16 They were full of envy against Moses among the tents, and against Aaron, the holy one of the Lord.
And he who is the chief priest among his brothers, on whose head the holy oil has been put, who is marked out to put on the holy robes, may not let his hair go loose or have his clothing out of order as a sign of sorrow. He may not go near any dead body or make himself unclean for his father or his mother; He may not go out of the holy place or make the holy place of his God common; for the crown of the holy oil of his God is on him: I am the Lord.
Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Pallu, the son of Reuben, made themselves ready, And came before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty chiefs of the people, men of good name who had a place in the meeting of the people. They came together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You take overmuch on yourselves, seeing that all the people are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; why then have you put yourselves in authority over the people of the Lord? And Moses, hearing this, went down on his face; And he said to Korah and his band, In the morning the Lord will make clear who are his, and who is holy, and who may come near him: the man of his selection will be caused to come near him. So do this: let Korah and all his band take vessels for burning perfumes; And put spices on the fire in them before the Lord tomorrow; then the man marked out by the Lord will be holy: you take overmuch on yourselves, you sons of Levi. And Moses said to Korah, Give ear now, you sons of Levi: Does it seem only a small thing to you that the God of Israel has made you separate from the rest of Israel, letting you come near himself to do the work of the House of the Lord, and to take your place before the people to do what has to be done for them; Letting you, and all your brothers the sons of Levi, come near to him? and would you now be priests? So you and all your band have come together against the Lord; and Aaron, who is he, that you are crying out against him? Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: and they said, We will not come up: Is it not enough that you have taken us from a land flowing with milk and honey, to put us to death in the waste land, but now you are desiring to make yourself a chief over us? And more than this, you have not taken us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us a heritage of fields and vine-gardens: will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up. Then Moses was very angry, and said to the Lord, Give no attention to their offering: not one of their asses have I taken, or done wrong to any of them. And Moses said to Korah, You and all your band are to come before the Lord tomorrow, you and they and Aaron: And let every man take a vessel for burning perfumes, and put sweet spices in them; let every man take his vessel before the Lord, two hundred and fifty vessels; you and Aaron and everyone with his vessel. So every man took his vessel and they put fire in them, with spices, and came to the door of the Tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. And Korah made all the people come together against them to the door of the Tent of meeting: and the glory of the Lord was seen by all the people. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Come out from among this people, so that I may send sudden destruction on them. Then falling down on their faces they said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, because of one man's sin will your wrath be moved against all the people? And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the people, Come away from the tent of Korah Dathan, and Abiram. So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the responsible men of Israel went with him. And he said to the people, Come away now from the tents of these evil men, without touching anything of theirs, or you may be taken in the punishment of their sins. So on every side they went away from the tent of Korah Dathan, and Abiram: and Dathan and Abiram came out to the door of their tents, with their wives and their sons and their little ones. And Moses said, Now you will see that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and I have not done them of myself. If these men have the common death of men, or if the natural fate of all men overtakes them, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord does something new, opening the earth to take them in, with everything which is theirs, and they go down living into the underworld, then it will be clear to you that the Lord has not been honoured by these men. And while these words were on his lips, the earth under them was parted in two; And the earth, opening her mouth, took them in, with their families, and all the men who were joined to Korah, and their goods. So they and all theirs went down living into the underworld, and the earth was shut over them, and they were cut off from among the meeting of the people. And all Israel round about them went in flight at their cry, For fear, said they, that we go down into the heart of the earth. Then fire came out from the Lord, burning up the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the perfume. And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, that he is to take out of the flames the vessels with the perfumes in them, turning the fire out of them, for they are holy; And let the vessels of those men, who with their lives have made payment for their sin, be hammered out into plates as a cover for the altar; for they have been offered before the Lord and are holy; so that they may be a sign to the children of Israel. So Eleazar the priest took the brass vessels which had been offered by those who were burned up, and they were hammered out to make a cover for the altar: To be a sign, kept in memory for ever by the children of Israel, that no man who is not of the seed of Aaron has the right of burning spices before the Lord, so that he may not be like Korah and his band: as the Lord said to him by the mouth of Moses. But on the day after, all the children of Israel made an outcry against Moses and against Aaron, saying, You have put to death the Lord's people. Now when the people had come together against Moses and Aaron, looking in the direction of the Tent of meeting, they saw the cloud covering it, and the glory of the Lord came before their eyes. Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of meeting. And the Lord said to Moses, Come out from among this people, so that I may send sudden destruction on them. And they went down on their faces. And Moses said to Aaron, Take your vessel and put in it fire from the altar, and sweet spices, and take it quickly into the meeting of the people, and make them free from sin: for wrath has gone out from the Lord, and the disease is starting. And at the words of Moses, Aaron took his vessel, and went running among the people; and even then the disease had made a start among them; and he put spices in his vessel to take away the sin of the people. And he took his place between the dead and the living: and the disease was stopped. Now fourteen thousand, seven hundred deaths were caused by that disease, in addition to those who came to their end because of what Korah had done. Then Aaron went back to Moses to the door of the Tent of meeting: and the disease came to a stop.
Let them be holy to their God and not make the name of their God common; for the fire offerings of the Lord and the bread of their God are offered by them, and they are to be holy. They may not take as wife a loose or common woman, or one who has been put away by her husband: for the priest is holy to his God. And he is to be holy in your eyes, for by him the bread of your God is offered; he is to be holy in your eyes, for I the Lord, who make you holy, am holy.
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.