The beginning of each month was marked by the blowing of the silver trumpets (Numbers 10:10); but the first day of the month Ethânîm or Tisri (Sept. Oct.), the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year and the first of the civil year, was kept as a solemn festival and was called -the Day of trumpet-b... [ Continue Reading ]
_God our strength_ Cp. Exodus 15:2; Psalms 46:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
A call to the joyous celebration of the festival, addressed to the whole congregation (Psalms 81:1), to the Levites as the appointed leaders of the Temple music (Psalms 81:2), and to the Priests, whose special duty it was to blow the trumpets (Psalms 81:3). See Numbers 10:8; Numbers 10:10; Joshua 6:... [ Continue Reading ]
_Take a psalm_&c. Or, Raise a psalm and sound the timbrel. The timbrel, or tabret, was a tambourine or hand drum; the psaltery, like the harp, a stringed instrument.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the trumpet_ Heb. _shôphâr_, the horn, as distinguished from the metal trumpet. In the Pentateuch the use of the _shôphâr_is only prescribed in connexion with the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:9), but according to practice it was used for the New Year as well. _in the new moon_ The Targum expressl... [ Continue Reading ]
For it is a statute for Israel, An ordinance of the God of Jacob. (R.V.) _It_refers to the feast. The title _God of Jacob_carries our thoughts back beyond the Exodus to the providential dealings of Jehovah with the great ancestor of the nation (Genesis 46:2 ff.).... [ Continue Reading ]
The reason for the celebration in the divine appointment of the festival as a memorial of God's goodness to Israel.... [ Continue Reading ]
He appointed it in Joseph for a testimony (R.V.): to bear continual witness to His care of Israel. _when_&c. Render, When he (i.e. God) went out against (or _over_) the land of Egypt, to execute judgement upon the Egyptians. See Exodus 11:4. where _I heard a language that I understood not_ The poet... [ Continue Reading ]
I have removed his shoulder from the burden: His hands shall go free from the basket. The term -basket" does not occur in Exodus, but baskets for carrying the burdens of bricks or clay so often referred to in Exodus (Exodus 1:11; Exodus 2:11; Exodus 5:4-5; Exodus 6:6-7) are frequently represented... [ Continue Reading ]
From the divine decree for Israel's liberation the transition to an address to Israel is easy. Israel of the present is regarded as one with Israel of the past. _Thou calledst_&c. For the phrase cp. Psalms 50:15; and for the fact, Exodus 2:23 ff. _in the secret place of thunder_ In the covert of th... [ Continue Reading ]
Israel's duty of allegiance to Jehovah alone; the fundamental principle of the covenant. Israel in the wilderness is primarily addressed, but Israel of every age is included.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hear … and I will testify unto thee_ Or, I will protest unto thee, of solemn warning and exhortation. Cp. Psalms 50:7; and numerous passages in Deuteronomy, e.g. Deuteronomy 6:4; Deuteronomy 5:1; Deuteronomy 5:6; Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 30:19; Deuteronomy 31:28. _if thou wilt hearken_&c. Bett... [ Continue Reading ]
_no strange god_ Cp. Psalms 44:20; Deuteronomy 32:16. any _strange god_ Any alien god. Cp. Deuteronomy 32:12. Absolute frdelity to Jehovah was the fundamental principle of the Sinaitic covenant, embodied in the first -word" of the Decalogue.... [ Continue Reading ]
I am Jehovah thy God, Which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Cp. Exodus 20:2 ff.; Deuteronomy 20:1. To Jehovah Israel owed its existence. The fact that He redeemed it from Egypt constituted His claim upon its allegiance. Cp. 1 John 4:10. _open_&c. God is ready liberally to satisfy all th... [ Continue Reading ]
But my people hearkened not to my voice. For _my people … Israel_in a similar complaint see Isaiah 1:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
Israel's disobedience and its punishment.... [ Continue Reading ]
So I let them go after the stubbornness of their heart, That they might walk in their own counsels. (R.V.). God punishes men by leaving them to their own self-willed courses of action, which prove their ruin. Cp. Job 8:4; Proverbs 1:30 ff.; Romans 1:24 ff.; 2 Thessalonians 2:10 ff. -Stubbornness... [ Continue Reading ]
O that my people were hearkening unto me, That Israel would walk in my ways!... [ Continue Reading ]
Yet God's mercy is inexhaustible. Even now if Israel would obey Him, He would subdue their enemies, and bless them abundantly. Cp. Isaiah 48:17-19.... [ Continue Reading ]
I should soon subdue their enemies, And turn my hand against their adversaries. _In my ways_is the contrast to _in their own counsels_. (Jeremiah 7:23-24.) The hand which is now turned against Israel in chastisement would be turned against their enemies.... [ Continue Reading ]
The haters of Jehovah should come cringing unto him, So that their time should be for ever. _Unto him_may mean _to Jehovah_or _to Israel_; but apparently the latter. Jehovah's enemies are the enemies of His people, and He would force them to pay homage, however reluctantly (Psalms 66:3 note), to I... [ Continue Reading ]
Tense and person both present serious difficulties, and it seems necessary to emend the text of the first line, and read: Yea, I would feed him with the fat of wheat, And with honey out of the rock would I satisfy thee. _Him_= Israel. The transition to direct address in Psalms 50:2 (-thee") seems... [ Continue Reading ]