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Psalms 78:49

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger,.... This with the following words, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, are thought by some to intend the other plagues, which are not particularly mentioned; or rather they express the manner in which they were all inflicted, in great wrath and hot displeasure for their sins and iniquities, and which...

Psalms 78:50

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

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...

Psalms 78:51

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And smote all the firstborn in Egypt,.... From the prince to the peasant; and not only the firstborn of men, but of beasts also, Exodus 12:29, the chief of their strength; or first of it, as the firstborn is called, Genesis 49:3, in the tabernacles of Ham; in the several cities, towns, villages, and houses of the Egyptians, the descendants of...

Psalms 78:52

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

But made his own people to go forth like sheep,.... The people of Israel, whom the Lord chose to be his peculiar people above all others; these he caused to go forth out of Egypt, with a mighty hand and stretched out arm; like sheep, weak, timorous, unarmed, harmless, and inoffensive, not a dog daring to move his tongue at them: the power of God...

Psalms 78:53

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And he led them on safely,.... Through the sea, where the waters were on each side; and through the wilderness, in which were serpents and scorpions, and where they were attacked by many powerful enemies: so that they feared not; for though they feared for a while at the Red sea, yet their fears were soon silenced, and they by faith passed through...

Psalms 78:54

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary,.... Of the land of Canaan, which the Lord had sanctified, and set apart for them; and of Jerusalem, the holy city, the city of the great God, and of the temple where his residence was to be; so the Targum, "to the border of the place of the house of his sanctuary:'' even to this mountain, which...

Psalms 78:55

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

He cast out the Heathen also before them,.... The seven nations, the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, Deuteronomy 7:1 and divided them an inheritance by line: the land of Canaan was divided among the nine tribes and a half by Joshua, the other two and a half having had their portion assigned them on...

Psalms 78:56

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God,.... After the death of Joshua, and in the times of the judges, by worshipping and serving the gods of the nations, and forsaking the Lord their God, who had done such great things for them, Judges 2:11, and kept not his testimonies; the laws of God, which testified and declared his mind and will;...

Psalms 78:57

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

But turned back,.... From God and his worship, apostatized from the true religion, and turned to idols: and dealt unfaithfully, like their fathers; in the wilderness; see Psalms 78:8, they were turned aside like a deceitful bow; that promises well to carry the arrow right, but drops it at the feet of the archer; or carries it another way, so that...

Psalms 78:58

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

For they provoked him to anger with their high places,.... Which they built to Baal, and other Heathen dieties: and moved him to jealousy with their graven images; which they worshipped, see Judges 10:6, which idolatry was spiritual adultery, and so made the Lord jealous of them, who stood in the relation of a husband to them, as a man becomes...

Psalms 78:59

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

When God heard this,.... Their building high places, and sacrificing on them, their making and worshipping graven images, and the language which such actions spoke; who also heard what they said to their idols, when they paid their devotion to them, acknowledging them to be their gods; he took notice of and observed all this, for nothing could...

Psalms 78:60

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh.... The tabernacle which Moses built in the wilderness by the command of the Lord, and according to the pattern showed him; and which, when the Israelites were settled in the land of Canaan, was set up in Shiloh; see Joshua 18:1, and here it was in the times of Eli and Samuel, which are here referred to:...

Psalms 78:61

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And delivered his strength into captivity,.... That is, the ark, called his strength, and the ark of his strength, Psalms 105:4, because it was a token of his strength, and by means of which he displayed it, as when the Israelites passed through Jordan into Canaan's land, and encompassed the city of Jericho; and besides, it was typical of Christ,...

Psalms 78:62

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

He gave his people over also to the sword,.... To those that kill with the sword, as the Targum; that is, to the Philistines, when there fell of them thirty thousand men at once, 1 Samuel 4:10 and was wroth with his inheritance; and the above showed that he was, though they were his inheritance, his portion and possession, and he had chosen them...

Psalms 78:63

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

The fire consumed their young men,.... Not Nadab and Abihu, as some of the Jewish Rabbins interpret it, of which Jarchi makes mention; but the young men, the choice, the flower, of the Israelitish army, which engaged with the Philistines in the times of Eli; and the fire that consumed them is not to be understood of material fire, or of...

Psalms 78:64

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

Their priests fell by the sword,.... Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, and other priests; which shows the cruelty of the enemy, not to spare men unarmed, as the priests were; and the justice of God, which pursued these men, who were very wicked, and whose character and office could not secure them from divine wrath: and their widows made no...

Psalms 78:65

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,.... He seemed to be asleep, while he suffered the ark to be taken, and the Israelites to be slain; and he may be said to awake when he exerted his power in smiting the Philistines, and causing their idol to fall before his ark; see Psalms 7:6, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine; who...

Psalms 78:66

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts,.... Not the Israelites, as Kimchi interprets it, but the Philistines, who in another battle were put to flight, and turned their backs, and so were smitten in their hinder parts; or rather this has reference to the Philistines being smitten with haemorrhoids, or piles in their posteriors, while the ark...

Psalms 78:67

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

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...

Psalms 78:68

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

But chose the tribe of Judah,.... Both to be the seat of kingly power and government, and of religious worship; the latter is chiefly designed. Jerusalem was, at least part of it, in the tribe of Judah: here David, who was of that tribe, dwelt, and Solomon his son, and all the kings of Judah afterwards; here the temple was built, into which the...