Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 78:67
Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
67. Moreover &c.] And he rejected the tent of Joseph, i.e. Shiloh in the tribe of Ephraim. The Ark was never brought back there, and if Shiloh was not actually destroyed by the Philistines, it ceased to be the sanctuary of the nation. Jeremiah points to the fall of Shiloh as a warning to his incredulous contemporaries, who refused to believe that Jehovah could possibly desert Jerusalem and allow His Temple to be destroyed (Jer 7:12; Jer 7:14; Jer 26:6; Jer 26:9). Stanley observes that the first division of the history of the Chosen People ended with the overthrow of the first sanctuary, as the second division terminated in the fall of the second sanctuary, and the third by the still vaster destruction of the last Temple of Jerusalem. The Jewish Church, Lect. vii.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
67 69. The choice of Zion.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph – As a place where his worship should be celebrated. This is the completion of the statement in Psa 78:60. The design is to show that there had been a transfer of the preeminence from the tribe of Ephraim to the tribe of Judah, and from Shiloh to Zion. Joseph is mentioned here as the father of Ephraim, from whom one of the tribes – (one of the most influential and numerous) – was named. Jacob had twelve sons, from whom the twelve tribes in general took their name. As the tribe of Levi, however, being devoted to the sacerdotal work, was not reckoned as one of the, twelve, the number was made up by giving to the descendants of the two sons of Joseph – Ephraim and Manasseh Gen 48:5 – a place among the tribes; and, on this account, the name Joseph does not appear as one of the twelve tribes. Yet Joseph is mentioned here, as the ancestor of one of them – that of Ephraim, from whom the priority and supremacy were withdrawn in favor of the tribe of Judah.
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim – To be the tribe within whose limits the tabernacle should be permanently set up; or within whose limits the place of public worship was finally to be established.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 67. He refused the tabernacle of Joseph] See Clarke on Ps 78:60.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Moreover; and as he smote his enemies for their sins, so he punished his own people for the same cause.
He refused the tabernacle of Joseph; either,
1. He rejected the kingdom of the ten tribes, whereof Ephraim was the head. But this Psalm reacheth not so far as the erection of that kingdom. Or rather,
2. He would not have his ark to abide longer in the tabernacle of Shiloh, which was in the tribe of Joseph or Ephraim: see 1Sa 6:12; 7:1,2; Jer 7:12,14; 26:6,9.
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim; the same thing repeated in other words, after the manner.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
67, 68. tabernacle of Josephor,”home,” or, “tribe,” to which
tribe of Ephraimisparallel (compare Re 7:8). Itspre-eminence was, like Saul’s, only permitted. Judah had been thechoice (Ge 49:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph,…. That is, the tabernacle of Moses, which had been for a long time at Shiloh, a city in the tribe of Ephraim, the son of Joseph; when the ark was brought back by the Philistines, it was not returned to Shiloh, but carried to Kirjathjearim, where it remained twenty years, and after that was had to Zion, the city of David, 1Sa 7:1, so the Targum,
“and he rejected the tabernacle which he had stretched out in the border of Joseph;”
he did not refuse the tabernacle, or remove his presence from it; but he refused the place it had been in, or refused that it should be any more there:
and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: the same thing is designed as before; the meaning is, not that he rejected the tribe of Ephraim from being one of the tribes of Israel; nor does it refer to the revolt of Ephraim, or the ten tribes, from the pure worship of God to idolatry, and their separation from the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; or to their being carried captive into Assyria; since this historical narration reaches no further than the reign of David, or the time of Solomon at furthest; whereas the facts mentioned were a long time afterwards; nor does it regard the removal of government from the tribe of Ephraim, which was the seat of it in the times of Joshua, of which tribe he was, Nu 13:8, though this tribe was overlooked in the choice of a king, one of the tribe of Benjamin being first chosen; and when he was rejected, then one of the tribe of Judah; but this purely, at least principally, intends that it was the will of God that the seat of worship should not be in this tribe any longer; that the ark and tabernacle should be no more there: perhaps the Ephraimites were more culpable, and more provoked the Lord with their idolatry, than the other tribes, since they are first and last taken notice of as the objects of the divine resentment in this account; see Ps 78:9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
67. And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph. Those who suppose that the word enemies, in the 66 verse, applies to the Israelites, connect these verses with the preceding, and suppose the meaning to be, that the wound which God had inflicted upon them was incurable. But, preferring the other opinion, which regards the Philistines as spoken of, and the scope to be, that God, in punishing them so severely, evidently showed that the covenant which he had made with his people was not disannulled, since he had avenged himself in such an awful manner upon their enemies, the explanation which I would rather give is, that this is added by way of correction, as if it had been said, That God was not yet fully reconciled towards his people who had wickedly revolted from him, and that, as an evidence of this, there remained among them some traces of the punishment with which he had visited them. The meaning of the text, therefore, is, that when the ark was taken by the Philistines, God was, so to speak, asleep, having been made drunk by the sins of his people, so that he could no longer keep watch for their defense as he had been accustomed to do; and yet, that he did not continue long sunk in sleep, but that, whenever he saw the ungodly Philistines treating with mockery the glory of his majesty, this heinous insult awoke and provoked him, just as if a giant, having well supped, had awoke from his first sleep before he had recovered from the exciting effects of his wine; and that, at the same time, his anger had not been so provoked against this heathen and uncircumcised nation as to prevent him from exhibiting some signs of the chastisement which he had inflicted upon the wicked and ungrateful Israelites even to the end. The rejection spoken of amounts to this, that when God permitted his ark to be carried away to another place, the Israelites were thereby deprived of the honor with which, by special privilege, they had been previously distinguished.
There are two principal points which should here be particularly attended to; in the first place, when the Philistines were smitten with unseemly ulcers, the plainest evidence was afforded that when the Israelites were conquered by them, this happened solely because God willed it to be so. He did not recover new strength, or gather together a new army for the purpose of invading, some short time after, the Philistines who had been victorious, nor did he have recourse, in doing this, to foreign aid. The other point is, that although God stretched forth his hand against the Philistines, to show that he had still some remembrance of his covenant, and some care of the people whom he had chosen, yet in restoring the Israelites in some measure to their former state, he made the rejection of Shiloh a perpetual monument of his wrath. He, therefore, rejected the tribe of Ephraim; (366) not that he cast them off for ever, or completely severed them from the rest of the body of the Church, but he would not have the ark of his covenant to reside any longer within the boundaries of that tribe. To the tribe of Ephraim is here opposed the tribe of Judah, in which God afterwards chose for himself a dwelling-place.
Thus the prophet proceeds to show, that when the ark of the covenant had a resting-place assigned to it on mount Zion, the people were in a manner renewed; and this symbol of reconciliation being restored to them, they were recovered to the favor of God from which they had fallen. As God had, so to speak, been banished from the kingdom, and his strength led into captivity through the sins of the Israelites, they had need to be taught, by this memorial, that God had been so highly displeased with their wickedness, that he could not bear to look upon the place in which he had formerly dwelt. After this separation, although to teach the people to be more on their guard in time to come, there was not a full and perfect restitution, yet God again chose a fixed residence for his ark, which was a manifestation of wonderful goodness and mercy on his part. The ark, after its return, was carried from one place to another, as to Gath, Ekron, and other places, until mount Zion was pointed out by an oracle as its fixed abode; but this intervening period is not taken notice of by the prophet, because his design went no farther than to impress upon the memory, both the example of the punishment, and the grace of God, which was greater than any could have ventured to hope for. (367) That which is often repeated by Moses should also be remembered:
“
But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come,” etc., (Deu 12:5.)
Shiloh having acquired this renown, because the ark had dwelt there for a long time, when the ark was carried away into the country of the enemies of Israel, the minds of men were strangely perplexed, until they knew the place which God had chosen for its future residence. The ten tribes were not at that time rejected, and they had an equal interest in the kingdom and the priesthood with the tribe of Judah; but in process of time their own rebellion cut them off. This is the reason why the prophet says, in scorn, that the tribe of Ephraim was rejected, and that the tribe of Joseph, from whom it sprung, was not chosen.
(366) Shiloh, as formerly observed, was a city in the tribe of Ephraim, and it was rejected as the resting-place of the ark.
(367) “ La grace de Dieu plus grande qu’on n’eust ose esperer.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
67. Joseph A patronymic for Ephraim. Genesis 48. The tabernacle of Joseph is the tabernacle as consigned to the care of the tribe of Ephraim, to which God now refuses for ever this honour.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 78:67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
Ver. 67. Moreover he refused, &c. ] He would dwell no longer at Shiloh, which was in the tribe of Ephraim.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
chose not. Ephraim did not lose inheritance, but lost precedence, which was transferred to Judah.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1Sa 6:21, 1Sa 7:1, 2Sa 6:2, 2Sa 6:17
Reciprocal: 1Ki 8:44 – toward the city 1Ch 22:1 – This is the house Psa 87:2 – The Lord Jer 7:15 – the whole
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 78:67-68. Moreover And as he smote his enemies for their sins, so he punished his own people for the same cause. He refused the tabernacle of Joseph He did not suffer his ark to return to Shiloh, which was in the tribe of Ephraim, the son of Joseph, but to go to Kirjath-jearim, which was in the tribe of Benjamin; from thence to the house of Obed-edom, and so to Zion, in the tribe of Judah, as it follows; but chose the tribe of Judah
For the seat of the ark, and of Gods worship. For he did not wholly take away the glory from Israel. Shiloh lost the ark, but Israel retained it. God will have a church in the world, and a kingdom among men; though this or that place may have its candlestick removed. Nay, the rejection of Shiloh is the election of Zion; as, long after, the fall of the Jews was the riches of the Gentiles, Rom 11:12. The divine presence, with the ark, its emblem, removed at this time from the tribe of Ephraim, although Joshua, the temporal saviour of Israel, was of that tribe, to the tribe of Judah, because out of this tribe, after the rejection of Saul, was to arise the great representative, as well as progenitor, of King Messiah, the spiritual and eternal Saviour of Gods people of every kindred, and tongue, and nation.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
78:67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of {r} Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
(r) Showing that he did not spare the Israelites altogether, though he punished their enemies.