Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 133:2

"It is like the precious oil upon the head, That ran down upon the beard, Even Aaron`s beard; That came down upon the skirt of his garments;" — Psalms 133:2 (ASV)

It is like. —The italics of the Authorized Version are wrongly inserted. Unity could not be said to flow down. The other term of the simile is implied in Psalms 133:3. (See Note.)

Literally, Like the oil, the good oil, on the head descending upon the beard, Aaron’s beard, which (was) descending to the mouth of his robes. Oil we encounter as the standing symbol of joy and festivity (see Psalms 45:7, Note; Isaiah 61:3). It is also brought closely into connection with love (Song of Solomon 1:3).

But while this association, as well as the pleasure derived from the fragrance of the oil, would be present here as always in the truly Eastern image, its elaboration in this passage points to a further purpose. It is the holy oil, whose composition is described in Exodus 30:22-23, that the poet alludes to.

This, while the garments of all the priests were sprinkled with it (Exodus 29:21; Leviticus 8:30), was poured on the head of Aaron (Exodus 29:7; Leviticus 8:12; Leviticus 21:10), so that the description of the psalm, unpleasing as it is to Western ideas, of the saturation not only of his head, but of face and beard, was actually true.

It would run down his neck to the collar of the priestly robe. That this is the meaning of “mouth” here is plain from the actual description of the sacerdotal garments (Exodus 28:31–32): And you shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. And there shall be a mouth in the top of it, in the middle of it; and it shall have a binding of woven work round about the mouth of it, as it were the mouth of a habergeon, so that it is not torn. (Compare Exodus 39:23 and Job 30:18, where the Authorized Version has “collar.”)

To the ideas of “joy” and “fragrance,” therefore, must also be added that of “consecration.” But the point of the comparison does not lie even here; nor is it in the freshness of the dew, in the next verse, or its abundance, though dew suggests both of these (see Note, Psalms 110:3), but in the word three times repeated—

descending. Our version unfortunately obscures this point by rendering this recurrent participle each time by a different word, missing, at the same time, the marked peculiarity of the rhythm of these psalms. The oil descends from Aaron’s head over his face and beard; the dew of Hermon descends on Zion—low in actual measurement, but exalted by Divine favor above the loftiest hills. It is not unity, then, in itself which is the subject of the poem, but the unity of the covenant under which all blessings flowed down from above, rested on Mount Zion, and took outward shape and form there in the political and religious constitution.