Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 41:7

All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.

7. The scene outside the house is graphically depicted. We see the associates waiting, eager for news. With a transparent pretence of secrecy they whisper together, and divert themselves with anticipating the worst.

do they devise my hurt ] Or, imagine evil for me, indulging in uncharitable speculations as to the cause of his illness (cp. Job 22:5 ff.), and hoping for a fatal issue of it. The next verse is a summary of their malevolent conversation.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

All that hate me whisper together against me – They talk the matter over where they suppose that no one can hear; they endeavonr to collect and arrange all that can be said against me; they place all that they can say or think as individuals, all that they have separately known or suspected, into common stock, and make use of it against me. There is a conspiracy against me – a purpose to do me all the evil that they can. This shows that, in the apprehension of the sufferer, the one who came to see for himself Psa 41:6 came as one of a company – as one deputed or delegated to find some new occasion for a charge against him, and that he had not to suffer under the single malignity of one, but under the combined malignity of many.

Against me do they devise my hurt – Margin, as in Hebrew: evil to me. That is, they devise some report, the truth of which they endeavor to confirm by something that they may observe in my sickness which will be injurious to me, and which will prove to the world that I am a bad man – a man by whose death the world would be benefited. The slanderous report on which they seemed to agree is mentioned in the following verse – that he was suffering under a disease which was directly and manifestly the result of a sinful life, and that it must be fatal.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 7. All that hate me whisper together against me] This is in consequence of the information given by the hypocritical friend, who came to him with the lying tongue, and whose heart gathereth iniquity to itself, which, when he went abroad, he told to others as ill-minded as himself, and they also drew their wicked inferences.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Whisper together against me, i.e. secretly defame me, and closely plot against me.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

7, 8. So of others, allact alike.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

All that hate me whisper together against me,…. That is, they privately conspired against him; see Mt 22:15;

against me do they devise my hurt; not only to take away his name and credit, but his life.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(Heb.: 41:8-10) Continuation of the description of the conduct of the enemies and of the false friend. , as in 2Sa 12:19, to whisper to one another, or to whisper among themselves; the Hithpa. sometimes (cf. Gen 42:1) has a reciprocal meaning like the Niphal. The intelligence brought out by hypocritical visitors of the invalid concerning his critical condition is spread from mouth to mouth by all who wish him ill as satisfactory news; and in fact in whispers, because at that time caution was still necessary. stands twice in a prominent position in the sense of contra me. belong together: they maliciously invent what will be the very worst for him (going beyond what is actually told them concerning him). In this connection there is a feeling in favour of being intended of an evil fate, according to Psa 18:5, and not according to Psa 101:3 (cf. Deu 15:9) of pernicious or evil thought and conduct. And this view is also supported by the predicate : “a matter of destruction, an incurable evil (Hitzig) is poured out upon him,” i.e., firmly cast upon him after the manner of casting metal (Job 41:15.), so that he cannot get free from it, and he that has once had to lie down will not again rise up. Thus do we understand in Psa 41:9; there is no occasion to take it as an accusative by departing from the most natural sense, as Ewald does, or as a conjunction, as Hitzig does. Even the man of his peace, or literally of his harmonious relationship ( as in Oba 1:7, Jer 20:10; Jer 38:22), on whom he has depended with fullest confidence, who did eat his bread, i.e., was his messmate (cf. Psa 55:15), has made his heel great against him, lxx . The combination is explained by the fact that is taken in the sense of a thrust with the heel, a kick: to give a great kick, i.e., with a good swing of the foot.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

7. All they that hate me whisper together against me. Here he seems generally to include both classes of his enemies; those who sought to oppress him in an open manner, and in the character of avowed enemies; and those who, under the pretense of friendship, attempted to do the same thing by deceit and stratagem. Accordingly, he says that all of them took counsel together about his destruction, just as we know that wicked men hold much secret consultation respecting their intended deeds of treachery, and whisper to one another concerning them. Hence he adds the words to meditate, or plot, which he employs to denote their base conspiracies and sinful consultations.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

7. Whisper together The conspiracy was conducted with the utmost privacy.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Psa 41:7 All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.

Ver. 7. All that hate me, whisper together against me ] Heb. Mussitant, they mutter, as charmers use to do. These whisperers are dangerous fellows, Rom 1:29 , like the wind that creepeth in by chinks in a wall or cracks in a window. A vento percolato, et iuimico reconciliato, libera nos, Domine, saith the Italian.

Against me do they devise ] Cogitant quasi coagitant.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)