Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 59:11
Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
11. Slay them not ] Apparently inconsistent with Psa 59:13; but burning indignation does not study logical consistency. What he desires is that they may not be destroyed outright by some signal catastrophe, but visibly punished as a living example, until at last their own wickedness proves their destruction. Cp. Exo 9:15-16 (R.V.). Pharaoh might have been cut off at once, but was suffered to exist, till his obstinate resistance sealed his doom, and enhanced God’s sovereignty. The Fathers applied the words to the Jews in their dispersion, scattered but not consumed, an ever visible memorial of divine judgement.
scatter them by thy power ] Rather, make them wander to and fro by thine army, as vagabonds and outcasts (Psa 109:10; Gen 4:12; Gen 4:14; Num 32:13). The word rendered by thy power in A.V. is never used of God’s might, but may mean (cp. Joe 2:25; Joe 3:11) the heavenly army which God has at His command. Cp. Psa 35:5-6.
bring them down ] Cp. Psa 55:23; Psa 56:7.
our shield ] The Psalmist speaks as the representative of the nation, or at least of a class. For the metaphor cp. Psa 3:3; Gen 15:1; Deu 33:29; Psa 18:2; &c.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Slay them not, lest my people forget – The meaning of this seems to be, Do not destroy them at once, lest, being removed out of the way, the people should forget what was done, or should lose the impression which it is desirable should be produced by their punishment. Let them live, and let them wander about, as exiles under the divine displeasure, that they may be permanent and enduring proofs of the justice of God; of the evil of sin; of the danger of violating the divine law. So Cain wandered on the earth Gen 4:12-14, a living proof of that justice which avenges murder; and so the Jews still wander, a lasting illustration of the justice which followed their rejection of the Messiah. The prayer of the psalmist, therefore, is that the fullest expression might be given to the divine sense of the wrong which his enemies had done, that the salutary lesson might not be soon forgotten, but might be permanent and enduring.
Scatter them by thy, power – Break up their combinations, and let them go abroad as separate wanderers, proclaiming everywhere, by being thus vagabonds on the earth, the justice of God.
And bring them down – Humble them. Show them their weakness. Show them that they have not power to contend against God.
O Lord our shield – See Psa 5:12, note; Psa 33:20, note. The words our here, and my in the former part of the verse, are designed to show that the author of the psalm regarded God as his God, and the people of the land as his, in the sense that he was identified with them, and felt that his cause was really that of the people.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. Slay them not, lest my people forget] I believe the Chaldee gives the true sense of this verse: “Do not slay them suddenly, lest my people should forget. Drive them from their habitations by thy power, and reduce them to poverty by the loss of their property.” Preserve them long in a state of chastisement, that Israel may see thou hast undertaken for them: that thy hand is on the wicked for evil, and on them for good. The Canaanites were not suddenly destroyed; they were left to be pricks in the eyes and thorns in the sides of the Israelites. It is in a sense somewhat similar that the words are used here.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Slay them not, to wit, suddenly, or at once.
My people; my countrymen; or those over whom thou hast appointed me to be governor in due time. Forget their former danger, and thy glorious mercy in delivering them, and their own duty to thee for it. Hereby it most plainly appears that David, in these and the like imprecations against his enemies, was not moved thereunto by his private malice, or desire of revenge, but by the respect which he had to Gods honour and the general good of his people.
Scatter them, Heb. make them to wander. As they wandered about the city and country to do me mischief, Psa 59:6, so let their punishment be agreeable to their sin; let them wander from place to place, to wit, for meat, as it is expressed, Psa 59:15, that they may carry the tokens of thy justice and their own shame to all places where they come.
Bring them down from that power and dignity in which thou hast set them, which they do so wickedly abuse; and from the height of their carnal hopes and confidences of success against me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. Slay them notat once (Jud2:21-23); but perpetuate their punishment (Gen 4:12;Num 32:13), by scattering ormaking them wander, and humble them.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Slay thou not,…. Though they deserved to be slain, and the Lord seemed as if he was about to slay them, who was able to do it; he seemed to be whetting his glittering sword, and his hand to take hold of vengeance ready to execute it; wherefore intercession is made to spare them, which agrees with Christ’s petition on the cross,
Lu 23:34. The Targum adds, “immediately”: slay them not directly, and at once; give them space for repentance; and so the Jews had: for it was forty years after the death of Christ before their destruction was: or the meaning may be, slay them not utterly; destroy them not totally: and so it was; for though multitudes were slain during the siege of Jerusalem, and at the taking of it, yet they were not all slain: there were many carried captive, and sent into different parts of the world, whose posterity continue to this day. The reason of this petition is,
lest my people forget: the Syriac version renders it, “lest they should forget my people”; or my people should be forgotten. David’s people, the Jews by birth and religion, though not as yet his subjects, unless in designation and appointment, and Christ’s people according to the flesh: now if these had all been slain at once, they had been forgotten, like dead men out of mind: or Christ’s special and peculiar people; his chosen, redeemed, and called ones, who truly believe in him, and are real Christians; and then the sense is, if full vengeance had been taken of the Jews at once, and they had been cut off root and branch, so that none of them remained, Christ’s people would have forgot them, and the vengeance inflicted on them for their rejection of the Messiah; but now they are a continued and lasting instance of God’s wrath and displeasure on that account, and they and their case cannot be forgotten. The Arabic version renders it, “lest my people forget the law”; its precepts and sanction, its rewards and punishments;
scatter them by thy power; or let them wander up and down like fugitives and vagabonds in the earth, as Cain did, and as the Jews now do, being dispersed in the several parts of the world; and which was done by the power of God, or through the kingdom of God coming with power upon that people, Mr 9:1; or “by thine army” x; the Roman army, which was the Lord’s, being permitted by him to come against them, and being made use of as an instrument to destroy and scatter them, Mt 22:7;
and bring them down; from their excellency, greatness, riches, and honour, into a low, base, mean, and poor estate and condition, in which the Jews now are;
O Lord, our shield; the protector and defender of his people, while he is the destroyer and scatterer of their enemies.
x “exercitu tuo”, Michaelis, Vatablus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11 Slay them not, lest my people forget David very properly suggests this to his own mind, as a consideration which should produce patience. We are apt to think, when God has not annihilated our enemies at once, that they have escaped out of his hands altogether; and we look upon it as properly no punishment, that they should be gradually and slowly destroyed. Such being the extravagant desire which almost all, without exception, have, to see their enemies at once exterminated, David checks himself, and dwells upon the judgment of God to be seen in the lesser calamities which overtake the wicked. It is true, that were not our eyes blinded, we would behold a more evident display of divine retribution in cases where the destruction of the ungodly is sudden; but these are so apt to fade away from our remembrance, that he had good reason to express his desire that the spectacle might be one constantly renewed, and thus our knowledge of the judgments of God be more deeply graven upon our hearts. He arms and fortifies himself against impatience under delays in the execution of divine judgment, by the consideration that God has an express design in them, as, were the wicked exterminated in a moment, the remembrance of the event might speedily be effaced. There is an indirect censure conveyed to the people of Israel for failing to improve the more striking judgments of God. But the sin is one too prevalent in the world even at this day. Those judgments which are so evident that none can miss to observe them without shutting his eyes, we sinfully allow to pass into oblivion; so that we need to be brought daily into that theater where we are compelled to perceive the divine hand. This we must never forget when we see God subjecting his enemies to a gradual process of destruction, instead of launching his thunders instantly upon their head. He prays that God would make them to wander, as men under poverty and misery, who seek in every direction, but in vain, for a remedy to their misfortunes. The idea is still more forcibly described in the word which follows, make them descend, or, cast them down. He wished that they might be dragged from that position of honor which they had hitherto occupied, and thrown to the ground, so as to present, in their wretchedness and degradation, a constant illustration of the wrath of God. The word בחילך, becheylcha, which we have translated, in thy power, some render, with thy army, understanding the people of God. But it is more probable that David calls to his assistance the power of God for the destruction of his enemies, and this because they deemed themselves invincible through those worldly resources in which they trusted. As a further argument for obtaining his request, he intimates in the close of the verse that he was now pleading the cause of the whole Church, for he uses the plural number, O God our shield Having been chosen king by divine appointment, the safety of the Church stood connected with his person. The assault made upon him by his enemies was not an assault upon himself merely as a private individual, but upon the whole people, whose common welfare God had consulted in making choice of him. And this suggested another reason why he should patiently submit to see the judgments of God measured out in the manner which might best engage their minds in assiduous meditation.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) Slay them not, lest my people forget . . .The Spartans refused to allow the destruction of a neighbouring city, which had often called forth their armies, saying, Destroy not the whetstone of our young men. Timon, in the play, is made to say
Live loathd and long
You smiling smooth detested parasites,
that the ruin of Athens might be complete, if deferred. National feeling, too, has often insisted on extreme modes of punishment, partly from vindictive feeling, partly for deterrent purposes. Witness the sequel to the Indian mutiny. But where is the parallel to the feeling that seems uppermost in the Psalmists mind, viz., a wish for protracted retribution on the nations for the moral benefit of Israel?
Scatter them.Better, make them wander: a word applied to Cain and to the Israelite wanderings in the wilderness.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Slay them not Probably an allusion to the punishment of Cain, and of the Israelites in the desert. Gen 4:12; Gen 4:14; Num 32:13. He would have their punishment exemplary, to deter others from sin.
Scatter them Cause them to wander. The word means to stagger, reel, and is applied to an irregular, objectless moving from place to place as a wanderer. The participle is translated fugitive in Gen 4:12; Gen 4:14. This was David’s condition in his exile, 2Sa 15:20. It was considered more terrible than death. Psa 109:10
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
David Points Out To God That He Is A Victim Of Slander, Lies And Cursing And Asks Him To Deal With Them Accordingly ( Psa 59:11-13 ).
We should note that what David majors on is not the power of a great enemy, but on slanderous and lying words which are being spoken against him. This indicates a local situation where he is being falsely accused. He does not want them just to be killed out of hand (something that he knows God could do), but rather to be made a public example of, an example that will never be forgotten, an example that will reveal that God rules over all nations.
Psa 59:11
‘Do not slay them, lest my people forget,
Make them wander to and fro by your power, and bring them down, O Lord our shield.’
David had no doubt that God could simply strike his enemies down where they were. But he asks Him not to do that, for if He did it would soon be forgotten, and then His people would simply forget it. It would be a seven day wonder. What he rather wants is that they might be made to wander to and fro (compare Psa 59:15, same verb) or be ‘scattered’, by God’s power, and then brought down, by the One Who is Israel’s shield. Wandering to and fro would well describe a mercenary’s life, but here it may be the more prosaic thought of them wandering up and down in the city in vain as they wait to seize him (Psa 59:15), something that the people would observe and remember, laughing continually behind their backs. Both, of course, may be in mind. They were to be constantly trying, never succeeding, until God brought them down. Their presence would be a constant reminder of what Saul was like and what he had tried to do to David, and how he had failed. David seemingly at this stage did not approve of foreign mercenaries lording it in Israel. In his view they were not needed. Did Israel not have their Sovereign Lord as their shield?
‘MY people’ does not necessarily indicate that David was speaking as their king. It could equally well see him as identifying himself with his fellow countrymen against all their enemies, of which these foreign mercenaries reminded him. For he sees God as Israel’s shield and protector. What need then of foreign mercenaries?
Psa 59:12
‘For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips,
Let them even be taken in their pride,
And for cursing and lying which they speak.’
He now describes what his charge is against these men. They have cursed him and lied against him, and behaved haughtily towards him. So he calls for them to be called to account for the sin of their mouth and the word of their lips. They had no doubt been convinced by Saul (they would not take much convincing) of how treacherous and dangerous David was, and as such men will, they had made it openly known with cursing and swearing. They wanted it known that they had been charged to deal with the infamous David. It was from those who overheard them that Michal may have obtained her intelligence (1Sa 19:11).
Psa 59:13
‘Consume them in wrath, consume them,
So that they will be no more,
And let them know that God rules in Jacob,
To the ends of the earth. [Selah’
So whilst he did not want them simply struck down immediately, leaving him still open to further attacks by Saul’s men (compare 2Ki 1:9-14), he did want them to be dealt with in such a way that when they were consumed, to be no more, it would let men know that it is God Who rules in Israel (Jacob), even to the ends of the earth. ‘To the ends of the earth’ would suit the idea that although the mercenaries moved on to pastures new, God would reach them wherever they were. It may be that he had in mind the story of the Exodus when the delayed judgment on Pharaoh eventually led to the nations learning of the glory of YHWH. But what we should note from this is that David’s great concern, even at such a time, was not so much for his own safety as for the glory of God.
Many of these men, if they survived or remained with Saul that long, would be struck down on Mount Gilboa as they sought to defend Saul (1Sa 31:1 ff.). And even though that did not initially fulfil David’s desire (what happened on Mt Gilboa could have been seen as suggesting that God did not rule in Israel), the situation was remarkably transformed when David rose to power and finally convincingly smashed the Philistine power. God’s reputation was thus finally enhanced among the nations as a consequence of the mercenaries being consumed.
‘Consume them in wrath.’ He wanted them consumed by God as One Who was angry at the fact that they had lied and cursed against the anointed of YHWH (1Sa 16:13), and had taken up arms against him. (Something which we know he himself would never do, in spite of Saul’s unforgivable treatment of him – 1Sa 24:6; 1Sa 26:11). He considered that by attacking him they were attacking God.
‘Selah.’ A further pause for thought.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 59:11. Slay them not, &c. Wilt thou not cut them off? Lest my people forget thee, cause them to shake by thy power, and bring them down to destruction, O Lord, our shield. Chandler.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The perilous state of the wicked, and the safety of the righteous, is finely contrasted in the view of the ruin of the one, and the everlasting security of the other. But let not the Reader overlook the cause of the righteous man’s security, namely, in the covenant faithfulness of Jacob’s God. Weil might the sacred writer put a Selah, particularly, here.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 59:11 Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
Ver. 11. Slay them not, lest my people forget ] Marcet sine adversario virtus, the natural heat decayeth if it have not wherewith to wrestle. Carthage was not to be destroyed, that Rome might not want an adversary. The saints have the relics of corruption left in them for exercise of their graces. “Slay them not,” saith David; and the Chaldee addeth, statim, forthwith, or outright, but by degrees rather; “lest my people,” my followers and fellow soldiers, forget their skill in arms or thy judgments on the enemies.
Scatter them by thy power
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
LORD*. One of the 134 places where the Sopherim altered “Jehovah” to “Adonai”. App-32.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Slay: Gen 4:12-15, Jdg 1:6, Jdg 1:7, Ecc 9:5, Eze 12:15, Eze 12:16, Eze 14:22, Eze 14:23, Rev 9:6
scatter: Psa 44:11, Psa 52:5, Lev 26:33, Deu 4:27, Deu 28:64, Deu 30:3, Deu 30:4, Eze 12:15, Luk 1:51, Luk 1:52, Luk 21:21
bring: Job 40:12
our shield: Psa 3:3, Psa 84:11
Reciprocal: Gen 4:15 – Therefore Psa 59:13 – Consume Psa 60:1 – scattered Psa 68:1 – be scattered Psa 89:10 – scattered Psa 92:9 – scattered
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 59:11. Slay them not Hebrew, , al tahargeem, Thou wilt not slay them, namely, suddenly, or at once; lest my people My countrymen, those over whom thou hast appointed me to be governor in due time; forget Their former danger, thy glorious mercy in delivering them, and their own duty to thee for it. Hereby it plainly appears that David, in his prayers against, and predictions concerning his enemies, was not moved by private malice or desire of revenge, but by the respect which he had to Gods honour, and the general good of his people. Scatter them by thy power , hanigneemo, Make them to wander. As they have wandered about the city and country to do me mischief, so let their punishment be agreeable to their sin; let them wander from place to place for meat, (as it is expressed Psa 59:15,) that they may carry the tokens of thy justice, and their own shame, to all places where they come. And bring them down From that power and dignity in which thou hadst set them, which they so wickedly abused; and from the height of their carnal hopes of success against me.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
59:11 Slay them {i} not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
(i) Altogether, but little by little, that the people seeing your judgments often, may be mindful of you.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
3. David’s desire for God’s glory 59:11-13
David did not just want God to frustrate the attacks of his enemies. He desired that God would use their aggression as a lesson to many people of how God deals with those who oppose Him and His anointed.