We have sinned with our fathers: we have acted unjustly, we have wrought iniquity.

“But let us hear what they next confess: "we have sinned with our fathers: we have done amiss, and dealt wickedly" [Psalm 106:6]. What means "with our fathers"?..."Our fathers," he says, "regarded not Your wonders in Egypt" [Psalm 106:7]; and many other things also, he does relate of their sins. Or is, "we have sinned with our fathers," to be understood as meaning, we have sinned like our fathers, that is, by imitating their sins? If it be so, it should be supported by some example of this mode of expression: which did not occur to me when I sought on this occasion an instance of any one saying that he had sinned, or done anything, with another, whom he had imitated by a similar act after a long interval of time. What means then, "Our fathers understood not Your wonders;" save this, they did not know what You wished to convince them of by these miracles? What indeed, save life eternal, and a good, not temporal, but immutable, which is waited for only through endurance? For this reason they impatiently murmured, and provoked, and they asked to be blessed with present and fugitive blessings, "Neither were they mindful of the greatness of Your mercy." He reproves both their understanding and memory. Understanding there was need of, that they might meditate unto what eternal blessings God was calling them through these temporal ones; and of memory, that at least they might not forget the temporal wonders which had been wrought, and might faithfully believe, that by the same power which they had already experienced, God would free them from the persecutions of their enemies; whereas they forgot the aid which He had given them in Egypt, by means of such wonders, to crush their enemies. "And they provoked, as they went up to the sea, even to the Red Sea." We ought especially to notice how the Scripture does censure the not understanding that which ought to have been understood, and the not remembering that which ought to have been remembered; which men are unwilling to have ascribed to their own fault, for no other reason than that they may pray less, and be less humble unto God, in whose sight they should confess what they are, and might by praying for His aid, become what they are not. For it is better to accuse even the sins of ignorance and negligence, that they may be done away with, than to excuse them, so that they remain; and it is better to clear them off by calling upon God, than to clench them by provoking Him.”

“We have sinned with our fathers,.... Sinned in their first father Adam; derived a corrupt nature from their immediate ancestors; sinned after the similitude of their transgressions; sinned after their example, in like manner as they did; guilty of the same gross enormities as they were: though sufficiently warned by the words of the prophets, and by punishments inflicted, they continued their sins, a constant series and course of them, and filled up the measure of their iniquities; they rose up in their stead an increase of sinful men, to augment the fierce anger of God, Num 32:14. And this the psalmist, in the name of the people of Israel, confesses, as it was his and their duty and interest so to do, Lev 26:40, and as we find it was usual with Old Testament saints, Jer 3:25. We have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly; this heap of words is used to denote not only the multitude of their sins, but the aggravated circumstances of them; that they had committed all manner of sins, not sins of ignorance, frailty, and infirmity only; but presumptuous sins, sins against light and knowledge, grace and mercy; sins against both tables of the law, against God and their neighbour; and these attended with many aggravations: all which a sensible sinner is ready to make a frank and ingenuous confession of, and forsake; and such an one finds mercy with a God pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin: this form of confession is followed by Solomon and Daniel, Kg1 8:47.”

“The key-note of the vidduj, which is a settled expression since Kg1 8:47 (Dan 9:5, cf. Bar. 2:12), makes itself heard here in Psa 106:6; Israel is bearing at this time the punishment of its sins, by which it has made itself like its forefathers. In this needy and helpless condition the poet, who all along speaks as a member of the assembly, takes the way of the confession of sin, which leads to the forgiveness of sin and to the removal of the punishment of sin. רשׁע, Kg1 8:47, signifies to be, and the Hiph. to prove one's self to be, a רשׁע. עם in Psa 106:6 is equivalent to aeque ac, as in Ecc 2:16; Job 9:26. With Psa 106:7 the retrospect begins. The fathers contended with Moses and Aaron in Egypt (Exo 5:21), and gave no heed to the prospect of redemption (Exo 6:9). The miraculous judgments which Moses executed (Exo 3:20) had no more effect in bringing them to a right state of mind, and the abundant tokens of loving-kindness (Isa 63:7) amidst which God redeemed them made so little impression on their memories that they began to despair and to murmur even at the Red Sea (Exo 14:11.). With על, Psa 106:7, alternates בּ (as in Eze 10:15, בּנהר); cf. the alternation of prepositions in Joe 3:8. When they behaved thus, Jahve might have left their redemption unaccomplished, but out of unmerited mercy He nevertheless redeemed them. Psa 106:8-11 are closely dependent upon Ex. 14. Psa 106:11 is a transposition (cf. Psa 34:21; Isa 34:16) from Exo 14:28. On the other hand, Psa 106:9 is taken out of Isa 63:13 (cf. Wisd. 19:9); Isa. 63:7-64:12 is a prayer for redemption which has a similar ground-colouring. The sea through which they passed is called, as in the Tפra, ים־סוּף, which seems, according to Exo 2:3; Isa 19:3, to signify the sea of reed or sedge, although the sedge does not grow in the Red Sea itself, but only on the marshy places of the coast; but it can also signify the sea of sea-weed, mare algosum, after the Egyptian sippe, wool and sea-weed (just as Arab. ṣûf also signifies both these). The word is certainly Egyptian, whether it is to be referred back to the Egyptian word sippe (sea-weed) or seebe (sedge), and is therefore used after the manner of a proper name; so that the inference drawn by Knobel on Exo 8:18 from the absence of the article, that סוּף is the name of a town on the northern point of the gulf, is groundless. The miracle at the sea of sedge or sea-weed - as Psa 106:12 says - also was not without effect. Exo 14:31 tells us that they believed on Jahve and Moses His servant, and the song which they sang follows in Ex. 15. But they then only too quickly added sins of ingratitude.”