(27) Overthrow.--This verse is evidently copied from Ezekiel 20:23, but the psalmist has either intentionally or accidentally changed the prophet's verb "scatter" into "overthrow," just used in Psalm 106:26. The error, if an error, is as old as the LXX. version.

Verse 27. - To overthrow their seed also among the nations. Like Ezekiel (Ezekiel 20:23), the writer regards the Babylonish captivity as in part a punishment for the sins committed in the wilderness. And to scatter them in the lands (comp. Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 28:64). The Israelites were punished, not merely by being carried into captivity, but by being completely broken up as a nation, and "scattered" widely over Western Asia - some in Gozan and on the Khabonr (2 Kings 17:6), some in Haran (1 Chronicles 5:26), some in "the cities of the Modes" (2 Kings 18:11; Tobit 1:14 Tobit 3:7), others in Babylonia (2 Kings 24:14-16; 2 Chronicles 36:20; Ezekiel 1:1-3, etc.). The "scattering" has in later times increased ever more and more.

106:13-33 Those that will not wait for God's counsel, shall justly be given up to their own hearts' lusts, to walk in their own counsels. An undue desire, even for lawful things, becomes sinful. God showed his displeasure for this. He filled them with uneasiness of mind, terror of conscience, and self-reproach. Many that fare deliciously every day, and whose bodies are healthful, have leanness in their souls: no love to God, no thankfulness, no appetite for the Bread of life, and then the soul must be lean. Those wretchedly forget themselves, that feast their bodies and starve their souls. Even the true believer will see abundant cause to say, It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed. Often have we set up idols in our hearts, cleaved to some forbidden object; so that if a greater than Moses had not stood to turn away the anger of the Lord, we should have been destroyed. If God dealt severely with Moses for unadvised words, what do those deserve who speak many proud and wicked words? It is just in God to remove those relations that are blessings to us, when we are peevish and provoking to them, and grieve their spirits.To overthrow their seed also among the nations,.... Their posterity was not overthrown in the wilderness; they were spared to possess the land their fathers despised. This respects later times, as does what follows:

and to scatter them in the lands; which Kimchi explains by the discomfiture of them by the Amalekites and Canaanites, when they presumed, contrary to the will of God, to go up to the top of the hill; and by Arad's taking some of them prisoner, afterwards, Numbers 14:45. But this was not done, nor to be done, in the wilderness: but the meaning is, that God lifted up his hand in the wilderness, and sware there, as Ezekiel says, Ezekiel 20:23, that he would scatter them and disperse them among the Heathen; that is, at one time or another; which he did in part at the Babylonish captivity, and completely by the Romans: which is now their case, and is a standing proof of this prophecy, and an accomplishment of the oath of God.