to know (properly · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
beast
בְּ֝הֵמ֗וֹתbe.he.Mot
H929
properly · noun, common feminine plural 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
Ecclesiastes 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves ar…
Psalms 92:6 A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
Psalms 49:10 For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
Isaiah 1:3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Psalms 32:9 Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near un…
Proverbs 30:2 Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.
Job 18:3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?
Psalms 69:5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 73:21–end
Behold Samson's riddle again unriddled, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness; for we have here an account of the good improvement which the psalmist made of that sore temptation with which he had been assaulted and by which he was almost overcome. He that stumbles and does not fall, by recovering himself takes so much the longer steps forward. It was so with the psalmist here; many good lessons he learned from his temptation, his struggles with it, and his victories over it. Nor would God suffer his people to be tempted if his grace were not sufficient for them, not only to save them from harm, but to make them gainers by it; even this shall work for good.
I. He…
So foolish was I,.... To envy the prosperity of the wicked, which is of so short a continuance; to arraign the providence and perfections of God, and to conclude so hastily that there was nothing in religion:
and ignorant; or, "I knew not" (w); what he attempted to know, Psalm 73:16, nor the end of the wicked, till he went into the sanctuary of the Lord; nor the counsel and design of God, in his methods of providence towards wicked men:
I was as a beast before thee, or "with thee" (x); in the knowledge of the ways and works of God, even those of providence; see Psalm 92:5, unteachable, untractable, kicking against God and his providential dispensations; not behaving like a man, much, less…
Psalm 73:21-24
21. For my heart was in a ferment, and I was pierced in my reins. 22. And I was foolish and ignorant: I was with thee as a brute beast. 23. Nevertheless I was continually with thee; thou didst hold my right hand. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel; and at length thou shalt take me to [or receive me into] glory.
21. For my heart was in a ferment. The Psalmist again returns to the confession which he had previously made, acknowledging that whilst he felt his heart pierced with perverse envy and emulation, he had complained against God, in a peevish or fretful manner. He compares his anger to leaven. Some translate, My heart was steeped in vinegar. But it is more suitable…
The Church Fathers
And hear how. "And I was brought unto nothing, and I knew not" [Psalm 73:22]. I, the very man, who now say these things of rich men, once longed for such things: therefore "even I was brought to nothing" when my steps were almost overthrown. "And I was brought unto nothing, and I knew not." We must not therefore despair even of them, against whom I was saying such things.
And again that same prophet testifieth concerning the simplicity of his soul, and how he was with God, saying, "I was innocent and ignorant, and I was like a beast before Thee;" and he was brought down to such ignorance like the beast with man, which by reason of its irrational and indiscriminating nature is unable to judge one of his deeds or actions; even thus was the knowledge of David in respect of God. For as the beast is governed by man, so also did David place himself to be led by the will of God, that he might not judge His will in any form.
Abbot Pimenius asked Abbot Nesteron, who was sitting in the monastery, "Where did you acquire this virtue, brother, that, whenever a quarrel arises in the monastery, you neither speak nor interfere as mediator?" Though he was unwilling to speak, he was compelled by the old man and said, "Forgive me, father, for in the beginning when I entered here I said to my thought: 'Lo, you and this donkey are alike. Just as it gets beaten without speaking and gets thrashed without returning an answer, so you must be also, for the psalm says, "I am become as a beast of burden before you: and I am always with you." ' "
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
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
B · Described as: Devoid of understanding — Described as: Devoid of understanding
Blindness · 21:14;22:13,14; — 21:14;22:13,14;
Humility · EXEMPLIFIED — EXEMPLIFIED
Integrity · 16:19,20; — 16:19,20;
Meditation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Murmuring · AGAINST GO — AGAINST GO
Rich, The · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Worldliness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
The poet calms himself with the solution of the riddle that has come to him; and it would be beneath his dignity as a man to allow himself any further to be tempted by doubting thoughts. Placing himself upon the standpoint of the end, he sees how the ungodly come to terrible destruction in a moment: they come to an end (ספוּ from סוּף, not ספה), it is all over with them (תּמּוּ) in consequence of (מן as in Psa 76:7, and unconnected as in Psa 18:4; Psa 30:4; Psa 22:14) frightful occurrences (בּלּהות, a favourite word, especially in the Book of Job), which clear them out of the way. It is with them as with a dream, after (מן as in Ch1 8:8) one is awoke. One forgets the vision on account of its…
The psalmist’s feelings about the prosperity of the wicked had given him a bitter spirit.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 73:22
So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
So foolish was I. He, though a saint of God, had acted as if he had been one of the fools whom God abhorreth. Had he not even envied them?—and what is that but to aspire to be like them? The wisest of men have enough folly in them to ruin them unless grace prevents. And ignorant. He had acted as if he knew nothing, had babbled like an idiot, had uttered the very drivel of a witless loon. He did not know how sufficiently to express his sense of his own fatuity. I was as a beast before thee. Even in God's presence he had been brutish, and worse than a beast. As the grass eating ox has but this present life, and can only estimate th…
