Psalms 105:18

Psa 105:18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:

Ver. 18. Whose feet they hurt with fetters] God hereby fitting him for that great service; as he did afterwards Moses, by forty years’ banishment in Midian, and David, by Saul’s persecution, till his soul was even as a weaned child, Psa 131:2.

He was laid in iron] Heb. His soul came into iron; or, the iron entered into his soul; but sin entered not into his conscience. See a like phrase Luk 2:35.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. (Psa 105:18) They hurt, with the fetter, his feet; into iron came his soul. That Joseph was actually chained or fettered is included in the true sense of the word bound, applied to him in the history. See Gen 40:3, and compare Gen 39:20; Gen 39:22. They, the Egyptians, or his gaolers; or the verb may be indefinitely construed, as if it had been said, his feet were hurt. The verb means elsewhere to humble or mortify, but is here used in its strict sense of afflicting, causing to suffer. The Prayer Book version of the last clause, the iron entered into his soul, is ungrammatical, the word for iron being masculine, while that for soul is, like the verb, feminine. The general sense is given in the text of the English Bible, and the exact form in the margin. The mention of the soul, as in many other cases, is of course not meant to be exclusive of the body, but to suggest the idea or intimate and heartfelt suffering. See above, on Psa 3:2; Psa 11:1, etc.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18 They afflicted his feet in the fetters It is not without cause that the Psalmist prosecutes the winding course of Jacob’s early history, which might so confuse the minds of men as to prevent them from directing their attention to the counsel of God. What seemed less likely than to believe that God, by so directly opposite and circuitous a path, meant to accomplish what he had purposed? But his providence, by surmounting so many obstacles, is brought out more conspicuously, than if he had despatched the whole matter by a short and easy road. Had Joseph, as soon as he arrived in Egypt, been presented to the king, and made its governor, the way to what followed would have been easy. But when he was carried away to prison, and lay there separated from the society of men, living as one half-dead; and when his becoming known to the king was a long time subsequent to this, and beyond all expectation, such a sudden change renders the miracle much more evident. This circuitous course then, which the prophet recounts, serves not a little to illustrate the subject in hand. Joseph was many times dead before he was sold. Hence it follows, that God as often showed his care of his Church by delivering him who might be termed her father. When after, having been brought into Egypt, Joseph was conveyed from hand to hand till he descended into another grave, is it not the more clearly manifest from this that God, while he seems to be asleep in heaven, is all the while keeping the strictest watch over his servants, and that he is carrying forward his purpose more effectually by these various windings, than if he had gone straight forward, yea, than if he had run with rapid pace? For this reason the prophet affirms that his feet were afflicted in the fetters; a fact which, although not stated in the narrative of Moses, he speaks of as well known. And no doubt, many things were delivered by tradition to the Jews of which no mention is made in the Scriptures. It is also probable enough, that, instead of being put at first under mild restraint, as was afterwards the case, he was rigorously confined. Whether we read, his soul entered into the iron, or the iron entered into his soul, the meaning, which, in either case, is exactly the same, amounts to this, that the holy man was so galled with fetters, that it seemed as if his life had been given over to the sword. Whence it follows, that the safety of his life was as hopeless as the restoration of life to a dead body.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(18) He was laid in iron.—The Prayer Book Version, “the iron entered into his soul,” has established itself so firmly among expressive proverbial sayings, that the mind almost resents the Authorised Version. The grammar of the clause does not decide its sense with certainty; for its syntax is rather in favour of the Prayer Book Version, though the feminine form of the verb makes in favour of the marginal rendering. Symmachus has, “his soul came into iron;” the LXX., “his soul passed through iron.” The Vulg., however, has the other Version, “the iron passed through his soul”—first found in the Targum. The parallelism is in favour of the Authorised Version.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. Whose feet] R.V. His feet. This verse is merely a poetical description of imprisonment. The narrative in Gen. does not hint that Joseph was severely treated.

he was laid in iron] I.e. as R.V., he was laid in (chains of) iron. But the Heb. literally means, (into) iron entered his soul; and his soul is not a mere equivalent for he, but denotes (though we have no word by which it could be rendered here) Joseph’s whole sensitive personality. He keenly felt the degradation and suffering of his unjust imprisonment. Thus the sense is substantially the same as that of the picturesque rendering of the P.B.V. which has passed into a proverbial phrase, “the iron entered into his soul[58].” This rendering, which is that of the Targ. and Vulg.[59], is defended by Delitzsch and others, but is questionable for grammatical reasons.

[58] Coverdale’s original rendering (1535) was, the yron pearsed his herte. The alteration in the Great Bible (1539) was no doubt suggested by Münster’s ferreum (vinculum) intravit usque ad animam eius.

[59] According to the present text, which has ferrum pertransiit animam eius. But as all the mss. of the LXX have σίδηρον διῆλθεν ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ, it seems probable that animam is a corruption for anima.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whose feet they hurt with fetters,.... For it seems Joseph was not only cast into prison, upon the calumny of his mistress; but had fetters put upon him, and his feet were made fast with them; and these were so close and heavy, as to pinch and gall and hurt him; which, though not mentioned in his history, was undoubtedly true; see Gen 39:20.

He was laid in iron: or "the iron" (or, as the Targum, "the iron chain") "went into his Soul" (f); his body; it ate into him, and gave him great pain: or rather, as it is in the king's Bible, "his soul went into the iron chain"; there being, as Aben Ezra observes, an ellipsis of the particle and which is supplied by Symmachus, and so in the Targum; that is, his body was enclosed in iron bands, so Buxtorf (g). In all this he was a type of Christ, whose soul was made exceeding sorrowful unto death: he was seized by the Jews, led bound to the high priest, fastened to the cursed tree, pierced with nails, and more so with the sins of his people he bore; and was laid in the prison of the grave; from whence and from judgment he was brought, Isa 53:8.

(f) So Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus. (g) Lexic. "in voce"

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whose feet they hurt with fetters - In Gen 40:3; it is said of Joseph that he was “bound” in prison. It is not improbable that his “feet” were bound, as this is the usual way of confining prisoners.

He was laid in iron - In the prison. The margin is, “his soul came into iron.” The version in the Prayer-Book of the Episcopal Church is, the iron entered into his soul. This is a more striking and beautiful rendering, though it may be doubted whether the Hebrew will permit it. DeWette renders it, “In iron lay his body.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Heb. his soul came into iron; which seems to be added emphatically to aggravate his imprisonment, and to show how grievous it was to his very soul, which must needs sympathize with his body, and moreover was greatly vexed to consider both the great injury which was done to him, and yet the foul and public scandal which lay upon him.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 18. Whose feet they hurt with fetters. From this we learn a little more of Joseph's sufferings than we find in the book of Genesis: inspiration had not ceased, and David was as accurate an historian as Moses, for the same Spirit guided his pen.

He was laid in iron, or "into iron came his soul." The prayer book version, "the iron entered into his soul, "is ungrammatical, but probably expresses much the same truth. His fetters hurt his mind as well as his body, and well did Jacob say, "The archers shot at him, and sorely grieved him." Under the cruelly false accusation, which he could not disprove, his mind was, as it were, belted and bolted around with iron, and had not the Lord been with him he might have sunk under his sufferings. In all this, and a thousand things besides, he was an admirable type of him who in the highest sense is "the Shepherd, the stone of Israel." The iron fetters were preparing him to wear chains of gold, and making his feet ready to stand on high places. It is even so with all the Lord's afflicted ones, they too shall one day step from their prisons to their thrones.

Ver. 18. His soul came into iron (margin). The whole person is denoted by the soul, because the soul of the captive suffers still more than the body. Imprisonment is one of the most severe trials to the soul. Even to spiritual heroes, such as a Savonarola and St. Cyran, the waters often go over the soul. E.W. Hengstenberg.

Ver. 18. His soul came into iron. Till we have felt it, we cannot conceive that sickness of heart, which at times will steal upon the patient sufferer; that sense of loneliness, that faintness of soul, which comes from hopes deferred and wishes unshared, from the selfishness of brethren and the heartlessness of the world. We ask ourselves, If the Lord were with me, should I suffer thus, not only the scorn of the learned and the contempt of the great, but even the indifference and neglect of those whom I have served, who yet forget me? So Joseph might have asked; and so till now may the elect ask, as they stand alone without man's encouragement or sympathy, not turned aside by falsehood or scorn, with their face set as a flint, yet deeply feeling what it costs them. Andrew dukes, in" The Types of Genesis, "1858.

Psalms 105:19*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Hurt with fetters—The Egyptian laws were very severe against the crime of which Joseph was wickedly charged. “An attempt at adultery was to be punished with one thousand blows.”—Delitzsch. Joseph’s punishment was much lighter. Potiphar probably doubted the story of his wife. Still, Joseph was put with the “king’s prisoners” in a “dungeon,” or pit, “bound,” as guilty of a state crime, (Gen_39:20,) until he obtained favour of the “keeper of the prison,” and his condition was alleviated.

He was laid in iron—Hebrew, his soul came into iron.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron; rather, his soul entered into iron. In Genesis nothing more is said than that Joseph "was bound" in the prison. (Gen_40:3) But the psalmist knows what imprisonment was in those early times.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

shackles

metal restraints used to fasten a prisoner's wrists or ankles together

His feet were bound by shackles; on his neck was put an iron collar

These statements can be restated as active. AT: "The Egyptians bound his feet in shackles; they put an iron collar around his neck. (See: Active or Passive and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

The word of Yahweh tested him

"The message of Yahweh tested him"

translationWords

bind

true

word of God

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

his soul was placed in irons Said Rav Huna the son of Idi: She [Potiphar’s wife] made him a “shirtua” under his beard, so that if he bent his face over, the “shirtua” would wound him. שרתוע means a forked, suspended spear.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.