Verse 7
7. Neither speak they through their throat The speaking through the throat seems here to be contrasted with speaking with the tongue. Compare Psalms 35:28. The latter was open, articulate speech; the former, low, whispering, and often inarticulate a muttering. See Isaiah 8:19; Isaiah 59:3. The word rendered “speak,” here, is sometimes rendered meditate, (see Joshua 1:8; Psalms 77:12,) because meditating is an inward speaking to one’s self, often accompanied with low, half inarticulate sounds. See on Psalms 90:9. The idea of the text seems to be, that these idols could not make even a breathlike, inarticulate sound. The psalmist had already denied their power of enunciating words, or of speech proper, in Psalms 115:5, where another word is used. A satirical allusion may also be here intended to the custom of the heathen priests and necromancers of uttering their magical formulas in a low, guttural tone.
See Isaiah 8:19. The Septuagint calls them, those who speak, or make a sound, from the belly, ventriloquists.
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