Psalm 76:5
Read Psalm 76:5 Using Other Translations
What does Psalm 76:5 mean?
The stout hearted are spoiled
The Assyrian army, its officers and generals, that came up
against Jerusalem, with great resolution and courage, and with
daring impiety and blasphemy against the God of heaven, as
Rabshakeh and others; these were spoiled, and their armour and
riches became a prey to those they thought to have made a prey
of. So principalities and powers were spoiled by Christ upon the
cross, and Satan, the strong man armed, has in the conversion of
a sinner his armour taken from him, and his spoils divided by him
that is stronger than he; and such as are stouthearted, and far
from true righteousness, are stripped of their own, and made
willing, in the day of Christ's power upon them, to submit to
his; and as for antichrist, whose look is more stout than his
fellows, that exalts himself above all that is called God, and
opens his mouth in blasphemy against him and his followers, he
shall be destroyed with the breath of Christ's mouth, and the
brightness of his coming: or "the stout hearted have spoiled
themselves" F1; as the Midianites did, or gave
themselves for a prey; so the Targum,
``the stouthearted have cast off from them the weapons of war;''threw away their armour, and ran away, such of them as were not destroyed by the angel. It is observable, that the Hebrew word, translated "spoiled", is in the Syriac form:
they have slept their sleep:
the sleep of death, as did the Assyrians when smitten by the
angel, which was done in the night, when probably they were fast
asleep, and so never awoke more, as the Babylonians, ( Jeremiah
51:57 ) . So Jezebel, or the Romish antichrist, shall be cast
into a bed, and her children killed with death, ( Revelation
2:22 Revelation
2:23 ) . Death is often in Scripture signified by a sleep,
both the death of the righteous and of the wicked; but there is a
difference between the one and the other; wherefore the death of
the wicked here is called "their sleep"; the one sleep in Jesus,
in his arms, and under his guardianship, the other not; to the
one death is a true and proper rest from toil and labour, to the
other only a cessation from doing mischief, ( Job 3:17 ) , the one rests
in hopes of a glorious resurrection, the other not; the one will
awake in Christ's likeness, and to everlasting life; the other in
the image of Satan, and to everlasting shame and contempt:
and none of the men of might have found their
hands;
none of the valiant soldiers in the Assyrian army could find
their hands to fight their enemies, or defend themselves; as men
in a deep sleep cannot find their hands to do anything, and are
as if they had none, and still less in a dead sleep. The Targum
is,
``they were not able to lay hold on their armour with their hands.''This was the case of them that were killed; and as for those that remained alive, they were struck with such a panic, that their hearts could not endure, nor their hands be strong when God thus dealt with them; and so it will be with the antichristian army at the battle of Armageddon; and so it is with the wicked at death, they cannot find their hands so as to prevent it; and when it has seized upon them, they cannot find their hands to do any more mischief.
F1 (wllwtva) "praedae se exposnerunt", Tigurine version, Gejerus; "dediderunt se in praedam", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
