Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 60:2
Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.
2. Thou hast made &c.] R.V. Thou hast made the land to tremble; thou hast rent it. The disaster is compared to an earthquake, which is often used as a symbol of great catastrophes and especially of divine judgement (Psa 18:7; Psa 46:3; Psa 46:6; Isa 24:18 ff). ‘The breaches’ may be the rents and rifts in the solid ground, or by a very natural transition, the state is further compared to the buildings shattered by the earthquake and threatening to fall (Psa 42:3; Isa 30:13; and for heal = repair, see Jer 19:11).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou hast made the earth to tremble – This refers, doubtless, to some calamity that might be compared with an earthquake – some disaster, discomfiture, or defeat that had shaken their hopes, as a city is shaken by an earthquake. Such comparisons are common in the Scriptures.
Thou hast broken it – As if it were broken up, or convulsed.
Heal the breaches thereof – That is, Appear for thy people, and repair their disasters, as if after an earthquake thou shouldst appear and fill up the rents which it had made. The prayer is that he would place things in their former condition of prosperity and success.
For it shaketh – It is convulsed or agitated. That is, there is still commotion. Things are unsettled and disturbed. The prayer is, that there might be stability or continued success.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Made the earth to tremble; a poetical and hyperbolical expression, signifying great and dreadful changes among the people, as Hag 2:7, compared with Heb 12:26,27. See also 1Sa 14:15.
Heal the breaches thereof; reconcile all those differences which our civil wars have made among us.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it,…. As is frequently done by an earthquake; which, whatever natural causes there may be of it, is always to be ascribed to God. The ancient Heathens m were of opinion that all earthquakes were of God. This respects not the whole earth, but the land of Israel only; and so the Targum,
“thou hast moved the land of Israel, thou hast shaken and rent it;”
and it does not design a natural earthquake in it, but a figurative one; a shaking and rending of their civil and church state; see
Heb 12:26;
heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh; which will be done in the latter day, when they shall return into their own land, and be restored as at the beginning, Isa 30:30.
m A. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 2. c. 28.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) Earth.Rather, land; since, though the image is drawn from an earthquake, in which the solid ground trembles and buildings totter and fall (comp. Isa. 30:13), the convulsion described is political, not physical.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Earth to tremble broken breaches shaketh Fearful words, descriptive of an earthquake, to which the army and nation, tottering, reeling, breaking, under the shock of disastrous war, are now compared.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 60:2. Thou hast made the earth to tremble The land. By this figurative expression the Scripture frequently denotes extraordinary troubles and calamities: Compare Isa 23:13; Isa 29:6. And such were the dreadful commotions and miserable divisions among David’s people.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 60:2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.
Ver. 2. Thou hast made the earth to tremble ] By sundry fearful and dismal fractions and concussions in our state.
Thou hast broken it
Heal the breaches thereof
For it shaketh
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
broken = made fissures. Occurs only here.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
made: Psa 104:32, Psa 114:7, 2Sa 22:8, Job 9:6, Isa 5:25, Jer 4:24, Jer 10:10, Amo 8:8, Hab 3:10, Mat 27:51
broken: Psa 89:40, 2Sa 2:8-32, 2Sa 3:11-14, Isa 7:8, Jer 14:17, Jer 48:38, Hag 2:6, Hag 2:7
heal: 2Ch 7:14, Job 5:18, Isa 30:26, Jer 30:17, Lam 2:13, Eze 34:16, Hos 6:1
Reciprocal: Gen 22:21 – Aram Gen 27:29 – be lord 1Ki 11:27 – the breaches Lam 5:22 – But thou hast utterly rejected us Eze 12:18 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 60:2-3. Thou hast made the earth to tremble A poetical expression, signifying great and dreadful changes among the people. Heal the breaches thereof Reconcile all those differences which our civil wars have made among us. Thou hast showed thy people hard things Thou hast made us feel what it is to offend thee, by inflicting grievous punishments upon us; thou hast made us drink the wine of astonishment Thou hast fulfilled the words of thy servant Moses, Deu 28:34, for we have been like men bereft of the use of their reason by some intoxicating portion, and have madly destroyed one another.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
60:2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast {d} broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.
(d) As split with an earthquake.