39 And they are defiled with their works, And commit whoredom in their habitual doings.
And I say to their sons in the wilderness: In the statutes of your fathers ye walk not, And their judgments ye do not observe, And with their idols ye are not defiled.
and they sacrifice not any more their sacrifices to goats after which they are going a-whoring; a statute age-during is this to them, to their generations.
Therefore, say unto the house of Israel: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: In the way of your fathers are ye defiled? And after their detestable things go a-whoring? And in the offering of your gifts, In causing your sons to pass through fire, Ye are defiled by all your idols to this day, And I am sought by you, O house of Israel! I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, I am not sought by you.
`Rejoice not, O Israel, be not joyful like the peoples, For thou hast gone a-whoring from thy God, Thou hast loved a gift near all floors of corn.
then I have set My face against that man, and against his family, and have cut him off, and all who are going a-whoring after him, even going a-whoring after the Molech, from the midst of their people. `And the person who turneth unto those having familiar spirits, and unto the wizards, to go a-whoring after them, I have even set My face against that person, and cut him off from the midst of his people.
And the land hath been defiled under its inhabitants, Because they have transgressed laws, They have changed a statute, They have made void a covenant age-during. Therefore a curse hath consumed the land, And the inhabitants in it are become desolate, Therefore consumed have been inhabitants of the land, And few men have been left.
Saying, `Lo, one sendeth away his wife, And she hath gone from him, And she hath been to another man, Doth he turn back unto her again? Greatly defiled is not that land? And thou hast committed whoredom with many lovers, And turn again to Me, an affirmation of Jehovah. Lift thine eyes to the high places, and see, Where hast thou not been lain with? On the ways thou hast sat for them, As an Arab in a wilderness, And thou defilest the land, By thy fornications, and by thy wickedness.
And Jehovah saith unto me, in the days of Josiah the king, `Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is going on every high mountain, and unto the place of every green tree, and committeth fornication there. And I say, after her doing all these, Unto Me thou dost turn back, and she hath not turned back, and see `it' doth her treacherous sister Judah. And I see when (for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery) I have sent her away, and I give the bill of her divorce unto her, that treacherous Judah her sister hath not feared, and goeth and committeth fornication -- she also. And it hath come to pass, from the vileness of her fornication, that the land is defiled, and she committeth fornication with stone and with wood.
And thou dost trust in thy beauty, And goest a-whoring because of thy renown, And dost pour out thy whoredoms On every passer by -- to him it is. And thou dost take of thy garments, And dost make to thee spotted high-places, And dost go a-whoring upon them, They are not coming in -- nor shall it be! And thou dost take thy beauteous vessels Of My gold and My silver that I gave to thee, And dost make to thee images of a male, And dost go a-whoring with them, And dost take the garments of thy embroidery, And thou dost cover them, And My oil and My perfume thou hast set before them. And My bread, that I gave to thee, Fine flour, and oil, and honey, that I caused thee to eat. Thou hast even set it before them, For a sweet fragrance -- thus it is, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah. And thou dost take thy sons and thy daughters Whom thou hast born to Me, And dost sacrifice them to them for food. Is it a little thing because of thy whoredoms, That thou dost slaughter My sons, And dost give them up in causing them to pass over to them? And with all thine abominations and thy whoredoms, Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, When thou wast naked and bare, Trodden down in thy blood thou wast! And it cometh to pass, after all thy wickedness, (Wo, wo, to thee -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah), That thou dost build to thee an arch, And dost make to thee a high place in every broad place. At every head of the way thou hast built thy high place, And thou dost make thy beauty abominable, And dost open wide thy feet to every passer by, And dost multiply thy whoredoms, And dost go a-whoring unto sons of Egypt, Thy neighbours -- great of appetite! And thou dost multiply thy whoredoms, To provoke Me to anger. And lo, I have stretched out My hand against thee, And I diminish thy portion, And give thee to the desire of those hating thee, The daughters of the Philistines, Who are ashamed of thy wicked way. And thou goest a-whoring unto sons of Asshur, Without thy being satisfied, And thou dost go a-whoring with them, And also -- thou hast not been satisfied. And thou dost multiply thy whoredoms On the land of Canaan -- toward Chaldea, And even with this thou hast not been satisfied. How weak `is' thy heart, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, In thy doing all these, The work of a domineering whorish woman. In thy building thine arch at the head of every way, Thy high place thou hast made in every broad place, And -- hast not been as a whore deriding a gift. The wife who committeth adultery -- Under her husband -- doth receive strangers. To all whores they give a gift, And -- thou hast given thy gifts to all thy lovers, And dost bribe them to come in unto thee, From round about -- in thy whoredoms. And the contrary is in thee from women in thy whoredoms, That after thee none doth go a-whoring; And in thy giving a gift, And a gift hath not been given to thee; And thou art become contrary. Therefore, O whore, hear a word of Jehovah, Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of thy brass being poured forth, And thy nakedness is revealed in thy whoredoms near thy lovers, And near all the idols of thy abominations, And according to the blood of thy sons, Whom thou hast given to them; Therefore, lo, I am assembling all thy lovers, To whom thou hast been sweet, And all whom thou hast loved, Besides all whom thou hast hated; And I have assembled them by thee round about, And have revealed thy nakedness to them, And they have seen all thy nakedness. And I have judged thee -- judgments of adultresses, And of women shedding blood, And have given thee blood, fury, and jealousy. And I have given thee into their hand, And they have thrown down thine arch, And they have broken down thy high places, And they have stript thee of thy garments, And they have taken thy beauteous vessels, And they have left thee naked and bare. And have caused an assembly to come up against thee, And stoned thee with stones, And thrust thee through with their swords, And burnt thy houses with fire, And done in thee judgments before the eyes of many women, And I have caused thee to cease from going a-whoring, And also a gift thou givest no more. And I have caused My fury against thee to rest, And My jealousy hath turned aside from thee, And I have been quiet, and I am not angry any more. Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, And dost give trouble to Me in all these, Lo, even I also thy way at first gave up, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, And I did not this thought for all thine abominations. Lo, every one using a simile, Doth use a simile concerning thee, saying: As the mother -- her daughter! Thy mother's daughter thou `art', Loathing her husband and her sons, And thy sisters' sister thou `art', Who loathed their husbands and their sons, Your mother `is' a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. And thine elder sister `is' Samaria, she and her daughters, Who is dwelling at thy left hand, And thy younger sister, who is dwelling on thy right hand, `is' Sodom and her daughters. And -- in their ways thou hast not walked, And according to their abominations done, As a little thing it hath been loathed, And thou dost more corruptly than they in all thy ways. I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Sodom thy sister hath not done -- she and her daughters -- As thou hast done -- thou and thy daughters. Lo, this hath been the iniquity of Sodom thy sister, Arrogancy, fulness of bread, and quiet ease, Have been to her and to her daughters, And the hand of the afflicted and needy She hath not strengthened. And they are haughty and do abomination before Me, And I turn them aside when I have seen. As to Samaria, as the half of thy sins -- she hath not sinned, And thou dost multiply thine abominations more than they, And dost justify thy sisters by all thy abominations that thou hast done. Thou also -- bear thy shame, That thou hast adjudged to thy sisters, Because of thy sins that thou hast done more abominably than they, They are more righteous than thou, And thou, also, be ashamed and bear thy shame, In thy justifying thy sisters. And I have turned back `to' their captivity, The captivity of Sodom and her daughters, And the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, And the captivity of thy captives in their midst, So that thou dost bear thy shame, And hast been ashamed of all that thou hast done, In thy comforting them. And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, Do turn back to their former state, And Samaria and her daughters Do turn back to their former state, And thou and thy daughters do turn back to your former state. And thy sister Sodom hath not been for a report in thy mouth, In the day of thine arrogancy, Before thy wickedness is revealed, As `at' the time of the reproach of the daughters of Aram, And of all her neighbours, the daughters of the Philistines, Who are despising thee round about. Thy devices and thine abominations, Thou hast borne them, an affirmation of Jehovah. For thus said the Lord Jehovah: I have dealt with thee as thou hast done, In that thou hast despised an oath -- to break covenant. And I -- I have remembered My covenant with thee, In the days of thy youth, And I have established for thee a covenant age-during. And thou hast remembered thy ways, And thou hast been ashamed, In thy receiving thy sisters -- Thine elder with thy younger, And I have given them to thee for daughters, And not by thy covenant. And I -- I have established My covenant with thee, And thou hast known that I `am' Jehovah. So that thou dost remember, And thou hast been ashamed, And there is not to thee any more an opening of the mouth because of thy shame, In My receiving atonement for thee, For all that thou hast done, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!'
And ye have remembered there your ways, And all your doings, In which ye have been defiled, And ye have been loathsome in your own faces, For all your evils that ye have done.
And they go a-whoring in Egypt, In their youth they have gone a-whoring, There they have bruised their breasts, And there they have dealt with the loves of their virginity. And their names `are' Aholah the elder, And Aholibah her sister, And they are Mine, and bear sons and daughters. As to their names -- Samaria `is' Aholah, And Jerusalem `is' Aholibah. And go a-whoring doth Aholah under Me, And she doteth on her lovers, On the neighbouring Assyrians, Clothed with blue -- governors and prefects, Desirable young men all of them, Horsemen, riding on horses, And she giveth her whoredoms on them, The choice of the sons of Asshur, All of them -- even all on whom she doted, By all their idols she hath been defiled. And her whoredoms out of Egypt she hath not forsaken, For with her they lay in her youth, And they dealt with the loves of her virginity, And they pour out their whoredoms on her. Therefore I have given her into the hand of her lovers, Into the hand of sons of Asshur on whom she doted. They have uncovered her nakedness, Her sons and her daughters they have taken, And her by sword they have slain, And she is a name for women, And judgments they have done with her. And see doth her sister Aholibah, And she maketh her doting love more corrupt than she, And her whoredoms than the whoredoms of her sister. On sons of Asshur she hath doted, Governors and prefects, Neighbouring ones -- clothed in perfection, Horsemen, riding on horses, Desirable young men all of them. And I see that she hath been defiled, One way `is' to them both. And she doth add unto her whoredoms, And she seeth graved men on the wall, Pictures of Chaldeans, graved with red lead, Girded with a girdle on their loins, Dyed attire spread out on their heads, The appearance of rulers -- all of them, The likeness of sons of Babylon, Chaldea is the land of their birth. And she doteth on them at the sight of her eyes, And sendeth messengers to them, to Chaldea. And come in unto her do sons of Babylon, To the bed of loves, And they defile her with their whoredoms, And she is defiled with them, And her soul is alienated from them. And she revealeth her whoredoms, And she revealeth her nakedness, And alienated is My soul from off her, As alienated was My soul from off her sister. And she multiplieth her whoredoms, To remember the days of her youth, When she went a-whoring in the land of Egypt. And she doteth on their paramours, Whose flesh `is' the flesh of asses, And the issue of horses -- their issue. Thou lookest after the wickedness of thy youth, In dealing out of Egypt thy loves, For the sake of the breasts of thy youth. Therefore, O Aholibah, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am stirring up thy lovers against thee, From whom thy soul hath been alienated, And have brought them in against thee from round about. Sons of Babylon, and of all Chaldea, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, All the sons of Asshur with them, Desirable young men, governors and prefects, All of them -- rulers and proclaimed ones, Riding on horses, all of them. And they have come in against thee, With arms, rider, and wheel, And with an assembly of peoples; Target, and shield, and helmet, They do set against thee round about, And I have set before them judgment, They have judged thee in their Judgments. And I have set My jealousy against thee, And they have dealt with thee in fury, Thy nose and thine ears they turn aside, And thy posterity by sword falleth, They, thy sons and thy daughters do take away, And thy posterity is devoured by fire. And they have stripped thee of thy garments, And have taken thy beauteous jewels. And I have caused thy wickedness to cease from thee, And thy whoredoms out of the land of Egypt, And thou liftest not up thine eyes unto them, And Egypt thou dost not remember again. For thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am giving thee into a hand that thou hast hated, Into a hand from which thou wast alienated. And they have dealt with thee in hatred, And they have taken all thy labour, And they have left thee naked and bare, And revealed hath been the nakedness of thy whoredoms, And the wickedness of thy whoredoms. To do these things to thee, In thy going a-whoring after nations, Because thou hast been defiled with their idols, In the way of thy sister thou hast walked, And I have given her cup into thy hand. Thus said the Lord Jehovah: The cup of thy sister thou dost drink, The deep and the wide one, (Thou art for laughter and for scorn,) Abundant to contain. With drunkenness and sorrow thou art filled, A cup of astonishment and desolation, The cup of thy sister Samaria. And thou hast drunk it, and hast drained `it', And its earthen ware thou dost gnaw, And thine own breasts thou pluckest off, For I have spoken, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast forgotten Me, And thou dost cast Me behind thy back, Even thou also bear thy wickedness and thy whoredoms.' And Jehovah saith unto me, `Son of man, Dost thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? Declare then to them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, And blood `is' in their hands, With their idols they committed adultery, And also their sons whom they bore to Me, They caused to pass over to them for food. Again, this they have done to Me, They defiled My sanctuary in that day, And My sabbaths they have polluted. And in their slaughtering their sons to their idols They also come in unto My sanctuary in that day to pollute it, And lo, thus they have done in the midst of My house, And also that they send to men coming from afar, Unto whom a messenger is sent, And lo, they have come in for whom thou hast washed, Painted thine eyes, and put on adornment. And thou hast sat on a couch of honour, And a table arrayed before it, And My perfume and My oil placed on it. And the voice of a multitude at ease `is' with her, And unto men of the common people are brought in Sabeans from the wilderness, And they put bracelets on their hands, And a beauteous crown on their heads. And I say of the worn-out one in adulteries, Now they commit her whoredoms -- she also! And they come in unto her, As the coming in unto a whorish woman, So they have come in unto Aholah, And unto Aholibah -- the wicked women. As to righteous men, they judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, And the judgment of women shedding blood, For they `are' adulteresses, And blood `is' in their hands. For thus said the Lord Jehovah: Bring up against them an assembly, And give them to trembling and to spoiling. And they have cast at them the stone of the assembly, And cut them with their swords, Their sons and their daughters they do slay, And their houses with fire they burn. And I have caused wickedness to cease from the land, And instructed have been all the women, And they do not according to your wickedness. And they have put your wickedness on you, And the sins of your idols ye bear, And ye have known that I `am' the Lord Jehovah!
And there came one of the seven messengers, who were having the seven vials, and he spake with me, saying to me, `Come, I will shew to thee the judgment of the great whore, who is sitting upon the many waters, with whom the kings of the earth did commit whoredom; and made drunk from the wine of her whoredom were those inhabiting the earth;' and he carried me away to a wilderness in the Spirit, and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of evil-speaking, having seven heads and ten horns, and the woman was arrayed with purple and scarlet-colour, and gilded with gold, and precious stone, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and uncleanness of her whoredom, and upon her forehead was a name written: `Secret, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Whores, and the Abominations of the earth.' And I saw the woman drunken from the blood of the saints, and from the blood of the witnesses of Jesus, and I did wonder -- having seen her -- with great wonder;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 106
Commentary on Psalms 106 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Israel's Unfaithfulness from Egypt Onwards, and God's Faithfulness Down to the Present Time
With this anonymous Psalm begins the series of the strictly Hallelujah-Psalms, i.e., those Psalms which have הללו־יה for their arsis-like beginning and for their inscription (Ps 106, 111-113, Psalms 117:1-2, 135, 146-150). The chronicler in his cento, 1 Chronicles 16:8., and in fact in 1 Chronicles 16:34-36, puts the first and last verses of this Psalm (Psalms 106:1, Psalms 106:47), together with the Beracha (Psalms 106:48) which closes the Fourth Book of the Psalms, into the mouth of David, from which it is to be inferred that this Psalm is no more Maccabaean than Psalms 96:1-13 and Ps 105 (which see), and that the Psalter was divided into five books which were marked off by the doxologies even in the time of the chronicler. The Beracha, Psalms 106:48, appears even at that period to have been read as an integral part of the Psalm, according to liturgical usage. The Hallelujah Psalms 106, like the Hodu Ps 105 and the Asaph Ps 78, recapitulates the history of the olden times of the Israelitish nation. But the purpose and mode of the recapitulation differ in each of these three Psalms. In Ps 78 it is didactic; in Ps 105 hymnic; and here in Psalms 106 penitential. It is a penitential Psalm, or Psalm of confession, a ודּוּי (from התודּה to confess, Leviticus 16:21). The oldest types of such liturgical prayers are the two formularies at the offering of the first-fruits, Deut. 26, and Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple, 1 Kings 8. And to this kind of tephilla , the Vidduj , belong, beyond the range of the Psalter, the prayer of Daniel, Daniel 9:1 (vid., the way in which it is introduced in Daniel 9:4), and the prayer (Neh 9:5-38) which eight Levites uttered in the name of the people at the celebration of the fast-day on the twenty-fourth of Tishri. It is true Psalms 106 is distinguished from these prayers of confession in the prose style as being a Psalm; but it has three points in common with them and with the liturgical tephilla in general, viz., (1) the fondness for inflexional rhyming, i.e., for rhyming terminations of the same suffixes; (2) the heaping up of synonyms; and (3) the unfolding of the thoughts in a continuous line. These three peculiarities are found not only in the liturgical border, Psalms 106:1-6, Psalms 106:47, but also in the middle historical portion, which forms the bulk of the Psalm. The law of parallelism, is, it is true, still observed; but apart from these distichic wave-like ridges of the thoughts, it is all one direct, straight-line flow without technical division.
The Psalm begins with the liturgical call, which has not coined for the first time in the Maccabaean age (1 Macc. 4:24), but was already in use in Jeremiah's time (Psalms 33:11). The lxx appropriately renders טּוב by χρηστός , for God is called “good” not so much in respect of His nature as of the revelation of His nature. The fulness of this revelation, says Psalms 106:2 (like Psalms 40:6), is inexhaustible. גּבוּרות are the manifestations of His all-conquering power which makes everything subservient to His redemptive purposes (Psalms 20:7); and תּהלּה is the glory (praise or celebration) of His self-attestation in history. The proclaiming of these on the part of man can never be an exhaustive echo of them. In Psalms 106:3 the poet tells what is the character of those who experience such manifestations of God; and to the assertion of the blessedness of these men he appends the petition in Psalms 106:4, that God would grant him a share in the experiences of the whole nation which is the object of these manifestations. עמּך beside בּרצון is a genitive of the object: with the pleasure which Thou turnest towards Thy people, i.e., when Thou again (cf. Psalms 106:47) showest Thyself gracious unto them. On פּקד cf. Psalms 8:5; Psalms 80:15, and on ראה ב , Jeremiah 29:32; a similar Beth is that beside לשׂמח (at, on account of, not: in connection with), Psalms 21:2; Psalms 122:1. God's “inheritance” is His people; the name for them is varied four times, and thereby גּוי is also exceptionally brought into use, as in Zephaniah 2:9.
The key-note of the vidduj , which is a settled expression since 1 Kings 8:47 (Daniel 9:5, cf. Bar. 2:12), makes itself heard here in Psalms 106:6; Israel is bearing at this time the punishment of its sins, by which it has made itself like its forefathers. In this needy and helpless condition the poet, who all along speaks as a member of the assembly, takes the way of the confession of sin, which leads to the forgiveness of sin and to the removal of the punishment of sin. רשׁע , 1 Kings 8:47, signifies to be, and the Hiph . to prove one's self to be, a רשׁע . עם in Psalms 106:6 is equivalent to aeque ac , as in Ecclesiastes 2:16; Job 9:26. With Psalms 106:7 the retrospect begins. The fathers contended with Moses and Aaron in Egypt (Exodus 5:21), and gave no heed to the prospect of redemption (Exodus 6:9). The miraculous judgments which Moses executed (Exodus 3:20) had no more effect in bringing them to a right state of mind, and the abundant tokens of loving-kindness (Isaiah 63:7) amidst which God redeemed them made so little impression on their memories that they began to despair and to murmur even at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:11.). With על , Psalms 106:7 , alternates בּ (as in Ezekiel 10:15, בּנהר ); cf. the alternation of prepositions in Joel 3:8 . When they behaved thus, Jahve might have left their redemption unaccomplished, but out of unmerited mercy He nevertheless redeemed them. Psalms 106:8-11 are closely dependent upon Ex. 14. Psalms 106:11 is a transposition (cf. Psalms 34:21; Isaiah 34:16) from Exodus 14:28. On the other hand, Psalms 106:9 is taken out of Isaiah 63:13 (cf. Wisd. 19:9); Isa. 63:7-64:12 is a prayer for redemption which has a similar ground-colouring. The sea through which they passed is called, as in the Tôra, ים־סוּף , which seems, according to Exodus 2:3; Isaiah 19:3, to signify the sea of reed or sedge, although the sedge does not grow in the Red Sea itself, but only on the marshy places of the coast; but it can also signify the sea of sea-weed, mare algosum , after the Egyptian sippe , wool and sea-weed (just as Arab. ṣûf also signifies both these). The word is certainly Egyptian, whether it is to be referred back to the Egyptian word sippe (sea-weed) or seebe (sedge), and is therefore used after the manner of a proper name; so that the inference drawn by Knobel on Exodus 8:18 from the absence of the article, that סוּף is the name of a town on the northern point of the gulf, is groundless. The miracle at the sea of sedge or sea-weed - as Psalms 106:12 says - also was not without effect. Exodus 14:31 tells us that they believed on Jahve and Moses His servant, and the song which they sang follows in Ex. 15. But they then only too quickly added sins of ingratitude.
The first of the principal sins on the other side of the Red Sea was the unthankful, impatient, unbelieving murmuring about their meat and drink, Psalms 106:13-15. For what Psalms 106:13 places foremost was the root of the whole evil, that, falling away from faith in God's promise, they forgot the works of God which had been wrought in confirmation of it, and did not wait for the carrying out of His counsel. The poet has before his eye the murmuring for water on the third day after the miraculous deliverance (Exodus 15:22-24) and in Rephidim (Exodus 17:2). Then the murmuring for flesh in the first and second years of the exodus which was followed by the sending of the quails (Ex. 16 and Num. 11), together with the wrathful judgment by which the murmuring for the second time was punished ( Kibrôth ha - Ta'avah , Numbers 11:33-35). This dispensation of wrath the poet calls רזון (lxx, Vulgate, and Syriac erroneously πλησμονήν , perhaps מזון , nourishment), inasmuch as he interprets Numbers 11:33-35 of a wasting disease, which swept away the people in consequence of eating inordinately of the flesh, and in the expression (cf. Psalms 78:31) he closely follows Isaiah 10:16. The “counsel” of God for which they would not wait, is His plan with respect to the time and manner of the help. חכּה , root Arab. ḥk , a weaker power of Arab. ḥq , whence also Arab. ḥkl , p. 111, ḥkm , p. 49 note 1, signifies prop. to make firm, e.g., a knot (cf. on Psalms 33:20), and starting from this (without the intervention of the metaphor moras nectere , as Schultens thinks) is transferred to a firm bent of mind, and the tension of long expectation. The epigrammatic expression ויּתאוּוּ תאוה (plural of ויתאו , Isaiah 45:12, for which codices, as also in Proverbs 23:3, Proverbs 23:6; Proverbs 24:1, the Complutensian, Venetian 1521, Elias Levita, and Baer have ויתאו without the tonic lengthening) is taken from Numbers 11:4.
The second principal sin was the insurrection against their superiors, Psalms 106:16-18. The poet has Numbers 16:1 in his eye. The rebellious ones were swallowed up by the earth, and their two hundred and fifty noble, non-Levite partisans consumed by fire. The fact that the poet does not mention Korah among those who were swallowed up is in perfect harmony with Numbers 16:25., Deuteronomy 11:6; cf. however Numbers 26:10. The elliptical תפתּה in Psalms 106:17 is explained from Numbers 16:32; Numbers 26:10.
The third principal sin was the worship of the calf, Psalms 106:19-23. The poet here glances back at Ex. 32, but not without at the same time having Deuteronomy 9:8-12 in his mind; for the expression “in Horeb” is Deuteronomic, e.g., Deuteronomy 4:15; Deuteronomy 5:2, and frequently. Psalms 106:20 is also based upon the Book of Deuteronomy: they exchanged their glory, i.e., the God who was their distinction before all peoples according to Deuteronomy 4:6-8; Deuteronomy 10:21 (cf. also Jeremiah 2:11), for the likeness ( תּבנית ) of a plough-ox (for this is pre-eminently called שׁוּר , in the dialects תּור ), contrary to the prohibition in Deuteronomy 4:17. On Psalms 106:21 cf. the warning in Deuteronomy 6:12. “Land of Cham” = Egypt, as in Psalms 78:51; Psalms 105:23, Psalms 105:27. With ויאמר in Psalms 106:23 the expression becomes again Deuteronomic: Deuteronomy 9:25, cf. Exodus 32:10. God made and also expressed the resolve to destroy Israel. Then Moses stepped into the gap (before the gap), i.e., as it were covered the breach, inasmuch as he placed himself in it and exposed his own life; cf. on the fact, besides Ex. 32, also Deuteronomy 9:18., Psalms 10:10, and on the expression, Ezekiel 22:30 and also Jeremiah 18:20.
The fact to which the poet refers in Psalms 106:24, viz., the rebellion in consequence of the report of the spies, which he brings forward as the fourth principal sin, is narrated in Num 13, Num 14. The appellation ארץ חמדּה is also found in Jeremiah 3:19; Zechariah 7:14. As to the rest, the expression is altogether Pentateuchal. “They despised the land,” after Numbers 14:31; “they murmured in their tents,” after Deuteronomy 1:27; “to lift up the land” = to swear, after Exodus 6:8; Deuteronomy 32:40; the threat להפּיל , to make them fall down, fall away, after Numbers 14:29, Numbers 14:32. The threat of exile is founded upon the two great threatening chapters, Lev 26; Deuteronomy 28:1; cf. more particularly Leviticus 26:33 (together with the echoes in Ezekiel 5:12; Ezekiel 12:14, etc.), Deuteronomy 28:64 (together with the echoes in Jeremiah 9:15; Ezekiel 22:15, etc.). Ezekiel 20:23 stands in a not accidental relationship to Psalms 106:26.; and according to that passage, וּלהפיל is an error of the copyist for וּלהפיץ (Hitzig).
Now follows in Psalms 106:28-31 the fifth of the principal sins, viz., the taking part in the Moabitish worship of Baal. The verb נצמד (to be bound or chained), taken from Numbers 25:3, Numbers 25:5, points to the prostitution with which Baal Peôr, this Moabitish Priapus, was worshipped. The sacrificial feastings in which, according to Numbers 25:2, they took part, are called eating the sacrifices of the dead, because the idols are dead beings (nekroi', Wisd. 13:10-18) as opposed to God, the living One. The catena on Revelation 2:14 correctly interprets: τὰ τοῖς εἰδώλοις τελεσθέντα κρέα .
(Note: In the second section of Aboda zara , on the words of the Mishna: “The flesh which is intended to be offered first of all to idols is allowed, but that which comes out of the temple is forbidden, because it is like sacrifices of the dead,” it is observed, fol. 32 b : “Whence, said R. Jehuda ben Bethêra, do I know that that which is offered to idols ( תקרובת לעבדה זרה ) pollutes like a dead body? From Psalms 106:28. As the dead body pollutes everything that is under the same roof with it, so also does everything that is offered to idols.” The Apostle Paul declares the objectivity of this pollution to be vain, cf. more particularly 1 Corinthians 10:28.)
The object of “they made angry” is omitted; the author is fond of this, cf. Psalms 106:7 and Psalms 106:32. The expression in Psalms 106:29 is like Exodus 19:24. The verb עמד is chosen with reference to Numbers 17:13. The result is expressed in Psalms 106:30 after Numbers 25:8, Numbers 25:18., Numbers 17:13. With פּלּל , to adjust, to judge adjustingly (lxx, Vulgate, correctly according to the sense, ἐξιλάσατο ), the poet associates the thought of the satisfaction due to divine right, which Phinehas executed with the javelin. This act of zeal for Jahve, which compensated for Israel's unfaithfulness, was accounted unto him for righteousness, by his being rewarded for it with the priesthood unto everlasting ages, Numbers 25:10-13. This accounting of a work for righteousness is only apparently contradictory to Genesis 15:5.: it was indeed an act which sprang from a constancy in faith, and one which obtained for him the acceptation of a righteous man for the sake of this upon which it was based, by proving him to be such.
In Psalms 106:32, Psalms 106:33 follows the sixth of the principal sins, viz., the insurrection against Moses and Aaron at the waters of strife in the fortieth year, in connection with which Moses forfeited the entrance with them into the Land of Promise (Numbers 20:11., Deuteronomy 1:37; Deuteronomy 32:51), since he suffered himself to be carried away by the persevering obstinacy of the people against the Spirit of God ( המרה mostly providing the future for מרה , as in Psalms 106:7, Psalms 106:43, Psalms 78:17, Psalms 78:40, Psalms 78:56, of obstinacy against God; on את־רוּחו cf. Isaiah 63:10) into uttering the words addressed to the people, Numbers 20:10, in which, as the smiting of the rock which was twice repeated shows, is expressed impatience together with a tinge of unbelief. The poet distinguishes, as does the narrative in Num. 20, between the obstinacy of the people and the transgression of Moses, which is there designated, according to that which lay at the root of it, as unbelief. The retrospective reference to Numbers 27:14 needs adjustment accordingly.
The sins in Canaan: the failing to exterminate the idolatrous peoples and sharing in their idolatry. In Psalms 106:34 the poet appeals to the command, frequently enjoined upon them from Exodus 23:32. onwards, to extirpate the inhabitants of Canaan. Since they did not execute this command (vid., Judges 1:1), that which it was intended to prevent came to pass: the heathen became to them a snare (mowqeesh), Exodus 23:33; Exodus 34:12; Deuteronomy 7:16. They intermarried with them, and fell into the Canaanitish custom in which the abominations of heathenism culminate, viz., the human sacrifice, which Jahve abhorreth (Deuteronomy 12:31), and only the demons ( שׁדים , Deuteronomy 32:17) delight in. Thus then the land was defiled by blood-guiltiness ( חנף , Numbers 35:33, cf. Isaiah 24:5; Isaiah 26:21), and they themselves became unclean (Ezekiel 20:43) by the whoredom of idolatry. In Psalms 106:40-43 the poet (as in Nehemiah 9:26.) sketches the alternation of apostasy, captivity, redemption, and relapse which followed upon the possession of Canaan, and more especially that which characterized the period of the judges. God's “counsel” was to make Israel free and glorious, but they leaned upon themselves, following their own intentions ( בּעצתם ); wherefore they perished in their sins. The poet uses מכך (to sink down, fall away) instead of the נמק (to moulder, rot) of the primary passage, Leviticus 26:39, retained in Ezekiel 24:23; Ezekiel 33:10, which is no blunder (Hitzig), but a deliberate change.
The poet's range of vision here widens from the time of the judges to the history of the whole of the succeeding age down to the present; for the whole history of Israel has essentially the same fundamental character, viz., that Israel's unfaithfulness does not annul God's faithfulness. That verifies itself even now. That which Solomon in 1 Kings 8:50 prays for on behalf of his people when they may be betrayed into the hands of the enemy, has been fulfilled in the case of the dispersion of Israel in all countries (Psalms 107:3), Babylonia, Egypt, etc.: God has turned the hearts of their oppressors towards them. On ראה ב , to regard compassionately, cf. Genesis 29:32; 1 Samuel 1:11. בּצּר לחם belong together, as in Psalms 107:6, and frequently. רנּה is a cry of lamentation, as in 1 Kings 8:28 in Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple. From this source comes Psalms 106:6, and also from this source Psalms 106:46, cf. 1 Kings 8:50 together with Nehemiah 1:11. In ויּנּחם the drawing back of the tone does not take place, as in Genesis 24:67. חסדו beside כּרב is not pointed by the Kerî חסדּו , as in Psalms 5:8; Psalms 69:14, but as in Lamentations 3:32, according to Psalms 106:7, Isaiah 63:7, חסדו : in accordance with the fulness (riches) of His manifold mercy or loving-kindness. The expression in Psalms 106:46 is like Genesis 43:14. Although the condition of the poet's fellow-countrymen in the dispersion may have been tolerable in itself, yet this involuntary scattering of the members of the nation is always a state of punishment. The poet prays in Psalms 106:47 that God may be pleased to put an end to this.
He has now reached the goal, to which his whole Psalm struggles forth, by the way of self-accusation and the praise of the faithfulness of God. השׁתּבּח (found only here) is the reflexive of the Piel , to account happy, Ecclesiastes 4:2, therefore: in order that we may esteem ourselves happy to be able to praise Thee. In this reflexive (and also passive) sense השׁתבח is customary in Aramaic and post-biblical Hebrew.
The closing doxology of the Fourth Book. The chronicler has ואמרוּ before Psalms 106:47 (which with him differs only very slightly), an indispensable rivet, so to speak, in the fitting together of Psalms 106:1 (Psalms 107:1) and Psalms 106:47. The means this historian, who joins passages together like mosaic-work, calls to his aid are palpable enough. He has also taken over. Psalms 106:48 by transforming and let all the people say Amen, Hallelujah! in accordance with his style (cf. 1 Chronicles 25:3; 2 Chronicles 5:13, and frequently, Ezra 3:11), into an historical clause: ויּאמרוּ כל־העם אמן והלּל ליהוה . Hitzig, by regarding the echoes of the Psalms in the chronicler as the originals of the corresponding Psalms in the Psalter, and consequently 1 Chronicles 16:36 as the original of the Beracha placed after our Psalm, reverses the true relation; vid., with reference to this point, Riehm in the Theolog. Literat. Blatt , 1866, No. 30, and Köhler in the Luther. Zeitschrift , 1867, S. 297ff. The priority of Ps 106 is clear from the fact that Psalms 106:1 gives a liturgical key-note that was in use even in Jeremiah's time (Psalms 33:11), and that Psalms 106:47 reverts to the tephilla-style of the introit, Psalms 106:4. And the priority of Psalms 106:48 as a concluding formula of the Fourth Book is clear from the fact that is has been fashioned, like that of the Second Book (Psalms 72:18.), under the influence of the foregoing Psalm. The Hallelujah is an echo of the Hallelujah-Psalm, just as there the Jahve Elohim is an echo of the Elohim-Psalm. And “let all the people say Amen” is the same closing thought as in Psalms 106:6 of Ps, which is made into the closing doxology of the whole Psalter. Ἀμὴν ἀλληλούΐα together (Revelation 19:4) is a laudatory confirmation.