Psalm 68:13

Verse 13. Will ye lie down among the sheepfolds? A sharp remonstrance. Will ye lie at ease, in the quiet of your pastoral life, as the dove with unsoiled plumage in her peaceful nest, while your brethren are in the tumult and dust of the conflict! Compare Judges 5:16-17 (from which this allusion is taken). Thomas J. Conant.

Verse 13. Though ye have lien among the pots, etc. Here is one Hebrew word in the original which especially renders the Scripture intricate; namely, ~ytpf, shephattajim; which, being a word of divers significations and translations, occasions various interpretations. It is rendered,

(2). The other of Israel's being like the wings of a dove (which is of very speedy flight for escape), of bright silver and beauteous golden colour; representing their escape and deliverance at last out of all their blacking, smutting, and deforming afflictions, into the contrary, beauteous, prosperous, and happy state under the kingdom of David, especially of Jesus Christ the true David. Blackness notes extreme affliction, affliction and misery; doves' wings, escape; white silver colour and beauteous golden colour, prosperity and felicity. Thus the metaphors are elegantly opposed one to another, and very significantly set forth the several conditions of Israel; first, as lying among the pots of deep afflictions in former times, but after as assured of deliverance, of better days, and that they should be as a silver winged and golden feathered dove, full of beauty, comeliness, prosperity, and felicity. To this effect R. David Kimchi, Pagnin, Calvin, Muis, Foord, Ainsworth, and others expound these words.

Francis Roberts, in a Sermon entitled "The Checquer work of God's Providences, towards His Own People, made up of Blacks and Whites," etc. 1657.

Verse 13. Though ye have lien among the pots, etc. Miss Whately, in her work, "Ragged Life in Egypt," describing some of the sights witnessed from the flat roofs of the houses in Cairo, among other interesting objects, states: -- The roofs are usually in a great state of litter, and were it not that Hasna, the seller of geeleh, gets a palm branch, and makes a clearance once in a while, her roof would assuredly give way under the accumulation of rubbish. One thing never seemed cleared away, and that was the heaps of old broken pitchers, sherds, and pots, that in these and similar houses are piled up in some corner: and there is a curious observation in connection with this. A little before sunset, numbers of pigeons suddenly emerge from behind the pitchers and other rubbish, where they have been sleeping in the heat of the day, or pecking about to find food. They dart upwards, and career through the air in large circles, their outspread wings catching the bright glow of the sun's slanting rays, so that they really resemble bright "yellow gold;" then, as they wheel round, and are seen against the light, they appear as if turned into molten silver, most of them being pure white, or else very light coloured. This may seem fanciful, but the effect of light in these regions is difficult to describe to those who have not seen it; and evening after evening, we watched the circling flight of the doves, and always observed the same appearance. It was beautiful to see these birds, rising clean and unsoiled, as doves always do, from the dust and dirt in which they had been hidden, and soaring aloft in the sky till nearly out of sight among the bright sunset clouds. Thus a believer, who leaves behind him the corruptions of the world, and is rendered bright by the Sun of Righteousness shining upon his soul, rises higher and higher, nearer and nearer to the light, till, lost to the view of those who stay behind, he has passed into the unknown brightness above! Miss Whately, in "Ragged Life in Egypt."

Verse 13. Silver and yellow gold. The changing colours of the dove's plumage are here described. Mant reads it --

It will illustrate the variety of the translations, if we add that of Keble:

Personally, I have had cause to remark the flash of the wings of a pigeon, for, in passing before my study window, that bird has often led me to imagine that some unusual light had flashed across the sky; in every case, a mild and silvery light. As to the varying hues of the plumage of birds, Mr. Gosse, after quoting from Sonnerat's Voyage in New Guinea, says, "In reference to the brilliant metallic hues of the epimachus and other birds, the traveller takes occasion to notice the iridescent effect which is produced by the different angles at which light falls on the feathers. The emerald green, for instance, will often fling out rays of its two constituent primary colours, at one time being blue green, at another gold green, while in certain lights all colour vanishes, and a velvet black is presented to the eye." This it seems to me is a very natural and complete explanation of the poetic language here employed. C. H. S.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 13.