Teks -- Psalms 94:8 (NET)

94:8 Take notice of this, you ignorant people! You fools, when will you ever understand?

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

JFB: Psa 94:8 - ye brutish

(Compare Psa 73:22; Psa 92:6).

Clarke: Psa 94:8 - Understand, ye brutish

Understand, ye brutish - These are the same expressions as in Psa 92:6 (note), on which see the note.

Calvin: Psa 94:8 - Understand, ye stupid among the people

8.Understand, ye stupid among the people As it was execrable impiety to deny God to be Judge of the earth, the Psalmist severely reprimands their folly in thinking to elude his government, and even succeed by artifices in escaping his view. The expression, stupid among the people, is stronger than had he simply condemned them as foolish. It rendered their folly more inexcusable, that they belonged to the posterity of Abraham, of whom Moses said,

“What people is there so great, who have their gods so near unto them, as the Lord thy God hath this day come down unto thee? For this is your understanding and wisdom before all nations, to have God for your legislator.” (Deu 4:7)

²¹ Perhaps, however, he may be considered as addressing the rulers and those who were of higher rank in the community, and styling them degraded among the people, that is, no better than the common herd of the vulgar. Proud men, who are apt to be blinded by a sense of their importance, require to be brought down, and made to see that in God’s estimation they are no better than others. He puts them on a level with the common people, to humble their self-complacency; or we may suppose that he hints with an ironical and sarcastic allusion to their boasted greatness, that they were distinguished above others chiefly for pre-eminent folly — adding, at the same time, as an additional aggravation, that they were obstinate in their adherence to it; for as much is implied in the question, When will ye be wise? We might consider it an unnecessary assertion of Divine Providence to put the question to the wicked, Shall not he who made the ear hear? because there are none so abandoned as openly to deny God’s cognisance of events; but, as I have observed above, the flagrant audacity and self-security which most men display in contradicting his will, is a sufficient proof that they have supplanted God from their imaginations, and substituted a mere dead idol in his place, since, did they really believe him to be cognisant of their actions, they would at least show as much regard to him as to their fellow-creatures, in whose presence they feel some measure of restraint, and are prevented from sinning by fear and respect. To arouse them from this stupidity, the Psalmist draws an argument from the very order of nature, inferring that if men both see and hear, by virtue of faculties which they have received from God the Creator, it is impossible that God himself, who formed the eye and the ear, should not possess the most perfect observation.

TSK: Psa 94:8 - brutish // fools

brutish : Psa 49:10, Psa 73:22, Psa 92:6; Pro 12:1; Isa 27:11; Jer 8:6-8, Jer 10:8; Rom 3:11

fools : Deu 32:29; Pro 1:22, Pro 8:5; Tit 3:3

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

Poole: Psa 94:8

You who, though you think yourselves the wisest of men, yet in truth are the most brutish of all people; for the Hebrews oft express their superlatives in this manner, as Pro 30:30 Son 1:8 , &c. You that have only the shape, but not the understanding, of a man in you.

Haydock: Psa 94:8 - To-day // His // Harden not

To-day. St. Paul beautifully illustrates this passage, Hebrews iv. (Haydock) ---

He follows not the present Hebrew punctuation, which would join half this verse with the preceding. ---

His. God speaks of the Messias according to the apostle, who intimates that to-day comprises all the life of man, Hebrew xxxvii. 13. (Berthier) ---

Harden not. Man is the author of his own obduracy, (Theodoret) which God only permits. (St. Augustine) (Calmet) ---

We have free will, and may resist God's grace, as we may also consent to it, and thus co-operate to our first justification. (Council of Trent, Session vi. 5.) (Worthington) ---

the captives (Calmet) and first Christians were exhorted not to imitate the depravity of the ancient Jews. (Haydock) ---

Though a man may have frequently resisted the Holy Ghost, he may still repent. (Worthington)

Gill: Psa 94:8 - Understand, ye brutish among the people // and ye fools, when will ye be wise

Understand, ye brutish among the people,.... Or the most brutish and stupid of all people; especially that profess themselves to be the people of God, or Christians, as the Papists do; and who seem to be the persons here addressed: "brutish"; to murder the servants of the Lord, and drink their blood, till inebriated with it; stupid to the last degree to think that hereby they did God good service: hence the pope, the head of them, is represented both in his secular and ecclesiastical power by two beasts; the one rising out of the sea with seven heads and ten horns, a monster in nature, most like a leopard, his feet as a bear's, and his mouth as a lion's, having the fierceness and cruelty of them all; and the other coming out of the earth with two horns like a lamb, but spake like a dragon, Rev 13:1, the exhortation to these brutish creatures supposes them to be without understanding, like the beasts by whom they are represented; or, however, that they did not make use of those intellectual powers which God had given them; had they, they would have learned more humanity to their fellow creatures, and more religion towards God; they would have known more of him than to have said and done what is before declared; wherefore they are called upon to "consider" (so the word ^b is sometimes rendered, Psa 50:22) the reasonings about it to be laid before them:

and ye fools, when will ye be wise? "fools" they are to worship stocks and stones, the images of the Virgin Mary, and other saints; to give into the gross atheism they do; to disbelieve the omniscience of God and his providence, at least to behave as though they did; and think to do the vilest actions with impunity; wherefore it would be their wisdom to relinquish such stupid notions, and do no more such foolish and wicked actions.