Psalm 113:9

He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) He maketh.—See margin. Motherhood alone assured the wife of a fixed and dignified position in her husband’s house. The quotation from Hannah’s song suggested the allusion to her story. We are no doubt right in taking this joyful mother as emblematic of the nation itself restored to prosperity and joy.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 113:9. He maketh the barren woman to keep house — Hebrew, מושׁיבי הבית, moshibi habaith, to dwell in a house, or family, or among children, namely, born of her. In the sacred history of the Old Testament, we find many instances of barren women, who were miraculously made to bear children. Isaac, Joseph, Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist were thus born of mothers who had been barren. “These examples,” says Dr. Horne, “may be considered as preludes to that marvellous exertion of divine power, whereby the Gentile Church, after so many years of barrenness, became, in her old age, a fruitful parent of children, and the mother of us all. Wherefore it is written, Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, &c., Isaiah 54:1.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

113:1-9 An exhortation to praise God. - God has praise from his own people. They have most reason to praise him; for those who attend him as his servants, know him best, and receive most of his favours, and it is easy, pleasant work to speak well of their Master. God's name ought to be praised in every place, from east to west. Within this wide space the Lord's name is to be praised; it ought to be so, though it is not. Ere long it will be, when all nations shall come and worship before him. God is exalted above all blessing and praise. We must therefore say, with holy admiration, Who is like unto the Lord our God? How condescending in him to behold the things in the earth! And what amazing condescension was it for the Son of God to come from heaven to earth, and take our nature upon him, that he might seek and save those that were lost! How vast his love in taking upon him the nature of man, to ransom guilty souls! God sometimes makes glorious his own wisdom and power, when, having some great work to do, he employs those least likely, and least thought of for it by themselves or others. The apostles were sent from fishing to be fishers of men. And this is God's constant method in his kingdom of grace. He takes men, by nature beggars, and even traitors, to be his favourites, his children, kings and priests unto him; and numbers them with the princes of his chosen people. He gives us all our comforts, which are generally the more welcome when long delayed, and no longer expected. Let us pray that those lands which are yet barren, may speedily become fruitful, and produce many converts to join in praising the Lord.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He maketh the barren woman to keep house ... - Margin, as in Hebrew, "to dwell in a house." That is, to be at the head of a family. See the notes at Psalm 68:6. Compare 1 Samuel 2:5. This, too, is suggested as a reason why God should be praised and adored. In instances where all hope of posterity is cut off, he interposes, and diffuses joy through a dwelling. We may look abroad, and see abundant occasion for praising God, in his condescension to human affairs - in his lifting up the poor from the humblest condition - in his exalting those of lowly rank to places of honor, trust, wealth, and power; but, after all, if we wish to Find occasions of praise that will most tenderly affect the heart, and be connected with the warmest affections of the soul, they will be most likely to be found in the domestic circle - in the mutual love - the common joy - the tender feelings - which bind together the members of a family. In such a family, the words with which this psalm begins and ends, "Hallelujah," "Hallelujah," are especially appropriate; and if any community on earth should apply these words to itself it should be such a family, called upon by everything tender, holy, and lovely, to "praise the" Lord.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. On this special case, compare 1Sa 2:21. Barrenness was regarded as a disgrace, and is a type of a deserted Church (Isa 54:1).

the barren woman … house—literally, "the barren of the house," so that the supplied words may be omitted.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

To keep house, Heb. to dwell in a house or family, or amongst children, to wit, coming out of her own womb, as is clearly implied by the opposition of this to her barrenness. And the word

house is oft put for children, as Exodus 1:21 Ruth 4:11 Psalm 115:10,12. And so it is explained in the next clause.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He maketh the barren woman to keep house,.... Or "to dwell in the house", as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and other versions; or rather "to cause the house to be inhabited"; to fill the house with inhabitants, to build up the house, as the barren woman, when made fruitful, does, as Rachel and Leah built up the house of Israel, Ruth 4:11. This may be applied to the church of God, as it is to the congregation of Israel by the Targum,

"who makes the congregation of Israel, which is like to a barren woman, that sitteth sorrowful, to dwell with the men of her house, full of multitudes.''

Jarchi interprets it of Zion, who was as a barren woman; see Isaiah 54:1, Galatians 4:27. It may be illustrated by the case of the primitive and apostolic church, which at first had but very few converts, but afterwards, both in Judea and in the Gentile world, had large numbers; as the church in the latter day will also have, when the fulness of the Gentiles is brought in, and the nation of the Jews born at once.

And to be a joyful mother of children; as the barren woman is when she becomes the mother of children; and indeed every woman rejoices when a man is born into the world, John 16:21, and so does the church of Christ and people of God, when souls are born again among them; this causes great joy among the saints; see Psalm 87:4.

Praise ye the Lord; not only for the church's fruitfulness, but for all the great and good things the Lord has vouchsafed to do for his people, mentioned in this psalm.

Geneva Study Bible

He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. He maketh the barren housewife to dwell

As a joyful mother of sons.

He gives her a secure and happy position in her home. The reference in Psalm 113:6-7 to the Song of Hannah suggests this further reference to the experience of Hannah, as an instance of the way in which Jehovah has compassion on those who are despised. But doubtless under the figure of the once childless wife gladdened with a family of sons the Psalmist intends to allude to Zion. Cp. Isaiah 54:1; Isaiah 66:8. So the Targum: “Who maketh the congregation of Israel, which was like a barren woman mourning for the men of her household, to be full of crowds, like a mother who rejoiceth over sons.”

Praise ye the Lord] In the LXX this Hallelujah is transferred, perhaps rightly, to the beginning of Psalms 114. See on Psalm 104:35.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - He maketh the barren woman to keep house. Hannah's song is still in the psalmist's thoughts, and suggests this illustration (see 1 Samuel 2:5). But it must not be restricted to a literal interpretation. The true "barren woman" was Israel (Isaiah 54:1), whose curse of barrenness was ultimately removed, and who became, as here prophesied, a joyful mother of children (comp. Isaiah 49:12, 18, 20; Isaiah 54:2, 3; Isaiah 60:5; Galatians 4:27). Praise ye the Lord (comp. Psalm 104, 105, 106, 115, 116, 117, 135, 146-150, which terminate similarly).



Psalm 113:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The thoughts of Psalm 113:7 and Psalm 113:8 are transplanted from the song of Hannah. עפר, according to 1 Kings 16:2, cf. Psalm 14:7, is an emblem of lowly estate (Hitzig), and אשׁפּת (from שׁפת) an emblem of the deepest poverty and desertion; for in Syria and Palestine the man who is shut out from society lies upon the mezbele (the dunghill or heap of ashes), by day calling upon the passers-by for alms, and by night hiding himself in the ashes that have been warmed by the sun (Job, ii. 152). The movement of the thoughts in Psalm 113:8, as in Psalm 113:1, follows the model of the epizeuxis. Together with the song of Hannah the poet has before his eye Hannah's exaltation out of sorrow and reproach. He does not, however, repeat the words of her song which have reference to this (1 Samuel 2:5), but clothes his generalization of her experience in his own language. If he intended that עקרת should be understood out of the genitival relation after the form עטרת, why did he not write מושׁיבי הבּית עקרה? הבּית would then be equivalent to בּיתה, Psalm 68:7. עקרת הבּית is the expression for a woman who is a wife, and therefore housewife, הבּית (בּעלת) נות, but yet not a mother. Such an one has no settled position in the house of the husband, the firm bond is wanting in her relationship to her husband. If God gives her children, He thereby makes her then thoroughly at home and rooted-in in her position. In the predicate notion אם הבּנים שׂמחה the definiteness attaches to the second member of the string of words, as in Genesis 48:19; 2 Samuel 12:30 (cf. the reverse instance in Jeremiah 23:26, נבּאי השּׁקר, those prophesying that which is false), therefore: a mother of the children. The poet brings the matter so vividly before him, that he points as it were with his finger to the children with which God blesses her.