(8) Clap their hands.--This expression, descriptive of the lapping sound of waves, occurs also in Isaiah 55:12.

Let the hills be joyful together.--

"Far along,

From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,

Leaps the live thunder! Not from one long cloud,

But every mountain now hath found a tongue,

And Jura answers through her misty shroud

Back to the joyous Alps who call to her aloud."

BYRON: Childe Harold, canto iii.

Verse 8. - Let the floods clap their hands. This bold metaphor occurs only here and in Isaiah 55:12, where the "trees" are asked to "clap their hands." Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; or, sing for joy together; i.e. join with the rest of nature in expressing gladness.

98:4-9 Let all the children of men rejoice in the setting up the kingdom of Christ, for all may benefit by it. The different orders of rational creatures in the universe, seem to be described in figurative language in the reign of the great Messiah. The kingdom of Christ will be a blessing to the whole creation. We expect his second coming to begin his glorious reign. Then shall heaven and earth rejoice, and the joy of the redeemed shall be full. But sin and its dreadful effects will not be utterly done away, till the Lord come to judge the world in righteousness. Seeing then that we look for such things, let us give diligence that we may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.Let the floods clap their hands,.... Or "rivers" (e), dashing against their banks, as they pass along; a prosopopoeia, as the preceding and following, expressing great joy on account of the Messiah, the reigning King. Aben Ezra interprets this of men that are in rivers, as the sea; in the preceding verse of such that are in ships at sea; and the hills in the next clause of such that dwell on them;

let the hills be joyful together; see Isaiah 55:12.

(e) "fluvii", Cocceius, Gejerus, so Ainsworth.