properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular
Rahab
רַהַבRahab
H7294
Rahab (i.e. boaster)
Babylon
וּבָבֶ֗לu.va.Vel
H894
Babel (i.e. Babylon) · conjunction + proper noun, a place name
know
לְֽיֹ֫דְעָ֥יle.Yo.de.'Ai
H3045
to know (properly · preposition + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
Philistia
פְלֶ֣שֶׁתfe.Le.shet
H6429
Pelesheth · proper noun, a place name
Tyre
וְצ֣וֹרve.Tzor
H6865
Tsor · conjunction + proper noun, a place name
Ethiopia
כּ֑וּשׁKush
H3568
Cush (or Ethiopia) · proper noun, a place name
born
יֻלַּדyu.lad-
H3205
to bear young · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Psalms 45:12 And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.
Isaiah 19:23-25 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the…
Psalms 68:31 Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.
Job 9:13 If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him.
Psalms 89:10 Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.
2 Samuel 21:16-22 And Ishbi-benob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being gi…
1 Kings 10:1-29 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.
2 Kings 20:17-18 Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried int…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 87:4–end
Zion is here compared with other places, and preferred before them; the church of Christ is more glorious and excellent than the nations of the earth. 1. It is owned that other places have their glories (Psa 87:4): "I will make mention of Rahab" (that is, Egypt) "and Babylon, to those that know me and are about me, and with whom I discourse about public affairs; behold Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia" (or rather Arabia), "we will observe that this man was born there; here and there one famous man, eminent for knowledge and virtue, may be produced, that was a native of these countries; here and there one that becomes a proselyte and worshipper of the true God." But some give another sense o…
I will make mention of Rahab,.... Not of Rahab the harlot, as Jerom and others of the ancients (y) interpret it; for the letters of both words are not the same in Hebrew; though mention is made of her in the Gospel, and Gospel times, in the genealogy of Christ, and by two of the apostles, Matthew 1:5, but of Egypt; and so the Targum interprets it, which is so called, as it is in Psalm 89:10 either from the pride of its inhabitants, the word having in it the sense of pride and haughtiness, and these being naturally proud and haughty, as Philo (z) the Jew observes; or from some city of this name in it; or rather this respects that part of Egypt called Delta, which was in the form of a pear; wh…
Psalm 87:4-6
4. I will make mention of Rahab, [497] and Babel among them that know me: behold the Philistines, and Tyre, with Ethiopia, [498] he is born there! [499] Selah. 5. And it shall be said of Zion, Man and man is born in her: and the Most High himself will establish her. 6. The Lord will recount when he writeth the peoples, he is born there. Selah.
4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babel. The name of Rahab is put for Egypt in many other parts of Scripture; and this signification is very suitable to the present passage, the object of which is to portray the magnificent amplitude of the Church, which as yet was only matter of hope. It is therefore said that those who formerly were d…
The Church Fathers
I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon among those who know me. Since he said, Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God, and yet we understand that very city as the Church gathered from the nations: therefore now it is said concerning the calling of the nations, I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon among those who know me. Whoever is a sinner, let him be secure: the Lord was mindful of Rahab. I said secure, if he returns to the Lord: for otherwise security without tears has no remedy. I will be mindful of Rahab: of that harlot Rahab, who received the spies of Jesus, who was in Jericho, where Jesus had come, and he sent two spies. Jericho, this world, which is overturned in seven days, wishes to kill the spies. And while it desires to kill the spies, the harlot Rahab alone received them. And she received them, not in a lower place, but in an upper room, on the housetop, that is, in the height of her faith, and she hid them in flax, that is, in tow of flax. This much we have said so far according to the historical sense, and you see how from the history itself we gradually ascend to the mystical sacraments. Jesus the leader, who had led the people out of Egypt: Jesus, who is interpreted as Savior, after Moses had died and been buried in the land of Moab, in the land of Arabia, that is, after the Law was dead, desires to lead his people into the gospel, and sends two spies to Jericho: two spies, one to the circumcision, another to the nations, Peter and Paul. Jericho seeks to kill them; that harlot receives them, the Church gathered from the nations. She believes in Jesus, and those whom Jericho wished to kill, she herself saves on her housetop. And she places them on the housetop, in her lofty faith, and hides them in the flax of the reed. Though she is a harlot, yet she places them in flax. Flax comes to whiteness through much toil and diligence. You yourselves know that flax is born from the earth, and when it has been born in the earth, it is black, has no beauty, no use. First then it is taken from the earth, it is broken, then it is twisted, afterward it is washed, then it is beaten, then it is combed, and with much care and toil it scarcely comes to whiteness. Therefore this is said, that this harlot indeed received the spies in her flax, so that those spies might turn her flax into whiteness. What then? She gives them counsel, and says: 'Wait…
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
Ethiopia — Country of burnt faces; the Greek word by which the Hebrew Cush is rendered (Gen. 2:13; 2 Kings 19:9; Esther 1:1; Job 28:19; Ps. 68:31; 87:4), a country which lay to the south of Egypt, beginning at…
Palestina And Palestine — (land of strangers). These two forms occur in the Authorized Version but four times in all, always in poetical passages; the first in (Exodus 15:14) and Isai 14:29 The second (Joel 3:4) In each case…
Palestine — Originally denoted only the sea-coast of the land of Canaan inhabited by the Philistines (Ex. 15:14; Isa. 14:29, 31; Joel 3:4), and in this sense exclusively the Hebrew name Pelesheth (rendered…
Philistia — =Palestine (q.v.), “the land of the Philistines” (Ps. 60:8; 87:4; 108:9). The word is supposed to mean “the land of wanderers” or “of strangers.”
Rahab — Insolence; pride, a poetical name applied to Egypt in Ps. 87:4; 89:10; Isa. 51:9, as “the proud one.” Rahab, (Heb. Rahab; i.e., “broad,” “large”). When the Hebrews were encamped at Shittim, in the…
The poet is absorbed in the contemplation of the glory of a matter which he begins to celebrate, without naming it. Whether we render it: His founded, or (since מיסּד and מוּסּד are both used elsewhere as part. pass.): His foundation (after the form מלוּכה, poetically for יסוד, a founding, then that which is set fast = a foundation), the meaning remains the same; but the more definite statement of the object with שׁערי ציּון is more easily connected with what precedes by regarding it as a participle. The suffix refers to Jahve, and it is Zion, whose praise is a favourite theme of the Korahitic songs, that is intended. We cannot tell by looking to the accents whether the clause is to be taken…
As great as Zion is, it will be even greater when it becomes an international city where believers from all the nations have citizenship. • God keeps a record of all who confess him as their Lord (Dan 7:10; Rev 13:8).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 87:4
I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.
I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me. This shall be a glorious subject to speak of concerning Zion, that her old foes are new born and have become her friends, worshipping in the temple of her God. Rahab or Egypt which oppressed Israel shall become a sister nation, and Babylon in which the tribes endured their second great captivity, shall become a fellow worshipper; then shall there be mention made in familiar talk of the old enmities forgotten and the new friendships formed. Some consider that these are the words of God himself, and sh…
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).
