Psalms 109:3

Psa 109:3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.

Ver. 3. They compassed me about also, &c.] So that I could not find out any way to clear myself, though never so innocent.

And fought against me] So they smote Jeremiah with the tongue, and our Saviour suffered the opposition of sinners, Heb 12:3

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.

3. (Psa 109:3) And with, words of hatred they have compassed me, and have fought against me without cause. See above, on Psa 35:20; Psa 36:3.

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

3 And they have encompassed me He complains, that from all quarters he was assailed with the most hostile and abusive epithets, and that, too, most undeservedly. And, under a beautiful similitude, he shows that the tongues of his enemies were so full of deadly poison, that it was harder for him to endure their attacks than that of a great army, and the more so that he merited no such treatment at their hands. This species of warfare, to the exercise of which God very frequently summons his children, must be carefully considered by us. For though Satan may assault them with open violence, yet as he is the father of lies, he endeavors, by the amazing dexterity which he possesses in heaping calumny upon them, to tarnish their reputation, as if they were the most abandoned of mankind. Now, as that which was prefigured by David was fulfilled in Christ, so we must remember, that that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ is daily filling up in believers, Colossians 1:24; because, he having once suffered in himself, calls them to be sharers and associates with him in his sufferings.

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.

3. Yea, with words of hatred have they surrounded me,

And fought against me without cause.

Cp. Psa_35:7; Psa_35:19-20; Psa_69:4; Pro_1:11.

“Come and let us smite him with the tongue” was the cry of Jeremiah’s opponents (Jer_18:18). “Denounce, yea, let us denounce him” (Jer_20:10).

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.

They compassed me about also with words of hatred,.... They surrounded him as he hung on the cross, and expressed their malice and hatred against him; then was he enclosed with these spiteful snarling dogs, and encompassed by them as with so many bees, who everyone left their sting in him, Psa 22:16.

And fought against me without a cause: they were of an hostile spirit, enemies and enmity itself against him; fought against him both with words and blows, with their tongues and with their fists; sought his life, and at length took it away; he was attacked by the body of the Jewish nation, and by the whole posse of devils; and all this without any cause or just reason: he gave them no occasion for this enmity and malice, and opposition to him; and it was in the issue without effect, it was in vain and to no purpose; for though they gained their point in putting him to death, yet he rose again a triumphant Conqueror over them all.

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

They compassed me about also with words of hatred - They attacked me on every side; they assailed me, not merely in one form and direction, but in every form, and in every direction. I could turn no way - I could go nowhere - where I did not encounter these slanderous reports.

And fought against me without a cause - Contended against me, or fought against me, with “words.” They sought to do me all the harm they could. The phrase “without a cause “means that he had given them no occasion for this conduct; he had not wronged them; it was mere malignity. See Psa 35:7; Psa 69:4. Compare Joh 15:25.

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

Words of hatred; which, though covered with specious pretences, proceeded from deep malice and hatred, and were designed to work my destruction.

Without a cause; without any just provocation given them by me.

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

Ver. 3. They compassed me about also with words of hatred. Turn which way he would they hedged him in with falsehood, misrepresentation, accusation, and scorn. Whispers, sneers, insinuations, satires, and open charges filled his ear with a perpetual buzz, and all for no reason, but sheer hate. Each word was as full of venom as an egg is full of meat: they could not speak without showing their teeth.

And fought against me without a cause. He had not provoked the quarrel or contributed to it, yet in a thousand ways they laboured to "corrode his comfort, and destroy his ease." All this tended to make the suppliant feel the more acutely the wrongs which were done to him.

Ver. 3. Although an individual may be absent, so that he cannot corporeally be encompassed and fought with; nevertheless, so great is the force and malice of an envenomed tongue, that an absent man may be none the less dangerously surrounded and warred against. Thus David, though absent and driven into exile, was nevertheless surrounded and assailed by the calumnies of Doeg and the other flatterers of Saul, so that at length he was also corporeally surrounded; in which contest he would clearly have perished unless he had been divinely delivered: see 1Sa 23:1-29. And this kind of surrounding and assault is so much the more deadly as it is so much the less possible to be avoided. For who can be so innocent as to escape the snares of a back biting and calumnious tongue? What place can be so remote and obscure as that this evil will not intrude when David could not be safe in the mountains and caves of the rocks? Wolfgang Musculus.

Psalms 109:4*

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

3. Compassed… fought—Military terms; enemies surrounded and fought him with the words of falsehood and hatred. These were their weapons and their policy of war.

Without a cause—In the absence of all just ground of hostility they could deal in nothing but falsehood. Compare, in the Messianic sense of the psalm, Mat_26:59

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

They compassed me about also with words of hatred. The hatred of the wicked for the good is a plain fact of history, and quite indisputable. "Words of hatred" are less patent, since they are often restrained from prudential considerations. But sometimes free vent is given to them. (see 2Sa_16:5-8) And fought against me without a cause. (comp. Psa_35:7, 19 69:4 119:161) Saul"s hatred towards David was markedly of this character un-provoked by either act or word from its object.

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