Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 114:4
The mountains skipped like rams, [and] the little hills like lambs.
4. A poetical description of the earthquake which accompanied the giving of the Law at Sinai (Exo 19:18; cp. Jdg 5:4; Psa 68:8). For the figure cp. Psa 29:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The mountains skipped like rams – As flocks in their gambols. They seemed to move from place to place; everything seemed to be unsettled, and acknowledged the presence of the Omnipotent One. The word rendered skipped means to leap for joy; to dance. See the notes at Psa 29:6. The reference here is to the agitations and commotions of the peaks of Sinai, when God came down to deliver the law. Exo 19:16-18.
And the little hills like lambs – Hebrew, Like the sons of the flock. The reference here is to the less prominent eminences of Sinai. The lofty hills, and the smaller hills surrounding, seemed to be all in a state of commotion.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Horeb and Sinai, two tops of one mountain, and other neighbouring hills or mountains. Compare Exo 19:18; Psa 68:8; Hab 3:6,10.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. skipped . . . rams (Ps29:6), describes the waving of mountain forests, poeticallyrepresenting the motion of the mountains. The poeticaldescription of the effect of God’s presence on the sea and Jordanalludes to the history (Exo 14:21;Jos 3:14-17). Judah isput as a parallel to Israel, because of the destined, as wellas real, prominence of that tribe.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The mountains skipped like rams,…. The mountains of Sinai and Horeb quaked and moved at the presence of the Lord, when he descended thereon to give the law; these saw his glory and trembled,
Ex 19:18.
And the little hills like lambs; very beautiful are the larger mountains of Sinai and Horeb compared to rams, and the motion of them to their skipping; and the little hills adjacent to them to lambs: these may represent the greater and lesser governors in the Roman empire at the time when such large conversions were made in it as before observed; and which skipped, and trembled, and fled, and were moved out of their places at the downfall of Paganism and progress of Christianity, Re 6:14 and also may be an emblem of the difficulties which lie like mountains and hills in the way of a sinner’s conversion and effectual calling, which yet give way to and are surmounted by the efficacious grace of God; all mountains become a plain before him, and when he works none can let.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(4) Skipped.The Hebrew word thus rendered is translated dance in Ecc. 3:4. (See Psa. 18:7.) Exo. 19:18 was no doubt in the poets thought, but the leaping of the hills formed part of every theophany.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Mountains skipped That is, Horeb and Sinai moved to and fro. The word rendered skip, here, indicates a hasty, undulating motion, a coming and retiring, as from fright. In Exo 19:18 it is said, “The whole mount quaked greatly.” See the same figure, Psa 29:6; Hab 3:8. The phenomenon is that of a violent earthquake.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The sacred writer is here triumphing in the grace and sovereignty of God, and demands by what power it was that the laws of nature should be so changed, in producing such wonders in creation? Moses sang to the same amount, when celebrating the event on the banks of the Red Sea. The Dukes of Edom (says he) shall be amazed, the mighty men of Moab, trembling, shall take hold of them: all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away, Exo 15:15 . And the Prophet, in ages after this, sang his song to the divine glory, upon the same subject, Hab 3:3-16 . But when we look beyond Israel’s history, to the glorious subject of a far greater redemption, which this prefigured, even our redemption by Christ, how doth the subject rise in sublimity! What is it makes the mountains of sin to start from their centre, and the hills of corruption to flee away from the rocky minds of God’s people? What is it that removes the tide of the world, and the torrent of ease and pride, ignorance, self-will, and the whole sea of evil, which covers the heart like the ocean, in the nature of man, while in a state of unawakened nature, and living in the Egypt of this life? What but the powerful voice of Him, who, when he speaks, maketh the dead to hear? Joh 5:25 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 114:4 The mountains skipped like rams, [and] the little hills like lambs.
Ver. 4. The mountains skipped like rams ] sc. At the giving of the law, Exo 19:18 , which also causeth heartquakes in believers; but the unjust knoweth no shame, Zep 3:5 ; is past feeling, Eph 4:19 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 39:6, Psa 68:16, Exo 19:18, Exo 20:18, Jdg 5:4, Jdg 5:5, Jer 4:23, Jer 4:24, Mic 1:3, Mic 1:4, Nah 1:5, Hab 3:6, Hab 3:8, 2Pe 3:7-11, Rev 20:11
Reciprocal: Psa 18:7 – earth Psa 29:6 – skip Psa 46:3 – mountains Psa 114:6 – skipped Isa 64:1 – that the Hab 3:10 – mountains Zec 4:7 – O great
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
114:4 The {c} mountains skipped like rams, [and] the little hills like lambs.
(c) Seeing that these dead creatures felt God’s power and after a sort saw it, much more his people ought to consider it, and glorify him for the same.