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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Psalms 68:14 - 68:14
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In it; in Canaan, at the coming of the Israelites thither. The land was as white as Mount Salmon is with the snow, which falls and lies for a long time upon it; which is opposed to the native obscurity of that mountain by the many shady trees which were there, Jud_9:48. But because there is nothing certain, either concernirig the great height of this mountain, or concerning its snow, as we do read of snow of Lebanon, Jer_18:14, other interpreters, both Hebrew and Christian, and the Chaldee among the rest, take this word Salmon for a common, and not a proper name, signifying darkness or a shadow, as the root from whence it comes unquestionably signifies. Nor is it strange if this word be no where else taken in that sense but here, because that is the lot of many Hebrew words, or of some significations of them, that they are to be found but in one text of Scripture. This being granted, the words are or may be rendered thus, it was snow-white, or thou madest it snow-white in darkness, or, as the Chaldee renders this word, in the shadow of death, i.e. thou didst cause light to shine out of darkness. When the state of thy people, and of the land of Canaan which thou hadst given to them, was dark and dismal or bloody, by reason of the wars raised against them by the Canaanitish kings, thou didst quickly change it; and whereas it was red like scarlet or crimson, thou madest it whiter than snow.