| Scripture |
Expanded Comments |
| 1 Give ye thanks to Jehovah call ye in His name, Make known among the peoples His acts. |
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| 2 Sing ye to Him sing praise to Him, Meditate ye on all His wonders. |
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| 3 Boast yourselves in His Holy Name, The heart of those seeking Jehovah rejoiceth. |
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| 4 Seek ye Jehovah and His strength, Seek ye His face continually. |
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| 5 Remember His wonders that He did, His signs and the judgments of His mouth. |
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| 6 O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones. |
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| 7 He [is] Jehovah our God, In all the earth [are] His judgments. |
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| 8 He hath remembered to the age His covenant, The word He commanded to a thousand generations, |
Covenant for ever – Both the Abrahamic covenant (spoken of here) and the New covenant are scripturally styled "The Everlasting covenant, " in contrast with the Law covenant, which passed away. R4321:2
The one covenant is perpetual in the other, even as the spiritual seed shall rule and bless through the earthly. R4321:2
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| 9 That He hath made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac, |
Which covenant – The promise of the land was the covenant. HG44:1
His oath – Confirmation of the participation of Isaac and Jacob in the great promise that God made to Abraham. OV73:2
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| 10 And doth establish it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel a covenant age-during, |
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| 11 Saying, 'To thee I give the land of Canaan, The portion of your inheritance,' |
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| 12 In their being few in number, But a few, and sojourners in it. |
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| 13 And they go up and down, from nation unto nation, From a kingdom unto another people. |
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| 14 He hath not suffered any to oppress them And He reproveth for their sakes kings. |
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| 15 'Strike not against Mine anointed, And to My prophets do not evil.' |
Touch not mine anointed – An assault on one of these would be an attack on the Almighty's arrangements. R5673:2
Though King Saul was the Lord's anointed, we are not to think of the kings of today as the Lord's anointed. They are their own anointed. Their kingdoms are kingdoms of this world. R5673:2
We shall not be injured as New Creatures, no matter what the Lord may permit to come against us according to the flesh. R4219:2
My prophets – Ministers. R4219:2
No harm – Injure your real, highest, interests. R4219:2
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| 16 And He calleth a famine on the land, The whole staff of bread He hath broken. |
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| 17 He hath sent before them a man, For a servant hath Joseph been sold. |
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| 18 They have afflicted with fetters his feet, Iron hath entered his soul, |
Hurt with fetters – With a clear conscience, and a sense of the divine approval, Joseph determined to make the best of that situation also. R1640:2
For very shame's sake, we should strive at least to come up to the standard of Joseph. R3973:4
Egyptian prisons were terrible places, with the prisoners horribly mistreated. R2886:2, R3973:3
He – Nephesh, soul, sentient being. E334
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| 19 Till the time of the coming of His word The saying of Jehovah hath tried him. |
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| 20 The king hath sent, and looseth him, The ruler of the peoples, and draweth him out. |
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| 21 He hath made him lord of his house, And ruler over all his possessions. |
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| 22 To bind his chiefs at his pleasure, And his elders he maketh wise. |
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| 23 And Israel cometh in to Egypt, And Jacob hath sojourned in the land of Ham. |
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| 24 And He maketh His people very fruitful, And maketh it mightier than its adversaries. |
Increased his people – Israel's increase was a miracle. HG362:3
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| 25 He turned their heart to hate His people, To conspire against His servants. |
Turned their heart – Injustice inequity iniquity got such a hold upon them. R5271:2
To deal subtilly – The practice of injustice injures both parties the afflicter as seriously as the afflicted. R5271:1
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| 26 He hath sent Moses His servant, Aaron whom He had fixed on. |
Moses his servant – Who stood in the position of a father to the whole nation. R1725:3
Who acted representatively in bringing the Jews under the Law covenant, as Christ acted representatively in removing it. R1725:4
Thus, as God's representative on the one hand, and Israel's on the other, Moses could be the Mediator of the Law covenant between God and that nation. R5046:6
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| 27 They have set among them the matters of His signs, And wonders in the land of Ham. |
Shewed his signs – The plagues were doubtless a full compensation of justice upon them, equivalent to the injuries which they had practiced. R5271:3
And wonders – The Egyptian plagues were miraculous from one viewpoint; not so from another. R5271:3
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| 28 He hath sent darkness, and it is dark, And they have not provoked His word. |
He sent darkness – Perhaps produced by the dust in the air. R5272:5
Pharaoh considered the sun god of the Egyptians as the powerful one. R5271:5
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| 29 He hath turned their waters to blood, And putteth to death their fish. |
Waters into blood – Possibly produced by some micro-organisms in the water, the miracle being the ability of Moses and Aaron to effect the change at their command, and to abate it. R5271:6
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| 30 Teemed hath their land [with] frogs, In the inner chambers of their kings. |
Brought forth frogs – Which Pharaoh's magicians were unable to remove. R5272:1
Psalms 105:31 Divers sorts of flies – Gnats, mosquitoes, house flies and cattle flies. R5272:2
And lice – Dust ticks, probably breeding on the decaying heaps of frogs. R5272:2
In all their coasts – The miracle consisting in producing these ticks in unusual numbers--not merely in the desert wilds, but throughout Egypt. R5272:2
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| 31 He hath said, and the beetle cometh, Lice into all their border. |
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| 32 He hath made their showers hail, A flaming fire [is] in their land. |
Hail for rain – A cyclone. R5272:4
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| 33 And He smiteth their vine and their fig, And shivereth the trees of their border. |
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| 34 He hath said, and the locust cometh, And the cankerworm innumerable, |
Without number – Immense swarms of locusts that have come upon Egypt from Nubia have covered the ground for miles--sometimes to a depth of 15 inches. R5272:5
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| 35 And it consumeth every herb in their land, And it consumeth the fruit of their ground. |
Eat up all the herbs – Locusts are apt to eat everything that is green before they fly away. R5272:5
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| 36 And He smiteth every first-born in their land, The first-fruit of all their strength, |
Smote also – The penalty was not so much in the death as in the suddenness of it. R5272:6
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| 37 And bringeth them out with silver and gold, And there is not in its tribes a feeble one. |
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| 38 Rejoiced hath Egypt in their going forth, For their fear had fallen upon them. |
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| 39 He hath spread a cloud for a covering, And fire to enlighten the night. |
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| 40 They have asked, and He bringeth quails, And [with] bread of heaven satisfieth them. |
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| 41 He hath opened a rock, and waters issue, They have gone on in dry places a river. |
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| 42 For He hath remembered His holy word, With Abraham His servant, |
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| 43 And He bringeth forth His people with joy, With singing His chosen ones. |
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| 44 And He giveth to them the lands of nations, And the labour of peoples they possess, |
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| 45 That they may observe His statutes, And His laws may keep. Praise ye Jehovah! |
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