Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 78:50
He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
50. He made a way to his anger ] Lit., he levelled a path for his anger, i.e. gave it free course.
but gave their life over to the pestilence ] This is the natural rendering of the words in this context. The rendering of R.V. marg., gave their beasts over to the murrain, is that of the Ancient Versions. But a reference to the murrain is out of place here, where the Psalmist is clearly describing the culmination of the plagues in the destruction of the firstborn. He emphasises the fact that after minor plagues had failed to touch Pharaoh’s conscience, God finally attacked the very lives of the Egyptians.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He made a way to his anger – Margin, he weighed a path. He leveled a path for it; he took away all hindrance to it; he allowed it to have free scope. The idea of weighing is not in the original. The allusion is to a preparation made by which one can march along freely, and without any obstruction. See the notes at Isa 40:3-4.
He spared not their soul from death – He spared not their lives. That is, he gave them over to death.
But gave their life over to the pestilence – Margin, their beasts to the murrain. The original will admit of either interpretation, but the connection seems rather to demand the interpretation which is in the text. Both these things, however, occurred.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
He made a way, Heb. He weighed a path or causeway, i.e. he made a most smooth, and even, and exact path, as if he had done it by weight and measure, that so his anger might pass swiftly and freely without interruption. The phrase also seems to note the wisdom and justice of God in weighing out their plagues proportionably to their sins, and exercising great severity towards them answerably to their great and barbarous cruelty towards his people.
He spared not their soul from death, i.e. he punished them with death or killing plagues, as the next words explain it.
Their life; or, their beasts. So he speaks of the murrain among their cattle. But our translation seems better to agree with the next foregoing and following passages, which plainly speak of the death of persons.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
50, 51. made a wayremovedobstacles, gave it full scope.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He made a way to his anger,…. Or, “for” it, so that nothing could obstruct it, or hinder the execution of it; or “he weighed a path for his anger” m; he weighed it in the balance of justice, and proportioned his anger to their crimes, and punished them according to their just deserts:
he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; which some understand of their cattle, and of the murrain that came upon them, by which they were destroyed, and which was the fifth plague of Egypt, Ex 9:3, so the Targum,
“their beasts he delivered unto death;”
but Aben Ezra interprets it of the slaughter of the firstborn, expressed in the following verse; and so others.
m “ponderavit semitam furori suo”, Pagninus, Vatablus; “libravit semitam irae suae”, Tigurine version; “iter ad iram suam”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
50. He made a way to his anger. (352) To take away all excuse from this ungrateful people, whom the most evident and striking proofs of the goodness of God which were presented before their eyes could not keep in their obedience to him, it is here again repeated that the wrath of God overflowed Egypt like an impetuous torrent. The miracle adverted to is the last which was there wrought, when God, by the powerful hand of his angel, slew, in one night, all the first-born of Egypt. According to a common and familiar mode of speaking in the Hebrew language, the first-born are called the beginning, or the first-fruits of strength. Although the old advance to death as they decline in years, yet as they are in a manner renewed in their offspring, and thus may be said to recover their decayed strength, the term strength is applied to their children. And the first-born are called the beginning or the first-fruits of this strength, as I have explained more at large on Gen 49:3. The houses of Egypt are called the tents of Ham, because Misraim, who gave the name to the country, was the son of Ham, Gen 10:6. Farther, there is here celebrated the free love of God towards the posterity of Shem, as manifested in his preferring them to all the children of Ham, although they were possessed of no intrinsic excellence which might render them worthy of such a distinction.
(352) “ He levelled a path to his anger פלס [the word for levelled ] signifies to direct by a line or level; and when applied to a way, is understood to denote that the way is made straight and smooth, so as to leave no impediment to the passenger. See Poole’s Synopsis and Le Clerc. The sense will be much the same whether we thus interpret the phrase, or suppose the anger of God to have taken its direction, παρὰ στάθμην, in a straight line, and by a level; that is, in the shortest way, without delay or deviation.” — Merrick ’ s Annotations
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(50) Made a way.Literally, levelled a path. So Symmachus.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 78:50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
Ver. 50. He made a way to his anger ] Heb. He weighed a path, recompensing their unjust stiffness with his just judgments, and proceeding in his anger from lighter plagues to that heaviest of all the rest, the slaying of all the flower of Egypt in one night, Psa 78:51 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
made = pondered, or weighed. Compare Pro 4:26; Pro 5:6, Pro 5:21. Contrast Isa 26:7.
soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
made way: Heb. weighed a path
he spared: Job 27:22, Eze 5:11, Eze 7:4, Eze 7:9, Eze 8:18, Eze 9:10, Rom 8:32, 2Pe 2:4, 2Pe 2:5
life over to the pestilence: or, beasts to the murrain, Exo 9:3-6
Reciprocal: Exo 9:6 – General Exo 18:1 – done Deu 29:20 – will not spare Job 40:11 – Cast Amo 4:10 – pestilence Hab 3:5 – went Hab 3:14 – the head
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 78:50-51. He made a way to his anger By removing every obstacle that mercy had thrown in the path of justice, he made a way for his indignation, which then rushed forth like a fiery stream. Hebrew, , He weighed a path to his anger, that is, he made a most smooth, even, and exact path, as if he had done it by weight and measure, that so his anger might pass swiftly and freely, without interruption. The phrase also may be intended to signify the wisdom and justice of God in weighing out their plagues proportionably to their sins; that is, he did not cast his anger upon them rashly, but by weight: it was weighed with the greatest exactness, in the balances of justice: and though he exercised great severity toward them, it was only such as was answerable to their great and barbarous cruelty toward his people. For in his greatest displeasure he never did, nor ever will do, any wrong to any of his creatures. The path of his anger is always weighed. He spared not their soul from death But suffered death to ride in triumph among them; and gave their life over to the pestilence Which cut off the thread of life immediately. And smote all the firstborn in Egypt An unlimited commission was given to the destroyer, who, at midnight, passed through the land, and gave the final stroke in every house. While all things, says the author of the book of Wisdom, chap. Psa 18:14, were in quiet silence, and that night was in the midst of her swift course, thine almighty word leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne, as a fierce man of war into the midst of a land of destruction, and brought thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp sword, and, standing up, filled all things with death: and it touched the heaven, but it stood upon the earth. Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt; and universal consternation reigned, inferior only to that which is to extend its empire over the world, when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised. Horne.