10 By day and night they go round the town, on the walls; trouble and sorrow are in the heart of it.
And in the evening let them come back, and make a noise like a dog, and go round the town. Let them go wandering up and down in search of food, and be there all night if they have not enough.
Then in that night Saul sent men to David's house to keep watch on him so as to put him to death in the morning: and David's wife Michal said to him, If you do not go away to a safe place tonight you will be put to death in the morning.
And Ahithophel said to Absalom, Go in to your father's women who are here looking after his house; then all Israel will have the news that you are hated by your father, and the hands of your supporters will be strong. So they put up the tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father's women before the eyes of all Israel.
Then Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me take out twelve thousand men and this very night I will go after David: And I will come up with him when he is tired and feeble, and make him full of fear: and all the people with him will go in flight; and I will make an attack on the king only:
They come back in the evening; they make a noise like a dog, and go round the town.
Their twisted threads will not make clothing, and their works will give them nothing for covering themselves: their works are works of sin, and violent acts are in their hands. Their feet go quickly to evil, and they take delight in the death of the upright; their thoughts are thoughts of sin; wasting and destruction are in their ways. They have no knowledge of the way of peace, and there is no sense of what is right in their behaviour: they have made for themselves ways which are not straight; whoever goes in them has no knowledge of peace. For this cause our right is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us: we are looking for light, but there is only the dark; for the shining of the sun, but our way is in the night. We go on our way, like blind men feeling for the wall, even like those who have no eyes: we are running against things in daylight as if it was evening; our place is in the dark like dead men. We make noises of grief, like bears, and sad sounds like doves: we are looking for our right, but it is not there; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our evil doings are increased before you, and our sins give witness against us: for our evil doings are with us, and we have knowledge of our sins: We have gone against the Lord, and been false to him, turning away from our God, our words have been uncontrolled, and in our hearts are thoughts of deceit. And the right is turned back, and righteousness is far away: for good faith is not to be seen in the public places, and upright behaviour may not come into the town. Yes, faith is gone; and he whose heart is turned from evil comes into the power of the cruel: and the Lord saw it, and he was angry that there was no one to take up their cause.
The Lord said to him, Go through the town, through the middle of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the brows of the men who are sorrowing and crying for all the disgusting things which are done in it.
For they have made their hearts ready like an oven, while they are waiting secretly; their wrath is sleeping all night; in the morning it is burning like a flaming fire.
A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power. They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his family, even to a man and his heritage.
Sorrow to her who is uncontrolled and unclean, the cruel town! She gave no attention to the voice, she had no use for teaching, she put no faith in the Lord, she did not come near to her God. Her rulers are like loud-voiced lions in her; her judges are wolves of the evening, crushing up the bones before the morning.
So Judas, getting a band of armed men and police from the chief priests and Pharisees, went there with lights and with arms.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 55
Commentary on Psalms 55 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Prayer of One Who Is Maliciously Beset and Betrayed by His Friend
Psalms 54:1-7 is followed by another Davidic Psalm bearing the same inscription: To the Precentor, with accompaniment of stringed instruments, a meditation, by David . It also accords with the former in the form of the prayer with which it opens (cf. Psalms 55:2 with Psalms 54:3.); and it is the Elohimic counterpart of the Jahve- Psalms 41:1-13. If the Psalm is by David, we require (in opposition to Hengstenberg) an assignable occasion for it in the history of his life. For how could the faithless bosom friend, over whom the complaint concerning malicious foes here, as in Psalms 41:1-13, lingers with special sadness, be a mere abstract personage; since it has in the person of Judas Iscariot its historical living antitype in the life and passion of the second David? This Old Testament Judas is none other than Ahithפphel, the right hand of Absalom. Ps 55 belongs, like Psalms 41:1-13, to the four years during which the rebellion of Absalom was forming; only to a somewhat later period, when Absalom's party were so sure of their cause that they had no need to make any secret of it. How it came to pass that David left the beginnings and progressive steps of the rebellion of Absalom to take their course without bringing any other weapon to bear against it than the weapon of prayer, is discussed on Psalms 41:1-13.
Hitzig also holds this Psalm to be Jeremianic. But it contains no coincidences with the language and thoughts of Jeremiah worth speaking of, excepting that this prophet, in Psalms 9:1, gives utterance to a similar wish to that of the psalmist in Psalms 55:7, and springing from the same motive. The argument in favour of Jeremiah in opposition to David is consequently referred to the picture of life and suffering which is presented in the Psalm; and it becomes a question whether this harmonizes better with the persecuted life of Jeremiah or of David. The exposition which follows here places itself - and it is at least worthy of being attempted - on the standpoint of the writer of the inscription.
In this first group sorrow prevails. David spreads forth his deep grief before God, and desires for himself some lonely spot in the wilderness far away from the home or lurking-place of the confederate band of those who are compassing his overthrow. “Veil not Thyself” here, where what is spoken of is something audible, not visible, is equivalent to “veil not Thine ear,” Lamentations 3:56, which He designedly does, when the right state of heart leaves the praying one, and consequently that which makes it acceptable and capable of being answered is wanting to the prayer (cf. Isaiah 1:15). שׂיח signifies a shrub (Syriac shucho , Arabic šı̂ḥ ), and also reflection and care (Arabic, carefulness, attention; Aramaic, סח , to babble, talk, discourse). The Hiph . חריד , which in Genesis 27:40 signifies to lead a roving life, has in this instance the signification to move one's self backwards and forwards, to be inwardly uneasy; root רד , Arab. rd , to totter, whence râda , jarûda , to run up and down (IV to desire, will); raida , to shake (said of a soft bloated body); radda , to turn (whence taraddud , a moving to and fro, doubting); therefore: I wander hither and thither in my reflecting or meditating, turning restlessly from one thought to another. It is not necessary to read ואחמיה after Psalms 77:4 instead of ועהימה , since the verb הוּם = המה , Psalms 42:6, 12, is secured by the derivatives. Since these only exhibit הוּם , and not הים (in Arabic used more particularly of the raving of love), ואהימה , as also אריד , is Hiph ., and in fact like this latter used with an inward object: I am obliged to raise a tumult or groan, break out into the dull murmuring sounds of pain. The cohortative not unfrequently signifies “I have to” or “I must” of incitements within one's self which are under the control of outward circumstances. In this restless state of mind he finds himself, and he is obliged to break forth into this cry of pain on account of the voice of the foe which he cannot but hear; by reason of the pressure or constraint ( עקת ) of the evil-doer which he is compelled to feel. The conjecture צעקת (Olshausen and Hupfeld) is superfluous. עקה is a more elegant Aramaizing word instead of צרה .
The second strophe begins with a more precise statement of that which justifies his pain. The Hiph . חמיט signifies here, as in Psalms 140:11 ( Chethîb ), declinare : they cast or roll down evil (calamity) upon him and maliciously lay snares for him בּאף , breathing anger against him who is conscious of having manifested only love towards them. His heart turns about in his body, it writhes ( יהיל ); cf. on this, Psalms 38:11. Fear and trembling take possession of his inward parts; יבא in the expression יבא בי , as is always the case when followed by a tone syllable, is a so-called נסוג אחור , i.e., it has the tone that has retreated to the penult . (Deuteronomy 1:38; Isaiah 7:24; Isaiah 60:20), although this is only with difficulty discernible in our printed copies, and is therefore (vid., Accentsystem , vi. §2) noted with Mercha . The fut. consec . which follows introduces the heightened state of terror which proceeds from this crowding on of fear and trembling. Moreover, the wish that is thereby urged from him, which David uttered to himself, is introduced in the third strophe by a fut. consec.
(Note: That beautiful old song of the church concerning Jesus has grown out of this strophe: -
Ecquis binas columbinas
Alas dabit animae?
Et in almam crucis palmam
Evolat citissime