Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 69:28
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
28. the book of the living ] Or, as R.V., the book of life. The figure is borrowed from the lists or registers of citizens (Jer 22:30; Eze 13:9). God has a book in which the names of those who are to be preserved alive are inscribed. The righteous have their names recorded in it (cp. Hab 2:4). May the names of these malefactors be struck out, or never inserted there! May they be deprived of their privileges as Israelites! May they perish and be utterly forgotten! Cp. Exo 32:32; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1. But and this mitigates what would otherwise be the awful character of the imprecation ‘the book of life’ is not here to be understood in the full N.T. sense as ‘the book of eternal life’ (Luk 10:20; Php 4:3; Rev 3:5; Rev 13:8; Rev 17:8; Rev 20:12).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living – That is, Let them cease to live; let them not be numbered among living people; let them be cut off. This language is taken from the custom of registering the names of persons in a list, roll, or catalogue, Exo 32:32. See the notes at Phi 4:3. Compare Rev 3:5. The language has no reference to the future world; it is not a prayer that they should not be saved.
And not be written with the righteous – Let them not be registered or numbered with the righteous. As they are wicked, so let them be numbered; so regarded. Let them be reckoned and treated as they are. They deserve to be punished; so let them be. All that this necessarily means is, that they should not be treated as righteous, when they were in fact not righteous. It cannot be shown that the author of the psalm would not have desired that they should become righteous, and that they should then be regarded and treated as such. All that the language here implies is, a desire that they should be regarded and treated as they were; that is, as they deserved. The language is evidently derived from the idea so common in the Old Testament that length of days would be the reward of a righteous life (see Job 5:26; Pro 3:2; Pro 9:11; Pro 10:27), and that the wicked would be cut off in the midst of their days. See the notes at Psa 55:23.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 28. Let them be blotted out] They shall be blotted out from the land of the living. They shall be cut off from life, which they have forfeited by their cruelty and oppression. The psalmist is speaking of retributive justice; and in this sense all these passages are to be understood.
And not be written with the righteous.] They shall have no title to that long life which God has promised to his followers.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Of the living; or, of life: either,
1. Of this life. Out of the number of living men; which anciently used to be written in catalogues, out of which the names of those who died were blotted. Or rather,
2. Of eternal life, as both Jewish and Christian interpreters commonly understand it; which agrees best,
1. To the use of this phrase in Scripture; for in this sense men are said to be written in the book, Dan 12:1, or in Gods book, Exo 32:32, or in the book of life, Phi 4:3; Rev 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12; 21:27.
2. To the last clause of the verse, which explains it of that book, wherein none but
the righteous are written; whereas this life, and that attended with health and prosperity, is promiscuously given to and taken from good and bad men.
3. To the quality of the persons of whom this is said; which are the malicious enemies of God, and of his people, and the murderers of the Lord of glory, who shall be punished with eternal death. In this book men may be said to be written, either,
1. In reality, by Gods election or predestination. Or,
2. In appearance, when a man is called by God to the profession and practice of the true religion, and into covenant with himself, and professeth to comply with it; and so is written in the writing of the house of Israel, which is said of all that are in the assembly of Gods people, Eze 13:9, and so seems to others, and it may be to himself, to be really written in the book of life. And when a man renounceth this profession and religion, he may be said to be
blotted out of that book, because his apostacy makes it evident that he was not written in it, as he seemed to be. For this is a known and approved rule for the understanding of many texts of Scripture, that things are oft said to be done when they only seem to be done, and are not really done; as he is said to find his life, . Mat 10:39, who falsely imagined that he did find it, when in truth he lost it; and to have, Mat 13:12, who only seemed to have, as it is explained in the parallel place, Luk 8:18; and to live, Rom 7:9, when he vainly conceited himself to be alive. And in like manner men may be said to be written in or blotted out of this book, when they seem to be so by the course of their lives and actions. But that this blotting out is not meant properly and positively, is clear from the last branch of this verse; which, after the manner of these books, expounds the former, wherein this doubtful phrase is explained by one which is evident and unquestionable, even by his not being written in it; for it is impossible that a mans name should be properly blotted out of that book in which it was never written. The sense of the verse seems to be this, Let their wickedness be so notorious, and the tokens of Gods wrath upon them so manifest, that all men may discern that they are blotted out; that is, that they never were written in the book of life, in which the righteous are written.
With the righteous, i.e. in the book of life, in which all righteous or holy persons, and only they, are written; whereby it may appear that whatsoever show or profession they once made, yet they neither are nor were truly righteous persons.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. book of the livingor”life,” with the next clause, a figurative mode ofrepresenting those saved, as having their names in a register(compare Exo 32:32; Isa 4:3).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Let them be blotted out of the book of life,…. Which some understand of this animal life, or of the catalogue of living saints; of their being not written among the living in Jerusalem, or in the writing of the house of Israel, Isa 4:3. The Targum is,
“let them he blotted out of the book of the memory of the living.”
Let their names rot and perish, being buried in everlasting oblivion. Aben Ezra interprets this book of the heavens; where, he says, all things that should come to pass were written, at the time they were created; see Lu 10:20. But this is the book of divine predestination or election, often in the New Testament called the book of life; in which the names of some persons are written, and others not, Php 4:3; so called, not with respect to the present life, and the affairs of it, which belong to the book of Providence; but with respect to the life of the world to come, or eternal life, as Kimchi explains it. It is no other than God’s ordination or foreappointment of men to eternal life; which being called a book, and names written in it, show that election is personal or particular; the exact knowledge God has of his chosen ones; his great care of them, and value for them; his constant remembrance of them, and the certainty of their salvation; for such whose names are written here in reality can never be blotted out: this would be contrary to the unchangeableness of God, the firmness of his purposes, and the safety of his people. Wherefore the design of this imprecation is, that those persons who had, in their own conceits, and in the apprehensions of others, a name in this book; that it might appear, both to themselves and others, they had none, by the awful ruin and destruction that should be brought upon them;
and not be written with the righteous; neither in the book of life with them; by which it appears, that to be blotted out, and not be written, are the same: nor in a Gospel church state; so they were the branches broken off: nor be among them at the resurrection of the just, and in the judgment day. Kimchi observes, that it is the same thing in different words; to be blotted out is the same as not to be written.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
28. Let them be blotted out from the book of the living. (95) This is the last imprecation, and it is the most dreadful of the whole; but it nevertheless uniformly follows the persevered in impenitence and incorrigible obduracy of which the Psalmist has spoken above. After having taken away from them all hope of repentance, he denounces against them eternal destruction, which is the obvious meaning of the prayer, that they might be blotted out of the book of the living; for all those must inevitably perish who are not found written or enrolled in the book of life. This is indeed an improper manner of speaking; but it is one well adapted to our limited capacity, the book of life being nothing else than the eternal purpose of God, by which he has predestinated his own people to salvation. God, it is certain, is absolutely immutable; and, further, we know that those who are adopted to the hope of salvation were written before the foundation of the world, (Eph 1:4😉 but as God’s eternal purpose of election is incomprehensible, it is said, in accommodation to the imperfection of the human understanding, that those whom God openly, and by manifest signs, enrols among his people, are written. On the other hand, those whom God openly rejects and casts out of his Church are, for the same reason, said to be blotted out. As then David desires that the vengeance of God may be manifested, he very properly speaks of the reprobation of his enemies in language accommodated to our understanding; as if he had said, O God! reckon them not among the number or ranks of thy people, and let them not be gathered together with thy Church; but rather show by destroying them that thou hast rejected them; and although they occupy a place for a time among thy faithful ones, do thou at length cut them off, to make it manifest that they were aliens, though they were mingled with the members of thy family. Ezekiel uses language of similar import when he says,
“
And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel.” (Eze 13:9)
That, however, continues true which is spoken by the Apostle John, (1Jo 2:19,) that none who have been once really the children of God will ever finally fall away or be wholly cut off. (96) But as hypocrites presumptuously boast that they are the chief members of the Church, the Holy Spirit well expresses their rejection, by the figure of their being blotted out of the book of life. Moreover, it is to be observed that, in the second clause, all the elect of God are called the righteous; for, as Paul says in 1Th 4:3,
“
This is the will of God, even our sanctification, that every one of us should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor: for God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.” (1Th 4:3)
And the climax which the same Apostle uses in the 8 chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, at the 30 verse, is well known:
“
Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Rom 8:30)
(95) “This phrase,” observes Bishop Mant, “which is not unusual in Scripture, alludes to the custom of well ordered cities, which kept registers, containing all the names of the citizens. Out of these registers the names of apostates, fugitives, and criminals, were erased, as also those of the deceased: whence the expression ‘blotting,’ or ‘erasing names from the book of life.’”
(96) “ Et se retrancher du tout.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(28) Book of the livingor life.This image, which plays so great a part in Christian poetry (Rev. 3:5; Rev. 13:8; Rev. 21:27. Comp. Php. 4:3; Luk. 10:20), is derived from the civil lists or registers of the Jews. (Exo. 32:32; Jer. 22:30; Eze. 13:9.) At first erasure from this list only implied that a man was dead, or that a family was extinct (see references above); but as death was thought to deprive of all benefit of the covenant (see Note, Psa. 6:5), such erasure came to imply exclusion from all the rights and privileges of the Theocracy, and therefore from the glory of participating in the promised deliverance and restoration of the race, and so gradually, as eschatological ideas developed, from the resurrection to eternal life. Dan. 12:1 marks a stage in this development. In the psalmists mouth the words would correspond to the ideas current when he wrote. From the next clause, Let them not be written with the righteous, it might be argued that the idea had already appeared which limited the resurrection to the righteousan idea current at the date of 2Ma. 7:14, but probably familiar to some minds much sooner.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
28. Blotted out of the book of the living Or, the book of life. The allusion is to the public genealogies, where the names of all the living were recorded. These civil lists were the ultimate vouchers of pure Hebrew descent and citizenship, and of title, not only to lands, but also to Church privileges and covenant blessings. To erase the name was to extinguish these rights, but does not necessarily suppose natural death. See Exo 32:32-33; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1. Only in the New Testament is the idea clearly developed of a “book of life” containing the names of such only as are entitled to the life of future and eternal blessedness. Php 4:3; Rev 20:12; Rev 20:15
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 69:28. Let them be blotted out of the book This means no more than that they should be cut off, and die before the usual time. We have before observed, that God is sometimes represented as recording and entering in a book the conception, birth, sufferings, actions, and punishments of his people: so here, and in other places, he is represented as keeping a list or roll in which the names of all his people are entered. The allusion seems to have been taken from the custom of generals and commanders of armies, who, upon the desertion or death of a soldier, strike him out of the muster-roll. This is what Ezekiel alludes to, Eze 13:9 where he calls it, The writing of the house of Israel; and to be written or entered in that list, signified the same thing as being acknowledged for one of God’s people. Compare Isa 4:3. As great immorality and apostacy, such as are the subjects of this psalm, may well be deemed a sort of spiritual desertion, the allusion is applied here with great propriety.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 69:28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
Ver. 28. Let them be blotted out, &c. ] Wherein they were never indeed written among those living in Jerusalem, Isa 4:3 , those firstborn whose names are written in heaven, Heb 12:23 , but they accounted themselves of that number, and were so esteemed by others. This was a mistake, and the psalmist prayeth God to make it appear so, Ne videantur in albun tuorum relati quibus verae vitro donum destinasti.
the living = life. See note on Lev 18:5.
blotted: Exo 32:32, Exo 32:33, Isa 65:16, Hos 1:9, Rev 3:5, Rev 22:19
be written: Isa 4:3, Eze 13:9, Luk 10:20, Phi 4:3, Heb 12:23, Rev 13:8, Rev 20:12-15
Reciprocal: Gen 7:4 – destroy Deu 29:20 – blot out 2Ki 14:27 – blot out Dan 12:1 – written
Psa 69:28. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living Let them be cut off before their time, and enjoy none of the blessings which thou hast promised to the righteous. Bishop Patrick. The psalmist is thought to allude to registers or catalogues, in which the names of living men used anciently to be recorded, and out of which the names of those who died were blotted. This was awfully fulfilled with respect to the unbelieving Jews, vast multitudes of whom fell by the sword and famine, while none of those who embraced the Christian faith perished among them. The nation, as a nation, was blotted out of the list of nations, and became not a people. The words may also be understood, as they are by many commentators, of their rejection from Gods covenant, and the privileges of it, which is the book of the truly living, or the book of life. Let the commonwealth of Israel itself, Israel according to the flesh, now become alienated from that covenant of promise, of which it has hitherto had the monopoly.
Henry. This has long been the case with the degenerate and apostate Jews, who are no longer the peculiar people of God, nor have they any part or portion in the inheritance of his children. Thus Ezekiel, speaking of the false prophets, They shall not be in the assembly of my people, nor shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, Eze 13:9. This accords well with the next clause, Let them not be written with the righteous Let them not have, or, they shall not have, a place in the congregation of the saints, when they shall all be gathered in the general assembly of those whose names are written in heaven.
69:28 Let them be blotted out of the {x} book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
(x) They who seemed by their profession to have been written in your book, yet by their fruits prove the contrary, let them be known as reprobates.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes