13 They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:
14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.
15 And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.
16 They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the LORD.
17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of Abiram.
18 And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.
20 Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
21 They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt;
22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.
23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.
24 Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word:
25 But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD.
26 Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness:
27 To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands.
28 They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.
13 They soon H4116 forgat H7911 his works; H4639 they waited H2442 not for his counsel: H6098
14 But lusted H183 exceedingly H8378 in the wilderness, H4057 and tempted H5254 God H410 in the desert. H3452
15 And he gave H5414 them their request; H7596 but sent H7971 leanness H7332 into their soul. H5315
16 They envied H7065 Moses H4872 also in the camp, H4264 and Aaron H175 the saint H6918 of the LORD. H3068
17 The earth H776 opened H6605 and swallowed up H1104 Dathan, H1885 and covered H3680 the company H5712 of Abiram. H48
18 And a fire H784 was kindled H1197 in their company; H5712 the flame H3852 burned up H3857 the wicked. H7563
19 They made H6213 a calf H5695 in Horeb, H2722 and worshipped H7812 the molten image. H4541
20 Thus they changed H4171 their glory H3519 into the similitude H8403 of an ox H7794 that eateth H398 grass. H6212
21 They forgat H7911 God H410 their saviour, H3467 which had done H6213 great things H1419 in Egypt; H4714
22 Wondrous works H6381 in the land H776 of Ham, H2526 and terrible things H3372 by the Red H5488 sea. H3220
23 Therefore he said H559 that he would destroy H8045 them, had not H3884 Moses H4872 his chosen H972 stood H5975 before H6440 him in the breach, H6556 to turn away H7725 his wrath, H2534 lest he should destroy H7843 them.
24 Yea, they despised H3988 the pleasant H2532 land, H776 they believed H539 not his word: H1697
25 But murmured H7279 in their tents, H168 and hearkened H8085 not unto the voice H6963 of the LORD. H3068
26 Therefore he lifted up H5375 his hand H3027 against them, to overthrow H5307 them in the wilderness: H4057
27 To overthrow H5307 their seed H2233 also among the nations, H1471 and to scatter H2219 them in the lands. H776
28 They joined H6775 themselves also unto Baalpeor, H1187 and ate H398 the sacrifices H2077 of the dead. H4191
29 Thus they provoked him to anger H3707 with their inventions: H4611 and the plague H4046 brake in H6555 upon them.
13 They soon forgat his works; They waited not for his counsel,
14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tempted God in the desert.
15 And he gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.
16 They envied Moses also in the camp, `And' Aaron the saint of Jehovah.
17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, And covered the company of Abiram.
18 And a fire was kindled in their company; The flame burned up the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb, And worshipped a molten image.
20 Thus they changed their glory For the likeness of an ox that eateth grass.
21 They forgat God their Saviour, Who had done great things in Egypt,
22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, `And' terrible things by the Red Sea.
23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them, Had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy `them'.
24 Yea, they despised the pleasant land, They believed not his word,
25 But murmured in their tents, And hearkened not unto the voice of Jehovah.
26 Therefore he sware unto them, That he would overthrow them in the wilderness,
27 And that he would overthrow their seed among the nations, And scatter them in the lands.
28 They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, And ate the sacrifices of the dead.
29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their doings; And the plague brake in upon them.
13 They have hasted -- forgotten His works, They have not waited for His counsel.
14 And they lust greatly in a wilderness, And try God in a desert.
15 And He giveth to them their request, And sendeth leanness into their soul.
16 And they are envious of Moses in the camp, Of Aaron, Jehovah's holy one.
17 Earth openeth, and swalloweth up Dathan, And covereth over the company of Abiram.
18 And fire burneth among their company, A flame setteth on fire the wicked.
19 They make a calf in Horeb, And bow themselves to a molten image,
20 And change their Honour Into the form of an ox eating herbs.
21 They have forgotten God their saviour, The doer of great things in Egypt,
22 Of wonderful things in the land of Ham, Of fearful things by the sea of Suph.
23 And He saith to destroy them, Unless Moses, His chosen one, Had stood in the breach before Him, To turn back His wrath from destroying.
24 And they kick against the desirable land, They have not given credence to His word.
25 And they murmur in their tents, They have not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah.
26 And He lifteth up His hand to them, To cause them to fall in a wilderness,
27 And to cause their seed to fall among nations, And to scatter them through lands.
28 And they are coupled to Baal-Peor, And eat the sacrifices of the dead,
29 And they provoke to anger by their actions, And a plague breaketh forth upon them,
13 They soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel:
14 And they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted ùGod in the desert.
15 Then he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.
16 And they envied Moses in the camp, [and] Aaron, the saint of Jehovah.
17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram;
18 And fire was kindled in their company; a flame burned up the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb, and did homage to a molten image;
20 And they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
21 They forgot ùGod their Saviour, who had done great things in Egypt,
22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, terrible things by the Red Sea.
23 And he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses, his chosen, stood before him in the breach, to turn away his fury, lest he should destroy [them].
24 And they despised the pleasant land; they believed not his word,
25 But murmured in their tents: they hearkened not unto the voice of Jehovah.
26 And he lifted up his hand to them, that he would make them fall in the wilderness;
27 And that he would make their seed fall among the nations, and disperse them through the countries.
28 And they joined themselves unto Baal-Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead;
29 And they provoked [him] to anger with their doings; and a plague broke out among them.
13 They soon forgot his works. They didn't wait for his counsel,
14 But gave in to craving in the desert, And tested God in the wasteland.
15 He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.
16 They envied Moses also in the camp, And Aaron, Yahweh's saint.
17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, And covered the company of Abiram.
18 A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped a molten image.
20 Thus they exchanged their glory For an image of a bull that eats grass.
21 They forgot God, their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt,
22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, And awesome things by the Red Sea.
23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them, Had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, To turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn't destroy them.
24 Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn't believe his word,
25 But murmured in their tents, And didn't listen to Yahweh's voice.
26 Therefore he swore to them That he would overthrow them in the wilderness,
27 That he would overthrow their seed among the nations, And scatter them in the lands.
28 They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, And ate the sacrifices of the dead.
29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them.
13 But their memory of his works was short; not waiting to be guided by him,
14 They gave way to their evil desires in the waste land, and put God to the test in the dry places.
15 And he gave them their request, but sent a wasting disease into their souls.
16 They were full of envy against Moses among the tents, and against Aaron, the holy one of the Lord.
17 The earth opening put an end to Dathan, covering up Abiram and his band.
18 And a fire was lighted among their tents; the sinners were burned up by the flames.
19 They made a young ox in Horeb, and gave worship to an image of gold.
20 And their glory was changed into the image of an ox, whose food is grass.
21 They had no memory of God their saviour, who had done great things in Egypt;
22 Works of wonder in the land of Ham, and things of fear by the Red Sea.
23 And he was purposing to put an end to them if Moses, his special servant, had not gone up before him, between him and his people, turning back his wrath, to keep them from destruction.
24 They were disgusted with the good land; they had no belief in his word;
25 Talking against him secretly in their tents, they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord.
26 So he made an oath against them, to put an end to them in the waste land:
27 That their children might be mixed among the nations, and sent away into other lands.
28 And they were joined to Baal-peor, and took part in the offerings to the dead.
29 So they made him angry by their behaviour; and he sent disease on them.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 106
Commentary on Psalms 106 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 106
Ps 106:1-48. This Psalm gives a detailed confession of the sins of Israel in all periods of their history, with special reference to the terms of the covenant as intimated (Ps 105:45). It is introduced by praise to God for the wonders of His mercy, and concluded by a supplication for His favor to His afflicted people, and a doxology.
1. Praise, &c.—(See on Ps 104:35), begins and ends the Psalm, intimating the obligations of praise, however we sin and suffer 1Ch 16:34-36 is the source from which the beginning and end of this Psalm are derived.
2. His acts exceed our comprehension, as His praise our powers of expression (Ro 11:33). Their unutterable greatness is not to keep us back, but to urge us the more to try to praise Him as best we can (Ps 40:5; 71:15).
3. The blessing is limited to those whose principles and acts are right. How "blessed" Israel would be now, if he had "observed God's statutes" (Ps 105:45).
4, 5. In view of the desert of sins to be confessed, the writer invokes God's covenant mercy to himself and the Church, in whose welfare he rejoices. The speaker, me, I, is not the Psalmist himself, but the people, the present generation (compare Ps 106:6).
visit—(Compare Ps 8:4).
5. see the good—participate in it (Ps 37:13).
thy chosen—namely, Israel, God's elect (Isa 43:20; 45:4). As God seems to have forgotten them, they pray that He would "remember" them with the favor which belongs to His own people, and which once they had enjoyed.
thine inheritance—(De 9:29; 32:9).
6. Compare 1Ki 8:47; Da 9:5, where the same three verbs occur in the same order and connection, the original of the two later passages being the first one, the prayer of Solomon in dedicating the temple.
sinned … fathers—like them, and so partaking of their guilt. The terms denote a rising gradation of sinning (compare Ps 1:1).
with our fathers—we and they together forming one mass of corruption.
7-12. Special confession. Their rebellion at the sea (Ex 14:11) was because they had not remembered nor understood God's miracles on their behalf. That God saved them in their unbelief was of His mere mercy, and for His own glory.
the sea … the Red Sea—the very words in which Moses' song celebrated the scene of Israel's deliverance (Ex 15:4). Israel began to rebel against God at the very moment and scene of its deliverance by God!
8. for his name's sake—(Eze 20:14).
9. rebuked—(Ps 104:7).
as through the wilderness—(Isa 63:11-14).
12. believed … his words—This is said not to praise the Israelites, but God, who constrained even so unbelieving a people momentarily to "believe" while in immediate view of His wonders, a faith which they immediately afterwards lost (Ps 106:13; Ex 14:31; 15:1).
13-15. The faith induced by God's display of power in their behalf was short lived, and their new rebellion and temptation was visited by God with fresh punishment, inflicted by leaving them to the result of their own gratified appetites, and sending on them spiritual poverty (Nu 11:18).
They soon forgat—literally, "They hasted, they forgat" (compare Ex 32:8). "They have turned aside quickly (or, hastily) out of the way." The haste of our desires is such that we can scarcely allow God one day. Unless He immediately answers our call, instantly then arise impatience, and at length despair.
his works—(De 11:3, 4; Da 9:14).
his counsel—They waited not for the development of God's counsel, or plan for their deliverance, at His own time, and in His own way.
14. Literally, "lusted a lust" (quoted from Nu 11:4, Margin). Previously, there had been impatience as to necessaries of life; here it is lusting (Ps 78:18).
15. but sent leanness—rather, "and sent," that is, and thus, even in doing so, the punishment was inflicted at the very time their request was granted. So Ps 78:30, "While their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them."
soul—the animal soul, which craves for food (Nu 11:6; Ps 107:18). This soul got its wish, and with it and in it its own punishment. The place was therefore called Kibroth-hattaavah, "the graves of lust" [Nu 11:34], because there they buried the people who had lusted. Animal desires when gratified mostly give only a hungry craving for more (Jer 2:13).
16-18. All the congregation took part with Dathan, Korah, &c., and their accomplices (Nu 16:41).
Aaron the saint—literally, "the holy one," as consecrated priest; not a moral attribute, but one designating his office as holy to the Lord. The rebellion was followed by a double punishment: (1) of the non-Levitical rebels, the Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram, &c. (De 11:6; Nu 26:10); these were swallowed up by the earth.
17. covered—"closed upon them" (Nu 16:33). (2) Of the Levitical rebels, with Korah at their head (Nu 16:35; 26:10); these had sinned by fire, and were punished by fire, as Aaron's (being high priest) sons had been (Le 10:2; Nu 16:1-35).
19-23. From indirect setting God at naught, they pass to direct.
made—though prohibited in Ex 20:4, 5 to make a likeness, even of the true God.
calf—called so in contempt. They would have made an ox or bull, but their idol turned out but a calf; an imitation of the divine symbols, the cherubim; or of the sacred bull of Egyptian idolatry. The idolatry was more sinful in view of their recent experience of God's power in Egypt and His wonders at Sinai (Ex 32:1-6). Though intending to worship Jehovah under the symbol of the calf, yet as this was incompatible with His nature (De 4:15-17), they in reality gave up Him, and so were given up by Him. Instead of the Lord of heaven, they had as their glory the image of an ox that does nothing but eat grass.
23. he said—namely, to Moses (De 9:13). With God, saying is as certain as doing; but His purpose, while full of wrath against sin, takes into account the mediation of Him of whom Moses was the type (Ex 32:11-14; De 9:18, 19).
Moses his chosen—that is, to be His servant (compare Ps 105:26).
in the breach—as a warrior covers with his body the broken part of a wall or fortress besieged, a perilous place (Eze 13:5; 22:30).
to turn away—or, "prevent"
his wrath—(Nu 25:11; Ps 78:38).
24-27. The sin of refusing to invade Canaan, "the pleasant land" (Jer 3:19; Eze 20:6; Da 8:9), "the land of beauty," was punished by the destruction of that generation (Nu 14:28), and the threat of dispersion (De 4:25; 28:32) afterwards made to their posterity, and fulfilled in the great calamities now bewailed, may have also been then added.
despised—(Nu 14:31).
believed not his word—by which He promised He would give them the land; but rather the word of the faithless spies (compare Ps 78:22).
26. lifted up his hand—or, "swore," the usual form of swearing (compare Nu 14:30, Margin).
27. To overthrow—literally, "To make them fall"; alluding to the words (Nu 14:39).
among … nations … lands—The "wilderness" was not more destructive to the fathers (Ps 106:26) than residence among the heathen ("nations") shall be to the children. Le 26:33, 38 is here, before the Psalmist's mind, the determination against the "seed" when rebellious, being not expressed in Nu 14:31-33, but implied in the determination against the fathers.
28-30. sacrifices of the dead—that is, of lifeless idols, contrasted with "the living God" (Jer 10:3-10; compare Ps 115:4-7; 1Co 12:2). On the words,
joined themselves to Baal-peor—see Nu 25:2, 3, 5.
Baal-peor—that is, the possessor of Peor, the mountain on which Chemosh, the idol of Moab, was worshipped, and at the foot of which Israel at the time lay encamped (Nu 23:28). The name never occurs except in connection with that locality and that circumstance.
29. provoked—excited grief and indignation (Ps 6:7; 78:58).
30. stood—as Aaron "stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed" (Nu 16:48).
executed judgment—literally, "judged," including sentence and act.
31. counted … righteousness—"a just and rewardable action."
for—or, "unto," to the procuring of righteousness, as in Ro 4:2; 10:4. Here it was a particular act, not faith, nor its object Christ; and what was procured was not justifying righteousness, or what was to be rewarded with eternal life; for no one act of man's can be taken for complete obedience. But it was that which God approved and rewarded with a perpetual priesthood to him and his descendants (Nu 25:13; 1Ch 6:4, &c.).
32, 33. (Compare Nu 20:3-12; De 1:37; 3:26).
went ill with—literally, "was bad for"
Moses—His conduct, though under great provocation, was punished by exclusion from Canaan.
34-39. They not only failed to expel the heathen, as God
commanded—(Ex 23:32, 33), literally, "said (they should)," but conformed to their idolatries [Ps 106:36], and thus became spiritual adulterers (Ps 73:27).
37. unto devils—Septuagint, "demons" (compare 1Co 10:20), or "evil spirits."
38. polluted with blood—literally, "blood," or "murder" (Ps 5:6; 26:9).
40-43. Those nations first seduced and then oppressed them (compare Jud 1:34; 2:14; 3:30). Their apostasies ungratefully repaid God's many mercies till He finally abandoned them to punishment (Le 26:39).
44-46. If, as is probable, this Psalm was written at the time of the captivity, the writer now intimates the tokens of God's returning favor.
45. repented—(compare Ps 90:13).
46. made … pitied—(1Ki 8:50; Da 1:9). These tokens encourage the prayer and the promise of praise (Ps 30:4), which is well closed by a doxology.