Click
here to show/hide instructions.
Instructions on how to use the page:
The commentary for the selected verse is is displayed below.
All commentary was produced against the King James, so the same verse from that translation may appear as well. Hovering your mouse over a commentary's scripture reference attempts to show those verses.
Use the browser's back button to return to the previous page.
Or you can also select a feature from the Just Verses menu appearing at the top of the page.
Selected Verse: Psalms 10:14 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Ps 10:14 |
King James |
Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
mischief and spite--provocation and trouble of the sufferer (compare Psa 6:7; Psa 7:14).
committeth--or, "leaves (his burden) on Thee." |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Thou hast seen it - Thou seest all. Though people act as if their conduct was not observed, yet thou art intimately acquainted with all that they do. The workers of iniquity cannot hide themselves. The idea here is, that although God seemed not to notice the conduct of the wicked, and though the wicked acted as if he did not, yet that all this was seen by God, and that he would deal with men according to justice and to truth.
For thou beholdest mischief - All that is done on the earth, though perhaps in this case referring particularly to that which gave the psalmist trouble.
And spite - The word spite with us, though it originally denoted rancour, malice, ill-will, now denotes usually a less deliberate and fixed malice than is indicated by those words, but is used to denote a sudden fit of ill-will excited by temporary vexation. It relates to small subjects, and is accompanied with a desire of petty revenge, and implies that one would be gratified with the disappointment or misfortune of another. The word here, however, in the original, means anger, wrath, malice; and the idea is, that God had seen all the anger of the enemies of the psalmist.
To requite it with thy hand - By thine own interposition or agency - the hand being the instrument by which we accomplish anything. The idea is, that the psalmist felt assured that God would not pass this over. Though the wicked acted as if he did not see or regard their conduct, yet the psalmist felt assured that God would not be unmindful of it, but would, in due time, visit them with deserved punishment.
The poor committeth himself unto thee - Margin, "leaveth." The word rendered poor is the same as that which occurs in Psa 10:10. It means here those who are helpless and defenseless; the oppressed and the downtrodden. The word committeth or leaveth means that he leaves his cause with God; he trusts in his protection and interposition; he gives himself no anxiety as to the result. He knows that God can deliver him if he sees that it is best; and he is assured that God will do that which it is best should be done.
Thou art the helper of the fatherless - That is, this is the general character of God - the character in which he has revealed himself to man. Compare Exo 22:22; Deu 10:18; Isa 1:17; Psa 68:5; Psa 82:3; Jer 49:11; Hos 14:3; Mal 3:5; Jam 1:27. The psalmist here refers to the "general character" of God as that in which all the oppressed, the crushed, the helpless may trust; and he mentions this particular case as one that best illustrated that character. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
Now comes the confirmation of his cry to God: It is with Him entirely different from what the ungodly imagine. They think that He will not punish; but He does see (cf. Ch2 24:22), and the psalmist knows and confesses it: ראתה (defective = ראיתה Psa 35:22), Thou hast seen and dost see what is done to Thine own, what is done to the innocent. This he supports by a conclusion a genere ad speciem thus: the trouble which is prepared for others, and the sorrow (כּעס, as in Ecc 7:3) which they cause them, does not escape the all-seeing eye of God, He notes it all, to give it into (lay it in) His hand. "To give anything into any one's hand" is equivalent to, into his power (Kg1 20:28, and frequently); but here God gives (lays) the things which are not to be administered, but requited, into His own hand. The expression is meant to be understood according to Psa 56:9, cf. Isa 49:16 : He is observant of the afflictions of His saints, laying them up in His hand and preserving them there in order, in His own time, to restore them to His saints in joy, and to their enemies in punishment. Thus, therefore, the feeble and helpless (read חלכּה or חלכּה; according to the Masoretic text חלכה Thy host, not חלכה, which is contrary to the character of the form, as pausal form for חלכה) can leave to Him, viz., all his burden (יהבו, Psa 55:23), everything that vexes and disquiets him. Jahve has been and will be the Helper of the fatherless. יתום stands prominent by way of emphasis, like אותם Psa 9:13, and Bakius rightly remarks in voce pupilli synecdoche est, complectens omnes illos, qui humanis praesidiis destituuntur. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
Requite - Heb. to give (to restore or pay the mischief which they have done to others) with thy hand, by thy own extraordinary providence, because the oppressed were destitute of all other succours. Fatherless - Of such as have no friend or helper, one kind of them being put for all. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Thou hast seen it - Nothing can escape thy notice. Thou hast not forgotten thy justice, though judgment is not speedily executed on an evil work. But thou wilt requite it with thy hand. By thy power thou wilt cast down and destroy the wicked.
The poor committeth himself unto thee - To thee he has given up his body, his soul, and his cause; with the full conviction that thou who art the helper of fatherless, will not forget him. |
14 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.
27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
3 Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
11 Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.
3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
5 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.
22 Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.
10 He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
13 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:
23 But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee.
16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.
9 When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
28 And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
22 This thou hast seen, O LORD: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me.
22 Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it.