Psalms 76:5

Psa 76:5 The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands.

Ver. 5. The stout-hearted are spoiled] Heb. have yielded themselves up for prey: those that escaped the stroke of the angel, fled as fast as they could for their lives, leaving all behind them. The Rabbis expound it, they are spoiled of their understanding, infatuated.

They have slept their sleep] Their long ironsleep (as the poets call it) of death. The destroying angel hath laid them fast enough and safe enough.

And none of the men of might] Viri divitiarum, the Vulgate rendereth it, men of riches, such as are all worldlings, but men of might is better; these men of their hands could not find their hands, when God’s angel took them to do.

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 76:5-6. The stout-hearted are spoiled — Of all that glory and advantage which they either had already obtained, or further expected from the success of their present expedition. They became a prey to those on whom they hoped to prey. They have slept their sleep — Even a perpetual sleep, or the sleep of death. They have slept so as never to awake again to life on earth. He terms their death sleep, because they were slain in the night, when they had composed themselves to sleep, and so passed, perhaps insensibly, from one sleep to another. None of the men of might have found their hands — They had no more strength in, or use of their hands, against the destroying angel, than those who have no hands. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob — By a rebuking blast sent from thee; both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep — Are rendered motionless and useless, like persons in a dead sleep. The horses were killed, as well as their riders, and the chariots were of no further service.

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

6. (Psa 76:5). Spoiled are the stout of heart; they have slept their sleep; and all the men of might have not found their hands. The meaning of the first clause seems to be, that the spoilers are themselves spoiled, by a signal providential retribution. Some, however, explain the first word to mean snatched away, caused to disappear, or vanish. They have slept their own sleep, i.e. they, like others, in their turn, sleep the sleep of death. See above, on Psa 13:3, and compare Nah 3:18, 2Ki 19:35. Stout of heart suggests the two distinct ideas, courageous and hard-hearted. The same expression is used, in an unfavourable sense, by Isaiah (Isa 46:12). All have not found does not imply that some have found, but on the contrary, that none have found, or in other words that the negative proposition is true of all without exception. Found their hands is understood by some to mean regained their strength. But the direct sense of the word is, that they have not found the use of their hands, or been able to employ them with advantage.

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

God hath taken their spirits and strength from them as though their hands were cut off.

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

Verse 5. The stout-hearted are spoiled] The boasting blasphemers, such as Rab-shakeh, and his master Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.

They have slept their sleep] They were asleep in their tent when the destroying angel, the suffocating wind, destroyed the whole; they over whom it passed never more awoke.

None of the men of might] Is not this a strong irony? Where are your mighty men? their boasted armour, &c.?

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

5. The stout-hearted were spoiled, The power of God in destroying his enemies is here exalted by another form of expression. The verb אשתוללו, eshtolelu, which we translate were spoiled, is derived from שלל, shalal, and the letter א, aleph, is put instead of the letter ה, he. Some translate, were made fools; but this is too forced. I, however, admit that it is of the same import, as if it had been said, that they were deprived of wisdom and courage; but we must adhere to the proper signification of the word. What is added in the second clause is to the same purpose, All the men of might have not found their hands that is to say, they were as incapable of fighting as if their hands had been maimed or cut off. In short, their strength, of which they boasted, was utterly overthrown. The words, they slept their sleep, refer to the same subject; implying that whereas before they were active and resolute, their hearts now failed them, and they were sunk asleep in sloth and listlessness. The meaning, therefore, is, that the enemies of the chosen people were deprived of that heroic courage of which they boasted, and which inspired them with such audacity; and that, in consequence, neither mind, nor heart, nor hands, none either of their mental or bodily faculties, could perform their office. We are thus taught that all the gifts and power which men seem to possess are in the hand of God, so that he can, at any instant of time, deprive them of the wisdom which he has given them, make their hearts effeminate, render their hands unfit for war, and annihilate their whole strength. It is not without reason that both the courage and power of these enemies are magnified; the design of this being, that the faithful might be led, from the contrast, to extol the power and working of God. The same subject is farther confirmed from the statement, that the chariot and the horse were cast into a deep sleep at the rebuke of God This implies, that whatever activity characterised these enemies, it was rendered powerless, simply by the nod of God. Although, therefore, we may be deprived of all created means of help, let us rest contented with the favor of God alone, accounting it all-sufficient, since he has no need of great armies to repel the assaults of the whole world, but is able, by the mere breath of his mouth, to subdue and dissipate all assailants.

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.

(5) Are spoiled.—Literally, have let themselves be spoiled. The picture is of men rendered powerless, at a glance, a word, from God.

Slept their sleep.—Better, have sunk into a deep sleep.

None of the men of might have found their hands.—This expression for powerlessness naturally grew into an idiom in a language that used the word hand as a synonym for strength. (Comp. Jos_8:20, margin; Exo_14:31, margin; Deu_32:36, margin.) Delitzsch quotes a Talmudic phrase, “We did not find our hands and feet in the school house.” We may compare the Virgilian use of manus (Æn. 6:688), and Shakespeare’s “a proper fellow of my hands,” and for the use of “find” compare the common phrase “find one’s tongue.”

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

5. The stouthearted] For illustration cp. Isa_10:12 ff.

are spoiled] Lit. have let themselves be spoiled. Cp. Isa_17:14; Isa_33:1. they have slept their sleep] They slumber their (last) sleep, the sleep of death (Jer_51:39; Jer_51:57; Nah_3:18).

have found their hands] Their hands refused to act; their strength was paralysed; in spite of all their haughty boastings, Isa_10:10; Isa_10:13-14; Isa_10:32.

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.

The stout hearted are spoiled,.... The Assyrian army, its officers and generals, that came up against Jerusalem, with great resolution and courage, and with daring impiety and blasphemy against the God of heaven, as Rabshakeh and others; these were spoiled, and their armour and riches became a prey to those they thought to have made a prey of. So principalities and powers were spoiled by Christ upon the cross, and Satan, the strong man armed, has in the conversion of a sinner his armour taken from him, and his spoils divided by him that is stronger than he; and such as are stouthearted, and far from true righteousness, are stripped of their own, and made willing, in the day of Christ's power upon them, to submit to his; and as for antichrist, whose look is more stout than his fellows, that exalts himself above all that is called God, and opens his mouth in blasphemy against him and his followers, he shall be destroyed with the breath of Christ's mouth, and the brightness of his coming: or "the stout hearted have spoiled themselves" (a); as the Midianites did, or gave themselves for a prey; so the Targum,

"the stouthearted have cast off from them the weapons of war;''

threw away their armour, and ran away, such of them as were not destroyed by the angel. It is observable, that the Hebrew word, translated "spoiled", is in the Syriac form:

they have slept their sleep: the sleep of death, as did the Assyrians when smitten by the angel, which was done in the night, when probably they were fast asleep, and so never awoke more, as the Babylonians, Jer 51:57. So Jezebel, or the Romish antichrist, shall be cast into a bed, and her children killed with death, Rev 2:22. Death is often in Scripture signified by a sleep, both the death of the righteous and of the wicked; but there is a difference between the one and the other; wherefore the death of the wicked here is called "their sleep"; the one sleep in Jesus, in his arms, and under his guardianship, the other not; to the one death is a true and proper rest from toil and labour, to the other only a cessation from doing mischief, Job 3:17, the one rests in hopes of a glorious resurrection, the other not; the one will awake in Christ's likeness, and to everlasting life; the other in the image of Satan, and to everlasting shame and contempt:

and none of the men of might have found their hands; none of the valiant soldiers in the Assyrian army could find their hands to fight their enemies, or defend themselves; as men in a deep sleep cannot find their hands to do anything, and are as if they had none, and still less in a dead sleep. The Targum is,

"they were not able to lay hold on their armour with their hands.''

This was the case of them that were killed; and as for those that remained alive, they were struck with such a panic, that their hearts could not endure, nor their hands be strong when God thus dealt with them; and so it will be with the antichristian army at the battle of Armageddon; and so it is with the wicked at death, they cannot find their hands so as to prevent it; and when it has seized upon them, they cannot find their hands to do any more mischief.

(a) "praedae se exposnerunt", Tigurine version, Gejerus; "dediderunt se in praedam", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

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

The stout-hearted are spoiled - The valiant men, the men who came so confidently to the invasion. The word “spoiled” here, as elsewhere in the Scriptures, means “plundered,” not (as the word is now used) “corrupted.” See the notes at Col 2:8.

They have slept their sleep - They are dead; they have slept their last sleep. Death, in the Scriptures, as in all other writings, is often compared with sleep.

And none of the men of might - The men who came forth for purposes of war and conquest.

Have found their hands - The Septuagint renders this, “Have found nothing in their hands;” that is, they have obtained no plunder. Luther renders it, “And all warriors must suffer their hands to fall.” De Wette, “Have lost their hands?” The idea seems to be, that they had lost the use of their hands; that is, that they had no use for them, or did not find them of any use. They could not employ them for the purpose for which they were intended, but were suddenly stricken down.

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

Are spoiled of all that glory and advantage which they either had already gotten, or further expected, from the success of their present expedition, which they promised to themselves. They became a prey to those upon whom they hoped to prey.

Their sleep; even a perpetual sleep, as Jer 51:39,57, or the sleep of death, Psa 13:3; called their sleep emphatically, as being peculiar to them and such-like men, and not that sleep which is common to the good and bad. Their death he seems to call sleep, because they were slain in the night, when they had composed themselves to rest and sleep, and so passed insensibly from one sleep to another. For it is thought by many that this Psalm was composed upon the occasion of that prodigious slaughter of the Assyrians in Judah, 2Ki 19:35. None have found their hands; they had no more strength in or use of their hands against the destroying angel, than they who have no hands.

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

Ver. 5. The stouthearted are spoiled. They came to spoil, and lo! they are spoiled themselves. Their stout hearts are cold in death, the angel of the pestilence has dried up their life blood, their very heart is taken from them.

They have slept their sleep. Their last sleep--the sleep of death.

And none of the men of might have found their hands. Their arms are palsied, they cannot lift a finger, for the rigour of death has stiffened them. What a scene was that when Sennacherib's host was utterly destroyed in one night. The hands which were furious to pull down Jerusalem, could not even be raised from the sod, the most valiant warriors were as weak as the palsied cripples at the temple gate, yea, their eyes they could not open, a deep sleep sealed their vision in everlasting darkness. O God, how terrible art thou! Thus shalt thou fight for us, and in the hour of peril overthrow the enemies of thy gospel. Therefore in thee will we trust and not be afraid.

Whole Psalm. No Psalm has a greater right to follow Psalm 75 than this, which is inscribed To the Precentor, with accompaniment of stringed instruments (vid. iv. 1), a Psalm by Asaph, a song. Similar expressions (God of Jacob, Ps 75:10 77:7; saints, wicked of the earth, Ps 75:9 76:10), and the same impress throughout speak in favour of unity of authorship. In other respects too, they form a pair: Psalm 75 prepares the way for the divine deed of judgments as imminent, which Psalm 76 celebrates as having taken place. Franz Delitzsch.

Ver. 5. The stouthearted are spoiled. There is indicated in these words that consternation of mind which deprives of judgment and power. The valiant are spoiled of their heart: that is, they who at other times were wise and courageous have now lost their heart, and have been reduced to foolishness and stupidity. Hermann Venema.

Ver. 5. The stouthearted are spoiled. After the breaking of their weapons their spoliation is recorded, for that follows the slaughter of foes. Nor is mention made of that without reason. They had come to spoil, therefore are they deservedly spoiled. Musculus.

Ver. 5. The stouthearted are spoiled. Some translate it, They are spoiled of their stout heart. The stouthearted, the strong, are spoiled. The strong man may be spoiled by a stronger; that's a good sense, but it is more elegantly rendered, they are spoiled of their stout heart; that is, the Lord takes their heart out of their bosom. Daring men, who fear nothing, are turned into Magor-missabibs--fear round about; their stout hearts are taken from them, and they are so far from being a terror to other men, that they run from the shadow of a man; their courage is down; they cannot give a child a confident look, much less look dangers or enemies in the face. Joseph Caryl.

Ver. 5. (last clause). The strength and power of a man is in his hands; if they be gone, all his hope is gone. If a man's sword be taken from him, he will do what he can with his hands; but if his hands be gone, he may go to sleep for any disturbance he will work. For men not to find their hands, is not to have that power for the execution of their designs which formerly they had. John Owen.

Ver. 5. (last clause). As we say of a man that goes lamely or lazily, "he cannot find his feet; "so of a man that acts lamely or lazily, or of a soldier that fights faintly and cowardly, he cannot find his hands. Joseph Caryl.

Ver. 5-6.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,

And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;

And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,

And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever were still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride:

And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,

And cold as the spray of the rock breaking surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail;

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

George Gordon, Lord Byron.

Ver. 5. They have slept their sleep. Divers kinds of deaths or sleeps for the various classes of men.

Psalms 76:6*

Ver. 5-6. See Psalms on "Ps 76:6" for further information.

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

5. Stout-hearted are spoiled—Instead of making plunder of God’s people they themselves are become a spoil.

Slept their sleep—Their perpetual sleep, the sleep of death. Jer_51:39-57.

None… have found their hands—They found not “their hands” in the sense of discovering, bringing back to light, a lost object, though the least degree of self-consciousness would have sufficed for this; nor yet in the sense to have power over, as the word may signify. 1Sa_23:17; Psa_21:9. These mighty men, whose name had been the terror of the nations, now had neither consciousness to discover, nor ability to use, their hands. The words are in contrast with their boasted strength and skill.

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

The stout hearted are spoiled. A "vivid description of the catastrophe" now follows. The "stout hearted," the aggressors, the great dominant race, that has spoiled all the nations of the earth, and fears no one, (comp. Isa_10:12-14, "The stout heart of the King of Assyria is itself spoiled in turn. They have slept their sleep. They have slept, and, as they slept, (2Ki_19:35) they found it indeed a sleep, even the sleep of death. And none of the men of might have found their hands. The mighty men, suddenly assaulted by the grim destroyer, Death, can make no resistance; they are paralyzed; they cannot even move a hand.

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

Sleep - Even a perpetual sleep.

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

You are destructive; mightier Heb. נאור, an expression of (Lam. 2:7): “He destroyed His Sanctuary”; (below 89:40), “You abolished the covenant of Your servant.” You destroy Your enemies and those who rise up against You and sweep them from the world. Because of His deeds, He is called נאור, destructive, like חנוּן, gracious; רחום, merciful; קנוא jealous, because He grants, because He pities, because He acts with zeal.

mightier than the mountains of prey Stronger than the predatory giants, who are as tall as mountains, but against You, their might is not known.

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.