Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 9:5
Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name forever and ever.
5. Thou hast rebuked the heathen ] Or, as R.V. text, the nations, though here, where the word is parallel to the wicked, and denotes the nations in obstinate and sinful opposition to God’s people, heathen (R.V. marg.) might stand. God’s ‘rebuke’ is the effectual sentence of His wrath which carries its own execution with it (Psa 76:6).
thou hast put out their name ] R.V., Thou hast blotted out their name. Cp. Deu 9:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
5, 6. Stanza of Gimel. The utter destruction of the nations in their wickedness.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou hast rebuked the heathen – Not the pagan in general, or the nations at large, but those who are particularly referred to in this psalm – those who are described as the enemies of the writer and of God. On the word rendered heathen here – goyim – see the notes at Psa 2:1. The word rebuke here does not mean, as it does usually with us, to chide with words, but it means that he had done this by deeds; that is, by overcoming or vanquishing them. The reference is, undoubtedly, to some of those nations with whom the writer had been at war, and who were the enemies of himself and of God, and to some signal act of the divine interposition by which they had been overcome, or in which the author of the psalm had gained a victory. DeWette understands this as referring to barbarians, foreigners, pagan? David, in the course of his life, was often in such circumstances as are here supposed, though to what particular event he refers it would not be possible now to decide.
Thou hast destroyed the wicked – The Hebrew here is in the singular number – rasha – though it may be used collectively, and as synonymous with the word heathen. Compare Isa 14:5; Psa 84:10; Psa 125:3. The Aramaic Paraphrase renders this, Thou hast destroyed the impious Goliath. The reference is undoubtedly to the enemies meant by the word pagan, and the writer speaks of them not only as pagan or foreigners, but as characterized by wickedness, which was doubtless a correct description of their general character.
Thou hast put out their name forever and ever – As when a nation is conquered, and subdued; when it is made a province of the conquering nation, and loses its own government, and its distinct existence as a people, and its name is no more recorded among the kingdoms of the earth. This is such language as would denote entire subjugation, and it is probably to some such event that the psalmist refers. Nations have often by conquest thus lost their independence and their distinct existence, by becoming incorporated into others. To some such entire subjugation by conquest the psalmist undoubtedly here refers.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. Thou hast rebuked the heathen] We know not what this particularly refers to, but it is most probably to the Canaanitish nations, which God destroyed from off the face of the earth; hence it is said, Thou hast put out their name for ever and ever, leolam vaed, endlessly. Here olam has its proper signification, without end. He who contends it means only a limited time, let him tell us where the Hivites, Perizzites, Jebusites, c., now dwell and when it is likely they are to be restored to Canaan.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Rebuked, i.e. punished, as Psa 6:1; or destroyed, as it is explained in the next clause.
The heathen, to wit, the Philistines and other heathen nations, who did from time to time molest David, or the people of Israel.
Their name; either that fame and honour which they had gained by their former exploits, but now utterly lost by their shameful defeats; or their very memorial, as it fared with Analek.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thou hast rebuked the Heathen,…. The people of the Philistines, as the Targum and Kimchi explain it, though some Jewish writers a understand it of Amalek the chief of the Heathen nations; but it rather refers to Gospel times, and to the rebukes of the Heathen, by the preaching of the Gospel, for their idolatry and superstition; and especially to the latter day, and to the rebukes of the antichristian states, the Papists who are called Gentiles; which will be with flames of fire, and will issue in their utter extirpation, upon which a profound peace and prosperity will succeed in the Christian churches, according to Isa 2:4; which is a prophecy of those times;
thou hast destroyed the wicked; the wicked man; for it is in the singular number, “labben”, as Aben Ezra observes, or who is meant by him; Goliath, according to the Targum and Kimchi; or Esau, as other Jewish writers b, that is, his posterity the Edomites; and each of these were figures of antichrist, the man of sin, the wicked one, whom Christ will slay with the breath of his lips, Isa 11:4;
thou hast put out their name for ever and ever; that is, the glory and reputation of their name, a good and honourable one, which they sought to transmit to the latest posterity; for though the names of wicked men may continue, as Pharaoh, Judas, and others; yet they continue with a scandal and reproach upon them that shall never be wiped off, their names rot and stink; see Pr 10:7; the whole of this denotes the utter ruin and shameful end of the enemies of Christ and his church, and which is matter of joy to the saints.
a Jarchi in loc. & Pesikta in ibid. in v. 1. b Ibid.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 9:6-7) The strophe with , which is perhaps intended to represent and as well, continues the confirmation of the cause for thanksgiving laid down in Psa 9:4. He does not celebrate the judicial act of God on his behalf, which he has just experienced, alone, but in connection with, and, as it were, as the sum of many others which have preceded it. If this is the case, then in Psa 9:6 beside the Ammonites one may at the same time (with Hengstenb.) think of the Amalekites (1Sa 8:12), who had been threatened since the time of Moses with a “blotting out of their remembrance” (Exo 17:14; Deu 25:19, cf. Num 24:20). The divine threatening is the word of omnipotence which destroys in distinction from the word of omnipotence that creates. in close connection with is individualising, cf. Psa 9:18 with Psa 9:16, Psa 9:17. is a sharpened pausal form for , the Pathach going into a Segol ( ); perhaps it is in order to avoid the threefold a- sound in (Ngelsbach 8 extr.). In Psa 9:7 (with Azla legarme) appears to be a vocative. In that case ought also to be addressed to the enemy. But if it be interpreted: “Thou hast destroyed thine own cities, their memorial is perished,” destroyed, viz., at the challenge of Israel, then the thought is forced; and if we render it: “the cities, which thou hast destroyed, perished is the remembrance of them,” i.e., one no longer thinks of thine acts of conquest, then we have a thought that is in itself awkward and one that finds no support in any of the numerous parallels which speak of a blotting out and leaving no trace behind. But, moreover, in both these interpretations the fact that is strengthened by is lost sight of, and the twofold masculine is referred to (which is carelessly done by most expositors), whereas , with but few exceptions, is feminine; consequently , so far as this is not absolutely impossible, must be referred to the enemies themselves (cf. Psa 34:17; Psa 109:15). might more readily be nom. absol.: “the enemy – it is at end for ever with his destructions,” but never has an active but always only a neuter signification; or: “the enemy – ruins are finished for ever,” but the signification to be destroyed is more natural for than to be completed, when it is used of ruinae. Moreover, in connection with both these renderings the retrospective pronoun ( ) is wanting, and this is also the case with the reading (lxx, Vulg., Syr.), which leaves it uncertain whose swords are meant. But why may we not rather connect at once with as subject? In other instances is also joined to a singular collective subject, e.g., Isa 16:4; here it precedes, like in Jdg 20:37. is a nominative of the product, corresponding to the factitive object with verbs of making: the enemies are destroyed as ruins for ever, i.e., so that they are become ruins; or, more in accordance with the accentuation: the enemy, destroyed as ruins are they for ever. With respect to what follows the accentuation also contains hints worthy of our attention. It does not take (with the regular Pathach by Athnach after Olewejored, vid., on Psa 2:7) as a relative clause, and consequently does not require to be referred back to .
We interpret the passage thus: and cities (viz., such as were hostile) thou hast destroyed ( evellere, exstirpare ), perished is their (the enemies’) memorial. Thus it also now becomes intelligible, why , according to the rule Ges. 121, 3, is so remarkably strengthened by the addition of (cf. Num 14:32; 1Sa 20:42; Pro 22:19; Pro 23:15; Eze 34:11). Hupfeld, whose interpretation is exactly the same as ours, thinks it might perhaps be the enemies themselves and the cities set over against one another. But the contrast follows in Psa 9:8: their, even their memorial is perished, while on the contrary Jahve endures for ever and is enthroned as judge. This contrast also retrospectively gives support to the explanation, that refers not to the cities, but to as a collective. With this interpretation of Psa 9:7 we have no occasion to read (Targ.), nor (Paul., Hitz.). The latter is strongly commended by Job 11:20, cf. Jer 10:2; but still it is not quite admissible, since here is not subjective (their own remembrance) but objective (remembrance of them). But may not perhaps here, as in Psa 139:20, mean zealots = adversaries (from fervere, zelare )? We reply in the negative, because the Psalm bears neither an Aramaising nor a North Palestinian impress. Even in connection with this meaning, the harshness of the without any suffix would still remain. But, that the cities that are, as it were, plucked up by the root are cities of the enemy, is evident from the context.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(5) Put out.Better, blotted out. The family is extinct and its name erased from the civil register. (See Psa. 69:28; Psa. 109:13.) The Daleth stanza is wanting.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 9:5 Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.
Ver. 5. Thou hast rebuked the heathen, &c. ] God first chideth the Church’s enemies by lighter judgments; if these be not improved, he destroyeth them, Psa 119:21 ; and, because they sought to obscure and extirpate his name from among men, therefore he puts out their name, that is, their fame and reputation, for ever and yet, or for ever and a day, as we use to say: Ingloria vita recedit, they go out in a snuff, as did the primitive and modern persecutors, of abhorred memory.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
heathen = nations.
the wicked = a lawless one: i.e. the Antichrist. Compare Psa 10:3, Psa 10:13, Psa 10:14, Psa 10:15. Hebrew. rasha’. App-44.
put out = blotted out.
for ever, &c. Compare Psa 10:16.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 9:5-6
Psa 9:5-6
“Thou hast rebuked the nations, thou hast destroyed the wicked;
Thou hast blotted out their name forever and ever.
The enemy are come to an end, they are desolate forever;
And the cities which thou hast overthrown,
The very remembrance of them is perished.”
This teaches the ultimate annihilation of the wicked element in the human race, an event that must be associated with the Judgment Day itself, upon which occasion God will make an end of his Operation Adam. Yates agreed that we have here, “An eschatalogical picture of the final judgment, visualized as present.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 9:5. The heathen were the people outside the congregation of Israel who were idolaters. God rebuked them by destroying their idols. This was already true historically to some extent. But it was also a prophecy of the complete overthrow of idolatry among the Jews after the captivity.
Psa 9:6. The thought in this verse is much like that of the preceding one. It is largely prophetic, looking to the complete overthrow of the enemies of God’s people.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
rebuked: Psa 2:1, Psa 2:8, Psa 2:9, Psa 78:55, Psa 79:10, Psa 149:7, 1Sa 17:45-51, 2Sa 5:6-16, 2Sa 8:1-15, 2Sa 10:6-9, 2Sa 21:15-22, 2Sa 22:44-46, Rev 19:15
destroyed: Psa 5:6, 1Sa 25:32, 1Sa 31:4, 2Sa 17:23, Mal 4:3
put out: Deu 9:14, Pro 10:7, Pro 13:9
Reciprocal: Deu 7:24 – their name Deu 25:6 – that his name 1Sa 17:10 – give me Psa 7:9 – Oh Psa 10:16 – heathen Psa 94:10 – chastiseth Isa 17:13 – but Isa 48:19 – his name Eze 21:25 – whose