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This is not reported as a matter of fact, for we read of no ships in those expeditions to which this Psalm relates, nor did any ships come near Jerusalem, because that was at a great distance from the sea, and from any navigable river running into the sea; but only added by way of illustration or allusion. The sense is, Thou didst no less violently and suddenly destroy these proud and raging enemies of Jerusalem, than sometimes thou destroyest the ships at sea with a fierce and vehement wind, such as the eastern winds were in those parts, Exo_14:21 Job_27:21 Jer_18:17 Eze_27:26. The words are and may be rendered thus, Thou didst break them as (such ellipses of the pronoun, and of the note of similitude, being very frequent; as I have again and again showed) the ships of the sea (for Tarshish, though properly the name of a maritime place in Cilicia, Eze_27:25 Jon_1:3, is usually put for the sea, as 1Ki_10:22 2Ch_9:21 Psa_72:10 Isa_2:16 Jer_10:9) are broken
with an east wind. Albeit the enemies of Jerusalem, which are compared to the raging waters of the sea in Psa_46:2,3, may as fitly be compared to ships upon the sea.