Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 136:10

To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy [endureth] forever:

10. O give thanks unto the Shield of Abraham (Gen 15:1), for &c.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10 15. Jehovah the Deliverer of Israel. Cp. Psa 135:8 ff.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

To him that smote Egypt in their first-born – Exo 12:29. That is, he struck them down, or destroyed them, by his own direct power.

For his mercy … – It was in mercy to his people. It was the means of their deliverance from bondage, for the Egyptians would not otherwise have suffered them to depart. By all the results of their deliverance both to themselves and to mankind, the act was seen to be an act of mercy to the world. It was better for mankind that the Hebrews should be delivered even at this sacrifice than it would have been that they should not be brought into the promised land.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 10. Smote Egypt in their first-born] This was one of the heaviest of strokes: a great part of the rising generation was cut off; few but old persons and children left remaining.

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

To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn,…. In a tender part, in the dear part of themselves, in their sons and heirs, and who were to inherit their lands and estates, and perpetuate their names; this was an act of justice for using ill the Lord’s firstborn, the people of Israel, slaying their sons, and refusing to let them go, Ex 1:13; and yet there was mercy in it, for which thanks were to be given to God;

for his mercy [endureth] for ever; the Israelites, in a very merciful manner, were distinguished by the blood sprinkled on their door posts, when the destroying angel passed through the land of Egypt to destroy their firstborn; and when they were destroyed, it was owing to the kind providence of God that the Egyptians did not rise as one man to cut off the Israelites in vengeance; and yet not a dog was suffered to move his tongue against them when the dismal cry was made; yea, this was the means of their deliverance, which could not be obtained by all the other plagues; but now they not only bid them go, but were urgent upon them to be gone, Ex 11:5.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Up to this point it is God the absolute in general, the Creator of all things, to the celebration of whose praise they are summoned; and from this point onwards the God of the history of salvation. In Psa 136:13 (instead of , Psa 78:13; Exo 14:21; Neh 9:11) of the dividing of the Red Sea is peculiar; (Gen 15:17, side by side with ) are the pieces or parts of a thing that is cut up into pieces. is a favourite word taken from Exo 14:27. With reference to the name of the Egyptian ruler Pharaoh (Herodotus also, ii. 111, calls the Pharaoh of the Exodus the son of Sesostris-Rameses Miumun, not , as he is properly called, but absolutely ), vid., on Psa 73:22. After the God to whom the praise is to be ascribed has been introduced with by always fresh attributes, the before the names of Sihon and of Og is perplexing. The words are taken over, as are the six lines of Psa 136:17-22 in the main, from Psa 135:10-12, with only a slight alteration in the expression. In Psa 136:23 the continued influence of the construction is at an end. The connection by means of (cf. Psa 135:8, Psa 135:10) therefore has reference to the preceding “for His goodness endureth for ever.” The language here has the stamp of the latest period. It is true with Lamed of the object is used even in the earliest Hebrew, but is only authenticated by Ecc 10:6, and , to break loose = to rescue (the customary Aramaic word for redemption), by Lam 5:8, just as in the closing verse, which recurs to the beginning, “God of heaven” is a name for God belonging to the latest literature, Neh 1:4; Neh 2:4. In Psa 136:23 the praise changes suddenly to that which has been experienced very recently. The attribute in Psa 136:25 (cf. Psa 147:9; Psa 145:15) leads one to look back to a time in which famine befell them together with slavery.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

      10 To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever:   11 And brought out Israel from among them: for his mercy endureth for ever:   12 With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: for his mercy endureth for ever.   13 To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth for ever:   14 And made Israel to pass through the midst of it: for his mercy endureth for ever:   15 But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever.   16 To him which led his people through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth for ever.   17 To him which smote great kings: for his mercy endureth for ever:   18 And slew famous kings: for his mercy endureth for ever:   19 Sihon king of the Amorites: for his mercy endureth for ever:   20 And Og the king of Bashan: for his mercy endureth for ever:   21 And gave their land for a heritage: for his mercy endureth for ever:   22 Even a heritage unto Israel his servant: for his mercy endureth for ever.

      The great things God for Israel, when he first formed them into a people, and set up his kingdom among them, are here mentioned, as often elsewhere in the psalms, as instances both of the power of God and of the particular kindness he had for Israel. See Ps. cxxxv. 8, c. 1. He brought them out of Egypt, &lti>v. 10-12. That was a mercy which endured long to them, and our redemption by Christ, which was typified by that, does indeed endure for ever, for it is an eternal redemption. Of all the plagues of Egypt, none is mentioned but the death of the first-born, because that was the conquering plague; by that God, who in all the plagues distinguished the Israelites from the Egyptians, brought them at last from among them, not by a wile, but with a strong hand and an arm stretched out to reach far and do great things. These miracles of mercy, as they proved Moses’s commission to give law to Israel, so they laid Israel under lasting obligations to obey that law, Exod. xx. 2. 2. He forced them a way through the Red Sea, which obstructed them at their first setting out. By the power he has to control the common course of nature he divided the sea into two parts, between which he opened a path, and made Israel to pass between the parts, now that they were to enter into covenant with him; see Jer. xxxiv. 18. He not only divided the sea, but gave his people courage to go through it when it was divided, which was an instance of God’s power over men’s hearts, as the former of his power over the waters. And, to make it a miracle of justice as well as mercy, the same Red Sea that was a lane to the Israelites was a grave to their pursuers. There he shook off Pharaoh and his host. 3. He conducted them through a vast howling wilderness (v. 16); there he led them and fed them. Their camp was victualled and fortified by a constant series of miracles for forty years; though they loitered and wandered there, they were not lost. And in this the mercy of God, and the constancy of that mercy, were the more observable because they often provoked him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert. 4. He destroyed kings before them, to make room for them (Psa 136:17; Psa 136:18), not deposed and banished them, but smote and slew them, in which appeared his wrath against them, but his mercy, his never-failing mercy, to Israel. And that which magnified it was that they were great kings and famous kings, yet God subdued them as easily as if they had been the least, and weakest, and meanest, of the children of men. They were wicked kings, and then their grandeur and lustre would not secure them from the justice of God. The more great and famous they were the more did God’s mercy to Israel appear in giving such kings for them. Sihon and Og are particularly mentioned, because they were the first two that were conquered on the other side Jordan, Psa 136:19; Psa 136:20. It is good to enter into the detail of God’s favours and not to view them in the gross, and in each instance to observe, and own, that God’s mercy endureth for ever. 5. He put them in possession of a good land, Psa 136:21; Psa 136:22. He whose the earth is, and the fulness thereof, the world and those that dwell therein, took land from one people and gave it to another, as pleased him. The iniquity of the Amorites was now full, and therefore it was taken from them. Israel was his servant, and, though they had been provoking in the wilderness, yet he intended to have some service out of them, for to them pertained the service of God. As he said to the Egyptians, Let my people go, so to the Canaanites, Let my people in, that they may serve me. In this God’s mercy to them endureth for ever, because it was a figure of the heavenly Canaan, the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary