Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 78:25
Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.
25. Everyone did eat the bread of the mighty,
He sent them provision to the full.
The A.V. rendering of the verbs in Psa 78:23-24 as pluperfects is contrary to the rules of Hebrew grammar. The connexion of thought is that God was wroth at the unbelief of the Israelites, and yet He provided for their wants. The Psalmist does not follow the order of time in his recital, but combines the different murmurings, and then the different provisions of manna and quails.
The doors of heaven, as of some vast storehouse: cp. ‘the windows (or ‘flood-gates’) of heaven,’ 2Ki 7:2 ; 2Ki 7:19; Mal 3:10. The Psalmist closely follows the language of Exo 16:4, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you.” Cp. Psa 105:40; Joh 6:31.
Corn of heaven may allude to the granular form of the manna (Exo 16:31).
Angels’ food (LXX, Vulg., Syr.) is probably a right paraphrase of the words the bread of the mighty, though the term is nowhere applied to the angels. But cp. Psa 103:20. Wis 16:20 , “Thou feddest thine own people with angels’ food,” naturally follows the LXX. It is a question whether we should render ‘ Everyone did eat’ &c. cp. Exo 16:16; Exo 16:18; Exo 16:21; or man, as contrasted with angels: cp. the Targ. “The sons of men ate bread which came down from the dwelling of the angels”: but the former is probably right. For to the full cp. Exo 16:3; Exo 16:8; Exo 16:12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Man did eat angels food – Food that came from heaven; food so directly and manifestly from heaven that it might be supposed to be the same kind that was eaten there, and that had now been sent down by a special miracle for man; food so delicate and so free from the ordinary coarse properties of food, that it might be supposed to be such as angels feed on. The word rendered angels – ‘abbyr – means properly strong, mighty, and may be applied to people in general, Jdg 5:22; Lam 1:15; Jer 46:15; to animals, Psa 22:13 (bulls of Bashan); to princes, Psa 68:31; or to nobles, Job 24:22. It might be rendered here food of nobles, or princes; that is, food of richer quality, or of a more delicate nature, than common food; such as nobles or princes have on their tables. The immediate connection, however, would rather seem to demand the rendering in our version, as the food is said to have come down from heaven. It is rendered food of angels in the Septuagint, in the Latin Vulgate, in the ancient versions generally, and also by Luther. DeWette renders it, Each one ate the food of princes; that is, they all lived like princes.
He sent them meat to the full – Food to satisfy; or, as much as they wanted.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 78:25
Man did eat angels food.
Angels food
I. There are in the universe higher order of intelligent creatures than man, Angels. The proofs, the nature, the functions, the varieties of their existence abound in the Scriptures.
II. This higher order of intelligences require food. No creatures, however exalted, can be self-subsisting, i.e. can live of themselves or from themselves; they must appropriate something from without.
III. Of this food man to some extent is a partaker. Revelations of truth, beauty, God, are the food of souls in all worlds, and this food is universal. (Homilist)
Angels food
We soon tell by our appearance what food we have been eating. You cannot hide the bill of fare. The face is a tell-tale. The more the sensualist eats the greater a sensualist he appears to be. He feeds the flesh. He gets coarser every day; what little music there was in his voice is all dead and gone; he has choked it with the food of beasts. Once there was a little child in him, well spoken of, thought to be the germ of a fine man; but that child-angel is dead. Every mouthful of meat the man now takes makes him more beast-like. Say not that it is of no consequence what a man eats. It is of vital consequence. The mystery, however, is this, that even the best food may be turned into evil nutriment, according to the nature of the man who partakes of it. The lion grows as a lion the more he eats; though it be of the daintiest food it all becomes lion. So with us bodily, intellectually, spiritually: we tell what our food is. Under what circumstances may men be said to cat angels food, corn of heaven, bread sent down from God? When earth cannot satisfy him any longer, the good food is beginning to tell upon him. Growing in spirituality is not a metaphysical process; it is concrete, intelligible, patent to the observation; it is not a growth in mere sentiment, it is not an enrichment of the nature in mere foam of ecstasy and rapture: it is a larger outlook, a firmer grasp of things eternal, a clearer view of distant things; it is a growth in preparation, in the estimate of relative values, in sympathy with God. Growing so, the whole world changes; its duties become light, its burdens become comparatively easy, its wealth a handful of dust that may be thrown up and caught again and laid down with a conjurers ease. Growth in spirituality means larger intercourse with God, keener perception of religious essences and moral affinities. Growth in spirituality means a throwing-off of mere burdensomeness and ceremony and ritual; a forsaking of the fleshpots of Egypt, and a yearning for the society of angels and spirits, blessed and immortal. We can now do better than eat angels food, a larger feast has been prepared for us–we can eat the body and drink the blood of Christ. Faith takes the bread, and turns it into the flesh of Christ; faith takes the emblematic wine, and makes it sacrificial blood. Lord, increase our faith! (J. Parker, D. D.)
He sent them meat to the full—
The blessing of harvest
View this verse as applicable to all time and all generations of men; for, just as surely as God fed Israel in the wilderness with manna, so surely is He feeding the whole human race to-day by a miracle not less wonderful.
I. In what sense the statement of the text is true, as applied to all men. Look at the variety of the food God gives us. It is not merely the one food sent directly from above, but we can use a hundred kinds of food, so we cannot comment upon the poor character of the products of the earth. The courses of Nature bring round the seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and point the Christian back to the God who lies behind them; and he who has the heritage of the Christian has a fountain of gratitude in his soul, because he recognizes that these come from above, for they tell the man who believes and trusts in God that these things are but another sign of that eternal love which has watched over us from infancy, and cares for us all the years of our life.
II. In what sense the statement appears not to be true. How is it that in a world in which there appears to be plenty, or at least in which there is the possibility of plenty, there should be a vast number in every town and city kept pinched and bare? I believe, in many instances, because of their own mismanagement and misconduct. Idleness will clothe a man with rags. It is one of the wise provisions of Gods providence that the earth surrenders her products only to those who work. There is also another explanation. Intemperance is the cause of a vast deal of the want that lies around us. Again, God has never said He will give a successive continuance of rich seasons, and commerce in its whole history has never gone straight on. It has always gone by leaps and falls, and there have been times of scarceness and plenty. But God means every prudent man to lay by in times of success and fulness for a time of scarcity, and I think it is nothing less than sacrilegious for men to blame God for want and poverty if they allow times of fulness to pass without laying by for a time of need. There are, however, some causes outside of a mans or womans own control which lead to poverty and something approaching want. For instance, too many men rush into one trade, possibly because they think it a prosperous one. The result is, that the trade is overstocked, and there is not sufficient work for every one, and a great deal of pain and scarcity often follows, until matters right themselves–and they dont right themselves in a year. Or, again, the greed and cruelty of some may act as a pressure on those who are weak and unable to defend themselves, and because of this injustice and greed of gain they are not able even to make their bread. Or, again, bad economic laws, such as our Corn Laws that Cobden and Bright did so much to abolish, may raise the price of Gods grain to a fictitious value. There is another cause of poverty and want that is perhaps more directly traceable to God Himself, and that is famine. Gods universe is spiritual, and the powers that conquer in it must be Spiritual, and famine itself is, I believe, one of the methods by which God seeks to work out one of the spiritual purposes of the universe. See, for instance, how famine may bring a nation back to simpler and truer modes of life. See how famine disciplines men by bringing out generosity in them, making them go to the help of other nations. I believe that, too, may be the explanation of the fact that there is poverty among us. Does not God seek to lead us, by poverty, to think of that bread which perisheth not? (D. Woodside, B. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 25. Man did eat angels’ food] lechem abbirim achal ish, “Man did eat the bread of the mighty ones;” or, each person ate, c. They ate such bread as could only be expected at the tables of the rich and great the best, the most delicate food. How little did this gross people know of the sublime excellence of that which they called light bread, and which they said their soul loathed; Nu 21:5! It was a type of Jesus Christ, for so says St. Paul: “They all ate the same spiritual meat, and drank the same spiritual drink,” c., 1Co 10:3-4. And our Lord calls himself “the bread that came down from heaven, that giveth life unto the world,” Joh 6:31-35: but a Jew sees nothing but with the eyes of flesh. It is true their doctors or rabbins are full of allegories, mysteries, and conceits but they are, in general, such as would disgrace the Cabinet des Fees, and would not be tolerated in the nursery. O, how thick a veil hangs over their gross and hardened hearts.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Angels food; manna, so called, either,
1. Because was made by the ministry of angels. Or rather,
2. Because of its excellency, such food as might befit the angels they could cat food, and such as hath some resemblance with the blessed angels in regard of its heavenly origin; its pure and spirituous substance, its rigour and efficacy preserving and nourishing those who used it according Gods appointment. Or this place may be translated as is in the margin, every one did eat the bread of the mighty i.e. even the common Israelites fed upon as delicious as the greatest nobles and princes used to do.
Sent them meat to the full; which may belong, either,
1. To the flesh mentioned in the following verses, which God gave them even to satiety or glutting, which he threatened to do, Num 11:18-20. Or rather,
2. To the manna, of which he is here speaking, which he gave them in such plenty, that their desire of other food could not proceed from their necessity, but merely from wantonness and lust.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
25. angels’ foodliterally,”bread of the mighty” (compare Ps105:40); so called, as it came from heaven.
meatliterally,”victuals,” as for a journey.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Man did eat angels’ food,…. Or, “the bread of the mighty” d; such as Moses and Elijah ate of; so Arama; but Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret it of the clouds, or skies, said to be strong,
Job 37:18 in which the manna was prepared, and let down: but rather the words may be read, “every man did eat the bread of the mighty ones”; of princes and nobles, and the great men of the earth; it was royal food, it was princely fare; and, indeed, the common people of Israel ate the same as their princes and nobles did; they all fared alike; but the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, render the word “angels”, and so Jarchi interprets it, and who are called mighty angels, and are creatures that excel in strength, 2Th 1:7 now the manna may be said to be their food, as it is in the Apocrypha:
“Instead whereof thou feddest thine own people with angels’ food, and didst send them from heaven bread prepared without their labour, able to content every man’s delight, and agreeing to every taste.” (Wisdom 16:20)
because it might be prepared in the air by the ministry of angels, and given by their disposition, as the law was, Ac 7:53 or because it came down from heaven, where they dwell, and so the Targum,
“the children of men did eat food, which came down from the habitation of angels;”
or because it was most excellent food, as the tongue of angels is the most excellent and eloquent, 1Co 13:1, or because it was such food, that, if angels ate any, it was fit for them, and not at all unworthy of them. Cocceius thinks, and so Gussetius e, that by the mighty ones are meant the mighty God, Father, Son, and Spirit, by whom this food was prepared and given; so the word is used in the singular number, of Jehovah, who is called the mighty One of Jacob, Ge 49:24 and of the Redeemer, Isa 49:26,
he sent them meat to the full; which may be understood either of the manna, of which they had great plenty, so that there was no lack for any man, and this continued with them till they came to the land of Canaan; or of the quails, of which in the following verses.
d “fortium”, Pagninus, Montanus, &c. “magnificorum, potentium”, Vatablus. e Comment. Ebr. p. 14. Vid. Witsium de Oeconom. Foeder. l. 4. c. 10. sect. 99.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(25) Angels food.See margin, and comp. Wis. 16:20. LXX. and Vulgate, angels bread. Some explain, after Job. 24:22; Job. 34:30, lordly food, such as nobles eathere, quails. But in connection with food from heaven, the popular idea of angels food which poetry reluctantly gives up may be retained.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. Man did eat Every “man,” without exception. There was no lack at any point to give cause to the complaint. See Exo 16:16-18.
Angels’ food So called because of its origin and of its excellent quality. The Septuagint has , food of angels, and so the Vulgate, angelorum. So our English version; but the Hebrew word , ( abeereem,) here rendered “angels,” is not the word for celestial beings, but simply denotes one that is physically strong, mighty, whether man or beast, as in Jer 8:16; Lam 1:15, or figuratively, one that is noble, of high rank. If the former is adopted in the text (Hammond) it is a rebuke of their complaint of its being “light food,” unsuited to robust men, (Num 21:5😉 if the latter, (Gesenius,) it denotes the high quality of their diet, as belonging to nobles, princes; and in either case is a reproof of their murmurings.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 78:25. Angels’ food Most excellent fooddivine food. Hiller. part 2: p. 165. The bread of the mighty. Houbigant. The Chaldee Paraphrase explains it by, food which came from the habitation of angels; so that this verse is almost synonymous with the last; where it is called food, or corn from heaven. Some of the Jewish rabbis tell us, that as the blessed in the future state, children of the age to come, as they call them, shall be fed or sustained by the light and splendor of the divine Majesty; so this manna was no other than the divine light incorporate. That it was no very solid or substantial food, we learn from the complaints of the grosser Israelites, who spoke of it with contempt: Our soul loatheth this light food; Num 21:5. But the lighter it was, the better probably it would fit them for contemplation, and so answer one chief end for which we may suppose it given to those whose hopes were terminated as to this world; and who therefore could not possibly be easy under these circumstances, had not their minds been raised, and turned towards those celestial regions from whence this manna came. But, whatever might be the natural effect of this food, that it had a typical reference we are sure, from the words of Him who was the true divine light incorporate; and who calls himself that bread of God which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world, Joh 6:33; Joh 6:71. That the Israelites were not unacquainted with this typical reference, appears plain from the testimony of St. Paul, who says of their fathers, i.e. the Israelites in the wilderness, that they did all eat the same spiritual meat, &c. 1Co 10:3. Here then the manna, for this no doubt is meant, is said to be to the Israelites a spiritual meat; but how was it possible it should be so, unless they were taught the spiritual meaning of it. That it had some reference to another life, seems not obscurely hinted by the great lawgiver himself, Deu 8:3. He fed thee with manna, &c. as if he had said, “You see from this plain instance, that life depends upon the will of God; who, as he gave it at the first, so he can preserve, restore, and perpetuate it at his pleasure. His word alone gives life; believe it and obey it therefore, live a life of faith, and you will live for ever.” Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord.The words that I speak unto you, says our Saviour, in the same divine phraseology, they are spirit, and they are life. Joh 6:63. See Critical Dissert. on the Book of Job, p. 297.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 78:25 Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.
Ver. 25. Man did eat angels’ food] Heb. the bread of the mighty, Pan de nobles (Hispan.); (Angels are called mighties, Isa 10:34 Rev 18:21 ); such delicate bread as might beseem angels to eat, if they did eat any at all; such as the poets feign to be their Nectar, and Ambrosia. Or, the bread of the mighty, sc. that mightily strengthened them.
He sent them meat to the full
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
angels’ food = bread of the mighty ones. Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, with Targums, render it “bread of angels”. The “of” may be Genitive of Agent. See App-17.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Blessed Yet Ungrateful
Psa 78:25-37
God our Father is prepared to do exceeding abundantly for His children; but too often we become so engrossed with His gifts as to forget and neglect the Giver. We allow ourselves enjoyment to point of satiety; and then, by an inevitable revulsion, we begin to suffer. Always acknowledge God while enjoying His gifts. Do not separate the gifts of His grace and those of His providence. All good and perfect gifts are from Him, and are to be received with equal thanksgiving. Do not use them in excess, but in moderation; and let not the enjoyment of their sweetness be your main object, but that you may be fitted to play your part and do your work in the world.
It must greatly wound the love of God that we need to be placed on short rations in order to bring us back to Himself. But how true is Psa 78:34 of us all! We sadly require to have the stedfast heart, and to be faithful to our side of the Covenant, for we must all confess to the sin of fickleness and changeableness in our religious life. Our constant prayer should be that of Psa 51:10, Renew a stedfast spirit within me. But how can this be ours, except by the dwelling and uprising within us of the life of God?
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
angels
(See Scofield “Heb 1:4”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Man: etc. Or, Every one did eat the bread of the mighty. Lechem abbeerim, “bread of the mighty” – they ate such food as could only be expected at the tables of the rich and great – the best, the most delicate food. Or, it might be so called because it rendered the people healthy and vigorous, and fit for their marches. Psa 103:20
he sent: Exo 16:8, Mat 14:20, Mat 15:37
Reciprocal: Exo 16:4 – I will rain Exo 16:35 – forty years Num 21:5 – and our soul Deu 29:6 – eaten bread Neh 9:15 – gavest Joh 6:31 – He gave
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 78:25. Man did eat angels food Such as was given by the ministry of angels, and, as the Chaldee reads it, descended from the dwelling of angels. Or, it may be so called because of its excellence, such food as might suit angels, if they needed or could eat food, and such as had some resemblance or relation to the nature of angels, in regard of its heavenly original, its pure and refined substance, its vigour and efficacy in preserving and nourishing those who used it according to Gods appointment. The Hebrew, , lechem abirim, is literally, the bread of the mighty. So the margin reads it, Every one, even the least child in Israel, did eat the bread of the mighty. The common Israelites fed upon as palatable, wholesome, delicious, nourishing, strengthening, and invigorating food, as the greatest nobles and princes used to do. He sent them meat to the full Which may refer either, 1st, To the flesh mentioned in the following verses, which God gave them even to satiety or glutting, as he threatened he would do, Num 11:18-20. Or rather, 2d, To the manna, of which he is here speaking, which he gave them in such plenty, that their desire of other food could not proceed from their necessity, but merely from wantonness and lust. We must not neglect to observe here, that this manna, which was given to Israel by a miracle from heaven, was typical of that spiritual or living bread, or bread of life, that doctrine and merits of Christ, which, in due time, was to come down from heaven to give life unto the world: see Joh 6:31-58. Hence it is termed by St. Paul spiritual meat, as the water out of the rock, emblematical of the Holy Spirit, is termed spiritual drink. Reader, see that thou apply for and partake of both, for both are necessary to thy salvation; and thus thou wilt be brought to feed on angels food, literally and indeed, and shalt be made a happy partaker of everlasting felicity.