Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 1 · Psalm 35
The Thirty Fifth Psalme.
A Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The thirty fifth Psalm is a complaint of Davids against his enemies, joyned with an appeal to God, and a prayer for his deliverance.
1. ‖Contend foreignPlead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.
Lord, in all the persecutions and assaults that are made upon me, be thou pleased to take my part, to espouse my cause, to contend and fight for me.
2. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.
Let thy protection be my shield and onelyonly defensive weapons;
3. Draw out also the spear, a.and†a short sword to meet them. stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
Thy strength and prospering hand my offensive, to meet, and discomfit my enemies: be thou gratiously pleased to assure me of thy help and strength, and then I shall not want deliverance.
4. *They shall blush and be ashamed.Letb. them be confounded and put to shame, that seek after my soul:‖they shall let them be turned back, and brought to confusion, that devise my hurt.
Those that design my mischief and my ruine, shall (I perswade my selfe) undoubtedly be disappointed, and put to flight, and dissipated.
5. †they shall foreignLet them be as chaffe before the wind; and*the Angel shall— let the Angel of the Lord chase them.
They shall be scattered as chaffe or dust in the winnowing of corn on an high and open place, where the wind comes freely: and if no visible strength of mine be able to doe it, yet the Angels, the ministers of Gods vengeance, shall thus deal with them;
6. ‖their way shall be— foreignLet their way be dark and slippery: and†the Angell— shall. let the Angel of the Lord persecute them.
Pursuing them to their greatest mischief, as those that fly in the dark (and tumble into mire and pits,) in slippery places, and so frequently fall and wound themselves in their flight.
7. For without cause have they hid for me*the pit of their snare. ac. net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.
For without any injury or provocation of mine, they have designed mischief and treachery against my life.
8. ‖Destruction shall come— see note b.Let destruction come upon him at unawares, and†his—shall let his net that he hath hid catch himselfe; into that very destruction*shall be— let him fall.
And accordingly when they little expect it, and by wayes which they apprehend not, destruction shall seize upon them, and that by those very means, by which they designed to bring it on other men.
9. And my soul shall be joyfull in the Lord; it shall rejoyce in his salvation.
And this being a signal work of Gods delivering me, when I am least able to doe it my selfe, obligeth me to rejoyce, and give thanks to him.
10. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him which is too strong for him; yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him.
And every member of my body shall joyn in the acknowledgement of the mercy, such as could not have been from any other means, and such as is most worthy of a just judge, and gracious father, and omnipotent God, rescuing the weak and impotent from the power of the strong, the oppressed and injured from the violent and oppressor.
11. False witnesses did rise up; they‖interrogated, or questioned me of, foreign see Jos. 8.19. and Matth. 27.11. laid to my charge things that I knew not.
And such indeed was my condition, being most falsely accused to Saul (1 Sam. xxiv. 9.) of that of which I was most guiltless.
12. They rewarded me evill for good, to d the†depriving. spoiling of my soul.
Those whom I had obliged, made me this very unkinde returne, desiring to have me put to death.
13. But as for me, when they were sick, my cloathing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into my own bosome.
When any evill befell them, I mourned, and fasted, and prayed earnestly for them. And it seems all was cast away, frustrate, and lost on them: my greatest charity abated not their malice, my fastings and devotions had no effect on them (see Jer. 55.11.) returned empty of the deserved success, as a gift sent to an uncivill person, who instead of gratefull acceptance, return it back unto the donour. These are the only returns I receive from them. But my charity shall not lose its reward; God will abundantly recompense it to me.
14. e.I*walked as behaved my selfe as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as‖or a mourning mother. one that mourneth for his mother.
In all their sufferings I was affected with the same tenderness of compassion, as toward a friend, or brother, or child, or parent, (the relations of the dearest affections.)
15. But inf. mine adversity they rejoyced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the veryg. abjects gathered themselves together against me, and†I knew not. I knew it not; they did tear me and ceased not.
But when any misfortune befell me, they triumphed and scoffed; and so in like manner other vile and wicked men, never provoked by me in the least degree, at all their meetings reviled me, and railed at me continually, without any the least cause for what they said.
16. With*delators that scoffe and deride for a cake. hypocritical mockers inh. feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.
OnelyOnly, as buffones and flatterers make it their business to please those that give them bread, by bringing them false tales of other men, jeering and scoffing at them, without considering how blameless and guiltless they are whom they deride; so have they dealt with me, most causelessely, yet most contumeliously, inveighing against me.
17. Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destruction, my‖onelyonly on… see Psal. xxii. 20. darling from the Lions.
Lord, be thou pleased at length to interpose thy hand, to consider my desolate low estate, and the cruelty of mine enemies; and relieve me in it, or deliver me out of it.
18. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people.
And I shall be eternally obliged to bless and magnifie thy mercies in the solemn assembly.
19. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoyce over me; neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.
O let not mine unjust causeless enemies have matter of rejoycing and scoffing at me; as they will, if thou leavest me in my distresse.
20. Fori. they speak not peace, but they devise deceitfull matters against them that are quiet in the land.
For instead of kindness and friendly usage, which is due from them, they designe nothing but fraud and treachery against me, who heartily desire to live most peaceably and quietly under Sauls Government.
21. Yea they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, Aha, our eye hath seen it.
And not onelyonly so, but they have openly railed upon me, as one that seek his life, and pretend to speak from their own sight, and certain knowledge, when they deliver that which is most far from truth.
22. ‖Thou hast seen, foreignThis thou hast seen (O Lord) keep not silence; O Lord, be not far from me.
Tis certain they have seen no such thing, as they falsely pretend. On the contrary, thou, O God, who seest all things, seest and knowest my innocency, and the integrity of my heart: Be thou pleased to testifie for me, by delivering me from the evill which they designed against me.
23. Stir up thy selfe, and awake to my judgement; even unto my cause, my God and my Lord.
24. Judge me, O Lord my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoyce over me.
O thou that art my gracious God and powerfull Lord, be thou pleased at length to take part, to defend and to vindicate my innocence, to testifie thy approbation of my doings, and seasonably to interpose thy hand for the relieving me, and disappointing my enemies.
25. Let them not†in their hearts applaud themselves, or say well to their souls. say in their hearts Ah,k. so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up.
Preserve me out of their hands, lest they applaud themselves in their actions, their most wicked and bloudy enterprises, if they prove successfull to them.
26. Let*they shall. them be ashamed and brought to confusion together, that rejoyce at my hurt:‖they shall. let them be cloathed with shame and dishonour, that magnifie themselves against me.
And thus I am confident thou wilt in thy due season disappoint, and discomfit those that are most malitiously bent against me, and most proudly triumph over me at this time.
27. †they shall.Let them shout for joy and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: Yea,*they shall. let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.
And by so doing thou shalt give matter of joy and gladness to all that wish me well, cause them to blesse and magnifie thy goodness, and fidelity of thy promises, when they see me signally favoured by thee, of whose sincerity and uprightness they have such assurance.
28. My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness, and of thy praise all the day long.
As for me, I shall by this thy mercy be obliged to promulgate and proclaim thy fidelity, and the care thou hast of those that adhere to thee, and for this to laud and blesse thy name continually.
Annotations on Psalm XXXV.
V. 3. Stop] It is uncertain what foreign foreignhere signifies. The Chaldee reads foreign shut] in the Imperative mood, and the Lxxii. foreign shut up. But if this be the right rendring, and it be applied to that which went before, [draw forth, i. e. unshea…h, (so the Chaldee read) the lance or spear,] it must then be the direct contrary, viz. shut it up again: and to applie it to any thing else, (as our English applies it to the way, and so supposes an ellipsis, and then supplies it thus, [stop the way] &c.) the context gives us no reason. The Syriack reading (for the lance) the sword, render, unshea…h, and make it shine;] and that agrees well to it when it is drawn, but hath no affinity to the notion of the Hebrew foreign occlusit, coercuit. The Arabick therefore reads, repel them, as from the notion of coercere, to repress or repel. But then they take no notice of foreign in occursum, which follows, (and will not be reconciled with this rendring) but without it read foreign repel them that persecute me. In this uncertainty the learned ‖Pentagl. p. 1197. c.Schindlers observation deserves to be heeded, that the accent Tiphcha joyrs foreign with foreign foreignlance] praecedent, in the construction, and then being a substantive it must be taken for a sort of weapons; and so it appears to signifie a sort of sword called from hence foreign, and ordinarily spoken of by Herodotus and other Historians among the Persians: of which saith Hesychius, foreign, 'tis a little axe with one edge; and Suidas, foreign an axe, used, saith he, without s. in Xenophon joyning foreign, a Persian bow and quiver and sagari, foreign, such as the Amazons have, adding, that it signifies an instrument to open a vein, foreign, and foreign, hand-weapons. To these acceptions of the word Hesychius and Phavorinus adde, foreign a plough, that part which cuts the earth, and is like to the Persian acinaces, or short swords, scimitars. And so this is by much the most probable meaning of the word, and rendring of the place; draw forth the lance and short sword, foreign in occursum, …o meet my persecuters. To this agrees Kimchi, both in his Comment, and in his dictionary, making it a sort of weapon; and so Abu-Walid before him.
V. 4. Let them] That foreign foreign, from foreign erubuit, is in the future t…ns…, there can be no doubt: and then the most regular rendring will be not, let them, but, they shall blush; and so in the rest that follow, foreign foreignthey shall be put to shame, from foreign pudore affecit. And so the whole …salm, instead of so many forms of execration, or imprecation against enemies, shall be really no more than so many testimonies of his assured confidence, that God, that hath made him such sure promises, will make them good to him, in his preservation, and that disappointment and discomfiture of his enemies. And according to this measure, all the other Psalms which seem to be filled with curses against his and Gods enemies, ought to be understood, and accordingly are explicated in the Paraphrase.
V. 7.foreign Net in a pit] foreign is literally, the pit of their snare, foreign from foreign inclinavit, signifying a pit very frequently, though the Lxxii. here render it foreign corruption, as Psal. xvi. 10. they do (as from foreign corruptus fuit,) and foreign being the known word for a net, or snare, or toyle, to catch beasts or birds, or fish in; and not improbably from it the Latine rete. This the Lxxii. here render foreign a ginne or snare; and so the Syriack and Latine and Arabick. And then the whole phrase denotes the manner of toyles among the Jews; digging a hole, and slight covering it over, and hiding it, and setting a snare in it, that they that (not seing) prest the clod, and fell therein, might be caught, and held from getting out again. To this also belongs foreign foreign, that follows, from foreign to dig: which the Chaldee therefore renders Paraphrastically foreign they insnared, or laid wait for; but the Lxxii. from another notion of foreign exprobravit, render it foreign reproacht; and so the Latine and Arabick from them.
V. 12. Spoiling] The word foreign foreignorbitas, deprivation, most frequently applied to loss of children, and so here rendred by the Lxxii. foreign, childlesness, being applied, as here it is, to the soul, signifies the loss or deprivation of life; the soul being then deprived, when it is by death separated from the body, the only companion which it hath. And accordingly, as the Chaldee renders it more literally, they seek to deprive my soul, so the Syriack expresseth the sense more paraphrastically, they destroyed my soul from among men; and so the Arabick, they destroyed my soul, i. e. indeavoured to do so. But the Latine from the Lxxii. read, sterilitatem, barrenness; and the Aethiopick, they deprive my soul of the births thereof.
V. 14. Behaved my self] From foreign to walk,foreign is foreign here in Hithpael, I have walked, or made my self to walk, the mourner discovering his passion as by his dress, so by his gate: Thus Ahab walked softly, and Isaiah expresseth mourning by bowing down the head like a bulrush. This the Lxxii. according to their wont render foreign, I pleased. So Gen. v. 22, 24. and vi. 9. and xvii. 1. and xxiv. 40. and xLviii. 15. Psal. xxvi. 3. and cxv. 9. they render the same word: and from them the Apostle Heb. xi. 5. But here the context confining the discourse to mourning, wearing sackcloth, and fasting, going before v. 13. and bowing down, and mourning, following after, it is in reason to be taken in that sense: (and so 'tis expresly used Psal. xxxviii. 6. I walked mourning, and so Eccles. xii. 5. the mourners are said to go about the streets) I walked foreign as if (it were) a friend or brother of mine (that had fallen into some mischief.) But then in that which follows, foreign I bowed down as a mourner bewailing his mother, or,foreign as the Jewish Arab, joyning foreign to foreign, as a mourning mother, expressing, saith he, his sorrow by the sorrow of a mother for her child, (which indeed is the fittest instance of a passionate sorrow) the Lxxii. have omitted the word mother, and render it foreign, as one mourning and sore lamenting, so was I humbled or bowing down: and thus the Syriack and Arabick and Latine follow them. But the Chaldee read the mother with the Hebrew, as a mourner that mourneth for his mother.
V. 15. In mine adversity] From foreign latus, a side, is foreign foreigninclinatio ad latus, going down on one side, being lame, falling, calamity, adversity; and so foreign will best be rendered, at my fall, (see Psal. xxxviii. 17.) the Chaldee read, in my tribulation, the Syriack, in my suffering, but the Lxxii. foreign against me.
V. 15. Abjects] From foreign percussit, is foreign any base or vile or wicked person. So the Chaldee here renders foreign foreignby foreign wicked men; and so the Arabick, in the sense that Deut. xxv. 2. of a wicked man 'tis said, if he be foreign foreignfilius percussionis, a son of beating, i. e. worthy to be scourged, a vile person. …he Lxxii. here render it foreign (as if it were from foreign flagella) scourges, i. e. men fit to be scourged; and so the Latine, flagella, I suppose in this figurative use of the word. In the end of the verse foreign foreignthey tare, or used me reproachfully, (Abu Walid conjectureth it to signifie speaking lies, or false things) and ceased not] is by the Lxxii. rendered foreign, they were divided, (the passive for the Active) foreign, and had no compunction; for which the Arabick, they repented not. All the difficulty is, to what belongs foreign foreignand I knew not, in the midst. And the resolution will be most reasonable, that we learn the meaning of it from v. 11. where the same phrase is used for those accusations, whereof he was no way conscious. Thus foreign fitly signifies to know] having oft the notion of being conscious of. So 1 King. ii. 44. Thou knowest all the evill, foreign which thy heart knows, i. e. is conscious of. And so here, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, laid reproachful things to my charge, tare my good name and ceased not, used me most contumeliously, and did so continually; and all this was without any cause or provocation on my part, I knew not, I was not conscious, or guilty of any thing; just as v. 2. without cause they hid their pit, without cause they digged for my soul.
V. 16. In feasts] From foreign to bake, comes foreign foreigna cake, 1 King. xvii. 12. and so here it may signifie a cake, or any kinde of meat, as that which Parasites and trencher-friends, buffones and scoffers desire to gain, by scoffing at others, and making mirth: a meals-meat is their best reward. This verse the LXXII. seem to have rendered onelyonly Paraphrastically; for foreign foreignwith the hypocrites of mockings, or hypocritical mockers (or jesters) for a cake, reading, foreign, they tempted me, they jeered or laught at me; and so the Latine, Arabick, and Aethiopick: but the Chaldee, neerer the original, with words of flatteries jeering and deriding; where the words of flattery seem to be set to interpret foreign. For those that flatter, according to the notion of foreign table-friends or Parasites, doe it on purpose to gain some such reward; and nothing more common with such kinde of flatterers, than by deriding and scoffing of others to intertain them who give them their meat: and therefore as foreign, a word of the same origination, signifies both a cake and a jeer; so those that gibe for a cake may here be thought sit proverbially to express those that scoffe, and jeer, and reproach causlessely, in the former verse, and accordingly they are here styled foreign foreignthe very word from which our English knave seems to be deduced. It signifies simulatores, men that act parts, and personate, and particularly delators, whisperers, backbiters; and with foreign foreignsubsannationum (from foreign irrisit) added to it, it signifies that sort of delators, that doe it by way of jeer or derision. As for the preposition foreign, which begins the verse, it is best rendred cum with, as that signifies like them, or after the manner of them; Impurorum helluonum ritu, saith Castellio, after the manner of such. Another possible notion of foreign the learned Mr. Pocock hath suggested to me from the Arabick use of the word for perverse, or crooked; as if it were mockers of perversenesse, i. e. perverse mockers.
V. 20. Speak peace] In this verse the Lxxii. have much departed from the Hebrew, as now we have it.foreign For foreign they speak not peace, they read, foreign, they speak indeed peaceable words to me, evidently reading foreign to me, for foreign not;] which both the Chaldee and Syriack retein, though the Latine and Arabick, following the Lxxii. leave it out. Then for foreign and against the quiet of the land, from foreign foreignquievit, which the Chaldee accordingly renders, against the righteous of the earth being quiet in the age, they read foreign in anger; not misreading it foreign anger, as some think, but taking foreign in that notion of anger, or commotion, as sometimes it is acknowledged to signifie. The Latine follow them herein, but then adde terrae, of the earth; which makes it probable, that so the Lxxii. also read, foreign, but that Scribes deceived by the affinity of foreign (the last syllable of foreign) to foreign, chanced to omit it: however the Arabick and Aethiopick herein follow them, though the Latine do not.
V. 25. So would we have it] the phrase of saying to their souls foreign foreign, as a token of joy or satisfaction, is very ordinary. The Lxxii. have literally rendred it by saying to their soul, foreign, well, well; the Chaldee paraphrastically, our soul is glad; the Syriack, our soul is at rest (agreeable to that of foreign, soul take thy rest, Luke xii. 19.) The clear meaning of it is, their applauding themselves in their doings, and the prosperousnesse thereof, rejoycing and triumphing therein.