9 Who sent H7971 tokens H226 and wonders H4159 into the midst H8432 of thee, O Egypt, H4714 upon Pharaoh, H6547 and upon all his servants. H5650
And the LORD H3068 said H559 unto Moses, H4872 See, H7200 I have made H5414 thee a god H430 to Pharaoh: H6547 and Aaron H175 thy brother H251 shall be thy prophet. H5030 Thou shalt speak H1696 all that I command H6680 thee: and Aaron H175 thy brother H251 shall speak H1696 unto Pharaoh, H6547 that he send H7971 the children H1121 of Israel H3478 out of his land. H776 And I will harden H7185 Pharaoh's H6547 heart, H3820 and multiply H7235 my signs H226 and my wonders H4159 in the land H776 of Egypt. H4714 But Pharaoh H6547 shall not hearken H8085 unto you, that I may lay H5414 my hand H3027 upon Egypt, H4714 and bring forth H3318 mine armies, H6635 and my people H5971 the children H1121 of Israel, H3478 out of the land H776 of Egypt H4714 by great H1419 judgments. H8201 And the Egyptians H4714 shall know H3045 that I am the LORD, H3068 when I stretch forth H5186 mine hand H3027 upon Egypt, H4714 and bring out H3318 the children H1121 of Israel H3478 from among H8432 them. And Moses H4872 and Aaron H175 did H6213 as the LORD H3068 commanded H6680 them, so did H6213 they. And Moses H4872 was fourscore H8084 years H8141 old, H1121 and Aaron H175 fourscore H8084 and three H7969 years H8141 old, H1121 when they spake H1696 unto Pharaoh. H6547 And the LORD H3068 spake H559 unto Moses H4872 and unto Aaron, H175 saying, H559 When Pharaoh H6547 shall speak H1696 unto you, saying, H559 Shew H5414 a miracle H4159 for you: then thou shalt say H559 unto Aaron, H175 Take H3947 thy rod, H4294 and cast H7993 it before H6440 Pharaoh, H6547 and it shall become a serpent. H8577 And Moses H4872 and Aaron H175 went in H935 unto Pharaoh, H6547 and they did H6213 so as the LORD H3068 had commanded: H6680 and Aaron H175 cast down H7993 his rod H4294 before H6440 Pharaoh, H6547 and before H6440 his servants, H5650 and it became a serpent. H8577 Then Pharaoh H6547 also called H7121 the wise men H2450 and the sorcerers: H3784 now the magicians H2748 of Egypt, H4714 they also did H6213 in like manner H3651 with their enchantments. H3858 For they cast down H7993 every man H376 his rod, H4294 and they became serpents: H8577 but Aaron's H175 rod H4294 swallowed up H1104 their rods. H4294 And he hardened H2388 Pharaoh's H6547 heart, H3820 that he hearkened H8085 not unto them; as the LORD H3068 had said. H1696 And the LORD H3068 said H559 unto Moses, H4872 Pharaoh's H6547 heart H3820 is hardened, H3515 he refuseth H3985 to let the people H5971 go. H7971 Get H3212 thee unto Pharaoh H6547 in the morning; H1242 lo, he goeth out H3318 unto the water; H4325 and thou shalt stand H5324 by the river's H2975 brink H8193 against he come; H7125 and the rod H4294 which was turned H2015 to a serpent H5175 shalt thou take H3947 in thine hand. H3027
How he had wrought H7760 his signs H226 in Egypt, H4714 and his wonders H4159 in the field H7704 of Zoan: H6814 And had turned H2015 their rivers H2975 into blood; H1818 and their floods, H5140 that they could not drink. H8354 He sent H7971 divers sorts of flies H6157 among them, which devoured H398 them; and frogs, H6854 which destroyed H7843 them. He gave H5414 also their increase H2981 unto the caterpiller, H2625 and their labour H3018 unto the locust. H697 He destroyed H2026 their vines H1612 with hail, H1259 and their sycomore trees H8256 with frost. H2602 He gave up H5462 their cattle H1165 also to the hail, H1259 and their flocks H4735 to hot thunderbolts. H7565 He cast H7971 upon them the fierceness H2740 of his anger, H639 wrath, H5678 and indignation, H2195 and trouble, H6869 by sending H4917 evil H7451 angels H4397 among them. He made H6424 a way H5410 to his anger; H639 he spared H2820 not their soul H5315 from death, H4194 but gave H5462 their life H2416 over H5462 to the pestilence; H1698
They shewed H7760 his signs H226 H1697 among them, and wonders H4159 in the land H776 of Ham. H2526 He sent H7971 darkness, H2822 and made it dark; H2821 and they rebelled H4784 not against his word. H1697 He turned H2015 their waters H4325 into blood, H1818 and slew H4191 their fish. H1710
Awake, H5782 awake, H5782 put on H3847 strength, H5797 O arm H2220 of the LORD; H3068 awake, H5782 as in the ancient H6924 days, H3117 in the generations H1755 of old. H5769 Art thou not it that hath cut H2672 Rahab, H7294 and wounded H2490 the dragon? H8577 Art thou not it which hath dried H2717 the sea, H3220 the waters H4325 of the great H7227 deep; H8415 that hath made H7760 the depths H4615 of the sea H3220 a way H1870 for the ransomed H1350 to pass over? H5674
Which hast set H7760 signs H226 and wonders H4159 in the land H776 of Egypt, H4714 even unto this day, H3117 and in Israel, H3478 and among other men; H120 and hast made H6213 thee a name, H8034 as at this day; H3117 And hast brought forth H3318 thy people H5971 Israel H3478 out of the land H776 of Egypt H4714 with signs, H226 and with wonders, H4159 and with a strong H2389 hand, H3027 and with a stretched out H5186 arm, H248 and with great H1419 terror; H4172
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 135
Commentary on Psalms 135 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Four-Voiced Hallelujah to the God of Israel, the God of Gods
Psalms 135 is here and there (vid., Tפsefפth Pesachim 117 a ) taken together with Psalms 134:1-3 as one Psalm. The combining of Ps 115 with Psalms 114:1-8 is a misapprehension caused by the inscriptionless character of Ps 115, whereas Ps 135 and Psalms 134:1-3 certainly stand in connection with one another. For the Hallelujah Psalms 135 is, as the mutual relation between the beginning and close of Psalms 134:1-3 shows, a Psalm-song expanded out of this shorter hymn, that is in part drawn from Ps 115.
It is a Psalm in the mosaic style. Even the Latin poet Lucilius transfers the figure of mosaic-work to style, when he says: quam lepide lexeis compostae ut tesserulae omnes ... In the case of Psalms 135 it is not the first time that we have met with this kind of style. We have already had a glimpse of it in Psalms 97:1-12 and Psalms 98:1-9. These Psalms were composed more especially of deutero-Isaianic passages, whereas Psalms 135 takes its tesserulae out of the Law, Prophets, and Psalms.
The beginning is taken from Psalms 134:1; Psalms 135:2 recalls Psalms 116:19 (cf. Psalms 92:14); and Psalms 135:4 is an echo of Deuteronomy 7:6. The servants of Jahve to whom the summons is addressed, are not, as in Psalms 134:1., His official servants in particular, but according to Psalms 135:2 , where the courts, in the plural, are allotted to them as their standing-place, and according to Psalms 135:19-20, those who fear Him as a body. The threefold Jahve at the beginning is then repeated in Jāh ( הללוּ־יהּ , cf. note 1 to PsPsalms 104:35), Jahve , and Jāh . The subject of כּי נעים is by no means Jahve (Hupfeld), whom they did not dare to call נעים in the Old Testament, but either the Name, according to Ps 54:8 (Luther, Hitzig), or, which is favoured by Psalms 147:1 (cf. Proverbs 22:18), the praising of His Name (Appolinaris: ἐπεὶ τόδε καλὸν ἀείδειν ): His Name to praise is a delightful employ, which is incumbent on Israel as the people of His choice and of His possession.
The praise itself now begins. כּי in Psalms 135:4 set forth the ground of the pleasant duty, and the כי that begins this strophe confirms that which warrants the summons out of the riches of the material existing for such a hymn of praise. Worthy is He to be praised, for Israel knows full well that He who hath chosen it is the God of gods. The beginning is taken from Psalms 115:3, and Psalms 135:7 from Jeremiah 10:13 (Psalms 51:16). Heaven, earth, and water are the three kingdoms of created things, as in Exodus 20:4. נשׂיא signifies that which is lifted up, ascended; here, as in Jeremiah, a cloud. The meaning of בּרקים למּטר עשׂה is not: He makes lightnings into rain, i.e., resolves them as it were into rain, which is unnatural; but either according to Zechariah 10:1 : He produces lightnings in behalf of rain, in order that the rain may pour down in consequence of the thunder and lightning, or poetically: He makes lightnings for the rain, so that the rain is announced (Apollinaris) and accompanied by them. Instead of מוצא (cf. Psalms 78:16; Psalms 105:43), which does not admit of the retreating of the tone, the expression is מוצא , the ground-form of the part. Hiph . for plurals like מחצרים , מחלמים , מעזרים , perhaps not without being influenced by the ויּוצא in Jeremiah, for it is not מוצא from מצא that signifies “producing,” but מוציא = מפיק . The metaphor of the treasuries is like Job 38:22. What is intended is the fulness of divine power, in which lie the grounds of the origin and the impulses of all things in nature.
Worthy is He to be praised, for He is the Redeemer out of Egypt. בּתוככי as in Psalms 116:19, cf. Psalms 105:27.
Worthy is He to be praised, for He is the Conqueror of the Land of Promise. in connection with Psalms 135:10 one is reminded of Deuteronomy 4:38; Deuteronomy 7:1; Deuteronomy 9:1; Deuteronomy 11:23; Joshua 23:9. גּוים רבּים are here not many, but great peoples (cf. גּדלים in Psalms 136:17), since the parallel word עצוּמים is by no means intended of a powerful number, but of powerful might (cf. Isaiah 53:12). As to the rest also, the poet follows the Book of Deuteronomy: viz., לכל ממלכות as in Deuteronomy 3:21, and נתן נחלה as in Deuteronomy 4:38 and other passages. It is all Deuteronomic with the exception of the שׁ , and the ל e in Psalms 135:11 as the nota accus . (as in Psalms 136:19., cf. Psalms 69:6; Psalms 116:16; Psalms 129:3); the construction of הרג is just as Aramaizing in Job 5:2; 2 Samuel 3:30 (where 2 Samuel 3:30-31, like 2 Samuel 3:36-37, are a later explanatory addition). The הרג alternating with הכּה is, next to the two kings, also referred to the kingdoms of Canaan, viz., their inhabitants. Og was also an Amoritish king, Deuteronomy 3:8.
This God who rules so praiseworthily in the universe and in the history of Israel is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. Just as Psalms 135:13 (cf. Psalms 102:13) is taken from Exodus 3:15, so Psalms 135:14 is taken from Deuteronomy 32:36, cf. Psalms 90:13, and vid., on Hebrews 10:30-31.
For the good of His proved church He ever proves Himself to be the Living God, whereas idols and idol-worshippers are vain - throughout following Psalms 115:4-8, but with some abridgments. Here only the אף used as a particle recalls what is said there of the organ of smell ( אף ) of the idols that smells not, just as the רוּח which is here (as in Jeremiah 10:14) denied to the idols recalls the הריח denied to them there. It is to be rendered: also there is not a being of breath, i.e., there is no breath at all, not a trace thereof, in their mouth. It is different in 1 Samuel 21:9, where אין ישׁ (not אין ) is meant to be equivalent to the Aramaic אין אית , num ( an ) est ; אין is North-Palestinian, and equivalent to the interrogatory אם (after which the Targum renders אלּוּ אית ).
A call to the praise of Jahve, who is exalted above the gods of the nations, addressed to Israel as a whole, rounds off the Psalm by recurring to its beginning. The threefold call in Psalms 115:9-11; Psalms 118:2-4, is rendered fourfold here by the introduction of the house of the Levites, and the wishing of a blessing in Psalms 134:3 is turned into an ascription of praise. Zion, whence Jahve's self-attestation, so rich in power and loving-kindness, is spread abroad, is also to be the place whence His glorious attestation by the mouth of men is spread abroad. History has realized this.