Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 106:40
Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.
40. So Jehovah’s anger was kindled against Israel, a standing formula in the Book of Judges (Jdg 2:14; Jdg 2:20, &c.; cp. Deu 7:4; &c.), and he abhorred his inheritance.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
40 46. The alternations of chastisement, pardon, restoration, and relapse in the course of Israel’s history. As in Neh 9:26 ff., the primary reference is to the period of the judges; but doubtless the verses are intended to be a summary survey of the characteristics of the whole course of Israel’s history, leading up to the prayer for restoration in Psa 106:47.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people – Anger is often compared with a fire; as we say now, a man is inflamed with passion. See Est 1:12; Lam 2:3; Psa 79:5; Psa 89:46; Jer 4:4; Jdg 2:14. Of course, this must be taken in a manner appropriate to God. It means that his treatment of his offending people was as if he were burning with wrath against them.
Insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance – He was offended with his people; he treated them as if they were an abomination to him. He punished them; he cast them off; he left them to the just results of their own conduct. Were ever any writers more candid and honest than the sacred penmen? There is no effort to vindicate the nation; there is no apology offered for them; there is no concealment of their guilt; there is no attempt to soften the statement in regard to the feelings of God toward them. Their conduct was abominable; they deserved the divine displeasure; they were ungrateful, evil, and rebellious; and the sacred writers do not hesitate to admit the truth of this to the fullest extent.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 106:40-46
Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled.
Four solemn thoughts concerning God
I. Gods abhorrence of mens sins (verse 40). Gods wrath or anger is not a malign passion, but a benevolent principle, antagonism to wrong. Do not blame the sun or the moon because of the shadows they throw upon the earth; rather blame the objects that obstruct their rays. Gods wrath is only the rays of His love obstructed by sin. Remove the obstruction, and all is genial and beaming.
II. Gods dominion over mens minds (verses 41, 42). As the billows of the ocean in furious battle serve the grand cause of nature as well as the placid river in its majestic flow, so does the rage of wicked spirits serve the Almighty plans as truly as the loyal services of the good. His purposes must stand.
III. Gods regard for mens penitence (verses 43, 44; 2Ch 15:4).
IV. Gods forbearance with mens wickedness (verses 45, 46). (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 40. Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled] God kindled a fire in his judgments for those who by their flagitious conduct had inflamed themselves with their idols, and the impure rites with which they were worshipped.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
40-43. Those nations firstseduced and then oppressed them (compare Jdg 1:34;Jdg 2:14; Jdg 3:30).Their apostasies ungratefully repaid God’s many mercies till Hefinally abandoned them to punishment (Le26:39).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people,…. Sin is the cause of wrath, which is compared to fire kindled by the breath of the Almighty, and is intolerable; this shows that the offence must be very great, as to incense the Lord against a people he had chosen above all others to be his peculiar people; as well as it was an aggravation, of their sin, so highly to provoke the Lord, whom they had vouched to be their God. There may be appearances of wrath for sin against those who are the Lord’s people in the highest and best sense.
Insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance; the people of Israel, whom he had chosen for his inheritance, and were his portion, and the lot of his inheritance. This must be understood of the body of the people, not of every individual; not of the remnant according to the election of grace among them, of which there were some in all ages; for this would be contrary to his love, and the unchangeableness of it: and however not of the persons of his people, but of their sins; and of the appearances of his providence towards them, which look like wrath, indignation, and abhorrence; for God will not cast off his people, nor forsake his inheritance, Ps 94:14 the following verses explain this wrath and abhorrence. The Targum in the king’s Bible is,
“the Word of the Lord abhorred,”
&c. see Zec 11:8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
40. And the wrath of Jehovah waxed hot. The severity of the punishment inflicted upon the people confirms the truth of what we formerly said, that they had been guilty of no trivial offense, in presuming to corrupt the worship of God. And they themselves showed how hopeless their reformation was, in that all this as yet failed to bring them truly to repent of their sin. That the people, who were God’s sacred and chosen heritage, were delivered up to the abominations of the heathen, who themselves were the slaves of the devil, was an awful manifestation of his vindictive wrath. Then, at least, ought they to have held in abhorrence their own wickedness, by which they had been precipitated into such direful calamities. In saying, that they were subdued and afflicted by their enemies, the prophet points out, in a still more astonishing manner, the baseness of their conduct. Reduced to a state of bondage and oppression, their folly appears the more disgraceful, in that they were not truly and heartily humbled under God’s almighty hand. For prior to this, they had been warned by Moses, that they had not casually fallen into that bondage so galling to them, neither had it happened by the valor of their enemies, but because they were given over, and, as it were, sold to it by God himself. That those who had refused to bear his yoke, should be delivered up to tyrants to harass and oppress them, and that those who would not endure to be ruled by God’s paternal sway, should be subdued by their enemies, to be trodden under their feet, is a striking example of God’s retributive justice.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(40-43) Having made review of the sinful past, the poet briefly but impressively describes the punishment which once and again had fallen on the nation. But as his purpose is to make his generation look on the Captivity as a supreme instance of this punishment, and to seek for deliverance by repentance, he mentions only the judgments inflicted by foreign foes.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Still prosecuting the same history, the Psalmist records in these verses the perpetual ingratitude of Israel, and the unceasing loving-kindness of the Lord. And although the Lord chastened them, and gave them into the hands of their enemies, yet here also, as before, there is a nevertheless, in the account. God’s covenant-mercies, and Jesus’s great salvation, stood and pleaded hard for poor, wretched, unworthy Israel. Reader! pray do not overlook the vast concern both you and I have in this history. Oh! how precious ought the same covenant love of God, and the infinitely meritorious blood of Christ, to be to us also! Oh! how loathsome in our own view is sin, when seen, as it is, exceedingly sinful. And oh! how must it appear in the eyes of infinite purity and holiness! And shall we not, under a deep sense of it, fall down to the dust of the earth, and like Ezra cry out, O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God! What but the covenant-engagements of God the Father, and the invaluable and never to be fully recompensed merits of God the Son, brought home and manifested to the heart by God the Holy Ghost, can give comfort under the alarms of a condemning conscience? Ezr 9:6 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 106:40 Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.
Ver. 40. Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled ] Sin doth as naturally draw and suck judgments to it as the loadstone doth iron, or turpentine fire.
Insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 106:40-43
40Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people
And He abhorred His inheritance.
41Then He gave them into the hand of the nations,
And those who hated them ruled over them.
42Their enemies also oppressed them,
And they were subdued under their power.
43Many times He would deliver them;
They, however, were rebellious in their counsel,
And so sank down in their iniquity.
Psa 106:40-43 This is a summary of the periods of the exodus, wilderness wanderings, conquest, judges, and monarchy. The OT is a record of Israel’s inability to obey (cf. Galatians 3)!
Notice the powerful emotive words used to describe how YHWH reacted to Israel’s idolatry, rebellion, and unbelief.
1. the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people (cf. Deu 1:34-35; Deu 9:19)
2. He abhorred His inheritance (cf. Lev 26:30; Deu 32:19)
3. He gave them into the hand of. . . (i.e., Hebrew idiom of rejection), continued in different but parallel phrases in Psa 106:41-42
Psa 106:42 they were subdued The AB (p. 75) mentions that the consonants of Canaan (BDB 488) are the same as this verb (BDB 488, KB 484, Niphal imperfect with waw). This may have been a purposeful sound play. Canaanite tribes subdued YHWH’s faithless tribes.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Psa 106:40
Psa 106:40-43
GOD’S ANGER WITH HIS PEOPLE
“Therefore was the wrath of Jehovah
kindled against his people,
And he abhorred his inheritance.
And he gave them into the hands of nations;
And they that hated them ruled over them.
Their enemies also oppressed them,
And they were brought into subjection under their hand.
Many times did he deliver them;
But they were rebellious in their counsel,
And were brought low in their iniquity.”
The “many times” of Psa 106:43, here, suggests that it was during the tumultuous period of the Judges that these frequent deliveries occurred.
Great heroes like Samson and Gideon were among the instruments of God’s deliverances during that period.
E.M. Zerr
Psa 106:40. It requires something unusual to cause one to reject his own possessions or people. The Israelites were the personal possession of God, descended through his devoted servant Abraham, yet they were cast off when they followed after idols.
Psa 106:41-45. It would serve no practical purpose to separate the verses of this paragraph. They all refer to the history recorded in the book of Judges. Since that epoch has been carefully commented upon in its proper place in the Commentary, I shall not take up space to repeat it here but will ask the reader to consult it in that place.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the wrath: Psa 78:59-62, Jdg 2:14, Jdg 2:20, Jdg 3:8, Neh 9:27-38
insomuch: Lev 20:23, Deu 32:19, Zec 11:8
his own: Psa 74:1, Deu 9:29, Lam 2:7
Reciprocal: Lev 26:11 – abhor Deu 28:29 – thou shalt be 1Sa 4:2 – and they 1Ki 11:25 – abhorred 1Ki 20:15 – seven thousand 2Ki 13:22 – Hazael 2Ki 21:14 – deliver 2Ch 6:25 – forgive the sin Ezr 5:12 – he gave Psa 74:2 – thine Psa 89:38 – and Isa 5:25 – the anger Isa 27:11 – therefore Isa 42:24 – General Jer 14:21 – not abhor Eze 23:18 – then Amo 6:8 – I abhor