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Selected Verse: Psalms 52:5 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 52:5 |
King James |
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah. |
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] |
| likewise--or, "so," "also," as you have done to others God will do to you (Psa 18:27). The following terms describe the most entire ruin. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever - Margin, "beat thee down." The Hebrew word means to "tear, to break down, to destroy:" Lev 14:45; Jdg 6:30. The reference here is not to the "tongue" alluded to in the previous verses, but to Doeg himself. The language in the verse is intensive and emphatic. The main idea is presented in a variety of forms, all designed to denote utter and absolute destruction - a complete and entire sweeping away, so that nothing should be left. The word "here" used would suggest the idea of "pulling down" - as a house, a fence, a wall; that is, the idea of completely "demolishing" it; and the meaning is, that destruction would come upon the informer and slanderer "like" the destruction which comes upon a house, or wall, or fence, when it is entirely pulled down.
He shall take thee away - An expression indicating in another form that he would be certainly destroyed. The verb used here - חתה châthâh - is elsewhere used only in the sense of taking up and carrying fire or coals: Isa 30:14; Pro 6:27; Pro 25:22. The idea here "may" be that he would be seized and carried away with haste, as when one takes up fire or coals, he does it as rapidly as possible, lest he should be burned.
And shall pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place - literally, "out of the tent." The reference is to his abode. The allusion here in the verb that is used - נסח nâsach - is to the act of pulling up plants; and the idea is, that he would be plucked up as a plant is torn from its roots.
And root thee out of the land of the living - As a tree is torn up from the roots and thus destroyed. He would be no more among the living. Compare Psa 27:13. All these phrases are intended to denote that such a man would be utterly destroyed. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| The announcement of the divine retribution begins with גּם as in Isa 66:4; Eze 16:43; Mal 2:9. The אהל is not, as one might suppose, the holy tent or tabernacle, that he has desecrated by making it the lurking-place of the betrayer (Sa1 21:7), which would have been expressed by מאהלו, but his own dwelling. God will pull him, the lofty and imperious one, down (נתץ, like a tower perhaps, Jdg 8:9; Eze 26:9) from his position of honour and his prosperity, and drag him forth out of his habitation, much as one rakes a coal from the hearth (חתה Biblical and Talmudic in this sense), and tear him out of this his home (נסח, cf. נתק, Job 18:14) and remove him far away (Deu 28:63), because he has betrayed the homeless fugitive; and will root him out of the land of the living, because he has destroyed the priests of God (Sa1 22:18). It then proceeds in Psa 52:8 very much like Psa 40:4, Psa 40:5, just as the figure of the razor also coincides with Psalms belonging to exactly the same period (Psa 51:8; Psa 57:5, cf. לטשׁ, Psa 7:13). The excitement and indignant anger against one's foes which expresses itself in the rhythm and the choice of words, has been already recognised by us since Ps 7 as a characteristic of these Psalms. The hope which David, in Psa 52:8, attaches to God's judicial interposition is the same as e.g., in Psa 64:10. The righteous will be strengthened in the fear of God (for the play of sounds cf. Psa 40:4) and laugh at him whom God has overthrown, saying: Behold there the man, etc. According to Psa 58:11, the laughing is joy at the ultimate breaking through of justice long hidden and not discerned; for even the moral teaching of the Old Testament (Pro 24:17) reprobates the low malignant joy that glories at the overthrow of one's enemy. By ויּבטח the former trust in mammon on the part of the man who is overtaken by punishment is set forth as a consequence of his refusal to put trust in God, in Him who is the true מעוז = Arab. m‛âḏ, hiding-place or place of protection (vid., on 31;3, Psa 37:39, cf. Psa 17:7; 22:33). הוּה is here the passion for earthly things which rushes at and falls upon them (animo fertur). |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Pluck thee - Violently and suddenly as the Hebrew word signifies, from thy house and lands, and all the wages of thy righteousness. Root - Though thou seemest to have taken deep root, yet God shall pluck thee up by the very roots, and destroy thee both root and branch. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
God shall likewise destroy thee -
1. God shall set himself to destroy thee; יתצך yittotscha, "he will pull down thy building;" he shall unroof it, dilapidate, and dig up thy foundation.
2. He shall bruise or break thee to pieces for ever; thou shalt have neither strength, consistence, nor support.
3. He will mow thee down, and sweep thee away like dust or chaff, or light hay in a whirlwind, so that thou shalt be scattered to all the winds of heaven. Thou shalt have no residence, no tabernacle: that shall be entirely destroyed. Thou shalt be rooted out for ever from the land of the living. The bad fruit which it has borne shall bring God's curse upon the tree; it shall not merely wither, or die, but it shall be plucked up from the roots, intimating that such a sinner shall die a violent death. Selah. So it shall be, and so it ought to be. |
27 For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
22 For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.
27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
30 Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die: because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it.
45 And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the morter of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.
7 Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.
39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD: he is their strength in the time of trouble.
17 Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:
11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
10 The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
13 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.
5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
18 And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.
63 And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
9 And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers.
9 And he spake also unto the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.
7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul.
9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.
43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations.
4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.