Psalms 68:30

Rebuke the company of spearmen,.... Or, "of the reed" (d); that is, men that use and fight with spears, like to reeds, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it.

Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.

Rebuke, to wit, really; humble and chastise those that will not bring presents to thee, as the kings did, , till they see their error and submit themselves, as it here follows. The company; so this word signifies here above, . Or, the beast, or wild beast, as this word is elsewhere used, i.e. the beasts; the singular being put for the plural: so the sense is the same. Spear-men, Heb. of the reed, i.e. that use spears or arrows; which may be called reeds, either because in length and form they resemble reeds, or because anciently they were made of reeds. And this sense seems favoured by the last words of this verse, in which he explains this and the other metaphors of warriors. Or the reed may be taken properly; and by the beast of the reed he may understand the king of Egypt, who then was a very potent and a most idolatrous king, and a great and old enemy to the true religion, and to the people of Israel, whom therefore he desires God to rebuke and humble, that he may acknowledge the true God, which is foretold that he shall do, . As for this enigmatical designation of this king, that is agreeable enough both to the usage of the prophets in such cases, and to the rules of prudence; and upon the same account the prophet Jeremiah, threatening destruction against Babylon, calls it enigmatically Sheshach, 51:41, and St. Paul calls Nero the lion, . But then this one king, being eminent in his kind, is by a usual synecdoche put for all of them which were enemies to God’ s people. Bulls; by which he doubtless understands men of war, as the following words expound it; the great, and potent, and fierce, and furious adversaries of God, and of his church, as this word is used, . And consequently the calves must be their people or soldiers depending upon them, and joining with them in these acts of hostility against thine Israel. Submit himself with pieces of silver: this he adds as a limitation of his request; Rebuke them, O Lord, not to utter destruction, but only till they be humbled and submit themselves, and in token thereof bring pieces of silver for presents, as was foretold, . For submit himself, it is in the Hebrew cast himself down, or offer himself to be trod upon. But because this supplement may seem too large, and not necessary, the words are and may be rendered otherwise, that tread upon, or walk proudly in or with, fragments or pieces of silver, wherewith eminent captains used to adorn themselves and their very horses. And so this belongs to the bulls and calves, whose pride, and wealth, and power is described in this manner. Scatter thou, Heb. he hath scattered, i.e. he will certainly scatter, according to the prophetical style.

Psalms 68:30 Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, [till every one] submit himself with pieces of silver: scatter thou the people [that] delight in war.Ver. 30. Rebuke the company of spearmen] Or, lancemen; Heb. the beast of the reeds; that is, say some, voluptuous persons that wallow in wealth, plenty, and pleasure, Job 40:21, Sicut Pontifices, Cardinales, Episcopi et horum satellites. as Popes, cardinals, bishops and their underlings. Behemoth lieth in the fens, which Gul. Parisiensis applieth to the devil in sensual hearts; reeds grow not but in fat and moist places: but they do better who render it the rout, or crew, of the cane; that is, men that bear reeds or canes, whereof spears, arrows, and lances were wont to be made; these men, or rather beasts, cruel, savage, and bloody, rebuke, that is, repress. The multitude of the bulls] The commanders and chieftains. With the calves of the people] The common soldiers. With pieces of silver] With a homage penny, as they call it. That delight in war] That make a sport of it, as Joab, 2 Samuel 2:14; as Pyrrhus, king of Epirotes, who made a recreation of warfare. So did not David, though, necessitated thereunto for the glory of God, he was a man of war from his youth. If we princes, said our Henry VII, should delight in war, or take every occasion that is offered, the world should never be quiet, but wearied with continual wars.

(30) Rebuke . . .—See margin, which (if we change beasts to beast) gives the right rendering. So LXX. and Vulgate. The beast of the reed is undoubtedly symbolical of Egypt, whether it be the crocodile or the hippopotamus.Bulls . . . calves.—These are possibly emblems respectively of the strong and the weak—the princes and the common people. (Comp., for a somewhat similar description of the Egyptians, Psalms 76:5-6.) But a slight emendation suggested by Grätz gives the herd of bulls despisers of the people, a reading quite in keeping with the ordinary use of this figure. (See Psalms 22:12; Jeremiah 1:11.) The figure in connection with the bull-worship of Egypt is especially significant. Till every one submit.—This clause still waits for a satisfactory explanation. The Authorised Version is intelligible, but grammatically indefensible. The LXX. are undoubtedly right in taking the verb as a contracted infinitive preceded by a negative particle (comp. Genesis 27:1), and not as a participle. The meaning submit or humble (Proverbs 6:3) is only with violence deduced from the original meaning of the verb, which (see Daniel 7:7) means to stamp like a furious animal. One cognate is used (Ezekiel 34:18) of a herd of bulls fouling the pasture with their feet, and another means to tread. The form of the verb here used might mean to set oneself in quick motion, which is the sense adopted by the LXX. in Proverbs 6:3. Hence we get rebuke . . . from marching for pieces of silver, the meaning being that a rebuke is administered not only to Egypt, but also to those Jews who took the pay of Egypt as mercenaries, and oppressed the rest of the community, a sense in keeping with the next clause. Scatter.—The verb, as pointed, means hath scattered, but the LXX. support the alteration to the imperative which the context demands.

Verse 30. Rebuke the company of spearmen] חית קנה chaiyath kaneh, the wild beast of the reed-the crocodile or hippopotamus, the emblem of Pharaoh and the Egyptians; thus all the Versions. Our translators have mistaken the meaning; but they have put the true sense in the margin.

30. the company of spearmen] Better as R.V., the wild beast of the reeds, i.e. the crocodile, or rather, the hippopotamus, which is described in Job 40:21 as lying “in the covert of the reed.” It is a symbolical designation of Egypt, which is mentioned either as the typical enemy of Israel, or with reference to circumstances of the time. the multitude of Me bulls, with the calves of the people] R.V. peoples. The kings or leaders of heathen nations, followed by their peoples as the calves of the herd follow the bulls. Cp. Jeremiah 46:20-21, R.V. ‘Bulls’ suggests the idea of proud defiance; ‘calves’ that of comfortable security. till every one submit himself with pieces of silver] Lit. as R.V. marg., Every one submitting himself &c. Their proud spirits are subdued by the irresistible divine ‘rebuke’ (Psalms 76:6; Isaiah 17:13); they prostrate themselves in the dust before the Lord of the world, and offer tribute of their wealth. Cp. Isaiah 60:9. This gives a fair sense, but the construction is difficult. The difficulty is avoided by the rendering of R.V., which makes the participle refer to God: Trampling under foot the pieces of silver, i.e. spurning the tribute which they bring Thee. The true meaning is however quite uncertain, and the text is very possibly corrupt. The Ancient Versions vary greatly, some of them pointing to varieties of reading. Of the host of modern emendations, one may be mentioned which only requires alteration of the vowel points: ‘Trampling under foot them that delight in silver’; but it can hardly be pronounced satisfactory. scatter thou &c.] The Massoretic Text reads: He bath scattered the peoples: a ‘prophetic perfect,’ realising the triumph of God over all opposition as already complete. But it suits the context better to read the imperative with LXX and Jer., scatter thou. The difference is one of vocalisation only.

Rebuke the company of spearmen - Margin, “the beasts of the reeds.” This is in the form of a prayer - “Rebuke;” but the idea is, that this “would” occur; and the meaning of the whole verse, though

30. Rebuke the company of spearmen—Literally, Rebuke the wild beast of the reed, or cane-brake.