Psalms 74:2

Purchased. — Or, as in LXX., acquired. This word, together with the word “redeemed” in the next clause, and “right hand” in Psalms 74:11, show that Exodus 15 was in the writer’s mind. (See especially Psalms 74:12; Psalms 74:16 of that chapter.)

The word “congregation” here, as in the Mosaic books, presents the people in its religious aspect, as the expression “rod (or, tribe) of thine inheritance” presents it in its political character.

The rod of ... — Better, which thou hast redeemed as the tribe of thine inheritance, i.e., as thine own tribe.

The expression, “rod of thine inheritance,” comes from Jeremiah 10:16; Jeremiah 51:19. (Comp. Isaiah 63:17.) It refers not to the shepherd’s crook, but to the sceptre, or leading staff, of the prince of a tribe, and so passes into a term for the tribe itself (Exodus 28:21; Judges 20:2).