13 The pastures are covered with flocks. The valleys also are clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing. For the Chief Musician. A song. A Psalm.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The pastures are clothed with flocks - The flocks stand so thick together, and are spread so far, that they seem to be a clothing for the pasture; or, the fields are entirely covered with them.
The valleys also are covered over with corn - With grain. That is, the parts of the land - the fertile valleys - which are devoted to tillage. They are covered over, or clothed with waving grain, as the pasture-fields are with flocks.
They shout for joy, they also sing - They seem to be full of joy and happiness. What a beautiful image is this! How well does it express the loveliness of nature; how appropriately does it describe the goodness of God! Everything seems to be happy; to be full of song; and all this is to be traced to the goodness of God, as it all serves to express that goodness. Strange that there should be an atheist in such a world as this; - strange that there should be an unhappy man; - strange that amidst such beauties, while all nature joins in rejoicing and praise - pastures, cultivated fields, valleys, hills - there can be found a human being who, instead of uniting in the language of joy, makes himself miserable by attempting to cherish the feeling that God is not good!
The pastures are clothed with flocks - Cattle are seen in every plain, avenue, and vista, feeding abundantly; and the valleys are clothed, and wave with the richest harvests; and transports of joy are heard every where in the cheerful songs of the peasantry, the singing of the birds, the neighing of the horse, the lowing of the ox, and the bleating of the sheep. Claudian uses the same image: -
Viridis amictus montium.
"The green vesture of the mountains."
Shout for joy, they also sing - They are not loud and unmeaning sounds, they are both music and harmony in their different notes; all together form one great concert, and the bounty of God is the subject which they all celebrate. What an inimitable description! And yet the nervous Hebrew is not half expressed, even by the amended translation and paraphrase above.
The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, (l) they also sing.
(l) That is, the dumb creatures will not only rejoice for a time for God's benefits, but will continually sing.
The pastures are clothed with flocks,.... Of sheep, which are so thick, that there is scarce anything to be seen upon the pastures but them; which look as if they were clothed with them: these may intend the multitude of converts, signified by the flocks of Kedar, and rams of Nebaioth; which gathering about the church, and joining to her, she clothes herself with them as with an ornament, Isaiah 60:7 it may be rendered the "rams clothe", or "cover, the flocks" (s); or the flocks are clothed, or covered, with the rams, as expressive of their copulation with them; and so the Targum,
"the rams ascend upon the flocks;''
which sense is favoured by the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions;
the valleys also are covered over with corn; being made very fruitful with the rain, and bringing forth in great abundance; so humble souls are the most fruitful ones;
they shout for joy, they also sing; that is, the pastures, hills, and valleys, being laden with all kind of fruit for the use of man and beast, for necessity and pleasure, which occasion joy to the inhabitants of the earth: this may be expressive of the joy that will be among men, when the interest of Christ will be in a more flourishing condition in the latter day; see Isaiah 49:13.
(s) Sept. "arietes", V. L.
Sing - They are abundantly satisfied with thy goodness, and in their manner sing forth the praise of their benefactor.
*More commentary available at chapter level.