They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.
He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,
“Don’t touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!”
Parallel Translations
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They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.
He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,
“Don’t touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!”
-
When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people;
He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes;
Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.
Show all 3 translations
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And when they went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people,
He suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, for their sake He reproved kings:
'Touch not Mine anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.'
Cross-references (12)
- Zechariah 2:8 (v15) For Yahweh of Armies says: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his…
- Genesis 26:11 (v15) Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”
- Genesis 20:7 (v15) Now therefore, restore the man’s wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you don’t restore her, know for…
- Genesis 35:5 (v14) They traveled, and a terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they didn’t pursue the sons of Jacob.
- 1 John 2:27 (v15) As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing…
Show all 12 cross-references
- Genesis 49:8-33 (v15) “Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons will bow down before you. Judah is…
- Genesis 48:19-20 (v15) His father refused, and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger…
- Exodus 7:16-17 (v14) You shall tell him, ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the…
- Genesis 12:14-17 (v14) When Abram had come into Egypt, Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to…
- Genesis 20:1-7 (v14) Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar. Abraham said…
- Genesis 26:14-33 (v14) He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him. Now all the wells which his father’s…
- Genesis 31:24-29 (v14) God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.” Laban…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (17 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv14–15 14. He did not suffer men to hurt them…
14. He did not suffer men to hurt them Abraham and his children had not merely two or three enemies: they were harassed by whole nations. As then many rose up one after another in troops against them, the Psalmist says indefinitely, that men were withheld from hurting them; for אדם, adam, is the word here used, which is the one most generally employed to signify man He next amplifies the love of God towards his servants, in setting himself in opposition to kings for their sake. When God did not spare even the kings of Egypt and Gerar, it is evident how precious the welfare of Abraham and his offspring was in his sight. We have said a little before that the holy fathers were of no estimation in the eyes of the world. God therefore displayed his goodness so much the more signally in preferring them to kings. Now we here see, that the Jews were humbled in the person of their fathers, that they might not imagine that they found favor in the sight of God by any merit of their own.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv14–15 That is, the king of Egypt and the king…
That is, the king of Egypt and the king of Gerar, Gen. 12:17 and 20:3.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Psa 105:13 When they went from one nation to…
Psa 105:13 When they went from one nation to another, from [one] kingdom to another people;
Ver. 13. When they went from one nation to another] There were seven several nations in that land wherein they sojourned, flitting from place to place, and having no settled habitation, αστατουνρες, 1Co 4:11.
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From one kingdom] Forced by famine, or other necessity. See Gen 12:10; Gen 20:1-7 Gen 26:1-5
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Both in Canaan, where there were seven nations, Deu…
Both in Canaan, where there were seven nations, Deu 7:1, and in Egypt, &c.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv13–15 When they went from one nation to another,.... From…
When they went from one nation to another,.... From Chaldea to Mesopotamia; from thence to Canaan, and then into Egypt; and after that to Canaan again: which was the tour that Abraham took; and when in Canaan, and travelling from place to place there, might be said to go from nation to nation, since there were seven nations in that country.
From one kingdom to another people; from the kingdom of Palestine or Canaan to Egypt, which was a strange people; and of another language, as appears by the use of an interpreter between them, Gen 42:23. So Isaac, Jacob, and his posterity, journeyed from one of these kingdoms to the other. Thus the children of God are pilgrims and strangers in this world; they are unsettled in it; they are travelling through it, and a troublesome journey they have of it; they are bound to another country, to which they belong; and their hearts are there beforehand; and they look upon this world as a strange place, and at best but as an inn; where they tarry but for a time, till they get to their own country, the better and heavenly one.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv13, 15 They went - Both in Canaan, where there were…
They went - Both in Canaan, where there were seven nations, and in Egypt.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13, 15 Verse 13. When they went from one nation to…
Verse 13. When they went from one nation to another] From several circumstances in the history of the travels of the ancient Hebrews, we find that the wilderness through which they then passed was well peopled.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv13–15 When they went from one nation to another ...…
When they went from one nation to another ... - Wandered about, as if they had no home and no fixed habitation. See Gen 12:6, Gen 12:9-10; Gen 13:1; Gen 20:1; Gen 26:1, Gen 26:17, Gen 26:22-23.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13. From one nation to another—From tribe to tribe…
13. From one nation to another—From tribe to tribe among the original inhabitants of Canaan. The expression indicates not only an unsettled, but insecure, mode of life. The patriarchs sojourned among the Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, Philistines, Canaanites, Perizzites, and were brought into contact with other tribes, besides their abode in Egypt.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv13, 15 13. When they went &c.] And (when) they went…
13. When they went &c.] And (when) they went &c. The A.V. treats this verse as (virtually) the protasis to Psa_105:14 : the R.V. places a semicolon at the end of Psa_105:12, and a full stop at the end of Psa_105:13, and treats Psa_105:13 as the continuation of Psa_105:12. Either construction is grammatically possible, but that of the A.V. is preferable. Psa_105:12 emphasises the conditions under which the promise was given, and concludes the first division of the Psalms Vv13-15 describe the migrations of the patriarchs among the different nations of Canaan, the Egyptians, and the Philistines, as recorded in the Book of Genesis. In all their wanderings Jehovah guarded them from harm, reproving even kings such as Pharaoh (Gen_12:10 ff.) and Abimelech (Genesis 20, 26) on their account.
13–24. Jehovah’s providential guidance of the patriarchs in their migrations.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv14–15 (14) Wrong.—The allusion is doubtless to the incidents connected…
(14) Wrong.—The allusion is doubtless to the incidents connected with Sarah and Rebekah at the courts of Egypt and Philistia. (See Gen_26:11.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv13–15 When they went from one nation to another. Abraham…
When they went from one nation to another. Abraham "went from" Ur of the Chaldees to Haran of the Syrians, from Haran to Canaan, from Canaan to Philistia, and once as far as Egypt. Isaac and Jacob were also wanderers, though not to the same extent. From one kingdom to another people. Chaldea, Philistia, and Egypt were "kingdoms;" the Syrians and Canaanites, "peoples."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Ver. 13. When they went from one nation, to…
Ver. 13. When they went from one nation, to another, from one Kingdom to another people. Migrating as the patriarchs did from the region of one tribe to the country of another they were singularly preserved. The little wandering family might have been cut off root and branch had not a special mandate been issued from the throne for their protection. It was not the gentleness of their neighbours which screened them; they were hedged about by the mysterious guardianship of heaven. Whether in Egypt, or in Philistia, or in Canaan, the heirs of the promises, dwelling in their tents, were always secure.
Ver. 13. From one kingdom to another people. Where we might have expected from kingdom to kingdom, the car is somewhat disappointed by the phrase, "from one kingdom to another people, " which may have been intended to distinguish the Egyptian and other monarchies from the more democratical or patriarchal institutions of the Arabians and other nations. Joseph Addison Alexander.
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Ver. 13. Though frequent flitting is neither desirable nor commendable, yet sometimes there is a just and necessary occasion for it, and it may be the lot of some of the best of men. Matthew Henry.
Ver. 13.
1. God's people may be often removed.
2. They can never be injured.
3. God's property in them will not be renounced.
Psalms 105:14*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v15 Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no…
Psa_105:15
Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.
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The inviolable Messiahs and prophets
I. Every Christian is a Messiah. Jesus was the Christ, the Messias, because that Divine Spirit dwelt in Him without measure. And if we are Christians in the real sense of the word, then, however imperfectly, yet really, and by Gods grace increasingly, there is such a union between us and our Saviour as that into us there does flow the anointing of His Spirit. And, there being a community of life derived from the Source of Life, it is no presumption to say that every Christian man is a Christ.
II. Every Christian is a prophet. The word is connected with a root which means to boil, or bubble, like a fountain. It expresses, not so much the theme of the utterance as its nature. The welling up, from a full heart, of Gods thoughts and Gods truth, that is prophecy. The patriarchs were prophets, in the sense of being bearers of a Divine Word, breathed into them by that anointing Spirit, that it may be uttered forth by them. That sort of prophetic inspiration belongs to all Christians. Every one who has been anointed will be thus gifted. A silent Christian is an anomaly, a contradiction in terms, as much as black light, or dark stars. If Christ is in you He will come out of you. If your hearts are full the crystal treasure will flow over the brim.
III. Every Christian, in his double capacity of anointed and prophet, is watched over by God. There is no real harm in so-called evil. That is the interpretation that Christianity gives to such words as this of my text, not because it is forced to weaken them by the obstinate facts of life, but because it has learnt to strengthen them by the understanding of what is harm and what is good; what is gain and what is loss. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v14 Psa 105:14 - Psa 105:15.
Psalms
INVIOLABLE MESSIAHS AND PROPHETS
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Psa 105:14 - Psa 105:15.
The original reference of these words is to the fathers of the Jewish people-the three wandering shepherds, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Psalmist transfers to them the great titles which properly belong to a later period of Jewish history. None of the three were ever in the literal sense of the word ‘anointed,’ but all the three had what anointing symbolised. None of them were in the literal or narrow sense of the word ‘prophets’-that is to say, predicters of future events-but one of them was called a ‘prophet’ even in his lifetime. And they all possessed that intimacy of communion with God which imparted the power of forth-speaking for Him. Insignificant as they were, they were bigger than the Pharaohs and Abimelechs and the other kinglets that strutted their little day beside them. Astonished as the monarch of Egypt would have been, or the king of the Philistines either, if he had been told that the wandering shepherd was of far more importance for the world than he was, it was true. ‘He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, He reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.’
Further, as Judaism, with its anointings and prophecies was a narrower system following upon a wider one, so a wider one has succeeded it; and we step into the position occupied by these patriarchs-on whose heads no anointing oil had been poured, and into whose lips no supernatural gifts of prediction had been infused. It is no arrogance, but the simplest recognition of the essential facts of the case, if we take these words of the Psalmist’s and transfer them bodily to the whole mass of Christian people, and to each individual atom that makes up the mass. All are anointed; all are prophets; of all it is true that God suffers no man nor thing to do them wrong. And kings and dynasties and the politics of the world are all in the hands of One whose supreme purpose is that through men there may be made known to all mankind the significant tidings of His love. Therefore, His Church is founded upon a rock, and earth is the servant of the servants of God.
I. Every Christian is a ‘messiah.’
You know that the word ‘anointed’ is a translation of the Hebrew word ‘Messiah,’ or of the Greek word ‘Christ.’ The meaning of the symbolic ‘anointing’ was simply consecration to office by the divine will, and endowment with the capacity for that office by the divine gift. In the ancient system it was mainly employed-though not, perhaps, exclusively-as a means of designating, and when received in humble dependence on God, of fitting, a man for the two great offices of king and priest.
Oil was an appropriate symbol. Its gentle flow, its soothing, suppling effect, and in another aspect, its value as a means of invigoration and sustenance, and in yet another, as a source of light, peculiarly adapted it to be an emblem of the bestowment on a patient and trustful and submissive heart that was saying, ‘Lord, take me, and use me as Thou wilt,’ of that divine Spirit by whose silent, sweet, soft-flowing, strong influences men were prepared for God’s service.
Jesus was the Christ, the Messias, because that Divine Spirit dwelt in Him without measure. If we are Christians in the real sense of the word, then, however imperfectly, yet really, and by God’s grace increasingly, there is such a union between us and our Saviour as that into us there does flow the anointing of His Spirit. There being a community of life derived from the Source of Life, it is no presumption to say that every Christian man is a Christ.
The word has been used of late with unwise significations, but the truth that has been inadequately expressed by such uses is the great truth of Scripture; ‘He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit,’ and there does flow the anointing oil from the head of the High Priest to the skirts of the garments. Every man and woman who has any hold of Jesus Christ at all, in the measure of his or her hold, is drawing from Him this ‘unction of the Holy One.’ So, brethren, rise to the solemnity, the awfulness, the joyfulness of your true position, and understand that you, too, are anointed, though not for the same purposes {and in humbler and derived fashion}, for which the Spirit dwelt without measure upon ‘the First-born among many brethren.’
Kings were anointed; and when that divine gift comes into a man’s heart, it, and as I believe, only it, makes him lord of himself, of circumstances, of time, and of the world. ‘All things are yours, and ye are Christ’s.’ There is one real royalty-the royalty of the man who rules because he submits. Every Christian soul may be described as Gideon’s brethren were described, ‘As thou art, so were they: each one resembled the children of a king,’ for if Christ’s Spirit is in the Christian’s spirit, the disciple will grow like his Master, and it will be growingly true of us, that ‘as He is, so are we in this world.’
Priests were anointed. And we, if we are Christian people, have the prerogative of direct access to the Divine Presence, and need neither Church nor sacraments to intervene or mediate between us and Him. The true democracy of Christianity lies in that word ‘Mine anointed.’
II. Further, every Christian man is a prophet.
I have already said that there is no historical warrant for supposing that the gift of prophecy, in its narrower sense, was ever bestowed upon any of these patriarchs. But prediction is only one corner of the prophetic office. The word is connected with a root which means ‘to boil, or bubble like a fountain,’ and it expresses, not so much the theme of the utterance as its nature. The welling up, from a full heart, of God’s thoughts and God’s truth, that is prophecy. The patriarchs were prophets, not in the sense that they had the gift of beholding and foretelling visions of the future, and all the wonder that should be, but in the higher sense-for it is the higher as well as broader-of being bearers of a divine word, breathed into them by that anointing Spirit, that it might be uttered forth by them. That sort of prophetic inspiration belongs to all Christians. It is the result of the relationship between Christ and Christians of which we have been speaking. Every one who has been anointed will be thus gifted.
God’s ‘messiahs’ will be God’s prophets. If we are in touch with God, and have our hearts and whole spiritual natures drawn and kept so near Him as that we are ever receiving from Him of His transcendent and mysterious life, then silence will be impossible. The lips will not be able to contain themselves, but will speak forth that of which the heart is full. And thus every Christian man, in the measure of his true Christianity, will be a prophet of the most High.
I do not need to point the lesson. A silent Christian is an anomaly, a contradiction in terms, as much as black light, or dark stars. If Christ is in you He will come out of you. If your hearts are full the crystal treasure will flow over the brim. It is easy to be dumb when you have nothing to say, and that is the condition of hundreds of people who fancy themselves to be, and are called by others, ‘Christians.’ ‘Mine anointed’ cannot help being ‘My prophets.’ If you are not prophets, if there never is any bubbling up of the fountain demanding utterance, ask yourselves whether there is any fountain there at all.
III. And so, lastly, every Christian man, in his double capacity of anointed and prophet, is watched over by God.
One is tempted to diverge into wider considerations, and speak of the relative importance of things secular and sacred {to adopt a doubtful distinction} in the history of the world, and how the former are for the sake of the latter. But I do not yield to the temptation. Let me rather take the thought here as it applies to our own little lives.
Abraham more than once in his lifetime, though sometimes by his own fault, was brought into very perilous places. There are one or two incidents which are familiar to most of us, I dare say, in his life which are evidently referred to in the phrase ‘He reproved kings for their sakes.’ The principle remains in full force to-day, and God says to every thing and person, Death included, ‘Do My prophets no harm.’ They may slay; they cannot harm. If I might use a very homely metaphor, sportsmen train retriever dogs to bring their game without ruffling a feather. God trains evils and sorrows to lay hold of us, and bring us to, and lay us down at, His feet untouched.
There is no real harm in so-called evil. That is the interpretation that Christianity gives to such words as this of my text, not because it is forced to weaken them by the obstinate facts of life, but because it has learned to strengthen them by the understanding of what is harm and what is good; what is gain and what is loss. Peter shall be delivered out of prison by the skin of his teeth when they are hammering at the scaffold on the other side of the wall, and the dawn is just beginning to show itself in the sky; whilst James shall have his head cut off. Was that because God loved Peter better than James? Was one harmed and the other not? Ah! Peter’s turn came all in good time. Peter and his brother Paul had both to bow their necks to the headsman’s sword one day, although one of them said, ‘Who shall harm you if ye be followers of that which is good?’ and the other said, when within sight of his death, ‘He shall deliver me from every evil work.’ Were they disappointed? Let us hear how Paul ends the same verse: ‘and shall save me into His heavenly kingdom.’ Ay! and he was ‘saved into the heavenly kingdom’ when outside the walls of Rome; where a gaudy church stands now, he died for his Master. No harm came to him. God said to Death, ‘Do My prophet no harm!’ and Death docilely did him good, and brought him to his Lord.
Only, dear friends! let us remember that the inviolableness of the ambassador depends on his function, and not on his person; and that if we want to be kept from all evil, we must do the work for which we have been sent here. So let us understand the meaning of our difficulties and sorrows. Let us set ourselves to our tasks, live up to the level of the high names which we have a right to claim, and be sure that there is no harm in the harm that befalls us; and that all evil things ‘work together for good to them that love God.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v14 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
The psalmist is writing about Israel.
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for their sakes
"for their own well-being." This is referring to Israel.
Do not touch my anointed ones
Here "touch" means to harm, it's an exaggeration Yahweh used to strengthen his warning to not harm his people. AT: "Do not harm the people I have anointed" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
translationWords
oppress
rebuke
king
anoint
prophet
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v15 105:15 Abraham was one of the nation’s prophets (Gen…
105:15 Abraham was one of the nation’s prophets (Gen 20:7).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.