Psalms 44:2

WEB

You drove out the nations with your hand, but you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but you spread them abroad.

KJV

How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.

Commentary

How thou didst drive out the Heathen with thy hand,.... Of power; that is, the Canaanites, as the Targum; the seven nations which inhabited the land of Canaan before the children of Israel came into it, Deu 7:1 ; and plantedst them: not the Canaanites elsewhere; but, as the same Targ um explains it the house of Israel in their land; which, like a vine, was removed from one place, and planted in another; and the settlement of the children of Israel in the land of Canaan is frequently expressed by this metaphor, Exo 15:17 , Jer 2:21 ; how thou didst afflict the people; the Egyptians, according to Arama; rather the Canaanitish nations by wars and desolating judgments; and cast them out; that is, the same nations out of their land; though some render this clause, "and didst send them out"; the captive Israelites, as Arama; or "didst propagate them" (q); meaning the people of Israel; who being like a vine planted in the and, sent out its boughs and branches, and became very flourishing and fruitful; see Psa 80:9 ; and so the Syriac version renders it, "and thou confirmedst them"; but the former sense seems best, agreeably to which is the Targum, "thou hast broken the nations, and hast consumed them"; and that all this was the Lord's work appears by what follows. (q) "has autem germinare fecisti", Tigurine version; "propagasti ipsos", Piscator; so Ainsworth; but rejected by Gussetius, Ebr. Comment. p. 859.