Psalms 78:50

50 (77-50) He made a way for a path to his anger: he spared not their souls from death, and their cattle he shut up in death.

Psalms 78:50 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 78:50

He made a way to his anger
Or, "for" it, so that nothing could obstruct it, or hinder the execution of it; or "he weighed a path for his anger" ^F13; he weighed it in the balance of justice, and proportioned his anger to their crimes, and punished them according to their just deserts:

he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the
pestilence;
which some understand of their cattle, and of the murrain that came upon them, by which they were destroyed, and which was the fifth plague of Egypt, ( Exodus 9:3 ) , so the Targum,

``their beasts he delivered unto death;''

but Aben Ezra interprets it of the slaughter of the firstborn, expressed in the following verse; and so others.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 (wpal bytn olpy) "ponderavit semitam furori suo", Pagninus, Vatablus; "libravit semitam irae suae", Tigurine version; "iter ad iram suam", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Psalms 78:50 In-Context

48 (77-48) And he gave up their cattle to the hail, and their stock to the fire.

49 (77-49) And he sent upon them the wrath of his indignation: indignation and wrath and trouble, which he sent by evil angels.

50 (77-50) He made a way for a path to his anger: he spared not their souls from death, and their cattle he shut up in death.

51 (77-51) And he killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt: the firstfruits of all their labour in the tabernacles of Cham.

52 (77-52) And he took away his own people as sheep: and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.