Psalm 68:10

Verse 10. Thy congregation. Or, Thy living creatures. That desolate place, where only wild beasts before could live, was now by those showers of manna ( Psalms 68:9 ) enabled to sustain a multitude of other tamer living creatures, even of men and all their flocks and herds. Henry Hammond.

Verse 10. (first clause). Rather: -- "As for thy food (manna and quails), they dwelt in the midst of it." Edmund Law.

Verse 10. (first clause). As to thy food, they dwelt amidst it. The ambiguity of the word hyx has occasioned various renderings of this line. Parkhurst considers the radical sense of hyx is "to be vigorous, strong;" hence the noun denotes force, a body of men ( 2 Samuel 23:13 ); and also that which gives strength, the means of support, or food ( Judges 6:4 17:10); and compare Nehemiah 9:6 . Our translators took the term in the first sense; I take it in the second, because the connection seems to require it, and because (tyx) refers always to a body of men, as soldiers, as actually engaged in some kind of warfare. Hence what is called the troop of Philistines ( 2 Samuel 23:13 ) is called the camp of the Philistines. 1Ch 11:15. And, lastly, because the common version has no antecedent to which hk, in it, or amidst it, can refer; but this version has one in the noun food. I think there is then a reference not only to the manna, but to the quails, which God brought in abundance around the camp. Exodus 16:13 Numbers 11:31 . Thus he prepared in his goodness for the poor. Benjamin Boothroyd.

Verse 10. Thou hast prepared in thine own sweetness for the poor, O God. In thine own sweetness, not in his sweetness. For the needy he is, for he hath been made weak, in order that he may be made perfect: he hath acknowledged himself indigent, that he may be replenished. Augustine.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 10. (second clause). Special goodness, for a special people, specially prepared.

Verse 10. (second clause). It is spoken in reference to the poor, because,