1 Chronicles 16:35,36 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

See Psalms 106:47-48.

(35) And say ye. — Not in Psalms 106:47. The compiler or interpolator has added it here in order to connect 1 Chronicles 16:34 (Psalms 106:1) with 1 Chronicles 16:35 (Psalms 106:47). It was doubtless suggested by Psalms 96:10 : “Say ye among the nations, The Lord reigneth.”

O God of our salvation. — The psalm has “Jehovah our God.”

Gather us. — The phrase used in Jeremiah 32:37, and many other places, of Israel’s restoration from exile.

And deliver us. — Not in the psalm, where the words “gather us from among the heathen” certainly refer to the dispersion. This reference is eliminated by the compiler’s insertion.

Glory in thy praise.Glory” (hishtabbçah) is a common Aramaic word, found only here (and in Psalms 106) in the Old Testament.

(36) Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. — The Bĕrâchâh or benedictory close of the fourth book of the Psalter. This doxology did not form part of the original psalm, which closed with 1 Chronicles 16:35 (Psalms 106:47). After the psalms had been edited in their present arrangement of five books, each concluding with a doxology, these doxologies came in time to be sung in liturgical service as integral parts of the psalms to which they were appended.

And all the people said, Amen.Psalms 106:48 has, “And let all the people say, Amen. Hallelujah.” The chronicler, or rather the interpolator of his work has altered a liturgical direction, or rubric, into a historical statement suitable to the occasion to which his long ode is assigned. Instances of a like free handling of fixed formulas may be seen in 2 Chronicles 5:13 and Ezra 3:11.

Those who hold the chronicler himself responsible for this thanksgiving ode, find in it a weighty indication of the fact that the Psalter already existed in its present shape at his epoch. The historian might, of course, have inserted such a composition in his work, as fairly and freely as such writers as Thucydides and Livy have put ideal speeches into the mouths of their leading-characters; but, for reasons already stated, we do not think that the ode should be ascribed to his pen.

1 Chronicles 16:35-36

35 And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise.

36 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel for ever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the LORD.