2 Samuel 7:23
Read 2 Samuel 7:23 Using Other Translations
What does 2 Samuel 7:23 mean?
And what one nation in the earth [is] like thy people,
[even]
like Israel
For the knowledge and worship of the true God among them, for
laws and or given them, and for blessings of goodness bestowed
upon them:
whom God went to redeem for a people to
himself;
the words are plural, "whom the gods went to redeem"; the Targum
is,
``they that were sent from the Lord,''meaning Moses and Aaron, of whom Jarchi interprets them, of the first of which it is said, "I have made thee a god unto Pharaoh", ( Exodus 7:1 ) ; but Kimchi and R. Isaiah understand it of the true God, only suppose, as the former, that the plural expression is used for the sake of honour and glory; whereas, no doubt, respect is had to the three divine Persons in the Trinity, who were all concerned in the redemption of Israel, see ( Isaiah 63:9-12 ) , where mention is made of the Lord, and of the Angel of his presence, and of his holy Spirit, as engaged therein:
and to make him a name;
either to get himself a name, and honour and glory in the world,
to show forth his power and might, as well as his mercy and
goodness, or to make his people famous, great, and glorious in
the earth:
and to do for you great things and terrible;
as he did in the land of Ham, at the Red sea, and in the
wilderness, and in the land of Canaan, great things for his
people, and terrible ones to their enemies:
for thy land;
which is either spoken to God, whose was the land of Israel, and
which he had chosen to dwell in, and had given to his people; or
else to Israel, to whom the grant of this land was made, and who
were put into the possession of it:
before thy people which thou redeemedst to thee from
Egypt:
that is, the great and terrible things were done in their sight,
when they were redeemed from the bondage of Egypt, see ( Psalms 78:12
) ;
[from] the nations, and their gods?
meaning, that they were redeemed not only from Egypt, but the
nations of the Canaanites were driven out before them; nor could
their idols save them, but destruction came upon them as upon the
gods of the Egyptians: some leave out the supplement "from", and
interpret this of the persons redeemed, even of the nations and
tribes of Israel, and their great men, their rulers and civil
magistrates, sometimes called gods.
