
Text -- Psalms 78:33 (NET)




Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics



collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
In tedious and fruitless marches hither and thither.

In manifold diseases, dangers, and perplexities.
JFB -> Psa 78:33-39
JFB: Psa 78:33-39 - -- Though there were partial reformations after chastisement, and God, in pity, withdrew His hand for a time, yet their general conduct was rebellious, a...
Though there were partial reformations after chastisement, and God, in pity, withdrew His hand for a time, yet their general conduct was rebellious, and He was thus provoked to waste and destroy them, by long and fruitless wandering in the desert.
Clarke -> Psa 78:33
Clarke: Psa 78:33 - -- Their days did he consume in vanity - By causing them to wander forty years in the wilderness, vainly expecting an end to their labor, and the enjoy...
Their days did he consume in vanity - By causing them to wander forty years in the wilderness, vainly expecting an end to their labor, and the enjoyment of the promised rest, which, by their rebellions, they had forfeited.
Calvin -> Psa 78:33
Calvin: Psa 78:33 - -- 33.And he consumed their days in vanity As the Psalmist here speaks of the whole people, as if he had said, that all without exception were speedily ...
33.And he consumed their days in vanity As the Psalmist here speaks of the whole people, as if he had said, that all without exception were speedily consumed, from the least even to the greatest, this might with probability be referred to that most grievous punishment which was confirmed and ratified by the wrath of God — that they should all perish in the wilderness with only two exceptions, Joshua and Caleb; because, when already near the land of Canaan, they had turned back. That vast multitude, therefore, after they had shut against themselves the door of entrance into the Holy Land, died in the wilderness during the course of forty years. Days are put in the first place, and then years; by which it is intimated, that the duration of their life was cut short by the curse of God, and that it was quite apparent that they failed in the midst of their course. Their days then were consumed in vanity; for they vanished away like smoke: and their years in haste, because they passed swiftly away like a stream. The word
TSK -> Psa 78:33
TSK: Psa 78:33 - -- days : Psa 90:7-9; Num 14:29, Num 14:35, Num 26:64, Num 26:65; Deu 2:14-16
years : Gen 3:16-19; Job 5:6, Job 5:7, Job 14:1; Ecc 1:2, Ecc 1:13, Ecc 1:1...

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes -> Psa 78:33
Barnes: Psa 78:33 - -- Therefore their days did he consume in vanity - He suffered them to spend their days - the days of that entire generation - in vain and fruitle...
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity - He suffered them to spend their days - the days of that entire generation - in vain and fruitless wanderings in the desert. Instead of leading them at once to the promised land, they were kept there to wear out their life in tedious monotony, accomplishing nothing - wandering from place to place - until all the generation that had come out of Egypt had died.
And their years in trouble - literally, "in terror."Amidst the troubles, the alarms, the terrors of a vast and frightful desert. Sin - rebellion against God - leads to a course of life, and a death, of which these gloomy, sad, and cheerless wanderings in the desert were a striking emblem.
Poole -> Psa 78:33
Poole: Psa 78:33 - -- In vanity in tedious and fruitless marches hither and thither, sometimes forward, and sometimes backward, which they knew would never bring them in t...
In vanity in tedious and fruitless marches hither and thither, sometimes forward, and sometimes backward, which they knew would never bring them in their own persons to their promised and much-desired land.
In trouble in manifold diseases, dangers, perplexities, and horrors of their own minds and consciences.
Gill -> Psa 78:33
Gill: Psa 78:33 - -- Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,.... They were not immediately cut off by the hand of God, though some were; but the greatest part spent...
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,.... They were not immediately cut off by the hand of God, though some were; but the greatest part spent their time, for about eight and thirty years together, in fruitless marches to and fro in the wilderness, and never entered into the land of Canaan, where they were gradually wasted and consumed, till at length all their carcasses fell in the wilderness; see Num 14:32, time spent in sin is all waste time, and is spent in vanity; let a man enjoy ever so much of worldly things, it is all vanity and vexation of spirit; if he does not get to heaven at last, his life here is lived in vain; it had been better if he had never been born:
and their years in trouble: or "in terror" a and consternation; through their enemies, who smote and discomfited them, Num 14:45, through the earth's opening and swallowing many of them up; through fire coming from heaven on some of them, and fiery serpents being sent among them all, Num 16:31. It is an awful consideration, and yet it is true, of some wicked men, though not all, that they have nothing but trouble here, by what their sins bring upon them, and hell at last. Kimchi renders the word here used "suddenly", and interprets it of the sudden death of the spies; so the Syriac and Arabic versions "swiftly", following the Vulgate Latin, which renders it "with haste".

expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Psa 78:1-72
TSK Synopsis: Psa 78:1-72 - --1 An exhortation both to learn and to preach, the law of God.9 The story of God's wrath against the incredulous and disobedient.67 The Israelites bein...
MHCC -> Psa 78:9-39
MHCC: Psa 78:9-39 - --Sin dispirits men, and takes away the heart. Forgetfulness of God's works is the cause of disobedience to his laws. This narrative relates a struggle ...
Matthew Henry -> Psa 78:9-39
Matthew Henry: Psa 78:9-39 - -- In these verses, I. The psalmist observes the late rebukes of Providence that the people of Israel had been under, which they had brought upon thems...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Psa 78:26-37
Keil-Delitzsch: Psa 78:26-37 - --
Passing over to the giving of the quails, the poet is thinking chiefly of the first occasion mentioned in Ex. 16, which directly preceded the giving...
Constable: Psa 73:1--89:52 - --I. Book 3: chs 73--89
A man or men named Asaph wrote 17 of the psalms in this book (Pss. 73-83). Other writers w...

Constable: Psa 78:1-72 - --Psalm 78
This didactic psalm teaches present and future generations to learn from the past, and it stres...
