1For the lead player, a David psalm.
God of my praise, do not be silent.
2For the wicked’s mouth, the mouth of deceit,
has opened against me,
they spoke to me with lying tongue.
3And words of hatred swarmed round me—
they battle me for no cause.
4In return for my love they accuse me,
5And they offer me evil in return for good
and hatred in return for my love:
6 “Appoint a wicked man over him,
let an accuser stand at his right.
7 When he is judged, let him come out guilty,
8 Let his days be few,
may another man take his post.
9May his children become orphans
and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander and beg,
driven out from the ruins of their homes.
11May the lender snare all that he has
and may strangers plunder his wealth.
12May no one extend to him kindness
and no one pity his orphans.
13 May his offspring be cut off,
in the next generation his name wiped out.
14 May the wrong of his fathers be recalled by the LORD
and his mother’s offense not be wiped out.
15Let these be ever before the LORD,
that He cut off from the earth their name.
16Because he did not remember to do kindness
and pursued the poor and the needy,
the heartsore, to put him to death.
17He loved a curse, may it come upon him,
he desired not blessing—may it stay far from him.
18He donned curse as his garb—
may it enter his innards like water
19May it be like a garment he wraps round him
and like a belt he girds at all times.”
20This be the plight of my accusers from the LORD,
and those who speak against my life.
21And You, O LORD, Master,
act on my behalf for the sake of Your name,
for Your kindness is good. O save me!
22For poor and needy am I,
and my heart is pierced within me.
23Like a lengthening shadow I go off,
I am shaken away like the locust.
24My knees falter from fasting
and my flesh is stripped of fat.
25As for me, I become a reproach to them.
They see me, they shake their heads.
26Help me, O LORD, my God
Rescue me as befits Your kindness,
27that they may know that Your hand it is,
it is You, O LORD, Who did it.
28Let them curse, and You, You will bless.
They will rise and be shamed, and Your servant will rejoice.
29Let my accusers don disgrace,
and let them wrap round like a robe their shame.
30I highly acclaim the LORD with my mouth,
and in the midst of the many I praise Him,
31for He stands at the needy’s right hand
to rescue him from his condemners.
PSALM 109 NOTES
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1. God of my praise, do not be silent. This opening formula aligns this text with the psalms of supplication. What is unusual about this particular supplication is that the long central section of the psalm, verses 6–19, is, in the most persuasive reading, an extensive quotation of the venomous words of accusation and imprecation that the speaker’s accusers pronounce against him.
2. the wicked’s mouth, the mouth of deceit. The attention here at the beginning to malicious speech prepares us for the words of calumny that follow. Some scholars, in the interest of neatly parallel statement, prefer to revocalize rashaʿ, “wicked,” as reshaʿ, “wickedness.”
4. though my prayer is for them. The literal sense of the received text is “and I am prayer.” The consensus of Hebrew tradition has understood this to mean something like “and I am all prayer.” The ancient Syriac version may have worked from a Hebrew text that read tefilati lahem, “my prayer is for them.” That reading would be more cogent as a parallel to “in return for my love” in the first verset.
6. Appoint a wicked man over him. These words inaugurate the hostile speech of the accusers. A clue to the fact that the speaker is the object of the curse is that the reviled man is referred to throughout in the singular, whereas the plural is used for his accusers. Their speech includes both scathing curses against the man and his family and specific indications that they want to frame a case against him in a court of law. The term “accuser,” satan, which is used as a verb in verse 4 and recurs in the plural at the end of this speech in verse 20 and again in verse 29, has a juridical connotation, as it does in the frame story of Job, where it designates Job’s accuser or adversary in the celestial assembly.
7. and his prayer be an offense. This is no doubt a malicious antithesis to the mention of benevolent prayer in verse 4.
8. may another man take his post. One may infer from these words that the speaker is some sort of official whom his enemies seek to disgrace and unseat through judicial proceedings.
10. driven out from the ruins of their homes. The Masoretic Text says, “they seek [bread?] from the ruins of their homes,” which is a possible reading, though it sounds cryptic. The translation follows others in emending wedarshu, “they seek,” to wegorshu, “are driven out,” a reading shown in the Septuagint.
13. his name. The Masoretic Text reads “their name,” but many Hebrew manuscripts as well as the Septuagint have the more likely singular possessive suffix.
14. fathers . . . / mother’s. The biblical imagination tends to conceive human destiny in terms of the familial line. The accusers want the man’s posterity to be cut off and presume that his forebears before him have accumulated a large account of transgressions that now deserves sweeping retribution.
15. their name. The plural is used here because of the reference to fathers and mother.
18. enter his innards like water / and like oil in his bones. It is obvious enough that when you drink water, it quickly goes down into the stomach. Oil in the bones may reflect a notion that oil consumed in food entered into the bone marrow.
20. This be the plight of my accusers from the LORD. The most plausible construction of these words is that they mark the end of the quoted speech of the accusers. The speaker now prays that all their vicious curses directed at him be turned against them. The phrase “from the LORD” refers to “plight” (or, more literally, “action”). It is God Who will carry out all these dire curses against the malicious men who pronounced them.
28. Let them curse, and You, You will bless. This reversal from negative intention to positive outcome complements the wish the speaker expresses in verse 20 that the curse be turned against the cursers. That wish is picked up again in the second verset of this line.
29. Let my accusers don disgrace, / . . . wrap round like a robe their shame. The image of dressing or enveloping oneself in shame answers the garment imagery of verses 18 and 19.
30. acclaim the LORD . . . / in the midst of the many. The verb “acclaim” (or “give thanks,” ʾodeh) signals the conversion of the supplication at the end into a psalm of thanksgiving, as happens frequently elsewhere. The speaker in his trust in God is persuaded that his prayer is already accomplished, for he understands it as a fixed attribute of God that “He stands at the needy’s right hand / to rescue him from his condemners.” The phrase “in the midst of the many” is one of several used by the psalmists to refer to the throng in the Temple where the thanksgiving celebrant is to praise God’s works.