Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 78:29

So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

29. for he gave them &c.] For he brought them that for which they lusted. Cp. Psa 106:14; Num 11:4; Num 11:34.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

So they did eat, and were well filled – The word rendered well here is intensive. It means that they were abundantly satisfied; that there was no lack; that they had the most ample supply.

For he gave them their own desire – He gave them exactly what they asked. He gave them flesh to eat as they had demanded; and he gave it to them in such quantities that no one could say that he had not enough.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

What they desired both for quality and quantity.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

29. their . . . desirewhatthey longed for.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

So they did eat, and were well filled,….. Or “exceedingly filled” m, or too much, as some versions render it; they eat to excess, not merely to satisfy nature, but to gratify their sensual appetite: gluttony is a sin; it is an abuse of the creatures; it hurts the body by filling it with gross humours, and bringing diseases on it; it is injurious to the mind; the heart may be overcharged by it; it disposes it to sin; it leads to impiety, to atheism, and disbelief of a future state, which often go along with it, and ends in destruction, which is the case of those whose god is their belly:

for he gave them their own desire; or their lust n, what they lusted after, flesh; and they had as much of it as they would, though this was given in judgment; and a sad thing it is when God gives men a fulness of this world’s things, and leaves them to the abuse of them, or sends leanness into their souls, and gives them up to their own hearts’ lusts.

m “et saturati sunt valde”, Pagninus, Montanus, &c. n “concupiscentiam ipsorum”, Cocceius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Scripture v. 29-55:

Wanderings Continued

Verses 29-31 add that tho He gave them what they desired, they ate and were gluttonously gorged, they were not separated from their lust, “but while their meat was in their mouths,” the wrath of God fell upon and slew the fattest of them, and “smote down the chosen men of Israel.” They prepared a scourge for themselves by gluttonously gorging themselves, drinking and vomiting, dying apparently with a plague of ptomaine poison, crying aloud for the dying among them, even many of their appointed leaders, under the wrath of God, Num 11:20; Num 11:33-34; 1Co 10:6-7; See also Isa 10:16.

Verses 32, 33 assert that in spite of all this “they sinned still and believed not for His wondrous (miraculous) works;” As a result God did “consume their days (in the wilderness) in vanity and their years (there) in (continuous) trouble,” as a chastening for them and example lesson for people of God thereafter, as related v. 22, Num 14:11; 1Co 10:1-11.

Verses 34, 35 explain that “when he slew them, then they (the remaining) sought him,” and turned back to Him, inquiring early, earnestly for His favor, Num 14:39-40; Num 21:7. God sent His prophets and they, rising up early, “remembered that God was their rock,” their mercy-support, even the High God was their redeemer, Jer 7:25; Jer 10:10-14; Hos 5:15.

Verses 36, 37 relate that still they did flatter him, lying with their mouth and tongue, with hearts not right with Him, neither did they keep or guard His covenant, as they had pledged, Exo 19:8; Psa 106:12-13; Isa 29:13; Eze 33:31; Psa 51:10; Jer 34:8; Jer 34:11.

Verses 38, 39 declare that God in compassion, “forgave their iniquity” and “destroyed them not,” Exo 31:6; Neh 9:17; Psa 86:15; Jer 32:17. tho “many a time he turned his anger away (restrained Himself) and did not stir up (or release) all His wrath,” Isa 48:9; Eze 23:10-11; Mic 7:18; Rom 2:4; 2Pe 3:9. See also Gen 6:3; Joh 3:6; Jas 4:11. He remembered that they were “but flesh, (as) a wind that passeth away and cometh not again,” Job 7:7; Job 7:16.

Verses 40, 41 exclaim how often, repeatedly they did “provoke Him in the wilderness and grieve Him in the desert!” They even turned back (with contempt), turned their back on Him, and tempted or tested God,” limiting the Holy One of Israel,” Eph 4:30: Heb 3:18; Eze 16:43; See too Num 14:22; Deu 6:16.

Verses 42-44 relate that they remembered or (recalled) not his hand of deliverance from their enemy, showed no gratitude for their being set free from the afflictions of Egypt; They respected or recalled not how He had wrought His signs of miraculous judgments in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan; And that He once turned their rivers (flowing streams) into blood, and their floods (flooded areas), lakes into blood, so that they could not drink, they no longer remembered, or meditated on His great power and goodness to them, v. 12; Tho His former deeds in their behalf should have called them to strict obedience to Him, Exo 10:1-2; Psa 105:27; See also Exo 7:18-20.

Verses 45-48 enumerate judgments He sent on Egypt for their rebellion, designed to teach Israel to avoid such by obeying Him, their deliverer. He had: 1) Sent flies and frogs to devour and destroy the Egyptians; 2) He had given their crops to caterpillars and their fruits of labor to locusts; 3) He had destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost; 4) He too had slain their cattle with hailstones and their flocks of sheep and goats with lightning and or thunderbolts; yet they of Egypt stubbornly rebelled against Him, Exodus 8; Exodus 23; Exo 9:23-25; Psa 105:33.

Verses 49-51 describe how the Lord poured out His anger, wrath, and indignation on the Egyptians in sending evil angels (judgment angels) among them, destroying many with pestilence and He smote all the firstborn in Egypt, chief of their strength, future head of families by tradition, in the tabernacles or dwelling places of Ham, Exo 9:13; Exo 9:6; Exo 9:15; For the Egyptians were Hamites, Gen 49:3; Deu 21:17; Psa 105:36; Exo 12:29; Gen 9:22; Gen 10:6; Psa 106:22.

Verses 52-55 add that He caused His own people to go forth like a flock, guiding them like sheep in the wilderness, going before, leasing and providing for them, Exo 12:37; Exo 14:3; Exo 15:22. He led them on, so that they feared no evil; but the flood came over their enemies, Exo 14:13.
Verse 54 asserts that “He brought them to the border of His sanctuary that He had already claimed for himself, to the mountain of Zion, that He had purchased, where Abraham offered his son Isaac, Exo 15:13-17; Genesis ch. 22; See also Psa 74:2; Psa 68:16.
Verse 55 declares that He “cast out the heathen also before them (Israel); and divided or parted them an inheritance by (line), tribe by tribe, making (causing) them to dwell in their own tents,” as certified Num 34:2; Psa 105:11; Psa 136:21; Jos 13:7; Jos 19:51.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

(29) Desire.See Num. 11:34, margin.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

29. Were well filled Hebrews, were satiated greatly. The language indicates excess, gluttony, and it lasted an entire mouth. The place was called Kibroth-hattaavah the graves of greediness.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments