Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 109:23
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.
23. Like a shadow when it declines or is stretched out towards evening (Psa 102:11), and is about to disappear altogether, so am I made to depart: the form of the verb implies compulsion from without.
I am tossed up and down ] Or, driven away. The point of comparison is the helplessness of the locust swept along by the wind (Exo 10:19; Joe 2:20).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth – See the notes at Psa 102:11.
I am tossed up and down as the locust – Agitated, moved, driven about, as a cloud of locusts is by the wind. The meaning of the whole is, that he was frail and weak, and needed strength from on high.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 23. I am gone like the shadow] “I have walked like the declining shadow,”-I have passed my meridian of health and life; and as the sun is going below the horizon, so am I about to go under the earth.
I am tossed up and down as the locust.] When swarms of locusts take wing, and infest the countries in the east, if the wind happen to blow briskly, the swarms are agitated and driven upon each other, so as to appear to be heaved to and fro, or tossed up and down. Dr. Shaw, who has seen this, says it gives a lively idea of the comparisons of the psalmist.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am gone, Heb. I am made to go; either,
1. From place to place; which was Davids case, when he was persecuted by Saul and by Absalom; and Christs case upon earth, where he had no certain place
where to lay his head: Mat 8:20. Or,
2. Into the grave, as this phrase is used, 1Ch 17:11; Psa 58:8, and oft elsewhere. Declineth; towards the evening, when, the sun setting, it vanisheth instantly, and irrecoverably, until the sun rise again, which it never will do to me in this world, when once I am gone out of it.
As the locust; which of itself is unstable, continually skipping from place to place, and is easily driven away with every wind; so am I exposed to perpetual and successive changes within myself, and to a thousand violences and mischiefs from other persons and things.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. like the shadow(ComparePs 102:11).
tossed up and downor,”driven” (Ex 10:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth,…. When the sun is setting, and the shadow is going off; man’s life is often compared to a shadow, because fleeting, momentary, and soon gone,
1Ch 29:15 and death is expressed by going the way of all flesh; and by going to the grave, the house for all living, a man’s long home, Jos 23:14 and so is the death of Christ, Lu 22:22, it may be rendered, “I am made to go” h, denoting the violent death of Christ, who was cut off out of the land of the living, and whose life was taken away from the earth, Isa 53:8.
I am tossed up and down as the locust; or “shaken out” i by the wind, as the locust is by the east wind, and carried from place to place,
Ex 10:13, or when a swarm of them by a strong wind are crowded together and thrown upon one another; or like the grasshopper, which leaps from hedge to hedge, and has no certain abode: and such was the case of Christ here on earth; and especially it may have respect not only to his being sometimes in Judea and sometimes in Galilee, sometimes in the temple and sometimes in the mount of Olives; but to his being tossed about after his apprehension, when he was led to Annas, and then to Caiaphas, then to Pilate, then to Herod, then delivered to the soldiers, and by them led to Calvary, and crucified.
h “cogor abire”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius “abire factus sum”, Gejerus, Michaelis. i “excussus sum”, Montanus, Vatablus Gejerus, Michaelis; “excutior”, Tigurine version, Musculus, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
23 I walk about as a shadow. These are two very appropriate similitudes: to the first of them I formerly adverted in Psa 102:12; namely, that the afflicted person, and he who is almost lifeless, is very fitly compared to the shadow of the evening. At sunrise, or when he is shining in noon-day brightness, the constant shifting of the shadow is not so perceptible; but, towards sunset, the shadow flits before us during every moment that passes. By the other similitude, the transitory nature of all sublunary things is pointed out. For as the locusts are constantly skipping from one place to another, so David complains of his life being ever rendered uneasy by incessant persecution, so that no space was allowed him for repose; and this is similar to what he says in Psa 11:1, that he was compelled to flee like a sparrow, for which the fowler lays snares in all directions. In short, he mourns over his forlorn situation, that he could find no place of safety, and that, even among men, he could get no habitation. And, as in this psalm, he presents us with a picture of the whole Church, we need not be surprised if God try us, and arouse us from our lethargy, by an innumerable variety of events. Accordingly, Paul, 1Co 4:11, speaking of himself and others, says, that they have no certain dwelling-place; a description which is more or less applicable to all the children of God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(23) Shadow when it declineth.Literally, a lengthened shade. (Comp. Psa. 102:11, and see Note. Son. 2:17.) When the day declines the shadow lengthens, it becomes longer and longer, till it vanishes in the universal darkness. Thus does the life of the suffering generation pass away.
Tossed up and down.Better, tossed or shaken out, as from the lap. So LXX. and Vulg. (See Neh. 5:13, where the same verb is three times used.) The grasshopper was an emblem of timidity (Job. 39:20).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
23. Gone like the shadow Like a disappearing evening shadow, till its form and outline are lost in the darkness.
I am tossed up and down I am shaken out. I have been violently cast out of home and country. So Exo 14:27, “The Lord shook off [margin] the Egyptians” Neh 5:13, “So God shake out every man from his house.”
As the locust An allusion to their being tossed up and down by violent winds. Thus Morier: “On looking up we perceived an immense cloud, here and there semi-transparent, in other parts quite black, that spread itself all over the sky, and at intervals shadowed the sun. This we soon found to be locusts, whole swarms of them falling about us; but their passage was but momentary, for a fresh wind from the southwest, which had brought them to us, so completely drove them forward that not a vestige of them was seen two hours after.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 109:23. I am tossed up and down as the locust I am driven away, or shaken off like the locust. Green and Mudge. Dr. Shaw, speaking of the large and numerous swarms of locusts in Barbary, says, “When the wind blew briskly, so that these swarms were crowded by others, or thrown one upon another, we had a lively idea of that comparison of the Psalmist’s being tossed up and down as the locust.” See Travels, p. 187.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 109:23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.
Ver. 23. I am gone like the shadow ] Abii, perii, evanui, I vanish, as the long shadows do so soon as the sun setteth.
As the locust
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
gone: Psa 102:11, Psa 144:4, 1Ch 29:15, Job 14:2, Ecc 6:12, Ecc 8:13, Jam 4:14
I am tossed: Psa 102:10, Exo 10:13, Exo 10:19
Reciprocal: Job 7:4 – tossings Job 17:7 – shadow
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 109:23. I am gone, &c. Hebrew, , neehlacheti, I am made to go, either, 1st, From place to place; which was Davids case when he was persecuted by Saul and by Absalom, and Christs case upon earth when he had no certain place where to lay his head. Or, 2d, Into the grave, as this phrase frequently signifies; like the shadow when it declineth Toward the evening, when, the sun setting, it vanisheth instantly and irrecoverably. I am tossed up and down as a locust Which of itself is unstable, continually leaping and moving from place to place, and is easily driven away with every wind. So am I exposed to perpetual and successive changes within myself, and to a thousand violences and mischiefs from other persons and things.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
109:23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the {m} locust.
(m) Meaning that he has no stay or assurance in this world.