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Selected Verse: Psalms 35:14 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 35:14 |
King James |
I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother. |
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] |
behaved--literally, "went on"--denoting his habit.
heavily--or, "squalidly," his sorrowing occasioning neglect of his person. Altogether, his grief was that of one for a dearly loved relative. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
I behaved myself - Margin, as in Hebrew: "I walked." The word "walk," in the Scriptures, is often used to denote a course of conduct; the way in which a man lives and acts: Phi 3:18; Gal 2:14; Th1 4:12; Th2 3:11. It is not improperly rendered here, "I behaved myself."
As though he had been my friend or brother - Margin, as in Hebrew: "as a friend, as a brother to me." This shows that these persons were not his near "relations," but that they were his intheate friends, or were supposed to be so. He felt and acted toward them as though they had been his nearest relations.
I bowed down heavily - Prof. Alexander renders this, "Squalid I bowed down." The word rendered "I bowed down" refers to the condition of one who is oppressed with grief, or who sinks under it. All have felt this effect of grief, when the head is bowed; when the frame is bent; when one under the pressure throws himself on a couch or on the ground. The word rendered heavily - קדר qodēr - is derived from a word - קדר qâdar - which means to be turbid or foul, as a torrent: Job 6:16; and then, to mourn, or to go about in filthy garments or sackcloth as mourners: Job 5:11; Jer 14:2; Psa 38:6; Psa 42:9; and then, to be of a dirty, dusky color, as the skin is that is scorched by the sun: Job 30:28. It is rendered "black" in Jer 4:28; Jer 8:21; Kg1 18:45; Jer 14:2; "blackish," Job 6:16; "dark," Joe 2:10; Mic 3:6; Eze 32:7-8; "darkened," Joe 3:15; "mourn and mourning." Job 5:11; Job 30:28; Psa 38:6; Psa 42:9; Psa 43:2; Eze 31:15; and "heavily" only in this place. The "idea" here is that of one appearing in the usual aspect and habiliments of mourning. He had a sad countenance; he had put on the garments that were indicative of grief; and thus he "walked about."
As one that mourneth for his mother - The psalmist here evidently designs to illustrate the depth of his own sorrow by a reference to the deepest kind of grief which we ever experience. The sorrow for a mother is special, and there is no grief which a man feels more deeply or keenly than this. We have but one mother to lose, and thousands of most tender recollections come into the memory when she dies. While she lived we had always one friend to whom we could tell everything - to whom we could communicate all our joys, and of whose sympathy we were certain in all our sorrows, however trivial in their own nature they might be. Whoever might be indifferent to us, whoever might turn away from us in our troubles, whoever might feel that our affairs were not worth regarding, we were sure that she would not be the one; we were always certain that she would feel an interest in whatever concerned us. Even those things which we felt could be scarcely worth a father's attention we could freely communicate to her, for we were sure there was nothing that pertained to us that was too insignificant for her to regard, and we went and freely told all to her. And then, how much has a mother done for us! All the ideas that we have of tenderness, affection, self-denial, patience, and gentleness, are closely connected with the recollection of a mother, for we have, in our early years, seen more of these tilings in her than in perhaps all other persons together. Though, therefore, we weep when a father dies, and though, in the formation of our character, we may have been more indebted to him than to her, yet our grief for him when he dies is different from that which we feel when a mother dies. We, indeed, reverence and honor and love him, but we are conscious of quite a different feeling from that which we have when a mother is removed by death. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| Mourneth for his mother - כאבל אם caabel em, as a mourning mother. How expressive is this word! |
15 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.
2 For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
28 I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
11 To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.
6 Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
16 Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid:
2 Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
45 And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.
21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
28 I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
2 Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
11 To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
16 Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid:
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: