Introduction
We continue in Chapter 76 of Tehillim, from the verse "You are awesome, You" until the end of the chapter. Two primary interpretative paths run like a thread throughout the psalm: the Radak explains the entire psalm as referring to the future war of Gog and Magog, whereas the Malbim (and likewise Rashi) explains it as referring to the downfall of Sancheiriv and the camp of Assyria who came against Jerusalem in the days of Chizkiyahu. From these two paths, we learn a major principle: what is the true source of awe in the world, and to Whom is it truly fitting to bring tribute?
"You are awesome, You" - Who is Being Addressed?
אַתָּה נוֹרָא אַתָּה וּמִי יַעֲמֹד לְפָנֶיךָ מֵאָז אַפֶּךָ׃ - You are awesome, You, and who can stand before You from the time of Your wrath?
The Radak explains: "You are awesome" - all the nations will fear You, from that day forward. For according to the Radak, this refers to Gog and Magog, and it stands to reason that they will revere You: "Who can stand before You from the time of Your wrath?" - once Your anger flares against Gog and Magog and You punish them, who can possibly withstand You? Such a manifestation inspires dread, and consequently from that point onward, all will stand in awe of You.
The Malbim, on the other hand, interprets this as referring to Sancheiriv and Assyria. He reads "from the time of Your wrath" as meaning from the time You dispatched the instrument of Your wrath. After all, it is written: "Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger!" A rod is a staff, and when the Holy One, blessed be He, is angry, He uses a staff called Assyria. Ever since Hashem dispatched His anger upon the earth - that is, that very rod, Assyria - no kingdom could stand before him. This was precisely why Sancheiriv was confident he would conquer Jerusalem with ease: "Which of all the gods of the lands has ever stood against me until now?" No one had been able to resist him, so he was calm enough to go to sleep peacefully.
Thus, according to the Malbim, "You are awesome, You" does not refer to the Holy One, blessed be He, but rather to Assyria: you, Assyria, were fearsome because Hashem dispatched His wrath upon the earth and used you as the rod of His anger, causing everyone to dread you.
"From Heaven You Made Judgment Heard" - The Tables Turn
מִשָּׁמַיִם הִשְׁמַעְתָּ דִּין אֶרֶץ יָרְאָה וְשָׁקָטָה׃ - From heaven You made judgment heard; the earth feared and was still.
The Malbim explains: when Sancheiriv marched against Zion, Hashem dispatched an angel from heaven to execute judgment upon him - to execute our verdict, exacting retribution from the enemies according to the justice due them. As it says: "And it shall come to pass, when the Lord has finished all His work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the arrogance of the king of Assyria." What was the outcome? The earth, which until now had been terrified - of whom? Of Assyria, "You are fearsome, you" - now "was still," calmed. For once Hashem made His verdict heard and executed judgment upon the one who defied the ranks of the living God, there was nothing left to fear.
בְּקוּם לַמִּשְׁפָּט אֱלֹהִים לְהוֹשִׁיעַ כׇּל עַנְוֵי אֶרֶץ סֶלָה׃ - When God arose to judgment, to save all the humble of the earth, Selah.
And why did it become still? "When God arose to judgment." The Malbim explains: Divine judgment always comes to exact retribution from the wicked and administer justice, while delivering justice and vindication to the righteous, the humble, and the downtrodden. When they heard that Hashem had arisen for judgment, the earth was immediately stilled from its fear. Selah - with this, the matter is sealed.
Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Radak on This Pasuk
Rashi explains: When Yeshayahu prophesied concerning the downfall of Sancheiriv and it was fulfilled, the Land of Israel, which had feared him when he gathered his forces here, became calm. "From heaven You made judgment heard" - this refers to the prophecy that Hashem sounded from heaven through Yeshayahu.
Ibn Ezra explains: All decrees come from heaven, and when all inhabitants of the earth hear that You sat upon the throne - meaning that Hashem sat in judgment and took retribution from the nations and from Sancheiriv - all who remain will calm down. The nations see what happened to Sancheiriv who came against the Jewish people, and consequently, the land is afraid to come and wage war against us, and Jerusalem is tranquil. This is deterrence: Hashem struck down Sancheiriv, and anyone harboring similar ambitions backed down. To draw a modern comparison: when one enemy is struck and devastated on one front, the neighbors on the other front remain cautious for decades. They understand: if you want to be thrown back thirty years, by all means, embark on an adventure; if not, you had better watch yourself. Those who remain are struck with fear and stay quiet in their places, refraining from attacking us.
Ibn Ezra also brings another explanation: Some say the meaning of "the earth feared" refers to the wicked, while "and was still" refers to the righteous. The wicked who wish to strike us see the retribution Sancheiriv received and become afraid, and through this, Jerusalem achieves tranquility and the righteous are at peace. Both nuances hold true: either the wicked cease from attacking us, or the righteous are tranquil because the wicked no longer attack - and both are appropriately described as quiet.
Radak, consistent with his approach in this chapter, interprets the matter as referring to Gog and Magog. "From heaven You made judgment heard" - as Yechezkel says in his prophecy: "I will rain down fire and sulfur upon him and upon his hordes," and "great hailstones will fall." What Hashem will do to Gog and Magog is not a natural war, but literal judgment from heaven: fire and brimstone from heaven, and great hailstones from heaven. Chazal teach that the very stones that were halted during the plague of hail in the time of Moshe Rabbeinu resumed their fall in the days of Yehoshua, and the finale - the final blow, what still remains suspended above - is waiting for Gog and Magog. Those meteorites are awaiting him. "The earth feared and was still" - the land of the nations will revere Hashem and cease from ever warring against the Jewish people again. Notice the distinction: according to the other commentators, the calm is temporary, lasting until the next round; whereas here, after the war of Gog and Magog, there will be no more wars - "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain." That will already be the final Redemption, and the peace will be absolute.
Similarly with "When God arose to judgment": Rashi explains that Hashem arose to execute judgment in order to save Chizkiyahu and his company. Radak explains that Hashem will arise to judgment to save Israel from the hands of the nations of the world, as it is written: "And I will enter into judgment with him," and regarding Eisav: "And saviors shall ascend Mount Zion to judge the mount of Eisav." Hashem will execute judgment upon all the nations from whom we suffer today and have suffered throughout history, in order to save Israel, who are the humble of the earth, and then all the nations will fear and be still.
Know that Gog and Magog is a prophecy, and a prophecy has never been abolished nor will it ever be abolished. However, as we previously discussed in our study of Yechezkel and Zechariah, there are two possible paths regarding Gog and Magog - one less favorable and one more favorable. There is a path in which the Jewish people also suffer harm, and there is a path in which the Jewish people stand by merely observing from the side while the Holy One, Blessed be He, fights the entire battle and smites the nations. This depends on us, on how worthy we prove to be - and these are the two options before us to determine.
"For the Wrath of Man Shall Acknowledge You" - The Fury of the Wicked Leads to Praise
כִּי חֲמַת אָדָם תּוֹדֶךָּ שְׁאֵרִית חֵמֹת תַּחְגֹּר׃ - "For the wrath of man shall acknowledge You; with the remnant of wrath You shall gird Yourself."
Rashi explains: The wrath of the wicked causes humanity to give thanks to the Holy One, Blessed be He. When they display their anger and the Holy One, Blessed be He, exacts retribution from them, all praise Him. That is to say, when you see nations revealing their wrath and coming with fierce anger, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, nullifies them and smites them - through this, "shall acknowledge You," we give thanks to Hashem, for we see that human wrath is utterly meaningless; the anger of man amounts to nothing at all.
Rashi further adds: It is not only we who give thanks for being delivered from their wrath, but even they themselves praise Him when they realize that their fury is futile. An example of this is Nevuchadnezzar. When he cast Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah into the fiery furnace, what does Scripture ultimately record? "Blessed be the name of God." Thus, the very same individual who set out to do evil ended up blessing Hashem, having seen that his schemes were completely powerless. Even the one seized by fury will ultimately acknowledge and bless Hashem.
And through this, "with the remnant of wrath You shall gird Yourself." Rashi explains "tachgor" (gird) as an expression of restraint and withholding: this will prevent the rest of the wicked from following in the footsteps of their predecessors, for they witnessed their fate. Sancheiriv came - did he succeed? He did not succeed. Consequently, "the remnant of wrath" - those who remain and wish to act like him - "You shall gird," they will be restrained and unable to carry out their designs.
And what is the connection between "tachgor" (girding) and delay or restraint? Rashi cites a wonderful example from the language of the Mishna regarding a notch in a slaughtering knife: one inspects the slaughtering knife by running a fingernail along it, and the measure of a disqualifying nick is "enough for the fingernail to catch [tachgor] on it." That is, as you run your fingernail along the blade, it moves smoothly - and suddenly it gets caught. There lies a notch, and an animal slaughtered with this knife is treifah. "Tachgor" means to be held back or restrained. Rashi notes that he heard in the name of Rabbi Elazar HaGaon bar Rabbi Yitzchak that he would cite this verse as proof for that Mishna - the biblical verse attests to the language of the Mishna, and not the other way around.
Rashi also brings another explanation, taking girding in its literal sense - wearing a belt: it is befitting for You to gird wrath and cloak Yourself in zeal, for power and capability belong to You. That is, since human fury amounts to nothing, to whom then does wrath remain? "The remainder of wraths" - wrath remains only for You, and You alone shall gird it. This is like the phrase, "Let not the girding boast" - the one who girds is the one who straps on the belt into which weapons and swords are placed. If human wrath is nothing, for whom does wrath still remain? Only for Hashem, may He be blessed. It is befitting only of You, Master of the Universe, and not of any human being.
Radak explains: the remnant of the wrath of the other nations against us after the war of Gog and Magog - You will gather them as with a belt and close them in, so that they will no longer be able to come out against us.
And the Malbim explains that "the remainder of wraths" refers to the remnant of the Holy One, blessed be He's own wrath: Hashem aroused His wrath against Sennacherib, yet He did not awaken all His wrath. By exacting retribution from Sennacherib, the remaining wrath that was still left was, as it were, girded and restrained, not brought to bear. Just as a belt binds and constrains a person's limbs, so, as it were, Hashem bound His wrath and did not unleash it, because He had directed His wrath upon that man. And this is the meaning of "for the wrath of man shall praise You."
Rabbeinu Yonah: Giving Thanks in Times of Distress Restrains the Remaining Wrath
Rabbeinu Yonah writes in Shaarei Teshuvah (Gate 4, 12): "And if hardship befalls the sinner and distress encounters him" - if troubles and hardships come upon a person, and he justifies the judgment upon himself and accepts the chastisement with love, this will serve as a shield for him against the abundant sufferings due to come upon him. Listen to what he is saying: if distress befalls a person and he does not protest or rebel, but instead accepts the divine judgment with love - this will protect him from further wrath and from further distress.
And Rabbeinu Yonah brings proof for this from our verse: "For the wrath of man shall praise You; the remainder of wraths You shall gird" - when a person's pain praises You, meaning when a person thanks Hashem despite his suffering, then "the remainder of wraths" that were still drawn and waiting to come upon him - "You shall gird," restraining them and not bringing them upon him. This is by way of an allegory to one who unsheathes a sword and then returns it to its sheath.
Rabbeinu Yonah brings another example from Yeshayahu: "I will give thanks to You, Hashem, for You were angry with me; may Your anger turn back, and You comfort me." The meaning is: I thank You for Your chastisement; I thank You for the suffering with which You afflicted me, and I accepted it with love - and because I thank You for being angry with me, "may Your anger turn back, and You comfort me." Likewise regarding giving thanks for goodness: "I will praise You forever because You have acted, and I will hope for Your Name, for it is good, in the presence of Your pious ones" - I thank You for the good You have done with me, and because of this I will hope for the continuation of Your goodness. Thus, thanksgiving operates in both directions: if you give thanks for adversity, you arouse a flow of blessing so that the adversity does not continue; and if you give thanks for goodness, you arouse a flow of blessing so that the goodness will endure. And so it is said: "I will raise the cup of salvations and call upon the Name of Hashem," and "I find trouble and sorrow, and I call upon the Name of Hashem" - even when I witness great salvation I call upon the Name of Hashem and thank Him, and this brings about further salvation; and when I find trouble and sorrow, even then I call upon the Name of Hashem, and through thanking Him without protest and without complaint, Hashem will save me.
"They Shall Bring Gifts to the Awesome One" - To the Source of Awe
נִדְרוּ וְשַׁלְּמוּ לַה' אֱלֹהֵיכֶם כׇּל סְבִיבָיו יֹבִילוּ שַׁי לַמּוֹרָא׃ - Make vows and pay them to Hashem your God; let all who surround Him bring gifts to the Awesome One.
Radak, who follows the approach of Gog and Magog here, explains: when Israel is victorious and the Holy One, blessed be He, subdues Gog and Magog, they will say to one another, "Make vows and pay them to Hashem your God," Who performed such miracles and wonders for you. And "all who surround Him" - the nations surrounding the Land of Israel - "shall bring gifts," bringing an offering to Hashem, may He be blessed, Who is "the Awesome One" (mora), related to yirah (awe/fear), for He is your dread. At that time, this awe will not be ours alone, but the awe of all nations: "And I will make Myself known, and I will be magnified, and I will be sanctified in the eyes of many nations" - this awe of Hashem, may He be blessed, will encompass the entire world.
The Malbim explains a fundamental principle: the primary source of fear and awe is Hashem, may He be blessed. Who is truly worthy of being feared? Only the Holy One, blessed be He. As related regarding the pious man in Chovos HaLevavos, who was seen sleeping in the desert, and they asked him: "Are you not afraid of the wild beasts, of the bears and the lions?" He replied to them: "I am fearful lest the Master of the Universe see me fearing anyone other than Him." That was his fear - that Hashem should not see him fearing anyone else. And indeed: if you trust in Hashem and fear Him, you need fear no man.
If we see people fearing Assyria, why is that? Because Hashem imparted some of His awe to those nations. And since Assyria is the "rod of My anger," Hashem, so to speak, gave it some of His awe, and consequently people fear it. And similarly with the lion: why does a lion strike fear? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, imparted to it some of that awe which naturally belongs only to Hashem, blessed be He. Anything in the world that is feared is merely something that received a small measure of that original, foundational awe, which is the fear of God.
Now Asaph argues: Why are you bringing tribute to Assyria? For that was the accepted practice - when a nation is threatening and terrifying, people appease it and curry favor with tribute and taxes, and then it leaves you alone. The Malbim explains on Asaph's behalf: Bring the tribute to the Source, "to the Dreaded One" (*la-Mora*) - to the One who is the source of awe, to the Holy One, blessed be He. You should not bring tribute to Assyria, for Assyria merely received its dread from Hashem, blessed be He.
And we learn two things from here. First, a practical guidance: as long as we are in the reality of exile, the way to deal with the nations is the way bequeathed to us by Yaakov Avinu - not with defiance, but with appeasement. And why? Because we are not yet in the redemption, and this reality itself stems from our own wrongdoing, because we sinned and rebelled against His word and the Holy One, blessed be He, exiled us. And so it is said, "And there you will serve other gods, wood and stone" - is this a prophecy that we will literally worship idols? After all, idol worship depends on free choice! Rather, as the Targum translates: "You will serve there peoples who worship wood and stone." This is part of the punishment of exile, that we must serve the nations: if you need something, you pay, give bribes, hush money - and that is how one survives in exile. This is what Yaakov teaches us. But this is not the ideal and proper state of affairs. The ideal and proper state is that we should be in Eretz Yisrael, that the entire Jewish people should serve only Hashem and fear only Him, and then we will have no need to fear any nation.
And second, a grammatical insight: What does "a gift *la-Mora*" mean? The Malbim explains that nouns formed with the addition of the prefix or suffix letters *alef-mem-nun-tav-yod-vav* (formative letters added at the beginning or end of a root) serve to indicate a place specifically designated for a certain thing. For example, from the root *y-sh-v* (to sit) derives *moshav* - the place specifically designated for sitting. And from the root *k-d-sh* derives *mikdash* (sanctuary) - the letter *mem* is not part of the root, and its function is to designate the place set aside for holiness. So too here: the root is *y-r-a* (awe/fear), and *mora* is the place specifically designated for awe - and who is that? The Holy One, blessed be He, who is uniquely designated for awe.
"He clips the spirit of princes" - Stripping awe from its recipients
יִבְצֹר רוּחַ נְגִידִים נוֹרָא לְמַלְכֵי אָרֶץ׃ - He will cut off the spirit of princes; He is awesome to the kings of the earth.
The Radak explains *yivtzor* as related to "when you harvest (*tivtzor*) your vineyard," an expression of harvesting and cutting off: Hashem will cut off and sever the spirit of the arrogant nobles, nullifying the haughty spirit within them. And then, "He is awesome to the kings of the earth" - the kings of the earth will fear Him. And as mentioned, after everyone sees Hashem's deeds against Gog and Magog, awe of Hashem will awaken within them. The Radak adds: I have already explained this psalm as referring to the camp of Assyria that marched against Jerusalem, in Sefer Michlol, but now it seems right to me to explain it regarding Gog and Magog - and this is the approach he chose throughout his commentary here.
The Malbim explains quite differently, and take note: in his view, "awesome to the kings of the earth" (*nora lemalkhei aretz*) does not refer to the Holy One, blessed be He, but to Sennacherib. The Dreaded One - whose source is Hashem, blessed be He - will cut off the spirit of the princes, who are the prominent officers of Assyria, and will cut off the spirit of Sennacherib himself, who was feared by all the kings of the earth and whom everyone dreaded. The term *betzirah* (harvesting grapes) is like harvesting grain: just as removing grapes from the vine is called *betzirah*, so too Hashem will, so to speak, reap and harvest the spirit of Sennacherib's officers and of Sennacherib himself. And as we explained, the spirit of dread that causes people to fear them is not their own, but comes from Hashem, who is the source of dread; and when Hashem cuts it off and plucks it from them, who will fear them anymore? Dread is not intrinsic to anything in the world; it is only what was received from Hashem.
The Malbim adds a second explanation for *yivtzor*, from the language of withholding or restraint, as in "and now nothing will be withheld (*lo yivatzer*) from them of all that they scheme to do" - it will not be withheld from them. Here too: Hashem will withhold from them the spirit of dread that He had previously cast upon them.
And here everything connects. "Let them bring gifts to the Dreaded One" - bring tribute to Hashem, blessed be He, who is the source of dread, and through this "He will cut off the spirit of princes." There is a wonderful piece of guidance here: if you fear Hashem, you thereby nullify the fear of Sennacherib and his men and eliminate their power, and the Holy One, blessed be He, strips the awe from them. For why did Hashem instill fear in Sennacherib and his like in the first place? "The rod of My anger" - the stick intended to bring us back to Hashem. And if we have returned fear to its source and fear Him, there is no longer any need for the stick. Why was it needed? To bring you back. And if you have already returned, you do not need it, because you are already here. Therefore, Hashem strips the dread from them and restores the awe to its Source, to Hashem, blessed be He.
In summary:
In the second half of the psalm, Asaph describes the reversal of fear: Assyria (or Gog and Magog) were feared in the world only because they received a crumb of the awe whose source is in Hashem, blessed be He. "From heaven You made judgment heard" - once Hashem proclaimed His judgment and exacted retribution from them, the earth, which had feared them, became still, for God's judgment always comes to exact retribution from the wicked and to save all the humble of the earth. "For the wrath of man shall praise You" - even the nations themselves ultimately offer praise when they see that their fury has no real substance, and the remnant of wrath is restrained; and Rabbeinu Yonah taught us that this applies to the individual as well: one who thanks Hashem in times of distress restrains the rest of the wrath, while one who gives thanks for good continues that good. And from here follows the conclusion: "Let them bring gifts to the Dreaded One" - do not appease the intimidators; rather, restore awe to its Source, and then "He will cut off the spirit of princes" - Hashem will strip the dread from those who received it, and the awe will return to its rightful Owner, to the Holy One, blessed be He.