Psalms 65:12

Psa 65:12 They drop [upon] the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side.

Ver. 12. Rejoice on every side] Heb. Are girded with joy, which in time of drought seems to be clad in sackcloth.

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.

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness - The waste places, or the waste parts of the land; the uncultivated places, the places of rocks and sands. The word wilderness in the Scriptures does not mean, as with us, a tract of country covered with trees, but a place of barren rocks or sands - an uncultivated or thinly inhabited region. See the notes at Mat 3:1; notes at Isa 35:1. In those wastes, however, there would be valleys, or places watered by springs and streams that would afford pastures for flocks and herds. Such are the “pastures of the wilderness” referred to here. God’s passing along those valleys would seem to “drop,” or distil, fertility and beauty, causing grass and flowers to spring up in abundance, and clothing them with luxuriance.

And the little hills rejoice on every side - Margin, as in Hebrew, are girded with joy. That is, Joyful, happy scenes surround them; or, they seem to be full of joy and happiness. The valleys and the hills alike seem to be made glad. The following remarks of Professor Hackett (“Illustrations of Scripture,” p. 30), will explain this passage. “Another peculiarity of the desert is that, though the soil is sandy, it rarely consists, for successive days together, of mere sand; it is interspersed, at frequent intervals, with clumps of coarse grass and low shrubs, affording very good pasturage, not only for camels, the proper tenants of the desert, but for sheep and goats. The people of the villages on the borders of the desert are accustomed to lead forth their flocks to the pastures found there. We frequently passed on our way shepherds so employed; and it was interesting to observe as a verification of what is implied in the Saviour’s statement Mat 25:33, that the sheep and goats were not kept distinct, but intermixed with one another. The shepherds not only frequent the parts of the desert near their places of abode, but go often to a considerable distance from them; they remain absent for weeks and months, only changing their station from time to time, as their needs in respect to water and herbage may require. The incident related of Moses shows that the pastoral habits of the people were the same in his day: ‘Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the further part of the desert, even to Horeb,’ Exo 3:1. It is of the desert in this sense, as supplying to some extent the means of pasturage, that the prophet Joel speaks in Joe 1:19; Joe 2:22. The psalmist also says Psa 65:12-13, with the same reference:

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness,

And thy paths drop fatness;

They drop fatness on the pastures of the wilderness.

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

13. (Psa 65:12). They drop—the pastures of the wilderness, and (with) joy the hills are girt. The word translated pastures properly means dwellings, but is specially applied to folds and pastures, as the places to which flocks resort. See above, on Psa 23:1. The word translated wilderness, according to its most probable etymology, originally signifies, not a barren desert, but a tract of country neither tilled nor thickly peopled, though perhaps luxuriant and abundant as a pasture ground. The general metaphor of clothing which occurs in the next verse, is here anticipated by the specific one of a girdle, as that which surrounds the body and confines the dress. See above, on Psa 18:32.

14 (13). The pastures are clothed with flocks, and the vales shall be robed in grain; they shall shout (for joy), yea, they shall sing. Some translate the first clause, the flocks are clothed with lambs, denying that the first noun in Hebrew ever means pastures. But see above, on Psa 37:20. The image presented in the first translation is certainly more natural and beautiful. It also makes the parallelism more complete, the fields being covered by the waving crops in the same sense that the meadows are covered by the grazing flocks. In the last clause the pastures and valleys, by a beautiful personification, are described as breaking forth into shouts of joy and songs of praise. See above, on Psa 65:8.

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

wilderness--places, though not inhabited by men, fit for pasture (Lev 16:21-22; Job 24:5).

pastures--is literally, "folds," or "enclosures for flocks"; and in Psa 65:13 it may be "lambs," the same word used and so translated in Psa 37:20; so that "the flocks are clothed with lambs" (a figure for abundant increase) would be the form of expression.

Next: Psalms Chapter 66

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 12. The pastures of the wilderness] Even the places which are not cultivated have their sufficiency of moisture, so as to render them proper places of pasturage for cattle. The terms wilderness and desert, in the Sacred Writings, mean, in general, places not inhabited and uncultivated, though abounding with timber, bushes, and herbage.

The little hills rejoice] Literally, The hills gird themselves with exultation. The metaphor appears to be taken from the frisking of lambs, bounding of kids, and dancing of shepherds and shepherdesses, in the joy-inspiring summer season.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(12) They drop upon.—Supply “fatness” from the last verse.

And the little hills.—See margin. The freshness and beauty of plant life, which suddenly, as by a miracle, in Eastern lands clothes the hill-sides, resembles a fair mantle thrown round their shoulders, as if to deck them for some festival.

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

12. the pastures of the wilderness] Jer_9:10; Jer_23:10; Joe_1:19-20; Joe_2:22. ‘Wilderness’ denotes the open uncultivated country used for pasturage, in contrast to the cultivated land or ‘field.’

and the little hills &c.] R.V., And the hills are girded with joy. For the personification of nature cp. Psa_96:11 ff; Isa_44:23; &c.

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.

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness,.... As well as upon the ploughed land, and turn them into a fruitful field; which may denote the Gentile world, whither the Gospel was sent by Christ, and preached by his apostles; and whose doctrines dropped as the rain, and prospered to the thing whereunto they were sent, and made this wilderness as the garden of God;

and the little hills rejoice on every side; or "joy girds the hills"; or "they are girded with joy" (r); or "gird themselves with joy", as the Targum; being covered on all sides with grass, herbs, and trees: these may denote the churches of Christ, and little hills of Sion, who rejoice when the interest of Christ flourishes, Psa 68:14.

(r) "collesque exultatione accinguntur", Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ainsworth; "accinxerunt se", Pagninus; "accingent se", Montanus.

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

They, God’s paths,

drop upon the pastures of the wilderness; which, though neglected by men, are furnished by God with food for wild beasts, which, being his creatures, he careth for by this means.

The little hills; the hills of Canaan, which for the generality of them were but small, if compared with the great and high mountains in divers parts of the world. He mentions

the hills, because these being most dry and parched with the sun, most need and are most refreshed with the rain.

Rejoice on every side; as being moistened and satisfied with rain in all parts and sides of them.

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

Ver. 12. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness. Not alone where man is found do the showers descend, but away in the lone places, where only wild animals have their haunt, there the bountiful Lord makes the refreshing rain to drop. Ten thousand oases smile while the Lord of mercy passes by. The birds of the air, the wild goats, and the fleet stags rejoice as they drink from the pools, new filled from heaven. The most lonely and solitary souls God will visit in love.

And the little hills rejoice on every side. On all hands the eminences are girt with gladness. Soon they languish under the effects of drought, but after a season of rain they laugh again with verdure.

Ver. 12. The wilderness. By desert, or wilderness, the reader is not always to understand a country altogether barren and unfruitful, but such only as is rarely or never sown or cultivated; which, though it yields no crops of corn or fruit, yet affords herbage more or less for the grazing of cattle, with fountains or rills of water, though more sparingly interspersed than in other places. Thomas Shaw (1692-1751).

Ver. 12. (first clause).

I. Our dwelling place: the wilderness.

II. Our spiritual provision: pastures.

III. Our heavenly refreshment: they drop.

Ver. 12. Causes for joy for small churches. God remembers them, establishes and increases them, feeds them and revives them, etc.

Psalms 65:13*

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

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness; rather, the pastures of the wilderness drip with it; i.e. with the "fatness" which is shed from God"s presence. And the little hills rejoice on every side; literally, are girded with joy.

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

Wilderness - Which though neglected by men, are furnished with food for beasts.

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

You crowned a year of Your goodness Through the rains, You crown with total goodness the year that You wish to benefit.

and Your paths They are the heavens, which are the dust of Your feet.

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.