Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 94:5
They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.
5. They break in pieces ] Or, crush (as Isa 3:15; Pro 22:22), by violence and extortion. Thy people thine inheritance, as in Psa 28:9. Cp. Deu 4:20.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They break in pieces thy people – They tread down; they grind; they crush. The Hebrew word is often used as meaning to crush under foot; to trample on; and hence, it means to oppress. Lam 3:34; Isa 3:15.
And afflict – To wit, by oppression and wrong. If this refers to foreigners, it means that they did this by invasion and by the ravages of war.
Thine heritage – Thy people, regarded as an inheritance or possession. See Psa 28:9, note; Psa 33:12, note; Psa 68:9, note; Psa 74:2, note; Isa 19:25, note; Isa 47:6, note; 1Pe 5:3, note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. They break in pieces thy people] This was true of the Babylonians. Nehuchadnezzar slew many; carried the rest into captivity; ruined Jerusalem; overturned the temple; sacked, pillaged, and destroyed all the country.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Those righteous persons whom thou hast chosen for thy portion or inheritance.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5, 6. thy people [and] thineheritageare synonymous, the people being often called God’sheritage. As justice to the weak is a sign of the best government,their oppression is a sign of the worst (Deu 10:18;Isa 10:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They break in pieces thy people, O Lord,…. Not the Israelites, as Kimchi; but the church of Christ, by their anathemas, cruel edicts, and persecutions; by confiscating their goods, imprisoning their persons, putting them to cruel deaths; and by such means think to “wear out” the saints of the most High, the Lord’s covenant and peculiar people; which is mentioned as an aggravation of their sin, and as an argument with the Lord to arise on their behalf:
and afflict thine heritage; the church, styled God’s heritage, 1Pe 5:3, whom the Lord has chosen for his inheritance; and are dear to him, as his portion, his jewels, and even as the apple of his eye; and yet these are afflicted all manner of ways by their persecuting enemies, as Israel was of old in Egypt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5 They break in pieces thy people, O Jehovah! Having spoken of their discourse or language as vain-glorious and shameless, he proceeds to speak of their deeds, in cruelly persecuting the Church. It is hard that even the subjects of heathen princes should be subjected to unjust persecution, but a more intolerable thing still, that those who are God’s own people, his peculiar inheritance, should be trampled under the foot of tyranny. The prayer before us is one which, as I have already remarked, is given with the intention that we should prefer it ourselves, when we or others may be persecuted by wicked men, and especially intestine enemies. Our safety is dear to the Lord, not only as we are men, the workmanship of his hand, but as we are his peculiar heritage; and this should lead us, when wronged at any time, to betake ourselves to God with the more confidence. It is farther added — that they spare not the widow, and the orphan, and murder the stranger God, while he has commanded us in general to cultivate equity and justice in our common intercourse, has commended the orphan, widow, and stranger, to our peculiar care, as being more exposed to injury, and therefore more entitled to humanity and compassion. To treat such objects with cruelty argues a singular degree of impiety, and contempt of divine authority, and is not only an outrage of common justice, but the infraction of a privilege of special protection which God has condescended to cast around them. (16) They who are chargeable with such conduct, particularly provoke the divine anger. As to little children especially, their helplessness and tender age will even protect them from being attacked by dogs and wild beasts. And what shall we think of the monstrous inhumanity of men, who would make them the objects of their assault? We have here a specimen of the dreadful state of matters which must then have prevailed in the Church of God. The law was there, and the ordinances of divine appointment, yet we see to what an awful extent every species of wickedness abounded. Let us beware lest we fall into a similar state of corruption, and should it so happen under our own observation that men persecute the stranger, seize the widow, and rob the fatherless, let us, in imitation of the Psalmist, who would have us alleviate their misfortunes, pray God to undertake their defense.
(16) “ Non seulement le droict commun est viole, mais aussi le privilege que Dieu a voulu ordonner pour les maintenir en sauvete et seurete.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) Break in pieces.Or, crush. (See Isa. 3:15, where the word is in parallelism with grind the faces of the poor.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Break in pieces Crush.
Afflict Literally, Cast down to the ground, bring low. The phrase answers to “break in pieces,” crush, in the preceding member.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 94:5 They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.
Ver. 5. They break in pieces thy people ] They make potsherds of them. And this is the best use they make of thy patience; break it off, therefore.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
break: Psa 7:2, Psa 14:4, Psa 44:22, Psa 74:8, Psa 74:19, Psa 74:20, Psa 79:2, Psa 79:3, Psa 79:7, Psa 129:2, Psa 129:3, Isa 3:15, Isa 52:5, Jer 22:17, Jer 51:20-23, Jer 51:34, Mic 3:2, Mic 3:3, Rev 17:6
afflict: Exo 2:23, Exo 2:24, Jer 50:11, Rev 11:3
Reciprocal: Job 34:24 – break Psa 72:4 – break Psa 94:14 – forsake Isa 5:18 – draw
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 94:5-7. They afflict thy heritage Those righteous persons whom thou hast chosen for thy portion or inheritance. They slay the widow, &c. Whom common humanity obliged them to spare, pity, and relieve. Yet they say, The Lord shall not see Their meeting with impunity and prosperity in their impious and barbarous practices makes them ready to doubt, or to deny, the providence of God in the government of his church and of the world. Neither doth the God of Jacob regard it Though there are such evident demonstrations of the divine interpositions in favour of Jacob, and of his watchful care over them as his people, yet, for all that, they fancy he does not regard, nor will call them to any account for their doings.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
94:5 They {d} break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.
(d) Seeing the Church was then so sore oppressed, it ought not to seem strange to us, if we see it so now, and therefore we must call to God, to take our cause in hand.