Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS - VOLUME 2 already stated what is implied in the words, from the beginning. By the midst of the earth some think that Judea is intended, because it was situated as it were in the midst of the habitable globe. There is no doubt that it is to be understood of a place which stands prominently in view. We find the expression used in this sense in these words which God commanded Moses to speak to Pharaoh,
"And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth," (Exodus 8:22.)
The simple and natural meaning, therefore, is, that God had wrought in behalf of the chosen people many deliverances, which were as open and manifest as if they had been exhibited on a conspicuous theater.
Psalm 74:13-17
13. Thou hast divided the sea by thy 710 power: thou hast broken the heads of the dragons 711 upon the waters. 14. Thou hast broken the head 712 of Leviathan 713 in pieces, and hast given him for food to thy people in the wilderness. 15. Thou hast cleaved [or divided] the fountain and the torrent: thou hast dried up mighty rivers. 16. The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast ordained 714 the
There is here a change of person, and a transition from the narrative form of speech to the apostrophe, which give animation to the composition, and enhances its poetical beauty.
The word,תניניםthanninim, for dragons, is used by the sacred writers somewhat indeterminately, and translators render it variously, as by whales, serpents, dragons, crocodiles, and other sea-monsters. (See Genesis 1:21; Exodus 7:12; Deuteronomy 32:33; and Psalm 148:7.) We cannot now ascertain what particular animal is in each case denoted, and it may very probably be merely a general term equivalent to our word "monster," for any strange and prodigious creature.,תניניםthanninim, is here explained by Williams as denoting "sea-monsters or large serpents." "What animal is meant by this name," says Mant, "is not well ascertained. But it seems to have been some aquatic or amphibious creature commonly known in the neighborhood of Egypt, but not the crocodile, as that is noticed under a different name in the following verse." By the dragons the Egyptian people may be intended.
In the Hebrew it is "the heads."
"C'est, le plus grand monstre marin qui soit." — Fr. marg. "That is, the greatest sea-monster which exists."
"Ou, establi." — Fr. marg. "Or, established."