Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 7:12
If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.
12. If a man turn not from his evil way and repent, God ‘will whet his sword:’ nay, He has already strung His bow and made it ready to discharge the arrow of punishment. God is described under the figure of a warrior, armed with sword and bow to execute vengeance on the wicked. Cp. Deu 32:41-42. The tenses of the first clause represent the judgement as in process of preparation from time to time; those of the second clause as ready to be launched against the offender at any moment. The wicked aim their arrows at the upright in heart (Psa 11:2), but ‘the saviour of the upright in heart’ aims His arrows at them and frustrates their plots.
R.V. marg. Surely he will again whet his sword is a possible but less satisfactory rendering. Psa 7:12-13 may then be referred either to God, or to the enemy intending to renew his attack.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
If he turn not – If the wicked person does not repent. in the previous verse the psalmist had said that God is angry with the wicked every day; he here states what must be the consequence to the wicked if they persevere in the course which they are pursuing; that is, if they do not repent. God, he says, cannot be indifferent to the course which they pursue, but he is preparing for them the instruments of punishment, and he will certainly bring destruction upon them. It is implied here that if they would repent and turn they would avoid this, and would be saved: a doctrine which is everywhere stated in the Scriptures.
He will whet his sword – He will sharpen his sword preparatory to inflicting punishment. That is, God will do this. Some, however, have supposed that this refers to the wicked person – the enemy of David – meaning that if he did not turn; if he was not arrested; if he was suffered to go on as he intended, he would whet his sword, and bend his bow, etc.; that is, that he would go on to execute his purposes against the righteous. See Rosenmuller in loc. But the most natural construction is to refer it to God, as meaning that if the sinner did not repent, He would inflict on him deserved punishment. The sword is an instrument of punishment (compare Rom 13:4); and to whet or sharpen it, is merely a phrase denoting that he would prepare to execute punishment. See Deu 32:41.
He hath bent his bow – The bow, like the sword, was used in battle as a means of destroying an enemy. It is used here of God, who is represented as going forth to destroy or punish his foes. The language is derived from the customs of war. Compare Exo 15:3; Isa 63:1-4. The Hebrew here is, his bow he has trodden, alluding to the ancient mode of bending the large and heavy bows used in war, by treading on them in order to bend them.
And made it ready – Made it ready to shoot the arrow. That is, He is ready to execute punishment on the wicked; or, all the preparations are made for it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 7:12
If he turn not, He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow, and made it ready.
Turn or burn
So, then, God has a sword, and He will punish man on account of iniquity. This evil generation hath sought to take away from God the sword of His justice. Perhaps the Puritans insisted too much on the wrath of God, but our age seeks to forget that wrath altogether.
I. What is the turning here meant?
1. It is actual, not fictitious; not one that stops with vows and promises.
2. It must be entire. Many will give up many sins, but not all: there are certain darling lusts which they will keep and hold. Remember that one lust, like one leak in a ship, will sink a soul.
3. And it must be immediate. There must be no procrastination. Today if ye will hear His voice.
4. And hearty–no pretended repentance.
5. And perpetual: it must not be transitory or superficial. In old times when rich and generous monarchs came to their cities they made the fountains run with wine. But tomorrow it ran with water as before. It is hard to distinguish between legal repentance and evangelical repentance. Legal repentance is a fear of damning; evangelical, of sinning. And this is far deeper than the other: the man feels that only by sovereign grace can his sin be put away, that no mere course of holy living can blot it out. Christ alone can dig its grave.
II. The necessity that God should whet His sword and punish men if they will not turn. Richard Baxter used to say, Sinner! turn or burn: it is thine only alternative. And it is so: for–
1. God cannot suffer sin to go unpunished. How could He govern men if He had no justice?
2. The Scriptures are full of declarations of this truth.
3. All which conscience confirms. You may say you have no such belief. I did not say you had, but I say that your conscience tells you so. As John Bunyan said, Mr. Conscience had a very loud voice, and though Mr. Understanding shut himself up in a dark room, where he could not see, yet he used to thunder out so mightily in the streets that Mr. Understanding used to shake in his house through what Mr. Conscience said. But I am tired of this terrible work of proving that God must punish sin. However, I should like to act as if there were a hell, even if there is no such place; for as a poor and pious man once said to an unbeliever, Sir, I like to have two strings to my bow. If there should be no hell, I shall be as well off as you will; but if there should, it will go hard with you. But why say if? You know there is.
III. Now what are the means of repentance? You cannot repent of yourself. But Christ is exalted to give repentance and remission of sin. Then if you feel that you are a sinner, ask Him to give you repentance. Many a man says he cannot repent while he is repenting. Keep on with that till you feel you have repented, then believe and be saved. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Divine anger an everlasting principle
Polarity, as it is called, exhibits both attraction and repulsion, and at the same pole attraction and repulsion, and by the same law, at the same pole, attraction and repulsion. At the same pole the magnet attracts and repels. And Divine benevolence has polarity. At the same pole it attracts and repels. By the same law it attracts and repels. By the same eternal, Divine necessity it attracts and repels. With the same Divine force it attracts and repels. Its attraction is love, its repulsion is wrath; but wrath is love turned round, and both wrath and love are the opposing poles of that one attribute. Hence it is the more to be regretted, and the more to be lamented, that so many ministers of Christ, not to say members of the Church of God, have wrong conceptions of the wrath of God. Watts was wrong when he made the Psalm to say of God–
Whose anger is so slow to rise,
So ready to abate.
The fact is, Gods anger never rises, and it never abates. It is always at flood tide, at the flood mark; and that is the mark of infinite perfection. It does not go up and down, like the impulsive, impetuous, and capricious passions of men. It is an everlasting principle, not a passion at all–an everlasting principle–eternal love of righteousness, eternal detestation of unrighteousness. (A. F. Pierson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. If he turn not] This clause the Syriac adds to the preceding verse. Most of the versions read, “If ye return not.” Some contend, and not without a great show of probability, that the two verses should be read in connection, thus: “God is a just Judge; a God who is provoked every day. If (the sinner) turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.” This, no doubt, gives the sense of both.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If he, i.e. the wicked man last mentioned, either Cush or Saul, turn not from this wicked course of calumnating or persecuting me, he, i.e. God, who is often designed by this pronoun, being easily to be understood from the nature of the thing,
will whet his sword, i.e. will prepare, and hasten, and speedily execute his judgments upon him. Did I say, he will do it? nay,
he hath already done it; his sword is drawn, his bow is bent, and the arrows are prepared and ready to be shot.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12, 13. They are here distinctlypointed out, though by changing the person, a very common mode ofspeech, one is selected as a representative of wicked men generally.The military figures are of obvious meaning.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If he turn not,…. Not God, but the enemy, or the wicked man, spoken of Ps 7:5; if he turn not from his wicked course of life, to the Lord to live to him, and according to his will; unless he is converted and repents of his sin, and there is a change wrought in him, in his heart and life; the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read, “if ye turn not”, or “are not converted”, an apostrophe to the wicked;
he will whet his sword: God is a man of war, and he is sometimes represented as accoutred with military weapons; see Isa 59:17; and among the rest with the sword of judgment, which he may be said to whet, when he prepares sharp and sore judgments for his enemies,
Isa 27:1;
he hath bent his bow, and made it ready; drawn his bow of vengeance, and put it on the full stretch, and made it ready with the arrows of his wrath, levelled against the wicked, with whom he is angry; which is expressive of their speedy and inevitable ruin, in case of impenitence; see La 2:4; or “trod his bow”, as is the usual phrase elsewhere; see Ps 11:2; which was done by the feet, and was necessary when the bow was a strong one, as Jarchi on Ps 11:2; observes; and so the Arabs, as Suidas g relates, using arrows the length of a man, put their feet on the string of the bow instead of their hands.
g In voce .
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
12 If he turn not These verses are usually explained in two ways. The meaning is, that if David’s enemies should persevere in their malicious designs against him, there is denounced against them the vengeance which their obstinate wickedness deserves. Accordingly, in the second clause, they supply the name of God, — If he turn not, GOD will whet his sword; (115) as if it had been said, If my enemy do not repent, (116) he shall, at length, feel that God is completely armed for the purpose of maintaining and defending the righteous. If it is understood in this sense, the third verse is to be considered as a statement of the cause why God will thus equip himself with armour, namely, because the ungodly, in conceiving all kinds of mischief, in travailing to bring forth wickedness, and in at length bringing forth deceit and falsehood, directly assail God, and openly make war upon him. But, in my judgment, those who read these two verses in one continued sentence, give a more accurate interpretation. I am not, however, satisfied that even they fully bring out the meaning of the Psalmist. David, I have no doubt, by relating the dreadful attempts of his enemies against him, intended thereby to illustrate more highly the grace of God; for when these malicious men, strengthened by powerful military forces, and abundantly provided with armour, furiously rushed upon him in the full expectation of destroying him, who would not have said that it was all over with him? Moreover, there is implied in the words a kind of irony, when he pretends to be afraid of their putting him to death. They mean the same thing as if he had said, “If my enemy do not alter his purpose, or turn his fury and his strength in another direction, who can preserve me from perishing by his hands? He has an abundant supply of arms, and he is endeavouring, by all methods, to accomplish my death.” But Saul is the person of whom he particularly speaks, and therefore he says, he hath made fit his arrows for the persecutors This implies that Saul had many agents in readiness who would willingly put forth their utmost efforts in seeking to destroy David. The design of the prophet, therefore, was to magnify the greatness of the grace of God, by showing the greatness of the danger from which he had been delivered by him. (117) Moreover, when it is here said, if he do not return, returning does not signify repentance and amendment in David’s enemy, but only a change of will and purpose, as if he had said, “It is in the power of my enemy to do whatever his fancy may suggest.” (118) Whence it appears the more clearly, how wonderful the change was which suddenly followed contrary all expectation. When he says that Saul had prepared the instruments of death for his bow, he intimates that he was driving after no ordinary thing, but was fully determined to wound to death the man whom he shot at. Some, referring the Hebrew word דולקים doulekim, which we have rendered persecutors, to arrows, have rendered it burning, (119) because it has also this signification; (120) but the translation which I have given is the more appropriate. David complains that he had reason to be afraid, not only of one man, but of a great multitude, inasmuch as Saul had armed a powerful body of men to pursue and persecute a poor fugitive.
(115) This is the view adopted by Hengstenberg in his excellent Commentary on The Psalms. “The apparently coarse manner of expression in our text,” says he, “representing God as a warrior equipped with sword and bow, has besides for its foundation the coarseness of sinners, and the weakness of faith on the part of believers, which does not direct itself against the visible danger with pure thoughts of God’s controllable agency, but seeks to clothe those thoughts with flesh and blood, and regards the judge as standing over against the sinner, man against man, sword against sword.”
(116) “ Ne cesse de me poursuyvre.” — Fr. “Do not cease from pursuing me.”
(117) “ Duquel il avoit este delivre par luy.” — Fr.
(118) “ Au reste, quand il est yci parle de se retourner, ce n’est pas pour signifier ce que nous appelons repentance et amendement en son ennemi, mais tant seulement une volonte et deliberation diverse; comme si’il dit qu’il estoit en la puissance de l’ennemi de parfaire tout ce qui luy venoit en la fantasie.” — Fr.
(119) Those who adopt this rendering, support it from the reading of the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac versions, although the Chaldee version reads persecuting; and they generally view the 12th and 13th verses as a representation of God under the image of a warrior ready to shoot his flaming, burning, fiery arrows, against the object to which he is opposed.” I read וצלקים urentes, inflammatos ; the arrows of the Almighty, (Deu 32:24.) Languishments of famine, the burnings of the carbuncle, and the bitter pestilence. Schultens, (Pro 26:23.) Lightnings are also called God’s arrows, (Psa 18:15,) and represented as the artillery of heaven.”— Dr Kennicott’s note on this place in his Select Passages of the Old Testament. Hengstenberg takes the same view. His rendering is, He [that is, God] makes his arrows burning. “ רלק, to burn. In sieges it is customary to wrap round the arrows burning matter, and to shoot them after being kindled.”
(120) “ La ou nous avons mis Persecuteurs aucuns le rapportans aux fleches, traduissent Ardentes; pource que le mot Hebrieu emporte aussl ceste signification.”— Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) If he turn not.The Hebrew is doubly idiomatic. Translate surely (see Heb. 3:11, with Note in New Testament Commentary), He will again whet His sword. It is true that the verb to turn in the sense of repetition usually precedes the other verb immediately, without, as here, any other words intervening.
Bent.Literally, trodden, showing that the foot was used by the Israelites to bend the bow, as by archers now. (Smiths Bible Dictionary, Arms.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 7:12. If he turn not, he will whet his sword Since he will not turn back, he is whetting his sword, i.e. “Since this particular enemy of David’s will not turn, &c.” The Psalmist is supposed, to see God preparing instruments of vengeance against his pursuers, since they would not turn from pursuing him, nor cease to lay snares for his life.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 7:12 If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.
Ver. 12. If he turn not ] sc. Impius ab impietate sua, saith R. Solomon, If the wicked turn not from his wickedness, by true and timely repentance.
He will whet his sword, he hath bent his bow
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 7:12-16
12If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword;
He has bent His bow and made it ready.
13He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons;
He makes His arrows fiery shafts.
14Behold, he travails with wickedness,
And he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood.
15He has dug a pit and hollowed it out,
And has fallen into the hole which he made.
16His mischief will return upon his own head,
And his violence will descend upon his own pate.
Psa 7:12 If a man does not repent Notice the conditional covenant. Also notice that repentance, like faith, is life long! See the Special Topics below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: REPENTANCE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
SPECIAL TOPIC: PERSEVERANCE
Psa 7:12-13 God’s reactions to unrepentant people are (cf. Deu 32:34-43)
1. He will sharpen His sword (cf. Psa 17:13)
2. He has bent His bow (cf. Zec 9:13)
3. He has prepared deadly weapons
4. He makes fiery arrows (cf. Psa 38:2)
This terminology relates to warfare. This lends support to Psa 7:7 addressing the nations, not just faithless Israelites.
Psa 7:14-16 These verses, however, seem to relate to personal, not national, enemies.
1. he travails with wickedness (see note below)
2. he conceives mischief (cf. Job 15:35; Isa 59:4)
3. he brings forth falsehood
4. he digs a pit, Psa 7:15 a
(these seem to combine metaphors from birthing and hunting)
But notice the reversal (cf. Pro 26:27; Pro 28:10; Ecc 10:8).
1. he falls into his own pit, Psa 7:15 b; Psa 57:6
2. his mischief will return on his own head, Psa 7:16 a,b
Psa 7:14
NASB, NKJVwickedness
NRSV, JPSOAevil
NJBmalice
REBiniquity
There is no matching verb for this noun (BDB 19). There are no cognates to this root in the Semitic languages. It is found in poetic passages in the Psalms, Job, and Proverbs.
It may come from a root which denotes power or an abuse of power (NIDOTTE, vol. 1, p. 310). This is hated by YHWH (cf. Psa 5:5; Psa 11:5). It can denote inappropriate covenant conduct in
1. worship (cf. Isa 1:13; Zec 10:2)
2. politics (cf. Isa 31:2)
3. the courts (cf. Isa 10:1; Isa 29:20)
4. warfare (Psa 56:7)
This term denotes a heart that has a settled disposition against God and His people.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
He: i.e. God.
His sword . . . bow. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 7:12-14
Psa 7:12-14
“If a man turn not, he will whet his sword;
He hath bent his bow, and made it ready;
He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death;
He maketh his arrows fiery shafts.
Behold, he travaileth with iniquity;
Yea, he hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.”
“If a man turn not.” This is any man who will not repent; and he is here represented as a man pregnant with wickedness, who has conceived mischief, and will soon be delivered of falsehood! What a picture! His delight is in the preparation of the tools for killing and murder. His bow and his arrows have received from him the most careful attention. He has sharpened his sword continually. How will God handle such a character? The answer is revealed in the next two verses.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 7:12. There are pronouns for both God and the wicked. If the wicked man does not turn from his wickedness, God will whet his sword of judgment and use it.
Psa 7:13. If the enemies continue to persecute the righteous, God will use his instruments of death on them.
Psa 7:14. He is the wicked man who takes delight in persecuting the righteous. Travaileth with iniquity means he is in pain with desire to commit iniquity.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
If: Psa 85:4, Isa 55:6, Isa 55:7, Jer 31:18, Jer 31:19, Eze 18:30, Eze 33:11, Mat 3:10, Act 3:19
he will: Deu 32:41, Isa 27:1, Isa 34:5, Eze 21:9-11, Eze 21:23
Reciprocal: Exo 9:2 – General Deu 32:23 – spend Deu 33:29 – the sword 2Sa 22:15 – arrows Job 16:13 – archers Job 18:12 – destruction Job 20:25 – drawn Job 40:19 – he that Psa 35:2 – General Psa 59:5 – be not Psa 64:7 – God Psa 68:21 – of such Psa 144:6 – shoot out Lam 3:12 – bent Hab 3:9 – bow
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE PATIENT GOD
God is a righteous Judge, strong, and patient: and God is provoked every day.
Psa 7:12 (Prayer Book Version)
Consider how patience comes, and especially how it arises from a study of the Scriptures, and what the nature of it is.
I. First, patience is a distinctly human quality, for it is a state of waiting, expecting, looking out, and thus implies periods and distinctions of time.Patience has no place in eternity. As mans love, and pity, and justice, and truth, and holiness, and wisdom are mere reflections of the corresponding attributes in God, so patience also can only find its perfect archetype in Him. How can we reconcile the facts that God is almighty and yet declines to act; that He is perfectly just, yet leaves His justice still unsatisfied? By what other attribute can we describe Him Who seems to contradict Himself but by the attribute of patience? This thought reconciles the difficulty.
II. Notice illustrations of Gods patience given in Holy Scripture.(1) Conceive the love of the Almighty manifesting itself in creation. God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. Then came the disappointment and overthrow of this plan of infinite benevolence, the ordainment of new plans for the punishment of sin, with mercy for the mitigation of pain, for the ultimate recovery of mans first estate. What a state of waiting, expecting, looking out, is here! (2) Again, imagine the patience which waited from the hour of the first promise of the Saviour, made before the gates of Paradise were shut, until those last days when the Eternal Father spoke unto us by His Son. (3) Revelation gives us one more signal instance of the patience of the Eternal God: His suffering the manners of the Christian world for these eighteen hundred years, during which Christ has waited for the gathering in of His elect.
III. It is by looking into the face of this patience of God that we can become like-minded with Him.Not only will it make us hate our sins and love Him more, but we shall have grace to be patient also. But indifference is not patience. The patient soul is that which feels acutely, but waits on, expecting the perfect end. The suspense before enjoyment is patience. The bride waits patiently for the bridegrooms voice, because she has faith and love; she is sure that he is coming. So does the soul look out in patience for that which faith and love anticipate in Christ.
Archdeacon Furse.
Illustrations
(1) Let us seek for the blameless life; let us exercise our conscience daily, that it may be void of offence towards God and man; let our lives be so absolutely blameless and harmless that we may be the sons of God without rebuke, except in so far as it concerns the law of our God; let us live so that if the minutest and most secret of our actions was investigated, we could face the eye of the fiercest day.
(2) Verses 1318 most probably refer to the enemy and his assaults. Persecutors should be translated fiery arrows.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Psa 7:12-13. If he The wicked man last mentioned; turn not From his wicked course; he God; will whet his sword Will prepare, and hasten, and speedily execute his judgments upon him. He hath bent his bow Did I say, He will do it? nay, he hath already done it; his sword is drawn, his bow is bent, and the arrows are prepared and ready to be shot. The wrath of God may be slow, but it is always sure, and the sinner who is not converted by the vengeance inflicted on others, will himself, at length, be made an example of vengeance to others. He hath prepared for him For the wicked; the instruments of death That is, deadly weapons. He ordaineth Designs or fits for this very use; his arrows against the persecutors Of all sinners, persecutors are set up as the fairest marks of divine wrath. They set God at defiance, but cannot set themselves out of the reach of his judgments.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7:12 If {k} he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.
(k) Unless Saul changes his mind, I will die, for he has both the men and weapons to destroy me. Thus considering his great danger, he magnifies God’s grace.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
David painted God as a warrior going to battle against the wicked who refuse to repent. God always gives people opportunity to judge their own sinful behavior and turn from it, but if they refuse to judge themselves, He will judge them (cf. 1Co 11:31).