For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
Parallel Translations
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For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
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For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
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(81-5) For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
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Explain this verse (13 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 4 For this is a statute to Israel. To…
4 For this is a statute to Israel. To give the more effect to the preceding exhortation, it is here taught that this law or ordinance had been prescribed to God’s ancient people, for the purpose of ratifying the everlasting covenant. And as in covenants there is a mutual agreement between the parties, it is declared that this statute was given to Israel, and that God, in contracting, reserved this for himself, as a right to which he was justly entitled.
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.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 81:4 For this [was] a statute for Israel,…
Psa 81:4 For this [was] a statute for Israel, [and] a law of the God of Jacob.
Ver. 4. For this was a statute] The keeping of it therefore is not arbitrary, but necessary: Aut faciendum aut patiendum.
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And a law] Which was to be kept as the apple of the eye, Pro 7:2.
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 For this is no human device, but an appointment…
For this is no human device, but an appointment and command of the great God, and your Lord.
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 For this was a statute for Israel,.... It was…
For this was a statute for Israel,.... It was not a piece of will worship, or device of the children of Israel, but was of divine institution; that the passover should be kept at the time it was; and that the trumpets should be blown on the new moon, or first of Tisri; and that the feast of tabernacles should be kept on the fifteenth of the same month:
and a law of the God of Jacob; and therefore to be observed by Jacob's posterity: the law for the one is in Exo 12:18 and for the other is in Lev 23:24 and so all the ordinances of Christ, and of the Gospel dispensation, are to be regarded on the same account, because they are the statutes and appointments of God; and the feast of tabernacles is particularly put for them all, Zac 14:16.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. This was a statute for Israel] See…
Verse 4. This was a statute for Israel] See the statute, Nu 10:10, and Le 23:24.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 81:4-5. For this was a statute for Israel…
Psa 81:4-5. For this was a statute for Israel — This is no human device, but a divine institution; God hath appointed and commanded this solemn feast to be announced and observed in this manner. This — Namely, the blowing of trumpets; he ordained in Joseph — Among the posterity of Joseph, namely, the people of Israel, as is evident both from the foregoing verse, where they are called Israel, and from the following words of this verse, where they are described by their coming out of Egypt, which was common to all the tribes of Israel, who are sometimes called by the name of Joseph. For a testimony — For a law, often called a testimony; or, rather, for a witness and memorial of the glorious deliverance here referred to. When he — That is, he who ordained, as was now said, namely, God; went out through the land of Egypt — As a captain at the head, or on the behalf of his people, to execute his judgments upon that land; or, against that land, namely, to destroy it. Or, as many ancient and modern interpreters read it, out of the land. And so understood, this text signifies the time when this and the other feasts were instituted, namely, soon after their coming out of Egypt, even at Sinai. Where I heard, &c. — That is, my progenitors heard, for all the successive generations of Israel make one body, and are sometimes spoken of as one person; a language which I understood not — Either the language of God himself, speaking from heaven at Sinai, which was strange and terrible to them; or, rather, the Egyptian language, which at first was both very disagreeable and unknown to the Israelites, Gen 42:23, and probably continued so for some considerable time, because they were much separated, both in place and conversation, from the Egyptians, through Joseph’s pious and prudent appointment. This exposition of the passage is confirmed by Psa 114:1, where this very thing is mentioned as an aggravation of their misery; and by other places of Scripture, where it is spoken of as a curse and calamity to be with a people of a strange language. See Deu 28:49; Jer 5:15.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For this was a statute for Israel ... -…
For this was a statute for Israel ... - See Exo 12:3. That is, it was a law for the whole Jewish people, for all who had the name Israel, for all the descendants of Jacob. The word was is not in the original, as if this had been an old commandment which might now be obsolete, but the idea is one of perpetuity: it is a perpetual law for the Hebrew people.
A law of the God of Jacob - Hebrew, a judgment; or, right. The idea is, that it was what was due to God; what was his right. It was a solemn claim that he should be thus acknowledged. It was not a matter of conventional arrangement, or a matter of convenience to them; nor was it to be observed merely because it was found to be expedient and conducive to the welfare of the nation. It was a matter of right and of claim on the part of God, and was so to be regarded by the nation. The same is true now of the Sabbath, and of all the appointments which God has made for keeping up religion in the world. All these arrangements are indeed expedient and proper; they conduce to the public welfare and to the happiness of man; but there is a higher reason for their observance than this. It is that God demands their observance; that he claims as his own the time so appropriated. Thus he claims the Sabbath, the entire Sabbath, as his own; he requires that it shall be employed in his service, that it shall be regarded as his day; that it shall be made instrumental in keeping up the knowledge of himself in the world, and in promoting his glory. Exo 20:10. People, therefore, “rob God” (compare Mal 3:8) when they take this time for needless secular purposes, or devote it to other ends and uses. Nor can this be sinless. The highest guilt which man can commit is to “rob” his Maker of what belongs to Him, and of what He claims.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. For it is a statute for Israel,
4. For it is a statute for Israel,
An ordinance of the God of Jacob. (R.V.)
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It refers to the feast. The title God of Jacob carries our thoughts back beyond the Exodus to the providential dealings of Jehovah with the great ancestor of the nation (Gen_46:2 ff.).
4, 5. The reason for the celebration in the divine appointment of the festival as a memorial of God’s goodness to Israel.
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 (4) For this.—Better, for it is a statute. Referring…
(4) For this.—Better, for it is a statute. Referring either to the feast itself or to the mode of celebrating it.
Law.—Literally, judgment, as LXX. and Vulg.
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 For this was a statute for Israel, and a…
For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob; rather, this is a law (Kay, Cheyne, Revised Version). See the passages quoted in the preceding note.
Authority in religion.
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"For this was a statute for Israel." Reference is directly to the "blowing up the trumpet in the new moon." However that might be done, because it was felt to be suitable, or because it was pleasant, it had to be done because it was required; and it would have to be done, whether men could recognize its suitability or not, whether men found it pleasant or not. There is authority in relation to religious observances; some persons more readily recognize and respond to that authority than others; but all pious persons find somewhere and in something an ultimate basis of appeal. For some it is the inspired Scriptures, for some it is the witness of the universal Church, and for some it is the requirement of some duly authorized teacher. There has always been discussion as to the proper centre of authority in religion, and the universal Church is divided into sections by the variety of opinion on this subject.
I AUTHORITY IN RELIGION MUST SATISFY MAN CONCERNING THE TRUTH. So many men always nave been, and some always must be, incompetent to decide perplexing doctrinal or ethical questions for themselves. Some are unduly biassed by education; some have neither mental powers nor leisure time for carrying on the necessary studies. In every department of truth, most men take their opinions on the authority of others; and it is even more necessary, in regard to the higher truths of religion, that men should have their standards and their guides. True, we have the Bible; but men like Anselm, Augustine, Calvin, and Wesley, with the great teachers of later days, have been authorities in religious truth to thousands.
II AUTHORITY IN RELIGION MUST LIMIT MAN"S VAGARIES. The speculative faculty leads men, in these times, to wander in all sorts of unknown regions; and produces a restlessness and uncertainty which are seriously imperilling faith. Perhaps we read men"s books too much, and God"s book too little. Happy they who can rest in the "truths most surely believed among us," because they are declared with an authority which they can recognize.
III AUTHORITY IN RELIGION MUST ENFORCE MAN"S DUTIES. Social life has changed the conception of what is becoming to a Christian. We want guidance in the modern endeavour to live The Christian life. Self-indulgence weakens our will, and we want the help of distinct requirements in ordering our religious habits. But yielding to authority must be kept within healthy limitations, and preserve personal independence and responsibility. R.T.
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 Ver. 4. For this was a statute for Israel,…
Ver. 4. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. It was a precept binding upon all the tribes that a sacred season should be set apart to commemorate the Lord's mercy; and truly it was but the Lord's due, he had a right and a claim to such special homage. When it can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide, and other Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute, we also will attend to them, but not till then. It is as much our duty to reject the traditions of men, as to observe the ordinances of the Lord. We ask concerning every rite and rubric, "Is this a law of the God of Jacob?" and if it be not clearly so, it is of no authority with us, who walk in Christian liberty.
None.
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Ver. 4. The rule of ordinances and worship; pleas for going beyond it; instances in various churches; the sin and danger of such will worship.
Psalms 81:5*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 For it
For it
Here "it" refers to the feast day.
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a decree given by the God of Jacob
This can be stated in active form. AT: "the God of Jacob decreed it" or "the God of Jacob commanded it" (See: Active or Passive)
the God of Jacob
Here "Jacob" represents all of his descendants. AT: "the God of Israel, the nation of Jacob's descendants" (See: Synecdoche)
issued it as a regulation
"gave it as a law"
in Joseph
Here "Joseph" represents all of the Israelites. AT: "to the Israelites" (See: Synecdoche)
when he went against the land of Egypt
This refers to the historical events in Egypt when the people of Israel were enslaved and God rescued them. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
the land of Egypt
Here "land" represents the people. AT: "the people of Egypt" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
statute
Israel
decree
Jacob
Joseph (OT)
Egypt
know
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 81:4-5 The festival, a time to celebrate and listen…
81:4-5 The festival, a time to celebrate and listen to the Lord, took place at God’s appointed time.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.