Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 129:6

Let them be as the grass [upon] the housetops, which withereth before it groweth up:

6. as the grass upon the housetops ] Cp. Isa 37:27. Grass or corn springs up quickly on the flat roofs of oriental houses, but having no depth of soil (Mat 13:5 f.) it withers prematurely away, and yields no joyous harvest.

afore it groweth up ] Lit. before it has unsheathed, put out its flower-stalk and given promise of fruit. So let Zion’s enemies perish before they can mature their plots. The rendering of P.B.V., afore it be plucked up, is that of some MSS of the LXX, and the Vulg. (‘priusquam evellatur’), but though possible, is less suitable.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Let them be as the grass upon the housetops – The housetops, or roofs of houses, covered with sand or earth, in which seeds of grass may germinate and begin to grow, but where, as there is no depth of earth, and as the heat of the sun there would be intense, it would soon wither away. See the notes at Isa 37:27.

Which withereth afore it groweth up – This, even if it has any meaning, is not the meaning of the original. The idea in the Hebrew is – and it is so rendered in the Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, and by Luther – which before (one) pulls it, withers. Grass would wither or dry up, of course, if it were pulled up or cut down, but the grass here spoken of withers even before this is done. It has no depth of earth to sustain it; having sprouted, and begun to grow, it soon dies – a perfect image of feebleness and desolation; of hopes begun only to be disappointed. This morning (says Dr. Thomson, Land and the Book, vol. ii., p. 574) I saw a striking illustration of this most expressive figure. To obtain a good view of the Tyropean, my guide took me to the top of a house on the brow of Zion, and the grass which had grown over the roof during the rainy season was now entirely withered and perfectly dry.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Psa 129:6

Let them be as the grass upon the housetops.

The unholy life

Such a life is–

I. Transient (verse 6). Wickedness is inimical to longevity. What are all-the possessions, pleasures, the pomps, and grandeurs of unholy men l Mere fading flowers of the field.

II. Useless (verse 7). Ungodly men may leave behind them their worldly possessions that may become useful to others; but what they leave behind them morally in the way of sound teaching and life-example is worth nothing; nay, it is worse than worthless.

III. Unblessed (verse 8). Who can bless the memory of the wicked, the memory of those who have lived lives entirely selfish, sensual, secular, utterly regardless of the interests and rights of others? They can only be cursed. (David Thomas, D. D.)

Unstable prosperity

In the East, the houses have generally flat roofs. These are covered with a kind of compost or cement. This should obstruct all vegetation; but if chipped and broken up in any part, grass seeds carried there by the wind take root and grow. The plant springs up rapidly, from the thinness of the soil, and from its warm exposure. From its elevated situation it is seen at a distance, and makes a goodly show. But the same causes make the plant feeble and shrivelled, and it withers before it reaches maturity. Who would covet such prosperity as this? It is not the tall, majestic tree, which has withstood the winds and storms of centuries. It is as grass; not even as grass sown in the humble valley, full of moisture, and rich in beauty: it is as grass on the housetop, which dies before the ears are fully formed. Their prosperity has no stability: its roots are not deep in the Divine blessing. (N. McMichael.)

An emblem of Israel blest by the Lord

is a wide field of thickly-growing corn stirred by gentle breezes under a ripening sun. As the labourers, humming or shouting snatches of cheery song, bind the sheaves, and carry load after load away, they receive friendly salutations from people passing by. Nearly two hundred years before this psalm was produced, Isaiah sketched the pride, impotence and ruin of Israels foes. They that hate Zion are as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up (Isa 37:27). The flat roof of an Eastern dwelling is no more the place for vegetation than Jerusalem is a proper field for Gentile and Samaritan ploughers; but so long as there are winds to blow particles of earth into crevices and corners, dews and showers to moisten the drifted dust, and birds of the air to sow seeds, the best cemented housetop is not proof against the appearance of straggling and struggling blades. The enemies of Israel shall be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up, which for want of nourishment at the roots dries and dies before it can be pulled: wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. Let who will express approbation of the salutations interchanged by Mohammedans when they meet, so long as they do not speak of them as if they originated with Turks and Moors. Such greetings are the remnant, in many countries, of a beautiful primitive custom. The Book of Ruth supplies a delightful glimpse of a harvest field thirteen hundred years before the Christian era (Rth 2:4). The thought is ridiculous of housetop harvesting occasioning such benedictions. Equally out of question is it for the Churchs adversaries to be blessed by God or man. (E. J. Robinson.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 6. As the grass upon the housetops] As in the east the roofs of the houses were flat, seeds of various kinds falling upon them would naturally vegetate, though in an imperfect way; and, because of the want of proper nourishment, would necessarily dry and wither away. If grass, the mower cannot make hay of it; if corn, the reaper cannot make a sheaf of it. Let the Babylonians be like such herbage-good for nothing, and come to nothing.

Withereth afore it groweth up] Before shalak, it is unsheathed; i.e., before it ears, or comes to seed.

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

The house-tops there were flat, and therefore more capable of grass or green corn growing between the stones than ours are.

Which withereth afore it groweth up; which having no deep root, never comes to maturity. And so all their designs shall be abortive, and never come to perfection.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Let them be as the grass [upon] the housetops,…. The tops of the houses in Judea were flat, and so grass grew upon them, being covered with plaster of terrace; though it was but small and weak, and being on high was exposed to the scorching sun, and soon withered b; and Menochius says c he saw such roofs in the island of Corsica, flat, and having earth upon them, smoothed and pressed, on which grass grew of its own accord; but being burnt up in summertime by the sun, soon withered, as here said. But what Olaus Magnus d relates is somewhat extraordinary; that, in the northern Gothic countries, they feed their cattle on the tops of houses, especially in a time of siege; he describes their houses as built of stone, high and large, and covered with rafters of fir and bark of birch; upon which is laid grass earth, cut out of the fields foursquare, and sowed with barley or oats, so that their roofs look like green meadows; and that what is sown, and the grass that grows thereon, might not wither before plucked up, they very constantly and diligently water it; but in the eastern countries, which are hot, and have but little rain, grass could not retain its verdure long, as follows;

which withereth afore it groweth up; to any height, the usual height of grass: or, “before it is plucked up”, as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions; and so Jarchi. And this was their usual way of gathering in their corn; and which continues to this day, as Mr. Maundrell e affirms, who was an eyewitness to it in many places; where they plucked it up by handfuls from the roots, leaving the most fruitful fields as naked as if nothing had grown on them; and this they did for the sake of the straw, which was generally very short, and necessary for the sustenance of cattle; to which he thinks there is here a manifest allusion; but not corn, but grass, is here spoken of. The Targum is,

“before it flourisheth, an east wind cometh, blows upon it, and it is withered;”

and to the same purpose the Syriac version,

“which when the wind comes upon it, it fades and withers.”

This expresses the high and elevated state and condition of wicked men, the pride and haughtiness of their hearts; yet their weakness and frailty, and the danger they are exposed unto, through the wrath and vengeance of God upon them; when they consume and wither away like grass on the housetops, and never come to the happiness they are hoping and wishing for; see Isa 37:27.

b See Shaw’s Travels, p. 210, 211. c De Republica Heb. l. 7. c. 5. p. 666. d De Ritu Gent. Septent. l. 9. c. 12. e Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 144. Ed. 7.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The poet illustrates the fate that overtakes them by means of a picture borrowed from Isaiah and worked up (Psa 37:27): they become like “grass of the housetops,” etc. is a relative to ( quod exarescit ), and , priusquam , is Hebraized after in Dan 6:11, or in Ezr 5:11. elsewhere has the signification “to draw forth” of a sword, shoe, or arrow, which is followed by the lxx, Theodotion, and the Quinta: , before it is plucked. But side by side with the of the lxx we also find the reading exanthee’sai; and in this sense Jerome renders ( statim ut ) viruerit , Symmachus (to shoot into a stalk), Aquila , the Sexta (to attain to full solidity). The Targum paraphrases in both senses: to shoot up and to pluck off. The former signification, after which Venema interprets: antequam se evaginet vel evaginetur , i.e., antequam e vaginulis suis se evolvat et succrescat , is also advocated by Parchon, Kimchi, and Aben-Ezra. In the same sense von Ortenberg conjectures . Since the grass of the house-tops or roofs, if one wishes to pull it up, can be pulled up just as well when it is withered as when it is green, and since it is the most natural thing to take as the subject to , we decide in favour of the intransitive signification, “to put itself forth, to develope, shoot forth into ear.” The roof-grass withers before it has put forth ears of blossoms, just because it has no deep root, and therefore cannot stand against the heat of the sun.

(Note: So, too, Geiger in the Deutsche Morgenlndische Zeitschrift, xiv. 278f., according to whom Arab. slf ( slf ) occurs in Saadia and Abu-Said in the signification “to be in the first maturity, to blossom,” – a sense may also have here; cf. the Talmudic used of unripe dates that are still in blossom.)

The poet pursues the figure of the grass of the house-tops still further. The encompassing lap or bosom ( ) is called elsewhere (Isa 49:22; Neh 5:13); here it is , like the Arabic hidn (diminutive hodein ), of the same root with , a creek, in Psa 107:30. The enemies of Israel are as grass upon the house-tops, which is not garnered in; their life closes with sure destruction, the germ of which they (without any need for any rooting out) carry within themselves. The observation of Knapp, that any Western poet would have left off with Psa 129:6, is based upon the error that Psa 129:7-8 are an idle embellishment. The greeting addressed to the reapers in Psa 129:8 is taken from life; it is not denied even to heathen reapers. Similarly Boaz (Rth 2:4) greets them with “Jahve be with you,” and receivers the counter-salutation, “Jahve bless thee.” Here it is the passers-by who call out to those who are harvesting: The blessing ( ) of Jahve happen to you ( ,

(Note: Here and there is found as an error of the copyist. The Hebrew Psalter, Basel 1547, 12mo, notes it as a various reading.)

as in the Aaronitish blessing), and (since “we bless you in the name of Jahve” would be a purposeless excess of politeness in the mouth of the same speakers) receive in their turn the counter-salutation: We bless you in the name of Jahve. As a contrast it follows that there is before the righteous a garnering in of that which they have sown amidst the exchange of joyful benedictory greetings.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

(6) Which withereth afore it groweth up.This clause, with its Aramaic colouring, probably contains a textual error. The context seems certainly to require the meaning before it is plucked up, and many scholars get this meaning out of the Hebrew verb used elsewhere of plucking off a shoe and drawing a sword. They give, which is no doubt legitimate, an impersonal sense to the active verb, which withereth before one pulls it up. The LXX. (received text), the Vulg., Theodotion, and the Quinta favour this rendering. On the other hand, the image of grass withering before it comes to maturity is exactly what we should expect here, growing as it does without soil (comp. the seed on the rock in the parable of the sower), and suggests a more complete and sudden destruction of the enemies, who perish before the abortive plans of evil can be carried out. The rendering of the Authorised Version is therefore to be retained, and is actually supported by Aquila, Symmachus, the Sexta, and in various readings of the LXX. A thatched cottage in our country might present the picture suggested by the verse, but it was much more familiar where the housetops were flat and plastered with a composition of mortar, tar, ashes, and sand, which, unless carefully rolled, would naturally become covered with weeds. Indeed, in many cases, especially on the poorest sort of houses, the roof would be little better than hard mud. For similar allusions comp. 2Ki. 19:26 and Isa. 37:27.

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

6. Grass upon the housetops Which never comes to maturity for want of root and moisture, and hence is proverbially worthless. “To obtain a good view of the Tyropean my guide took me to the housetop on the brow of Zion, and the grass which had grown over the roof during the rainy season was now entirely withered and perfectly dry.” Thomson. Roofs of houses in Palestine are nearly flat, sloping slightly toward the centre, and covered with small stones and earth. “Grass, and even wild flowers, are apt to grow upon them in winter, and as their roots cannot sink deep into the hard soil, a few days of warm sunshine suffice to dry them up.” Van Lennep.

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