Psalms 44:2

With thine own hand didst thou dispossess nations, and plant them in,

Didst afflict peoples, and cause them to spread abroad.

Thou with thy handare the first words of the verse in the Heb., emphasising by their position the prominent thought of this stanza, that Israel owed its possession of Canaan not to its own courage but to Jehovah's help. The metaphor of plantingis frequently applied to the establishment of Israel in Canaan (cp. Exodus 15:17; 2 Samuel 7:10), and it is continued in the next line, where the rendering cause them to spread abroad is commended by the usage of the word and by the parallelism. Israel is compared to a tree which struck root and spread its branches far and wide. Cp. Psalms 80:8 ff, Psalms 80:11. Note the artistic parallelism, the first clause in each line referring to the nations, the second to Israel.