Psalm 106:13-43

13 They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel,

14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert.

15 And He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.

16 When they envied Moses in the camp, And Aaron the saint of the Lord,

17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan, And covered the faction of Abiram.

18 A fire was kindled in their company; The flame burned up the wicked.

19 They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped the molded image.

20 Thus they changed their glory Into the image of an ox that eats grass.

21 They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt,

22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, Awesome things by the Red Sea.

23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them, Had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach, To turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.

24 Then they despised the pleasant land; They did not believe His word,

25 But complained in their tents, And did not heed the voice of the Lord.

26 Therefore He raised up His hand in an oath against them, To overthrow them in the wilderness,

27 To overthrow their descendants among the nations, And to scatter them in the lands.

28 They joined themselves also to Baal of Peor, And ate sacrifices made to the dead.

29 Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, And the plague broke out among them.

30 Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, And the plague was stopped.

31 And that was accounted to him for righteousness To all generations forevermore.

32 They angered Him also at the waters of strife, So that it went ill with Moses on account of them;

33 Because they rebelled against His Spirit, So that he spoke rashly with his lips.

34 They did not destroy the peoples, Concerning whom the Lord had commanded them,

35 But they mingled with the Gentiles And learned their works;

36 They served their idols, Which became a snare to them.

37 They even sacrificed their sons And their daughters to demons,

38 And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with blood.

39 Thus they were defiled by their own works, And played the harlot by their own deeds.

40 Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His people, So that He abhorred His own inheritance.

41 And He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles, And those who hated them ruled over them.

42 Their enemies also oppressed them, And they were brought into subjection under their hand.

43 Many times He delivered them; But they rebelled in their counsel, And were brought low for their iniquity.

Psalm 106:13-43 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 106

This psalm is without the name of its author, as the Syriac interpreter observes. Aben Ezra, on Ps 106:47, says, that one of the wise men of Egypt (perhaps Maimonides) was of opinion that it was written in the time of the judges, when there was no king in Israel; and another, he says, thought it was written in Babylon: but he was of opinion it was wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, or by a prophetic spirit, concerning their present captivity; and so Kimchi. The petition in Ps 106:47, "gather us from among the Heathen", has led most interpreters to conclude that it was written either in the Babylonish captivity, or, as some, in the times of Antiochus: but by comparing it with 1Ch 16:7, it appears that it was written by David, at the time of the bringing up of the ark to Zion; since the first and two last verses of it are there expressly mentioned, in the psalm he gave Asaph to sing on that occasion, Ps 106:34-36, who therein might have respect to the Israelites that had been taken captive by some of their neighbours, as the Philistines, and still retained; though there is no difficulty in supposing that David, under a prophetic spirit, foresaw future captivities, and represents those that were in them. As the preceding psalm treats of the mercies and favours God bestowed upon Israel, this of their sins and provocations amidst those blessings, and of the goodness of God unto them; that notwithstanding he did not destroy them from being a people; for which they had reason to be thankful.

Footnotes

• [a] Or Meribah