The agreement of the ancient versions in rendering these difficult verses shows that their obscurity does not arise, as in the case of so many passages of the Psalms, from any corruptions in the text, but from the fact that they are an adaptation of some ancient war-song to circumstances to which we have no clue. If we could recover the allusions, the language would probably appear clear enough.
“Why rest ye among the sheepfolds?”
“A dove’s wings are (now) covered with silver, and her
feathers with the sheen of gold.”
“When the Almighty scattered kings there,
It was snowing on Tsalmon.”
Even in our ignorance of these allusions we at once recognise in the first member of this antique verse the scornful inquiry of Judges 5:16, addressed to the inglorious tribe that preferred ease at home to the dangers and discomforts of battle.
The word here rendered “sheepfolds” (in the Authorised Version pots, a meaning which cannot represent the Hebrew word or its cognates in any other place) is cognate to that used in Judges 5:16, and occurs in its present form in Ezekiel 40:43, where the margin renders, “andirons, or two hearthstones.” The derivation from to set would allow of its application to any kind of barrier.
Whether Reuben, as in Deborah’s song, or Issachar, as in Genesis 49:14, where a cognate word occurs (“burdens”), were the original stay-at-home, does not matter. The interest lies in the covert allusion made by the psalmist in his quotation to some cowardly or recreant party now playing the same disgraceful game.
The next clause, which has caused so much trouble to commentators, appears perfectly intelligible if treated as the answer made to the taunting question, and as simply a note of time: — they stayed at home because all nature was gay and joyous with summer. There is no authority for taking the rich plumage of the dove as emblematic of peace or plenty. The dove appears, indeed, in the Bible as a type, but only, as in all other literature, as a type of love (Song of Solomon 2:14); whereas the appearance of this bird was in Palestine, as that of the swallow with us, a customary mark of time. (See Note, Song of Solomon 2:12; Song of Solomon 2:14.) And a verse of a modern poet shows how naturally its full plumage might indicate the approach of summer: —
“In the spring a lovelier iris changes on the burnished dove.”
— TENNYSON: Locksley Hall.
This reply calls forth from the first speaker a rejoinder in companion terms. The inglorious tribe plead summer joys as an excuse for ease. The reply tells of the devotion and ardour of those who, even amid the rigour of an exceptional winter, took up arms for their country: When the AImighty scattered kings there, it was snowing on Tsalmon. (For the geography of Tsalmon, see Judges 9:48.) Whether intentionally or not, the sense of the severity of the snowstorm — rare in Palestinian winters — is heightened by the contrast implied in the name “Dark” or “Shadow Hill.”
The peculiarity of the position of the locative there (literally, in it), coming before the mention of the locality itself, is illustrated by Isaiah 8:21.