Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 64
The Sixty Fourth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, A Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The Sixty fourth Psalm is a prayer for deliverance, with a just complaint of his enemies, and a prediction of Gods signall destructions upon them.
1. Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer; preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
Blessed Lord, let my humble supplication, I beseech thee, finde audience with thee; deliver me from the dangers I am in through the malice of men.
2. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity.
They are secretly contriving my ruine, and openly break out in tumults against me, in a most unjust and wicked manner: O be thou my refuge and sanctuary, to which I may with confidence resort for safety.
3. Who whet their tongue like a sword, a.and‖shoot their arrows. bend their bowes to shoot their arrows, even bitter words.
4. That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddainly doe they shoot at him,b. and fear not.
The first instruments of their malice are their slanders and calumnies, and those are prepared and sharpened, and shot, like poysoned darts or arrows against me; but being without all ground of truth, they are secretly and clancularly disseminated, falling upon me, when I least foresaw or expected them.
5. They incourage themselves in an evill matter; they commune of laying snares privily: they say, who shall see them?
And when they meet, they ingage and fortify one another in their mischievous designes, consult how to contrive them so secretly, that they shall not possibly be foreseen, or escaped.
6. They search out iniquity, they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thoughts of every one of them and the heart is deep.
And indeed their industry is great; there is nothing that can contribute to their ends, but they finde it out, through the depth of their malice and policy.
7. But God shall shoot at them with an arrow, suddainly shall‖be their stroaks foreign they he wounded.
But in the midst of all this subtil contrivance, that no man can see, God shall discover, disappoint, and unexpectedly destroy them.
8. † So they shall c make their own tongue to fall upon themselves;‖And their own tongue shall cause it to fall upon them, and all that look on— all that see them shall flee away.
Their tongues, by which they thought to hurt others, shall in the event bring mischief upon themselves. By the death of Saul and his sonnes, he shall strike the whole army with a suddain consternation; they shall fly, and then all that behold it shall forsake their dwellings and fly also.
9. And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall*understand foreign wisely consider of his doing.
And dread the righteous judgments of God, acknowledging it to be his peculiar worke of vengeance that befalls them.
10. The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.
And on the other side, all pious men shall have matter of rejoycing, and of affiance in God; and none that thus adhere to him shall be disappointed, or frustrated by him.
Annotations on Psalm LXIV.
V. 3. Bend] From foreign foreignto goe, is the same word used for extending, sending out, directing, making to goe; and so is applied sometimes to grapes or olives in a press, and then signifies to squeeze out the juice, by beating, or treading them, Isa. Lxiii. 2. foreign, that treads or presses in the wine-press, and in many other places; sometimes of corne in the floore, and then 'tis to thrash, Jer. Li. 33; sometimes to a way (whence the known foreign a way) Psal. cvii. 7. foreign and led or directed them. But most especially 'tis used of a bow, or arrows: if of foreign a bow, then 'tis to bend it; if of foreign foreignarrows, then 'tis not so properly to shoot, as to prepare or direct them. So Psal. Lviii. 7. foreign he directeth, or prepareth his arrows; so here, foreign they direct, or aime, or make ready their arrows, foreign foreigna bitter word, i. e. a calumniating speech, to be sent, as it were a dart, or arrow, out of the mouth. Parallel to which is that of Jer. ix. 3. where being applied to the tongue, as to a bow, that shoots out lying words, as arrows, it must be rendred bend; but here applied to words, as arrows, direct, and not bend. To this accord Abu Walid, and R. Tanchum, who from the use of the word, render it, who set their arrows on the string, not shooting as yet, but setting them ready to shoot. And thus it best agrees with what follows v. 4. that they may shoot in secret, &c. The Lxxii. for foreign arrows, read foreign, as if it were foreign a bow, and generally joyne it with foreign bent, (and the Chaldee, according to the nature of a Paraphrast, joyne bending the bow, and anointing the arrows. But the Syriack herein follow them not, but read, they whet their tongue as a sword, and their speech as foreign an arrow; for so sure foreign signifies, where that which is proportionable to whetting the sword, is preparing or setting upon the string the arrows by way of preparation for shooting.
V. 4. Fear not] It is not easy to resolve what is the importance of foreign foreignand they shall not fear. For though the joyning it with foreign precedent, seems regular, they shall shoot, and not fear; yet the context seems not to agree to that. The designe of the place is to express calumniators and whisperers, who shoot poysonous words, like darts, v. 3. and shoot them in secret, and suddenly, in the beginning of the verse: and to that best agrees the interpreting it of those that are thus secretly and suddenly shot at by them, that they doe not fear. But then this agrees not with the Syntaxis, for those were in the former part of the verse mentioned in the singular number foreign foreignthe perfect man, whereas foreign is the plural. This makes it necessary to recurre either to the Hebrew practice, which often passes from one number to another, or else to their idiome, frequently taken notice of, of putting the third person active, to denote the passive, without consideration of the persons that are the agents; as when foreign they shall receive you, imports no more than you shall be received. So here, suddenly doe they shoot, and they fear not,] will signify, suddenly doe they shoot, and no man fears, or as ו oft signifies, when, or while none fear. And if we consider the Genius of the antient Poetry, consisting much in Paronomasia's and verbal allusions, which is here so visible betwixt foreign and foreign shooting and fearing, it will appear to be an elegance, and not any harsh expression. Thus the LXXII. render it in sense, foreign, they shoot, and shall not be feared; and the Syriack not farre distant, foreign and they shall not be seen, i. e. shall come upon them unawares, when being not seen they are not feared or expected. To this rendring the learned Castellio adheres, reading, ut eos improviso figant nihil tale metuentes, that they may unexpectedly wound them not fearing any such thing; to that purpose, changing the singular foreign precedent, into the plural, homines integros—
V. 8. Make their own tongue to fall] From foreign impegit, to stumble, is the word foreign,foreign which being applied to the tongue, foreign, and that their own tongue (as appears by foreign themselves) may signifie (in proportion with the stumbling of the feet) stammering, or sticking in speech: linguis haesitent, saith Castellio, stick or stammer with their tongues. The Syriack render it foreign their tongues shall be weak, from foreign decurtatus est, infirmatus est. This is ordinary for men that are in a suddain affrightment, upon any unexpected accident, and so here very appliable to Sauls army at their defeat. But in this rendring there is no account given of the suffix in foreign, nor of foreign that follows. The Jewish Arab therefore renders foreign as in the nominative case, (which being joyned with the verb plural must relate to more tongues, of more speakers) and reads thus, It is their own tongue that hath made them stumble. To which the Chaldee best accords, foreign they shall make themselves stumble with their tongue; for that is all one with [their tongue shall make them stumble.] But perhaps the rendring will yet be more literal, foreign their tongue shall cause it to fall upon them, by it] meaning the mischief or punishment, which certainly is spoken of, and may best answer the suffix. 'Tis also possible that it may be thus divided, foreign they shall make him stumble or fall, i. e. foreign, the stroaks or wounds, immediately foregoing, v. 7. and then, foreign their tongue is upon, or against themselves. In either rendring the sense is the same, that their tongues, by which they designed to hurt others, shall bring mischief upon themselves. The Lxxii. which read foreign, their tongues have brought them to nought,] are punctual in observing the suffix, and read foreign in the plural, their tongues, not tongue, to agree with the verb plural; but then they take no notice of the [foreign upon themselves.] This the Latine express by [contra eos,] but in their [infirmatae sunt linguae eorum] obs…rve not the suffix. To this is added foreign foreignfrom foreign to fly from, all that see them shall fly from them; and so 'tis exprest in the history 1 Sam. xxxi. 7. and 1 Chron. x. 7. And when the men of Israel &c. saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled. The Syriack express it by foreign and they shall fear (from foreign) the Lxxii. by foreign were troubled. To the same sense the Chaldee foreign from foreign motus est were moved, though the translator render it, movebunt capita sua, they shall shake their heads, an expr…ssion of dislike and aversion to them.