Psalm 98:8

Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Clap their hands.—This expression, descriptive of the lapping sound of waves, occurs also in Isaiah 55:12.

Let the hills be joyful together.—

“Far along,

From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,

Leaps the live thunder! Not from one long cloud,

But every mountain now hath found a tongue,

And Jura answers through her misty shroud

Back to the joyous Alps who call to her aloud.”

BYRON: Childe Harold, canto iii.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

98:4-9 Let all the children of men rejoice in the setting up the kingdom of Christ, for all may benefit by it. The different orders of rational creatures in the universe, seem to be described in figurative language in the reign of the great Messiah. The kingdom of Christ will be a blessing to the whole creation. We expect his second coming to begin his glorious reign. Then shall heaven and earth rejoice, and the joy of the redeemed shall be full. But sin and its dreadful effects will not be utterly done away, till the Lord come to judge the world in righteousness. Seeing then that we look for such things, let us give diligence that we may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let the floods clap their hands - The rivers. Let them join in the universal praise. As if conscious of their beauty, their grandeur, their usefulness; as if sensible that all this was conferred by God; as if rejoicing in the goodness of God manifested to them, and through them, let them unite in the universal praise. Compare the notes at Isaiah 55:12.

Let the hills be joyful together - The mountains - in view of the goodness of God toward them - crowning them with beauty - clothing them with sublimity and grandeur - let them also rejoice in God as "their" God. Let all nature thus join in praise.

Psalm 98:8-9.Praise the Lord from the earth,

Ye dragons and all deeps;

Fire and hail; snow and vapor;

continued...

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4-6. make a loud noise—or, "burst forth" (Isa 14:7; 44:23).

before … King—hail Him as your sovereign; and while, with every aid to demonstrate zeal and joy, intelligent creatures are invited to praise, as in Ps 96:11-13, inanimate nature is also summoned to honor Him who triumphs and rules in righteousness and equity.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let the floods clap their hands,.... Or "rivers" (e), dashing against their banks, as they pass along; a prosopopoeia, as the preceding and following, expressing great joy on account of the Messiah, the reigning King. Aben Ezra interprets this of men that are in rivers, as the sea; in the preceding verse of such that are in ships at sea; and the hills in the next clause of such that dwell on them;

let the hills be joyful together; see Isaiah 55:12.

(e) "fluvii", Cocceius, Gejerus, so Ainsworth.

Geneva Study Bible

Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. Let the rivers clap their hands;

Let the mountains sing for Joy together.

Cp. Isaiah 55:12; and for the prosopopoeia, Habakkuk 3:10.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Let the floods clap their hands. This bold metaphor occurs only here and in Isaiah 55:12, where the "trees" are asked to "clap their hands." Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; or, sing for joy together; i.e. join with the rest of nature in expressing gladness. Psalm 98:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Here, too, it is all an echo of the earlier language of Psalms and prophets: Psalm 98:7 equals Psalm 96:11; Psalm 98:7 like Psalm 24:1; Psalm 98:8 after Isaiah 55:12 (where we find מחא כּף instead of the otherwise customary תּקע כּף, Psalm 47:2; or הכּה כּף, 2 Kings 11:12, is said of the trees of the field); Psalm 98:9 - Psalm 96:13, cf. Psalm 36:10. In the bringing in of nature to participate in the joy of mankind, the clapping rivers (נהרות) are original to this Psalm: the rivers cast up high waves, which flow into one another like clapping hands;

(Note: Luther renders: "the water-floods exult" (frohlocken); and Eychman's Vocabularius predicantium explains plaudere by "to exult (frohlocken) for joy, to smite the hands together prae gaudio;" cf. Luther's version of Ezekiel 21:17.)

cf. Habakkuk 3:10, where the abyss of the sea lifts up its hands on high, i.e., causes its waves to run mountain-high.