Bible Commentaries

CIX. A Psalm of Cursing.—This Ps. is further than anything else in the whole Psalter from the spirit of Christianity. It falls into three parts: Psalms 109:1-5. The Psalmist's distress in persecution; Psalms 109:6-20. Bitter curses against his foes; in Psalms 109:21-31 he recurs to his suffering but is confident of final deliverance. Note that in Psalms 109:6-20 he does not merely assert that God will punish. Had he done so, he would have felt his pain of body and soul much softened. As it is, he is in utter wretchedness, and curses his foes in the anguish of his spirit. No doubt he regards his enemies as utterly wicked. But we do not know how far he was justified in so doing, nor even who his enemies were. The curses strongly resemble those in the Psalms of Solomon (Psalms 4), which are probably pointed at Alexander Jannæus (p. 608), the Sadducee leader, and must have been written before 80 B.C.

Psalms 109:2. wicked: read, "wickedness."

Psalms 109:4 b. literally, "and I [am] prayer" (note italics). The Heb. makes no better sense than the English. The text is corrupt.

Psalms 109:6. Read perhaps, "Let his wickedness be sought out in him."

Psalms 109:10 b. Read with LXX, "and let them be driven out of their ruins."

Psalms 109:11 a. Read, "search out all that he hath."

Psalms 109:13 b. Read, "in one generation."

Psalms 109:16. Syr. has "those that were sorrowful of heart even unto death."

Psalms 109:23. The poet is thinking of a swarm of locusts driven helpless before the storm and at last, it may be, drowned in the sea.

Psalms 109:24 b literally, "My flesh faileth, because there is no fat upon it."