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14.When the Almighty scattered kings in it We might read extended, or divided kings, etc., and then the allusion would be to his leading them in triumph. But the other reading is preferable, and corresponds better with what was said above of their being put to flight. There is more difficulty in the second part of the verse, some reading, it was white in Salmon; that is, the Church of God presented a fair and beautiful appearance. Or the verb may be viewed as in the second person — Thou, O God! Didst make it fair and white as mount Salmon (26) with snows The reader may adopt either construction, for the meaning is the same. It is evident that David insists still upon the figure of the whiteness of silver, which he had previously introduced. The country had, as it were, been blackened or sullied by the hostile confusions into which it was thrown, and he says that it had now recovered its fair appearance, and resembled Salmon, which is well known to have been ordinarily covered with snows. (27) Others think that Salmon is not the name of a place, but an appellative, meaning a dark shade. (28) I would retain the commonly received reading. At the same time, I think that there may have been an allusion to the etymology. It comes from the word צלם tselem, signifying a shade, and mount Salmon had been so called on account of its blackness. (29) This makes the comparison more striking; for it intimates, that as the snows whitened this black mountain, so the country had resumed its former beauty, and put on an aspect of joy, when God dispelled the darkness which had lain upon it during the oppression of enemies. (30)
(26) Salmon is the name of a mountain in Samaria, in the tribe of Ephraim, (Jud_9:48,) white with perpetual snow.
(27) Carrieres, in his paraphrase, has, “ became white as snow on mount Salmon.” “ certainly think,” says the author of the Illustrated Commentary upon the Bible, “ Carrieres has seized the right idea. The intention evidently is, to describe by a figure the honor and prosperity the Hebrews acquired by the defeat of their enemies, and to express this by whiteness, and superlatively by the whiteness of snow. Nothing can be more usual in Persia, for instance, than for a person to say, under an influx of prosperity or honor, or on receiving happy intelligence, ‘ face is made white;’ or gratefully, in return for a favor or compliment, ‘ have made my face white;’ so also, ‘ face is whitened,’ expresses the sense which is entertained of the happiness or favor which has before been received. Such a figurative use of the idea of whiteness does, we imagine, furnish the best explanation of the present and some other texts of Scripture.”
(28) Instead of “ Salmon,” the Targum has, “ the shade of death;” and Boothroyd has,
“ Almighty having scattered these kings,
hath by this turned death-shade to splendor.”
Walford gives a similar version, and explains the meaning to be, “ you have been in bondage and the darkness of a dejected condition, you are now illuminated with the splendor of victory and prosperity.”
(29) That is, it was so called from the dark shade produced by its trees.
(30) “Que comme les neiges font blanchir ceste montagne, laquelle de soy est obscure et noire, ainsi quand il a pleu a Dieu d’ l’ qu’ l’ des ennemis, lors on a veu la terre reluire d’ lustre naif, et par maniere de dire, porter une face joyeuse.” — Fr.