Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 109:17
As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.
17. And he loved cursing, and it came to him;
And delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him:
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As he loved cursing … – As he loved to curse others; as he seemed to have a pleasure alike in the act of cursing and in the feeling which prompts to cursing, let him see what it is; let it come upon him in its fullness. He has chosen this as his portion; let it be his. This, in the original, is in the indicative mood, and not, as in our version, in the optative form: He loved cursing, and it has come upon him; he did not delight in blessing, and it is far from him. Still, the connection would rather seem to require that we should understand this as a prayer, and not as an affirmation, for the object of the whole seems not to be to state what had come upon him, but what the psalmist wished might come upon him.
As he delighted not in blessing … – As he had no pleasure in wishing that others might be happy, or in any measures which would tend to promote their happiness, so let everything that could be regarded as a blessing be put far from him; let him know nothing of it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 17. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him] The Jews said, when crucifying our Lord, His blood be upon us and our children! Never was an imprecation more dreadfully fulfilled.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Cursing; either,
1. Cursed or sinful courses. Or rather,
2. To curse others, as appears from the blessing here opposed to it, and from the next verse; to wish and to procure to others, and especially to me.
In blessing; in and promoting the welfare of others, which indeed an eye-sore and torment to him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17-19. Let his loved sin,cursing, come upon him in punishment (Ps35:8), thoroughly fill him as water and oil, permeating to everypart of his system (compare Nu5:22-27), and become a garment and a girdle for a perpetualdress.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him,…. Judas loved that which brought a curse upon him, sin; and so he may be said to love the curse; just as sinners are said to love death, Pr 8:36. He was desirous of and sought after it, to bring Christ to an accursed death; and which he accomplished and pleased himself with; and therefore it was a just retaliation upon him that the curse should light on him, and he himself come to a shameful and ignominious death. The Jews loved the cursing law, the flying roll, called the curse in Zec 5:2, which curses every transgressor of it: they boasted of it, rested in it, and sought for righteousness by it; and submitted not unto, but despised, the righteousness of Christ; and therefore it was but just they should come under the curse of the law: they imprecated the curse on them and their children, saying, “His blood be upon us and them”, Mt 27:25 and which accordingly came upon them, and remains to this day.
As he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him; Judas delighted not in the good will and good wishes of any to Christ, as appears from his dislike of the ointment being poured on his head by the poor woman, in Joh 12:4, and so the Jews were displeased at the children, and at the disciples in the temple, blessing Christ, pronouncing him blessed, and wishing blessings to him, Mt 21:15, yea, they delighted not in their own blessedness, or in that which only could give it to them; they delighted not in Christ, who was sent to bless them, but despised and rejected him; nor in the Gospel, which is full of blessings; and particularly not in the doctrine of justification by Christ’s righteousness, which commonly makes a man blessed: yea, in a sense, they judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life; and therefore it was but a righteous thing that blessing should be far from Judas and the Jews, as it was; even temporal, spiritual, and eternal blessings: yet there have been a sort of heretics e, that have highly praised and commended Judas, as doing a brave and noble action in betraying Christ, whereby the work of salvation was hastened.
e Epiphan. contra Haeres. l. 1. Haer. 38.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
17 As he loved cursing David still continues to enumerate the sins of his adversaries, and is thus severe in his treatment of them, in order to render it more apparent, that he is strictly conforming to the judgment of God. For as often as we draw near to the tribunal of God, we must take care that the equity of our cause may be so sure and evident as to secure for it and us a favorable reception from him. Fortified by the testimony of an approving conscience, David here declares his readiness to commit the matter between him and his enemies to the judgment of God. The words, which are expressive of cursing and blessing, are in the past tense, cursing came upon him, and blessing was far from him, but it is necessary to translate them as expressive of a wish or desire; for David continues to pray that his enemy may be visited with the same unparalleled ills which he had inflicted upon others. A stranger to every act of kindness, and taking pleasure in doing evil, it is the wish of the Psalmist that he may now be subjected to every species of calamity. Some take malediction to mean cursing and imprecation, thereby intimating that this man was so addicted to execration, that mischief and malevolence were constantly in his heart, and proceeding from his lips. While I do not reject this opinion, I am yet disposed to take a more extended view of the passage, That by injury and abuse, he aimed at the suppression and abolition of every mark of kindness, and that he took delight in the calamities which he beheld coming upon the unsuspecting and the good.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(17, 18) Let.The optatives in the English are wrong. These verses express facts, and the imprecation follows in Psa. 109:19. Render
He loved cursing; and it comes;
He delighted not in blessing; and it departs;
Yea, he clothed himself in cursing as with his cloak,
And it came like water into his bowels,
And like oil into his bones;
May it be, &c.
Comp. the proverb, Curses, like chickens, always come home to roost.
The fabled shirt of Nessus, which ate into the mighty form of Hercules, has suggested itself to commentators in illustration of this image. In a good sense the same figure is a favourite one with the Hebrews. (See Isa. 11:5.)
Psa. 109:19 has struck most commentators as an anticlimax, and the quotation theory is supported by this fact. But imprecations show their impotence in this way; the angry soul can never be quite unpacked with curses; the language of passion exhausts itself too soon, and a violent speech often dies away in unintelligible mutterings or even gestures of rage.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him Hebrew, And he loved cursing, and it came to him; and so the second member, “and he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him.” He not only cursed devoted to destruction the object of his hatred, but he “loved cursing,” “clothed himself with it.” In the unerring judgments of God his anathemas returned upon his own head. Psa 7:15-16
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The continuation of the awful consequences of the rejection of Christ, by Judas and his family, is here set forth; and the passage closeth with an assurance that it shall be so. And here I must again remark, in order to keep the remembrance of it alive, as well in my own soul, as in that of the Reader’s, that it is Christ, the Amen, the faithful witness, who is the speaker. Of them (saith he) that speak evil against my soul: against Jehovah’s Holy One. Reader! do not overlook it: and while contemplating the solemn truth, behold the despisers of Jesus, and rejoice with trembling!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 109:17 As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.
Ver. 17. As he loved cursing, &c. ] “The backslidcr in heart shall be filled with his own ways,” Pro 14:14 . Cursing men are cursed men, as were easy to instance in sundry, as Hacker, hanged in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, and Sir Jervase Elloways, lieutenant of the Tower in King James’s days, according to their own wishes. See Mr. Clark’s Mirror, p. 210, &c. The Jews are still great cursers of Christians, they shut up their daily prayers with Maledic Domine Nazaraeis, and how it cometh home to them who knoweth not, even wrath to the utmost? 1Th 2:16 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the Deliverer of the Needy
Psa 109:17-31
This psalm emphasizes the difference, indicated by our Lord, between His teaching and that addressed to them of old time, especially on the point of forgiveness. It is in such teaching as this that the psalmists mood is distinctly inferior to that which has now become the law for devout men. This at least may be said, that these ancient saints did not desire vengeance for private injuries, but that Gods name and character might be vindicated. Devout men could not but long for the triumph of good and the defeat and destruction of its opposite.
The closing paragraph voices some of those lowly, sad petitions for help, which occur in so many of the psalms. This combination of devout meekness and trust with the fiery imprecations or predictions at the core of this psalm, substantiates what has been said above as to the spirit in which the psalm was conceived. It is not personal, but the voice of the Church asking God to make known the righteousness of His government. The psalm begins and ends with praise. It starts by picturing an adversary at the right hand of the wicked, Psa 109:6, and closes with assurance that Jehovah stands at the right hand of His afflicted servant to deliver him. I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved, Psa 16:8.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 52:4, Psa 52:5, Psa 59:12, Psa 59:13, Pro 14:14, Eze 35:6, Mat 7:2, 2Th 2:10, 2Th 2:11, Rev 16:6
Reciprocal: Num 22:6 – curse me Num 23:11 – General Num 23:13 – and curse me Jdg 9:27 – cursed 1Ki 22:22 – Thou shalt 2Ch 18:21 – Thou shalt Est 9:25 – return Job 20:12 – he hide Psa 18:26 – froward Psa 28:4 – the work Psa 69:27 – iniquity Psa 109:28 – Let them Psa 109:29 – be clothed Lam 3:65 – thy Hos 4:9 – reward them Zec 5:3 – the curse Rom 3:14 – General Jam 3:9 – therewith curse
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 109:17-20. As he loved cursing To curse others, as appears from the blessing here opposed to it, and from the next verse; to wish and to procure mischief to others; so let it come unto him Hebrew, , teboeehu, it shall come unto him; the mischief in which he delighted, and which he both wished and designed to others, shall fall upon himself. As he delighted not in blessing In desiring and promoting the welfare of others; so let it be, &c. Hebrew, , tirchak, it shall be far from him He shall never meet with the blessing of those righteous courses which he always hated and avoided. As he clothed himself with cursing As his very business was to slander others everywhere, taking a pride in the mischievous effects of his wretched lies; so let it come Hebrew, , vatabo, it shall come, into his bowels, like water He shall feel the miserable fruit of his wickedness spreading itself, like the water he drinks, to every artery and vein; and sticking as close to him as oil unto the bones. As the garment which covereth him It shall compass him on every side as a garment; he shall be involved in perpetual misfortunes and miseries, and never be able to shake them off. And as a girdle wherewith he is girded continually He shall be surrounded with, and entangled in, straits and difficulties, without any possibility of being extricated from them. Observe, reader, They who reject Christ, reject the fountain of blessing, and choose a curse for their portion; and this portion, when they have finally made their choice, will certainly be given to them in full measure. We see here that the curse which lighted on the Jewish nation is resembled, for its universality and adhesion, to a garment which covereth the whole man, and is girded close about his loins; for its diffusive and penetrating nature, to water, which, from the stomach passeth into the bowels, and is dispersed through all the vessels of the frame; and to oil, which imperceptibly insinuates itself into the very bones. When that unhappy people pronounced the words, His blood be on us, and on our children, then did they put on the envenomed garment which has stuck to and tormented the nation ever since; then did they eagerly swallow down that dreadful draught, the effects whereof have been the infatuation and misery of upward of seventeen hundred years! Now, if such, in this world, be the reward of Christs adversaries, and of those who speak evil against him, what will hereafter be the vengeance inflicted on those who crucify him afresh, and put him again to open shame? Heb 6:6. And what will be the operation of the sentence, Go, ye cursed, upon the bodies and souls of the wicked? How will it at once affect all the senses of the former, and all the faculties of the latter, with pain, anguish, sorrow, and despair! Think on these things, O sinner! tremble and repent. Horne.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
109:17 As he loved cursing, {i} so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.
(i) Thus the Lord gives to every man the thing in which he delights so that the reprobate cannot accuse God of wrong, when they are given up to their lusts and reprobate minds.