Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 109:14

Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

14. be blotted out ] From God’s book in which it is recorded as a debt. Cp. Psa 51:1.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14, 15. Let the full penalty for the sins of his ancestors be exacted from him, in accordance with the warning of the law, that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children. See Exo 20:5; cp. Mat 23:32-36.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Let the iniquity of his fathers – Of his ancestors.

Be remembered with the Lord – Or, by the Lord. The doctrine of the Bible is, that God visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him Exo 20:5; the matter of fact is that children and childrens children often suffer from the errors, the crimes, and the follies of their parents, as in the case of intemperance, murder, and treason (compare the notes at Rom 5:12 ff); and the prayer here is, that this regular effect of sin might follow in this instance; that these consequences might not be arrested by divine interposition.

And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out – This is probably added to complete the parallelism; the sin of his father and his mother. There may, however, if this is a composition of David, be a similar allusion to that which occurs in Psa 51:5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. The prayer is, that whatever effects might properly follow from the fact that his mother was a sinner – either in some special sense, or in the general sense that all are sinhers – might come upon him.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Be remembered against him, or punished in him, as God hath threatened to deal with great delinquents, Exo 20:5.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

14, 15. Let the iniquity of hisfathers be remembered, &c.Added to the terrible overthrowfollowing his own sin, let there be the imputation of his parents’guilt, that it may now come before God, for His meting out its fullconsequences, in cutting off the memory of them (that is, theparents) from the earth (Ps34:16).

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

Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord,…. Not of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; who, though they had their failings, they were not remembered, and much less punished in their posterity, but were forgiven: rather of the Amorites and Hittites; the one being said to be the father, and the other the mother, of the Jews,

Eze 16:3, they succeeding them in their land, and imitating their example, and committing the same sins they did: or rather of their wicked ancestors, who killed the prophets; and the measure of whose sins Judas and the Jews filled up in crucifying Christ, see

Mt 23:31. The iniquity of these may be said to be remembered, it not being forgiven, when it was brought to account, and punished in their posterity, doing the same wicked actions; compare with this

Re 16:19.

And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out: or forgiven; but stand as a debt to be accounted for: meaning not the sin of his mother Eve, nor of his immediate parent; but either of the Hittite as before, or of the synagogue of the Jews, or Jerusalem, which killed the prophets of the Lord.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

And as the destruction which he denounces against the houses and families of the wicked is so extensive, that God punishes them in the person of their posterity, so he desires that God may remember the iniquities of their fathers and mothers, in order that their condemnation may be complete; and this is a principle in perfect accordance with the commonly received doctrine of Scripture. God, out of regard to his covenant, which is in force to a thousand generations, extends and continues his mercy towards posterity; but he also punishes iniquity unto the third and fourth generation. In doing this he does not involve the guiltless with the wicked indiscriminately, but by withholding from the reprobate the grace and illumination of his Spirit, he prepares the vessels of wrath for destruction, even before they are born, Rom 9:21. To the common sense of mankind, the thought of such severity is horrifying: but then we must recollect, that if we attempt to measure the secret and inscrutable judgments of God by our finite minds, we do him wrong. Struck with horror at the severity of this threatening, let us improve it as the means of filling us with reverence and godly fear. In reference to the language of Ezekiel,

“

The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, but the soul that sinneth, it shall die;” Eze 18:20

we know that in these words he disproves the groundless complaints of the people, who, boasting that they were guiltless, imagined that they were punished wrongfully. When, however, God continues his vengeance from the father to the children, he leaves them no room for palliation or complaint, because they are all equally guilty. We have already said, that vengeance commences when God in withdrawing his Spirit, both from the children and the fathers, delivers them over to Satan. Some may inquire how it comes to pass, that the prophet, in desiring that their sin may be continually before God’s eyes, does not likewise add, let their name be blotted out from heaven, but merely wishes them to be cut off, and to perish in the world? My reply is, that he spoke agreeably to the custom of the age in which he lived, when the nature of spiritual punishments was not so well understood as in our times, because the period had not yet arrived, when the revelation of God’s will was to be full and complete. Besides, it is the design of David, that the vengeance of God may be so manifest, that the whole world may acquiesce in his equity as a judge.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(14) Fathers.The sweet of vengeance lies in its completeness. The curse must strike backwards as well as forwards, and the root as well as the branch be destroyed. Undoubtedly the Mosaic Law, which proclaimed that the iniquity of the fathers should be visited on the children, suggested the form of the imprecation.

Sin of his mother.Is the necessity of the parallel. ism sufficient to account for this mention of the mother, or is some definite circumstance in the poets thought? The theory which makes this portion of the psalm (Psa. 109:6-20), a quotation of curses really uttered by Shimei against David, finds an allusion to the Moabitish descent on the mothers side. (Comp. the Rabbinical explanation of Psa. 51:5.)

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

14. Iniquity of his fathers the sin of his mother So called because they were of like character before him. The law forbade the transfer of punishment due to personal sins, (Deu 24:16; Eze 18:20😉 but where the wickedness of the parents repeated itself in the children, the punishment followed down also. See Exo 20:5

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

Psa 109:14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

Ver. 14. Let the iniquity of his fathers, &c. ] In whose sinful steps he treadeth, be charged upon him.

And let not the sin of his mother ] Who bred him no better, but cockered him in wicked courses, and gave him no good example, Partus fere sequitur ventrem.

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