Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 73:10
Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full [cup] are wrung out to them.
10. A difficult verse. The general sense appears to be that attracted by the prosperity and pretensions of the wicked a crowd of imitators turn to follow them, and in their company drink to the dregs the cup of sinful pleasure. The Psalmist’s temptation is intensified as he contemplates the popularity of the wicked. Cp. Psa 49:13. The details however are obscure. Therefore, because they are deluded by the extravagant pretensions of the wicked. The pronoun his is commonly explained to refer to the wicked regarded as a whole, or to some conspicuous leader among them. The context hardly allows of its reference to God. But the LXX and Syr. may preserve the true reading ‘my people,’ the Psalmist speaking with sorrow of his deluded countrymen. Return should rather be turn; hither, to the wicked and their pernicious ways.
The reading of the Kthbh given in R.V. marg., he will bring back his people hither, finds no support from the Ancient Versions, and admits of no satisfactory explanation. Waters of fulness are drained by them is a metaphor for the enjoyment of pleasure; or possibly for imbibing pernicious principles. Cp. Job 15:16; and the saying of Jose ben Joezer, “Let thy house be a meeting house for the wise and drink their words with thirstiness.” Pirqe Aboth, i. 4, cp. 12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
10, 11. The mass of men are carried away by their evil example.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore his people – Those that truly love God; the pious in the earth.
Return hither – Return to this subject. In their musings – their meditations on divine things – they come back to this inquiry. The subject occupies their minds, and they recur to it as a subject which perplexes them; as a thing that is incomprehensible. They think it over again and again, and are more and more perplexed and embarrassed. The difficulties which these facts suggest about God and his government are such that they cannot solve them.
And waters of a full cup are wrung out to them – literally, waters of fullness; or, full waters. The Chaldee renders this, Many tears flow from them. The Septuagint, and the Latin Vulgate, And full days shall be found by them. The word rendered are wrung out – from matsah – means properly to suck; then, to suck out; to drink greedily. See Isa 51:17. It is applied to one who drinks greedily of an intoxicating cup; and then, to one who drinks a cup of poison to the dregs. Psa 75:8. The meaning here is, that the facts in the case, and the questions which arose in regard to those facts, and which so perplexed them, were like a bitter cup; a cup of poison, or an intoxicating cup which overpowered their faculties – and that they, in their perplexities, exhausted the cup. They drank it all, even to the dregs. They did not merely taste it; but they drank it. It was a subject full of perplexity; a subject that wholly overpowered all their faculties, and exhausted all their powers.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 73:10
Therefore His people return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
The full cup for Christ and His people
It is great comfort to meet amid the many references to the ungodly the mention of the people of God. But in the text he tells the sad truth that, owing to what they saw of the prosperity of the ungodly, many of His people–Gods people–return hither, that is, to the same unhappy place of doubt and unbelief where his own feat had well nigh slipped. It is disreputable ground for a Christian, but many of them have been found there. Observe, then, the following three things, which are set forth in my text: first, the holy and honourable household specified as His people; second, their usual experience–a cup, a full cup, waters of a full cup wrung out to them. And then, in the third place, we will glance at the pattern and contrast all of this in the cup of Christ. (Joseph Irons.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. Therefore his people return hither] There are very few verses in the Bible that have been more variously translated than this; and, like the man in the fable, they have blown the hot to cool it, and the cold to warm it. It has been translated, “Therefore God’s people fall off to them; and thence they reap no small advantage.” And, “Therefore let his people come before them; and waters in full measure would be wrung out from them.” That is, “Should God’s people come before them, they would squeeze them to the utmost; they would wring out all the juice in their bodies.” The Chaldee has, “Therefore, are they turned against the people of the Lord, that they may bruise and beat them with mallets; that they may pour out to them abundance of tears.” The Vulgate, “Therefore shall my people return here, and days of abundance shall be found by them.” The Septuagint is the same. The AEthiopic, Arabic, and Syriac, nearly the same. The Hebrew text is, lachen yashub ammo ( ammi) halom; umey male yimmatsu lamo; “Therefore shall my people be converted, where they shall find abundance of waters.” That is, The people, seeing the iniquity of the Babylonians, and feeling their oppressive hand, shall be converted to me; and I shall bring them to their own land, where they shall find an abundance of all the necessaries of life. I believe this to be the meaning; and thus we find their afflictions were sanctified to them; for they obliged them to return to God, and then God caused them to return to their own land. The Vulgate translates umey male, “abundance of waters,” by et dies pleni, “and days of plenty;” for it has read yemey, days, for umey, and waters. Almost all the Versions support this reading; but it is not acknowledged by any MS. The old Psalter is here mutilated.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
His people; either,
1. The people of those wicked blasphemers; all their children, and servants, and friends, encouraged by their example. Or rather,
2. The people of God, who is oft understood under the pronoun relative he or his, though he be not expressed, as Psa 105:19; Isa 30:23. See the like Psa 87:1; Son 1:2. But then as Gods people are of two sorts, some that are so really and sincerely, and others that are so only in profession and show, in which sense the whole body of the Israelitish nation, yea, even the wicked among them, are called his
people, as Psa 81:11; Isa 1:3; Jer 2:11, &c.; so this may be understood, either,
1. Of those true Israelites, Psa 73:1. Even the godly were startled and stumbled at this, as David was, Psa 37, and Jeremiah, Jer 12 But although they might have some murmuring thoughts about this matter, it seems not probable that they would either give way to such thoughts, or break forth into such expressions, as are here ascribed to them, Psa 73:11; nor are such things to be imputed to them without necessity; nor did either David or Jeremiah in their conflicts utter any thing of this nature. Or rather,
2. Of the carnal, hypocritical Israelites, who perceiving the impunity and prosperity of these ungodly wretches, were easily drawn to the approbation and imitation of their courses. And this may seem most suitable to the context; for the description of the condition, and carriage, and words of these ungodly men, which begins Psa 73:4, seems to be continued to Psa 73:13; then follows the psalmists reflection and consideration upon the whole matter, from Psa 73:13 to the end.
Return hither, or, turn hither, i.e. to this wicked company, or to their course.
Waters of a full cup are wrung out to them: waters, in Scripture, do ofttimes signify afflictions, and as oft comforts and mercies. So the sense may be, either,
1. And whilst the wicked prosper, God doth wring out waters out of the cup of tribulation, and causeth his holy ones to drink them up: compare Psa 75:8; 80:5; Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15, &c. Or rather,
2. And those hypocritical Israelites find themselves gainers by their apostacy, and they partake of the same prosperity with their leaders, and God seems to give them a full cup of consolation, and to pour forth his mercies upon them in such abundance, as if he would wring or squeeze out all his blessings out of his stores to bestow upon them. And meeting with such success to their wickedness, it is not strange if they put that question, Psa 73:11.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10-12. Hence God’s people areconfounded, turned hither (or back) and thither, perplexed withdoubts of God’s knowledge and care, and filled with sorrow.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore his people return hither,…. Either the true people of God, and so the Targum, the people of the Lord, and whom the psalmist owned for his people; for the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, read “my people”; who seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and feeling their own afflictions, return to the same way of thinking, and fall by the same snare and temptation as the psalmist did; or such who were only the people of God by profession, but hypocrites, who observing the trouble that attends a religious life, and the prosperity of wicked men, return from the good ways of God they have outwardly walked in for some time, to the conversation of these men, and join themselves to them: or else, “his” being put for “their”, the sense is, the people of these wicked men, of everyone of them, return unto them, and flock about them, and caress and flatter them, because of their prosperous circumstances, and join with them in their evil practices of oppression and slander; which sense seems best to agree with what goes before and follows after:
and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them; meaning either to the people of God, and to be understood either of the abundance of their tears, on account of their afflictions inward and outward; see Ps 6:6, so the Targum,
“and many tears flow unto them;”
or of their afflictions themselves, which are oftentimes compared to waters in Scripture; see Ps 42:7, which are given them in measure: it is a cup of them that is put into their hands, and in full measure; they have a full cup of them; many are their tribulations, through which they enter the kingdom, and they are all of God; it is he that wrings them out to them with his fatherly hand: or else, taking the people to mean the followers and companions of the wicked, the words are to be understood of the plenty of good things which such men enjoy in this life, their cup runs over; and indeed these seem to be the persons who are introduced speaking the following words.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10. On this account his people will return hither. Commentators wrest this sentence into a variety of meanings. In the first place, as the relative his is used, without an antecedent indicating whose people are spoken of, some understand it simply of the ungodly, as if it had been said, That the ungodly always fall back upon this reflection: and they view the word people as denoting a great troop or band; for as soon as a wicked man raises his standard, he always succeeds in drawing a multitude of associates after him. They, therefore, think the meaning to be, that every prosperous ungodly man has people flocking about him, as it were, in troops; and that, when within his palace or magnificent mansion, they are content with getting water to drink; so much does this perverse imagination bewitch them. But there is another sense much more correct, and which is also approved by the majority of commentators; namely, that the people of God (175) return hither. Some take the word הלם, halom, which we have rendered hither, as denoting afflicted; (176) but this is a forced interpretation.
The meaning is not, however, as yet, sufficiently evident, and therefore we must inquire into it more closely. (177) Some read the whole verse connectedly, thus: The people of God return hither, that they may drain full cups of the water of sorrow. But, in my opinion, this verse depends upon the preceding statements, and the sense is, That many who had been regarded as belonging to the people of God were carried away by this temptation, and were even shipwrecked and swallowed up by it. The prophet does not seem to speak here of the chosen people of God, but only to point to hypocrites and counterfeit Israelites who occupy a place in the Church. He declares that such persons are overwhelmed in destruction, because, being foolishly led away to envy the wicked, and to desire to follow them, (178) they bid adieu to God and to all religion. Still, however, this might, without any impropriety, be referred to the chosen seed, many of whom are so violently harassed by this temptation, that they turn aside into crooked by-paths: not that they devote themselves to wickedness, but because they do not firmly persevere in the right path. The sense then will be, that not only the herd of the profane, but even true believers, who have determined to serve God, are tempted with this unlawful and perverse envy and emulation. (179) What follows, Waters of a full cup are wrung out to them, (180) seems to be the reason of the statement in the preceding clause, implying that they are tormented with vexation and sorrow, when no advantage appears to be derived from cultivating true religion. To be saturated with waters is put metaphorically for to drink the bitterest distresses, and to be filled with immeasurable sorrows.
(175) The Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, and Æthiopic versions read, “my people.”
(176) “Abu Walid,” says Hammond, “hath a peculiar way of rendering הלם, as if it were הלם, the infinitive, with breaking of spirit. ” A similar interpretation is adopted by Horsley. “For הלם,” says he, “many MSS. read הלום, which I take as the participle Pual of the verb הלם, ‘ Contusus miseria,’ scilicet.” He reads,
“
Therefore his [God’s] people sit woebegone.”
To make out this translation, he adopts another of the various readings of MSS. “For ישיב,” says he, “many MSS. have ישוב : I would transpose the vau, and read יושב. The third person future, Hophal, signifies is made to sit, is settled, attended with grief and consternation at the unpunished audacity of the profane.”
(177) “ Et pourtant il nous y faut aviser de plus pres.” — Fr.
(178) “ Stulta aemulatione decepti.” — Lat. “ Se abusans par leur folie a porter envie aux meschans, et les vouloir ensuyvre.” — Fr
(179) While Calvin admits that the words, his people, may refer to true believers, he conceives that carnal and hypocritical Israelites are rather intended. One great objection to the opinion, that true believers are at all intended is, that stumbled though they often are at the unequal distributions of the present state, and chargeable though they may be with entertaining murmuring thoughts in reference to this matter, we can scarcely suppose that they would so far depart from every principle of truth and propriety, as to break forth into such language as is ascribed in verse 11th to the persons here spoken of, “How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?” Neither David nor Jeremiah, though much perplexed in reconciling the prosperity of the wicked and the afflicted state of God’s people, with the righteousness and goodness of Divine Providence, ever gave utterance to any such language. See Psa 38:0 and Jer 12:0. Walford thinks that “it is far more agreeable to the design of the entire passage, to interpret the words, his people, of the friends and connections of the wicked, who imitate their actions.” In support of this it may be observed, that the description of the condition, conduct, and words, of these prosperous ungodly men, commences at the 4 verse, and seems to be continued to the 13th verse, where the Psalmist’s reflections upon the subject begin, and are continued to the close of the psalm.
(180) This has also been understood as denoting the prosperity, the abundance of all outward good things bestowed upon the persons referred to.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) Therefore.The Prayer Book version has undoubtedly caught the meaning here. It plainly describes the popularity gained (the surest way) by the self-applause described in the preceding verse. This version depends on the Hebrew margin, Therefore do the people turn hither (i.e., to them), and full waters (i.e., a cup full of adulation and flattery) are sucked out by them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Therefore his people return hither That is, “God still suffers or requires his people to survey the painful spectacle, and drain the bitter draught presented by the undisturbed prosperity of wicked men.” Alexander. This is the most natural and best sustained sense of this obscure passage. See Psa 80:5. The verb , ( shoobh,) return, here denotes a subjective, or mental returning, as it often does; (see 2Ch 6:24 ; 2Ch 6:37-38; Mal 3:18😉 and the adverbial pronoun, , ( halom,) hither, is not to be understood of place, but of subject. God’s people mentally turn to this subject to consider the mystery of providence in allowing this difference between a suffering Church and the prosperous wicked.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 73:10. Therefore his people return hither “Therefore God’s people falleth off to them, and from thence they reap no small advantage.” Green. Mudge renders it, Therefore, let his people come before them, and waters in full measure would be wrung out from them. This seems, says he, to continue the description of their haughtiness and oppression. “Should God’s people (for he is mentioned in the next verse) come before them, they would squeeze them to the uttermost: they would wring out all the juice in their bodies.” Waters in full measure, seems to be proverbial. Houbigant and Fenwick give different versions from any of these. Houbigant reads, Therefore bread fills them to the full, and water is drank by them in a flowing cup. Fenwick reads the passage in a parenthesis.
“(For this his people broken-hearted sit, And tears in great abundance shed.)”
The reader must judge for himself.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 73:10 Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full [cup] are wrung out to them.
Ver. 10. Therefore his people return hither ] i.e. Some good men are as wise (or rather as foolish) as I have been, to miscensure on this manner, and to repent me of my repentance, or to say, as Psa 73:11 , “How doth God know?” &c.
And waters of a full cup are wrung out unto them
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 73:10-14
10Therefore his people return to this place,
And waters of abundance are drunk by them.
11They say, How does God know?
And is there knowledge with the Most High?
12Behold, these are the wicked;
And always at ease, they have increased in wealth.
13Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
And washed my hands in innocence;
14For I have been stricken all day long
And chastened every morning.
Psa 73:10 This verse is uncertain in the MT. The flow of the context implies
1. the wicked people have negatively affected other covenant people (The Catholic Tradition CCD thinks Psa 73:10 was a quote from the wicked Israelites)
2. the wicked consume every good thing they can
3. the followers of the wicked believe everything they say (NIDOTTE, vol. 2, p. 1065)
Basically this is the psalmist’s dilemma. He sees the arrogant, blasphemous, covenant person receiving all the covenant’s benefits and abundance! This is why he asks the question of Psa 73:13! The if. . .then of the Mosaic covenant (i.e., Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 27-30) seems to be of no effect. The world seems upside down.
The AB, followed by the NET Bible, suggests an emendation to the first line. They change he will bring back his people (MT) to they will be filled with food, which seems to be a better parallel to the next line.
Psa 73:11 How does God know? The wicked show open arrogance and blasphemy toward YHWH (cf. Psa 73:9).
The Jewish Study Bible has an interesting quote (p. 1362).
There was no atheism in ancient times, only the notion that God lacked knowledge and power (cf. Psa 10:4; Psa 10:11; Psa 10:13; Psa 94:7).
This assertion of the lack of foreknowledge has reappeared in modern theology of Open Theism. I personally think this theology has taken an OT literary technique (i.e., God asking questions, cf. Gen 3:9) and used it as a grid to filter all Bible texts. It is a modified form of Progressive Theism from Alfred North Whitehead.
Most High This is the Hebrew title Elyon (see SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY ). It is used in Genesis 14 (i.e., Melchizedek’s name for Deity) four times and twenty-one times in the Psalter, but only six times in all the rest of the OT.
Psa 73:13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure This reflects the psalmist’s doubt about the goodness and fairness of God mixed with a poor me attitude. This almost reflects the what’s in it for me attitude of Job 1:6-12.
This is theologically similar to Satan’s accusations against Job that he only served God because of God’s blessings and protection (i.e., faith for favors).
The two ways of the OT seem to have been reversed! This is where faithful followers must remember we live in a fallen world. This is not the world God intended it to be. The purpose of the OT was to show humanity their rebellion and sin (cf. Galatians 3)!
Godliness and faithfulness bring reproach and rejection in a fallen world (cf. Mat 5:10-16), but there is a new day coming (cf. Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:22-38).
surely This adverb (BDB 36), used of doubt in Psa 73:13, becomes an affirmation in Psa 73:18! The psalmist had not lived a righteous life in vain and the wicked will reap what they have sowed (cf. Job 34:11; Psa 28:4; Psa 62:12; Pro 24:12; Ecc 12:14; Jer 17:10; Jer 32:19, for a full list of NT texts cf. Gal 6:7 online).
washed my hands in innocense This translation is surely possible, based on
1. the MT intro to Psalms 73
2. this Levitical imagery
3. the sacrificial term portion in Psa 73:26
The author may have been a Levite or priest. Hand washing was part of the rituals of the temple.
However, the idiom takes on the wider connotation of godly living (cf. Deu 21:6; Psa 26:6); also note the idiom in Gen 20:5.
Psa 73:14 There is a parallel between all day long and every morning, both of which are idioms for an extended period of time (i.e., a lifetime). The psalmist is claiming a life of faithfulness.
The passive voice of the phrase I have been stricken (BDB 224, K 243, Qal imperfect combined with BDB 619, KB 668, Qal passive participle) implies that not only has God allowed or overlooked the wicked’s actions and motives, but has done to the faithful psalmist what should have been done to the arrogant, blasphemous, unfaithful covenant partners! This is the mystery of events in a fallen world. This is not the world God intended it to be. Things happen that are not from God. In the OT, to support monotheism, there is only one causality (cf. Ecc 7:14; Isa 45:7; Amo 3:6) but from further revelation we know that is not the case. God has allowed His beloved creation to reap the terrible consequences of Genesis 3. The good news is
1. He will fix it eventually (i.e., New Age)
2. He is with us in the midst of it (cf. Psalms 23)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
His People = God’s people.
return = tum: i.e. follow.
hither = to us. (Spoken by the wicked.)
are = shall be.
wrung out to = drained by.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
waters: Psa 75:8
Reciprocal: Job 41:34 – he is Rev 14:10 – into
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 73:10. Therefore his people return hither It seems impossible to ascertain, says Dr. Horne, with any degree of precision, the meaning of this verse, or to whom it relates. Some think it intends those people who resort to the company of the wicked, because they find their temporal advantage by it; while others are of opinion that the people of God are meant, who, by continually revolving in their thoughts the subject here treated of, namely, the prosperity of the wicked, are sore grieved, and enforced to shed tears in abundance. Certainly a variety of discordant interpretations have been given of the verse. But a literal translation, which the following is, seems, in some degree at least, to determine its meaning. Therefore Hebrew, , lachen, on this account, his people shall return thither, and waters of fullness shall be wrung out to them As if he had said, Because of the prosperity of the wicked, and the afflicted state of the righteous, his people, that is, the people of God, will be under a strong temptation to return; and many will actually return to the company of the ungodly, which they had forsaken, in order to share their prosperity: but in consequence thereof, waters of a full cup shall be wrung out to them, they shall bring upon themselves many chastisements and troubles, and shall be oppressed with grief and sorrow for their sin and folly. Waters, in Scripture, frequently signify afflictions, although, it must be acknowledged, they also often signify mercies and comforts; but the former, and not the latter sense of the metaphor, seems to be intended here: for when did, or do, the people of God receive mercies and comforts, or blessings of any kind, by returning to the sins and follies which they had forsaken, or to the society of the ungodly, from which they had withdrawn themselves? Do they not uniformly meet with chastisement and trouble? The clause, waters of a full cup, &c., may probably refer to the cups of liquor, mingled with poison, which were, in those days, given to criminals. The verse, it must be observed, is in the future tense, and it seems most natural, as Mr. Scott has remarked, to interpret it as expressive of the psalmists apprehension, that the prosperity of daring sinners would eventually prove a strong temptation, and a great source of sorrow to believers.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
73:10 Therefore his {e} people return hither: and waters of a full [cup] are wrung out to them.
(e) Not only the reprobate, but also the people of God often fall back seeing the prosperous estate of the wicked, and are overwhelmed with sorrows, thinking that God does not correctly consider the estate of the godly.