Psalms 105:12-15 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

When they were but few in number Hebrew, מתי מספר, methee mispar, men of number, so few as easily to be numbered, in opposition to what their posterity afterward were, as the sand of the sea without number: yea, very few The word כמעשׂ, chimgnat, thus rendered, signifies either small as to number, or as to regard and esteem. The meaning probably is, that they were insignificant and inconsiderable as to power, the fewness of their number being mentioned just before. And strangers in it Such were the patriarchs in the land of Canaan. They went from one nation to another Both in Canaan, where there were seven nations, and in Egypt. He reproved kings for their sakes Both verbally, and by his judgments. Saying, Touch not Hurt not, as the word נגע, nagang, is often used; mine anointed My prophets, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are called God's anointed, because they were eminently blessed of God, replenished with the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, in respect of which many persons are said, in the Scriptures, to be anointed, who never had any material oil applied to them; and because they were thus consecrated to be his peculiar people, and to be kings and priests in their families. And they are called prophets, because God familiarly conversed with them, and revealed his will to them, and by them to others.