Psalm 136:15

But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

136:10-22 The great things God did for Israel, when he brought them out of Egypt, were mercies which endured long to them; and our redemption by Christ, which was typified thereby, endures for ever. It is good to enter into the history of God's favours, and in each to observe, and own, that his mercy endureth for ever. He put them in possession of a good land; it was a figure of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea - Margin, as in Hebrew, shaked off. The word is applicable to a tree shaking off its foliage. Isaiah 33:9. The same word is used in Exodus 14:27 : "And the Lord overthrew (Margin, shook off) the Egyptians in the midst of the sea," He shook them off as if he would no longer protect them. He left them to perish.

For his mercy ... - Their destruction was done in mercy to his people and to the world, for it was the means of deliverance to Israel. The death of a wicked man is a benefit to the world, and the act of removing him may be really an act of the highest benevolence to mankind. No wrong is done to such people, for they deserve to die; and the only service which can be rendered to the world through them is by their removal from the earth.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. overthrew—literally, "shook off," as in Ex 14:27, as a contemptuous rejection of a reptile.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea,.... In the same sea which was parted for the Israelites, and through which they passed safely as on dry land; into which Pharaoh and his army entering in pursuit of them in their chariots, the Lord "shook" (u) him and them out of them, as the word signifies; and causing the waters to return and cover them; they were drowned in them, Exodus 14:28. This was an emblem of the destruction of Satan, and of his principalities and powers, by Christ, who thereby has saved his spiritual Israel out of their hands; and of the casting of the sins of God's people into the depths of the sea, never to be seen more, or to appear any more against them to their condemnation; and of the everlasting ruin and perdition of ungodly men;

for his mercy endureth for ever; it was in mercy to Israel that Pharaoh and his host were destroyed, who threatened them with ruin; and therefore they sung of judgment and of mercy, and gave thanks to God for this instance of his vengeance on their enemies, and of goodness to them, Exodus 15:1.

(u) "excussit", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, &c.

Geneva Study Bible

But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. And he hath lifted up a horn for his people, a praise for all his beloved, even the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Hallelujah, (Psalm 148:14).

If this hymn was composed by Ben Sira, it proves that he was familiar with Psalms, some of which have been regarded as among the latest in the Psalter, and it affords a strong presumption that the Psalter was complete before b.c. 180. The hymn, it is true, is not found in the Versions, but Dr Schechter thinks that its authenticity is established, and that its omission is accounted for, by the prominence which it gives to the house of Zadok. It was natural for Ben Sira, who knew that family in its best representative, Simon the Just, to give thanks for its election to the priesthood: it was equally natural for his grandson the translator to omit such a thanksgiving, when the high-priests of the house of Zadok had disgraced their calling, and the house of Zadok had been superseded by the Maccabaean line. See Schechter and Taylor’s Wisdom of Ben Sira (1899), p. 35.

15. overthrew] Lit. shook off, as Exodus 14:27.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea (see Exodus 14:27, 28; Exodus 15:1-10). That the Pharaoh's death in the Red Sea is not necessarily implied has been shown in the comment on Exodus. For his mercy, etc. Severity to their adversaries was "mercy" to Israel, who could not otherwise have been delivered. Psalm 136:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Up to this point it is God the absolute in general, the Creator of all things, to the celebration of whose praise they are summoned; and from this point onwards the God of the history of salvation. In Psalm 136:13 גּזר (instead of בּקע, Psalm 78:13; Exodus 14:21; Nehemiah 9:11) of the dividing of the Red Sea is peculiar; גּזרים (Genesis 15:17, side by side with בּתרים) are the pieces or parts of a thing that is cut up into pieces. נער is a favourite word taken from Exodus 14:27. With reference to the name of the Egyptian ruler Pharaoh (Herodotus also, ii. 111, calls the Pharaoh of the Exodus the son of Sesostris-Rameses Miumun, not Μενόφθας, as he is properly called, but absolutely Φερῶν), vid., on Psalm 73:22. After the God to whom the praise is to be ascribed has been introduced with ל by always fresh attributes, the ל before the names of Sihon and of Og is perplexing. The words are taken over, as are the six lines of Psalm 136:17-22 in the main, from Psalm 135:10-12, with only a slight alteration in the expression. In Psalm 136:23 the continued influence of the construction הודוּ ל is at an end. The connection by means of שׁ (cf. Psalm 135:8, Psalm 135:10) therefore has reference to the preceding "for His goodness endureth for ever." The language here has the stamp of the latest period. It is true זכר with Lamed of the object is used even in the earliest Hebrew, but שׁפל is only authenticated by Ecclesiastes 10:6, and פּרק, to break loose equals to rescue (the customary Aramaic word for redemption), by Lamentations 5:8, just as in the closing verse, which recurs to the beginning, "God of heaven" is a name for God belonging to the latest literature, Nehemiah 1:4; Nehemiah 2:4. In Psalm 136:23 the praise changes suddenly to that which has been experienced very recently. The attribute in Psalm 136:25 (cf. Psalm 147:9; Psalm 145:15) leads one to look back to a time in which famine befell them together with slavery.