The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2 — Section 118

sitory-" a vapour that appe11reth for a. little order, neither regards himself o.s bound to while, a.nd then ve.nisheth a.way" (Jes, iv. mention e.11 of them He omits the third 14). and reverses the order of the second and Ver. 40:-Row oft did they provoke him fourth. in the wildemees, 11nd grieve him in the Ver. 46.-He ga.ve e.lso their increass unto desert I (comp. Deut. xxxi. 27; xxxii. 15- the caterpillar, and their labour nnto the !8; _Aots ,:ii. 30---;43,. etc.). The.t God is looust. Khds,l (S•i;,i;,), here translate,! gnev~<l e.t m11n s ems 11.ppee.rs, not only "~o.terpillar," is probably either e. particular from this pnssage, but o.lso from Gen. vi. 6; kmd of locust, or the locust in one of its Ps. xcv. 10; Eph. iv. 30; Heh. iii. 17. stages. (On the plague of locusts in Egypt, Ver. 41.-Yee., they turned baok and see Exod. x. 14, 15.) tempted God; rather, again and again they Ver. 47.-He dest.royed their vines with tempted God (Hengstenberg, Kay, Cheyne); hail (~ee E:rod, i~. 23-25). Here, again, see Exod. xvii. 2, 7 ; Deut. vL 16. And there 1s an 1nvers1on of tho order in which limited the Roly Ons oflsrael (comp. Numb. the plagues ea.me, eiuce the plague of hail xx:.xiv. 7, 8). This may me11n either" they preceded that of the locasts. There is also set limits to bis power in their own minds" a.n addition to the narrative of Exodus in (see ver. 20), or " they ootually limited his the_ mention_ of." vines" (see also Ps. cv. 33), power to help and sucoour them by their which ma.y md1cate a. use of tradition. Thr.t wo.ut of faith" ( comp. Mark vi. 5, "He vines were cultivated in Egypt is now could there do no mighty work," explllined generally e.cknowledged. And their syca- iu Matt. xiii. 58 to have been "because of more trees with frost ; or, with sleet- a their unbelief"). The other meaninga variant of the "he.ii" in the other hemistich. suggested-" disgrooed" and" provoked"- Ver. 48.-He gave up their oa.ttle also to are less proba hie, the hail (comp. Exod. i.L 19-21, 25). And Ver. 42.-They remembered not his hand; their flocks to hot thUI1derbolts (see Exod. ix. i.e. "his doings" (oorup. ver. 11, they 24, 28, 29, 34). The "fire which ra.n a.Ion"' "forgat his works"). Nor the day when the ground" (Exod. ix. 23) must have bee; he delivered them from the enemy. "The ea.used by electrified clouusof hi"'h tension· day" intended is probably that of the the _highl:1'. charged drops of rain meeting drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea the 1Dduct1vely charged earth, a.nd spa.rkin"' (Exod. xv. 28), In thls the Egyptian signs a.cross when within slrikin"' distance. Th~ oulmiuated. is believed to accompany° every thunder- Ver. 43.-How he had wrought his signs storm, though generally invisible to the in Egypt. The point jUBt touched in ver. eye. Whe~ exceptionally severe, it would 12 is now taken up and expanded, with the convey the idea. of running Ore, and would object of showing to the Israelites of the of cour,e be very destructive of life. It is no writer's day what cause they had for thank:- wonder that most of the ca.ttlo which were fulnets to God in the past and for trust in left" in the field" died (Exod. ix. 21, 25). him for the future. And his wonders in the field of Zoan. "The field of Zoan" (sool1d Ver. 49.-He cast upon them the fierceness ~an~ is s_o.i~ to be 1;11enti?ned. in an Egyp• of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and tlan 1nscnption (Zeilllohri.Jtjur lEgyptisohe trouble. "The e.ccumnlation of terms si=i- Spraohe for the year 1872, p. 16). fyiug Divine wro.th is designed to set f~rth Ver, 44.-And had turned their rivera the dreadful no.tore of this last jndo-ment" into blood (see Exod. vii 19, 20). " Their (Hengstenberg)-the death of the fustborn. rivers" are the many branches of the Nile, By sending evil angels among them. Most some natural, some artificial (Herod., ii. I 7) ~~clern ~ritics regard ~his ola.use as in a.ppc- by which Lower Egypt is traversed. And sttton with the preceding one, o.nd consider their floods; or, their streama; i.e. the the "wmth, indignation, and trouble" to be smaller canals, which diffused the Nile themselves the "evil ungels" spoken of. water over the entire le.nd. That they ~ome, however, 11.s Hengstenberg an<l Kay, oould not drink (see Exod. viL 21). lllterpret the pcissage of spiritual boings- Ver. 45,-He sent divers aorta of flies not, however, of spirits of evil, who a.re among them (see Exod. viii. 24). A po.rticu- never so.id to bo miui.ter~ of Go<l's wrath, lar so,t of fly or beetle is meant, rather but of goo<l o.ngols, who on this occasion than mo.ny dilforent sorts. Dr. Koy nnd were "ministers of woe." Professor Cheyne suggest "dog-flies"- Ver. 50.-He made a way to his anger; Canon Cook, the Blatta Orientalis, Whioh literally, he letlllllea a way for his ange-r; i.e. devoured them ; i.e. " preyed upon them," made a smooth path for it (Cheyne). Re suoking out their life-blood. An:l froga, spared not their soul from death; rather, whioh destroyed them (see Exod, viii. 6). held not baol, thefr aoul. But go.ve their 'l'he poet, not being an historian, does not life over to the peatilenoe. This is, un- give the plagues in their ohrouologioal doubtedly, the true me11.ning, 11.nd not "he  128 TIIE BOOK 01' PSALMS. [PB. LXXVIII, 1-72,