Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 86:14

O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent [men] have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them.

14. Again, though the Psalmist may be referring to personal circumstances, it is not impossible that he is alluding to dangers by which the community was threatened. The verse is taken almost word for word from Psa 54:3, with perhaps a reminiscence of Psa 22:16 (‘ assembly of evil doers’). The variation proud for strangers may be accidental: the consonants of the two words zdm and zarim are easily confused, D ( ) and R ( ) being much alike in Hebrew. It should be noted that Psalms 54. is quoted in its ‘Elohistic’ form, so that apparently the collection had already been made and edited by the Elohistic editor.

assemblies ] Assembly, or congregation.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

O God, the proud are risen against me – People who are self-confident, ambitious, haughty; who do not regard the welfare or the rights of others; who are disposed to trample down all others in order that they may accomplish their own purposes; these are the people who have opposed me and sought my life. This would apply either to the time of Saul or of Absalom. In both these cases there were men who would correspond to this description.

And the assemblies of violent men – Margin, terrible. The Septuagint and the Vulgate render this, the synagogue of the wicked. The word rendered violent means properly terrible, inspiring terror; then, violent, fierce, lawless, tyrants. The idea here is that they pursued their object by violence and not by right; they did it in a fierce and savage manner, or in such a way as to inspire terror. The word assembly here means merely that they were banded together; what was done was the result of a conspiracy or combination.

Have sought after my soul – After my life.

And have not set thee before them – They do not fear thee; they do not act as if in thy presence; they have no regard for thee, for thy law, for thy favor, for thy threatenings.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 14. The assemblies of violent men] adath aritsim, the congregation of the terrible ones. Men of violent passions, violent counsels, and violent acts; and, because they have power, terrible to all.

Have not set thee before them.] Who sins that sets God before his eyes? Who does not sin that has no consciousness of the Divine presence?

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

They have no reverence nor regard for thee, neither for thy word, which hath conferred the kingdom upon me; nor for thine all-seeing eye, which beholds all their wicked devices and practices against me; nor for thy justice, which will undoubtedly bring their mischief upon their own heads.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

O God, the proud are risen against me,…. As all men naturally are, and as all are without the grace of God; and because they are, they deal in proud wrath: as, through the pride of their heart, they seek not after God; so, through the same, they persecute his people, treating them with the utmost contempt, and as the offscouring of all things. Jarchi interprets this particularly of Doeg and Ahithophel:

and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; or “terrible” s ones, who breathed out nothing but cruelty, threatenings, and slaughter; and who were many, and got together in bodies, and entered into combinations and conspiracies; and whom nothing would satisfy but the taking away of his life, which they sought after; see Ps 22:12

and have not set thee before them; they did not consider the omniscience of God, that he knew and took notice of all they did; nor his omnipresence, that he was everywhere, and there was no fleeing from him; nor his omnipotence, who was able to crush them to pieces; nor his justice, which will render tribulation to them that trouble his; nor his goodness, which should lead to repentance; nor had they any fear of him, nor respect to his glory: in short, they were like the unjust judge, who neither feared God nor regarded men, Lu 18:4.

s “terribilium”, Montanus; so some in Vatablus, Gejerus, Michaelis.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The situation is like that in the Psalms of the time of Saul. The writer is a persecuted one, and in constant peril of his life. He has taken Psa 86:14 out of the Elohimic Psa 54:5, and retained the Elohim as a proper name of God (cf. on the other hand Psa 86:8, Psa 86:10); he has, however, altered to , which here, as in Isa 13:11 (cf. however, ibid. Psa 25:5), is the alternating word to . In Psa 86:15 he supports his petition that follows by Jahve’s testimony concerning Himself in Exo 34:6. The appellation given to himself by the poet in Psa 86:16 recurs in Psa 116:16 (cf. Wisd. 9:5). The poet calls himself “the son of Thy handmaid” as having been born into the relation to Him of servant; it is a relationship that has come to him by birth. How beautifully does the Adonaj come in here for the seventh time! He is even from his mother’s womb the servant of the sovereign Lord, from whose omnipotence he can therefore also look for a miraculous interposition on his behalf. A “token for good” is a special dispensation, from which it becomes evident to him that God is kindly disposed towards him. as in the mouth of Nehemiah, Neh 5:19; Neh 13:31; of Ezr 8:22; and also even in Jeremiah and earlier. is just as parenthetical as in Isa 26:11.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

14. O God! the proud are risen up against me. Instead of זדים , zedim, the proud, some read, זרים, zarim, strangers; and, undoubtedly, the Scriptures often employ this word to denote barbarous cruelty, so that it is the same as if it had been said, the cruel. I, however, prefer following the generally received reading. As between the Hebrew word זדים, zedim, the proud, and זרים, zarim, strangers, there is only the difference of a single letter, the one having the letter ד, daleth, where the other has the letter ר, resh, it is obvious that, from the similarity of these two letters, the former might easily have been changed into the latter. Besides, the word, proud, agrees better with the scope of the passage; for, in the same sense, the Psalmist immediately after applies the epithet, strong, to those who, with headlong impetuosity and fierceness, rushed upon him to destroy him; and we know that where pride reigns no moderation is observed. He expresses without figure what he had just now said respecting the grave. Being as a lamb in the midst of wolves, he would have been quickly swallowed up, had not God miraculously delivered him, as it were, from the jaws of death. In representing his enemies as having no regard to God, he means to set forth the extreme excess of their cruelty. The fury of our lusts, unless we are restrained by the fear of God and the sense of his judgment, will become so great as to dare any thing, however atrocious. For these calamities he seeks a remedy, in the Divine mercy, in the following verse.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(14) See Note, Psa. 54:3, whence the verse is taken.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

14. Proud violent have not set thee before them A threefold description of David’s enemies.

Proud The fundamental idea is contempt of all authority, restraint, or obligation.

Violent One who inspires terror by his power and his contempt of the rights of men a tyrant. The word is always translated terrible, terrible ones, in the prophets, in our common version, conformably to its radical sense.

Assemblies Must be understood of the bands or companies of conspirators, as in Psa 22:16; Num 16:6.

And have not set thee before them This clause gives at once their character and the cause of it. Humanity shudders when such men rule. In this verse David repeats himself from Psa 54:3, which is not a rare practice.

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

The apostles, in their prayer, point to these exercises of the blessed Jesus, Act 4:27 ; and Jesus himself expresseth the same, Psa 22:16 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 86:14 O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent [men] have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them.

Ver. 14. O God, the proud ] The strangers, some read it (by the change of a letter in the original), who are commonly cruel.

And the assemblies of violent men ] Nebulonum, some render it, sturdy varlets, fastuosi ac feroces.

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