Teks -- Psalms 104:25 (NET)

104:25 Over here is the deep, wide sea, which teems with innumerable swimming creatures, living things both small and large.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Psa 104:25 - Creeping

This word is common to all creatures that move without feet.

JFB: Psa 104:24-26

From a view of the earth thus full of God's blessings, the writer passes to the sea, which, in its immensity, and as a scene and means of man's activity in commerce, and the home of countless multitudes of creatures, also displays divine power and beneficence. The mention of

Clarke: Psa 104:25 - This great and wide sea

This great and wide sea - The original is very emphatic: זה הים גדול ורחב ידים zeh haiyam gadol urechab yadayim , "This very sea, great and extensive of hands."Its waters, like arms, encompassing all the terrene parts of the globe. I suppose the psalmist was within sight of the Mediterranean when he wrote these words.

Calvin: Psa 104:25 - Great is this sea, and wide in extent

25.Great is this sea, and wide in extent After having treated of the evidences which the earth affords of the glory of God, the prophet goes down into the sea, and teaches us that it is a new mirror in which may be beheld the divine power and wisdom. Although the sea were not inhabited by fishes, yet the mere view of its vastness would excite our wonder, especially when at one time it swells with the winds and tempests, while at another it is calm and unruffled. Again, although navigation is an art which has been acquired by the skill of men, yet it depends on the providence of God, who has granted to men a passage through the mighty deep. But the abundance and variety of fishes enhance in no small degree the glory of God in the sea. Of these the Psalmist celebrates especially the leviathan or the whale ¹⁹⁶ because this animal, though there were no more, presents to our view a sufficient, yea, more than a sufficient, proof of the dreadful power of God, and for the same reason, we have a lengthened account of it in the book of Job. As its movements not only throw the sea into great agitation, but also strike with alarm the hearts of men, the prophet, by the word sport, intimates that these its movements are only sport in respect of God; as if he had said, The sea is given to the leviathans, as a field in which to exercise themselves.

Defender: Psa 104:25 - great and wide sea

The present oceans are deep and wide, whereas the pre-Flood "seas" were relatively narrow, shallow, and numerous. They now contain the drain-waters from the Flood which once were stored in the vast "waters above the firmament" (Gen 1:7) and the subterranean "deep."

Defender: Psa 104:25 - innumerable

There are more marine organisms, both in number and variety, than air-breathing birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. This is especially true in the fossil record."

TSK: Psa 104:25 - this great // beasts

this great : Psa 95:4, Psa 95:5; Gen 1:20-22, Gen 1:28; Deu 33:14-16, Deu 33:19

beasts : Gen 3:1; Act 28:5

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Psa 104:25 - Creeping

Creeping: this word is common to all creatures that move without feet, touching with their belly the element in which they move, whether they creep upon the earth or swim in the sea.

Haydock: Psa 104:25 - He turned their heart

He turned their heart, &c. Not that God (who is never the author of sin) moved the Egyptians to hate and persecute his people; but that the Egyptians took occasion of hating and envying them, from the sight of the benefits which God bestowed upon them. (Challoner) (St. Augustine) ---

He permitted the malice of the Egyptians, (Theodoret) and employed them to chastise his people, who had adored idols. (Eusebius) (Acts vii. 43.) Felix, Protestants, &c., translate the Hebrew, "their heart was turned." (Berthier) ---

The perversity of the Egyptians came from themselves, though it was turned to a good account. (Worthington)

Gill: Psa 104:25 - So is this great and wide sea // Wherein are things creeping innumerable // Both small and great beasts

So is this great and wide sea,.... One of the great and manifold works of God, made in his wisdom, and full of his riches and possessions, as the earth is; this is that collection of waters which God called seas, Gen 1:10 and is, as Kimchi observes, great in length, and wide and spacious in breadth; or "broad of hands" ⁱ, as in the original; or spacious in borders, as the Targum; it washing the several parts of the continent, and encompassing and embracing the whole earth with both arms as it were. Nor is it unusual with other writers to call the sea the great sea ^k, and to speak of an arm or arms of the sea ^l, as we do. Isidore says ^m, the great sea is that which flows out of the ocean from the west, and goes to the south, and then to the north, called so in comparison of other seas that are less, and is the Mediterranean sea, This is an emblem of the world, which may be compared to the sea for the multitude of nations and people in it, as numerous as the waves of the sea; for the temper of the inhabitants of it, being like the troubled sea, restless and uneasy, casting up the mire of dirt and sin; and for the instability of it, and the fluctuating state and condition of all things in it.

Wherein are things creeping innumerable; so that it seems there are reptiles in the water as well as on land; and indeed every creature without feet, and that goes upon its belly, in the element where it is, whether earth or water, is a creeping thing; of these swimming or creeping things the number is exceeding great, especially of the latter sort; fishes increasing much more than the beasts of the earth. Their species are innumerable; so their kinds or sorts are reckoned up by some one hundred and forty four ⁿ, by others one hundred and fifty three ^o, and by others one hundred and seventy six ^p; the Malabarians reckon, up 900,000 fishes, and 1,100,000 creeping things ^q. These are an emblem of the common people of the world, which are innumerable; see Hab 1:14.

Both small and great beasts; for there are creatures in the seas which answer to those on the dry land, both of the lesser and greater sort, as sea lions, sea horses, sea cows, sea hogs, &c. these may represent the rulers and governors of the world, supreme and subordinate; it is no unusual thing for great monarchies, and persons of great power and authority, to be signified by beasts rising out of the sea, Dan 7:3.