Psalms 96:12

Psa 96:12 Let the field be joyful, and all that [is] therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice

Ver. 12. Let the field be joyful, &c.] And so give check to the hardness of man’s heart, not at all affected with those benefits by Christ, wherein they are far more concerned than these insensible creatures; which yet have lain bedridden, as it were, ever since man’s fall, and earnestly wait for the manifestation of the sons of God, Rom 8:19.

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.

12. (Psa 96:12) Let the field exult, and all that (is) in it ; then shall sing for joy all trees of the wood (or forest). The strict sense of the future, which was latent in the preceding verse, here, by a beautiful transition, reasserts itself. See below, on Psa 126:2, and compare Isa 24:5-6. The field is the cultivated and productive portion of the earth. All that is in it, with particular reference to its productions. Sing for joy is the translation of a single verb in Hebrew. See above, on Psa 95:1. The parallel passage (1Ch 16:32-33) has precisely the same sense, but with two slight variations in the words, a less familiar form being substituted in one case, and a more familiar form in the other.

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

96:12 All of nature will experience renewal in God’s presence (65:13; 72:6, 16; Isa 44:23; 55:12; Rom 8:21-22).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

If the insensible creatures shall have cause to rejoice, when God appeareth, much more we, from whom he hath taken malediction and sin.

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

Verse 12. Thou sal glad al the trese of woddes. - Thou, that is in another Iyfe. Trese of woddes. - Synful men that were fyrst withouten frut, and sithen taken into God's temple.

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

(12) Then shall all the trees . . .—Comp.—

“His praise, ye winds that from four quarters blow,

Breathe soft or loud, and wave your tops ye pines,

With every plant in sign of worship wave.”—MILTON.

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

12. be joyful … rejoice] Exult … sing for joy (R.V.). Then is significant: in that age when the Divine kingdom is universally established.

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.

Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein,.... Not the field of the world, but of the church, separated from others by distinguishing grace; the peculiar property of Christ, cultivated and manured by his Spirit and grace, and abounding with the fruits and flowers thereof; of a wilderness becoming a fruitful field, and for that reason should rejoice, even with joy and singing, Isa 35:1,

then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice; the sons of God, so called, Sol 2:3, who, though like such, in their nature state, barren and unfruitful, yet, being ingrafted into Christ, become trees of righteousness; and so have reason to rejoice at their root in Christ, their stability by him, and fruitfulness through him: Jarchi interprets this of all the governors of the people; see Eze 17:24, all this, indeed, by a prosopopoeia, may be understood of inanimate creatures; the heavens, earth, and sea, fields, woods, and trees, rejoicing, if they could, and in their way, at such great and wonderful appearances in the Gentile world; see Isa 44:23. Aben Ezra interprets all this of the heavens giving dew, the earth its increase, and the field its fruit; all which is rejoicing.

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

Let the field be joyful ... - This is taken - with the change of a single letter, not affecting the sense - from 1Ch 16:32-33. It is a call on the fields - the cultivated portions of the earth - to rejoice in the reign of God. As if conscious of the beauty with which he clothes them, and of the happiness which they confer on man in their beauty and in the abundance of their productions, they are called on to praise God.

Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice - The forests - the oaks, the cedars, the pines, that wave with so much majesty. If they were conscious of their own magnificence and beauty - if they could see how much wisdom and goodness God has lavished on them, in their forms, their branches, their leaves, their flowers, their fruit - if they could know how much they are made to accomplish in rendering the world beautiful, and in contributing to the happiness of man - if they understood what a bare, bleak, cold, desert world this would be but for them, they, too, would have abundant occasion for praise and joy.

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

Ver. 12. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein. Let the cultivated plains praise the Lord. Peace enables their owners to plough and sow and reap, without fear of the rapine of invaders, and therefore in glad notes they applaud him whose empire is peace. Both men, and creatures that graze the plain, and the crops themselves are represented as swelling the praises of Jehovah, and the figure is both bold and warranted, for the day shall come when every inhabited rood of ground shall yield its song, and every farmstead shall contain a church.

Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice. He does not say, let them rejoice, but they shall do so. The faith of the psalmist turns itself from the expression of desire to the fully assured prediction of the event. Groves have in old times stood shuddering at the horrid orgies which have been performed within their shade, the time shall come when they shall sing for joy because of the holy worship, the sounds of which they shall hear. The bush is the stronghold of savage men and robbers, but it shall be sanctified to retirement and devotion. Perhaps the psalmist was thinking of the birds; so Keble must have supposed, for he versifies the passage thus

"Field exults and meadow fair,

With each bud and blossom there,

In the lonely woodlands now

Chants aloud each rusting bough."

Ver. 12. Let the fields be joyful, etc. Let the husbandmen, and the shepherds, and all that dwell in the fields leap for joy; and the woodmen and foresters shout for joy, to see the happy day approaching; when all the idols that are worshipped there shall be thrown down together with their groves. Symon Patrick.

Ver. 12. Rejoice. The verb wgr expresses the vibratory motion, either of a dancer's feet, or of a singer's lip. Samuel Horsley.

Ver. 12. The trees of the wood.

His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,

Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye Pines,

With every plant, in sign of worship wave. John Milton.

Ver. 12-13. He cometh, etc.

It chanced upon the merry, merry Christmas eve,

I went sighing past the church across the moorland dreary

"Oh! never sin and want and woe this earth will leave,

And the bells but mock the wailing round, they sing so

cheery.

How long O Lord! how long before thou come again?

Still in cellar, and in garret, and on moorland dreary

The orphans moan, and widows weep, and poor men toil in

vain,

Till earth is sick of hope deferred, though Christmas bells

be cheery."

Then arose a joyous clamour from the wild fowl on the mere,

Beneath the stars, across the snow, like clear bells

ringing.

And a voice within cried. "Listen! Christmas carols even

here!

Though thou be dumb, yet over their work the stars and

snows are singing.

Blind! I live, I love, I reign: and all the nations

through

With the thunder of my judgments even now are ringing;

Do thou fulfil thy work but as yon wild fowl do,

Thou wilt heed no less the wailing, yet hear through it

angels singing." Charles Kingsley, 1858.

Psalms 96:13*

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

Let the field be joyful; i.e. "the cultivated ground." And all that is therein. Its vines, its olives, its other fruits, and its harvests. Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord. Lebanon and Bashan shall rejoice equally with Carmel and Sharon. The whole earth shall "break forth into singing". (see Isa_44:23)

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

The chronicler changes שׂדי into the prosaic השּׂדה, and כל־עצי־יעל with the omission of the כל into עצי היּער. The psalmist on his part follows the model of Isaiah, who makes the trees of the wood exult and clap their hands, Psa 55:12; Psa 44:23. The אז, which points into this festive time of all creatures which begins with Jahve's coming, is as in Isa 35:5. Instead of לפני, "before," the chronicler has the מלּפני so familiar to him, by which the joy is denoted as being occasioned by Jahve's appearing. The lines Psa 96:13 sound very much like Psa 9:9. The chronicler has abridged Psa 96:13, by hurrying on to the mosaic-work portion taken from Ps 105. The poet at the close glances from the ideal past into the future. The twofold בּא is a participle, Ew. 200. Being come to judgment, after He has judged and sifted, executing punishment, Jahve will govern in the righteousness of mercy and in faithfulness to the promises.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

all the forest trees All the rulers of the nations.

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.