Psalms 114:1

PSALM CXIV

Miracles wrought at the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt,

at the Red Sea, and at Jordan, 1-6;

and at the rock of Horeb, 7, 8.

NOTES ON PSALM CXIV

This Psalm has no title. The word Hallelujah is prefixed in all the Versions except the Chaldee and Syriac. It seems like a fragment, or a part of another Psalm. In many MSS. it is only the beginning of the following; both making but one Psalm in all the Versions, except the Chaldee. It is elegantly and energetically composed; but begins and ends very abruptly, if we separate it from the following. As to the author of this Psalm, there have been various opinions; some have given the honour of it to Shadrach, Meshech, and Abed-nego; others to Esther; and others, to Mordecai.

Verse Psalms 114:1. A people of strange language] This may mean no more than a barbarous people; a people whom they did not know, and who did not worship their God. But it is a fact that the language of the Egyptians in the time of Joseph was so different from that of the Hebrews that they could not understand each other. See Psalms 81:5; Genesis 42:23.

The Chaldee has here מעמי ברבראי meammey barbarey, which gives reason to believe that the word is Chaldee, or more properly Phoenician. See this word fully explained in the note on Acts 28:2. My old Psalter understood the word as referring to the religious state of the Egyptians: In gangyng of Isrel oute of Egipt, of the house of Jacob fra hethen folke.