Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 106:23

Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy [them].

23. Cp. Exo 32:10 ff.; Num 14:11 ff. But the language is taken from Deu 9:25-26, where the same two words for ‘destroy’ are used as here.

stood before him in the breach ] A military metaphor. Moses confronted God with intercession like the warrior who stands in the breach of the city wall to repel the enemy at the risk of his life. Cp. Eze 22:30; Jer 18:20.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Therefore he said that he would destroy them – See Exo 32:10-14. He threatened to destroy them, and he would have done it, if Moses had not interposed and pleaded for them. There was nothing strange or very unusual in this. Many a descending curse upon guilty people is turned away by prayer, and by human intervention. We are constantly endeavoring to turn aside evils which would come upon others – by our intervention – by labor or by prayer. Thus, when we toil to provide food for our children, or give it in charity to the poor, we are endeavoring to avert the evil of starvation which would otherwise come upon them; when we provide for them clothing, we turn away the evils of nakedness and cold; when we give them medicine we turn away the evil of long-continued disease or of death; when we rush through the flames if a house is on fire, or venture out in a rough sea in a boat, to save others from devouring flame or from a watery grave, we seek to turn aside evils which would otherwise come upon them. So when we pray for others we may turn away evils which would otherwise descend on the guilty. No one can estimate the number or the amount of evils which are thus turned away from the guilty and the suffering by intervention and intercession; no one can tell how many of the blessings of his own life he owes to the intercessions and the toils of others. All the blessings that come upon sinners – all that is done to turn away deserved wrath from people – is owing to the fact that the one great Intercessor – greater than Moses – cast himself into the breach, and himself met and rolled back the woes which were coming upon a guilty world. Had not Moses his chosen. Chosen to lead and guide his people to the promised land.

Stood before him – Presented himself before him.

In the breach – literally, in the breaking. The allusion is to a breach made in a wall 1Ki 11:27; Isa 30:13; Amo 4:3; Job 30:14, and to the force with which an army rushes through a breach that is thus made. So God seemed to be about to come forth to destroy the nation.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 23. Moses his chosen] Or elect; (Vulgate, electus ejus; Septuagint, 😉 the person that he had appointed for this work. It would be very difficult to show that this word in any part of the Old Testament refers to the eternal state of any man, much less to the doctrine of unconditional election and reprobation.

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

He said; he declared his intention in express words, as Exo 32:10, and elsewhere.

In the breach: God had made a hedge or wall about them; but they had made a gap or breach in it by their sins, at which the Lord, who was now justly become their enemy, might enter to destroy them; which he had certainly done, if Moses by his prevailing intercession had not hindered him. See Deu 9:12; 10:10. It is a metaphor from a besieged city, where the enemy endeavours to make a breach in the walls, and thereby to enter into the city; which he will do, unless some valiant champion stand in the gap to oppose him.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

23. he saidnamely, to Moses(De 9:13). With God, sayingis as certain as doing; but His purpose, while full of wrathagainst sin, takes into account the mediation of Him of whom Moseswas the type (Exo 32:11-14;Deu 9:18; Deu 9:19).

Moses his chosenthatis, to be His servant (compare Ps105:26).

in the breachas awarrior covers with his body the broken part of a wall or fortressbesieged, a perilous place (Eze 13:5;Eze 22:30).

to turn awayor,”prevent”

his wrath (Num 25:11;Psa 78:38).

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

Therefore he said that he would destroy them,…. He said in his word, the Targum adds; he thought within himself he would; he seemed determined in his own mind to destroy them, being provoked at their wretched forgetfulness of him, and their idolatry; he said to Moses,

let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, Ex 32:10. The decree indeed was not gone forth, but there was such an appearance of displeasure as if ruin was determined; and a great number was destroyed, and the whole body was threatened.

Had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach; made between God and the Israelites by their sin; the allusion is either to an hedge broken down, at which a spoiler enters, unless made up, Eze 22:30, or to a breach made in the wall of a besieged city, at which the besieger enters, unless stopped by the besieged, Isa 30:13, or to the bank or dam of a river broken down, which lets in a flood of waters, 2Sa 5:20. So Moses made up the hedge, and stood in the gap; he presented himself to God, rushing in like a man of war, and pouring out his wrath like an inundation of waters: this is to be understood of his fervent and importunate prayer to God on the behalf of this people, and which succeeded.

To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them;

Ex 32:11 so the Targum,

“unless Moses his chosen had rose up and strengthened, or prevailed in his prayer before him to turn away his wrath from destroying.”

This shows the power and efficacy of prayer, and of what avail it is with God, especially the prayer of his elect; it was Moses, his chosen, that prayed, a choice servant of his; and whom he had chosen to everlasting life, as well as to be the deliverer, guide, and governor of Israel; see Lu 18:7. Herein he was an eminent type of Christ, as in other things; as Moses was a mediator between God and the people of Israel, so is Christ between God and his people. Sin is a transgression of God’s law, a breaking of his statutes, which he has set as an hedge, fence, or wall, about man; and this has made a breach between God and man; which lets in the wrath of God as a flood, and justice as an armed man: and terrible it is to consider there is no standing before him, and making up the breach; but Christ has interposed as a surety, made satisfaction to law and justice, and procured peace and reconciliation; and so, by his atonement and intercession, has made up the breach, appeased the wrath of God, and turned it away, and prevented the ruin and destruction of his people.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

23. And he said The prophet informs us, by these words, that the people had a feeling sense of their remarkable deliverance from impending destruction, by means of prayer alone, which, for a season, restrained God’s vengeance from bursting forth against them. In a very short time, however, they return to their wonted disposition of mind, a striking proof of the awful perversity of their hearts. To represent how highly God was offended, the prophet says that he had purposed to destroy the transgressors: not that God is subject to human passions, to be very angry for a little, and then immediately afterwards, on being appeased, changes his purpose; for God, in his secret counsel, had resolved upon their forgiveness, even as he actually did pardon them. But the prophet makes mention of another purpose, by which God designed to strike the people with terror, that coming to know and acknowledge the greatness of their sin, they might be humbled on account of it. This is that repentance so frequently referred to in the Scriptures. Not that God is mutable in himself; but he speaks after the manner of men, that we may be affected with a more feeling sense of his wrath: like a king who had resolved to pardon an offender, yet sisted him before his judgment-seat, the more effectually to impress him with the magnitude of the kindness done to him. God, therefore, while he keeps to himself his secret purpose, declared openly to the people that they had committed a trespass which deserved to be punished with eternal death. Next he says that Moses stood in the breach, meaning that he had made intercession with God, lest his awful vengeance might break forth among the people. There is here an allusion to the manner in which cities are stormed; for if a breach is made in the wall by any of the various engines which are employed in war, brave soldiers will instantly throw themselves into the breach to defend it. (255) Hence Ezekiel reproaches the false prophets, who, unlike Moses, deceiving the people by their flatteries, making, as it were, a mud-wall, do not place themselves in the breach in the day of battle.

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Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord,” Eze 13:5.

Some expositors are of opinion that the prophet refers to the separation which the people had made among themselves in violating the covenant of God, and the sacred relation in which they stood to each other; but the meaning is the same. For in that breach which gave rise to this metaphor or similitude, God, in defending his people so faithfully, was to them in place of a wall or bulwark. Having provoked him to anger anew, he was about to rush upon them for their destruction, had not Moses interposed as their intercessor.

(255) The sins of the people had opened a breach or gap, for God as an enemy to enter and destroy them. But, like soldiers who stand in the breach that has been made in the walls of a beleaguered city to oppose the irruption of the enemy, Moses, by his earnest prayer, stopped this breach, Exo 32:11. “Moses is here mentioned in the character of a mediator, under the figure of one standing in the breach of the wall of a city made by besiegers, to oppose any farther hostile aggressions. The figure of a breach is frequently employed in Scripture to denote some destruction by God. Thus in Jud 21:15, God made a breach, פרף , in the tribes of Israel, i.e., He destroyed one of the tribes, viz., that of Benjamin: see also 2Sa 6:8; Eze 22:30. Hence in this passage we understand that God would have destroyed the Israelites, had not Moses stood in the breach, i.e., interceded by his prayers, just at the time when the divine judgments were about to be executed. The Chaldee has paraphrased it thus, If Moses had not stood before Him and prevailed in prayer, i.e. , arrested the destruction.” — Phillips

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(23) Stood before him in the breach . . .This is generally explained after Eze. 22:30, where undoubtedly it is an image taken from the defence of a besieged town. (Comp. Eze. 13:5.) But it is possible that we should render, Had not Moses stood before him (i.e., submissively; see Gen. 41:46; Deu. 1:38) in the breaking forth (of his anger), since the verb from which the substantive here used comes is the one employed (Exo. 19:22), lest the Lord break forth upon them. So the LXX. seem to have understood the passage, since they render here by the same word, which in Psa. 106:30 does duty for plague. (Comp. Vulg., refractio.)

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

23. He said he would destroy them The allusion is to Exo 32:11-14. In the matter of the golden calf they had completely forfeited all the promises of the covenant.

Had not Moses his chosen stood before him “God puts the fate of the nation into the hand of Moses, that he may remember his mediatorial office, (Deu 5:5; Gal 3:19,) and show himself worthy of his calling.” The proposal to destroy the people and make of Moses a great nation, “constituted a great test for Moses, whether he would be willing to give up his own people as the price of his own exaltation. And he stood the test.” Keil and Delitzsch.

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