Psalms 106:24-34

24 And they had the desirable land for nought, (for) they believed not to his word, (And they considered the desirable land as worth nothing, for they did not believe his promise,)

25 and they grutched in their tabernacles (and they grumbled in their tents); (and) they heard not the voice of the Lord.

26 And he raised his hand on them; to cast down them in desert. (And he raised up his hand against them; to throw them down in the wilderness.)

27 And to cast away their seed in nations; and to lose them in countries. (And to scatter their descendants among the nations; and so to let them die in foreign, or strange, lands.)

28 And they made sacrifice to Baalpeor; and they ate the sacrifices of dead beasts. (And then they sacrificed to Baalpeor; and they ate the sacrifices offered to dead, or lifeless, gods.)

29 And they wrathed God in their findings; and falling, either death, was multiplied in them. (And they angered God with their deeds; and many died from the plague.)

30 And Phinehas stood, and pleased God; and the vengeance ceased. (But then Phinehas stood up, and pleased God; and the plague ceased.)

31 And it was areckoned to him to rightfulness; in generation and into generation, till into without end. (And it was counted unto him as righteousness; throughout all generations, forever.)

32 And they wrathed God at the waters of against-saying; and Moses was travailed for them, that is, troubled in soul, (And then they angered God again, this time at the waters of Meribah; and Moses was travailed for them, that is, his soul was troubled over them/and Moses was in great trouble because of them,)

33 for they made bitter his spirit, and he parted in his lips. (for they made his spirit so bitter, that he spoke rashly with his lips.)

34 They lost not [the] heathen men; which the Lord said to them (to do). (And they did not destroy the heathen; which the Lord had commanded them to do.)

Psalms 106:24-34 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.