Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 83:14
As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
14, 15. As fire that consumeth a forest,
And as flame that burneth up mountains;
So shalt thou pursue them with thy tempest,
And dismay them with thy hurricane.
God’s wrath is a fiery blast which at once kindles and fans the flame (Isa 29:6; Isa 30:27; Isa 30:30; Isa 30:33), and pursues and consumes His enemies like a fire in the forest or on the mountains. “Before the rains came,” says Thomson ( Land and Book, p. 341), “this whole mountain side was in a blaze. Thorns and briars grow so luxuriantly here that they must be burned off always before the plough can operate. The peasants watch for a high wind, and then the fire catches easily, and spreads with great rapidity.” Cp. Isa 10:16-19; Jer 21:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As the fire burneth a wood … – The same idea is here presented under another form. No image of desolation is more fearful than that of fire raging in a forest; or of fire on the mountains. As trees and shrubs and grass fall before such a flame, so the prayer is, that they who had combined against the people of God might be swept away by his just displeasure.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. The flame setteth the mountains on fire] This may refer to the burning of the straw and chaff, after the grain was threshed and winnowed. And as their threshing-floors were situated often on the hills or mountains, to take the advantage of the wind, the setting the mountains on fire may refer to the burning of the chaff, &c., in those places. Let them be like stubble driven away by the wind, and burnt by the fire.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The mountains; understand by a metonymy the woods or forests upon the mountains, which in those hot countries, when they had once taken fire, either by lightning, or by the design of men, or by any accident, did burn with great speed and irresistible violence.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14, 15. Pursue them to an utterdestruction.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As the fire burneth the wood,…. Or “forest” m; which is sometimes done purposely, and sometimes through carelessness, as Virgil n observes; and which is done very easily and swiftly, when fire is set to it; even all the trees of it, great and small, to which an army is sometimes compared, Isa 10:18, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; either the mountains themselves, as Etna, Vesuvius, and others; or rather the grass and trees that grow upon them, smitten by lightning from heaven, which may be meant by the flame: in like manner it is wished that the fire and flame of divine wrath would consume the confederate enemies of Israel, above mentioned; as wicked men are but as trees of the forest, and the grass of the mountains, or as thorns and briers, to the wrath of God, which is poured out as fire, and is signified by everlasting burnings.
m “sylvam”, Montanus, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, &c. n Georgic. l. 2. v. 310.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(14, 15) These verses are rightly taken together. The figure occurs in Isa. 10:17-18 (comp. Zec. 12:6), but there as a metaphor; here as a simile. Before the rains came the whole mountain side was in a blaze. Thorns and briars grow so luxuriantly here that they must be burned off always before the plough can operate. The peasants watch for a high wind, and then the fire catches easily, and spreads with great rapidity (Thomson, Land and Book, p. 341). The mountains are pre-eminently the pastures. (Comp. Psa. 50:10; Psa. 147:8.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. As the fire burneth a wood A forest or a mountain on fire is simply unquenchable fire, leaving trees so few in number “that a child may write them.” Isa 10:16-19
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 83:14 As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
Ver. 14. As the fire burneth a wood ] Maxime quando a vento flabellatur , when blown up by a fierce wind it soon turneth a wood into a waste.
And as the flame setteth, the mountains on fire
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
As the fire: Isa 30:33, Isa 33:11, Isa 33:12, Isa 64:1, Isa 64:2, Eze 20:47, Eze 20:48, Mal 4:1
the flame: Deu 32:22, Nah 1:6, Nah 1:10
Reciprocal: Psa 118:12 – quenched Isa 10:17 – for a flame