Worthy.Bible » STRONG » Psalms » Chapter 109 » Verse 16

Psalms 109:16 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

16 Because that he remembered H2142 not to shew H6213 mercy, H2617 but persecuted H7291 the poor H6041 and needy H34 man, H376 that he might even slay H4191 the broken H3512 in heart. H3824

Cross Reference

Psalms 34:18 STRONG

The LORD H3068 is nigh H7138 unto them that are of a broken H7665 heart; H3820 and saveth H3467 such as be of a contrite H1793 spirit. H7307

Genesis 42:21 STRONG

And they said H559 one H376 to another, H251 We are verily H61 guilty H818 concerning our brother, H251 in that H834 we saw H7200 the anguish H6869 of his soul, H5315 when he besought H2603 us, and we would not hear; H8085 therefore is this distress H6869 come H935 upon us.

2 Samuel 16:11-12 STRONG

And David H1732 said H559 to Abishai, H52 and to all his servants, H5650 Behold, my son, H1121 which came forth H3318 of my bowels, H4578 seeketh H1245 my life: H5315 how much more now may this Benjamite H1145 do it? let him alone, H3240 and let him curse; H7043 for the LORD H3068 hath bidden H559 him. It may be that the LORD H3068 will look H7200 on mine affliction, H5869 H6040 and that the LORD H3068 will requite H7725 me good H2896 for his cursing H7045 this day. H3117

2 Samuel 17:1-2 STRONG

Moreover Ahithophel H302 said H559 unto Absalom, H53 Let me now choose out H977 twelve H8147 H6240 thousand H505 men, H376 and I will arise H6965 and pursue H7291 after H310 David H1732 this night: H3915 And I will come H935 upon him while he is weary H3023 and weak H7504 handed, H3027 and will make him afraid: H2729 and all the people H5971 that are with him shall flee; H5127 and I will smite H5221 the king H4428 only:

Job 19:2-3 STRONG

How long will ye vex H3013 my soul, H5315 and break H1792 me in pieces with words? H4405 These ten H6235 times H6471 have ye reproached H3637 me: ye are not ashamed H954 that ye make yourselves strange H1970 to me.

Job 19:21-22 STRONG

Have pity H2603 upon me, have pity H2603 upon me, O ye my friends; H7453 for the hand H3027 of God H433 hath touched H5060 me. Why do ye persecute H7291 me as God, H410 and are not satisfied H7646 with my flesh? H1320

Psalms 10:2 STRONG

The wicked H7563 in his pride H1346 doth persecute H1814 the poor: H6041 let them be taken H8610 in the devices H4209 that H2098 they have imagined. H2803

Psalms 10:14 STRONG

Thou hast seen H7200 it; for thou beholdest H5027 mischief H5999 and spite, H3708 to requite H5414 it with thy hand: H3027 the poor H2489 committeth H5800 himself unto thee; thou art the helper H5826 of the fatherless. H3490

Psalms 37:14 STRONG

The wicked H7563 have drawn out H6605 the sword, H2719 and have bent H1869 their bow, H7198 to cast down H5307 the poor H6041 and needy, H34 and to slay H2873 such as be of upright H3477 conversation. H1870

Psalms 37:32 STRONG

The wicked H7563 watcheth H6822 the righteous, H6662 and seeketh H1245 to slay H4191 him.

Psalms 69:20-29 STRONG

Reproach H2781 hath broken H7665 my heart; H3820 and I am full of heaviness: H5136 and I looked H6960 for some to take pity, H5110 but there was none; and for comforters, H5162 but I found H4672 none. They gave H5414 me also gall H7219 for my meat; H1267 and in my thirst H6772 they gave me vinegar H2558 to drink. H8248 Let their table H7979 become a snare H6341 before H6440 them: and that which should have been for their welfare, H7965 let it become a trap. H4170 Let their eyes H5869 be darkened, H2821 that they see H7200 not; and make their loins H4975 continually H8548 to shake. H4571 Pour out H8210 thine indignation H2195 upon them, and let thy wrathful H2740 anger H639 take hold H5381 of them. Let their habitation H2918 be desolate; H8074 and let none dwell H3427 in their tents. H168 For they persecute H7291 him whom thou hast smitten; H5221 and they talk H5608 to the grief H4341 of those whom thou hast wounded. H2491 Add H5414 iniquity H5771 unto their iniquity: H5771 and let them not come H935 into thy righteousness. H6666 Let them be blotted H4229 out of the book H5612 of the living, H2416 and not be written H3789 with the righteous. H6662 But I am poor H6041 and sorrowful: H3510 let thy salvation, H3444 O God, H430 set me up on high. H7682

Matthew 5:7 STRONG

Blessed G3107 are the merciful: G1655 for G3754 they G846 shall obtain mercy. G1653

Matthew 18:33-35 STRONG

Shouldest G1163 not G3756 thou G4571 also G2532 have had compassion G1653 on thy G4675 fellowservant, G4889 even G2532 as G5613 I G1473 had pity G1653 on thee? G4571 And G2532 his G846 lord G2962 was wroth, G3710 and delivered G3860 him G846 to the tormentors, G930 till G2193 G3757 he should pay G591 all G3956 that was due G3784 unto him. G846 So G3779 likewise shall my G3450 heavenly G2032 Father G3962 do G4160 also G2532 unto you, G5213 if G3362 ye from G575 your G5216 hearts G2588 forgive G863 not G3362 every one G1538 his G846 brother G80 their G846 trespasses. G3900

Matthew 27:35-46 STRONG

And G1161 they crucified G4717 him, G846 and parted G1266 his G846 garments, G2440 casting G906 lots: G2819 that G2443 it might be fulfilled G4137 which G3588 was spoken G4483 by G5259 the prophet, G4396 They parted G1266 my G3450 garments G2440 among them, G1438 and G2532 upon G1909 my G3450 vesture G2441 did they cast G906 lots. G2819 And G2532 sitting down G2521 they watched G5083 him G846 there; G1563 And G2532 set up G2007 over G1883 his G846 head G2776 his G846 accusation G156 written, G1125 THIS G3778 IS G2076 JESUS G2424 THE KING G935 OF THE JEWS. G2453 Then G5119 were there two G1417 thieves G3027 crucified G4717 with G4862 him, G846 one G1520 on G1537 the right hand, G1188 and G2532 another G1520 on G1537 the left. G2176 And G1161 they that passed by G3899 reviled G987 him, G846 wagging G2795 their G846 heads, G2776 And G2532 saying, G3004 Thou that destroyest G2647 the temple, G3485 and G2532 buildest G3618 it in G1722 three G5140 days, G2250 save G4982 thyself. G4572 If G1487 thou be G1488 the Son G5207 of God, G2316 come down G2597 from G575 the cross. G4716 G1161 Likewise G3668 also G2532 the chief priests G749 mocking G1702 him, with G3326 the scribes G1122 and G2532 elders, G4245 said, G3004 He saved G4982 others; G243 himself G1438 he cannot G3756 G1410 save. G4982 If G1487 he be G2076 the King G935 of Israel, G2474 let him G2597 now G3568 come down G2597 from G575 the cross, G4716 and G2532 we will believe G4100 him. G846 He trusted G3982 in G1909 God; G2316 let him deliver G4506 him G846 now, G3568 if G1487 he will have G2309 him: G846 for G1063 he said, G2036 G3754 I am G1510 the Son G5207 of God. G2316 G1161 The thieves G3027 also, G2532 which G3588 were crucified G4957 with him, G846 cast G3679 the same G846 in his G846 teeth. G3679 Now G1161 from G575 the sixth G1623 hour G5610 there was G1096 darkness G4655 over G1909 all G3956 the land G1093 unto G2193 the ninth G1766 hour. G5610 And G1161 about G4012 the ninth G1766 hour G5610 Jesus G2424 cried G310 with a loud G3173 voice, G5456 saying, G3004 Eli, G2241 Eli, G2241 lama G2982 sabachthani? G4518 that G5123 is to say, My G3450 God, G2316 my G3450 God, G2316 why G2444 hast thou forsaken G1459 me? G3165

Mark 14:34-36 STRONG

And G2532 saith G3004 unto them, G846 My G3450 soul G5590 is G2076 exceeding sorrowful G4036 unto G2193 death: G2288 tarry ye G3306 here, G5602 and G2532 watch. G1127 And G2532 he went forward G4281 a little, G3397 and fell G4098 on G1909 the ground, G1093 and G2532 prayed G4336 that, G2443 if G1487 it were G2076 possible, G1415 the hour G5610 might pass G3928 from G575 him. G846 And G2532 he said, G3004 Abba, G5 Father, G3962 all things G3956 are possible G1415 unto thee; G4671 take away G3911 this G5124 cup G4221 from G575 me: G1700 nevertheless G235 not G3756 what G5101 I G1473 will, G2309 but G235 what G5101 thou G4771 wilt.

James 2:13 STRONG

For G1063 he shall have judgment G2920 without mercy, G448 that hath shewed G4160 no G3361 mercy; G1656 and G2532 mercy G1656 rejoiceth against G2620 judgment. G2920

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 109

Commentary on Psalms 109 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Introduction

Imprecation upon the Curser Who Prefers the Curse to the Blessing

The אודה , corresponding like an echo to the הודו of Ps 107, is also found here in Psalms 109:30. But Psalms 109 is most closely related to Ps 69. Anger concerning the ungodly who requite love with ingratitude, who persecute innocence and desire the curse instead of the blessing, has here reached its utmost bound. The imprecations are not, however, directed against a multitude as in Ps 69, but their whole current is turned against one person. Is this Doeg the Edomite, or Cush the Benjamite? We do not know. The marks of Jeremiah's hand, which raised a doubt about the לדוד of Ps 69, are wanting here; and if the development of the thoughts appears too diffuse and overloaded to be suited to David, and also many expressions (as the inflected מעט in Psalms 109:8, the נכאה , which is explained by the Syriac, in Psalms 109:16, and the half-passive חלל in Psalms 109:22) look as though they belong to the later period of the language, yet we feel on the other hand the absence of any certain echoes of older models. For in the parallels Psalms 109:6, cf. Zechariah 3:1, and Psalms 109:18, Psalms 109:29 , cf. Isaiah 59:17, it is surely not the mutual relationship but the priority that is doubtful; Psalms 109:22, however, in relation to Psalms 55:5 (cf. Psalms 109:4 with Psalms 55:5) is a variation such as is also allowable in one and the same poet (e.g., in the refrains). The anathemas that are here poured forth more extensively than anywhere else speak in favour of David, or at least of his situation. They are explained by the depth of David's consciousness that he is the anointed of Jahve, and by his contemplation of himself in Christ. The persecution of David was a sin not only against David himself, but also against the Christ in him; and because Christ is in David, the outbursts of the Old Testament wrathful spirit take the prophetic form, so that this Psalm also, like Ps 22 and Ps 69, is a typically prophetic Psalm, inasmuch as the utterance of the type concerning himself is carried by the Spirit of prophecy beyond himself, and thus the ara' is raised to the προφητεία ἐν εἴδει ἀρᾶς (Chrysostom). These imprecations are not, however, appropriate in the mouth of the suffering Saviour. It is not the spirit of Zion but of Sinai which here speaks out of the mouth of David; the spirit of Elias, which, according to Luke 9:55, is not the spirit of the New Testament. This wrathful spirit is overpowered in the New Testament by the spirit of love. But these anathemas are still not on this account so many beatings of the air. There is in them a divine energy, as in the blessing and cursing of every man who is united to God, and more especially of a man whose temper of mind is such as David's. They possess the same power as the prophetical threatenings, and in this sense they are regarded in the New Testament as fulfilled in the son of perdition (John 17:12). To the generation of the time of Jesus they were a deterrent warning not to offend against the Holy One of God, and this Psalmus Ischarioticus (Acts 1:20) will ever be such a mirror of warning to the enemies and persecutors of Christ and His Church.


Verses 1-5

A sign for help and complaints of ungrateful persecutors form the beginning of the Psalm. “God of my praise” is equivalent to God, who art my praise, Jeremiah 17:14, cf. Deuteronomy 10:21. The God whom the Psalmist has hitherto had reason to praise will also now show Himself to him as worthy to be praised. Upon this faith he bases the prayer: be not silent (Psalms 28:1; Psalms 35:22)! A mouth such as belongs to the “wicked,” a mouth out of which comes “deceit,” have they opened against him; they have spoken with him a tongue (accusative, vid., on Psalms 64:6), i.e., a language, of falsehood. דּברי of things and utterances as in Psalms 35:20. It would be capricious to take the suffix of אהבתי in Psalms 109:4 as genit. object. (love which they owe me), and in Psalms 109:5 as genit. subject .; from Psalms 38:21 it may be seen that the love which he has shown to them is also meant in Psalms 109:4. The assertion that he is “prayer” is intended to say that he, repudiating all revenges of himself, takes refuge in God in prayer and commits his cause into His hands. They have loaded him with evil for good, and hatred for the love he has shown to them. Twice he lays emphasis on the fact that it is love which they have requited to him with its opposite. Perfects alternate with aorists: it is no enmity of yesterday; the imprecations that follow presuppose an inflexible obduracy on the side of the enemies.


Verses 6-10

The writer now turns to one among the many, and in the angry zealous fervour of despised love calls down God's judgment upon him. To call down a higher power, more particularly for punishment, upon any one is expressed by על ( הפקיד ) פּקד , Jeremiah 15:3; Leviticus 26:16. The tormentor of innocence shall find a superior executor who will bring him before the tribunal (which is expressed in Latin by legis actio per manus injectionem ). The judgment scene in Psalms 109:6 , Psalms 109:7 shows that this is what is intended in Psalms 109:6 : At the right hand is the place of the accuser, who in this instance will not rest before the damnatus es has been pronounced. He is called שׂטן , which is not to be understood here after 1 Samuel 29:4; 2 Samuel 19:22, but after Zechariah 3:1; 1 Chronicles 21:1, if not directly of Satan, still of a superhuman (cf. Numbers 22:22) being which opposes him, by appearing before God as his κατήγωρ ; for according to Psalms 109:7 the שׂטן is to be thought of as accuser, and according to Psalms 109:7 God as Judge. רשׁע has the sense of reus , and יצא refers to the publication of the sentence. Psalms 109:7 wishes that his prayer, viz., that by which he would wish to avert the divine sentence of condemnation, may become לחטאה , not: a missing of the mark, i.e., ineffectual (Thenius), but, according to the usual signification of the word: a sin, viz., because it proceeds from despair, not from true penitence. In Psalms 109:8 the incorrigible one is wished an untimely death ( מעטּים as in one other instance, only, Ecclesiastes 5:1) and the loss of his office. The lxx renders: τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ λάβοι ἕτερος . פּקדּה really signifies the office of overseer, oversight, office, and the one individual must have held a prominent position among the enemies of the psalmist. Having died off from this position before his time, he shall leave behind him a family deeply reduced in circumstances, whose former dwelling - place-he was therefore wealthy - becomes “ruins.” His children wander up and down far from these ruins ( מן as e.g., in Judges 5:11; Job 28:4) and beg ( דּרשׁ , like προσαιτεῖν ἐπαιτεῖν , Sir. 40:28 = לחם בּקּשׁ , Psalms 37:25). Instead of ודרשׁוּ the reading ודרשׁוּ is also found. A Poel is now and then formed from the strong verbs also,

(Note: In connection with the strong verb it frequently represents the Piel which does not occur, as with דּרשׁ , לשׁן , שׁפט , or even represents the Piel which, as in the case of שׁרשׁ , is already made use of in another signification ( Piel , to root out; Poel , to take root).)

in the inflexion of which the Cholem is sometimes shortened to Kametz chatuph ; vid., the forms of לשׁן , to slander, in Psalms 101:5, תּאר , to sketch, mark out in outline, Isaiah 44:13, cf. also Job 20:26 ( תּאכלהוּ ) and Isaiah 62:9 (according to the reading מאספיו ). To read the Kametz in these instances as , and to regard these forms as resolved Piels , is, in connection with the absence of the Metheg , contrary to the meaning of the pointing; on purpose to guard against this way of reading it, correct codices have ודרשׁוּ (cf. Psalms 69:19), which Baer has adopted.


Verses 11-15

The Piel נקּשׁ properly signifies to catch in snares; here, like the Arabic Arab. nqš , II, IV, corresponding to the Latin obligare (as referring to the creditor's right of claim); nosheh is the name of the creditor as he who gives time for payment, gives credit (vid., Isaiah 24:2). In Psalms 109:12 משׁך חסד , to draw out mercy, is equivalent to causing it to continue and last, Psalms 36:11, cf. Jeremiah 31:3. אחריתו , Psalms 109:13 , does not signify his future, but as Psalms 109:13 (cf. Psalms 37:38) shows: his posterity. יהי להכרית is not merely exscindatur , but exscindenda sit (Ezekiel 30:16, cf. Joshua 2:6), just as in other instances חיה ל corresponds to the active fut. periphrasticum , e.g., Genesis 15:12; Isaiah 37:26. With reference to ימּח instead of ימּח (contracted from ימּחה ), vid., Ges. §75, rem. 8. A Jewish acrostic interpretation of the name ישׁוּ runs: ימּח שׁמו וזכרו . This curse shall overtake the family of the υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας . All the sins of his parents and ancestors shall remain indelible above before God the Judge, and here below the race, equally guilty, shall be rooted out even to its memory, i.e., to the last trace of it.


Verses 16-20

He whom he persecuted with a thirst for blood, was, apart from this, a great sufferer, bowed down and poor and נכאה לבב , of terrified, confounded heart. lxx κατανενυγμένον (Jerome, compunctum ); but the stem-word is not נכא ( נכה ), root נך , but כּאה , Syriac bā'ā' , cogn. כּהה , to cause to come near, to meet. The verb, and more especially in Niph ., is proved to be Hebrew by Daniel 11:30. Such an one who without anything else is of a terrified heart, inasmuch as he has been made to feel the wrath of God most keenly, this man has persecuted with a deadly hatred. He had experienced kindness ( חסד ) in a high degree, but he blotted out of his memory that which he had experienced, not for an instant imagining that he too on his part had to exercise חסד . The Poel מותת instead of המית points to the agonizing death (Isaiah 53:9, cf. Ezekiel 28:10 מותי ) to which he exposes God's anointed. The fate of the shedder of blood is not expressed after the manner of a wish in Psalms 109:16-18, but in the historical form, as being the result that followed of inward necessity from the matter of fact of the course which he had himself determined upon. The verb בּוא seq. acc . signifies to surprise, suddenly attack any one, as in Isaiah 41:25. The three figures in Psalms 109:18 are climactic: he has clothed himself in cursing, he has drunk it in like water (Job 15:16; Job 34:7), it has penetrated even to the marrow of his bones, like the oily preparations which are rubbed in and penetrate to the bones.n In Psalms 109:19 the emphasis rests upon יעטּה and upon תּמיד . The summarizing Psalms 109:20 is the close of a strophe. פּעלּה , an earned reward, here punishment incurred, is especially frequent in Isaiah 40:1, e.g., Psalms 49:4; Psalms 40:10; it also occurs once even in the Tôra, Leviticus 19:13. Those who answer the loving acts of the righteous with such malevolence in word and in deed commit a satanic sin for which there is no forgiveness. The curse is the fruit of their own choice and deed. Arnobius: Nota ex arbitrio evenisse ut nollet, propter haeresim, quae dicit Deum alios praedestinasse ad benedictionem, alios ad maledictionem .


Verses 21-25

The thunder and lightning are now as it were followed by a shower of tears of deep sorrowful complaint. Ps 109 here just as strikingly accords with Ps 69, as Ps 69 does with Ps 22 in the last strophe but one. The twofold name Jahve Adonaj (vid., Symbolae , p. 16) corresponds to the deep-breathed complaint. עשׂה אתּי , deal with me, i.e., succouring me, does not greatly differ from לי in 1 Samuel 14:6. The confirmation, Psalms 109:21 , runs like Psalms 69:17 : Thy loving-kindness is טּוב , absolutely good, the ground of everything that is good and the end of all evil. Hitzig conjectures, as in Psalms 69:17, חסדך כּטוב , “according to the goodness of Thy loving-kindness;” but this formula is without example: “for Thy loving-kindness is good” is a statement of the motive placed first and corresponding to the “for thy Name's sake.” In Psalms 109:22 (a variation of Psalms 55:5) חלל , not חלל , is traditional; this חלל , as being verb. denom. from חלל , signifies to be pierced, and is therefore equivalent to חולל (cf. Luke 2:35). The metaphor of the shadow in Psalms 109:23 is as in Psalms 102:12. When the day declines, the shadow lengthens, it becomes longer and longer (Virgil, majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae ), till it vanishes in the universal darkness. Thus does the life of the sufferer pass away. The poet intentionally uses the Niph . נהלכתּי (another reading is נהלכתּי ); it is a power rushing upon him from without that drives him away thus after the manner of a shadow into the night. The locust or grasshopper (apart from the plague of the locusts) is proverbial as being a defenceless, inoffensive little creature that is soon driven away, Job 39:20. ננער , to be shaken out or off (cf. Arabic na‛ûra , a water-wheel that fills its clay-vessels in the river and empties them out above, and הנּער , Zechariah 11:16, where Hitzig wishes to read הנּער , dispulsio = dispulsi ). The fasting in Psalms 109:24 is the result of the loathing of all food which sets in with deep grief. כּחשׁ משּׁמן signifies to waste away so that there is no more fat left.

(Note: The verbal group כחשׁ , כחד , Arab. ḥajda , kaḥuṭa , etc. has the primary signification of withdrawal and taking away or decrease; to deny is the same as to withdraw from agreement, and he becomes thin from whom the fat withdraws, goes away. Saadia compares on this passage ( פרה ) בהמה כחושׁה , a lean cow, Berachoth 32 a . In like manner Targum II renders Genesis 41:27 תּורתא כהישׁתא , the lean kine.)

In Psalms 109:25 אני is designedly rendered prominent: in this the form of his affliction he is the butt of their reproaching, and they shake their heads doubtfully, looking upon him as one who is punished of God beyond all hope, and giving him up for lost. It is to be interpreted thus after Psalms 69:11.


Verses 26-31

The cry for help is renewed in the closing strophe, and the Psalm draws to a close very similarly to Ps 69 and Ps 22, with a joyful prospect of the end of the affliction. In Psalms 109:27 the hand of God stands in contrast to accident, the work of men, and his own efforts. All and each one will undeniably perceive, when God at length interposes, that it is His hand which here does that which was impossible in the eyes of men, and that it is His work which has been accomplished in this affliction and in the issue of it. He blesses him whom men curse: they arise without attaining their object, whereas His servant can rejoice in the end of his affliction. The futures in Psalms 109:29 are not now again imprecations, but an expression of believingly confident hope. In correct texts כּמעיל has Mem raphatum . The “many” are the “congregation” (vid., Psalms 22:23). In the case of the marvellous deliverance of this sufferer the congregation or church has the pledge of its own deliverance, and a bright mirror of the loving-kindness of its God. The sum of the praise and thanksgiving follows in Psalms 109:31, where כּי signifies quod , and is therefore allied to the ὅτι recitativum (cf. Psalms 22:25). The three Good Friday Psalms all sum up the comfort that springs from David's affliction for all suffering ones in just such a pithy sentence (Psalms 22:25; Psalms 69:34). Jahve comes forward at the right hand of the poor, contending for him (cf. Psalms 110:5), to save (him) from those who judge (Psalms 37:33), i.e., condemn, his soul. The contrast between this closing thought and Psalms 109:6. is unmistakeable. At the right hand of the tormentor stands Satan as an accuser, at the right hand of the tormented one stands God as his vindicator; he who delivered him over to human judges is condemned, and he who was delivered up is “taken away out of distress and from judgment” (Isaiah 53:8) by the Judge of the judges, in order that, as we now hear in the following Psalm, he may sit at the right hand of the heavenly King. Ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι ... ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ ! (1 Timothy 3:16).