7<\/strong>. With an east wind<\/p>\n Thou shatterest ships of Tarshish.<\/p>\n As he gazes upon the wreck of the Assyrian enterprise, the poet apostrophises God with mingled awe and thankfulness. The language is plainly metaphorical. God’s might is irresistible. He shatters the stately ships of Tarshish with a sudden storm: with equal ease He annihilates the vast Assyrian army. Cp. Isa 14:24-27<\/span>, noting the phrase, “I will break<\/em> the Assyrian in my land.” For the metaphor comp. Eze 27:26<\/span>, where the fall of Tyre is described as a wreck; and Isa 33:23<\/span>, where Jerusalem in her extremity (or, according to some commentators, the Assyrian power) is represented as a disabled ship.<\/p>\n The east wind<\/em>, notorious for its destructiveness, is often employed as a symbol of judgement (Job 27:21<\/span>; Isa 27:8<\/span>; Jer 18:17<\/span>); and ships of Tarshish<\/em>, the largest vessels, such as were employed for the voyage to Tartessus in the S.W. of Spain (cp. ‘East Indiamen’) were emblems of all that was strong and stately (Isa 2:16<\/span>). The alternative rendering of R.V. marg., ‘As with the east wind that breaketh the ships of Tarshish<\/em>,’ is grammatically possible, but less suitable.<\/p>\n Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish – <\/B>On the ships of Tarshish, see the notes on Isa 2:16<\/span>. The allusion to these ships here may have been to illustrate the power of God; the ease with which he destroys that which man has made. The ships so strong – the ships made to navigate distant seas, and to encounter waves and storms – are broken to pieces with infinite ease when God causes the wind to sweep over the ocean. With so much ease God overthrows the most mighty armies, and scatters them. His power in the one case is strikingly illustrated by the other. It is not necessary, therefore, to suppose that there was any actual occurrence of this kind particularly in the eye of the psalmist; but it is an interesting fact that such a disaster did befall the navy of Jehoshaphat himself, 1Ki 22:48<\/span> : Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold; but they went not: for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber. Compare 2Ch 20:36-37<\/span>. This coincidence would seem to render it not improbable that the discomfiture of the enemies of Jehoshaphat was particularly referred to in this psalm, and that the overthrow of his enemies when Jerusalem was threatened called to remembrance an important event in his own history, when the power of God was illustrated in a manner not less unexpected and remarkable. If this was the allusion, may not the reference to the breaking of the ships of Tarshish have been designed to show to Jehoshaphat, and to the dwellers in Zion, that they should not be proud and self-confident, by reminding them of the ease with which God had scattered and broken their own mighty navy, and by showing them that what he had done to their enemies he could do to them also, notwithstanding the strength of their city, and that their real defense was not in walls and bulwarks reared by human hand, anymore than it could be in the natural strength of their position only, but in God.<\/P> <\/p>\n Verse 7<\/span>. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish<\/B><\/I>] Calmet<\/I> thinks this may refer to the discomfiture of Cambyses<\/I>, who came to destroy the land of Judea. “This is apparently,” says he, “the same tempest<\/I> which struck dismay into the land-forces of Cambyses, and wrecked his fleet which was on the coasts of the Mediterranean sea, opposite to his army near the port of Acco<\/I>, or the Ptolemais<\/I>; for Cambyses had his quarters at Ecbatana<\/I>, at the foot of Mount Carmel; and his army was encamped in the valley of Jezreel.” Ships<\/I> of Tarshish<\/I> he conjectures to have been large stout vessels, capable of making the voyage of Tarsus<\/I>, in Cilicia.<\/P> <\/p>\n This is not reported as a matter of fact, for we read of no ships in those expeditions to which this Psalm relates, nor did any ships come near Jerusalem, because that was at a great distance from the sea, and from any navigable river running into the sea; but only added by way of illustration or allusion. The sense is, Thou didst no less violently and suddenly destroy these proud and raging enemies of Jerusalem, than sometimes thou destroyest the ships at sea with a fierce and vehement wind, such as the eastern winds were in those parts, Exo 14:21<\/span>; Job 27:21<\/span>; Jer 18:17<\/span>; Eze 27:26<\/span>. The words are and may be rendered thus, Thou didst break<\/I> them as (such ellipses of the pronoun, and of the note of similitude, being very frequent; as I have again and again showed) the ships of the sea<\/I> (for Tarshish, though properly the name of a maritime place in Cilicia, Eze 27:25<\/span>; Jon 1:3<\/span>, is usually put for the sea, as 1Ki 10:22<\/span>; 2Ch 9:21<\/span>; Psa 72:10<\/span>; Isa 2:16<\/span>; Jer 10:9<\/span>) are broken <\/P> with an east wind.<\/B> Albeit the enemies of Jerusalem, which are compared to the raging waters of the sea in Psa 46:2<\/span>,<\/B>3<\/B><\/span>, may as fitly be compared to ships upon the sea. <\/P> <\/p>\n 7. ships of Tarshish<\/B>asengaged in a distant and lucrative trade, the most valuable. Thephrase may illustrate God’s control over all material agencies,whether their literal destruction be meant or not.<\/P><\/p>\n Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with east wind.<\/strong> This is either another simile, expressing the greatness of the dread and fear that shall now seize the kings of the earth; which will be, as Kimchi observes, as if they were smitten with a strong east wind, which breaks the ships of Tarshish; and to the same purpose is the note of Aben Ezra; who says, the psalmist compares the pain that shall take hold upon them to an east wind in the sea, which breaks the ships; for by Tarshish is meant, not Tartessus in Spain, nor Tarsus in Cilicia, or the port to which the Prophet Jonah went and took shipping; but the sea in general: or else this phrase denotes the manner in which the antichristian kings, and antichristian states, wilt be destroyed; just as ships upon the ocean are dashed to pieces with a strong east wind: or it may design the loss of all their riches and substance brought to them in ships; hence the lamentations of merchants, and sailors, and ship masters, Re 18:15<\/span>.<\/p>\n 7. By the east wind (194) thou breakest in pieces the ships of Tarshish Commentators are divided in their view of this passage. (195) But let us rest contented with the natural sense, which is simply this, that the enemies of the Church were overthrown and plunged into destruction, just as God by suddenly raising storms sinks the ships of Cilicia to the bottom of the sea. The Psalmist celebrates the power which God is accustomed to display in great and violent storms; and his language implies that it is not to be wondered at if God, who breaks by the violence of the winds the strongest ships, had also overthrown his enemies, who were inflated with the presumptuous confidence which they reposed in their own strength. By the sea of Tarshish the Hebrews mean the Mediterranean Sea, because of the country of Cilicia, which in ancient times was called Tarshish, as Josephus informs us, although in process of time this name came to be restricted to one city of the country. But as the chief part of the naval traffic of the Jews was with Cilicia, there is here attributed to that country by synecdoche what was common to other countries which were at a greater distance and less known. <\/p>\n (194) The east wind in Judea and in the Mediterranean is very tempestuous and destructive. It is also very dry and parching, as well as sudden and terrible in its action. Gen 41:6<\/span>; Exo 14:21<\/span>; Eze 19:12<\/span>; Job 27:21<\/span>; Isa 27:8<\/span>; Jer 18:17<\/span>; Jon 4:8<\/span>. Hence the LXX. translate the original words, “ Εν πνευματι βιαίω,” “With a violent wind;” and the Chaldee reads, “A strong east wind as a fire from before the Lord.” “Such a wind,” says Bishop Mant, “is well known to the modern mariner by the name of Levanter, and is of the same kind as that spoken of in the twenty-seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, under the name of Euroclydon.” <\/p>\n (195) It is supposed by some that there is in it an implied similitude; the particle of similitude used in the preceding verse being understood. Thus French and Skinner translate the 6 and 7 verses — “Then did trembling seize upon them — Pangs as of a woman in travail — As when with a stormy wind, Thou breakest in pieces the ships of Tarshish.” According to this translation, “the ships of Tarshish” do not refer to an invading army, nor “the breaking in pieces of them” to an actual storm which had this effect; but the sacred writer employs another figure, the more vividly to describe the terror which seized upon these confederate powers. He had in the preceding verse compared it with the pangs of a woman in travail; and here he compares it to the trembling which seized upon mariners when the fury of the east wind, which shattered in pieces the largest and strongest vessels, as the ships of Tarshish probably then were, was let loose upon them. <\/p>\n (7) Breakest.<\/strong>It is natural at first sight to connect this verse immediately with the disaster which happened to the fleet of Jehoshaphat (1Ki. 22:48-49<\/span>; 2Ch. 20:36<\/span>). And that event may indeed have supplied the figure, but a figure for the dispersal of a land army. <\/em>We may render:<\/p>\n With a blast from the east Or,<\/p>\n With a blast from the east according as we take the verb, second person masculine, or third person feminine.<\/p>\n Shakespeare, in King John, <\/em>compares the rout of an army to the dispersion of a fleet<\/p>\n So, by a roaring tempest on the flood, This is preferable to the suggestion that the seaboard tribes were in the alliance, whose break-up the psalm seems to commemorate, and that the sudden dispersion of their Armada ruined the enterprise. Tarshish ships, a common term for large merchantmen (comp. East Indiamen<\/em>), <\/em>from their use in the Tarshish trade, are here symbols of a powerful empire. Isaiah, in Isaiah 33<\/span>, compares Assyria to a gallant ship. For the east wind, proverbially destructive and injurious, and so a ready weapon of chastisement in the Divine hand, see Job. 27:21<\/span>; Isa. 27:8<\/span>; and Eze. 27:26<\/span>, where its harm to shipping is especially mentioned.<\/p>\n Psa 48:7<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish, <\/em><\/strong>&c.<\/strong> Or, like the east wind, which <\/em>in a moment dasheth in pieces the ships of Tarshish. <\/em>Green. I have added, says he, in a moment, <\/em>because the east wind in those parts is remarkably violent, (comp. Job 27:21<\/span>. <\/span>Jer 18:17<\/span>. Isa 27:8<\/span>. Hab 1:9<\/span>.) and because it more easily conveys to the reader in what point of comparison it lies; namely, in the suddenness of the king’s being seized with trembling and fear. <\/p>\n Psa 48:7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.<\/p>\n Ver. 7. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish<\/strong> ] i.e.<\/em> Of the ocean, or of the Mediterranean Sea, Isa 2:16<\/span> ; Isa 23:1<\/span> ; Isa 23:6<\/span> ; Isa 23:10<\/span> ; Isa 23:14<\/span> . The meaning is, Like as thou, O God, with thine east wind, that Euroclydon especially, which Pliny calleth Navigantium pestem<\/em> (the mariner’s mischief), art wont to dash and drown the tallest ships at thy pleasure; so thou both canst and wilt deal by thy Church’s enemies. To whom, therefore, this text should be as those knuckles of a man’s hand were to Belshazzar, to write them their destiny; or as Daniel was to him, to read it unto them.<\/p>\n wind. Hebrew. ruach. App-9. <\/p>\n breakest: Eze 27:25, Eze 27:26 <\/p>\n ships: 1Ki 22:48, Isa 2:16 <\/p>\n east: Jer 18:17 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: 1Ki 10:22 – Tharshish Psa 107:23 – go down Isa 23:1 – ye ships Eze 30:4 – pain Rev 8:9 – the ships<\/p>\n Psa 48:7. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish, &c. Thou didst no less violently and suddenly destroy these raging enemies of Jerusalem, than sometimes thou destroyest the ships at sea with a fierce and vehement wind, such as the eastern winds were in those parts.<\/p>\n 48:7 Thou breakest the ships {g} of Tarshish with an east wind.<\/p>\n (g) That is, of Cilicia or of the Mediterranean sea.<\/p>\n The east wind can be very strong and hot in Israel. Tarshish probably refers to some nation to the west, possibly near modern Spain. Ships of Tarshish were probably large Mediterranean vessels. The writer pictured their destruction as symbolic of God’s defeat of nations foreign to Israel.<\/p>\n Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. 7. With an east wind Thou shatterest ships of Tarshish. As he gazes upon the wreck of the Assyrian enterprise, the poet apostrophises God with mingled awe and thankfulness. The language is plainly metaphorical. God’s might is irresistible. He shatters the stately ships of Tarshish … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 48:7”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Thou breakest (them as) Tarshish ships.<\/p>\n
(Which) breaketh Tarshish ships (thou breakest them),<\/p>\n
A whole Armada of convicted sail
Is scattered and disjoined from fellowship.<\/p>\nFuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"