Psalm 68:11
The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.
I quote KATHARINE BUSHNELL [1855 – 1946] :
“David himself ordered the appointment of men among women to prophesy in song. Moreover, David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals . . .And, God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. All these were under the hands of their father for song in the House of the Lord with cymbals, psalteries, and harps for the service of the House of God. (
I Chron. 25:1, 5, 6)
But, it was not alone for music that women prophesied. David in prophetic vision sees that “The Lord giveth the word: the women that publish the tidings are a great host.” (
Psalm 68:11). Not only were women permitted to preach the tidings but commanded in the Old Testament to do so when the Gospel dispensation opened. The prophecy in the Psalms was hidden from view for a long time by incorrect translation. The revisers have given us its true sense. Had they been willing to translate with equal fairness another passage, we should have had more light on this subject. By comparing this passage in the Psalms with one in Isaiah (40:9), we discover that they employ in the original one and the same word in the same part of speech, participial in each instance, for the word translated in the Psalm, “publish the tidings.” Both are in the feminine gender, the only difference, in fact, being that one word is singular and the other plural in number.
The chapter in Isaiah in which this verse appears opens with a commandment to comfort My people because their warfare is ended. Then follow the words, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness,” indicating with certainty the period to which the prophecy relates. Then at the 9th verse occur words which, if translated with the same spirit of fairness as at
Psalm 68:11, would read in English, “O woman that publishest good tidings: to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O woman, that publishest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength lift: it up, be not afraid; say, unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” Dr. Adam Clarke, in his commentary, prints some interesting notes on this passage. Not only was woman, then, permitted to publish, the tidings under the Old Covenant, but also she was commanded, under the Old, to do so at the opening of the New, and it was prophesied under the Old that she should do so both by Joel and by David.” (God’s Word to Women, Katharine Bushnell)
Psalm 68:11, other translations
Psalm 68:11 (ESV)
The Lord gives the word;
the women who announce the news are a great host:
Psalm 68:11 (EXB)
The Lord gave the command,
and a great ·army [or company of women] told the news:
Psalm 68:11 (GNT)
The Lord gave the command,
and many women carried the news:
Psalm 68:11 (NET) |
The Lord speaks;
many, many women spread the good news.
Isaiah 40 prophesies the preaching of the gospel:
Isaiah 40:9
O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
Adam Clarkes’ commentary on
Isaiah 40:9 is interesting.
“O Zion, that bringest good tidings “O daughter, that bringest glad tidings to Zion”" – That the true construction of the sentence is this, which makes Zion the receiver, not the publisher, of the glad tidings, which latter has been the most prevailing interpretation, will, I think, very clearly appear, if we rightly consider the image itself, and the custom and common practice from which it is taken. I have added the word daughter to express the feminine gender of the Hebrew participle, which I know not how to do otherwise in our language; and this is absolutely necessary in order to ascertain the image. For the office of announcing and celebrating such glad tidings as are here spoken of, belongs peculiarly to the women.
On occasion of any great public success, a signal victory, or any other joyful event, it was usual for the women to gather together, and with music, dances, and songs, to publish and celebrate the happy news. Thus after the passage of the Red Sea, Miriam, and all the women, with timbrels in their hands, formed a chorus, and joined the men in their triumphant song, dancing, and throwing in alternately the refrain or burden of the song:- “Sing ye to JEHOVAH, for he is greatly exalted; The horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea.” Exod. xv. 20, 21.
So Jephthah’s daughter collected a chorus or virgins, and with dances and songs came out to meet her father, and to celebrate his victory, Judg. xi. 34. After David’s conquest of Goliath, “all the women came out of the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music; ” and, forming themselves into two choruses, they sang alternately:- “Saul has slain his thousands: And David his ten thousands.” 1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7.
And this gives us the true sense of a passage in the sixty- eighth Psalm, which has frequently been misunderstood:- “JEHOVAH gave the word, (that is, the joyful news,) The women, who published the glad tidings, were a great company; The kings of mighty armies did flee, did flee: And even the matron, who stayed at home, shared the spoil.” The word signifying the publishers of glad tidings is the same, and expressed in the same form by the feminine participle, as in this place, and the last distich is the song which they sang. So in this place, JEHOVAH having given the word by his prophet, the joyful tidings of the restoration of Zion, and of God’s returning to Jerusalem, (see chap. lii. 8,) the women are exhorted by the prophet to publish the joyful news with a loud voice from eminences, whence they might best be heard all over the country; and the matter and burden of their song was to be, “Behold your God! ” See on Psa. lxviii.
Threaded Mode
