_A.M. 3294. B.C. 710._ This Psalm was composed upon occasion of some calamity which befell the tribes of Israel after their division into two kingdoms, and before the captivity of either of them. In which time all the evils here mentioned did befall them, sometimes in one part, and sometimes in ano... [ Continue Reading ]
_Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel_ O thou who hast undertaken to feed and govern thy people of Israel, as a shepherd doth his flock, now perform thine office, and rescue thy flock from those grievous wolves which devour and destroy them; _thou that leadest_ Or, _didst lead_, formerly; _Joseph_ That is... [ Continue Reading ]
_Before Ephraim_, &c. That is, before all the tribes; in the face of all the people assembled at Jerusalem. These three, indeed, in some sense included the whole, Benjamin being incorporated with Judah, and the greatest part of Jerusalem, and the temple being in its lot, Manasseh comprehending the c... [ Continue Reading ]
_Turn us again_ He means, either to our former quiet and flourishing state; or, to thyself, from whom Ephraim and Manasseh, with the rest of the ten tribes, have apostatized. See a similar prayer of Elijah for them, 1 Kings 18:37. Instead of, _Turn us_, Mudge reads, _Restore us_, which is equally ag... [ Continue Reading ]
_How long wilt thou be angry_, &c. Thou art so far from answering our prayers, whereby we seek thy favour, that, by thy continuing and increasing our miseries, thou seemest to be more incensed against us by them. But the words may be rendered, _How long dost thou preserve thy wrath during the prayer... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt_ Israel, or the church of God, is often compared to a vine: see Isaiah 5:2; Jeremiah 2:21; Ezekiel 17:6; Matthew 21:33. He alludes to the custom of transplanting trees for their more advantageous growth. _Thou hast cast out the heathen_ The nations of Canaan, t... [ Continue Reading ]
_The hills were covered with the shadow of it_ Its branches extended themselves over all the hills and mountains of Canaan; that is, the people multiplied so much, and became so numerous, that they filled not only the fruitful valleys, but even the barren mountains. _And the boughs whereof were like... [ Continue Reading ]
_Why hast thou broken down her hedges_ That is, taken away thy protection, which was to thy people for walls and bulwarks: _so that all they which pass by do pluck her_ Pluck off her grapes, or tear off her boughs, as the word ארוה, _aruah_, implies. Thus “the psalmist, having described the exaltati... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the vineyard_ Hebrew, כנה, _channah_, which Buxtorf _translates, surculus, planta, a branch_, or _plant_, but which Dr. Hammond says “may be most fitly rendered _a root_, or _stock_, such as is wont to be planted. For this we know,” proceeds he, “that a branch of a vine, being laid in the groun... [ Continue Reading ]
_It is burned with fire_, &c. Namely, thy vineyard or branch; since, upon our provoking sins, thou hast withdrawn thy mercy from us, the enemies have broken in upon us, and great numbers of us are destroyed already, and may be compared to the numerous branches of a remaining stock, which, being cut... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let thy hand_ Thy power, to protect and strengthen him; _be upon the man of thy right hand_ That king (whoever he was) of the house of David, that was now to rule and go in and out before them. He calls him _the man of God's right hand_, because he was the representative of their state, which was d... [ Continue Reading ]