probably to look askant · verb, piel imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural + paragogic nun
high
גַּבְנֻ֫נִּ֥יםgav.Nu.Nim
H1386
a hump or peak of hills · noun, common masculine plural absolute
hills
הָרִ֪יםha.Rim
H2022
a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · noun, common masculine plural absolute
hill
הָהָ֗רha.Har
H2022
a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
God
אֱלֹהִ֣ים'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
desireth
חָמַ֣דcha.Mad
H2530
to delight in · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
in
לְשִׁבְתּ֑וֹle.shiv.To
H3427
properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְ֝הוָ֗הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
dwell
יִשְׁכֹּ֥ןyish.Kon
H7931
to reside or permanently stay (literally or figurativel… · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
ever
לָנֶֽצַחla.Ne.tzach
H5331
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 12:5 But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek…
Psalms 132:13-14 For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.
Revelation 21:2-3 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Hebrews 12:22-23 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Deuteronomy 12:11 Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command…
1 Kings 9:3 And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which t…
Isaiah 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shal…
Psalms 87:1-2 His foundation is in the holy mountains.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 68:15-21
David, having given God praise for what he had done for Israel in general, as the God of Israel (Psa 68:8), here comes to give him praise as Zion's God in a special manner; compare Psa 9:11. Sing praises to the Lord who dwelleth in Zion, for which reason Zion is called the hill of God.
I. He compares it with the hill of Bashan and other high and fruitful hills, and prefers it before them, Psa 68:15, Psa 68:16. It is true, Zion was but little and low in comparison with them, and was not covered over with flocks and herds as they were, yet, upon this account, it has the pre-eminence above them all, that it is the hill of God, the hill which he desires to dwell in, and where he chooses to manif…
Mountains are often symbols of nations (Psa 46:2; Psa 65:6). That of Bashan, northeast of Palestine, denotes a heathen nation, which is described as a "hill of God," or a great hill. Such are represented as envious of the hill (Zion) on which God resides;
John Gill on Psalms 68:16
Why leap ye, ye high hills?.... Meaning the kingdoms of this world that lift up themselves above, and look with contempt upon the interest, kingdom, and church of Christ; lie in wait for it, leap upon it, insult over it, and endeavour to crush and extirpate it; but all in vain; these high hills and mountains are nothing before Zerubbabel King of saints; his church is built on a rock, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it; the little stone cut out of the mountain without hands will become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth, and break in pieces and consume the kingdoms of it: the word in, the Arabic language, signifies "to lie in wait", as Jarchi from R. Moses Hadarsan obser…
Psalm 68:15-17
15. The hill of God, the hill of Bashan, a high hill, [31] the hill of Bashan. 16. Why leap ye, ye high hills? the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, Jehovah will dwell in it for ever. 17. The chariots of God are twenty thousand thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.
15. The hill of God, the hill of Bashan Here he adverts to the spring and source of all the kindness which God had shown, this being the circumstance that he had chosen mount Zion as the place of his palace and temple, whence all blessings should go out to the nation. A Divine declaration to that effect had been made to David, and this pre-eminence and dignity conferr…
The Church Fathers
Why do you suppose the curdled mountains? This he says to the Jews, who think that Moses and the prophets are like the Savior. The mountain in which it is well pleasing to God to dwell. It signifies the fleshly presence of the Savior, that the deity dwelt in a body: for in no other did the Holy Spirit dwell continuously, except in the Savior, John saying, "He upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he." For indeed the Lord shall dwell unto the end: in the body which he took from holy Mary.
Secondly, in the expression, "Mountain of God, Mountain full of curds," Mountain "fruitful," let no one dare from this to compare the Lord Jesus Christ with the rest of the Saints, who are themselves also called mountains of God. ...For there were not wanting men to call Him, some John Baptist, some Elias, some Jeremias, or one of the Prophets; He turneth to them and saith, "Why do ye imagine mountains full of curds, a mountain," he saith, "wherein it hath pleased God to dwell therein"? "Why do ye imagine?" For as they are a light, because to themselves also hath been said, "Ye are the Light of the world," but something different hath been called "the true Light which enlighteneth every man." so they are mountains; but far different is the Mountain "prepared on the top of the mountains." These mountains therefore in bearing that Mountain are glorious: one of which mountains saith, "but from me far be it to glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom to me the world hath been crucified, and I to the world:" so that "he hath glorieth, not in himself, but in the Lord may glory." "Why" then "do ye imagine mountains full of curds," that "Mountain wherein it hath pleased God to dwell therein"? Not because in other men He dwelleth not, but because in them through Him. "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead," not in a shadow, as in the temple made by king Solomon, but "bodily," that is, solidly and truly. ..."For there is One God, and One Mediator of God and men, the Man Christ Jesus," Mountain of mountains, as Saint of saints. Whence He saith, "I in them and Thou in Me." "Why then do ye imagine mountains full of curds, the mountain wherein it hath pleased God to dwell in Him?" For those mountains full of curds that Mountain the Lord shall inhabit even unto the end, that something they may be to whom He saith, "for without Me nothing ye are able to do."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Jerusalem — Called also Salem, Ariel, Jebus, the “city of God,” the “holy city;” by the modern Arabs el-Khuds, meaning “the holy;” once “the city of Judah” (2 Chr. 25:28). This name is in the original in the…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
This victory of Israel over the kings of the Gentiles gives the poet the joyful assurance that Zion is the inaccessible dwelling-place of Elohim, the God of the heavenly hosts. The mention of Zalmon leads him to mention other mountains. He uses the mountains of Bashan as an emblem of the hostile powers east of Jordan. These stand over against the people of God, as the mighty mountains of Bashan rising in steep, only slightly flattened peaks, to little hill-like Zion. In the land on this side Jordan the limestone and chalk formation with intermingled strata of sandstone predominates; the mountains of Bashan, however, are throughout volcanic, consisting of slag, lava, and more particularly bas…
Why do you look with envy? Bashan is physically much more impressive than the mountains around Jerusalem, but it was not the home of the Lord. Only Mount Zion enjoyed the privilege of providing God’s dwelling place.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 68:16
Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever.
Why leap ye, ye high hills? Why are ye moved to envy? Envy as ye may, the Lord's choice is fixed. Lift up yourselves, and even leap from your seats, ye cannot reach the sublimity which Jehovah's presence has bestowed on the little hill of Moriah. This is the hill which God desireth to dwell in. Elohim makes Zion his abode, yea, Jehovah resides there. Yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever. Spiritually the Lord abides eternally in Zion, his chosen church, and it was Zion's glory to be typical thereof. What were Carmel and Sirion, with all their height, compared to Zion, the…
