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 96:4 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Ps 96:4 |
King James |
For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. |
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] |
For He is not a local God, but of universal agency, while idols are nothing. |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
For the Lord is great - Yahweh is great. See the notes at Psa 77:13. This verse is taken literally from Ch1 16:25.
And greatly to be praised - Worthy of exalted praise and adoration.
He is to be feared above all gods - He is to be reverenced and adored above all that are called gods. Higher honor is to be given him; more lofty praise is to be ascribed to him. He is Ruler over all the earth, and has a claim to universal praise. Even if it were admitted that they were real gods, yet it would still be true that they were local and inferior divinities; that they ruled only over the particular countries where they were worshipped and acknowledged as gods, and that they had no claim to "universal" adoration as Yahweh has. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
Confirmation of the call from the glory of Jahve that is now become manifest. The clause Psa 96:4, as also Psa 145:3, is taken out of Psa 48:2. כל־אלהים is the plural of כּל־אלוהּ, every god, Ch2 32:15; the article may stand here or be omitted (Psa 95:3, cf. Psa 113:4). All the elohim, i.e., gods, of the peoples are אלילים (from the negative אל), nothings and good-for-nothings, unreal and useless. The lxx renders δαιμόνια, as though the expression were שׁדים (cf. Co1 10:20), more correctly εἴδωλα in Rev 9:20. What Psa 96:5 says is wrought out in Isa 40, Isa 44, and elsewhere; אלילים is a name of idols that occurs nowhere more frequently than in Isaiah. The sanctuary (Psa 96:6) is here the earthly sanctuary. From Jerusalem, over which the light arises first of all (Isa. 60), Jahve's superterrestrial doxa now reveals itself in the world. הוד־והדר is the usual pair of words for royal glory. The chronicler reads Psa 96:6 עז וחדוה בּמקמו, might and joy are in His place (הדוה( ecalp siH ni era yoj d a late word, like אחוה, brotherhood, brotherly affection, from an old root, Exo 18:9). With the place of God one might associate the thought of the celestial place of God transcending space; the chronicler may, however, have altered במקדשׁו into במקמו because when the Ark was brought in, the Temple (בית המקדשׁ) was not yet built. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
Gods - The gods of the nations, as the next verse expounds it. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
He is to be feared above all gods - I think the two clauses of this verse should be read thus: -
Jehovah is great, and greatly to be praised.
Elohim is to be feared above all.
I doubt whether the word אלהים Elohim is ever, by fair construction, applied to false gods or idols. The contracted form in the following verse appears to have this meaning. |
25 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods.
13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?
9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
6 Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
6 Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
4 The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
15 Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him: for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?
2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
4 For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.