Psalm 48:11

Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) Daughters of Judah.—Not the maidens of Jerusalem, but the towns and villages of Judah.

Judgments.—Perhaps here, as in Psalm 119:132, with prominent idea of God’s customary dealings with His people.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 48:11. Let mount Zion rejoice — That is, Jerusalem; let the daughters of Judah — The other lesser cities, towns, and villages; be glad, because of thy judgments — Upon thy and their enemies. Let the mother city give an example of joy and thankfulness to all the smaller places, and to the whole kingdom, and let them unanimously join together, with the greatest gladness, to express how sensible they are of thy power and goodness in the wonderful deliverance granted them. Just so, “the church and all her children ought to rejoice with joy unspeakable, on account of the manifestation of divine power on her behalf against her enemies. Thus, at the fall of mystic Babylon, it is said, Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her, Revelation 18:20.” — Horne.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

48:8-14 We have here the improvement which the people of God are to make of his glorious and gracious appearances for them. Let our faith in the word of God be hereby confirmed. Let our hope of the stability of the church be encouraged. Let our minds be filled with good thoughts of God. All the streams of mercy that flow down to us, must be traced to the fountain of His loving-kindness. Let us give to God the glory of the great things he has done for us. Let all the members of the church take comfort from what the Lord does for his church. Let us observe the beauty, strength, and safety of the church. Consider its strength; see it founded on Christ the Rock, fortified by the Divine power, guarded by Him who neither slumbers nor sleeps. See what precious ordinances are its palaces, what precious promises are its bulwarks, that you may be encouraged to join yourselves to it: and tell this to others. This God, who has now done such great things for us, is unchangeable in his love to us, and his care for us. If he is our God, he will lead and keep us even to the last. He will so guide us, as to set us above the reach of death, so that it shall not do us any real hurt. He will lead us to a life in which there shall be no more death.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let mount Zion rejoice - Let Jerusalem, the holy city, rejoice or be glad. Mount Zion is evidently used here to designate the city; and the idea is, that the city of God - the holy city - had occasion for joy and gladness in view of the manifestation of the divine favor.

Let the daughters of Judah be glad - The phrase "daughters of Judah" "may" denote the smaller cities in the tribe of Judah, that surrounded Jerusalem as the "mother" city - in accordance with an usage quite common in the Hebrew Scriptures. See the notes at Isaiah 1:8. Perhaps, however, the more obvious interpretation is the correct one, as meaning that the women of Judah had special occasion to rejoice on account of their deliverance from so great danger, and from the horrors which usually attended the siege or the conquest of the city - the atrocities which commonly befall the female sex when a city is captured in war. The "daughters of Judah" are those descended from Judah, or connected with the tribe of Judah. Jerusalem was in the bounds of that tribe, and the name Judah was given to all those that remained after the removal of the ten tribes.

Because of thy judgments - Thy righteous interposition in delivering the city and people.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. the daughters, &c.—the small towns, or the people, with the chief city, or rulers of the Church.

judgments—decisions and acts of right government.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Mount Zion; synecdochically put for Jerusalem. The daughters of Judah, i.e. the other and lesser cities and towns or villages (i.e. all the people) of Judah; for such are commonly called daughters in respect of the mother city, to which they are subjects: see Joshua 15:45 17:16 Psalm 45:12 137:8. He mentions Judah only, and not all Israel; partly because they were more immediately and eminently concerned in Jerusalem’s deliverance; and principally because ten of the tribes of Israel were now cut off from Jerusalem, and from the kingdom of David’s house, and possibly carried away captive, 2 Kings 18:9-11.

Because of thy judgments upon thine and their enemies; at which they were glad, not simply, but because it was highly conducible to God’s honour, and to the preservation and enlargement of God’s church in the world.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let Mount Zion rejoice,.... The church in general; see Psalm 48:1;

let the daughters of Judah be glad; particular churches; and so the Targum renders it, "the congregations of the house of Judah"; or particular believers; such as are called the daughters of Jerusalem, and the daughters of Zion, Sol 3:10; these are exhorted to joy and gladness, at the loving kindness of God, at the spread of his name and glory to the ends of the earth, and at his righteousness his right hand is full of; and as it follows,

because of thy judgments; executed on the antichristian kings, Psalm 48:4; and on all the antichristian states, and on the whore of Babylon, and those who have committed fornication with her; see Revelation 19:1.

Geneva Study Bible

Let {k} mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.

(k) Let Jerusalem and the cities of Judea rejoice, for your just judgments against your enemies.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. The R.V. assimilates the rendering to that of Psalm 97:8, where the same words recur:

Let mount Zion be glad,

Let the daughters of Judah rejoice.

The daughters of Judah are not the maidens of Judah, though the fact that women were wont to celebrate victories with dance and song may have suggested the use of the expression, but the cities of Judah, which had been captured by Sennacherib (Isaiah 36:1), and therefore had special cause for rejoicing at his overthrow. Country towns are regarded as ‘daughters’ of the metropolis. Cp. Numbers 21:25; Joshua 17:11; Joshua 17:16; the word for towns in both cases literally means daughters.

12ff. The inhabitants of Jerusalem had been confined within its walls during the siege: now they can freely walk round, and thankfully contemplate the safety of the walls and towers and palaces so lately menaced with destruction. Cp. Isaiah 33:20.

tell] I.e. count, as in Psalm 22:17; Genesis 15:5. The retention of the archaism in R.V. is justifiable for the sake of the connexion with Psalm 48:13, where the same word is used for tell = narrate. But lately the towers had been counted with a very different object by the Assyrian officers reconnoitring the city in preparation for the siege (Isaiah 33:18).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad; i.e. let there be a chorus of joyful thanks over the length and breadth of the land, not only in Jerusalem, but in every city of Judah (Joshua 15:45) equally. Because of thy judgments. Because thou hast vindicated thy people, and executed judgment on their enemies. Psalm 48:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 48:10-12) Now follows grateful praise to God, who hears prayer and executes justice, to the joy of His city and of His people. By דּמּינוּ the poet refers back to the service held in the temple before the army set out, as narrated in 2 Chronicles 20, to the prayers offered in the time of their impending danger, and to the remembrance of the favour hitherto shown towards Jerusalem, from which source they drew the comfort of hope for the present time. דּמּה, to compare, to hold one thing over against another, in this instance by causing the history of the past to pass before one's mind. To God's mighty deeds of old is now added a new one. The Name of God, i.e., the sum of His self-attestations hitherto, was the subject of the דמינו in the temple, and more particularly of the Korahitic songs (2 Chronicles 20:19); and this name has gloriously verified itself by a new deed of righteousness. His fame extends even to the ends of the earth (2 Chronicles 20:29). He has proved Himself to be One whose right hand is full of righteousness, and who practises righteousness or justice where it is necessary. Let, then, the Holy City, let the country cities of Judah (Isaiah 40:9, cf. Psalm 16:2) rejoice. The whole inheritance of Israel was threatened. Now it is most gloriously delivered.