Psalms 102:8

Psa 102:8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day; [and] they that are mad against me are sworn against me.

Ver. 8. Mine enemies reproach me all the day] This is an evil that man’s nature is most impatient with. See Psal. cxxxvii.

And they that are mad against me] That let fly at me, or that once praised me, flattered me. So the Sept.

Are sworn against me] Have sworn my death, or do swear and curse by me, as the Turks do at this day, when, to confirm a truth, they say, Iudaeus sim si fallam, I would I were a Jew, it is so. See Zec 8:13 Isa 6:11-13 Jer 29:22. God make thee as Ahab, and as Zedekiah, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 102:8. Mine enemies reproach me all the day — This my misery hath exposed me to the scorn of mine enemies, who do nothing but upbraid me with my calamities. And they that are mad against me — Or, my slanderers, as Dr. Waterland renders, מהוללי, moholalai, are sworn against me, — Or, they swear by me. They make use of my name and misery, in their forms of swearing and imprecation; for when they would express their malicious and mischievous intentions against any one, they swear they will make him as miserable as a Jew. Or, their form of swearing is this, “If we break our oaths, may the gods pour down their vengeance upon us, and make us as miserable as this captive Jew.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. (Psa 102:8) All the day my enemies have taunted me, my infuriated (foes) swear by me. The verb in the first clause suggests the ideas of contempt and hatred, calumny and insult. See above, on Psa 42:10. The first word of the last clause is a passive participle, my enraged (or maddened) ones, those who are mad (i.e. insane with enmity) against me. The last phrase does not mean swear at me, i.e. vent their rage by oaths and curses, nor are sworn against me, neither of which is justified by Hebrew usage; but swear by me. i. e. use me as a formula of execration, imprecating upon others misery like mine. Compare Isa 65:15, Jer 29:22. The preterite forms imply a long previous continuance of this furious persecution, as all the day does its constant, unremitted raging.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Have conspired my death.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 8. They that are mad against me are sworn against me.] The Chaldeans are determined to destroy us; and they have bound themselves by oath to do it. See a similar case related Ac 23:12-14, where a number of Jews had bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had slain Paul.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. My enemies have reviled me daily The faithful, to excite the compassion of God towards them, tell him that they are not only objects of mockery to their enemies, but also that they swore by them. The indignity complained of is, that the ungodly so shamefully triumphed over God’s chosen people, as even to borrow from their calamities a form of swearing and imprecation. This was to regard the fate of the Jews as a signal pattern in uttering the language of imprecation. When, therefore, at the present day the ungodly, in like manner, give themselves loose reins in pouring forth against us contumelious language, let us learn to fortify ourselves with this armor, by which such kind of temptation, however sharp, may be overcome. The Holy Spirit, in dictating to the faithful this form of prayer, meant to testify that God is moved by such revilings to succor his people; even as we find it stated in Isaiah 37:23,

“Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed, and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice? even against the Holy One of Israel;”

and in the verse immediately preceding the prophet had said, “He hath despised thee, O daughter of Zion! against thee hath he shaken the head, O daughter of Jerusalem!” It is surely an inestimable comfort that the more insolent our enemies are against us, the more is God incited to gird himself to aid us. In the second clause the inspired writer expresses more strongly the cruelty of his enemies, when he speaks of their being mad against him As the verb הלל, halal, which we have rendered mad, generally signifies to praise, it might here be understood as having, by the figure antiphrasis, a sense the very opposite — those who dispraised or reproached me. But it is better to follow the commonly received interpretation. Some maintain that they are called mad, because they manifested their own folly, making it evident from the manner in which they acted, that they were worthless persons; but this opinion does too much violence to the text. The more satisfactory sense is, that the people of God charge revilers with cruelty or furious hatred.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) Sworn against me.—Rather, swear by me, i.e., make his name a byeword of execration, to be explained by Isa_65:15; Jer_29:22. LXX. and Vulg., “were swearing against me.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. His enemies aggravate his sufferings by mocking him as one forsaken by God (Psa_42:10; Psa_44:13).

are sworn against me] Rather as R.V., do curse by me; using my name in formulas of execration, ‘God make thee like yonder miserable wretch.’ Cp. Isa_65:15; Jer_29:22.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For I have eaten ashes like bread,.... He sitting in ashes, as Job did, and rolling himself in them in the manner of mourners; and, having no other table than the ground to eat his food upon, he might eat ashes along with it; and by an hypallage of the words, the sense may be, that he ate bread like ashes, no more savoured and relished it, or was nourished by it, than if he had eaten ashes; the meaning is, that he was fed with the bread of adversity, and water of affliction:

and mingled my drink with weeping; that is, with tears; as he drank, the tears ran down his cheeks, and mixed with the liquor in his cup; he was fed with the bread of tears, and had them to drink in great measure; these were his meat and his drink, day and night, while enemies reproached him, swore at him, against him, and by him; see Psa 80:5.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mine enemies reproach me all the day - Continually. They reproach me as one of thy people; or, I bear reproaches in common with others, and it becomes to me a personal matter, so entirely are my feelings and interests identified with those of thy people. Perhaps there were also, mingled with this, personal reproaches and calumnies.

And they that are mad against me - Angry; excited even to madness.

Are sworn against me - literally, “swear by me,” or against me. The meaning is, that they have conspired together under the solemnity of an oath to do me harm. It is not the wrath of an individual that I am to meet, but the combined wrath of those who act under the solemnities of an oath. Compare Act 23:12.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Or, and being mad or enraged at or against me, they swear against me; they swear they will do me yet more mischief: or, they swear by me; they make use of my name and misery in their forms of swearing and imprecation; as when they would express their malicious and mischievous intentions against another, they swear that they will use him or make him as miserable as a Jew. See the like expressions Num 5:21; Isa 65:15; Jer 29:22.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 8. Mine enemies reproach me all the day. Their rage was unrelenting and unceasing, and vented itself in taunts and insults, the Psalmist's patriotism and his griefs were both made the subjects of their sport. Pointing to the sad estate of his people they would ask him, "Where is your God?" and exult over him because their false gods were in the ascendant. Reproach cuts like a razor, and when it is continued from hour to hour, and repeated all the day and every day, it makes life itself undesirable.

And they that are mad against me are sworn against me. They were so furious that they bound themselves by oath to destroy him, and used his name as their usual execration, a word to curse by, the synonym of abhorrence and contempt. What with inward sorrows and outward persecutions he was in as ill a plight as may well be conceived.

Ver. 8. Mine enemies reproach me. It is true what Plutarch writes, that men are more touched with reproaches than with other injuries; affliction, too, gives a keener edge to calumny, for the afflicted are more fitting objects of pity than of mockery. Mollerus.

Ver. 8. Mine enemies reproach me, etc. If I be where they are they rail at me to my face; and if I be not amongst them they revile me behind my back; and they do it not by starts and fits, that might give me some breathing time; but they are spitting their poison all the day long; and not single and one by one, that might leave hope of resisting; but they make combinations, and enter leagues against me; and to make their leagues the stronger, and less subject to dissolving, they bind themselves by oath, and take the sacrament upon it. And now sum up all these miseries and afflictions; begin with my fasting; then take my groaning; then add my watching; then the shame of being wondered at in company; then the discomfort of sitting disconsolate alone; and, lastly, add to these the spite and malice of my enemies; and what marvel, then, if these miseries joined all together make me altogether miserable; what marvel if I be nothing but skin and bone, when no flesh that were wise would ever stay upon a body to endure such misery. Sir R. Baker.

Ver. 8 (last clause). Swearing by one, means, to make his name a by-word of execration, or an example of cursing. (Isa 65:15; Je 29:22 42:18). Carl Bernard Moll, in Lange's Commentary.

Psalms 102:9*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. Mine enemies reproach me—This was a chief source of his distress. They taunted him as one forsaken of God. Psa_42:3; Psa_42:10; Mic_7:10.

Mad against me—They rage “against me.” They act like men devoid of reason.

Sworn against me—The peculiar form of the expression would indicate that they used him as a common formula of cursing, as in the passage, “The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab,”

Jer_29:22. See, also, Isa_65:15. We know this was the reproach of the exiles while in Babylon, Zec_8:13. This accords well with the historic occasion of the psalm.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mine enemies reproach me all the day. The reproach of their enemies was always felt by the Israelites as a bitter aggravation of their afflictions. (see Psa_42:10 Psa_44:13-16 Psa_79:4 Psa_80:6, etc.) They that are mad against me are sworn against me; rather, use me as their curse. (comp. Jer_29:22) It was a common form of cursing among the Israelites to wish a man the same fate as had befallen some one whose unhappiness was notorious.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I pondered I pondered about myself, and behold I am like a lonely bird on a roof, sitting alone without a mate.

lonely Heb. בודד, sitting alone.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.