Psalms 78:50

“He made a way to his anger, etc.] Or, “for” it, so that nothing could obstruct it, or hinder the execution of it; or “he weighed a path for his anger” f1138; he weighed it in the balance of justice, and proportioned his anger to their crimes, and punished them according to their just deserts: he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; which some understand of their cattle, and of the murrain that came upon them, by which they were destroyed, and which was the fifth plague of Egypt, (<020903>Exodus 9:3), so the Targum, “their beasts he delivered unto death;” but Aben Ezra interprets it of the slaughter of the firstborn, expressed in the following verse;…”

“He made a way to his anger - Margin, he weighed a path. He leveled a path for it; he took away all hindrance to it; he allowed it to have free scope. The idea of weighing is not in the original. The allusion is to a preparation made by which one can march along freely, and without any obstruction. See the notes at Isaiah 40:3-4. He spared not their soul from death - He spared not their lives. That is, he gave them over to death. But gave their life over to the pestilence - Margin, their beasts to the murrain. The original will admit of either interpretation, but the connection seems rather to demand the interpretation which is in the text. Both these things, however, occurred. return to 'Top…”

“made way: Heb. weighed a path he spared: Job 27:22; Eze 5:11, Eze 7:4, Eze 7:9, Eze 8:18, Eze 9:10; Rom 8:32; Pe2 2:4, Pe2 2:5 life over to the pestilence: or, beasts to the murrain, Exo 9:3-6 Psalms 78:51”