Psalms 34:5

They looked&c. The subject is to be supplied from the verb. They that looked unto him looked, and were brightened. The earnest gaze of faith and confidence was not in vain. For the phrase cp. Isaiah 31:1; and for illustration see Numbers 21:9; Zechariah 12:10. The Heb. word for brightenedis a rare word, found in Isaiah 60:5 (R.V.); but this, not flowedunto him (A.V. marg.) is the right sense. In most editions They flowedis wrongly marked as the alternative to They looked. For the thought cp. Psalms 36:9.

were not ashamed R.V. shall never be confounded, lit. put to the blushwith disappointment: a word which has not met us before in the Psalter, but recurs twice in Psalms 35. (Psalms 35:4; Psalms 35:26), and elsewhere.

The reading of the Massoretic text gives a fair sense, but the ancient Versions (except the Targum) read an imperative in the first clause, and your facesin the second. We should then render, Look unto him and be brightened, that your faces may not be confounded. This reading is in itself probable, and is supported by grammatical considerations. The connexion of thought in Psalms 34:5 will then be exactly the same as in Psalms 34:3; an invitation, followed by the statement of a fact which supports it.