Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 78:26
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
26. He led forth the east wind In the heaven:
And by his power he guided the south wind:
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven – See Num 11:31. In the history, the quarter from which the wind came is not mentioned, except as it might be indicated by the statement that the quails were brought from the sea; – that is, evidently, the Red Sea. This wind would have come from the southeast. The phrase in the heaven means in the air, or from above.
And by his power … – By his direct agency. It was a wind which he caused to blow for the purpose; a miracle.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 26. He caused an east wind to blow] See Clarke on Nu 11:31.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Either he brought in first an eastern, and afterwards a southern wind, or the wind was south-east; from which quarter these quails might come as well as from the west, where their more common abode is; this work being confessedly miraculous.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23-29. (Compare Exo 16:11-15;Num 11:4-9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens,…. In the airy heaven: or “he caused it to go” f; to go forth out of its place, out of the repositories and treasures of it, from whence he brings the wind, Ps 130:7 the winds are under the power and government of God, they are his servants that obey him; he says to one, Go, and it goes; and to another, Come, and it comes; stormy wind fulfils his word of command, and obeys its Creator:
and by his power he brought in the south wind; into the heavens, into the air, as before, and with it he brought the quails; and which made his power to appear the greater, since they do not fly with the south wind, which is too moist and heavy for them, as naturalists observe g; it looks as if first one wind blew, and then another was used for the bringing of them from the place where they were; perhaps about the Red sea, where they are said to have been in great numbers; and that the east wind brought them to a certain point, and then the south wind blew to bring them into the camp of Israel, where, by the moistness of it, they fell; hence fowlers, as the above naturalists relate, observe the south wind, in order to take them; though it may be that only one wind is intended, namely, the southeast wind; and so Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, understand it.
f “fecit proficisci”, Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus. g Aristot. de Hist. Animal. l. 8. c. 12. Plin. Hist. l. 10. c. 23.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Passing over to the giving of the quails, the poet is thinking chiefly of the first occasion mentioned in Ex. 16, which directly preceded the giving of the manna. But the description follows the second: (He caused to depart, set out) after Num 11:31. “East” and “south” belong together: it was a south-east wind from the Aelanitic Gulf. “To rain down” is a figurative expression for a plentiful giving of dispensing from above. “Its camp, its tents,” are those of Israel, Num 11:31, cf. Exo 16:13. The , occurring twice, Psa 78:29-30 (of the object of strong desire, as in Psa 21:3), points to Kibroth – hattaavah , the scene of this carnal lusting; is the transitive of the in Pro 13:12. In Psa 78:30-31 even in the construction the poet closely follows Num 11:33 (cf. also with , aversion, loathing, Num 11:20). The Waw unites what takes place simultaneously; a construction which presents the advantage of being able to give special prominence to the subject. The wrath of God consisted in the breaking out of a sickness which was the result of immoderate indulgence, and to which even the best-nourished and most youthfully vigorous fell a prey. When the poet goes on in Psa 78:32 to say that in spite of these visitations ( ) they went on sinning, he has chiefly before his mind the outbreak of “fat” rebelliousness after the return of the spies, cf. Psa 78:32 with Num 14:11. And Psa 78:33 refers to the judgment of death in the wilderness threatened at that time to all who had come out of Egypt from twenty years old and upward (Num 14:28-34). Their life devoted to death vanished from that time onwards , in breath-like instability, and , in undurable precipitancy; the mode of expression in Psa 31:11; Job 36:1 suggests to the poet an expressive play of words. When now a special judgment suddenly and violently thinned the generation that otherwise was dying off, as in Num 21:6., then they inquired after Him, they again sought His favour, those who were still preserved in the midst of this dying again remembered the God who had proved Himself to be a “Rock” (Deu 32:15, Deu 32:18, Deu 32:37) and to be a “Redeemer” (Gen 48:16) to them. And what next? Psa 78:36-37
(Note: According to the reckoning of the Masora this Psa 78:36 is the middle verse of the 2527 verses of the Psalter (Buxtorf, Tiberias, 1620, p. 133).)
tell us what effect they gave to this disposition to return to God. They appeased Him with their mouth, is meant to say: they sought to win Him over to themselves by fair speeches, inasmuch as they thus anthropopathically conceived of God, and with their tongue they played the hypocrite to Him; their heart, however, was not sincere towards Him ( like in Psa 78:8), i.e., not directed straight towards Him, and they proved themselves not stedfast ( , or properly ) in their covenant-relationship to Him.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
26. He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens. We have here related how God granted the request of his people. This does not imply that he favourably regarded their fretful desires, but that he showed by the effect that it was in his power to do what they believed it to be impossible for him to accomplish. From this, we may perceive how injudiciously some expositors here join together the flesh and the manna. The reason why the flesh was given was altogether different from that for which the manna was given. God, in giving the manna, performed the office of a father; but by the flesh, he satisfied their gluttonous desires, that their very greediness in devouring it might choke them. It would not have been a difficult matter for God to have created quails in the midst of the wilderness; but he chose rather to bring them by the force of the winds, to teach the Israelites that all the elements are obedient to his command, and that the distance of places cannot prevent his power from immediately penetrating from the east even to the west. (334) That unbelieving people, therefore, were furnished with an undoubted proof of the power of God, from which they had malignantly detracted, in seeing all the elements of nature ready to obey and promptly to execute whatever he has commanded. Besides, he no doubt raised the winds according to the situation of the camp, although it would have been easy for him, without any means, to have presented flesh before them. It is stated, that they did eat and were filled, not only to intimate that God brought to them a large supply of birds, with which their bellies might be stuffed to the full; but also, that it was ungovernable lust which led them to ask flesh, and not a solicitude for having provision on which to live. It has been said above, that manna had been given them in the greatest abundance, but here it is intended expressly to censure their gluttony, in which they gave manifest proof of their unbridled appetite. God promises, in Psa 145:19, as a peculiar privilege to those who fear him, that “he will fulfill their desire;” but it is in a different way that he is here said to have yielded to the perverse desires of the people, who had cast off all fear of him; for that which his favor and loving-kindness would have led him to refuse, he now granted them in his wrath. This is an example well worthy of our attention, that we may not complain if our desires are frowned upon and crossed by the secret providence of God when they break forth beyond bounds. God then truly hears us, when, instead of yielding to our foolish inclinations, he regulates his beneficence according to the measure of our welfare; even as in lavishing upon the wicked more than is good for them, he cannot, properly speaking, be said to hear them: he rather loads them with a deadly burden, which serves to cast them down headlong into destruction.
(334) The Israelites were miraculously supplied with quails in the wilderness on two different occasions. The first occasion was upon the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from Egypt, and before they came to mount Sinai, Exo 16:1. The second, which is the one here referred to, was at Kibroth-hattaavah, a place three days’ journey beyond the desert of Sinai, in the beginning of the second year after their departure from Egypt, Num 10:11; and Num 11:31. In both instances, the quails were sent in consequence of the murmuring of the Israelites. But in the first instance, they came up and covered the camp of Israel only one evening, while in the second, they came up from the sea for a whole month. No token of the divine displeasure accompanied the first miracle, God having, in his compassion, forgiven their murmuring; but the second miracle was wrought in wrath, and attended with the infliction of the divine vengeance on that rebellious people, (Num 11:33.)
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(26) East wind . . . south wind.Probably the very winds that brought the flights of quails, and not merely poetical details. (See Smiths Biblical Dictionary, art. Quails.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
26. East wind This refers to the second supply of quails, Num 11:31. For the first supply, see Psa 105:40. According to the Hebrew text, two “winds,” from the east and south, were called into action jointly, meeting at the Israelitish camp. The history simply says, “a wind from the Lord.” According to Hebrew usage, a south “wind” might come from any point between southeast and southwest. The Septuagint and Vulgate have “southwest wind.” This would bring the quails migrating northward from southern Arabia, and the interior of Africa, directly over the camp, and being weary of wing, and baffled by an easterly “wind,” they would fall at the point required. It is not uncommon for quails to fly thus in large numbers, and, when weary, they are easily killed with a stick by Arab boys. In this case the miracle was in giving strength and direction to the “winds” to assist their flight to the given time and place, and then there to arrest it. The quail is a round and plump bird, about the size of the turtle-dove, (see on Psa 105:40,) of low and heavy flight, much dependent on favorable “winds” in its migratory passages. In Num 11:31, “Upon the face of the earth” refers to their low flight over, or above, “the face of the earth.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
What gracious instructions are read to us in these verses! See, my soul, how unsuitable and self-destroying would prove thy desires in numberless instances, if the Lord, in anger, granted them to thy impatient request. And as in Israel of old, so in Israel now, if chastisements do not soften and bring the heart to the Lord, they tend to harden and carry it farther from him. Oh! what a mass of evil is in our poor fallen nature! Well might the prophet declare the heart to be deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and that none can know it. Jer 17:9 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 78:26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
Ver. 26. He caused an east wind to blow ] Pergere, to go, to pass away, and to give place to the south wind.
And by his power he brought in the south wind
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
He caused: Psa 135:7, Num 11:31
blow: Heb. go
Reciprocal: Exo 10:13 – east wind Psa 105:40 – asked Jer 51:16 – bringeth Act 27:13 – the south Rev 16:2 – a noisome
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 78:26-29. He caused an east wind to blow, &c. First an eastern, and afterward a southern wind. He rained flesh, &c., and feathered fowls like as the sand Hebrew, , gnoph chanap, fowl of wing, or winged fowl; but God took away from them the use of their wings, and made them fall into the hands of the Israelites. And let it fall in the midst of their camp Hebrew, , machanehu, his camp; that is, either Israels camp, or Gods camp; for, seeing Israel was Gods people, and he dwelt among them, their camp was his camp. He gave them their own desire What they desired, both for quality and quantity.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
78:26 He caused an {p} east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
(p) God used the wind to show them that all the elements were at his command, and that no distance could restrain his working.