Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 133:3

"Like the dew of Hermon, That cometh down upon the mountains of Zion: For there Jehovah commanded the blessing, Even life for evermore." — Psalms 133:3 (ASV)

As the dew ... —It is better to keep the same word as in Psalm 133:2: like the dew of Hermon, which descended on the Mount Zion. This statement, of the dew of a mountain in the north descending on a mountain in the south, appears so strange and impossible that our version inserted the words, “and as the dew.”

But the sentence is constructed in exactly the same form as Psalm 133:2, and the dew on Mount Zion must be as clearly the same dew as that on Mount Hermon, just as the oil running down to the beard was the same as that poured on the head.

Nor should we take “the mountains of Zion” in a general way, as meaning the mountains of the country lying around Hermon like spurs, as Van de Velde does in the passage from his Travels, quoted by Delitzsch. Mount Zion itself is intended (Psalms 125:2, for this plural), as the last clause, there Jehovah commanded the blessing, clearly shows.

Delitzsch says on the passage: “This feature of the picture is taken from the natural reality, for an abundant dew, when warm days have preceded, might very well be diverted to Jerusalem by the operation of the cold current of air, sweeping down from the north over Hermon. We know, indeed, of our own experience how far a cold air coming from the Alps is perceptible and produces its effects.”

But, setting aside the amount of scientific observation required for such a perception of fact, would anyone speak of the dew of Mont Blanc descending on the Jura?

We must evidently take “the dew of Hermon” as a poetical synonym for “choice dew.” No doubt the height of Hermon, and the fact of its being so conspicuous, determined the expression. This choice dew, from its freshness, abundance, and its connection with life and growth, is a symbol—just as the sacred oil also is—of the covenant blessing in its nature. The descent of the moisture offered itself, like the flowing down of the oil, as an emblem of the operation of the blessing.

But the conclusion of the simile is only implied. No doubt the poet intended to write, “As the oil poured on Aaron’s head flowed down to his beard, and as the dew of Hermon flowed down on Mount Zion, so the covenant blessing descended on Jehovah’s people;” but at the mention of Mount Zion, he breaks off the simile to make the statement, for there Jehovah, and so on. Hebrew poetry did not greatly favour the simile and often confuses it with metaphor (see Notes, Psalms 58:9; Song of Solomon 8:12).