Psalms 78:29

29 So the people ate and were satisfied; God gave them what they wanted.

Psalms 78:29 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 78:29

So they did eat, and were well filled
. Or "exceedingly filled" F13, or too much, as some versions render it; they eat to excess, not merely to satisfy nature, but to gratify their sensual appetite: gluttony is a sin; it is an abuse of the creatures; it hurts the body by filling it with gross humours, and bringing diseases on it; it is injurious to the mind; the heart may be overcharged by it; it disposes it to sin; it leads to impiety, to atheism, and disbelief of a future state, which often go along with it, and ends in destruction, which is the case of those whose god is their belly:

for he gave them their own desire;
or their lust F14, what they lusted after, flesh; and they had as much of it as they would, though this was given in judgment; and a sad thing it is when God gives men a fulness of this world's things, and leaves them to the abuse of them, or sends leanness into their souls, and gives them up to their own hearts' lusts.


FOOTNOTES:

F13 (dam webvyw) "et saturati sunt valde", Pagninus, Montanus
F14 (Mtwat) "concupiscentiam ipsorum", Cocceius.

Psalms 78:29 In-Context

27 and to his people he sent down birds, as many as the grains of sand on the shore;
28 they fell in the middle of the camp all around the tents.
29 So the people ate and were satisfied; God gave them what they wanted.
30 But they had not yet satisfied their craving and were still eating,
31 when God became angry with them and killed their strongest men, the best young men of Israel.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.