Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 55:9
Destroy, O Lord, [and] divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
9. Destroy ] Lit., swallow up these malicious plotters, as the earth swallowed up Korah and his crew (Num 16:32). From several passages however it has been inferred that this verb also means to confound; and if so, their tongue may be the object of both verbs, and there may be a reminiscence of two passages in Genesis: “The Lord did there confound the language of all the earth” (Gen 11:9): and “In his days was the earth divided ” (Gen 10:25). May confusion and division such as overtook the builders of Babel overtake them, and break up their confederacy!
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9 11. He prays for the confusion of his enemies’ counsels, and describes the miserable condition of the city.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9 15. The plaintive pleading of the opening verses suddenly gives way to a fierce outburst of indignation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Destroy, O Lord – The word rendered destroy, properly means to swallow up; to devour with the idea of greediness. Isa 28:4; Exo 7:12; Jon 1:17; Jer 51:34. Then it is used in the sense of destroy, Job 20:18; Pro 1:12. The reference here is to the persons who had conspired against David. It is a prayer that they, and their counsels, might be destroyed: such a prayer as people always offer who pray for victory in battle. It is a prayer that the may be successful in what they regard as a righteous cause; but this implies a prayer that their enemies may be defeated and overcome. That is, they pray for success in what they have undertaken; and if it is right for them to attempt to do the thing, it is not wrong to pray that they may be succesful.
And divide their tongues – There is evident allusion here to the confusion of tongues at Babel Gen 11:1-9; and as the language of those who undertook to build that tower was confounded so that they could not understand each other, so the psalmist prays that the counsels of those engaged against him might be confounded, or that they might be divided and distracted in their plans, so that they could not act in harmony. It is very probable that there is an allusion here to the prayer which David offered when he learned that Ahithophel was among the conspirators 2Sa 15:31; And David said, O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. This would tend to divide and distract; the purposes of Absalom, and secure his defeat.
For I have seen violence and strife in the city – In Jerusalem. Perhaps he had learned that among the conspirators there was not entire harmony, but that there were elements of strife and discord which led him to hope that their counsels would be confounded. There was little homogeneoushess of aim and purpose among the followers of Absalom; and perhaps David knew enough of Ahithophel to see that his views, though he might be enlisted in the cause of the rebellion, would not be likely to harmonize with the views of the masses of those who were engaged in the revolt.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. Destroy, O lord] Swallow them up-confound them.
Divide their tongues] Let his counsellors give opposite advice. Let them never agree, and let their devices be confounded. And the prayer was heard. Hushai and Ahithophel gave opposite counsel. Absalom followed that of Hushai; and Ahithophel, knowing that the steps advised by Hushai would bring Absalom’s affairs to ruin, went and hanged himself. See 2Sa 15:1-17.
Violence and strife in the city.] They have been concerting violent measures; and thus are full of contention.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Divide their tongues, i.e. destroy them by dividing.
Their tongues, i.e. their speech, as thou didst at Babel, Ge 11; their votes, and opinions, and counsels; which was eminently done among Absaloms followers, 2Sa 17.
I have seen; or, I do see or perceive, by certain and general report. Violence and strife in the city; that injustice, and fraud, and oppression, and contention bear rule there, instead of that public justice and peace which I established and maintained in it. In the city; either,
1. In Keilah, where David thought to abide, 1Sa 23, Or,
2. In Gibeah, where Saul had his abode. Or rather,
3. In Jerusalem; which is called the city by way of eminency; and which in Absaloms time was the chief seat of rebellion, and a mere sink of all sins. And this circumstance is noted as an aggravation of their wickedness, that it was committed in that city, where the throne and seat of public justice was settled; and where God was in a special manner present and worshipped; and where they had great opportunities, both for the knowledge and practice of their several duties.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. Destroyliterally,”swallow” (Ps 21:9).
divide their tonguesor,”confound their speech,” and hence their counsels (Ge11:7).
the cityperhapsJerusalem, the scene of anarchy.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Destroy, O Lord,…. Or “swallow up” s, as Pharaoh and his host were swallowed up in the Red sea; or as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, were swallowed up in the earth; so all the enemies of Christ and his church will be destroyed; and death, the last of them, will be swallowed up in victory, Isa 25:8. The Targum interprets it, “destroy”, or “scatter their counsel”: but this seems to be intended in the next clause;
[and] divide their tongues: as at the confusion of languages at Babel, to which the allusion is: this had its accomplishment in Absalom’s counsellors according to David’s wish, 2Sa 15:31; and in the Jewish sanhedrim in Christ’s time, and in the witnesses they produced against him, Lu 23:51; and of which there is an instance in the council of the Jews, held on account of the Apostle Paul, Ac 23:7;
for I have seen violence and strife in the city: in the city of Jerusalem, now left by David, and possessed by Absalom, by whom “violence” was done to David’s wives, through the advice of Ahithophel; and “strife”, contention, and rebellion, were fomented among the people: this David saw, understood, and perceived, by the intelligence brought him from time to time: and in the times of Christ the kingdom of heaven suffered “violence” in this place, and he endured the “contradiction” of sinners against himself.
s “degluti”, Montanus, Tigurine version; “absorbe”, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In the second group anger is the prevailing feeling. In the city all kinds of party passions have broken loose; even his bosom friend has taken a part in this hostile rising. The retrospective reference to the confusion of tongues at Babel which is contained in the word (cf. Gen 10:25), also in remembrance of (Gen 11:1-9), involves the choice of the word , which here, after Isa 19:3, denotes a swallowing up, i.e., annihilation by means of confounding and rendering utterly futile. is the object to both imperatives, the second of which is (like the pointing usual in connection with a final guttural) for the sake of similarity of sound. Instead of , the pointing is , which is perfectly regular, because the with a conjunctive accent logically hurries on to as its supplement.
(Note: Certain exceptions, however, exist, inasmuch as sometimes remains even in connection with a disjunctive accent, Isa 49:4; Jer 40:10; Jer 41:16; and it is pointed in connection with a conjunctive in Gen 45:23; Gen 46:12; Lev 9:3; Mic 2:11; Job 4:16; Ecc 4:8.)
The subjects to Psa 55:11 are not violence and strife (Hengstenberg, Hitzig), for it is rather a comical idea to make these personified run round about upon the city walls; but (cf. Psa 59:7, Psa 59:15) the Absalomites, and in fact the spies who incessantly watch the movements of David and his followers, and who to this end roam about upon the heights of the city. The narrative in 2 Sam. 15 shows how passively David looked on at this movement, until he abandoned the palace of his own free will and quitted Jerusalem The espionage in the circuit of the city is contrasted with the movements going on within the city itself by the word . We are acquainted with but few details of the affair; but we can easily fill in the details for ourselves in accordance with the ambitious, base, and craftily malicious character of Absalom. The assertion that deceit ( ) and the extremest madness had taken possession of the city is confirmed in Psa 55:13 by . It is not open enemies who might have had cause for it that are opposed to him, but faithless friends, and among them that Ahithophel of Giloh, the scum of perfidious ingratitude. The futures and are used as subjunctives, and is equivalent to alioqui , as in Psa 51:18, cf. Job 6:14. He tells him to his face, to his shame, the relationship in which he had stood to him whom he now betrays. Psa 55:14 is not to be rendered: and thou art, etc., but: and thou (who dost act thus) wast, etc.; for it is only because the principal clause has a retrospective meaning that the futures and describe what was a custom in the past. The expression is designedly and not ; David does not make him feel his kingly eminence, but places himself in the relation to him of man to man, putting him on the same level with himself and treating him as his equal. The suffix of is in this instance not subjective as in the of the law respecting the asham or trespass-offering: according to my estimation, but objectively: equal to the worth at which I am estimated, that is to say, equally valued with myself. What heart-piercing significance this word obtains when found in the mouth of the second David, who, although the Son of God and peerless King, nevertheless entered into the most intimate human relationship as the Son of man to His disciples, and among them to that Iscariot! from , Arabic alifa , to be accustomed to anything, assuescere , signifies one attached to or devoted to any one; and , according to the Hebrew meaning of the verb , an intimate acquaintance. The first of the relative clauses in Psa 55:15 describes their confidential private intercourse; the second the unrestrained manifestation of it in public. here, as in Job 19:19 (vid., supra on Psa 25:14). , to make friendly intercourse sweet, is equivalent to cherishing it. stands over against , just like , secret counsel, and , loud tumult, in Psa 64:3. Here is just the same as that which the Korahitic poet calls in Psa 42:5.
In the face of the faithless friends who has become the head of the Absalomite faction David now breaks out, in Psa 55:16, into fearful imprecations. The Chethb is , desolationes ( super eos ); but this word occurs only in the name of a place (“House of desolations”), and does not well suit such direct reference to persons. On the other hand, the Ker , let death ensnare or impose upon them, gives a sense that is not to be objected to; it is a pregnant expression, equivalent to: let death come upon them unexpectedly. To this corresponds the of the second imprecation: let them go down alive into Hades ( , perhaps originally , the of which may have been lost beside the that follows), i.e., like the company of Korah, while their life is yet vigorous, that is to say, let them die a sudden, violent death. The drawing together of the decipiat (opprimat) mors into one word is the result of the ancient scriptio continua and of the defective mode of writing, , like , Psa 141:5, , 1Ki 21:29. Bttcher renders it differently: let death crash in upon them; but the future form = from = is an imaginary one, which cannot be supported by Num 21:30. Hitzig renders it: let death benumb them ( ); but this gives an inconceivable figure, with the turgidity of which the trepidantes Manes in Virgil, Aenid viii. 246, do not admit of comparison. In the confirmation, Psa 55:16, , together with the which follows, does not pretend to be any advance in the thought, whether be rendered a settlement, dwelling, (lxx, Targum), or an assembly (Aquila, Symmachus, Jerome). Hence Hitzig’s rendering: in their shrine, in their breast (= , Luk 6:45), being short for in accordance with the love of contraction which prevails in poetry (on Psa 25:5). But had the poet intended to use this figure he would have written , and is not the assertion that wickedness is among them, that it is at home in them, really a climax? The change of the names of God in Psa 55:17 is significant. He calls upon Him who is exalted above the world, and He who mercifully interposes in the history of the world helps him.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Prophetic Imprecations. | |
9 Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city. 10 Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it. 11 Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets. 12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: 13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. 14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. 15 Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.
David here complains of his enemies, whose wicked plots had brought him, though not to his faith’s end, yet to his wits’ end, and prays against them by the spirit of prophecy. Observe here,
I. The character he gives of the enemies he feared. They were of the worst sort of men, and his description of them agrees very well with Absalom and his accomplices. 1. He complains of the city of Jerusalem, which strangely fell in with Absalom and fell off from David, so that he had none there but how own guards and servants that he could repose any confidence in: How has that faithful city become a harlot! David did not take the representation of it from others; but with his own eyes, and with a sad heart, did himself see nothing but violence and strife in the city (v. 9); for, when they grew disaffected and disloyal to David, they grew mischievous one to another. If he walked the rounds upon the walls of the city, he saw that violence and strife went about it day and night, and mounted its guards, v. 10. All the arts and methods which the rebels used for the fortifying of the city were made up on violence and strife, and there were no remains of honesty or love among them. If he looked into the heart of the city, mischief and injury, mutual wrong and vexation, were in the midst of it: Wickedness, all manner of wickedness, is in the midst thereof. Jusque datum sceleri–Wickedness was legalized. Deceit and guile, and all manner of treacherous dealing, departed not from her streets, v. 11. It may be meant of their base and barbarous usage of David’s friends and such as they knew were firm and faithful to him; they did them all the mischief they could, by fraud or force. Is this the character of Jerusalem, the royal city, and, which is more, the holy city, and in David’s time too, so soon after the thrones of judgment and the testimony of Israel were both placed there? Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty? Lam. ii. 15. Is Jerusalem, the head-quarters of God’s priests, so ill taught? Can Jerusalem be ungrateful to David himself, its own illustrious founder, and be made too hot for him, so that he cannot reside in it? Let us not be surprised at the corruptions and disorders of this church on earth, but long to see the New Jerusalem, where there is no violence nor strife, no mischief nor guilt, and into which no unclean thing shall enter, nor any thing that disquiets. 2. He complains of one of the ringleaders of the conspiracy, that had been very industrious to foment jealousies, to misrepresent him and his government, and to incense the city against him. It was one that reproached him, as if he either abused his power or neglected the use of it, for that was Absalom’s malicious suggestion: There is no man deputed of the king to hear thee, 2 Sam. xv. 3. That and similar accusations were industriously spread among the people; and who was most active in it? “Not a sworn enemy, not Shimei, nor any of the nonjurors; then I could have borne it, for I should not have expected better from them” (and we find how patiently he did bear Shimei’s curses); “not one that professed to hate me, then I would have stood upon my guard against him, would have hidden myself and counsels from him, so that it would not have been in his power to betray me. But it was thou, a man, my equal,” v. 13. The Chaldee-paraphrase names Ahithophel as the person here meant, and nothing in that plot seems to have discouraged David so much as to hear that Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom (2 Sam. xv. 31), for he was the king’s counsellor, 1 Chron. xxvii. 33. “It was thou, a man, my equal, one whom I esteemed as myself, a friend as my own soul, whom I had laid in my bosom and made equal with myself, to whom I had communicated all my secrets and who knew my mind as well as I myself did,–my guide, with whom I advised and by whom I was directed in all my affairs, whom I made president of the council and prime-minister of state,–my intimate acquaintance and familiar friend; this is the man that now abuses me. I have been kind to him, but I find him thus basely ungrateful. I have put a trust in him, but I find him thus basely treacherous; nay, and he could not have done me the one-half of the mischief he does if I had not shown him so much respect.” All this must needs be very grievous to an ingenuous mind, and yet this was not all; this traitor had seemed a saint, else he had never been David’s bosom-friend (v. 14): “We took counsel together, spent many an hour together, with a great deal of pleasure, in religious discourse,” or, as Dr. Hammond reads it, “We joined ourselves together to the assembly; I gave him the right hand of fellowship in holy ordinances, and then we walked to the house of God in company, to attend the public service.” Note, (1.) There always has been, and always will be, a mixture of good and bad, sound and unsound, in the visible church, between whom, perhaps for a long time, we can discern no difference; but the searcher of hearts does. David, who went to the house of God in his sincerity, had Ahithophel in company with him, who went in his hypocrisy. The Pharisee and the publican went together to the temple to pray; but, sooner or later, those that are perfect and those that are not will be made manifest. (2.) Carnal policy may carry men on very far and very long in a profession of religion while it is in fashion, and will serve a turn. In the court of pious David none was more devout than Ahithophel, and yet his heart was not right in the sight of God. (3.) We must not wonder if we be sadly deceived in some that have made great pretensions to those two sacred things, religion and friendship; David himself, though a very wise man, was thus imposed upon, which may make similar disappointments the more tolerable to us.
II. His prayers against them, which we are both to stand in awe of and to comfort ourselves in, as prophecies, but not to copy into our prayers against any particular enemies of our own. He prays, 1. That God would disperse them, as he did the Babel-builders (v. 9): “Destroy, O Lord! and divide their tongues; that is, blast their counsels, by making them to disagree among themselves, and clash with one another. Send an evil spirit among them, that they may not understand one another, but be envious and jealous one of another.” This prayer was answered in the turning of Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness, by setting up the counsel of Hushai against it. God often destroys the church’s enemies by dividing them; nor is there a surer way to the destruction of any people than their division. A kingdom, an interest, divided against itself, cannot long stand. 2. That God would destroy them, as he did Dathan and Abiram, and their associates, who were confederate against Moses, whose throat being an open sepulchre, the earth therefore opened and swallowed them up. This was then a new thing which God executed, Num. xvi. 30. But David prays that it might now be repeated, or something equivalent (v. 15): “Let death seize upon them by divine warrant, and let them go down quickly into hell; let them be dead, and buried, and so utterly destroyed, in a moment; for wickedness is wherever they are; it is in the midst of them.” The souls of impenitent sinners go down quick, or alive, into hell, for they have a perfect sense of their miseries, and shall therefore live still, that they may be still miserable. This prayer is a prophecy of the utter, the final, the everlasting ruin of all those who, whether secretly or openly, oppose and rebel against the Lord’s Messiah.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
9. Destroy, (303) O Lord; and divide their tongue Having now composed, as it were, his mind, he resumes the exercise of prayer. Had he indulged longer in the strain of complaint, he might have given his sanction to the folly of those who do themselves more harm than good by the excessive use of this barren species of comfort. There will occasionally escape from the lips of a saint, when he prays, some complaining exclamations which cannot be altogether justified, but he soon recalls himself to the exercise of believing supplication. In the expression, divide their tongue, there seems an allusion to the judgment which fell upon the builders of Babel, (Gen 31:7.) He means in general to pray that God would break their criminal confederacies, and distract their impious counsels, but evidently with an indirect reference to that memorable proof which God gave of his power to thwart the designs of the wicked by confounding their communication. It is thus that to this day he weakens the enemies of the Church, and splits them into factions, through the force of mutual animosities, rivalries, and disagreements in opinion. For his own encouragement in prayer, the Psalmist proceeds to insist upon the wickedness and malignity of his adversaries, this being a truth never to be lost sight of, that just in proportion as men grow rampant in sin, may it be anticipated that the divine judgments are about to descend upon them. From the unbridled license prevailing amongst them, he comforts himself with the reflection that the deliverance of God cannot be far distant; for he visits the proud, but gives more grace to the humble. Before proceeding to pray for divine judgments against them, he would intimate that he had full knowledge of their evil and injurious character. Interpreters have spent an unnecessary degree of labor in determining whether the city here spoken of was that of Jerusalem or of Keilah, for David by this term would appear merely to denote the open and public prevalence of crime in the country. The city stands opposed to places more hidden and obscure, and he insinuates that strife was practiced with unblushing publicity. Granting that the city meant was the metropolis of the kingdom, this is no reason why we should not suppose that the Psalmist had in his view the general state of the country; but the term is, in my opinion, evidently employed in an indefinite sense, to intimate that such wickedness as is generally committed in secret was at that time openly and publicly perpetrated. It is with the same view of marking the aggravated character of the wickedness then reigning in the nation, that he describes their crimes as going about the walls, keeping sentry or watch, so to speak, upon them. Walls are supposed to protect a city from rapine and incursion, but he complains that this order of things was inverted — that the city, instead of being surrounded with fortifications, was beset with strife and oppression, or that these had possession of the walls, and went about them. (304) I have already commented elsewhere upon the words און, aven, and עמל, amal. In announcing that wickedness was in the midst of the city, and deceit and guile in her streets, he points to the true source of the prevailing crimes; even as it was to be expected that those who were inwardly corrupt, and given to such mischievous devices, would indulge in violence, and in persecuting the poor and defenseless. In general, he is to be considered as adverting in this passage to the deplorable confusions which marked the government of Saul, when justice and order were in a manner banished from the realm. And whether his description were intended to apply to one city or to many, matters had surely reached a portentous crisis in a nation professing the true religion, when any of their cities had thus become a den of robbers. It may be observed, too, that David, in denouncing a curse, as he does in the psalm before us, upon cities of this description, was obviously borne out by what must have been the judgment of the Holy Spirit against them.
(303) Hare, Green, and others, conjecture that the first verb in the verse, “destroy,” had been originally “divide” — “divide, O Lord! divide their tongues.” In Scripture we sometimes meet with an elegant repetition of this kind, as in Psa 59:13, “Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be.”
(304) “Violence and Strife” are here personified, as sentinels or patrol, who keep watch over the city; going their rounds upon the walls to guard “labor, sorrow, wickedness, deceit, and guile,” which reign in the midst of it, and to exclude happiness, righteousness, and truth. “It is, in fact,” says Bishop Mant, “a very fine specimen of that power of personification, or enduing general and abstract ideas with personal qualities; and thus introducing them acting and speaking upon the stage, for which the Hebrew poets are distinguished, equalling therein the most polished writers of other nations in elegance and beauty, and surpassing the most elevated in grandeur and sublimity.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) Destroy.Literally, swallow up. So the LXX., forcibly, drown in the sea. The object them must be supplied.
This sudden change from plaintive sadness to violent invective is one of the marked features of this poem. Some think there has been a transposition of verses, but in lyric poetry these abrupt transitions of tone are not uncommon nor unpleasing.
Divide their tonguesi.e., cause division in their councils. Divide their voices would be almost English, being exactly the opposite of Shakespeares a joint and corporate voice.
For I have seen.With the sense, and see still.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Destroy Literally, swallow them up. Let their destruction be sudden and at a single blow, as Psa 106:17.
Divide their tongues An allusion to Gen 11:7; compare Isa 19:3. This was done when the conspirators were divided in counsel, the first and fatal step in Absalom’s downfall. Compare 2Sa 15:31, “And David said, O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.” Accomplished, 2Sa 17:1-14.
Violence and strife in the city “All kinds of party passions have broken loose.” Delitzsch.
He Describes The City From Which He Has Escaped As, For Him At Least, A Place Of Violence, Strife And Wickedness ( Psa 55:9-11 ).
He describes the city in which he has been dwelling as a place of continual threat and intrigue, and he calls on God to cause confusion among them and render them harmless.
Psa 55:9-11
‘Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongue,
For I have seen violence and strife in the city.
Day and night they go about it on its walls,
Iniquity also and mischief are in the midst of it.
Wickedness is in the midst of it,
Oppression and guile do not depart from its streets.’
Probably having in mind the situation in Babel in Gen 11:1-9 where God stepped in and divided the language of the people so as to render them relatively harmless, he calls on his ‘Sovereign Lord’ to do the same with his enemies in the city. ‘Divide their tongue’ meant ‘cause confusion among them and render them harmless’. ‘Destroy’ is literally ‘swallow them up’. He wants God to deal with his enemies in the city. This was probably the city in which Saul had his headquarters, although we are never given its name (1 Samuel 18-19). To David it was a very dangerous place to be, as he had already discovered. But being a barrack town, probably including foreign mercenaries, there would certainly be a lot of nasty goings on, with quarrels, drunkenness, partisanship, lost tempers and violence.
Thus he describes it as a place of violence and strife, of men wandering around on the watch for what trouble they could cause, a place of iniquity, wickedness and mischief. Saul’s standing army were probably very rough types who knew how to ‘enjoy themselves’ and gave short shrift to the weak. There were no police. Thus the streets were full of oppression and guile. Whilst there would be some discipline, at least while they were sober, it was not the safest of places to live. It may be that David was still stationed there, and having to watch his back all the time, (his life there was very precarious due to Saul’s suspicions about him) whilst wishing he was elsewhere (Psa 55:6-8), or it may be that he had just left it and was now a fugitive.
Psa 55:9. Destroy, O Lord, &c. Confound, or overwhelm them, O Lord, and disunite their counsels. Chandler. Praying that God would destroy their consultations by dividing them, was the prayer of a wise man, and verified by the event; as the counsels of Achitophel and Hushai were divided, and thereby Achitophel’s advice was utterly frustrated and destroyed. The 10th and 11th verses express in very strong terms the confusion and contention, the deceit and treachery, and other crimes, which abounded in the city by the managers and abetters of this conspiracy. They watched the walls; they resorted to violence and fraud to increase their numbers, and the emissaries of the rebels used every art to alienate the hearts of the people from their king, and engage them in the interests of his unnatural and impious son. Chandler. It plainly appears, says Dr. Delaney, from this Psalm, particularly from Psa 55:9-15 that David had discerned the seeds and workings of a conspiracy in the city, and that Achitophel was at the bottom of it; and not only so, but that David foresaw his sudden and sad end.
If we look at David in these verses, we see how the distressed monarch pleaded with God to prosper the plan he had laid with his friend Hushai, to defeat the counsel of his foes. He had sent back this man to be with his unnatural son for that purpose. And the prayer here used is followed with another in the history, to turn the counsel of Ahitophel, an enemy of his, but held in great reputation, into foolishness. 2Sa 15:31-34 .
Psa 55:9 Destroy, O Lord, [and] divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
Ver. 9. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues ] Heb. Swallow them up, O Lord, and divide their tongues; by an allusion, as some conceive, to those two famous judgments of God upon Dathan and Abiram, first, Num 16:31-33 , and then, secondly, upon the Babel builders, Gen 11:6-9 , both which were thrown out for examples to all succeeding ages (as St Jude saith of the Sodomites, Jdg 1:7 ), and are to be considered by the saints, as here, in their prayers against their enemies. How God answered this prayer to David, see 2Sa 17:1-14 , &c.
For I have seen violence and strife in the city NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 55:9-11
9Confuse, O Lord, divide their tongues,
For I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10Day and night they go around her upon her walls,
And iniquity and mischief are in her midst.
11Destruction is in her midst;
Oppression and deceit do not depart from her streets.
Psa 55:9-11 This strophe continues the prayer request of Psa 55:1-2.
1. confuse (lit. swallow up, i.e., destroy) BDB 118, KB 134, Piel imperative; this root could be used in the sense of confuse, cf. Psa 107:27; Isa 3:12; Isa 9:16; Isa 19:3; Isa 28:7
2. divide their tongues BDB 811, KB 928, Piel imperative; this may be an allusion to Gen 11:1-9.
Both #1 and #2 are prayers to disrupt/thwart the plans and schemes of the psalmist’s enemies. Apparently they were causing trouble within the hometown of the psalmist (if David, then Jerusalem). They are political enemies!
1. I have seen violence in the city
2. I have seen strife in the city
3. day and night they go around her upon her walls
4. iniquity is in her midst
5. mischief is in her midst
6. oppression does not depart her streets (lit. plaza, BDB 932)
7. deceit does not depart her streets (lit, plaza/market place)
Numbers 3; Numbers 4; Numbers 5 may be an allusion to watchmen on the walls. In this case the watchmen are iniquity and mischief!
LORD *. One of the 134 alterations of Jehovah to Adonai by the Sopherim. App-32.
divide their tongues = cleave (as in Gen 10:25; Gen 11:1-9) their counsels; “tongues” being put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6, for counsels given by them. This prayer was literally answered (2Sa 17:1-14).
tongues. Hebrew singular.
Psa 55:9-11
Psa 55:9-11
PLEA FOR GOD TO DESTROY THE PLANS OF THE WICKED
“Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongue;
For I have seen violence and strife in the city.
Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof:
Iniquity also and mischief are in the midst of it.
Wickedness is in the midst thereof:
Oppression and guile depart not from its streets”
“Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongue” (Psa 55:9-11).
“David wanted his enemies destroyed by `dividing their tongues’ (confusing their counsel); and this prayer was fully and effectively answered. Hushai and Ahithophel gave opposite counsel to Absalom; and Absalom followed the advice of Hushai. Ahithophel, knowing that such advice would destroy Absalom, went out and hanged himself (2 Samuel 15-17).
Both King David of Israel and the Son of David, the Christ, were betrayed by a close friend, who as a consequence of his deeds went out and hanged himself. It is difficult not to see a type of Judas Iscariot in this.
In this paragraph, notice the seven words which describe conditions in Jerusalem: violence, strife, iniquity, mischief, wickedness, oppression, and guile. The Jerusalem Bible personifies these, but we cannot find any good reason for such a personification, Taken in the aggregate, they describe the frightful condition of a sorely troubled city. This writer once heard Mayor Bob Wagner of New York City describing a similar condition there, saying that, “The spirit of the jungle has invaded the heart of the great city.”
Spurgeon’s description of Jerusalem’s sufferings under those conditions is a classic.
Alas, poor Jerusalem, to be thus the victim of sin and shame! Virtue reviled and vice regnant! Her solemn assemblies were broken up, her priests fled, her king a fugitive, and troops of reckless villains, parading her streets and sunning themselves on her walls, and vomiting their blasphemies in her sacred shrines. Here was cause enough for the sorrow which so plaintively utters itself in these verses.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 55:9. Divide their tongues meant to weaken the force of their stormy tirades against David. Those tirades had caused violence to occur in the city, destroying peace.
Psa 55:10. The agitation from the enemies of David was ceaseless or day and night.
Psa 55:11. Deceit and guile are practically the same, and refers to the underhanded methods that were used by the enemies of David.
divide: That is, “Distract their counsels; and let their devices be confounded” – and the prayer was heard. See the parallel passages. Gen 11:7-9, 2Sa 15:31, 2Sa 17:1-14, Joh 7:45-53, Act 23:6-10
I have: Jer 6:7, Jer 23:14, Mat 23:37, Mat 23:38
Reciprocal: Gen 6:11 – filled 2Sa 22:3 – thou savest Psa 26:10 – In Psa 56:7 – in thine Ecc 5:8 – thou seest Hab 1:3 – General Act 2:3 – cloven Act 21:35 – for Act 23:7 – there
Psa 55:9. Destroy, O Lord, and divide Destroy them by dividing their tongues Their speech, as thou didst at Babel, (Genesis 11.,) their votes, and opinions, and counsels. Which was eminently done among Absaloms followers, 2 Samuel 17. I have seen violence and strife Injustice and fraud, oppression and contention rule there, instead of that public justice and peace which I established. In the city In Jerusalem, which in Absaloms time was a sink of all sins. And this circumstance is mentioned as an aggravation of their wickedness, that it was committed in that city where the throne and seat of public justice were settled; and where God was in a special manner present, and worshipped, and where they had great opportunities both for the knowledge and practice of their several duties.
55:9 Destroy, O Lord, [and] {g} divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
(g) As in the confusion of Babylon when the wicked conspired against God.
2. A request out of deceit 55:9-15
Specifically, David wanted God to confuse the person responsible for his suffering. His opposition had resulted in confusion in the city, perhaps Jerusalem. The manifestations of this confusion were violence, strife, iniquity, mischief, destruction, oppression, and deceit.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)