John Gill Commentary Psalms 78:50

"He made a path for his anger; He spared not their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence," — Psalms 78:50 (ASV)

He made a way to his anger
Or, "for" it, so that nothing could obstruct it, or hinder the execution of it; or "he weighed a path for his anger" ^F13 ; 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, (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; and so others.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F13: (wpal bytn olpy) "ponderavit semitam furori suo", Pagninus, Vatablus; "libravit semitam irae suae", Tigurine version; "iter ad iram suam", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.