Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 68:30

"Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds, The multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples, Trampling under foot the pieces of silver: He hath scattered the peoples that delight in war." — Psalms 68:30 (ASV)

Rebuke ... —See the margin, which (if we change beasts to beast) gives the correct rendering. The Septuagint and Vulgate also provide this rendering. The beast of the reed is undoubtedly symbolic of Egypt, whether it is the crocodile or the hippopotamus.

Bulls ... calves. —These are possibly emblems of the strong and the weak respectively—the princes and the common people. (Compare Psalms 76:5-6 for a somewhat similar description of the Egyptians.) But a slight emendation suggested by Grätz gives the herd of bulls despisers of the people, a reading fully consistent with the ordinary use of this figure. (Jeremiah 1:11.) The figure in connection with the bull-worship of Egypt is especially significant.

Till every one submit. —This clause still waits for a satisfactory explanation. The Authorized Version is intelligible, but grammatically indefensible. The Septuagint is undoubtedly right in taking the verb as a contracted infinitive preceded by a negative particle , and not as a participle. The meaning submit or humble (Proverbs 6:3) can only be forcibly deduced from the original meaning of the verb, which means to stamp like a furious animal.

One cognate is used (Ezekiel 34:18) of a herd of bulls fouling the pasture with their feet, and another means to tread. The form of the verb used here might mean to set oneself in quick motion, which is the sense adopted by the Septuagint in Proverbs 6:3.

Thus, we arrive at the reading rebuke ... from marching for pieces of silver. This means that a rebuke is administered not only to Egypt but also to those Jews who took Egypt's pay as mercenaries and oppressed the rest of the community—a sense consistent with the next clause.

Scatter. —The verb, as pointed, means has scattered, but the Septuagint supports the alteration to the imperative, which the context demands.