Bible Commentaries

CVI. Israel's Sin.

Psalms 106:1-5. Introduction. Praise to Yahweh for His power and greatness. The writer's desire to share in Israel's joy.

Psalms 106:3. he that doeth: read "they that do."

Psalms 106:5. read throughout "we" for "I."

Psalms 106:6-43. Israel's constant relapse into sin.

Psalms 106:7 c. Read, "They were rebellious against the Most High at the Red Sea" (Exodus 14:10).

Psalms 106:15 b. leanness: read "loathing."

Psalms 106:18 b. There was no need of fire, if the rebels had already been swallowed up by the earthquake. The Psalmist, however, is not responsible for this confusion. He had before him the two inconsistent accounts welded together in Numbers 16:31-35.

Psalms 106:19 f. seems to imply that the Israelites forsook Yahweh for another God. They had no intention of doing so. That it was an image of Yahweh which they made appears plainly from Exodus 32:5.

Psalms 106:22. Ham: see Psalms 105:23*.

Psalms 106:26. taken from Ezekiel 20:23.—lifted up his hand: i.e. took a solemn oath.

Psalms 106:28. the dead: contrasted with the living God.

Psalms 106:33. What the fault of Moses was is left uncertain in Numbers 20:3 ff.*, which may have been mutilated in the interests of edification.

Psalms 106:37. demons: i.e. false gods. The Psalmist oscillates between the belief that the false gods were lifeless blocks or malignant spirits.

Psalms 106:44-47. Still Yahweh forgave His people. A prayer for restoration of the Diaspora (the Dispersion) from the many lands into which the Jews had wandered.

Psalms 106:48 is no part of Psalms 106. It is a doxology which separates Book IV from Book V. The writer in 1 Chronicles 16:36 mistook it for part of the Ps. But the words "Praise ye the Lord," are rightly placed by LXX at beginning of Psalms 107, because all the superscriptions over the first three books end with Amen. [The injunction to the people, however, differentiates this doxology from the others, which like Laus Deo, express the scribe's thankfulness that his task is completed. It may, therefore, be a part of Psalms 106. If so it would seem to the editor who was responsible for the division into five books a good, ready-made mark of division.—A. S. P.]