Click
here to show/hide instructions.
Instructions on how to use the page:
The commentary for the selected verse is is displayed below.
All commentary was produced against the King James, so the same verse from that translation may appear as well. Hovering your mouse over a commentary's scripture reference attempts to show those verses.
Use the browser's back button to return to the previous page.
Or you can also select a feature from the Just Verses menu appearing at the top of the page.
Selected Verse: Psalms 104:24 - Basic English
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 104:24 |
Basic English |
O Lord, how great is the number of your works! in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of the things you have made. |
| |
King James |
O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| From a view of the earth thus full of God's blessings, the writer passes to the sea, which, in its immensity, and as a scene and means of man's activity in commerce, and the home of countless multitudes of creatures, also displays divine power and beneficence. The mention of |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
O Lord, how manifold are thy works! - literally, "how many." The reference is to the "number" and the "variety" of the works of God, and to the wisdom displayed in them all. The earth is not suited up merely for one class of inhabitants, but for an almost endless variety; and the wisdom of God is manifested alike in the number and in the variety. No one can estimate the "number" of beings God has made on the earth; no one can comprehend the richness of the variety. By day the air, the earth, the waters swarm with life - life struggling everywhere as if no placc was to be left unoccupied; even for the dark scenes of night countless numbers of beings have been created; and, in all this immensity of numbers, there is an endless variety. No two are alike. Individuality is everywhere preserved, and the mind is astonished and confounded alike at the numbers and the variety.
In wisdom hast thou made them all - That is, Thou hast adapted each and all to the different ends contemplated in their creation. Anyone of these beings shows the wisdom of God in its formation, and in its adaptations to the ends of its existence; how much more is that wisdom displayed in these countless numbers, and in this endless variety!
The earth is full of thy riches - Hebrew, "possessions." So the Septuagint and the Vulgate. That is, these various objects thus created are regarded as the "possession" of God; or, they belong to him, as the property of a man belongs to himself. The psalmist says that this wealth or property abounds everywhere; the earth is full of it. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
Fixing his eye upon the sea with its small and great creatures, and the care of God for all self-living beings, the poet passes over to the fifth and sixth days of creation. The rich contents of this sixth group flow over and exceed the decastich. With מה־רבּוּ (not מה־גּדלוּ, Psa 92:6) the poet expresses his wonder at the great number of God's works, each one at the same time having its adjustment in accordance with its design, and all, mutually serving one another, co-operating one with another. קנין, which signifies both bringing forth and acquiring, has the former meaning here according to the predicate: full of creatures, which bear in themselves the traces of the Name of their Creator (קנה). Beside קיניך, however, we also find the reading קנינך, which is adopted by Norzi, Heidenheim, and Baer, represented by the versions (lxx, Vulgate, and Jerome), by expositors (Rashi: קנין שׁלּך), by the majority of the MSS (according to Norzi) and old printed copies, which would signify τῆς κτίσεώς σου, or according to the Latin versions κτήσεώς σου (possessione tua, Luther "they possessions"), but is inferior to the plural ktisma'toon σου, as an accusative of the object to מלאה. The sea more particularly is a world of moving creatures innumerable (Psa 69:35). זה היּם does not properly signify this sea, but that sea, yonder sea (cf. Psa 68:9, Isa 23:13; Jos 9:13). The attributes follow in an appositional relation, the looseness of which admits of the non-determination (cf. Psa 68:28; Jer 2:21; Gen 43:14, and the reverse case above in Psa 104:18). אניּה .) in relation to אני is a nomen unitatis (the single ship). It is an old word, which is also Egyptian in the form hani and ana.
(Note: Vide Chabas, Le papyrus magique Harris, p. 246, No. 826: HANI (אני), vaisseau, navire, and the Book of the Dead 1. 10, where hani occurs with the determinative picture of a ship. As to the form ana, vid., Chabas loc. cit. p. 33.)
Leviathan, in the Book of Job, the crocodile, is in this passage the name of the whale (vid., Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmuds, 178-180, 505). Ewald and Hitzig, with the Jewish tradition, understand בּו in Psa 104:26 according to Job 41:5 : in order to play with him, which, however, gives no idea that is worthy of God. It may be taken as an alternative word for שׁם (cf. בּו in Psa 104:20, Job 40:20): to play therein, viz., in the sea (Saadia). In כּלּם, Psa 104:27, the range of vision is widened from the creatures of the sea to all the living things of the earth; cf. the borrowed passages Psa 145:15., Psa 147:9. כּלּם, by an obliteration of the suffix, signifies directly "altogether," and בּעתּו (cf. Job 38:32): when it is time for it. With reference to the change of the subject in the principal and in the infinitival clause, vid., Ew. 338, a. The existence, passing away, and origin of all beings is conditioned by God. His hand provides everything; the turning of His countenance towards them upholds everything; and His breath, the creative breath, animates and renews all things. The spirit of life of every creature is the disposing of the divine Spirit, which hovered over the primordial waters and transformed the chaos into the cosmos. תּסף in Psa 104:29 is equivalent to תּאסף, as in Sa1 15:6, and frequently. The full future forms accented on the ultima, from Psa 104:27 onwards, give emphasis to the statements. Job 34:14. may be compared with Psa 104:29. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
O Lord, how manifold are thy works - In this verse there are three propositions:
1. The works of the Lord are multitudinous and varied.
2. They are so constructed as to show the most consummate wisdom in their design, and in the end for which they are formed.
3. They are all God's property, and should be used only in reference to the end for which they were created.
All abuse and waste of God's creatures are spoil and robbery on the property of the Creator. On this verse Mr. Ray has published an excellent work, entitled, "The Wisdom of God in the Creation," which the reader will do well, not only to consult, but carefully to read over and study. |
29 If your face is veiled, they are troubled; when you take away their breath, they come to an end, and go back to the dust.
14 If he made his spirit come back to him, taking his breath into himself again,
27 All of them are waiting for you, to give them their food in its time.
6 And Saul said to the Kenites, Go away, take yourselves out from among the Amalekites, or destruction will overtake you with them: for you were kind to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. So the Kenites went away from among the Amalekites.
29 If your face is veiled, they are troubled; when you take away their breath, they come to an end, and go back to the dust.
32 Do you make Mazzaroth come out in its right time, or are the Bear and its children guided by you?
9 He gives food to every beast, and to the young ravens in answer to their cry.
15 The eyes of all men are waiting for you; and you give them their food in its time.
27 All of them are waiting for you, to give them their food in its time.
20 He takes the produce of the mountains, where all the beasts of the field are at play.
20 When you make it dark, it is night, when all the beasts of the woods come quietly out of their secret places.
5 Will you make sport with him, as with a bird? or put him in chains for your young women?
26 There go the ships; there is that great beast, which you have made as a plaything.
18 The high hills are a safe place for the mountain goats, and the rocks for the small beasts.
14 And may God, the Ruler of all, give you mercy before the man, so that he may give you back your other brother and Benjamin. If my children are to be taken from me; there is no help for it.
21 But when you were planted by me, you were a noble vine, in every way a true seed: how then have you been changed into the branching plant of a strange vine?
28 O God, send out your strength; the strength, O God, with which you have done great things for us,
13 And these wine-skins were new when we put the wine in them, and now they are cracked as you see; and our clothing and our shoes have become old because of our very long journey here.
13 ...
9 You, O God, did freely send the rain, giving strength to the weariness of your heritage.
35 For God will be the saviour of Zion, and the builder of the towns of Judah; so that it may be their resting-place and heritage.
6 A man without sense has no knowledge of this; and a foolish man may not take it in.