Psalm 106:20

Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) Their glory—i.e., Jehovah, as shown by Jeremiah 2:11.

Similitude.—This is also a Deuteronomic word (Deuteronomy 4:16; Deuteronomy 4:18), meaning originally “structure,” from a root meaning “to build,” and so “form,” “model.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

106:13-33 Those that will not wait for God's counsel, shall justly be given up to their own hearts' lusts, to walk in their own counsels. An undue desire, even for lawful things, becomes sinful. God showed his displeasure for this. He filled them with uneasiness of mind, terror of conscience, and self-reproach. Many that fare deliciously every day, and whose bodies are healthful, have leanness in their souls: no love to God, no thankfulness, no appetite for the Bread of life, and then the soul must be lean. Those wretchedly forget themselves, that feast their bodies and starve their souls. Even the true believer will see abundant cause to say, It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed. Often have we set up idols in our hearts, cleaved to some forbidden object; so that if a greater than Moses had not stood to turn away the anger of the Lord, we should have been destroyed. If God dealt severely with Moses for unadvised words, what do those deserve who speak many proud and wicked words? It is just in God to remove those relations that are blessings to us, when we are peevish and provoking to them, and grieve their spirits.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thus they changed their glory - Their true glory - the proper object of worship - God. Compare the notes at Romans 1:23. They "exchanged" that as an object of worship for the image of an ox.

Into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass - Into the likeness of an ox. That is, They worshipped God under that image. The circumstance of its "eating grass" is added to show the absurdity of the act. Instead of worshipping God - an independent Being, who does not need to be supported, but who himself sustains all things, and provides for all - they worshipped an animal that had need of constant sustenance, and would itself soon die if deprived of its proper nourishment. Compare the notes at Isaiah 40:18-20; notes at Isaiah 41:6-7.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19-23. From indirect setting God at naught, they pass to direct.

made—though prohibited in Ex 20:4, 5 to make a likeness, even of the true God.

calf—called so in contempt. They would have made an ox or bull, but their idol turned out but a calf; an imitation of the divine symbols, the cherubim; or of the sacred bull of Egyptian idolatry. The idolatry was more sinful in view of their recent experience of God's power in Egypt and His wonders at Sinai (Ex 32:1-6). Though intending to worship Jehovah under the symbol of the calf, yet as this was incompatible with His nature (De 4:15-17), they in reality gave up Him, and so were given up by Him. Instead of the Lord of heaven, they had as their glory the image of an ox that does nothing but eat grass.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Changed, as far as in them lay, and in respect of their worship.

Their glory; their God, who was indeed their glory; for they had this just occasion of triumphing and glorying over all the nations of the world; that whereas all other nations worshipped stocks and stones, or the heavenly bodies, or dead men, they only worshipped the living and true God, who was present and in covenant with them, and with them only.

Into the similitude of an ox; into the golden image of an ox or calf.

That eateth grass; which is so far from feeding his people, as the true God did the Israelites, that he must be fed by them. And yet the image of such a creature was preferred by them, before the all-sufficient and ever-blessed God, which was an evidence of their horrid contempt of God, and also of their prodigious folly and stupidity.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thus they changed their glory,.... God, who is glorious in all the perfections of his nature, and is glory itself, and was the glory of these people; it was their greatest honour that they had knowledge of him, nearness to him, the true worship of him among them, and that they were worshippers of him; and who, though he is unchangeable in himself, may be said to be changed when another is substituted and worshipped in his room, or worshipped besides him; which was what the Heathen did, and in which the Israelites exceeded them, Romans 1:23, the Targum is,

"they changed the glory of their Lord.''

Into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass; which was monstrous stupidity, to leave the worship of the true God, El Shaddai, God all sufficient, all powerful, that stands in need of nothing, but upholds and supports all creatures in being, and provides them with necessaries; and worship an ox, yea, the figure of one that eats grass, that lives on hay, and is supported by that which is so weak and withering; the Targum adds,

"and makes dung;''

or defiles itself with it, as the ox does while it is eating grass; Jarchi observes, there is nothing more abominable and filthy than an ox when it is eating grass, which then makes much dung, and defiles itself; this the Targumist adds, to make the worship of such a creature the more contemptible.

Geneva Study Bible

Thus they changed their {k} glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.

(k) He shows that all idolaters renounce God to be their glory when instead of him, they worship any creature much more wood, stone, metal or calves.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. So they exchanged their glory

For the likeness of an ox that eateth grass.

Jehovah was the glory of Israel (Deuteronomy 4:6-8; Deuteronomy 10:21); and this spiritual invisible God they bartered for the likeness of an animal, such as they were forbidden to make (Deuteronomy 4:16-18; Exodus 20:4). Cp. Jeremiah 2:11.

The reading their glory is reckoned as one of the eighteen Tiqqûnç Sôpherîm[60] or ‘corrections of the scribes,’ and is said to stand for ‘his glory.’ It is disputed whether the term means that the scribes actually altered the text from motives of reverence, or held that his glory was what the Psalmist would have written, had he not purposely avoided it as an indecorous expression. It is noteworthy that some MSS of the LXX (אc.a ART) read his glory, and to this form of the text St Paul refers in Romans 1:23. The Targ. gives ‘the glory of their Lord.’

[60] See Ginsburg, Introd. to the Heb. Bible, pp. 347 ff., who holds the view that the Scribes altered the text: and Barnes in the journal of Theol. Studies, i. 387 ff., who holds that the so-called corrections are interpretations not readings.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass; i.e. they exchanged the spiritual revelation of Jehovah, in all his glorious attributes, for a material emblem, which would naturally suggest low and unworthy thoughts of the supreme Being. So Schultz and Cheyne. The expression, "an ox that eateth grass," emphasizes the contempt of the writer for a people who could so act. He has, probably, in his thoughts not only the golden calf, but the Apis bulls of Egypt. Psalm 106:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The first of the principal sins on the other side of the Red Sea was the unthankful, impatient, unbelieving murmuring about their meat and drink, Psalm 106:13-15. For what Psalm 106:13 places foremost was the root of the whole evil, that, falling away from faith in God's promise, they forgot the works of God which had been wrought in confirmation of it, and did not wait for the carrying out of His counsel. The poet has before his eye the murmuring for water on the third day after the miraculous deliverance (Exodus 15:22-24) and in Rephidim (Exodus 17:2). Then the murmuring for flesh in the first and second years of the exodus which was followed by the sending of the quails (Exodus 16 and Numbers 11), together with the wrathful judgment by which the murmuring for the second time was punished (Kibrôth ha-Ta'avah, Numbers 11:33-35). This dispensation of wrath the poet calls רזון (lxx, Vulgate, and Syriac erroneously πλησμονήν, perhaps מזון, nourishment), inasmuch as he interprets Numbers 11:33-35 of a wasting disease, which swept away the people in consequence of eating inordinately of the flesh, and in the expression (cf. Psalm 78:31) he closely follows Isaiah 10:16. The "counsel" of God for which they would not wait, is His plan with respect to the time and manner of the help. חכּה, root Arab. ḥk, a weaker power of Arab. ḥq, whence also Arab. ḥkl, p. 111, ḥkm, p. 49 note 1, signifies prop. to make firm, e.g., a knot (cf. on Psalm 33:20), and starting from this (without the intervention of the metaphor moras nectere, as Schultens thinks) is transferred to a firm bent of mind, and the tension of long expectation. The epigrammatic expression ויּתאוּוּ תאוה (plural of ויתאו, Isaiah 45:12, for which codices, as also in Proverbs 23:3, Proverbs 23:6; Proverbs 24:1, the Complutensian, Venetian 1521, Elias Levita, and Baer have ויתאו without the tonic lengthening) is taken from Numbers 11:4.

The second principal sin was the insurrection against their superiors, Psalm 106:16-18. The poet has Numbers 16:1 in his eye. The rebellious ones were swallowed up by the earth, and their two hundred and fifty noble, non-Levite partisans consumed by fire. The fact that the poet does not mention Korah among those who were swallowed up is in perfect harmony with Numbers 16:25., Deuteronomy 11:6; cf. however Numbers 26:10. The elliptical תפתּה in Psalm 106:17 is explained from Numbers 16:32; Numbers 26:10.

The third principal sin was the worship of the calf, Psalm 106:19-23. The poet here glances back at Exodus 32, but not without at the same time having Deuteronomy 9:8-12 in his mind; for the expression "in Horeb" is Deuteronomic, e.g., Deuteronomy 4:15; Deuteronomy 5:2, and frequently. Psalm 106:20 is also based upon the Book of Deuteronomy: they exchanged their glory, i.e., the God who was their distinction before all peoples according to Deuteronomy 4:6-8; Deuteronomy 10:21 (cf. also Jeremiah 2:11), for the likeness (תּבנית) of a plough-ox (for this is pre-eminently called שׁוּר, in the dialects תּור), contrary to the prohibition in Deuteronomy 4:17. On Psalm 106:21 cf. the warning in Deuteronomy 6:12. "Land of Cham" equals Egypt, as in Psalm 78:51; Psalm 105:23, Psalm 105:27. With ויאמר in Psalm 106:23 the expression becomes again Deuteronomic: Deuteronomy 9:25, cf. Exodus 32:10. God made and also expressed the resolve to destroy Israel. Then Moses stepped into the gap (before the gap), i.e., as it were covered the breach, inasmuch as he placed himself in it and exposed his own life; cf. on the fact, besides Exodus 32, also Deuteronomy 9:18., Psalm 10:10, and on the expression, Ezekiel 22:30 and also Jeremiah 18:20.