Psalm 124:2

If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) If it had not been.—For this motto of the covenant, see Psalm 94:17.

Men.—Better, man. In this use of the general term, we must, as Reuss points out, see an indication of the time of composition of the psalm. One who could so speak of the whole world as separated into two parts (Jews and heathen), discloses a sense of isolation and exclusiveness which brings us far down from the time of the prophets. They, indeed, spoke of it as the ideal of the future. This psalmist regards it as an accomplished fact.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

124:1-5 God suffers the enemies of his people sometimes to prevail very far against them, that his power may be seen the more in their deliverance. Happy the people whose God is Jehovah, a God all-sufficient. Besides applying this to any particular deliverance wrought in our days and the ancient times, we should have in our thoughts the great work of redemption by Jesus Christ, by which believers were rescued from Satan.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side - Repeating the idea, since the mind was full of it, and carrying the thought forward. This is one of the instances of an ascent of thought in these psalms, from which it has been supposed that the title "Songs of Degrees" was given to this collection. See, however, Introduction to Psalm 120:1-7.

When men rose up against us - When we were assailed by our enemies. On what occasion this occurred, it is now impossible to determine.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. rose … against, &c.—(Ps 3:1; 56:11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,.... This he repeats both for the confirmation of it, and to excite the attention of the Israelites to it; as well as to observe that it was not once only, but again and again, many times the Lord appeared to be on their side. The Targum renders it,

"the Word of the Lord;''

the essential Word, the Son of God; and so in Psalm 123:1, in the king's Bible;

when men rose up against us; wicked men; though no hard epithet is given in the text, however just. The enemies of God's people are only called "men" by them, to show their meekness and patience; it is in the singular number, "when man rose up"; hence Aroma interprets it of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and R. Obadiah of Haman: but it might be better interpreted of the man of sin, the man of the earth; who, at the head of his antichristian party, has rose up against the saints, oppressed them, and threatened them with utter ruin, 2 Thessalonians 2:4. Though it is best to understand it of a body of men; of men not mean, but mighty; not few, but numerous; and who united as one man against the people of God, and rose up against them in an hostile manner; being full of enmity to them, and bent upon their ruin.

Geneva Study Bible

If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. men] Rather man; as contrasted with God Who was our help. Cp. Psalm 66:12; Psalm 56:11; Psalm 118:6.

rose up] Conspiring to fight against us, Nehemiah 4:8. Cp. Psalm 3:1; Psalm 54:3.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us. The "rising" intended may have been that of Saul and his aiders and abettors, or that of the Ammonites and Syrians (2 Samuel 10:6-8), or that of Absalom and his partisans (2 Samuel 15:2-13). Psalm 124:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

It is commonly rendered, "If it had not been Jahve who was for us." But, notwithstanding the subject that is placed first (cf. Genesis 23:13), the שׁ belongs to the לוּלי; since in the Aramaizing Hebrew (cf. on the other hand Genesis 31:42) לוּלי שׁ (cf. Arab. lawlâ an) signifies nisi (prop. nisi quod), as in the Aramaic (דּ) שׁ (לואי) לוי, o si (prop. o si quod). The אזי, peculiar to this Psalm in the Old Testament, instead of אז follows the model of the dialectic אדין, Arab. iḏan, Syr. hāden (הידין, הדין). In order to begin the apodosis of לוּלי (לוּלא) emphatically the older language makes use of the confirmatory כּי, Genesis 31:42; Genesis 43:10; here we have אזי (well rendered by the lxx ἄρα), as in Psalm 119:92. The Lamed of היה לנו is raphe in both instances, according to the rule discussed above, p. 373. When men (אדם) rose up against Israel and their anger was kindled against them, they who were feeble in themselves over against the hostile world would have been swallowed up alive if they had not had Jahve for them, if they had not had Him on their side. This "swallowing up alive" is said elsewhere of Hades, which suddenly and forcibly snatches away its victims, Psalm 55:16; Proverbs 1:12; here, however, as Psalm 124:6 shows, it is said of the enemies, who are represented as wild beasts. In Psalm 124:4 the hostile power which rolls over them is likened to an overflowing stream, as in Isaiah 8:7., the Assyrian. נחלה, a stream or river, is Milel; it is first of all accusative: towards the stream (Numbers 34:5); then, however, it is also used as a nominative, like לילה, המּותה, and the like (cf. common Greek ἡ νύχθα, ἡ νεόντητα); so that תה- is related to ת- ( ה-) as נה-, מו- to ן- and ם- (Bttcher, 615). These latest Psalms are fond of such embellishments by means of adorned forms and Aramaic or Aramaizing words. זידונים is a word which is indeed not unhebraic in its formation, but is more indigenous to Chaldee; it is the Targum word for זדים in Psalm 86:14; Psalm 119:51, Psalm 119:78 (also in Psalm 54:5 for זרים), although according to Levy the MSS do not present זידונין but זידנין. In the passage before us the Targum renders: the king who is like to the proud waters (למוי זידוניּא) of the sea (Antiochus Epiphanes? - a Scholium explains οἱ ὑπερήφανοι). With reference to עבר before a plural subject, vid., Ges. 147.