Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 94:8

Understand, ye brutish among the people: and [ye] fools, when will ye be wise?

8. Understand ] Consider. Those Israelites are addressed who lack the spiritual discernment to realise that in spite of the temporary triumph of the wicked Jehovah still rules (Psa 92:6; Psa 73:22).

when will ye be wise?] When will ye understand? a word used of the intelligent consideration of God’s working in Psa 14:2; Psa 64:9; Psa 106:7.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8 11. From pleading with God the Psalmist turns to argue with those of his fellow-countrymen who are tempted to agree with their oppressors, and to think that Jehovah is wanting either in power or in will to defend them.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Understand, ye brutish among the people – See Psa 73:22. The meaning here is, You who are like the brutes; you who see and understand no more of the character and plans of God than the wild beasts of the desert. The meaning is, that they did not employ their reason in the case; they acted like beasts, regardless of the consequences of their conduct – as if God would treat people as he does the beasts; as if there were no retribution in the future world.

And ye fools, when will ye be wise? – How long is this stupidity to continue? When will you attend to the truth; when will you act as immortal beings; when will you suffer your rational nature to lead you up to just views of God? It is implied that this folly had been manifested for a long period, and that it was time they should arouse from this condition, and act like people. With what propriety may this language be addressed still to the great mass of mankind! What numbers of the human race are there now, who in respect to God, and to the purpose for which they were made, evince no more wisdom than the brutes that perish! Oh, if people were truly wise, what a beautiful world would this be; how noble and elevated would be our now degraded race!

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 8. Understand, ye brutish] These are the same expressions as in Ps 92:6, on which see the note. See Clarke on Ps 92:6.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

You who, though you think yourselves the wisest of men, yet in truth are the most brutish of all people; for the Hebrews oft express their superlatives in this manner, as Pro 30:30; Son 1:8, &c. You that have only the shape, but not the understanding, of a man in you.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

8. ye brutish(Compare Psa 73:22;Psa 92:6).

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

Understand, ye brutish among the people,…. Or the most brutish and stupid of all people; especially that profess themselves to be the people of God, or Christians, as the Papists do; and who seem to be the persons here addressed: “brutish”; to murder the servants of the Lord, and drink their blood, till inebriated with it; stupid to the last degree to think that hereby they did God good service: hence the pope, the head of them, is represented both in his secular and ecclesiastical power by two beasts; the one rising out of the sea with seven heads and ten horns, a monster in nature, most like a leopard, his feet as a bear’s, and his mouth as a lion’s, having the fierceness and cruelty of them all; and the other coming out of the earth with two horns like a lamb, but spake like a dragon, Re 13:1, the exhortation to these brutish creatures supposes them to be without understanding, like the beasts by whom they are represented; or, however, that they did not make use of those intellectual powers which God had given them; had they, they would have learned more humanity to their fellow creatures, and more religion towards God; they would have known more of him than to have said and done what is before declared; wherefore they are called upon to “consider” (so the word b is sometimes rendered, Ps 50:22) the reasonings about it to be laid before them:

and ye fools, when will ye be wise? “fools” they are to worship stocks and stones, the images of the Virgin Mary, and other saints; to give into the gross atheism they do; to disbelieve the omniscience of God and his providence, at least to behave as though they did; and think to do the vilest actions with impunity; wherefore it would be their wisdom to relinquish such stupid notions, and do no more such foolish and wicked actions.

b “animadvertite”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The third strophe now turns from those bloodthirsty, blasphemous oppressors of the people of God whose conduct calls forth the vengeance of Jahve, to those among the people themselves, who have been puzzled about the omniscience and indirectly about the righteousness of God by the fact that this vengeance is delayed. They are called and in the sense of Psa 73:21. Those hitherto described against whom God’s vengeance is supplicated are this also; but this appellation would be too one-sided for them, and refers the address expressly to a class of men among the people whom those oppress and slay. It is absurd that God, the planter of the ear ( , like in Lev 11:7, with an accented ultima, because the praet. Kal does not follow the rule for the drawing back of the accent called ) and the former of the eye (cf. Psa 40:7; Exo 4:11), should not be able to hear and to see; everything that is excellent in the creature, God must indeed possess in original, absolute perfection.

(Note: The questions are not: ought He to have no ear, etc.; as Jerome pertinently observes in opposition to the anthropomorphites, membra tulit, efficientias dedit .)

The poet then points to the extra-Israelitish world and calls God , which cannot be made to refer to a warning by means of the voice of conscience; used thus without any closer definition does not signify “warning,” but “chastening” (Pro 9:7). Taking his stand upon facts like those in Job 12:23, the poet assumes the punitive judicial rule of God among the heathen to be an undeniable fact, and presents for consideration the question, whether He who chasteneth nations cannot and will not also punish the oppressors of His church (cf. Gen 18:25), He who teacheth men knowledge, i.e., He who nevertheless must be the omnipotent One, since all knowledge comes originally from Him? Jahve – thus does the course of argument close in Psa 94:11 – sees through ( of penetrative perceiving or knowing that goes to the very root of a matter) the thoughts of men that they are vanity. Thus it is to be interpreted, and not: for they (men) are vanity; for this ought to have been , whereas in the dependent clause, when the predicate is not intended to be rendered especially prominent, as in Ps 9:21, the pronominal subject may precede, Isa 61:9; Jer 46:5 (Hitzig). The rendering of the lxx (1Co 3:20), (Jerome, quoniam vanae sunt ), is therefore correct; , with the customary want of exactness, stands for . It is true men themselves are ; it is not, however, on this account that He who sees through all things sees through their thoughts, but He sees through them in their sinful vanity.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

8 Understand, ye stupid among the people As it was execrable impiety to deny God to be Judge of the earth, the Psalmist severely reprimands their folly in thinking to elude his government, and even succeed by artifices in escaping his view. The expression, stupid among the people, is stronger than had he simply condemned them as foolish. It rendered their folly more inexcusable, that they belonged to the posterity of Abraham, of whom Moses said,

“

What people is there so great, who have their gods so near unto them, as the Lord thy God hath this day come down unto thee? For this is your understanding and wisdom before all nations, to have God for your legislator.” (Deu 4:7)

(21) Perhaps, however, he may be considered as addressing the rulers and those who were of higher rank in the community, and styling them degraded among the people, that is, no better than the common herd of the vulgar. Proud men, who are apt to be blinded by a sense of their importance, require to be brought down, and made to see that in God’s estimation they are no better than others. He puts them on a level with the common people, to humble their self-complacency; or we may suppose that he hints with an ironical and sarcastic allusion to their boasted greatness, that they were distinguished above others chiefly for pre-eminent folly — adding, at the same time, as an additional aggravation, that they were obstinate in their adherence to it; for as much is implied in the question, When will ye be wise? We might consider it an unnecessary assertion of Divine Providence to put the question to the wicked, Shall not he who made the ear hear? because there are none so abandoned as openly to deny God’s cognisance of events; but, as I have observed above, the flagrant audacity and self-security which most men display in contradicting his will, is a sufficient proof that they have supplanted God from their imaginations, and substituted a mere dead idol in his place, since, did they really believe him to be cognisant of their actions, they would at least show as much regard to him as to their fellow-creatures, in whose presence they feel some measure of restraint, and are prevented from sinning by fear and respect. To arouse them from this stupidity, the Psalmist draws an argument from the very order of nature, inferring that if men both see and hear, by virtue of faculties which they have received from God the Creator, it is impossible that God himself, who formed the eye and the ear, should not possess the most perfect observation.

(21) The Latin reads here as follows: “ Quis populus tam nobilis, qui deos sibi appropinquantes hubeat, sicuti hodie Deus tuus ad te descendit? Haec enim vestra est intelligentia coram cunctis Gentibus, et sapientia, Deum habere legislatorem.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(8-10) The reality of a Divine Providence is proved both from nature and historyfrom the physical constitution of man and the moral government of the world. The psalmists question is as powerful against modern atheism, under whatever philosophy it shelters itself, as against that of his day. Whatever the source of physical life or moral sense, their existence proves the prior existence of an original mind and will.

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

8. Understand, ye brutish among the people The address in Psa 94:8-10 must be considered as applying to those Hebrews who inferred from the present calamity that God had ceased to take judicial notice of their sufferings, and had thus left them to their fate. See Jdg 6:13.

Brutish Stupid, like cattle who have no reason, and are governed by selfish instinct and appetite.

Fools Literally, Fat, heavy, phlegmatic, dull of apprehension, with the implied idea of impiety and disrelish for religion. The two words, (as in Psa 73:22,) denote a sensuous and irreligious person; the hardest to reach with spiritual truth.

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

Psa 94:8. Ye brutishand ye fools Ye foolish,Ye thoughtless. Grotius observes on the next verse, that this is a most excellent way of arguing; for, whatever perfection there is in created beings, it is derived from God, and therefore must be in him in the most eminent manner.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

This is a beautiful appeal to the oppressor. In the contemplation of the divine perfections, the oppressed believer points out how impossible it is for the wicked to escape the all-seeing eye and almighty arm of God. Reader! what a blessed thought is it to the true follower of Jesus, that “whoso toucheth one of Christ’s little ones, toucheth the apple of his eye.” Zec 3:8 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 94:8 Understand, ye brutish among the people: and [ye] fools, when will ye be wise?

Ver. 8. Understand, ye brutish ] Ye that are ringleaders to the rest, but no wiser than the reasonless creatures; yea, therefore worse, because ye ought to be better. Polybius complaineth of man’s folly, above that of other creatures, in those words, Caeterae animantes ubi semel offenderint, cavent; non vulpes ad laqueum, lupus ad foveam, cants ad fustem temere redibunt; Solus homo ab aeve ad aevum peccat fere in iisdem.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)