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 14:5 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 14:5 |
King James |
There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
There were they in great fear - Margin, as in Hebrew, "they feared a fear." The idea is, that they were in great terror or consternation. They were not calm in their belief that there was no God. They endeavored to be. They wished to satisfy themselves that there was no God, and that they had nothing to dread. But they could not do this. In spite of all their efforts, there was such proof of his existence, and of his being the friend of the righteous, and consequently the enemy of such as they themselves were, as to fill their minds with alarm. People cannot, by an effort of will, get rid of the evidence that there is a God. In the face of all their attempts to convince themselves of this, the demonstration of his existence will press upon them, and will often fill their minds with terror.
For God is in the generation of the righteous - The word "generation" here, as applied to the righteous, seems to refer to them as a "race," or as a "class" of people. Compare Psa 24:6; Psa 73:15; Psa 112:2. It commonly in the Scriptures refers to a certain age or duration, as it is used by us, reckoning an age or generation as about thirty or forty years (compare Job 42:16); but in the use of the term before us the idea of an "age" is dropped, and the righteous are spoken of merely as a "class" or "race" of persons. The idea here is, that there were such manifest proofs that God was among the righteous, and that he was their friend, that the wicked could not resist the force of that evidence, however much they might desire it, and however much they might wish to arrive at the conclusion that there was no God. The evidence that he was among the righteous would, of course, alarm them, because the very fact that he was the friend of the righteous demonstrated that he must be the enemy of the wicked, and, of course, that they were exposed to his wrath. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| When Jahve thus bursts forth in scorn His word, which never fails in its working, smites down these brutish men, who are without knowledge and conscience. The local demonstrative שׁם is used as temporal in this passage just as in Psa 66:6; Hos 2:17; Zep 1:14; Job 23:7; Job 35:12, and is joined with the perfect of certainty, as in Job 36:13, where it has not so much a temporal as a local sense. It does not mean "there = at a future time," as pointing into the indefinite future, but "there = then," when God shall thus speak to them in His anger. Intensity is here given to the verb פּחד by the addition of a substantival object of the same root, just as is frequently the case in the more elevated style, e.g., Hab 3:9; and as is done in other cases by the addition of the adverbial infinitive. Then, when God's long-suffering changes into wrath, terror at His judgement seizes them and they tremble through and through. This judgment of wrath, however, is on the other hand a revelation of love. Jahve avenges and thus delivers those whom He calls עמּי (My people); and who are here called דּור צדּיק, the generation of the righteous, in opposition to the corrupted humanity of the time (Psa 12:8), as being conformed to the will of God and held together by a superior spirit to the prevailing spirit of the age. They are so called inasmuch as דּור passes over from the signification generatio to that of genus hominum here and also elsewhere, when it is not merely a temporal, but a moral notion; cf. Psa 24:6; Psa 83:15; Psa 112:2, where it uniformly denotes the whole of the children of God who are in bondage in the world and longing for deliverance, not Israel collectively in antithesis to the Scythians and the heathen in general (Hitzig). |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| There - Upon the spot, where they practised these insolences, God struck them with a panick fear. For - God is on their side, and therefore their enemies have cause to tremble. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
There were they in great fear - This is a manifest allusion to the history of the Canaanitish nations; they were struck with terror at the sight of the Israelites, and by this allusion the psalmist shows that a destruction similar to that which fell upon them, should fall on the Babylonians. Several of the versions add, from Psa 53:5, "Where no fear was." They were struck with terror, where no real cause of terror existed. Their fears had magnified their danger.
For God is in the generation - They feared the Israelites, because they knew that the Almighty God was among them. |
16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.
2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
15 If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
8 The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
9 Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
13 But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them.
12 There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.
7 There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.
14 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
6 He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.
5 There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.