Psalms 60:2

Psa 60:2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.

Ver. 2. Thou hast made the earth to tremble] By sundry fearful and dismal fractions and concussions in our state.

Thou hast broken it] In allusion to earthquakes.

Heal the breaches thereof] Remedy the disorders, and cure the diseases, like a good physician. The Greeks call a king αναξ αβ ακος, Medela from his healing office; God is Jehovah, the physician, the Sun of righteousness hath healing under his wings.

For it shaketh] Nutat ac mox ruitura videtur it will surely down if not timely shored up.

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.

Psa 60:2-3. Thou hast made the earth to tremble — A poetical expression, signifying great and dreadful changes among the people. Heal the breaches thereof — Reconcile all those differences which our civil wars have made among us. Thou hast showed thy people hard things — Thou hast made us feel what it is to offend thee, by inflicting grievous punishments upon us; thou hast made us drink the wine of astonishment — Thou hast fulfilled the words of thy servant Moses, Deu 28:34, for we have been like men bereft of the use of their reason by some intoxicating portion, and have madly destroyed one another.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. When, he conquered Aram, Naharaim and Aram Zobah, and Joab returned and smote Edom, in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand men. The common version of the first verb (strove with) seems too weak, as a victory is clearly presupposed, and the idea of contention is conveyed by a cognate form of the same verb. The name Aram corresponds to Syria in its widest and vaguest sense, and is joined with other names to designate particular parts of that large country. It even includes Mesopotamia, which is a term of physical rather than political geography, and denotes the space between the Tigris and Euphrates, corresponding to Aram-Naharaim, or Syria of the Two Rivers, in the verse before us. The king of this country was tributary to the king of Aram Zobah, as appears from the account of David's second Aramean war (2Sa 10:16; 2Sa 10:19). It was after the return of the victorious army from this war, that Joab marched against Edom and achieved the victory here ascribed to him, as the leader of the army, but in 1Ch 18:12, to his brother Abishai, who probably commanded under him, as he did in a subsequent campaign (2Sa 10:10), and in 2Sa 8:13, to David himself as the sovereign whom they both represented. The Valley of Salt has been identified by modern travellers with a valley south of the Dead Sea, on the ancient confines of Israel and Edom. See Robinson's Palestine, vol. ii. p. 483. The number killed on this occasion is stated in 2Sa 8:13, and 1Ch 18:12, at eighteen thousand. But this diversity might easily arise from different modes of computation, and seems at least to shew that the writer of the verse before us did not blindly copy the historical books, while the smaller number which he gives evinces his exemption from all disposition to embellish or exaggerate.

4. (Psa 60:2). Thou hast made the earth quake, thou hast riven it; heal its breaches, far it moves. The idea of social disaster and calamity is here expressed by the figure of an earthquake and its natural effects, to which God is besought to put an end by the removal of the cause.

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

As cleft with an earthquake.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(2) Earth.—Rather, land; since, though the image is drawn from an earthquake, in which the solid ground trembles and buildings totter and fall (comp. Isa_30:13), the convulsion described is political, not physical.

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

2. Thou hast made &c.] R.V. Thou hast made the land to tremble; thou hast rent it. The disaster is compared to an earthquake, which is often used as a symbol of great catastrophes and especially of divine judgement (Psa_18:7; Psa_46:3; Psa_46:6; Isa_24:18 ff). ‘The breaches’ may be the rents and rifts in the solid ground, or by a very natural transition, the state is further compared to the buildings shattered by the earthquake and threatening to fall (Psa_42:3; Isa_30:13; and for heal = repair, see Jer_19:11).

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.

Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it,.... As is frequently done by an earthquake; which, whatever natural causes there may be of it, is always to be ascribed to God. The ancient Heathens (m) were of opinion that all earthquakes were of God. This respects not the whole earth, but the land of Israel only; and so the Targum,

"thou hast moved the land of Israel, thou hast shaken and rent it;''

and it does not design a natural earthquake in it, but a figurative one; a shaking and rending of their civil and church state; see Heb 12:26;

heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh; which will be done in the latter day, when they shall return into their own land, and be restored as at the beginning, Isa 30:30.

(m) A. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 2. c. 28.

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

Thou hast made the earth to tremble - This refers, doubtless, to some calamity that might be compared with an earthquake - some disaster, discomfiture, or defeat that had shaken their hopes, as a city is shaken by an earthquake. Such comparisons are common in the Scriptures.

Thou hast broken it - As if it were broken up, or convulsed.

Heal the breaches thereof - That is, Appear for thy people, and repair their disasters, as if after an earthquake thou shouldst appear and fill up the rents which it had made. The prayer is that he would place things in their former condition of prosperity and success.

For it shaketh - It is convulsed or agitated. That is, there is still commotion. Things are unsettled and disturbed. The prayer is, that there might be stability or continued success.

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

Made the earth to tremble; a poetical and hyperbolical expression, signifying great and dreadful changes among the people, as Hag 2:7, compared with Heb 12:26,27. See also 1Sa 14:15.

Heal the breaches thereof; reconcile all those differences which our civil wars have made among us.

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

Ver. 2. Thou hast made the earth to tremble. Things were as unsettled as though the solid earth had been made to quake; nothing was stable; the priests had been murdered by Saul, the worst men had been put in office, the military power had been broken by the Philistines, and the civil authority had grown despicable through insurrections and intestine contests.

Thou hast broken it. As the earth cracks, and opens itself in rifts during violent earthquakes, so was the kingdom rent with strife and calamity.

Heal the breaches thereof. As a house in time of earthquake is shaken, and the walls begin to crack, and gape with threatening fissures, so was it with the kingdom.

For it shaketh. It tottered to a fall; if not soon propped up and repaired it would come down in complete ruin. So far gone was Israel, that only God's interposition could preserve it from utter destruction. How often have we seen churches in this condition, and how suitable is the prayer before us, in which the extremity of the need is used as an argument for help. The like may be said of our personal religion, it is sometimes so tried, that like a house shaken by earthquake it is ready to come down with a crash, and none but the Lord himself can repair its breaches, and save us from utter destruction.

Ver. 2. Heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. They pray that this may be done with the utmost speed, because there was a danger in delay, for the kingdom was already pressed down with a heavy calamity, and on the brink of ruin, which is signified by the word hjm whose origin is in a very strong and tremulous inclination to one side, properly from the application of a lever, and is applied to those who are leaning so far to one side that they are just on the point of falling; figuratively, therefore, it expresses a most perilous condition, in which one is on the edge of destruction. Hermann Venema.

Ver. 2. Heal the breaches thereof. Even Israel is subject to breaches. So it was with the literal typical Israel, David's kingdom; so it may be with spiritual mystical Israel, the kingdom of Christ, the church of God upon earth. There are breaches from without, and breaches from within. I will invert the order. From without, by open persecution; from within, by intestine and homebred divisions. Of both these the church of God in all ages hath had sufficient experience. Look we upon the primitive times, during the infancy of the church, however the soundest and most entire church that ever was, yet how was it broken! Broken, as by foreign persecutions, so by homebred divisions. Both these ways was the church during the apostles' time broken, distressed by enemies from without who persecuted it. John Brinsley (1600-1665), in "The Healing of Israel's Breaches."

Ver. 2. It shaketh. That is, presaging nothing but ruin and downfall, unless it be speedily underpropped, and the breaches thereof made up and healed. Thus did David look upon Israel's disease, and hereupon it was that he was so deeply affected with it, so earnestly desiring the cure of it. The reference, as interpreters conceive, is to those homebred divisions, those civil wars betwixt the two houses of Saul and David, after the death of Saul: then did the "earth, "the land, that land of Israel (as the Chaldee explains it), quake and tremble, being broken, riven (as the word in the original signifieth): even as the earth sometimes by earthquakes is riven, and torn asunder with prodigious chasms, openings, or gapings: so was that kingdom divided in those civil commotions, the nobles and commons taking parts and siding, some with David, some with Ishbosheth. John Brinsley.

Ver. 2. The perturbation, the prayer, the plea. G. R.

Psalms 60:3*

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

2. Earth to tremble… broken… breaches… shaketh—Fearful words, descriptive of an earthquake, to which the army and nation, tottering, reeling, breaking, under the shock of disastrous war, are now compared.

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

Thou hast made the earth (rather, the land) to tremble. The blow struck convulsed the whole landi.e. the people in it. It is not really an earthquake, but a panic fear, that is intended. Thou hast broken it; or, rent it. The imagery of an earthquake is kept up. Heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. The panic fear still continued.

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

Tremble - A poetical expression, signifying great changes among the people.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Connecting Statement:

The psalmist continues speaking to God.

You have made the land tremble; you have torn it apart

The psalmist speaks of the disaster in his country as if it were an earthquake. (See: Metaphor)

heal its fissures

Making the people strong again is spoken of as repairing the fissures in the ground or walls. (See: Metaphor)

fissures

large cracks in the ground or walls

You have made your people see difficult things

Here "see" represents "experience" or "suffer." (See: Metonymy)

drink the wine of staggering

Being helpless is spoken of as staggering around, barely able to stand upright. The abstract noun "staggering" can be stated as a verb. AT: "the wine that makes us stagger" (See: Metaphor and Abstract Nouns)

translationWords

cure

people group

wine

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

and Joab returned and smote of Edom, etc. [of] the eighteen thousand stated in Scripture (II Sam. 8:13, I Chron. 18:12), Abishai slew six thousand the first time, and Joab slew twelve thousand when he returned from battling Aram.

When he fought Heb. בהצותו, as (Num. 26:9): “when they quarreled (בהצותם) with the Lord,” that he fought with them because they aided the Ammonites.

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.