Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 68:13
Though ye have lain among the pots, [yet shall ye be as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.
13. An extremely difficult verse. It has been suggested that the second and third lines, like the first, are derived from some ancient poem now lost, and that to readers who could recognise the allusion they would be intelligible, though to us they are obscure. The A.V., which appears to contrast the squalid misery of Israel in Egypt with the brilliant prosperity of their new home in Canaan, must be abandoned, and two considerations must govern the interpretation of the verse.
(1) The first line clearly alludes to Jdg 5:16 (cp. Gen 49:14, R.V.), where Deborah upbraids Reuben for cowardice and irresolution, and for preferring the ignoble ease of pastoral life to the glorious dangers of the war of independence:
“Why satest thou among the sheepfolds,
To hear the pipings for the flocks?”
Lie is here substituted for sit to emphasise the idea of slothful inactivity.
(2) The second and third lines describe under the image of a dove basking in the sunshine an idyllic condition of peace and prosperity. The idea that the dove represents the enemy fleeing in all his gorgeous, splendour, depicted thus as an inducement to Israel to pursue and win rich spoil, may safely be set aside. The point of comparison is the beauty of the dove’s plumage, not the swiftness of its flight.
Three explanations deserve to be taken account of.
(1) Will ye lie among the sheepfolds,
(As) the wings of a dove covered with silver.
And her pinions with yellow gold? (R.V.).
The whole verse, like Jdg 5:16, will then be a reproof of the recreant Israelites who preferred the ignoble ease of their pastoral life to the hardships and dangers of the battlefield. But such a reproof is hardly in place here, nor does this explanation give its full natural meaning to the simile.
(2) More probableis the rendering of R.V. marg.:
When ye lie among the sheepfolds,
(It is as) the wings of a dove gold.
which regards the verse as a description of the peace and prosperity which await Israel after the victories described in Psa 68:12. “Everything will gleam and glitter with silver and gold. Israel is God’s turtle-dove (Psa 74:19), and accordingly the new prosperity is compared to the play of colour on the wings of a dove basking in the sunshine.” (Delitzsch). This interpretation however fails to take account of the allusion in line I to Jdg 5:16.
(3) It seems preferable to render thus:
Though ye may lie among the sheepfolds,
The dove’s wings are covered with silver,
And her pinions with yellow gold.
Though some Israelites may fail in their duty and prefer slothful ease to fighting the battles of Jehovah, yet Israel once more enjoys the blessings of peace and prosperity. In spite of man’s backwardness God gives blessing. This explanation takes account of the allusion to Judges, and gives its proper meaning to the simile. It agrees better with the general purport of the Ps., which dwells upon God’s victories on behalf of His people. It may moreover (if the Psalm dates from the closing years of the Exile) be intended to convey a tacit reproof to those Israelites who were in danger of preferring selfish ease in Babylon to the patriotic effort of the Return. It warns them that God’s purpose for His people would be accomplished, even if they held back from taking part in it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Though ye have lien among the pots – There are few passages in the Bible more difficult of interpretation than this verse and the following. Our translators seem to have supposed that the whole refers to the ark, considered as having been neglected, or as having been suffered to remain among the common vessels of the tabernacle, until it became like those vessels in appearance – that is, until its brilliancy had become tarnished by neglect, or by want of being cleaned and furbished – yet that it would be again like the wings of a dove covered with silver, as it had been formerly, and pure like the whitest snow. But it is not certain, if it is probable, that this is the meaning. Prof. Alexander renders it, When ye lie down between the borders (ye shall be like) the wings of a dove covered with silver; that is, when the land had rest, or was restored to a state of tranquility.
DeWette renders it, When ye rest between the cattle-stalls: expressing the same idea, that of quiet repose as among the herds of cattle lying calmly down to rest. The Septuagint renders it, Though you may have slept in kitchens. The words rendered Though ye have lien mean literally, If you have lain, alluding to some act or state of lying down quietly or calmly. The verb is in the plural number, but it is not quite clear what it refers to. There is apparently much confusion of number in the passage. The word rendered pots – shephathayim – in the dual form, occurs only in this place and in Eze 40:43, where it is translated hooks (margin, end-irons, or the two hearth-stones). Gesenius renders it here stalls, that is, folds for cattle, and supposes that in Ezekiel it denotes places in the temple-court, where the victims for sacrifice were fastened. Tholuck renders it, When you shall again rest within your stone-borders (that is, within the limits of your own country, or within your own borders), ye shall be like the wings of a dove. For other interpretations of the passage, see Rosenmuller in loc. I confess that none of these explanations of the passage seem to me to be satisfactory, and that I cannot understand it. The wonder is not, however, that, in a book so large as the Bible, and written in a remote age, and in a language which has long ceased to be a spoken language, there should be here and there a passage which cannot now be made clear, but that there should be so few of that description. There is no ancient book that has not more difficulties of this kind than the Hebrew Scriptures:
Yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver … – The phrase yet shall ye be is not in the original. The image here is simply one of beauty. The allusion is to the changeable colors of the plumage of a dove, now seeming to be bright silver, and then, as the rays of light fall on it in another direction, to be yellow as gold. If the allusion is to the ark, considered as having been laid aside among the ordinary vessels of the tabernacle, and having become dark and dingy by neglect, then the meaning would be, that, when restored to its proper place, and with the proper degree of attention and care bestowed upon it, it would become a most beautiful object. If the allusion is to the people of the land considered either as lying down in dishonor, as if among filth, or as lying down calmly and quietly as the beasts do in their stalls, or as peacefully reposing within their natural limits or borders, then the meaning would be, that the spectacle would be most beautiful. The varied tints of loveliness in the land – the gardens, the farms, the flowers, the fruits, the vineyards, the orchards, the villages, the towns, the cheerful homes – would be like the dove – the emblem of calmness – so beautiful in the variety and the changeableness of its plumage. The comparison of a beautiful and variegated country with a dove is not a very obvious one, and yet, in this view, it would not be wholly unnatural. It is not easy always to vindicate philosophically the images used in poetry; nor is it always easy for a Western mind to see the reasons of the images employed by an Oriental poet. It seems probable that the comparison of the land (considered as thus variegated in its beauty) with the changing beauties of the plumage of the dove is the idea intended to be conveyed by this verse; but it is not easy to make it out on strictly exegetical or philological principles.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 68:13
Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove.
Among the pots
The text has been a sealed passage for ages. Bishop Lowth declared it unintelligible. Mr. Spurgeon calls it a hard passage, a difficult nut to crack. But new light is constantly breaking out of the Scriptures. Miss Whately, travelling in the East, observed a fact which gives us the lost key to this text, and unlocks its beautiful imagery. In her work entitled Ragged Life in Egypt, she thus speaks concerning the flat roofs of the houses: They are usually in a state–of great litter; were it not that an occasional clearance is made, they would assuredly give way under the accumulation of rubbish. One thing seems never cleared away, however, and that is the heap of old broken pitchers, sherds and pots that are piled up in some corner. A little before sunset, numberless pigeons (or doves) suddenly emerge from behind the pitchers and pots and other rubbish where they have been sleeping in the heat of the day, or pecking about to find food. They dart upward and career through the air in large circles–their outspread wings catching the glow of the suns slanting rays, so that they really resemble yellow gold; then, as they wheel round and are seen against the light, they appear as if turned into molten silver, most of them being pure white or else very light-coloured. This may seem fanciful, but the effect of light in these regions can scarcely be described to those who have not seen it. Evening after evening we watched the circling flight of doves, and always observed the same appearance. The doctrine unfolded is the promise of God, that a holy character may be maintained in this sinful world, despite unfavourable surroundings. The Christian may be–
I. Clean as a dove in business. Your character is not cheapened because your work is in the kitchen or at the forge, nor is it ennobled because you handle diamonds, write poems, thrill breathless auditors, or sit behind mahogany office desks. There are men in coal mines with souls like the wings of a dove; and there are men in decorated mansions with souls sooty and black with sin as the miners face with coal-dust. One has the soot on his face, the other on his soul. How beautiful a sight to see a man who has spent the day amid the pots of business, environed by the dust and grime of greed, of selfishness, of fraud and falsehood, fly home at sunset unsoiled and clean as the wings of a dove covered with silver!
II. Clean as a dove in social life. Man has needs which only social life can meet. In this there is a great good, and great evils lie close beside it. Society is not loyal to Christ, but is obedient to the spirit of the world. Its ethical code is not the morals of the New Testament. Here are the pots dusty and grimy. We may mingle in social life only on the plane of our Christian birthright: Brethren, ye are called unto holiness. To mingle in society and not touch its wines, not patronize its demoralizing amusements, not bow down to its false maxims, customs and conventionalities, not lose the zest and fervour of a holy life, is proof of the constraining love of Christ.
III. Clean as a dove in religious life. The things impossible with men are possible with God. The things impossible to the unregenerate are possible to the regenerate man. Born again by the Spirit of God, and filled with Divine grace, he can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth him. If the lines fall to him among the pots, still he may emerge as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. This does not cover presumption and reckless precipitation of oneself into moral dangers. Had Daniel been recklessly roaming around that lions den, and fallen in, God would not have sent an angel to shut their mouths. We must use all prudence to avoid evil influences: then, if our path of duty lies through a fiery furnace, God will keep us from all harm. (J. O. Peck, D. D.)
A contrast between the spiritual state of the sinner and the saint
I. From a state of meanness to a state of dignity. The mention of wings, by means of which the feathered tribes soar aloft, so as to reach an elevation, and occupy a field of movement to which the other animals do not, and cannot, attain, naturally suggests the raising of the redeemed from the degradation which they were accustomed to share with their fellow-sinners, and their being placed on high, and in heaven; while the silver and gold represent the splendour and magnificence of their altered circumstances.
II. From a state of poverty to a state of affluence. Silver and gold are the emblems of wealth. Ye shall be as the wings of a dove, covered with silver and with yellow gold. Whatever else these words may mean, they certainly must mean a state with which poverty has nothing to do. Doubtless they are expressive of those spiritual graces and endowments with which believers are invested, and of that imputed righteousness in which they shine; and which together constitute the ornaments and the robes that they wear as kings and priests unto God. Much has been done to enrich the Church.
III. From a state of wretchedness to a state of felicity. Joy in the room of sorrow; gladness instead of sighing; shouts of rapture for shrieks of pain; life for death! No longer tossed on the sea of adversity and trouble, they shall find themselves safe in the haven of rest, and peace, and external happiness; and, delivered from every vexation and every fear, ages of never-ending sunshine and serenity shall glide over their heads!
IV. From a state of defilement to a state of purity. Clean water is sprinkled on them, and they are made clean; from all their filthiness, and from all their idols, does God cleanse them.
V. From a state of grovelling sensuality, to a state in which the flesh, with its affections and lusts, shall be crucified. Sinners, in their natural state, are governed by some one or other of the unhallowed impulses of a depraved heart. But the desires of sinners that are renewed flow not downwards to the earth,–they ascend upwards to heaven.
VI. From a state of servitude to a state of freedom. (Andrew Gray.)
Rescued Item the brick-kilns
Before our conversion Satan is our task-master, and he is worse than Pharaoh. It is drudge, drudge, drudge. But after a while Christ appears, and says, Let my people go, and then we come out into the largest blessing. We wash off the dust of sins brick-kilns, and God makes us fairer than doves wings covered with silver. Now, we maintain–
I. That the grandest adornment that any young man can have is the Christian religion. But many would say, when they heard of some young man being converted, Oh, what a pity! he was the merriest of all of us and the most gladsome. What a pity! And here is a young woman, the pride of her home circle. She becomes a Christian, and people talk of the pity of such a bright light being extinguished. But we maintain that the peace, the comfort, the adornment of such a young person just then begins. The religion of Jesus Christ beautifies the heart, and instead of depressing it lifts up to a higher platform of cheerfulness. Oh the joys and comforts of Christs religion! What a poor, shallow stream is worldly enjoyment compared with that! It is not the people who seem to be the merriest that really are so. See that roystering, drinking, scoffing young man; how loud he laughs. But is he really happy? Follow him home. See him when he is alone and conscience speaks. He is wretched, as the Christian young man never is and never can be. I have been trying these three years to serve God, said a man at a great meeting at which I was present, and I am here to-night to tell you that in these three years I have had more delight than in all the years of my abomination. And that is the universal experience.
II. Religion frequently adorns a man by placing him in spheres of usefulness. Look at the fashionable fop–how fine he thinks himself! he never thinks of anybody but himself. Here is another young man who has set himself to try and do good to others. He loves Christ and wants others to love Him. He will try to uplift the fallen, to cheer the sad, to do all the good he can. Which is the most beautiful to look upon? Compare Napoleon and Voltaire with Paul. It is a grand thing to be a Christian hero. And what will it be in heaven? If I have persuaded any of you to start on the road to heaven I would like to stand beside him there. Many there are waiting for such to join them. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. Though ye have lien among the pots] The prophet is supposed here to address the tribes of Reuben and Gad, who remained in their inheritances, occupied with agricultural, maritime, and domestic affairs, when the other tribes were obliged to go against Jabin, and the other Canaanitish kings. Ye have been thus occupied, while your brethren sustained a desperate campaign; but while you are inglorious, they obtained the most splendid victory, and dwell under those rich tents which they have taken from the enemy; coverings of the most beautiful colours, adorned with gold and silver. The words birakrak charuts, native gold, so exceedingly and splendidly yellow as to approach to greenness – from yarak, to be green; and the doubling of the last syllable denotes an excess in the denomination – excessively green – blistering green. The Targum gives us a curious paraphrase of this and the following verse: “If ye, O ye kings, slept among your halls, the congregation of Israel, which is like a dove covered with the clouds of glory, divided the prey of the Egyptians, purified silver, and coffers full of the finest gold. And when it stretched out its hands in prayer over the sea, the Almighty cast down kingdoms; and for its sake cooled hell like snow, and snatched it from the shadow of death.” Perhaps the Romanists got some idea of purgatory here. For the sake of the righteous, the flames of hell are extinguished!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Though ye, ye Israelites, to whom he now turneth his speech,
have lien among the pots; like scullions, that commonly lie down in the kitchen among the pots or hearthstones, whereby they are very much discoloured and deformed; which is fitly opposed to the following beauty. Though you have been filled with affliction and contempt.
Shall ye be; or, ye have been; which may seem more suitable to the context, both foregoing and following, wherein he doth not speak prophetically of things to come, but historically of things past. So the sense of the verse is, Though you have formerly been exposed to great servitude, and reproach, and misery, to wit, in Egypt, yet since that time God hath changed your condition greatly for the better.
As the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold; beautiful and glorious, like the feathers of a dove, which according to the variety of its postures, and of the light shining upon it, look like silver or gold.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. Some translate this, “Whenye shall lie between the borders, ye shall,” c., comparing thepeaceful rest in the borders or limits of the promised land to theproverbial beauty of a gentle dove. Others understand by the wordrendered “pots,” the smoked sides of caves, in which theIsraelites took refuge from enemies in the times of the judges or,taking the whole figuratively, the rows of stones on which cookingvessels were hung; and thus that a contrast is drawn between theirformer low and afflicted state and their succeeding prosperity. Ineither case, a state of quiet and peace is described by a beautifulfigure.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Though ye have lain among the pots,…. Kimchi takes these words to be the words of the women, or of the psalmist addressing the Israelites going out to war; that though they should lie in a low, dark, and disagreeable place, in the camp, in the open field, exposed to wind and weather; yet they should be fair and beautiful, and be loaded with gold and silver, the spoil of the enemy. But Fortunatus Scacchus z refers them, much better, to the encampment of the Israelites in their tents, and to the disposition and order of their army going to battle: the body of the army in the middle, and the two wings, right and left, on each side; whose glittering armour of gold and brass, the rays of the sun striking on them, are fitly resembled by the colours on the wings and back of a dove. Another learned writer a thinks they are an address to the wings of the dove; that is, to the dove itself, meaning the Holy Spirit, expostulating with him how long he would dwell within the limits and borders of the land of Canaan; which was not long after the ascension of Christ, for soon was the gift of the Holy Ghost poured down upon the Gentiles, But rather they are an address to the people of Israel; intimating, that though they had been in adversity, and their lives had been made bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field; and had lain among the brick kilns and furnaces when in Egypt; and in the times of the Judges had suffered much from their neighbours, by whom they were frequently carried captive; and had been in affliction in the times of Saul; yet now in prosperous circumstances in the times of David, who had conquered their enemies, and enlarged their dominions, and restored peace; and especially would be more so in the days of Solomon, when they enjoyed great plenty and prosperity, and silver was made to be as the stones of the street. Though it is best of all to apply the words to the church and people of God in Gospel times; and they may describe their state and condition by nature and by grace, in adversity and in prosperity: the former in this clause, in which there is an allusion to scullions, or such as lie among coppers and furnaces, and are black and sooty; and so it describes the Lord’s people before conversion, who are black with original sin and actual transgressions; who being transgressors from the womb, and as long as they live and walk in sin, and have their conversation with the men of the world, may be said to lie among the pots: and this may also be expressive of the church of Christ being in adversity, and black with the sun of persecution smiting her; and she might be said to lie among the pots while the ten Heathen persecutions lasted, and also in the reign of antichrist; during which time the church is in the wilderness, and the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth;
[yet shall they be as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold: alluding to the white silver colour of some doves. Such were the white doves Charon of Lampsacum speaks of b, seen about Athos, which were like the white crow Ovid calls c the silver fowl with snowy wings: and also it may be to the time when they become of a golden colour, at which time they are fit for sacrifice, as the Jews d observe; or to the different appearances of them, according as the rays of light and of the sun differently fall upon them. So the philosopher e observes, that the necks of doves appear of a golden colour by the refraction of light. And this describes the saints and people of God as they are by grace. They are comparable to the dove on many accounts: like doves of the valleys, everyone of them mourn for their iniquities; like the trembling and fearful dove, tremble at the apprehensions of divine wrath, and judgment to come under first convictions; and are fearful of their enemies, and of their own state; are humble, modest, and meek; think the worst of themselves, and the best of others; flee to Christ for refuge, and to ordinances for refreshment; are chaste and affectionate to Christ, and harmless and inoffensive in their lives and conversations, Eze 7:16. Being “as the wings of a dove covered with silver” may denote the purity of doctrine held by them; the words of the Lord being as silver purified seven times, Ps 12:6; and the preciousness and sincerity of their faith, by which they mount up with wings as eagles; and the holiness of their conversation, being as becomes the Gospel of Christ: and being as the “feathers” of a dove covered “with yellow gold” may denote their being adorned with the graces of the Spirit, as faith, hope, and love; which are more precious than gold that perisheth, and are called chains of gold, So 1:10; see 1Pe 1:7; or their being clothed with the righteousness of Christ, signified by gold of Ophir, and clothing of wrought gold, Ps 45:9; or their being enriched with the unsearchable, solid, substantial, and durable riches of Christ, Re 3:18. And both may describe also the prosperous estates of the church, either in the first ages of Christianity, when she was clothed with the sun, and had a crown of twelve stars on her head, Re 12:1; or in the latter day, when her light will be come, and the glory of the Lord will rise upon her; when her stones will be laid with fair colours, and her foundations with sapphires; when she shall, have the glory of God upon her, and be as a bride adorned for her husband,
Isa 60:1.
z Elaeochrism. Sacr. l. 3. c. 24. a Gusset. Comment. Heb. p. 884. b Apud Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 1. c. 15. c Metamorph. l. 2. Fab. 7. d Maimon. Issure Mizbeach, c. 3. s. 2. e Aristotel. de Color. c. 3. Vid. Lucret. l. 2. v. 800.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13. Though ye should lie among the pots (25) Having spoken of God as fighting the battles of his people, he adds, by way of qualification, that they may lie for a time under darkness, though eventually God will appear for their deliverance; There can be little doubt that he hints at the state of wretchedness and distress to which the nation had been reduced under the government of Saul, for the interposition was the more remarkable, considering the misery from which it had emerged. The words, however, convey a further instruction than this. They teach us the general truth, that believers are, by the hidden and mysterious power of God, preserved unhurt in the midst of their afflictions, or suddenly recovered so as to exhibit no marks of them. The language admits of being interpreted to mean either that they shine even when lying under filth and darkness, or that, when freed from their troubles, they shake off any defilement which they may have contracted. Let either sense be adopted, and it remains true that the believer is never consumed or overwhelmed by his afflictions, but comes out safe. An elegant figure is drawn from the dove, which, though it lie amongst the pots, retains the beauty which naturally belongs to it, and contracts no defilement on its wings. From this we learn that the Church does not always present a fair or peaceable aspect, but rather emerges occasionally from the darkness that envelops it, and recovers its beauty as perfectly as if it had never been subjected to calamity.
(25) The interpretation of this verse is attended with great difficulty. Speaking of it and the following verse, Dr Lowth says, “I am not at all satisfied with any explication I have ever met with of these verses, either as to sense or construction, and I must give them up as unintelligible to me. Houbigant helps out the construction in his violent method: ‘ Aut invenit viam, aut facit .’” It is pretty generally admitted, that in the first part of this verse a “state of wretchedness and distress,” as Calvin remarks, is indicated; but it is difficult to ascertain the meaning of the word שפתים, shephataim, which he renders pots, and, consequently, to ascertain to what the allusion particularly is. None of the old translators have so rendered it; and numerous significations have been given to it. The Chaldee renders it, “bounds in the divisions of the way;” the Syriac and Arabic, “paths” or “ways;” the Septuagint, κλήρων, “allotments,” “inheritances,” or “portions,” apparently deriving the word from שפת, divisit, ordinavit , and perhaps attaching to it a similar idea as in the preceding translations, men’s portions of land or possessions having been divided and distinguished by paths Jerome, adhering to the Septuagint, makes it “ inter medios terminos.” Thus, the word will not be without significance, expressing a forlorn and wretched condition, lying down betwixt the bounds; that is, in the highways. But many modern critics think that it signifies something in relation to pots, and that it may very probably be the same as that which the Arabs call אתאפי, Athaphi, stones set in a chimney for a pot to rest on, the pots being without legs. “Of these,” says Hammond, “the Arabians had three, and the third being commonly (to them in the desert) some fast piece of a rock, or the like, behind the pot, — as in a chimney the back of the chimney itself, and that not looked on as distinct from the chimney, — the other two at the sides, which were loose, might fitly be here expressed in the dual number שפתים; and then the lying between these will betoken a very low, squalid condition, as in the ashes, or amidst the soot and filth of the chimney.” “These two renderings,” he adds, “may seem somewhat distant; and yet, considering that the termini or bounds in divisions of ways were but heaps of stones, or broken bricks, or rubbish, the word שפתים, which signifies these, may well signify these supporters of the pots also, in respect of the matter of these being such stones or broken bricks.”
Parkhurst takes a view somewhat similar to this last interpretation. He reads, “among the fire ranges,” or “rows of stones.” “Those,” says he, “on which the caldrons or pots were placed for boiling; somewhat like, I suppose, but of a more structure, than those which Niebuhr says are used by the wandering Arabs. ‘Their fire-place is soon constructed: they only set their pots upon several separate stones, or over a hole digged in the earth.’ Lying among these denotes the most abject slavery; for this seems to have been the place of rest allotted to the vilest slaves. So, old Laertes, grieving for the loss of his son, is described by Homer (in the Eleventh Book of the Odyssey) as, in the winter, sleeping where the slaves did, in the ashes near the fire: —
‘—Oqi dmwev eni oikw En koni agci purov.’”
See his Lexicon on שפת ii.
The Chaldee has “broken bricks,” or “rubbish,” that are thrown away; the word, according to this sense, being derived from שפה, shephah, to bruise, to trample on A similar noun, אשפת, ashpoth, derived from the verb שפה, is used in Psa 113:7, for a dunghill, or the vilest place, whither all kinds of rubbish are cast out, and where the poor are said to lie. When Job was brought by Satan to the lowest depths of affliction, he sat down among the ashes, and scraped himself with a potsherd, which indicated the state of extreme sadness and debasement to which he was reduced. If this is the sense here, “lying among the broken bricks or rubbish” expresses, in like manner as the preceding translations, the most mean, dejected, and wretched condition.
Harmer’s attempt to explain this passage is at least very ingenious: — As shepherds in the East betake themselves, during the night, for shelter to the caves which they find in their rocky hills, where they can kindle fires to warm themselves, as well as dress their provisions, and as doves, as well as other birds, frequently haunt such places, he conjectures that the afflicted state of Israel in Egypt is here compared to the condition of a dove making its abode in the hollow of a rock which had been smutted by the fires which the shepherds had made in it. He supposes the word here translated pots to mean the little heaps of stones on which the shepherds set their pots, there being a hollow under them to contain the fire. — Harmer ’ s Observations, volume 1, pp. 176, 177.
Gesenius thinks the word is equivalent to המשפתים, hammishpethaim, which occurs in Jud 5:16, and which our English version makes “sheepfolds,” the only difference between the two words being, that the word here wants the formative letter מ, mem Thus, it may refer to the condition of the Israelites when living among their flocks in the wilderness. We have not yet exhausted the different significations affixed by commentators to this word; but, without referring to more, we shall only add, that, according to some, the allusion is to the condition of the Israelites in Egypt, who were doomed to the drudgery of brick-making and pottery, and had probably to sleep among the brick-kilns or earthenware manufactories in which they were employed.
With respect to the second clause of the verse, in which an image taken from the dove is introduced, a difficulty which has been stated is, how her feathers can be said to resemble yellow gold. From the circumstance, that the splendor of gold is here intermingled, Harmer concludes that this is not a description of the animal merely as adorned by the hand of nature, but that the allusion is to white doves that were consecrated to the Syrian deities, and adorned with trinkets of gold, the meaning being, “Israel is to me as a consecrated dove; and though your circumstances have made you rather appear like a poor dove, blackened by taking up its abode in a smoky hole of the rocks, yet shall you become beautiful and glorious as a Syrian silver-coloured pigeon, on which some ornament of gold is put.” — Harmer ’ s Observations, volume 1, p. 180. But there are certainly doves which answer to the description here given, some of them having the feathers on the sides of the neck of a shining copper color, which in a bright sun must resemble gold. See Encyc. Brit. Art. Columbia. Besides, the reference is not necessarily to the color of gold, but to its brilliancy. How highly poetical an emblem, to depict the glorious change effected in the condition of the Hebrews by the deliverance which God had granted them over the proud and formidable enemies who had kept them in the degrading condition represented in the first clause of the verse!
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13, 14) The agreement of the ancient versions in rendering these difficult verses shows that their obscurity does not arise, as in the case of so many passages of the Psalms, from any corruptions in the text, but from the fact that they are an adaptation of some ancient war-song to circumstances to which we have no clue. If we could recover the allusions, the language would probably appear clear enough.
Why rest ye among the sheepfolds?
A doves wings are (now) covered with silver, and her
feathers with the sheen of gold.
When the Almighty scattered kings there,
It was snowing on Tsalmon.
Even in our ignorance of these allusions we at once recognise in the first member of this antique verse the scornful inquiry of Jdg. 5:16, addressed to the inglorious tribe that preferred ease at home to the dangers and discomforts of battle.
The word here rendered sheepfolds (in the Authorised Version pots, a meaning which cannot represent the Hebrew word or its cognates in any other place) is cognate to that used in Jdg. 5:16, and occurs in its present form in Eze. 40:43, where the margin renders, andirons, or two hearthstones. The derivation from to set would allow of its application to any kind of barrier.
Whether Reuben, as in Deborahs song, or Issachar, as in Gen. 49:14, where a cognate word occurs (burdens), were the original stay-at-home, does not matter. The interest lies in the covert allusion made by the psalmist in his quotation to some cowardly or recreant party now playing the same disgraceful game.
The next clause, which has caused so much trouble to commentators, appears perfectly intelligible if treated as the answer made to the taunting question, and as simply a note of time:they stayed at home because all nature was gay and joyous with summer. There is no authority for taking the rich plumage of the dove as emblematic of peace or plenty. The dove appears, indeed, in the Bible as a type, but only, as in all other literature, as a type of love (Son. 2:14); whereas the appearance of this bird was in Palestine, as that of the swallow with us, a customary mark of time. (See Note, Son. 2:12; Son. 2:14.) And a verse of a modern poet shows how naturally its full plumage might indicate the approach of summer:
In the spring a lovelier iris changes on the burnished dove.
TENNYSON: Locksley Hall.
This reply calls forth from the first speaker a rejoinder in companion terms. The inglorious tribe plead summer joys as an excuse for ease. The reply tells of the devotion and ardour of those who, even amid the rigour of an exceptional winter, took up arms for their country: When the AImighty scattered kings there, it was snowing on Tsalmon. (For the geography of Tsalmon, see Jdg. 9:48.) Whether intentionally or not, the sense of the severity of the snowstormrare in Palestinian wintersis heightened by the contrast implied in the name Dark or Shadow Hill.
The peculiarity of the position of the locative there (literally, in it), coming before the mention of the locality itself, is illustrated by Isa. 8:21.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Among the pots Literally, and more properly, Between the sheepfolds, or cattle-pens. The word is in the dual, and refers to the double or divided enclosure in which the cattle or sheep were placed at night for safety. Between the apartments were troughs, and some render, Though ye have lain among the troughs. The allusion is to the easy quiet of the shepherd, with his soiled and neglected apparel, sleeping with his flocks and herds by night exactly the idea of Jdg 5:16 and Gen 49:14, where “couching down between two burdens” should be rendered, lying between the hurdles, or cattle-pens, which accords with Psa 68:15.
Wings of a dove Delitzsch hits it: “The new circumstances of ease and comfort [and honour] are likened to the varied hues of a dove disporting itself in the sun.” The class of oriental dove known as the pigeon, says Van Lennep, “is always blue, with touches of white or black, and silvery or even golden hues, according to the species.” The indolent and pent-up life of the herdsman is contrasted with the freedom and beauty of the dove as it glances on the wing.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 68:13. Though ye have lien among the pots The word rendered pots, signifies, kettles, pots, or furnaces, for various uses, fixed in stone or brick, placed in double rows, and so regularly disposed for convenience and use; and refers to those pots or furnaces, at which the Israelites in Egypt wrought as slaves, and amongst which they were forced to lie down for want of proper habitations, and in the most wretched and vile attire. See Psa 68:13; Psa 81:6. But how great was their alteration, by the conquest of their enemies, and especially of the Midianites! See Jdg 21:25. Hab 3:7. “Enriched by the spoils of these enemies, ye shall now lie down; (for these words must be supplied) i.e. dwell at ease, and with elegance in your tents.” Within the wings of a dove, covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold: These dove-like coverings denote either the rich garments or the costly tents which they took from these Midianites; and which, either because of their various colours, or their being ornamented with silver and gold, resembled the colours of a dove, the feathers of whose wings and body glittered interchangeably as with silver and gold. See Boch. Hier. part. 2: Psa 50:1 : Psa 100:2.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
In allusion to the state of Israel while in Egypt, while they were building houses for Pharaoh, they were considered as the most abject of slaves, and it is probable that they had no couch, or resting place, but lay down by night, after their work was finished, among the rubbish of their labours: hence they are said to have been, like worthless dirty vessels, lying among the pots. But when brought out of slavery, and established in their kingdom, as in the days of David and Solomon, these were golden days to Israel; compare Exo 1:11-14 ; 1Ki 10:27 . But I pray the Reader to look further still, to the spiritual sense of this scripture. Doth not our Lord Jesus Christ in effect say to every soul of his redeemed, when brought to himself, Though thou wert cast out to perish, and in thy lusts and affections wert covered with the rubbish of idolatry; living as without God and without Christ in the world; yet now that thou art brought nigh in my blood, thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. Son 4:7 . So the apostle views the presentation which Christ makes of his church to himself, Eph 5:26-27 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 68:13 Though ye have lien among the pots, [yet shall ye be as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.
Ver. 13. Though ye have lien among the pots ] Inter Chytropodas. Quasi obruti toti et oppleti fuligine et tenebris, black and sooty, as the black guard of an army, or as scullions in a kitchen, who lie sometimes all night, like beasts, in a chimney corner; or as your forefathers in Egypt, when their shoulders were not yet removed from the burden, nor their hands from the pots, Psa 81:6 . The meaning is, though ye have been in a low and loathsome condition, yet now ye shall shine and flourish. Verba sunt mulierum, saith Kimchi, these are the words of those women, annunciatrices preachers, in Psa 68:11 . Beza maketh them to be the psalmist’s words to those women that divided the spoil, Psa 68:12 . Vixistis adhuc puellae, &c., ye have hitherto dwelt at home, and washed pots, &c., but now, being enriched by the spoils, ye may come abroad fair and trim, like white doves with gilt feathers.
Yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
pots. Hebrew Dual, the two [or between the] brickkilns: i.e. in Egypt. Not dirty vessels according to the Rabbinical commentators, but dirty places.
yet shall ye be. Referring to the deliverance and subsequent glory.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Though: That is, probably, “Though ye have laboured and lain down between the brick-kilns in Egypt – a poor, enslaved, and oppressed people, yet ye shall gradually rise to dignity, prosperity, and splendour; as a dove, which has been defiled with dirt, disordered, and dejected, by washing herself in a running stream, and trimming her plumage, gradually recovers the serenity of her disposition, the purity of colour, and the richness and varied elegance of her appearance.”
ye have: Psa 81:6, Exo 1:14, 1Co 6:9-11, 1Co 12:2, Eph 2:1-3, Tit 3:3
the wings: Psa 74:19, Psa 105:37, Psa 149:4, 1Ki 4:20, 1Ki 4:21, Eze 16:6-14, Luk 15:16, Luk 15:22, Eph 5:26, Eph 5:27, Rev 1:5, Rev 1:6
Reciprocal: Exo 1:11 – burdens Lev 14:22 – two turtle doves Psa 113:8 – General Son 2:14 – my dove
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A HYMN OF TRIUMPH
Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove: that is covered with silver wings, and her feathers like gold.
Psa 68:13 (Prayer Book Version)
This psalm is a hymn of glorious triumph. It was probably composed for and used on an occasion of great national thanksgiving in the history of the children of Israel. Throughout the whole of it, it is a most soul-stirring poem to any one who has a soul to be stirred. Every verse of it breathes of victory on the battlefield, and triumph, and thankful hearts rejoicing. The central thought of this particular verse is clearly a contrast between some kind of humiliation on the one hand, referred to by the lien among the pots; some kind of exaltation on the other, referred to by the expression, having the wings of a dove: that is covered with silver wings, and her feathers like gold. That is clearly the central thought, but the figure in which the thought is conveyed has proved to almost every one who has tried to interpret it a most perplexing problem (see Illustration).
I. The Christian and his surroundings.If a man is a true Christian he may maintain, if he wants to maintain, in the midst of the most unfavourable surroundings in which it is possible for his life to be cast, a distinctly lovely, loyal, and holy Christian life. Many Christians have their lot in life amongst surroundings which, so far from being helpful to the development of Christian character, are distinctly unpropitious and adverse to it. The point is thisthese surroundings, if we have the Christian heart and the Christian will, and the Christian grace, need not destroy the Christian life. Every true Christian is like a lily among thorns. The tendency of the thorn is to choke the lilys growth and to stifle its life; but, as a matter of fact, it need not do either. It is just so with the true believer. Grace can live anywhere, only you must take care it is grace; formalism cannot, the first prick of the first thorn will kill it. Gods work can live in any surroundings, only you must take care that it is Gods work. This is true both of business and of social life.
(a) First of all, it is true of business life. Men often say: I never can be a Christian whilst I am in this kind of business. My reply is: So much the worse for the business. I cannot help it; you do not know what the business is. But why not? There is an idea prevalent among some people, chiefly among those who have no particular desire to serve the Lord, that there are some businesses in which a man cannot really serve Christ, and he must either give up his business and his line of life, or his Christianity and his religion. But though you may have lien among the pots in the shop, or the wharf, or the works, or the school, or the kitchen, or the warehouse, in the most uncongenial and unpromising business you can possibly think of, you may have, if you want to havethat is the pointa soul as clear as the doves wing. It is a beautiful sight to see men, as I have seen them, spend the day where selfishness, and greed, and wickedness were the prominent, the powerful, the ever-present surroundings, and yet in their simple, personal, private, domestic, family, and business life be like the wings of a dove, that is covered with silver wings, and her feathers like gold.
(b) It is true also of social life. The surroundings, I suppose, of many of our social lives are often very different from what, if we had arranged them ourselves, perhaps we should have appointed. They are often distinctly out of sympathy with true godliness and personal religion, and I want to say to any young dear soul here who is thinking of becoming a true Christian, You must be prepared for that, my boy, if you want to serve the Lord. The code of the society in which you have to live will not be a very high one, and you will say: It is hard to shine for Christ in the midst of this. But the true believer is never transformed by his surroundings; he tries to transform them, and, if he cannot, he tries to live above them, and whilst moving in a society with which he has little sympathy he does not bow to its contemptible standards, does not lose the fervour of his own youthful fervent godliness, but lifts them up to a standard which he tries so earnestly to illustrate in his own life. It is the power of the love of Christ alone which can make you do this; it is the power of the grace of God in your hearts and lives that can enable you to do this in the midst of this brazen-faced age. A close-walking Christian often lives among the worst of men, but by the grace of God he remains a close-walking Christian still. And Gods grace and power are glorified in you and me, are glorified in those whose Christian loyalty, and standard, and discipleship are not weakened or impaired by the adverse surroundings in which God Almighty has been pleased to put them. You must try to think of two things. The first is thisthe things that are impossible with man are possible with God; and, secondly, the true believer who holds by simple faith, in church and out of the church, who holds by simple faith to Jesus Christ, and draws all his strength from an invisible Christ, can say, I can do all things through Him that strengtheneth me.
II. Living in the sunlight.And there is one further thought, a very brief one, and the last. It is thisit is in the sunlight that the wings of the dove show a silver and golden colour; in no other light. It is only in the transfiguring presence of the Lord Jesus Christ that the believer can shine, living with Him in daily life, living always in His presence, and never leaving it. Oh, dear brethren! may that be your life and mine, and then, though we have all lien among the pots, yet we shall be as the wings of a dove: that is covered with silver wings, and her feathers like gold.
Rev. Canon Allen Edwards.
Illustration
Dr. Thomson, the celebrated Eastern traveller, who in his day, not so very distant or remote, knew more of the manners and customs of Oriental countries than perhaps any other living person, acknowledged himself in his book to be absolutely nonplussed and completely unable to discover any connection of a reasonable kind or character between these two figures. Some years ago, however, Miss Whately, a daughter of the great Archbishop of Dublin, was travelling in Egypt, and she noticed something which she thought might perhaps have suggested this figure to the Psalmist, and in her most deeply interesting book, entitled Ragged Life in Egypt, describes what she saw. She says, speaking of the flat roofs of the houses in Egypt, that in the houses of the very poor these flat roofs were usually in a state of the greatest filth, from the fact that they were made the convenient receptacles of the rubbish of the house. She says these places, both for their warmth at night and their shade and shelter by day, are the resort of tame pigeons and doves who sleep there in the heat of the day. In the cool of the evening, however, these doves emerge from behind the rubbish, and pots, and broken earthenware, and, shaking off the dirt and dust, in the midst of which they have spent their happy day, fly upwards. Their outstretched wings as they catch the evening sun look as clear and as bright as silveras if they had never been in contact with dirt or dust at all. She says that when she saw that, which she did so often, she at once thought it might be that which gave the Psalmist the idea of lying amongst the pots, dirty, dusty, and defiled, and yet having the wings of a dove, without any dust or dirt, and with no defilement, and shining like silver and gold. If so, what a picture of the possibility of our Christian life! You see the believer living in the world but not of it, surrounded on every side by contamination and degrading influences, but untouched by any, living and moving amongst that which hurts and seems as if it must hurt, and spoils and seems as if it must spoil, and damages and seems as if it must damage the Christian life; but for all that the Christian life is not hurt, not spoiled, not damaged, not defiled. A dove often has to hide itself, and a tame pigeon often has to hide itself in an unlovely retreat, and yet when it darts out it shines in the glorious sunlight in unsullied beauty. If that is the Psalmists meaning, how easy to apply it to our hearts and minds!
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Psa 68:13. Though ye have lien among the pots The word , shepattaim, here rendered pots, signifies kettles, pots, or furnaces, for various uses, fixed in stone or brick, placed in double rows, and so regularly disposed for convenience and use; and refers to those pots, or furnaces, at which the Israelites in Egypt wrought as slaves, and among which they were forced to lie down for want of proper habitations, and in the most wretched and vile attire, Deu 4:26; Psa 81:6. But how great was the alteration by the conquest of their enemies, and especially of the Midianites! Enriched by the spoils of your enemies, ye shall now lie down, that is, dwell at ease and with elegance in your tents. Ye shall be Or, ye have been, which seems to be more suitable to the context, both preceding and following, in which he does not speak prophetically of things to come, but historically of things past. The sense of the verse then is, Though you have formerly been exposed to great servitude, reproach, and misery, namely, in Egypt; yet since that time God hath changed your condition greatly for the better. As the wings of a dove, &c. Beautiful and glorious, like the feathers of a dove, which, according to the variety of its postures, and of the light shining upon it, look like silver or gold. He is thought to refer to the rich garments, or costly tents, which they took from the Midianites, and their other enemies, and which, either because of their various colours, or their being ornamented with silver and gold, resembled the colours of a dove, the feathers of whose wings or body glistered interchangeably, as with silver and gold: see Chandler and Bochart. Thus the church of Christ has frequently emerged from a slate of persecution and tribulation into one of liberty and comfort. And such is the change made in the spiritual condition of any man, when he passes from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God: he is invested with the robe of righteousness, and adorned with the graces of the Spirit of holiness. Horne. But still, yea, incomparably greater will be the change of state and condition which all the true disciples of Christ shall experience when they shall completely put off the image of the earthly, with all its attendant infirmities, afflictions, and sufferings, and shall be fully invested with that of the heavenly, their very bodies being conformed to Christs glorious body. Then indeed shall all remains of their state of humiliation disappear: and they shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold: yea, they shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
68:13 Though ye have lien among the {k} pots, [yet shall ye be as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.
(k) Though God permits his Church for a time to lie in black darkness, yet he will restore it, and make it most shining and white.