Verse 6
He stood, and measured the earth - ארץ erets , the land; he divided the promised land among the twelve tribes. This is the allusion; and this the prophet had in his eye. God not only made a general assignment of the land to the Hebrews; but he even divided it into such portions as the different families required. Here were both power and condescension. When a conqueror had subdued a country, he divided it among his soldiers. Among the Romans, those among whom the conquered lands were divided were termed beneficiary ; and the lands beneficia , as being held on the beneficence of the sovereign.
He beheld, and drove asunder the nations - The nations of Canaan, the Hittites, Hivites, Jebusites, etc., and all who opposed his people. Even his look dispersed them.
The everlasting mountains were scattered - Or, broken asunder. This may refer to the convulsions on Mount Sinai; and to the earth quake which announced the descent of the Most High. See Exodus 19:18 . "God occupied the summit of the eternal Mount Sinai; and led his people over the eternal mountains of Arabia Petraea; and this sense is preferable to the figurative one, that his ways or doings are predetermined front everlasting." - Newcome.
The epithets עד ad , and עולם olam , eternal, and everlasting, are applied to mountains and immense rocks, because no other parts of nature are less subject to decay or change, than these immense masses of earth and stone, and that almost indestructible stone, granite, out of which Sinai appears to be formed. A piece of the beautiful granite of this mountain now lies before me. This is a figurative description of the passage of the Israelites through the deserts of Arabia, over mountains, rocks, and through the trackless wilderness; over and through which God, by his power and providence, gave them a safe passage.
The following beautiful piece from the Fragments of Aeschylus will illustrate the preceding description, and please the learned reader.
Χωριζε θνητων τον Θεον, και μη δοκειπ
Ομοιον αυτῳ σαρκινον καθεσταναι·π
Ουκ οισθα δ ' αυτον· ποτε μεν ὡς πυρ φαινεταιπ
Απλαστον ὁρμῃ ποτε δ ' ὑδωρ, ποτε δε γνοφος.π
Και θηρσιν αυτος γινεται παρεμφερης,π
Ανεμῳ, νεφει τε, κᾳστραπῃ, βροντῃ, βροχῃ.π
Ὑπηρετει δ ' αυτῳ θαλασσα, και πετραι,π
Και πασα πηγη, χ ' ὑδατος συστηματα·π
Τρεμει δ ' ορη και γαια και πελωριοςπ
Βυθος θαλασσης, κωρεων ὑψος μεγα,π
Οταν επιβλεψῃ γοργον ομμα δεσποτου.
Aeschyli Fragm.
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