Works Volume 4, Book 5 · Psalm 129
The Hundred and Twenty Ninth PSALM.
A Song of Degrees.
The hundred twenty ninth is the recounting of the many dangers of God's people, and the many wonderfull deliverances which God hath afforded them, and foretelleth the utter deſtruction of all the enemies thereof. It ſeemeth to have been compoſed by Ezra, or ſome of that time, at the return from the captivity.
1. ‖They have very much or ſorely— foreign ſee Pſal. 123.3.MAny a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Iſrael now ſay:
2. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth; yet they have not prevailed againſt me.
Paraphrase. 1, 2. 'Tis now a moſt proper vacant ſeaſon to recount the very many invaſions and diſtreſſes which the people of Iſrael have met with, from the beginning of their being a nation, from all which God hath wonderfully aſſiſted and defended them.
3. The aforeignplowers upon my back, they made long their furrows.
4. The Lord is righteous: he hath cut aſunder the cords of the wicked.
Paraphrase. 3, 4. We have now for ſome length of years been ſeverely chaſtiſed by oppreſſing tyrants: but God hath at laſt in his great mercy delivered us out of their hands.
5. ‖they ſhall foreignLet them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.
6. Let them be as the graſs upon the houſe tops, which withereth afore it †be plucked up.groweth up.
7. Wherewith the *metermower filleth not his hand; nor he that ‖gathers the bandf…bindeth ſheaves his †or armboſom.
8. Neither do they which go by ſay, The bleſſing of the Lord be upon you; we bleſs you in the name of the Lord.
Paraphrase. 5, 6, 7, 8. And now their turns ſhall come of affliction and diſcomfiture. All our enemies, oppreſſors of the Church of God, ſhall be diſappointed of their prey, and purſued with the curſe of God, a blaſting from heaven; their pride and flouriſhing condition ſhall without any arms of ours be ſpeedily brought to nought. In ſtead of a proſperous harveſt of all their oppreſſions and injuſtices, they ſhall reap nothing but emptineſs and beggery. And all that ſee them ſhall diſcern God's curſe upon them, and think that they have but their deſerts, and abſtain from paying them thoſe civilities which are afforded to other men, Ruth 2.4. 2 Jo. 10. not wiſh them any better ſucceſs than what they have. Thus hath God at length magnified his deliverances to us, and his judgments on our enemies.
Annotations on Pſal. CXXIX.
V. 3. Plowers plowed] The meaning of the phraſe foreign will be diſcerned by two circumſtances in the context, foreign the back, and foreign cords, in the next verſe. For as foreign ſignifies to dig or cut the ground, and ſo to plough; ſo 'tis ſimply to cut, or carve, or grave. So Jer. 17.1. foreign it is graven in the table of the heart. So Exod. 35.33. 'tis cutting of ſtones. And being here applied to the back of captives, and cords being the inſtruments of it, in all reaſon it is to be underſtood of ſcourging, which cuts, and as it were digs, and ploughs, and makes furrows in the fleſh, and the longer the cords of the ſcourges are, the longer are the wounds and furrows. As for the doubling of the word, that ſignifies the great ſharpneſs and ſeverity, they ſcourging ſcourged on my back, i. e. ſcourged me moſt cruelly; in proportion to foreign v. 1. which belongs to the ſharpneſs of the affliction, the ſoreneſs of the ſtripes, and not to the frequency of them, which is otherwiſe ſufficiently expreſt by from my youth. Thus certainly the Chaldee underſtood it, who expreſs it by foreign (not as their Latin interpreter renders it, araverunt, ploughed, but as foreign in Chaldee and Syriack ſignifie.) they laid on ſcourging or chaſtiſement on my body. So when 1 King. 12.14. the Hebrew reads, my father foreign chaſtiſed you with whips, as after with ſcorpions, the Chaldee reads in both places as here foreign ſcourged. The Syriack alſo accord, reading foreign they ſmote with rods, or inflicted ſtripes on my back, from the Syriack uſage of foreign to ſcourge; and proportionably for foreign cords v. 4. they have foreign the twigs (from foreign a twig or bough) which is another notion of foreign for boughs as well as cords. The LXXII. for ploughing they ploughed, or ſcourging they ſcourged, reade foreign, the wicked framed or wrought; and for lengthening their furrows, foreign, they lengthened their iniquity; and for cords, foreign necks; partly by way of paraphraſe, and partly with reference to the Hebrew words: by foreign to foreign, which ſignifies alſo to frame, as an artificer doth, and ſo to work or machinate; and by foreign to foreign, the Hebrew foreign from foreign ſignifying a furrow, and foreign from the ſame root ſignifying affliction, or oppreſſion alſo, which is oft the importance of foreign iniquity (ſee Matth. 24.12.) As for foreign they are thought by ſome to have read foreign necks or backs, from foreign back in the former verſe. But 'tis more probable that having taken liberty to paraphraſe in the former part, they ſhould continue to doe ſo here alſo.
V. 6. Groweth up] The Hebrew foreign ſignifies not to grow up, but to pull up, or take out of the place. foreignThe LXXII. rightly render it foreign, the Latin evellatur, plucked up. It is uſed of drawing a ſword, Jud. 8.20. and 20.15. of pulling of the ſhooe, Ruth 4.7. and here of pulling up the graſs, which was the faſhion before ſickles and ſithes were uſed: and to that refers foreign the meter or gatherer, foreignbut eſpecially foreign v. 7. not he that bindeth the ſheaves, but he that gathers the handfulls (ſo as the leaſers did after the reapers, Ruth 2.3.) from foreign a handfull of graſs or corn, which he that gathers puts into his arms and carries in his boſome, as here foreign ſignifies, and Iſa. 49.22. they ſhall bring thy ſons in their arms. The meaning of the phraſe then is, that the enemies of Zion ſhall wither and fade away of their own accord, not need the ſword of enemies to deſtroy them, but periſh without any foreign violence, as graſs on the top of an houſe, where it hath no mould to take good root in, it withers before it be plucked up; whereas other graſs is firſt mowed or plucked up, and then is laid a withering. Again, the graſs on the houſe top grows very thin, he that plucks it up will not have an armfull a great while, which in the field is ſoon had, and accordingly is not thought capable of thoſe foreign, acclamations or ſalutations particularly accuſtomed to be given to reapers, The Lord be with you, Ruth 2.4. The Jewiſh Arab renders foreign by foreign ſummer, by the Eaſt wind of, or in, the ſummer, is withered. Abu Walid alſo makes mention of ſome who render it before the heat, from an uſe of the word in the Rabbins; and he likes the ſenſe, but ſaith the Vowels of the word here admit it not to be taken otherwiſe than for a verb of the preterperfect tenſe, and himſelf interprets it, before it perfectly appear, or be come forth.