Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 118:10
All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.
10. All nations &c.] Comp. “all the nations that were about us,” Neh 6:16. Arabians, Ammonites, and Philistines of Ashdod, are specially mentioned in Neh 4:7 f. Cp. also Ezr 4:7-23, referring probably to an earlier period in the reign of Artaxerxes.
but in the name &c.] In the name of Jehovah, trusting that He would prove Himself all that He has promised, I did cut them off. The exact meaning of the verb is uncertain. The tense is a ‘graphic imperfect.’ From Psa 118:5 ; Psa 118:13 it is clear that the crisis was past and the victory won.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
10 14. It was in the strength of Jehovah that Israel was enabled to repel the persistent attacks of its enemies.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
All nations compassed me about – They surrounded me; they hemmed me in on every side, so that I seemed to have no chance to escape. It would seem from this that the psalm was composed by someone who was at the head of the government, and whose government had been attacked by surrounding nations. This would accord well with many things that occurred in the life of David; but there were also other times in the Jewish history to which it would be applicable, and there is nothing that necessarily confines it to the time of David.
But in the name of the Lord will I destroy them – Margin, as in Hebrew, cut them off. This is the language which he used at that time; the purpose which he then formed; an expression of the confidence which he then cherished. He meant to subdue them; he had no doubt that he would be able to do it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 10. All nations compassed me about] This is by some supposed to relate to David, at the commencement of his reign, when all the neighbouring Philistine nations endeavoured to prevent him from establishing himself in the kingdom. Others suppose it may refer to the Samaritans, Idumeans, Ammonites, and others, who endeavoured to prevent the Jews from rebuilding their city and their temple after their return from captivity in Babylon.
But in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.] Dr. Kennicott renders amilam, “I shall disappoint them;” Bishop Horsley, “I cut them to pieces;” Mr. N. Berlin, repuli eas, “I have repelled them.” “I will cut them off;” Chaldee. Ultus sum in eos, “I am avenged on them;” Vulgate. So the Septuagint.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
All nations compassed me about; the neighbouring and heathen nations, Philistines, Syrians, Ammonites, Moabites, &c., who were stirred up, partly, by the overthrows which David had given some of them; partly, by their jealousy at Davids growing greatness and fear for themselves; and partly, by their hatred against the true religion.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10-12. Though as numerous andirritating as bees [Ps 118:12],by God’s help his enemies would be destroyed.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
All nations compassed me about,…. Not all the nations of the world, but all the neighbouring nations about Judea; as the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Amalekites, and Syrians; and these not all at one time, but sometimes one, and sometimes another, whom David fought with and subdued: and these, applied to Christ, design Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel; who were gathered together against him, to do what God had determined should be done, Ac 4:27; see Ps 22:12. And this is sometimes the case of the church and people of God: at the first setting up of the interest of Christ, the whole world was against it; and in such circumstances was the church of Christ, when the whole world wondered after the beast, the Romish antichrist; as it will be when the kings of the earth and of the whole world will be gathered to the battle at Armageddon; and also when the Gog and Magog army shall compass the camp of the saints and the beloved city; see
Re 13:3; and so Jarchi interprets this of Gog and Magog. Yea, it is applicable to particular believers, who are attacked by Satan, the god of this world; and who are hated and persecuted by the men of it in general; and who are beset on all hands, at times, with the temptations of the devil, and the corruptions of their own hearts, and the snares of the world; that it is as if all nations compassed them about;
but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them; that is, calling upon the name of the Lord; as Asa, Jehoshaphat, and others did besides David: or trusting in the name of the Lord; and so the Targum,
“in the name of the Word of the Lord I trusted, therefore will I cut them off.”
Or, going forth in the name and strength of the Lord, as David did against Goliath; and so against all nations that gathered together against him, whose armies he vanquished and destroyed, and made the nations tributary to him. Thus our Lord Jesus Christ, his antitype, as Mediator stood in the strength and in the majesty of the name of the Lord, calling upon him to glorify him; and, trusting in his help and power, he attacked all his and our enemies, and obtained an entire victory over them, to the utter demolition of them; sin, Satan, the world, death, and hell. The word u used has the signification of concision or circumcision; and may have a peculiar regard to the Jews, who boasted of their circumcision, and were the implacable enemies of Christ; and who were destroyed by him, when wrath came upon them to the uttermost.
u “concidebam eos”, Piscator; “concidam eos”, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10. All nations compassed me In these verses he relates the wonderful deliverance which he had received, that all might know that it was not of human but divine origin. Once and again he declares, that he was compassed not by a few persons, but by a vast multitude. The people, being all inflamed with anger and fury against him, compassed him so that there were no means for his escape, and he could procure help from no quarter but from heaven. Some consider his complaint, that all nations were adverse to him, as referring to the neighboring nations, by whom we know David was surrounded with danger. His meaning, in my opinion, is, that the whole world was adverse to him; because he places God’s help alone in opposition to the deadly and furious hatred both of his own countrymen and of the neighboring nations towards him, so that there was not a spot upon the earth where he could be safe. There was, it is true, no army, collected from several nations, besieging him; still he had no peaceable retreat except among the haunts of wild beasts, from which also he was driven by terror. And in proportion to the number of persons he encountered were the snares laid to entrap him. It is, therefore, not wonderful that he said he was compassed by all nations. Besides, this elliptical mode of speaking is more forcible than if he had merely said that he trusted in God, by reason of which he had become victorious. By publicly mentioning the name of God alone, he maintains that no other means of deliverance were within his reach, and that but for his interposition he must have perished. It appears to me preferable to translate the particle כי, ki, affirmatively. (391) “Besieged as I am on all sides by the world, yet if the power of God help me, that will be more than adequate for the extermination of all mine enemies.” Their obstinate and implacable hatred is pointed out by him in the repetition of the phrase compassed about, and their outrageous fury is set forth in comparing them to bees, which, though not possessed of much strength, are very fierce, and when in their insensate fury they attack a person, they occasion no little fear. He shortly adds, they are quenched as a fire of thorns, which at first makes a great crackling, and throws out a greater flame than a fire of wood, but soon passes away. The amount is, that David’s enemies had furiously assailed him, but that their fury soon subsided. Hence he again repeats, that sustained by the power of God, whatever opposition might rise against him would soon pass away.
(391) “I take כי to be an affirmative adverb, surely, and not a conjunction.” — Lowth.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
10. All nations All heathen “nations.” The whole world is arrayed against the Church, because the true Church testifies against “all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men.” See Joh 7:7; Joh 15:19
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 118:10-12. All nations compassed me about, &c. It is very plain from these words, that the neighbouring nations had entered into a league against David, and that this psalm was written before he had destroyed them, and consequently in the beginning of his reign. See 2Sa 7:1 and Psalms 83. I would just observe to the philological reader, says Dr. Delaney, once for all, that it is familiar with David to couch such images in three words, as would in the hands of Homer be the materials of his noblest, most enlarged, and most dignified descriptions. We have two instances in Psa 118:12. They, that is, all nations, compassed me about like bees, and they are quenched as the fire of thorns. The reader has here in miniature two of the finest images in Homer; which, if his curiosity demands to be gratified, he will find illustrated and enlarged in the second book of the Iliad. The first of them stands thus transcribed from Mr. Pope’s translation, ver. 209, &c.
The following host Pour’d forth in millions, darken all the coast. As from some rocky cleft, the shepherd sees Clustering in heaps on heaps, the driving bees: Rolling and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms, With deeper murmurs, and more hoarse alarms: Dusky they spread, a close-embodied croud, And o’er the vale descends the living cloud; So, from the tents and ships, &c.
The next is at ver. 534, &c.
As on some mountain through the lofty grove, The crackling flames ascend, and blaze above; The fires expanding as the winds arise, Shoot their long beams, and kindle half the skies. So from the polish’d arms and brazen shields, A gleamy splendor flash’d along the fields, Not less their number, &c.
The candid reader will observe, that here the idea of an army’s resembling a flaming fire, is common both to Homer and David: but the idea of that fire’s being quenched when the army was conquered, is peculiar to David. Life of David, book 2: chap. 9.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 118:10 All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.
Ver. 10. All nations compassed me about ] This is still the condition of Christ’s Church in this evil world, to be hated of all, and set against with utmost might and malice. Haud perinde crimine incendiiquam odio humani generis convicti sunt, saith Tacitus, of those Christians at Rome put to cruel deaths by Nero, who, having for his pleasure fired the city, fathered it upon them, as people hated of all men.
But in the name of the Lord
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 118:10-14
10All nations surrounded me;
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
11They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me;
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
12They surrounded me like bees;
They were extinguished as a fire of thorns;
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
13You pushed me violently so that I was falling,
But the Lord helped me.
14The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.
Psa 118:10-12 All nations surround me This phrase has been interpreted in several different ways.
1. Because of the many allusions throughout this Psalm and many other Scriptures, some commentators have seen this as referring to the exodus period.
2. Many commentators have assumed that the individual aspects better fit a post-exilic period with its reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem (cf. Neh 4:7-8).
3. Others have assumed that this refers to an eschatological context where the kingdoms of this world come against the kingdom of our God and His Christ (cf. Psa 2:2; Zec 14:2; Rev 19:11-21).
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off Cut them off (BDB 557, KB 555, Hiphil imperfect) is literally the Hebrew phrase used for circumcision. Because of the Messianic implications of this Psalm, some see this as a conversion of the Gentile nations. See Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan. However, in context, it seems to be their destruction, not their salvation.
The repeated use of I and me in Psa 118:10-13 implies the author is the king. Surround him would denote laying siege to Jerusalem.
Psa 118:12 These two metaphors seem to imply the tumultuous surrounding of the people of God by anti-God, worldly forces and their complete and immediate destruction. See SPECIAL TOPIC: FIRE .
Psa 118:13 pushed me violently This phrase is intensified in Hebrew by the use of the Qal infinitive construct and the Qal perfect verb of the same root (BDB 190, KB 218).
The AB (p. 158) sees this action as an idiom for death, based on the concept of stumbling (cf. Psa 35:6; Psa 36:12; Psa 56:13; Psa 116:8; also note NIDOTTE, vol. 1, p. 933).
Psa 118:14 The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation Psa 118:14-15 reflect the song of victory which was sung after the crossing of the Red Sea (cf. Exo 15:2 a); the same quote is found in Isa 12:2.
For strength see Exo 15:2; Psa 28:8; Psa 46:1; Psa 59:17; Psa 81:1; Isa 12:2 b. This is often used in a military sense, as is salvation/deliverance.
For salvation see SPECIAL TOPIC: SALVATION (OLD TESTAMENT TERM) .
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
All. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Genus), App-6, for a large number, or many.
But, &c. Figure of speech Epistrophe (App-6), repeated in Psa 118:11.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 118:10-12
Psa 118:10-12
“All nations compassed me about:
In the name of Jehovah I will cut them off.
They compassed me about, yea they compassed me about:
In the name of Jehovah I will cut them off.
They compassed me about like bees; they are
quenched as the fire of thorns:
In the name of Jehovah I will cut them off.”
“All nations compassed me about” (Psa 118:10). When David ascended the throne of Israel, the Philistines had just succeeded in killing Saul; and the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites in a sense “surrounded” Israel.
“In the name of Jehovah I will cut them off” (Psa 118:10-12). Rawlinson called these terse pledges, “a conviction, but they are not a conviction, they are a “promise and a pledge” on the part of the author of the psalm, which can hardly be any other person than king David. Certainly no priest, nor a band of singers, nor even the nation of Israel itself could have made such a pledge. The words fit the mouth of king David; and furthermore, he did exactly what he here said he would do.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 118:10. Various peoples had opposed David and envied him because of his exalted position. Destroy them is rendered “cut them off” in the margin of the Bible, and the Lexicon agrees with it. The meaning is that he would cut short the attempts of his enemies to destroy him.
Psa 118:11. They means the same evil people referred to in the preceding verse. To compass means to surround for the purpose of capturing someone. These enemies of David thought to take such an advantage of him, but he expected to destroy (cut short) them.
Psa 118:12. The comparison is not especially to the bee as an individual insect, but rather to the fact that bees swarm in great numbers. But regardless of their great number, the enemies of David were to be destroyed (cut off or cut short).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
All nations: 2Sa 5:1-25, 2Sa 8:1-18, 2Sa 10:1-19, Zec 12:3, Zec 14:1-3, Rev 19:19-21, Rev 20:8, Rev 20:9
destroy them: Heb. cut them off
Reciprocal: Num 13:30 – General Jos 11:5 – all these Jos 14:12 – if so be Jdg 6:33 – Then all Jdg 7:12 – grasshoppers Jdg 16:2 – compassed 1Sa 17:45 – in the name 2Sa 22:19 – prevented 2Sa 22:30 – run through 2Sa 22:39 – General Psa 3:6 – I will Psa 44:5 – Through thee Psa 55:18 – He hath Psa 56:2 – many Psa 60:10 – Wilt Psa 119:157 – Many Hab 3:14 – they Zec 12:5 – The inhabitants Act 26:22 – obtained Rev 12:8 – prevailed not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 118:10-12. All nations compassed me about The neighbouring nations, the Philistines, Syrians, Ammonites, Moabites, who were stirred up by the overthrows which David had given to some of them, by their jealousy at his growing greatness, and by their hatred against the true religion. Yea, they compassed me The repetition implies their frequency and fervency in this action, and their confidence of success. They compassed me like bees In great numbers, and with great fury. They are quenched In this sense the word is taken, Job 6:17; Job 18:5-6; Job 21:17. The Seventy, however, render it , they burned, flamed out, or waxed exceeding fierce or vehement; that is, they raged against me like fire: with this interpretation the Chaldee agrees. As the fire of thorns Which flames out terribly, burns fiercely, and makes a crackling noise, but quickly spends itself without any considerable or lasting effect. For Or but, as the particle , chi, frequently signifies, and is twice rendered in this very phrase, Psa 118:10-11. Thus, as the former part of the verse denotes their hostile attempt, this expresses their ill success and utter ruin. The reader has here, says Dr. Delaney, Life of David, book 2. chap. 9. p. 113, in miniature, two of the finest images in Homer; which, if his curiosity demands to be gratified, he will find illustrated and enlarged in the second book of the Iliad. The first of them stands thus, transcribed from Mr. Popes translation:
The following host, Pourd forth by thousands, darkens all the coast. As from some rocky cleft the shepherd sees, Clustring, in heaps on heaps, the driving bees, Rolling and blackning, swarms succeeding swarms, With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms; Dusky they spread, a close-imbodied crowd, And oer the vale descends the living cloud; So from the tents and ships, &c. V. 109, &c.
The next is in the same book, V. 534, &c.
As on some mountain, through the lofty grove,
The crackling flames ascend and blaze above,
The fires, expanding as the winds arise,
Shoot their long beams, and kindle half the skies;
So from the polished arms, and brazen shields,
A gleamy splendour flashd along the fields.
Not less their number, &c.
The candid reader will observe, that here the idea of an arms resembling a flaming fire is common both to Homer and David; but the idea of that fire being quenched (when the army was conquered) is peculiar to David.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Note how the Lord gave the psalmist confidence even when his enemies surrounded him. The Lord had cut off his enemies in the past, and he believed He would do so again. The repetition of the phrase in Psa 118:10 b, Psa 118:11 b, and Psa 118:12 c expresses his trust in the Lord.
The Hebrew word for "cut them off" (Psa 118:10-12) literally means "circumcised them." This may be a prophetic reference to Messiah circumcising the hearts of the Gentiles. Circumcision was a physical procedure, but it came to symbolize a spiritual change, namely, trust in God (Deu 30:6; cf. Rom 2:29). [Note: A. Ross, p. 879.]