Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvineasily to account for their gradually forgetting his works, but that the Israelites had perversely andwickedly shut their eyes, that they might not be restrained in their sinful course, by beholding theglory of God.Psalm 78:12-1612. He wrought marvellously [or he did wondrous things] in the sight of their fathers; in theland of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. 322 13. He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through,and made the waters to stand as an heap. 14. And he led them by a cloud in the day; and all thenight by the light of fire. 15. He clave the rocks in the wilderness: and made them to drink in greatdeeps. 16. And he brought forth streams from the rock, and made the waters to run down likerivers.12. He wrought marvellously in the sight of their fathers. The Psalmist is still to be regardedas condemning the posterity of the Israelites for their guilt; but he very properly, at the same time,begins to speak of the first ancestors of the nation, intimating, that the whole race of them, evenfrom their first original, were of a perverse and rebellious disposition. But having remarked thatthe children of Ephraim had fallen into apostasy, because they had forgotten the wonderful worksof God, he continues to prosecute the same subject. Meanwhile, as I have said, he makes a veryhappy transition to speak of the fathers, whom it was his object to include in the same condemnation.In the first place, he adverts to the miracles which were wrought in the midst of the land of Egypt,previous to the departure of the people from it. To recall these the more vividly to the mind, henames a place which was highly celebrated — the field of Zoan. He next comes to speak of thepassage through the sea, where he repeats what was brought under our notice in the previous psalm,that the order of nature was reversed when the waters stopped in their course, and were even raisedup into solid heaps like mountains. In the third place, he declares, that after the people had passedthrough the Red Sea, God still continued to be their guide in their journey; and that this might notbe a mere temporary deliverance, he graciously continued to stretch forth his hand to bestow uponthem new testimonies of his goodness. It being a difficult and wearisome thing for them to pursuetheir journey through dry and sandy regions, it was no ordinary blessing to be protected from the322 Zoan was the ancient capital of Egypt where the Pharaohs resided. Its great antiquity appears from the expression usedrespecting Hebron, in Numbers 13:22, where, to set forth the antiquity of that city, in which Abraham the tenth from Noah dwelt,it is said, that it “was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.” Zoan is twice specified in this psalm, here and in verse 43d,(though not mentioned in the history of the plagues in the book of Exodus,) as the scene of the wonderful works wrought onPharaoh and the land of Egypt by Moses. This may mean, that these miracles were performed there in the sight of Pharaoh. Orthe field or country of Zoan, may be put poetically for Egypt in general. Thus, in other poetical parts of Scripture, Zoan issometimes used instead of Egypt, as in Isaiah 19:11, 13, where “the princes of Zoan” just mean the counsellors of Pharaoh; andin Isaiah 30:4, where, when God’s ancient people are represented as sending to Egypt for relief, it is said, that their “princeswere at Zoan.” Zoan is rendered by the Chaldee , by the LXX. Τανις, by the Vulgate Tanis, and by the Coptic Tane, fromthe Coptic ten, plain, flat, level; being situated on the low ground of the Delta, on one of the Eastern branches of the Nile, bearingits own name, near a large lake, now called the Lake of Menzala, 44 miles west of Pelusium, 169 miles east of Alexandria, andthree miles from the Mediterranean. There are ruins still remaining to mark the site of Zoan or Tanis, called San by the Arabs,comprising broken obelisks, capitals of the Corinthian order, a granite monument, etc. These ruins, however, are not thought tobe of the highest antiquity.144