Elohim in this passage “the God of Israel;” the covenant relationship of God to Israel dates from Sinai, and from this period onwards, by reason of the Tôra, He became Israel's King (Deu 33:5). Since the statement of a fact of earlier history has preceded, and since the preterites alternate with them, the futures that follow in Psa 68:10, Psa 68:11 are to be understood as referring to the synchronous past; but hardly so that Psa 68:10 should refer to the miraculous supply of food, and more especially the rain of manna, during the journeyings through the wilderness. The giving of the Law from Sinai has a view to Israel being a settled, stationary people, and the deliverance out of the land of bondage only finds its completion in the taking and maintaining possession of the Land of Promise. Accordingly Psa 68:10, Psa 68:11 refer to the blessing and protection of the people who had taken up their abode there.
The נַחֲלָהּ of God (genit. auctoris, as in 2 Macc. 2:4) is the land assigned by Him to Israel as an inheritance; and גֶּשֶׁם נְדָבֹות an emblem of the abundance of gifts which God has showered down upon the land since Israel took up its abode in it. נְדָבָה is the name given to a deed and gift springing from an inward impulse, and in this instance the intensive idea of richness and superabundance is associated therewith by means of the plural; גֶּשֶׁם נְדָבֹות is a shower-like abundance of good gifts descending from above. The Hiphil הֵנִיף here governs a double accusative, like the Kal in Pro 7:17, in so far, that is, as נחלתך is drawn to Psa 68:10; for the accentuation, in opposition to the Targum, takes נחלתך ונלאה together: Thine inheritance and that the parched one (Waw epexeget. as in 1Sa 28:3; Amo 3:11; Amo 4:10). But this “and that” is devoid of aim; why should it not at once be read הַנִּלְאָה? The rendering of Böttcher, “Thy sickened and wearied,” is inadmissible, too, according to the present pointing; for it ought to be נֶֽחֱלָֽתְךָ or נַחְלָֽתְךָ. And with a suffix this Niphal becomes ambiguous, and more especially so in this connection, where the thought of נַֽחֲלָה, an inherited possession, a heritage, lies so naturally at hand. נַֽחֲלָֽתֶךָ is therefore to be drawn to Psa 68:10, and Psa 68:10 must begin with וְנִלְאָה, as in the lxx, καὶ ἠσθένησε σὺ δὲ κατεερτίσω αὐτήν. It is true נִלְאָה is not a hypothetical preteriet equivalent to וְנִלְאֲתָה; but, as is frequently the case with the anarthrous participle (Ew. §341, b), it has the value of a hypothetical clause: “and if it (Israel's inheritance) were in a parched, exhausted condition (cf. the cognate root לָהָה, Gen 47:13), then hast Thou always made it again firm” (Psa 8:4; Psa 15:1-5 :17), i.e., strengthened, enlivened it. Even here the idea of the inhabitants is closely associated with the land itself; in Psa 68:11 they are more especially thought of: “They creatures dwelt therein.” Nearly all modern expositors take חַיָּה either according to 2Sa 23:11, 2Sa 23:13 (cf. 1Ch 11:15), in the signification tent-circle, ring-camp (root חו, Arab. ḥw, to move in a circle, to encircle, to compass), or in the signification of Arab. ḥayy (from Arab. ḥayiya = חָיַי, חָיָה), a race or tribe, i.e., a collection of living beings (cf. חַיַּי, 1Sa 18:18). But the Asaphic character of this Psalm, which is also manifest in other points, is opposed to this rendering. This style of Psalm is fond of the comparison of Israel to a flock, so that also in Psa 74:19 חית עניין signifies nothing else than “the creatures {Getheir, collective] of Thy poor, Thy poor creatures.” This use of חָיָה is certainly peculiar; but not so remarkable as if by the “creatures of God” we had to understand, with Hupfeld, the quails (Ex. 16). The avoiding of בְּהֵמָה on account of the idea of brutum (Psa 73:22) which is inseparable from this word, is sufficient to account for it; in חיה, ζῷον, there is merely the notion of moving life. We therefore are to explain it according to Mic 7:14, where Israel is called a flock dwelling in a wood in the midst of Carmel: God brought it to pass, that the flock of Israel, although sorely persecuted, nevertheless continued to inhabit the land. בָּהּ, as in Mic 7:15, refers to Canaan. עָנִי in Psa 68:11 is the ecclesia pressa surrounded by foes on every side: Thou didst prepare for Thy poor with Thy goodness, Elohim, i.e., Thou didst regale or entertain Thy poor people with Thy possessions and Thy blessings. הֵכִין לְ, as in Gen 43:16; 1Ch 12:39, to make ready to eat, and therefore to entertain; טֹובָה as in Psa 65:12, טוּב ה, Jer 31:12. It would be quite inadmissible, because tautological, to refer תָּכִין to the land according to Psa 65:10 (Ewald), or even to the desert (Olshausen), which the description has now left far behind.