Psalm 105:27

They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) They shewed.—Literally, They placed, i.e., did.

His signs.—Literally (as in margin), the words of his tokens; but it may also be rendered, “the details of his signs.”(Comp. Psalm 65:3 : “matters of iniquity,” or, “details of sin.”) So here, “details of signs,” i.e., signs in detail or sequence, sign after sign.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

105:24-45 As the believer commonly thrives best in his soul when under the cross; so the church also flourishes most in true holiness, and increases in number, while under persecution. Yet instruments shall be raised up for their deliverance, and plagues may be expected by persecutors. And see the special care God took of his people in the wilderness. All the benefits bestowed on Israel as a nation, were shadows of spiritual blessings with which we are blessed in Christ Jesus. Having redeemed us with his blood, restored our souls to holiness, and set us at liberty from Satan's bondage, he guides and guards us all the way. He satisfies our souls with the bread of heaven, and the water of life from the Rock of salvation, and will bring us safely to heaven. He redeems his servants from all iniquity, and purifies them unto himself, to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They shewed his signs among them - literally, "They placed among them the words of his signs." So the margin. The reference is to the miracles performed in Egypt in bringing calamities upon the Egyptians to induce them to permit the children of Israel to go out from their bondage. They were the agents in setting these wonders before the Egyptians. The term words is employed here - "the words of his signs" - to keep up the idea that it was by the command of God that this was done, or by his word. It was by no power of their own, but only by the authority of God.

And wonders in the land of Ham - Miracles. Things suited to produce astonishment. See Psalm 105:5.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27. signs—literally, "words of signs," or rather, as "words" in Hebrew means "things," "things of His signs," that is, His marvellous tokens of power (Ps 145:5, Margin). Compare the same Hebraism (Ps 65:3, Margin).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

His signs, Heb. the words of his signs; an emphatical expression. First they boldly declared the word and will of God concerning the several plagues, and then they actually inflicted them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They showed his signs among them,.... The Egyptians to whom they were sent; that is, Moses and Aaron did. In the original it is, "the words of his signs" (x). They declared the words of God to them, that he would do such signs and wonders among them; or inflict such plagues upon them, in case they did not let Israel go: or they performed them according to the word of the Lord, as he commanded them, as well as taught the doctrines and instructions to be learned from them. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it in the singular number, though contrary to the Hebrew text, and understand it of God, "he put the words of his signs in them"; in Moses and Aaron; or gave them orders and power to perform them: he put them "in both", as the Arabic version has it; or, "he did his signs by them", as the Syriac version.

And wonders in the land of Ham; or Egypt, as in Psalm 105:23, meaning the miracles of the plagues, which are next particularly mentioned, though not all of them: the plagues of the murrain, and of the boils and blains, are omitted; the reason of which, according to Aben Ezra, is, because Pharaoh did not seek to Moses to remove them; and the other eight that are mentioned are not placed in the order in which they were done, the last but one being observed first.

(x) "verba signorum suorum", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, &c.

Geneva Study Bible

They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. They shewed &c.] Moses and Aaron. But the parallel passages in Psalm 78:43; Exodus 10:2 (cp. Jeremiah 32:20) make it probable that we should follow most of the Ancient Versions (LXX, Aq. Symm. Syr. Jer.) in reading the singular, He set; and this agrees better with the context, as Jehovah is the subject in Psalm 105:24-26; Psalm 105:28-29.

his signs] Lit. the acts or matters of his signs (cp. the acts or matters of his wondrous works in Psalm 145:5): i.e. his various signs: hardly, the words or message of his signs, “as being declarations of God’s will and command to let His people go.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - They showed his signs among them; literally, the matters of his signs; i.e. his long series of signs. Aaron showed the earlier signs generally (Exodus 7:10, 19, 20; Exodus 8:6, 17), Moses the later ones (Exodus 9:10, 23; Exodus 10:13, 22). And wonders in the land of Ham (comp. ver. 23 and Psalm 106:22). Psalm 105:27

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Narration of the exodus out of Egypt after the plagues that went forth over that land. Psalm 105:25 tells how the Egyptians became their "oppressors." It was indirectly God's work, inasmuch as He gave increasing might to His people, which excited their jealousy. The craft reached its highest pitch in the weakening of the Israelites that was aimed at by killing all the male children that were born. דּברי signifies facts, instances, as in Psalm 65:4; Psalm 145:5. Here, too, as in Psalm 78, the miraculous judgments of the ten plagues to not stand in exactly historical order. The poet begins with the ninth, which was the most distinct self-representation of divine wrath, viz., the darkness (Exodus 10:21-29): shā'lach chō'shech. The former word (שׁלח) has an orthophonic Gaja by the final syllable, which warns the reader audibly to utter the guttural of the toneless final syllable, which might here be easily slurred over. The Hiph. החשׁיך has its causative signification here, as also in Jeremiah 13:16; the contracted mode of writing with i instead of ı̂ may be occasioned by the Waw convers. Psalm 105:28 cannot be referred to the Egyptians; for the expression would be a mistaken one for the final compliance, which was wrung from them, and the interrogative way of taking it: nonne rebellarunt, is forced: the cancelling of the לא, however (lxx and Syriac), makes the thought halting. Hitzig proposes ולא שׁמרו: they observed not His words; but this, too, sounds flat and awkward when said of the Egyptians. The subject will therefore be the same as the subject of שׂמוּ; and of Moses and Aaron, in contrast to the behaviour at Mê-Merı̂bah (Numbers 20:24; Numbers 27:14; cf. 1 Kings 13:21, 1 Kings 13:26), it is said that this time they rebelled not against the words (Ker, without any ground: the word) of God, but executed the terrible commands accurately and willingly. From the ninth plague the poet in Psalm 105:29 passes over to the first (Exodus 7:14-25), viz., the red blood is appended to the black darkness. The second plague follows, viz., the frogs (Exodus 8:1-15); Psalm 105:20 looks as though it were stunted, but neither has the lxx read any ויבאו (ויעלו), Exodus 7:28. In Psalm 105:31 he next briefly touches upon the fourth plague, viz., the gad-fly, ערב, lxx κυνόμυια (Exodus 8:20-32, vid., on Psalm 78:45), and the third (Exodus 8:16-19), viz., the gnats, which are passed over in Psalm 78. From the third plague the poet in Psalm 105:32, Psalm 105:33 takes a leap over to the seventh, viz., the hail (Exodus 9:13-35). In Psalm 105:32 he has Exodus 9:24 before his mind, according to which masses of fire descended with the hail; and in Psalm 105:33 (as in Psalm 78:47) he fills in the details of Exodus 9:25. The seventh plague is followed by the eighth in Psalm 105:34, Psalm 105:35, viz., the locust (Exodus 10:1-20), to which ילק (the grasshopper) is the parallel word here, just as חסיל (the cricket) is in Psalm 78:46. The expression of innumerableness is the same as in Psalm 104:25. The fifth plague, viz., the pestilence, murrain (Exodus 9:1-7), and the sixth, viz., שׁחין, boils (Exodus 9:8-12), are left unmentioned; and the tenth plague closes, viz., the smiting of the first-born (Exodus 11:1.), which Psalm 105:36 expresses in the Asaphic language of Psalm 78:51. Without any mention of the institution of the Passover, the tenth plague is followed by the departure with the vessels of silver and gold asked for from the Egyptians (Exodus 12:35; Exodus 11:2; Exodus 3:22). The Egyptians were glad to get rid of the people whose detention threatened them with total destruction (Exodus 12:33). The poet here draws from Isaiah 5:27; Isaiah 14:31; Isaiah 63:13, and Exodus 15:16. The suffix of שׁבטיו refers to the chief subject of the assertion, viz., to God, according to Psalm 122:4, although manifestly enough the reference to Israel is also possible (Numbers 24:2).