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Selected Verse: Psalms 64:5 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 64:5 |
King James |
They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them? |
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] |
| A sentiment here more fully presented, by depicting their deliberate malice. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
They encourage themselves - literally, they strengthen themselves, or make themselves strong. That is, they take counsel; they encourage each other; they urge one another forward; they suggest to each other methods by which what they purpose may be done, and by which difficulties may be overcome. This was a part of their "secret counsel" or their consultation, Psa 64:2.
In an evil matter - Margin, as in Hebrew, speech. The reference is to their purpose or plan. They strengthen themselves for doing what they know to be a wrong or wicked thing.
They commune - literally, they tell or speak. That is, they tell each other how it may be done, or suggest different methods by which it may be successfully accomplishled. They compare views, that they may select that which will be most likely to be successful. All this indicates plan, consultation, design.
Of laying snares privily - Margin, as in Hebrew, to hide snares. This is a figure derived from the method of taking wild beasts. See Psa 7:15, note; Psa 38:12, note. The reference here is to some secret plan by which they intended that the author of the psalm should be entrapped and ruined. It was not a plan of open and manly warfare, but a purpose to destroy him when he would have no opportunity of defense.
They say, Who shall see them? - That is, who will see the snares or pit-falls? Who will be aware of their existence? They sought to make the plan so secret that no one could discover it, or even suspect it; to keep it so concealed that he for whom it was intended could not be put on his guard. Compare Psa 10:8-9. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
The evil speech is one with the bitter speech in Psa 64:4, the arrow which they are anxious to let fly. This evil speech, here agreement or convention, they make firm to themselves (sibi), by securing, in every possible way, its effective execution. ספּר (frequently used of the cutting language of the ungodly, Psa 59:13; Psa 69:27; cf. Talmudic ספּר לשׁון שׁלישׁי, to speak as with three tongues, i.e., slanderously) is here construed with ל of that at which their haughty and insolent utterances aim. In connection therewith they take no heed of God, the all-seeing One: they say (ask), quis conspiciat ipsis. There is no need to take למו as being for לו (Hitzig); nor is it the dative of the object instead of the accusative, but it is an ethical dative: who will see or look to them, i.e., exerting any sort of influence upon them? The form of the question is not the direct (Psa 59:8), but the indirect, in which מי, seq. fut., is used in a simply future (Jer 44:28) or potential sense (Job 22:17; Kg1 1:20). Concerning עולת, vid., Psa 58:3. It is doubtful whether תּמּנוּ
(Note: תּמּנוּ in Baer's Psalterium is an error that has been carried over from Heidenheim's.)
is the first person (= תּמּונוּ) as in Num 17:13, Jer 44:18, or the third person as in Lam 3:22 (= תּמּוּ, which first of all resolved is תּנמוּ, and then transposed תּמּנוּ, like מעזניה = מענזיה = מעזּיה, Isa 23:11). The reading טמנוּ, from which Rashi proceeds, and which Luther follows in his translation, is opposed by the lxx and Targum; it does not suit the governing subject, and is nothing but an involuntary lightening of the difficulty. If we take into consideration, that תּמם signifies not to make ready, but to be ready, and that consequently חפשׂ מחפּשׂ is to be taken by itself, then it must be rendered either: they excogitate knavish tricks or villainies, "we are ready, a clever stroke is concocted, and the inward part of man and the heart is deep!" or, which we prefer, since there is nothing to indicate the introduction of any soliloquy: they excogitate knavish tricks, they are ready - a delicately devised, clever stroke (nominative of the result), and (as the poet ironically adds) the inward part of man and the heart is (verily) deep. There is nothing very surprising in the form תּמּנוּ for תּמּוּ, since the Psalms, whenever they depict the sinful designs and doings of the ungodly, delight in singularities of language. On ולב (not ולב) = (אישׁ) ולב = ולבּו, cf. Psa 118:14. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| They commune of laying snares - They lay snares to entrap those whom they cannot slay by open attack or private ambush. |
8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.
9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
12 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
15 He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
14 The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.
11 He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.
22 It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
18 But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
13 Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the LORD shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
20 And thou, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.
17 Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
28 Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or theirs.
8 But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.
13 Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.
4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.