Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 21:11
For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, [which] they are not able [to perform].
11, 12. Though they threaten thee with evil,
Though they devise a mischievous plan, they shall avail naught,
For thou shalt make them turn their backs,
Aiming with thy bowstrings against their faces.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For they intended evil against thee – literally, They stretched out evil. The idea seems to be derived from stretching out or laying snares, nets, or gins, for the purpose of taking wild beasts. That is, they formed a plan or purpose to bring evil upon God and his cause: as the hunter or fowler forms a purpose or plan to take wild beasts or fowls. It is not merely a purpose in the head, as our word intended would seem to imply; it supposes that arrangements had been entered into, or that a scheme had been formed to injure the cause of God – that is, through the person referred to in the psalm. The purposes of wicked men against religion are usually much more than a mere intention. The intention is accompanied with a scheme or plan in their own mind by which the act may be accomplished. The evil here referred to was that of resisting or overpowering him who was engaged in the cause of God, or whom God had appointed to administer his laws.
They imagined a mischievous device – They thought, or they purposed. The word rendered mischievous device mezimmah – means properly counsel, purpose; then prudence, sagacity; then, in a bad sense, machination, device, trick. Gesenius, Lexicon. Pro 12:2; Pro 14:17; Pro 24:8.
Which they are not able to perform – literally, they could not; that is, they had not the power to accomplish it, or to carry out their purpose. Their purpose was plain; their guilt was therefore clear; but they were prevented from executing their design. Many such designs are kept from being carried into execution for the want of power. If all the devices and the desires of the wicked were accomplished, righteousness would soon cease in the earth, religion and virtue would come to an end, and even God would cease to occupy the throne.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 21:11
For they intended evil against Thee . . . which they are not able to perform.
A memorable instance of intended evil that the wicked were not able to perform
At Rome the news of this great blow (given by the massacre on St. Bartholomews Day) was hailed with extravagant manifestations of joy; the Pope (Gregory XII) and cardinals went in state to return thanks to heaven for this signal mercy, and medals were struck in its honour. Philip II. extolled it as one of the most memorable triumphs of Christianity, compared it to the splendid victory of Lepanto, and boasted that the total ruin of Protestantism was now finally assured. Nevertheless, this great wickedness, like all state crimes, was quite ineffectual for the purpose toward which it was directed. The Huguenots had lost their ablest leaders: they were stunned, confounded, scattered, weakened, but they were by no means wholly crushed. As soon as they recovered from their consternation they once more rushed to arms . . . The persecuted party once more raised their heads, and within a year from the date of the great massacre were in a position to address the king in bolder and more importunate language than at any former period of the contest . . . The full and public exercise of the reformed religion was authorised throughout the kingdom; the parliaments were to consist of an equal number of Protestant and Catholic judges; all sentences passed against the Huguenots were annulled, and the insurgents were pronounced to have acted for the good of the king and kingdom; eight towns were placed in their hands for an unlimited period; and the States-General were to be convoked within six months. Such were the conditions of the Peace of Monsieur, as it was termed, which was signed on the 6th of May 1576–less than four years after that frightful massacre by which it was hoped that the Huguenot faction would be finally extirpated from France. (Students France.)
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Psa 22:1-31
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. For they intended evil] Sinners shall not be permitted to do all that is in their power against the godly; much less shall they be able to perform all that they wish.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Against thee, i.e. against God, not directly, but by conseqence, because it was against David, whom God had anointed, and against the Lords people, whose injuries God takes as done to himself, Zec 2:8.
To perform; such supplements are usual after this verb, as Exo 8:18; Psa 101:5; 139:6; Isa 1:13. Or, for which
they were unable or insufficient. Or, but they did not prevail, as this verb signifies, Psa 13:4; 129:2. This clause seems to be added to teach us this great and necessary lesson, that men are justly punished by God for their wicked intentions, although they be hindered from the execution of them, contrary to what some Jewish doctors and others have taught.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. This terrible overthrow,reaching to posterity, is due to their crimes (Exo 20:5;Exo 20:6).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For they intended evil against thee,…. All evil, whether in thought or deed, if not immediately and directly, yet is ultimately against the Lord, whose law is transgressed, and who is despised and reflected upon as a lawgiver; all sin is an hostility committed against God, or against Christ, against the Lord and his Anointed, or against his people, who are all one as himself: the intention of evil is evil, and is cognizable by the Lord, and punishable by him:
they imagined a mischievous device, [which] they are not able [to perform]; not the death of Christ; that was indeed in itself a mischievous device of theirs, but that they performed, though they had not their end in it; they expected his name would then perish, and they should hear no more of him: but rather it respects his resurrection from the dead, they could not prevent, though they took all imaginable care that them might be no show of it; and when they found he was really raised from the dead, they contrived a wicked scheme to stop the credit of it, but in vain, Mt 27:63; and Jews and Gentiles, and Papists, have formed schemes and done all they can to root the Gospel, cause, and interest of Christ, out of the world, but have not been able to perform it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 21:12-13) And this fate is the merited frustration of their evil project. The construction of the sentences in Psa 21:12 is like Psa 27:10; Psa 119:83; Ew. 362, b. is not to be understood according to the phrase (= ) , for this phrase is not actually found; we have rather, with Hitzig, to compare Psa 55:4, 2Sa 15:14: to incline evil down upon any one is equivalent to: to put it over him, so that it may fall in upon him. signifies “to extend lengthwise,” to unfold, but also to bend by drawing tight. to make into a back, i.e., to make them into such as turn the back to you, is a more choice expression than , Psa 18:41, cf. 1Sa 10:9; the half segolate form , (= ) becomes here, in pause, the full segolate form . must be supplied as the object to , as it is in other instances after , , ; , Psa 11:2, cf. Psa 7:14, signifies to set the swift arrow upon the bow-string ( = ) = to aim. The arrows hit the front of the enemy, as the pursuer overtakes them.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
11. For they have spread out. In this verse David shows that the ungodly had deserved the awful ruin which he predicted would befall them, since they had not only molested mortal man, but had also rushed forth in the fury of their pride to make war against God himself. No man, as has been stated in our exposition of the second psalm, could offer violence to the kingdom of Israel, which was consecrated in the person of David, by the commandment of God, without making foul and impious war against God. Much more when persons directly attack the kingdom of Christ to overthrow it, is the majesty of God violated, since it is the will of God to reign in the world only by the hand of his Son. As the Hebrew word נטה, natah, which we have translated to spread out, also sometimes signifies to turn aside, it may not unsuitably be here rendered either way. According to the first view the meaning is, that the wicked, as if they had spread out their nets, endeavored to subject to themselves the power of God. According to the second the meaning is, that for the purpose of hindering, and as it were swallowing up his power, (491) they turned aside their malice, so as to make it bear against it, just like a man who, having dug a great ditch, turned aside the course of some torrent to make it fall within it. The Psalmist next declares, that they devised a stratagem, or device, which would fail of its accomplishment. By these words he rebukes the foolish arrogance of those who, by making war against God, manifest a recklessness and an audacity which will undertake any thing, however daring.
(491) “ Pour icello empescher et comme engloutir.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) For they.Better, though they have intended evil against thee, have plotted mischief, they have no power at all.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. They intended Rather, they extended, in a hostile sense, as the word more commonly means. They “extended,” or directed, their evil designs against God. Job 15:15; Jer 21:5. So, also, the second hemistich.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 21:11. A mischievous device, which, &c. A mischievous device, but prevailed not. Houbigant. Dr. Delaney is of opinion, that these words refer more especially in their primary sense to the Ammonites, and those cruelties which they intended to inflict upon David and his people, but which were retaliated upon their own heads. See Life of David, vol. 2: p. 118.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 21:11 For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, [which] they are not able [to perform].
Ver. 11. For they intended evil against thee ] Because against thy people. He that wrongeth a subject is arraigned for injury done to the king, his crown and dignity. And as a certain gentleman of Normandy was executed for but intending only to kill Francis II, king of France, which he told to a priest, sub sigillo confessionis, not thinking ever to hear further of it again; so here.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
are not able to perform = could not accomplish.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 21:11-12
Psa 21:11-12
“For they intended evil against thee;
They conceived a device which they are not able to perform.
For thou wilt make them turn their back;
Thou wilt make ready with thy bowstrings against their face.”
There is another side to the character of the Holy Messiah which preachers of the current era have apparently never learned. Our Holy Saviour, the Messiah, is Love Incarnate; he is gentle, loving, patient, long-suffering, and unwilling that any mortal should perish; but he is also the Terrible One, who, upon the occasion of the Second Advent will strike unspeakable terror into the hearts of the wicked. The mightiest sinners on earth will scream for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the wrath of Him that sitteth upon the throne and from the Lamb (Rev 6:14 ff).
The Bible teaches that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that One whom he raised from the dead; and there is absolutely nothing in the Holy Scriptures that should enable anyone to view that cataclysmic occasion with any emotion except that of fear and apprehension.
The KJV here supplies some extra words: “When thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy bowstrings against the face of them.” “By supplying `when’ and `thine arrows,’ the KJV expresses what the psalmist has left to the intelligence of the reader.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 21:11. They still means the enemies of thee who is David. The verse means to declare that the plans of the enemies were too great for them to carry out.
Psa 21:12. Turn their backs refers to the retreat of the enemies. The cause of their flight will be the sight of the weapon of war (the bow and arrow) in the hand of David’s army. Upon thy strings denotes that the end of the arrow will be attached to the string ready to be discharged against the foe.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
imagined: Psa 2:1, Psa 10:2, Psa 31:13, Psa 35:20, Jer 11:18, Jer 11:19, Eze 11:2, Mat 21:46, Mat 26:4, Mat 26:5, Act 5:27, Act 5:28
are not: Psa 83:4, Isa 7:6, Isa 7:7, Isa 8:9, Isa 8:10, Mat 2:8, Mat 2:16, Mat 27:63, Mat 27:64, Mat 28:2-6, Act 4:17, Act 4:18
Reciprocal: Gen 50:17 – they did Job 5:12 – their hands Psa 33:10 – he maketh Psa 58:2 – in heart Psa 62:3 – imagine Psa 140:2 – imagine Pro 19:21 – many Pro 24:8 – General Isa 33:5 – The Lord Jer 18:18 – Come Nah 1:9 – do Zec 7:10 – imagine Act 9:24 – And they Act 23:15 – that he
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
21:11 For they {g} intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, [which] they are not able [to perform].
(g) They laid as it were their nets to make God’s power bend to their wicked enterprises.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Even though David’s enemies opposed him, they would fail. David would make them flee in retreat and would hand them a devastating defeat-described as shooting them in the face with his arrows.