Tehillim 78:50

50 He made a way for His anger; He spared not their nefesh from mavet (death), but gave their beasts over to the dever (plague);

Tehillim 78:50 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 78:50

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" ^F13; 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, ( Exodus 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.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F13 (wpal bytn olpy) "ponderavit semitam furori suo", Pagninus, Vatablus; "libravit semitam irae suae", Tigurine version; "iter ad iram suam", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Tehillim 78:50 In-Context

48 He gave up their cattle also to the barad (hail), and their livestock herds to hot thunderbolts.

49 He cast upon them His charon af, evrah (wrath), and za’am (indignation), and tzarah, by sending malachim ra’im among them.

50 He made a way for His anger; He spared not their nefesh from mavet (death), but gave their beasts over to the dever (plague);

51 And struck all the bechor in Mitzrayim; the reshit (first fruit) of their strength in the ohalim of Cham;

52 But made His own people to go forth like tzon, and guided them in the midbar like an eder (flock).