Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 78:33
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
33. in vanity in trouble ] Or, as a breath, unsubstantial and transitory (Psa 39:5; Psa 39:11; Psa 62:9): with sudden terror (Lev 26:16).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity – He suffered them to spend their days – the days of that entire generation – in vain and fruitless wanderings in the desert. Instead of leading them at once to the promised land, they were kept there to wear out their life in tedious monotony, accomplishing nothing – wandering from place to place – until all the generation that had come out of Egypt had died.
And their years in trouble – literally, in terror. Amidst the troubles, the alarms, the terrors of a vast and frightful desert. Sin – rebellion against God – leads to a course of life, and a death, of which these gloomy, sad, and cheerless wanderings in the desert were a striking emblem.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 33. Their days did he consume in vanity] By causing them to wander forty years in the wilderness, vainly expecting an end to their labour, and the enjoyment of the promised rest, which, by their rebellions, they had forfeited.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In vanity; in tedious and fruitless marches hither and thither, sometimes forward, and sometimes backward, which they knew would never bring them in their own persons to their promised and much-desired land.
In trouble; in manifold diseases, dangers, perplexities, and horrors of their own minds and consciences.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
33-39. Though there were partialreformations after chastisement, and God, in pity, withdrew His handfor a time, yet their general conduct was rebellious, and He was thusprovoked to waste and destroy them, by long and fruitless wanderingin the desert.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,…. They were not immediately cut off by the hand of God, though some were; but the greatest part spent their time, for about eight and thirty years together, in fruitless marches to and fro in the wilderness, and never entered into the land of Canaan, where they were gradually wasted and consumed, till at length all their carcasses fell in the wilderness; see Nu 14:32, time spent in sin is all waste time, and is spent in vanity; let a man enjoy ever so much of worldly things, it is all vanity and vexation of spirit; if he does not get to heaven at last, his life here is lived in vain; it had been better if he had never been born:
and their years in trouble: or “in terror” a and consternation; through their enemies, who smote and discomfited them, Nu 14:45, through the earth’s opening and swallowing many of them up; through fire coming from heaven on some of them, and fiery serpents being sent among them all, Nu 16:31. It is an awful consideration, and yet it is true, of some wicked men, though not all, that they have nothing but trouble here, by what their sins bring upon them, and hell at last. Kimchi renders the word here used “suddenly”, and interprets it of the sudden death of the spies; so the Syriac and Arabic versions “swiftly”, following the Vulgate Latin, which renders it “with haste”.
a “in terrore”, Montanus; “per consternationem aut terrorem”, Gejerus; “in terrore et consternatione”, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
33. And he consumed their days in vanity. As the Psalmist here speaks of the whole people, as if he had said, that all without exception were speedily consumed, from the least even to the greatest, this might with probability be referred to that most grievous punishment which was confirmed and ratified by the wrath of God — that they should all perish in the wilderness with only two exceptions, Joshua and Caleb; because, when already near the land of Canaan, they had turned back. That vast multitude, therefore, after they had shut against themselves the door of entrance into the Holy Land, died in the wilderness during the course of forty years. Days are put in the first place, and then years; by which it is intimated, that the duration of their life was cut short by the curse of God, and that it was quite apparent that they failed in the midst of their course. Their days then were consumed in vanity; for they vanished away like smoke: and their years in haste, because they passed swiftly away like a stream. The word בהלה, behalah, here translated haste, is by some rendered terror. I would rather prefer reading tumult; for it is undoubtedly meant that their life was taken away, as when in a tumult any thing is taken by force. (338) But I would not be disposed to change the word haste, which brings out the meaning more perspicuously. It was a display of righteous retribution, on account of their obstinacy, that their strength which made them proud, thus withered and vanished all on a sudden as a shadow.
(338) “ Que leur vie a este emportee comme quand en tumulte on ravit quelque chose.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
33. Their days did he consume in vanity During the thirty-eight years of their wandering, after the sentence of Num 14:28-35, nothing is recorded of them except the conspiracy of Korah and his company, and a few camp stations. Vanity and trouble fill up the monotonous record. Psa 90:9
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 78:33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
Ver. 33. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity ] So that they never saw the promised land, for the which they came out of Egypt; but their carcasses fell in the wilderness. Who knoweth, saith a reverend man, whether God purpose not to wear out this present generation that hath been defiled with the superstition of the world, that we may not see the good that he will bring upon this Church?
And their years in trouble
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
in vanity = in a breath. i.e. the whole generation of men quickly died out. Compare Num 14:29, Num 14:35; Num 26:64, Num 26:65.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
days: Psa 90:7-9, Num 14:29, Num 14:35, Num 26:64, Num 26:65, Deu 2:14-16
years: Gen 3:16-19, Job 5:6, Job 5:7, Job 14:1, Ecc 1:2, Ecc 1:13, Ecc 1:14, Ecc 12:8, Ecc 12:13, Ecc 12:14
Reciprocal: Lev 26:16 – consume Num 32:13 – wander Deu 2:15 – the hand of the Job 7:16 – my days Psa 31:10 – my life Psa 90:9 – For Ecc 4:7 – General Ecc 5:17 – he eateth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 78:33. Their days did he consume in vanity In tedious and fruitless marches hither and thither, sometimes forward and sometimes backward, which they knew would never bring them, in their own persons, to their promised and much desired land; and their years in trouble In manifold diseases, dangers, and perplexities. In such vanity and trouble were they condemned, by an irreversible doom, for their unbelief, distrust of God, their murmurings and rebellions against him, their idolatries and other sins, to wear out thirty-eight tedious years in that wilderness, which indeed were consumed in it: for in all those years there was not one step taken nearer Canaan, nor one stroke struck toward the conquest of it. Observe, reader, those that sin still must expect to be in trouble still; and the reason why we spend our days in so much vanity and trouble, why we live with so little comfort, and to so little purpose, is because we live in sin, or do not live by faith.