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Selected Verse: Psalms 75:6 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Ps 75:6	Strong Concordance	For promotion [07311] [02022] cometh neither from the east [04161], nor from the west [04628], nor from the south [04057].
	King James	For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
promotion--literally, "a lifting up." God is the only right judge of merit.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

promotion--literally, "a lifting up." God is the only right judge of merit.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
For promotion - The word used here in the original, and rendered "promotion" - הרים hariym - is susceptible of two quite different significations. According to one - that which is adopted by our translators - it is the infinitive (Hiphil) of רום rûm, "to raise" - the word used in Psa 75:5-6, and there rendered "lift up." Thus it would mean, that to "lift up" is not the work of people, or is not originated by the earth - does not originate from any part of it, east, west, or south, but must come from God alone. According to the other view, this word is the plural of הר har, "mountain," and would mean that something - (something understood - as "judgment") - comes not "from the east, nor the west, nor from the desert of mountains," the mountainous regions of the south, but must come from God. The Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, and the ancient versions generally, adopt the latter interpretation. De Wette renders it as our translators have done. This interpretation - rendering it promotions - seems to be the true one, for in the two previous verses this was the prominent idea - a caution against attempting to "lift themselves up," or to exalt themselves, and in this and the following verse a reason is given for this caution, to wit, that the whole question about success or prosperity depends not on anything here below; not on any natural advantages of situation, or on any human skill or power; but on God alone. It was in vain, in regard to such an object, to form human alliances, or to depend on natural advantages; and therefore people should not depend on these things, but only on God. Neither from the east - literally, from the outgoing; that is, of the sun. The meaning may either be that success would not depend on any natural advantages of country furnished in the East; or that the persons referred to were seeking to form alliances with an Eastern people, and then the statement would be that no such alliances would of themselves secure success. Nor from the west - The setting; that is, the place where the sun goes down. This also may refer either to the natural advantages of a Western country, or to some alliance which it was intended to form with the people there. Nor from the south - Margin, as in Hebrew, "desert." The reference is to the rocky and barren regions south of Palestine, and the allusion here also may be either to some natural advantages of those regions, or to some alliance which it was proposed to form.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

For promotion - The word used here in the original, and rendered "promotion" - הרים hariym - is susceptible of two quite different significations. According to one - that which is adopted by our translators - it is the infinitive (Hiphil) of רום rûm, "to raise" - the word used in Psa 75:5-6, and there rendered "lift up." Thus it would mean, that to "lift up" is not the work of people, or is not originated by the earth - does not originate from any part of it, east, west, or south, but must come from God alone. According to the other view, this word is the plural of הר har, "mountain," and would mean that something - (something understood - as "judgment") - comes not "from the east, nor the west, nor from the desert of mountains," the mountainous regions of the south, but must come from God. The Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, and the ancient versions generally, adopt the latter interpretation. De Wette renders it as our translators have done. This interpretation - rendering it promotions - seems to be the true one, for in the two previous verses this was the prominent idea - a caution against attempting to "lift themselves up," or to exalt themselves, and in this and the following verse a reason is given for this caution, to wit, that the whole question about success or prosperity depends not on anything here below; not on any natural advantages of situation, or on any human skill or power; but on God alone. It was in vain, in regard to such an object, to form human alliances, or to depend on natural advantages; and therefore people should not depend on these things, but only on God.

Neither from the east - literally, from the outgoing; that is, of the sun. The meaning may either be that success would not depend on any natural advantages of country furnished in the East; or that the persons referred to were seeking to form alliances with an Eastern people, and then the statement would be that no such alliances would of themselves secure success.

Nor from the west - The setting; that is, the place where the sun goes down. This also may refer either to the natural advantages of a Western country, or to some alliance which it was intended to form with the people there.

Nor from the south - Margin, as in Hebrew, "desert." The reference is to the rocky and barren regions south of Palestine, and the allusion here also may be either to some natural advantages of those regions, or to some alliance which it was proposed to form.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
The church here takes up the words of God, again beginning with the כּי of Psa 75:3 (cf. the כּי in Sa1 2:3). A passage of the Midrash says הרים חוץ מזה כל הרים שׁבמקרא (everywhere where harim is found in Scripture it signifies harim, mountains, with the exception of this passage), and accordingly it is explained by Rashi, Kimchi, Alshch, and others, that man, whithersoever he may turn, cannot by strength and skill attain great exaltation and prosperity. (Note: E.g., Bamidbar Rabba ch. xxii.; whereas according to Berêshı̂th Rabba ch. lii. הרים is equivalent to דּרום.) Thus it is according to the reading ממּדבּר, although Kimchi maintains that it can also be so explained with the reading ממּדבּר, by pointing to מרמס (Isa 10:6) and the like. It is, however, difficult to see why, in order to express the idea "from anywhere," three quarters of the heavens should be used and the north left out. These three quarters of the heavens which are said to represent the earthly sources of power (Hupfeld), are a frame without the picture, and the thought, "from no side (viz., of the earth) cometh promotion" - in itself whimsical in expression - offers a wrong confirmation for the dissuasive that has gone before. That, however, which the church longs for is first of all not promotion, but redemption. On the other hand, the lxx, Targum, Syriac, and Vulgate render: a deserto montium (desertis montibus); and even Aben-Ezra rightly takes it as a Palestinian designation of the south, when he supplements the aposiopesis by means of מי שׁיושׁיעם (more biblically יבע עזרנוּ, cf. Psa 121:1.). The fact that the north is not mentioned at all shows that it is a northern power which arrogantly, even to blasphemy, threatens the small Israelitish nation with destruction, and against which it looks for help neither from the east and west, nor from the reed-staff of Egypt (Isa 36:6) beyond the desert of the mountains of Arabia Petraea, but from Jahve alone, according to the watchword of Isaiah: שׁפטנוּ ה (Isa 33:22). The negative thought is left unfinished, the discourse hurrying on to the opposite affirmative thought. The close connection of the two thoughts is strikingly expressed by the rhymes הרים and ידים. The כּי of Psa 75:8 gives the confirmation of the negation from the opposite, that which is denied; the כּי of Psa 75:9 confirms this confirmation. If it were to be rendered, "and the wine foams," it would then have been היּין; מסך, which is undoubtedly accusative, also shows that yayin is also not considered as anything else: and it (the cup) foams (חמר like Arab. 'chtmr, to ferment, effervesce) with wine, is full of mixture. According to the ancient usage of the language, which is also followed by the Arabic, this is wine mixed with water in distinction from merum, Arabic chamr memzûg'e. Wine was mixed with water not merely to dilute it, but also to make it more pleasant; hence מסך signifies directly as much as to pour out (vid., Hitzig on Isa 5:22). It is therefore unnecessary to understand spiced wine (Talmudic קונדיטון, conditum), since the collateral idea of weakening is also not necessarily associated with the admixture of water. מזּה refers to כּוס, which is used as masculine, as in Jer 25:15; the word is feminine elsewhere, and changes its gender even here in שׁמריה (cf. Eze 23:34). In the fut. consec. ויּגּר the historical signification of the consecutive is softened down, as is frequently the case. אך affirms the whole assertion that follows. The dregs of the cup - a dira necessitas - all the wicked of the earth shall be compelled to sip (Isa 51:17), to drink out: they shall not be allowed to drink and make a pause, but, compelled by Jahve, who has appeared as Judge, they shall be obliged to drink it out with involuntary eagerness even to the very last (Eze 23:34). We have here the primary passage of a figure, which has been already hinted at in Psa 60:5, and is filled in on a more and more magnificent and terrible scale in the prophets. Whilst Obadiah (Oba 1:16, cf. Job 21:20) contents himself with a mere outline sketch, it is found again, in manifold applications, in Isaiah, Habakkuk, and Ezekiel, and most frequently in Jeremiah (Jer 25:27., Jer 48:26; Jer 49:12), where in Psa 25:15. it is embodied into a symbolical act. Jahve's cup of intoxication (inasmuch as חמה and חמר, the burning of anger and intoxicating, fiery wine, are put on an equality) is the judgment of wrath which is meted out to sinners and given them to endure to the end.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

The church here takes up the words of God, again beginning with the כּי of Psa 75:3 (cf. the כּי in Sa1 2:3). A passage of the Midrash says הרים חוץ מזה כל הרים שׁבמקרא (everywhere where harim is found in Scripture it signifies harim, mountains, with the exception of this passage), and accordingly it is explained by Rashi, Kimchi, Alshch, and others, that man, whithersoever he may turn, cannot by strength and skill attain great exaltation and prosperity.

(Note: E.g., Bamidbar Rabba ch. xxii.; whereas according to Berêshı̂th Rabba ch. lii. הרים is equivalent to דּרום.)

Thus it is according to the reading ממּדבּר, although Kimchi maintains that it can also be so explained with the reading ממּדבּר, by pointing to מרמס (Isa 10:6) and the like. It is, however, difficult to see why, in order to express the idea "from anywhere," three quarters of the heavens should be used and the north left out. These three quarters of the heavens which are said to represent the earthly sources of power (Hupfeld), are a frame without the picture, and the thought, "from no side (viz., of the earth) cometh promotion" - in itself whimsical in expression - offers a wrong confirmation for the dissuasive that has gone before. That, however, which the church longs for is first of all not promotion, but redemption. On the other hand, the lxx, Targum, Syriac, and Vulgate render: a deserto montium (desertis montibus); and even Aben-Ezra rightly takes it as a Palestinian designation of the south, when he supplements the aposiopesis by means of מי שׁיושׁיעם (more biblically יבע עזרנוּ, cf. Psa 121:1.). The fact that the north is not mentioned at all shows that it is a northern power which arrogantly, even to blasphemy, threatens the small Israelitish nation with destruction, and against which it looks for help neither from the east and west, nor from the reed-staff of Egypt (Isa 36:6) beyond the desert of the mountains of Arabia Petraea, but from Jahve alone, according to the watchword of Isaiah: שׁפטנוּ ה (Isa 33:22). The negative thought is left unfinished, the discourse hurrying on to the opposite affirmative thought. The close connection of the two thoughts is strikingly expressed by the rhymes הרים and ידים. The כּי of Psa 75:8 gives the confirmation of the negation from the opposite, that which is denied; the כּי of Psa 75:9 confirms this confirmation. If it were to be rendered, "and the wine foams," it would then have been היּין; מסך, which is undoubtedly accusative, also shows that yayin is also not considered as anything else: and it (the cup) foams (חמר like Arab. 'chtmr, to ferment, effervesce) with wine, is full of mixture. According to the ancient usage of the language, which is also followed by the Arabic, this is wine mixed with water in distinction from merum, Arabic chamr memzûg'e. Wine was mixed with water not merely to dilute it, but also to make it more pleasant; hence מסך signifies directly as much as to pour out (vid., Hitzig on Isa 5:22). It is therefore unnecessary to understand spiced wine (Talmudic קונדיטון, conditum), since the collateral idea of weakening is also not necessarily associated with the admixture of water. מזּה refers to כּוס, which is used as masculine, as in Jer 25:15; the word is feminine elsewhere, and changes its gender even here in שׁמריה (cf. Eze 23:34). In the fut. consec. ויּגּר the historical signification of the consecutive is softened down, as is frequently the case. אך affirms the whole assertion that follows. The dregs of the cup - a dira necessitas - all the wicked of the earth shall be compelled to sip (Isa 51:17), to drink out: they shall not be allowed to drink and make a pause, but, compelled by Jahve, who has appeared as Judge, they shall be obliged to drink it out with involuntary eagerness even to the very last (Eze 23:34). We have here the primary passage of a figure, which has been already hinted at in Psa 60:5, and is filled in on a more and more magnificent and terrible scale in the prophets. Whilst Obadiah (Oba 1:16, cf. Job 21:20) contents himself with a mere outline sketch, it is found again, in manifold applications, in Isaiah, Habakkuk, and Ezekiel, and most frequently in Jeremiah (Jer 25:27., Jer 48:26; Jer 49:12), where in Psa 25:15. it is embodied into a symbolical act. Jahve's cup of intoxication (inasmuch as חמה and חמר, the burning of anger and intoxicating, fiery wine, are put on an equality) is the judgment of wrath which is meted out to sinners and given them to endure to the end.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
For promotion cometh neither from the east, etc. - As if the Lord had said, speaking to the Babylonians, None of all the surrounding powers shall be able to help you; none shall pluck you out of my hand. I am the Judge: I will pull you down, and set my afflicted people up, Psa 75:7. Calmet has observed that the Babylonians had Media, Armenia, and Mesopotamia on the East; and thence came Darius the Mede: that it had Arabia, Phoenicia, and Egypt on the West; thence came Cyrus, who overthrew the empire of the Chaldeans. And by the mountains of the desert, מדבר הרים midbar harim, which we translate South, Persia, may be meant; which government was established on the ruins of the Babylonish empire. No help came from any of those powers to the sinful Babylonians; they were obliged to drink the cup of the red wine of God's judgment, even to the very dregs. They were to receive no other punishment; this one was to annihilate them as a people for ever.

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⁵ Lift not up [07311] your horn [07161] on high [04791]: speak [01696] not with a stiff [06277] neck [06677].
⁶ For promotion [07311] [02022] cometh neither from the east [04161], nor from the west [04628], nor from the south [04057].

¹⁵ Mine eyes [05869] are ever [08548] toward the LORD [03068]; for he shall pluck [03318] my feet [07272] out of the net [07568].

¹² For thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068]; Behold, they whose judgment [04941] was not to drink [08354] of the cup [03563] have assuredly [08354] drunken [08354]; and art thou he that shall altogether [05352] go unpunished [05352]? thou shalt not go unpunished [05352], but thou shalt surely [08354] drink [08354] of it.

²⁶ Make ye him drunken [07937]: for he magnified [01431] himself against the LORD [03068]: Moab [04124] also shall wallow [05606] in his vomit [06892], and he also shall be in derision [07814].

²⁷ Therefore thou shalt say [0559] unto them, Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635], the God [0430] of Israel [03478]; Drink [08354] ye, and be drunken [07937], and spue [07006], and fall [05307], and rise [06965] no more, because [06440] of the sword [02719] which I will send [07971] among you.

²⁰ His eyes [05869] shall see [07200] his destruction [03589], and he shall drink [08354] of the wrath [02534] of the Almighty [07706].

¹⁶ For as ye have drunk [08354] upon my holy [06944] mountain [02022], so shall all the heathen [01471] drink [08354] continually [08548], yea, they shall drink [08354], and they shall swallow down [03886], and they shall be as though they had not [03808] been.

⁵ That thy beloved [03039] may be delivered [02502]; save [03467] with thy right hand [03225], and hear [06030] me.

³⁴ Thou shalt even drink [08354] it and suck it out [04680], and thou shalt break [01633] the sherds [02789] thereof, and pluck off [05423] thine own breasts [07699]: for I have spoken [01696] it, saith [05002] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069].

¹⁷ Awake [05782], awake [05782], stand up [06965], O Jerusalem [03389], which hast drunk [08354] at the hand [03027] of the LORD [03068] the cup [03563] of his fury [02534]; thou hast drunken [08354] the dregs [06907] of the cup [03563] of trembling [08653], and wrung them out [04680].

¹⁵ For thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068] God [0430] of Israel [03478] unto me; Take [03947] the wine [03196] cup [03563] of this fury [02534] at my hand [03027], and cause all the nations [01471], to whom I send [07971] thee, to drink [08248] it.

²² Woe [01945] unto them that are mighty [01368] to drink [08354] wine [03196], and men [0582] of strength [02428] to mingle [04537] strong drink [07941]:

⁹ But I will declare [05046] for ever [05769]; I will sing praises [02167] to the God [0430] of Jacob [03290].

⁸ For in the hand [03027] of the LORD [03068] there is a cup [03563], and the wine [03196] is red [02560]; it is full [04392] of mixture [04538]; and he poureth out [05064] of the same [02088]: but the dregs [08105] thereof, all the wicked [07563] of the earth [0776] shall wring them out [04680], and drink [08354] them.

²² For the LORD [03068] is our judge [08199], the LORD [03068] is our lawgiver [02710], the LORD [03068] is our king [04428]; he will save [03467] us.

⁶ Lo, thou trustest [0982] in the staff [04938] of this broken [07533] reed [07070], on Egypt [04714]; whereon if a man [0376] lean [05564], it will go [0935] into his hand [03709], and pierce [05344] it: so is Pharaoh [06547] king [04428] of Egypt [04714] to all that trust [0982] in him.

¹ A Song [07892] of degrees [04609]. I will lift up [05375] mine eyes [05869] unto the hills [02022], from whence [0370] cometh [0935] my help [05828].

⁶ I will send [07971] him against an hypocritical [02611] nation [01471], and against the people [05971] of my wrath [05678] will I give him a charge [06680], to take [07997] the spoil [07998], and to take [0962] the prey [0957], and to tread them down [07760] [04823] like the mire [02563] of the streets [02351].

³ Talk [01696] no more [07235] so exceeding [01364] proudly [01364]; let not arrogancy [06277] come [03318] out of your mouth [06310]: for the LORD [03068] is a God [0410] of knowledge [01844], and by him actions [05949] are weighed [08505].

³ The earth [0776] and all the inhabitants [03427] thereof are dissolved [04127]: I bear up [08505] the pillars [05982] of it. Selah [05542].

⁷ But God [0430] is the judge [08199]: he putteth down [08213] one, and setteth up [07311] another.