Psalms 68:14

When the Almighty scattered kings in it - The Hebrew here is, “In the scattering of (that is, by) the Almighty of kings.” The reference is to the act of God in causing kings to abandon their purposes of invasion, or to flee when their own countries were invaded. Compare Psalms 48:5. The language here is so general that it might be applied to any such acts in the history of the Hebrew people; to any wars of defense or offence which they waged. It may have reference to the scattering of kings and people when Joshua invaded the land of Canaan, and when he discomfited the numerous forces, led by different kings, as the Israelites took possession of the country. The close connection of the passage with the reference to the journey through the wilderness Psalms 68:7 would make it probable that this is the allusion. The phrase “in it,” (margin, for her), refers doubtless to the land of Canaan, and to the victories achieved there.

It was white as snow in Salmon - Margin, She was. The allusion is to the land of Canaan. But about the meaning of the phrase “white as snow in Salmon,” there has been great diversity of opinion. The word rendered “was white as snow” is correctly rendered. It means to be snowy; then, to be white like snow. The verb occurs nowhere else. The noun is of frequent occurrence, and is always rendered snow. Exodus 4:6; Numbers 12:10; 2Sa 23:20; 2 Kings 5:27; et al. The word Salmon properly means shady, and was applied to the mountain here referred to, probably on account of the dark forests which covered it. That mountain was in Samaria, near Shechem. Judges 9:48. It is not known why the snow of that mountain is particularly alluded to here, as if there was any special whiteness or purity in it. It is probably specified by name only to give more vivacity to the description. There is much difference of opinion as to what is the meaning of the expression, or in what respects the land was thus white.

The most common opinion has been that it was from the bones of the slain which were left to bleach unburied, and which covered the land so that it seemed to be white. Compare Virg. AEn. v. 865; xii. 36. Ovid uses similar language, Fast. i: “Humanis ossibus albet humus.”So also Horace, Serra. 1, 8: “Albis informem spectabant ossibus agrum.” This interpretation of the passage is adopted by Rosenmuller, Gesenius, and DeWette. Others suppose it to mean that the land was like the dazzling whiteness of snow in the midst of blackness or darkness. This was the opinion of Kimchi, and this interpretation is adopted by Prof. Alexander. Tholuck supposes it to mean that, when war was waged on the kings and people, they fell as fast as snow-flakes on Mount Salmon; and that the idea is not so much the whiteness of the land, as the fact that they fell in great numbers, covering the land as the snow-flakes do. It is perhaps not possible to determine which of these explanations is correct. Either of them would accord with the meaning of the words and the general sense of the psalm. That of Tholuck is the most poetical, but it is less obvious from the Hebrew words used.