9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The children of Ephraim being armed, and shooting with the bow. The sacred writer sets before us an example of this unfaithfulness in the children of Ephraim. As those who are pertinaciously set upon doing evil are not easily led to repentance and reformation by simple instruction, the punishments with which God visited the children of Ephraim are brought forward, and by these it is proved that they were reprobates. Since they were a warlike people, it was an evidence of the divine displeasure for them to turn their backs in battle. And it is expressly declared, that they were skillful in shooting with the bow; [1] for it is an additional stigma to represent such as were armed with weapons to wound their enemies at a distance as fleeing through fear. From this, it is the more abundantly manifest that they had incurred the displeasure of God, who not only deprived them of his aid, but also made their hearts effeminate in the hour of danger. Here the question may be raised, Why the children of Ephraim only are blamed, when we find a little before, all the tribes in general comprehended in the same sentence of condemnation? Some commentators refer this to the slaughter of the sons of Ephraim by the men of Gath, who came forth against them to recover their cattle of which they had been despoiled, 1 Chronicles 7:20, 21, 22. [2] But this exposition is too restricted. Perhaps the kingdom of Israel had fallen into decay, and had been almost ruined when this psalm was composed. It is therefore better to follow the opinion of other interpreters, who think, that by the figure synecdoche, the children of Ephraim are put for the whole people. But these interpreters pass over without consideration the fact, which ought not to be overlooked, that the Ephraimites are purposely named because they were the means of leading others into that rebellion which took place when Jeroboam set up the calves, (1 Kings 12:25-33.) What we have already said must be borne in mind, that towards the close of the psalm, the rejection of the tribe of Ephraim is, not, without cause, contrasted with the election of the tribe of Judah. The children of Ephraim are also here spoken of by way of comparison, to warn the true children of Abraham from the example of those who cut themselves off from the Church, and yet boasted of the title of the Church without exhibiting holy fruits in their life. As they surpassed all the other tribes in number and wealth, their influence was too powerful in beguiling the simple; but of this the prophet now strips them, showing that they were deprived of the aid of God.
1 - Of the Ephraimites shooting with the bow, or being archers, we have an intimation in Genesis 49:24, where, in Jacob's blessing on Joseph, the father of Ephraim, it is said, "His bow abode in strength."
2 - Dr Morison supposes, that the history here referred to, is that of the Israelites going up contrary to the divine command to take possession of the promised land, when, for their temerity, they were smitten and humbled before their enemies. (Deuteronomy 1:42.) "The tribe of Ephraim," he observes, "is doubtless specially singled out, because they were the most warlike of all the chosen tribes, and because, perhaps, they led on the other tribes to the fatal act of rebellion against the expressed will of the God of Israel." This, perhaps, may be considered as receiving some support from comparing the number of the tribe of Ephraim (Numbers 2:19) when they came out of Egypt, with their number when taken in the plains of Moab, at the termination of their wanderings in the wilderness, (Numbers 26:37.) At the former period, they amounted to 40,500, at the latter, to 32,500, eight thousand less; whereas, during those forty years the other tribes had considerably increased.
The children of Ephraim - The sons of Ephraim; that is, the descendants of Ephraim; the tribe of Ephraim. Ephraim was one of the "largest" of the tribes of Israel, and was the "chief" tribe in the rebellion, and hence, the term is often used to denote the "ten" tribes, or the kingdom of Israel, in contradistinction from that of Judah. See Isaiah 7:2, Isaiah 7:5,Isaiah 7:8-9, Isaiah 7:17; Isaiah 11:13; Isaiah 28:1. The word is evidently used in this sense here, not as denoting that one tribe only, but that tribe as the head of the revolted kingdom; or, in other words, the name is used as representing the kingdom of that name after the revolt. See 1 Kings 12. This verse evidently contains the gist or the main idea of the psalm - to wit, that Ephraim, or the ten tribes, had turned away from the worship of the true God, and that, in consequence of that apostasy, the government had been transferred to another tribe - the tribe of Judah. See Psalm 78:67-68.
Being armed - The idea in this phrase is, that they had abundant means for maintaining their independence in connection with the other tribes, or as a part of the nation, but that they refused to cooperate with their brethren.
And carrying bows - Margin, "throwing forth." Literally, "lifting up." The idea is, that they were armed with bows; or, that they were fully armed.
Turned back in the day of battle - That is, they did not stand by their brethren, or assist them in defending their country. There is probably no reference here to any particular battle, but the idea is, that in the wars of the nation - in those wars which were waged for national purposes - they refused to join with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in defense of the lawful government.
The children of Ephraim - turned back - This refers to some defeat of the Ephraimites; and some think to that by the men of Gath, mentioned 1-Chronicles 7:21. R. D. Kimchi says this defeat of the Ephraimites was in the desert; and although the story be not mentioned in the law, yet it is written in the Books of the Chronicles, where we read, on the occasion of "Zabad the Ephraimite, and Shuthelah, etc., whom the men of Gath, who were born in the land, slew; and Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him," 1-Chronicles 7:20-22 : but to what defeat of the Ephraimites this refers is not certainly known; probably the Israelites after the division of the two kingdoms are intended.
The children of (h) Ephraim, [being] armed, [and] carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
(h) By Ephraim he means also the rest of the tribes, because they were most in number: whose punishment declares that they were unfaithful to God, and by their multitude and authority had corrupted all others.
The children of Ephraim being armed, and carrying bows,.... Or "casting" arrows out of the "bow" (a); they went out well armed to meet the enemy, and they trusted in their armour, and not in the Lord; and being skilful in throwing darts, or shooting arrows, promised themselves victory:
but turned back in the day of battle; fled from the enemy, could not stand their ground when the onset was made: what this refers to is not easy to determine; some think this with what follows respects the defection of the ten tribes in Rehoboam's time, which frequently go under the name of Ephraim; but we have no account of any battle then fought, and lost by them; and besides the history of this psalm reaches no further than the times of David; others are of opinion that it regards the time of Eli, when the Israelites were beaten by the Philistines, the ark of God was taken, Eli's two sons slain, and thirty thousand more, 1-Samuel 4:1. Ephraim being put for the rest of the tribes, the ark being in that tribe; others suppose that the affair between the Gileadites and Ephraimites, in the times of Jephthah, is referred to, when there fell of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand, Judges 12:1, many of the Jewish (b) writers take it to be the history of a fact that was done in Egypt before the children of Israel came out from thence; see 1-Chronicles 7:20, so the Targum,
"when they dwelt in Egypt, the children of Ephraim grew proud, they appointed the end (or term of going out of Egypt), and they erred, and went out thirty years before the end, with warlike arms, and mighty men carrying bows, turned back, and were slain in the day of battle;''
though it seems most likely to have respect to what was done in the wilderness, as Kimchi observes, after they were come out of Egypt, and had seen the wonders of God there, and at the Red sea, and in the wilderness; and perhaps reference is had to the discomfiture of the Israelites by the Amalekites, when they went up the hill they were forbid to do, and in which, it may be, the Ephraimites were most forward, and suffered most; see Numbers 14:40.
(a) "jacientes arcu", Pagninus, Montanus; "jaculantes arcu", Tigurine version, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus, Michaelis. (b) See Pirke Eliezer, c. 48. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 7. 2.
Sin dispirits men, and takes away the heart. Forgetfulness of God's works is the cause of disobedience to his laws. This narrative relates a struggle between God's goodness and man's badness. The Lord hears all our murmurings and distrusts, and is much displeased. Those that will not believe the power of God's mercy, shall feel the fire of his indignation. Those cannot be said to trust in God's salvation as their happiness at last, who can not trust his providence in the way to it. To all that by faith and prayer, ask, seek, and knock, these doors of heaven shall at any time be opened; and our distrust of God is a great aggravation of our sins. He expressed his resentment of their provocation; not in denying what they sinfully lusted after, but in granting it to them. Lust is contented with nothing. Those that indulge their lust, will never be estranged from it. Those hearts are hard indeed, that will neither be melted by the mercies of the Lord, nor broken by his judgments. Those that sin still, must expect to be in trouble still. And the reason why we live with so little comfort, and to so little purpose, is, because we do not live by faith. Under these rebukes they professed repentance, but they were not sincere, for they were not constant. In Israel's history we have a picture of our own hearts and lives. God's patience, and warnings, and mercies, imbolden them to harden their hearts against his word. And the history of kingdoms is much the same. Judgments and mercies have been little attended to, until the measure of their sins has been full. And higher advantages have not kept churches from declining from the commandments of God. Even true believers recollect, that for many a year they abused the kindness of Providence. When they come to heaven, how will they admire the Lord's patience and mercy in bringing them to his kingdom!
The privileges of the first-born which belonged to Joseph (1-Chronicles 5:1-2) were assigned to Ephraim by Jacob (Genesis 48:1). The supremacy of the tribe thus intimated was recognized by its position (in the marching of the nation to Canaan) next to the ark (Numbers 2:18-24), by the selection of the first permanent locality for the ark within its borders at Shiloh, and by the extensive and fertile province given for its possession. Traces of this prominence remained after the schism under Rehoboam, in the use, by later writers, of Ephraim for Israel (compare Hosea 5:3-14; Hosea 11:3-12). Though a strong, well-armed tribe, and, from an early period, emulous and haughty (compare Joshua 17:14; Judges 8:1-3; 2-Samuel 19:41), it appears, in this place, that it had rather led the rest in cowardice than courage; and had incurred God's displeasure, because, diffident of His promise, though often heretofore fulfilled, it had failed as a leader to carry out the terms of the covenant, by not driving out the heathen (Exodus 23:24; Deuteronomy 31:16; 2-Kings 17:15).
Psalm 78:9, which comes in now in the midst of this description, is awkward and unintelligible. The supposition that "the sons of Ephraim" is an appellation for the whole of Israel is refuted by Psalm 78:67. The rejection of Ephraim and the election of Judah is the point into which the historical retrospect runs out; how then can "the sons of Ephraim" denote Israel as a whole? And yet what is here said of the Ephraimites also holds good of the Israelites in general, as Psalm 78:57 shows. The fact, however, that the Ephraimites are made specially conspicuous out of the "generation" of all Israel, is intelligible from the special interest which the Psalm of Asaph take in the tribes of Joseph, and here particularly from the purpose of practically preparing the way for the rejection of Shiloh and Ephraim related further on. In Psalm 78:10 and Psalm 78:11 the Ephraimites are also still spoken of; and it is not until Psalm 78:12, with the words "in sight of their fathers," that we come back again to the nation at large. The Ephraimites are called נושׁקי רומי־קשׁת in the sense of נושׁקי קשׁת רומי קשׁת; the two participial construct forms do not stand in subordination but in co-ordination, as in Jeremiah 46:9; Deuteronomy 33:19; 2-Samuel 20:19, just as in other instances also two substantives, of which one is the explanation of the other, are combined by means of the construct, Job 20:17, cf. 2-Kings 17:13 Ker. It is therefore: those who prepare the bow, i.e., those arming themselves therewith (נשׁק as in 1-Chronicles 12:2; 2-Chronicles 17:17), those who cast the vow, i.e., those shooting arrows from the bow (Jeremiah 4:29), cf. Bttcher, 728. What is predicated of them, viz., "they turned round" (הפך as in Judges 20:39, Judges 20:41), stands in contrast with this their ability to bear arms and to defend themselves, as a disappointed expectation. Is what is meant thereby, that the powerful warlike tribe of Ephraim grew weary in the work of the conquest of Canaan (Judg. 1), and did not render the services which might have been expected from it? Since the historical retrospect does not enter into details until Psalm 78:12 onwards, this especial historical reference would come too early here; the statement consequently must be understood more generally and, according to Psalm 78:57, figuratively: Ephraim proved itself unstable and faint-hearted in defending and in conducting the cause of God, it gave it up, it abandoned it. They did not act as the covenant of God required of them, they refused to walk (ללכת, cf. ללכת, Ecclesiastes 1:7) within the limit and track of His Tra, and forgot the deeds of God of which they had been eye-witnesses under Moses and under Joshua, their comrades of the same family.
Ephraim - That Ephraim is here put for all Israel seems evident from the following verses, wherein the sins, upon which this overthrow is charged, are manifestly the sins of all the children of Israel, and they who are here called Ephraim are called Jacob and Israel, Psalm 78:21, and this passage may refer to that dreadful overthrow related, 1-Samuel 4:10-11, which is particularly named, because as the ark, so the flight was in that tribe. And the psalmist having related this amazing providence, falls into a large discourse of the causes of it, namely, the manifold sins of that and the former generations, which having prosecuted from hence to Psalm 78:60, he there returns to this history, and relates the sad consequence of that disaster, the captivity of the ark, and God's forsaking of Shiloh and Ephraim, and removing thence to the tribe of Judah and mount Zion. Bows - These are put for all arms.
*More commentary available at chapter level.