Psalms 16:10

soul--or, "self." This use of "soul" for the person is frequent (Gen 12:5; Gen 46:26; Psa 3:2; Psa 7:2; Psa 11:1), even when the body may be the part chiefly affected, as in Psa 35:13; Psa 105:18. Some cases are cited, as Lev 22:4; Num 6:6; Num 9:6, Num 9:10; Num 19:13; Hag 2:13, &c., which seem to justify assigning the meaning of body, or dead body; but it will be found that the latter sense is given by some adjunct expressed or implied. In those cases person is the proper sense.

wilt not leave . . . hell--abandon to the power of (Job 39:14; Psa 49:10). Hell as (Gen 42:38; Psa 6:5; Jon 2:2) the state or region of death, and so frequently--or the grave itself (Job 14:13; Job 17:13; Ecc 9:10, &c.). So the Greek Hades (compare Act 2:27, Act 2:31). The context alone can settle whether the state mentioned is one of suffering and place of the damned (compare Psa 9:17; Pro 5:5; Pro 7:27).

wilt . . . suffer--literally, "give" or "appoint."

Holy One-- (Psa 4:3), one who is the object of God's favor, and so a recipient of divine grace which he exhibits--pious.

to see--or, "experience"--undergo (Luk 2:26).

corruption--Some render the word, the pit, which is possible, but for the obvious sense which the apostle's exposition (Act 2:27; Act 13:36-37) gives. The sense of the whole passage is clearly this: by the use of flesh and soul, the disembodied state produced by death is indicated; but, on the other hand, no more than the state of death is intended; for the last clause of Psa 16:10 is strictly parallel with the first, and Holy One corresponds to soul, and corruption to hell. As Holy One, or David (Act 13:36-37), which denotes the person, including soul and body, is used for body, of which only corruption can be predicated (compare Act 2:31); so, on the contrary, soul, which literally means the immaterial part, is used for the person. The language may be thus paraphrased, "In death I shall hope for resurrection; for I shall not be left under its dominion and within its bounds, or be subject to the corruption which ordinarily ensues."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Psa 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Ver. 10. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell] That is, my body in the grave ( animamque sepulchro condimus - Virg, de Polydori funere. Aeneid. iii.), or in the state of the dead, Gen 37:35. That soul is sometimes put for a carcase or dead corpse, see Job 14:22; Lev 19:28; Lev 21:1; Lev 21:11; Num 5:2; Num 6:6; Num 19:13, which place is expounded, Eze 44:25. David can confidently write upon his grave, Resurgam, I shall rise again. This many heathens had no hope of, 1Th 4:13 (Horat. lib. iv. Od. 7).

Cum semel occideris,

Non Torquate, tuum genus, aut facundia, non te

Restituet pietas, &c.

Yet some heathens believed both the immortality of the soul, and therefore durst die ( - animaeque capaces mortis - ), and the resurrection of the body, as did Zoroastes, Theopompus, Plato; and as do the Turks today.

Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one, &c. That is, the Messiah that is to come out of my loins, and who saith to me and all his members {as Isa 26:19} in effect, "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust," &c. {See Trapp on the title Michtam "Psa 16:1"} The former part of this verse seems to be spoken of David, the latter of Christ; like as Job 35:15, the former part is of God, the latter of Job. See the margin. Christ’s resurrection is a cause, pledge, and surety of the saint’s resurrection to glory; for joy whereof David’s heart leaped within him. Christ’s body, though laid in the corrupting pit, could not see, that is, feel, corruption, it was therefore a pious error in those good women who brought their sweet odours to embalm his dead body, Luk 24:1.

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_16:10

Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.

Christs descent into hell

The afflictions and calamities which fall upon many men in this present state are such that, were it not for the hope which they have in God, their only comfort would be that expectation of death which Job expresses (Job_3:17). But true religion affords virtuous and good men a very different prospect; and teaches them to expect, that if God does not think fit to deliver them out of their troubles here, yet even the grave puts not an end to His power of redeeming them. They may look upon death itself, not barely as a putting an end to their present afflictions, but as a passage to a glorious and immortal state. In its real and most proper sense the text is not applicable to the Psalmist himself, but to Him of whom David was both a prophet and a type. The word hell now signifies the state of the damned, but David was not condemned to that place of torment, nor did Jesus descend there. Hell frequently means the state of the dead (Psa_89:1-52; Pro_27:20; Pro_30:15). In the New Testament it means the same, but at times, also, the place appointed for the punishment of the wicked. But this ambiguity is in our own language only, and not in the original. There the place of torment is always Gehenna. The Scriptures nowhere teach that Christ ever entered the place of the damned. Nor is there any reason why He should. The satisfaction of Christ does not depend on the sameness of His sufferings with ours, but on the good pleasure of God. If He had entered the place of the damned, Christ could not have known the sting of their punishment, the worm that never dies, the endless despair of the favour of God. Some say Christ went there to rescue those who were there. Others say He went in order to triumph over Satan in his own kingdom. But our Lord triumphs over him by converting men from their sins and debaucheries, from their unrighteousness and iniquities, which are the works of the devil; to the practice of virtue, justice, goodness, temperance, charity, and truth, which are the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon earth. Upon the whole, therefore, there is no sufficient foundation, either in the reason of the thing or in the declarations of Scripture, to suppose that our Lord ever descended at all into the place of torment, into the place appointed for the final punishment of the wicked. But the full meaning of the text is, that our Lord continued in the state of the dead, in the invisible state of departed souls, during the time appointed; but that, it not being possible for Him to be holden of death, He was raised again without seeing corruption. (Samuel Parker, D. D.)

He descended into hell

Our Lord had not only a human body, but likewise a human soul. His body was laid in the grave, but His soul departed from the body. What is meant by descending into hell? Some say hell signifies the place of spirits and eternal woe. Others think it does not signify a place of torment, but the place of departed souls; that unseen world into which the spirits of the dead are received when released from the body. Some suppose that there was a great object in the salvation of mankind, which our Lord wrought in going down to hell, or the place of the departed; that He there preached to the dead. And no doubt His souls departing into hell was for our sakes, to carry even there, also, an atonement for us; to carry with Him some inconceivable blessing and benefit for us into that place also. As everything that our Lord underwent for our sakes appears to have been set forth, and typified beforehand, in His law, so also was this descent into hell. Illustration: Scapegoat of the day of atonement. The departure of the soul from the body into the unknown land of spirits is, of itself, so awful a thought, even to the goodman, that this article of the creed may be a point of great consolation to him. For a Christian to die, even before the day of judgment, is to be with Christ, and to be released from life as from a burden, and to be in joy. It is the great day of judgment which the Bible is ever setting before us. Yet the little that is told us of the state of our souls before the day of judgment, and immediately when they depart from the body, is of itself very deeply affecting, awful, and concerning. It may be profitable to dwell upon these two, what are called intermediate, states: our condition between death and judgment; the states in which our friends are now, and we shall soon be. When work is done, then is the time for contemplation and reflection; and then, when our labours are all over and we are waiting for our judge to pronounce sentence upon them, we shall no doubt form a far more correct judgment of them than now we do. Even if we had been told nothing of the state of the departed, we might have supposed that to be waiting for the judgment, and to be removed from all things here in which the soul can take delight, must be awful beyond all description. We may see how much of mercy and goodness, and how much benefit to us, may be contained in this one article of the creed, that Christ descended into the place of the dead. By going there Himself, after tasting of the bitterness of death, He seems to say to His faithful followers, Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers (Isa_26:20-21). It is good for us that we should think often of the spirits of the dead, of just men made perfect, of them who are released from the burden of the flesh, and are waiting in awful and blissful silence for the revelation of the great day. By His descent into hell Jesus has sanctified and blessed the place of our souls. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to Tracts for the Times. )

Our Lord in the intermediate state

Stress is laid on the fact that our Lords blessed body saw no corruption. It lay not long enough in the grave for that change to have taken place in it which we know to be the lot of all human bodies when they have been any while dead. He had not been dead more than thirty-six hours. There seems a special propriety in its being ordered that the only body which was never stained by sin should also be the only one exempt, though not from the pains, yet from the loathsomeness of death. It was a way of giving the whole world, angels and men, clearly to understand that, although God had laid on Him the punishment due to sinful men, yet He never ceased for a moment to be the only beloved of His Father.

1. This text proves the truth of our Saviours human soul and body; proves that He took on Himself, really and truly, the substance of our nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, and lived and died in all respects a man, sin only and sinful infirmity excepted; so also, in the unseen state, He continued to be a man among men. Here is a token and earnest that our merciful God sympathises with our natural care and anxiety as to what shall become both of our friends and ourselves during that awful interval which is to come between death and resurrection. Souls departed and bodies in the grave are within the merciful care of Him who is both God and man.

2. Observe the difference between the language of the Old Testament, even the most evangelical portions of it, where they speak of the state of the dead, and the language of the blessed Gospel itself relating to the same subject.

3. How happy and comfortable soever the Paradise of the dead may be, it is not a place of final perfection, but a place of waiting for something better; a region not of full enjoyment, but of assured peace and hope. So much is hinted, in that God is thanked and glorified for not leaving our Saviours soul in that place. Here is something very apt to raise in us high and noble thoughts of that which, in one way or another, we are shamefully used to undervalue--the mortal body of man.

4. What does the prophet teach concerning our Saviours body? Our Saviours Person was holy because of His most high Godhead. And the same name, Holy One, is ascribed to His sacred body as it lay in the grave, three days and three nights, separate from His soul. It was still holy, still united in a mysterious but real manner to the Eternal Word.

5. Seeing that, even in the grave, the Godhead of the Lord Christ still abode with His blessed body, seeing that body was still Gods Holy One, it could not be suffered to see corruption. And to whomsoever He has given power to become adopted sons of God He gives something glorious and immortal, a seed of a heavenly life which can never decay. Living or dying, nothing shall separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, nothing but their own wilful unworthiness. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to Tracts for the Times. )

On the descent of our Lord Jesus Christ into hell

Doctrine: Our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed and Holy One of God, was deeply humbled by His entrance into, and continuing in, the state of the dead for a time.

I. Premise some things.

1. That our Lord Jesus Christ not only endured, in His last passion, most painful sufferings in His body, but also most grievous torments immediately in His soul. Many great divines understand by the words, He descended into hell, these soul sufferings of Jesus.

2. The Son of God willingly laid down His life; yielded to the power of death.

3. Though death made a separation of HIS soul from His body, yet His soul and body retained their union with the Divine nature, subsisting in the Person of the son of God.

II. How Jesus was humbled by being in the state of the dead for a time. Death exercised its dominion over Him, as far as it could in law.

1. Death continued its power and dominion over Him for a time.

2. While in the state of the dead He was cut off from the comforts of this life.

3. Men took occasion to give Him over for lost, and to judge Him as one totally vanquished by death, and without any help or hope.

4. He was further humbled by His soul entering into heaven as the soul of a dead man.

5. In regard that His blessed body was buried and laid in the grave.

6. In regard that His dead body was in the power of His enemies for a time.

III. How long did our Saviour continue in the state of the dead? Three incomplete days and nights in the territories of death, and land of darkness and forgetfulness.

IV. Why did the Lord Jesus continue in the state of the dead for a time? That He might conquer death and the grave in their own territories. Use for consolation. Against all challenges for guilt from the law and justice of God, from Satan, or your own consciences. Use for exhortation. Labour to have an interest in the death of Christ. (James Robe, M. A.)

Neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.

The devout heart defying death

I. The ground of this triumphant confidence. The text begins with a therefore, and that sends us back to what has preceded. The realisation by faith of the presence of God, and of the calm blessedness and stability of continual communion with Him. The religious experiences of the devout life are of such a nature as to bring with them the calm, sweet assurance of their own immortality. The capacity for communion with God surely bears witness that the man who has it is not born for death. Though we have the objective proof of a future life, in the fact of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, and though that historical fact is the illuminating fact which brings life and immortality to light, there is needed for the conversion of intellectual belief into living confidence the witness of our own personal enjoyment of God and His sweetness, here and now, which will bring to us, as nothing else will, the calm assurance wherein our hearts may be glad, our spirits may rejoice, and our very flesh may rest safely. If you would be sure of a blessed future, make sure of a God-filled present.

II. The contents of the psalmists triumphant confidence. The expression leave in should be leave to; it does not express the notion of a permission to descend for a time into Sheol, then to be recalled thence, but it expresses the idea of not being delivered at all to the power of that dark world. The Psalmist is not thinking about any resurrection of the body, but is thinking that for him, by reason of his communion with God, death has really been abolished and become non-existent. The threatening shadow is swept clean out of his path. Could any man, knowing the facts of human life, ever cherish such an expectation as that? The answer is to be found in distinguishing between essence and form. The essence of the Psalmists conviction was, that his communion with God was unbroken and unbreakable, and in the light of that great hope the grim figure that stood before him thinned itself away to a film, through which the hope shone like a star through the cloud. Whatsoever may have been the obscurity that lay over his conceptions of his own future, this was clear to him,--and this was the all-sufficient thing,--that the content, the stability, the immobility which he enjoyed in his communion with God had nothing in them that death could touch, and would run on unbroken for evermore. The text does not contemplate resurrection as an article of belief, but resurrection is a logical result of the Psalmists way of thinking. For, says he, My flesh also shall rest secure. The over-strained spiritualism which pays no attention to the body, except as the clog and prison house of the soul, has no footing in Scripture representations. The perfection of humanity is to be found in the rising up of a perfected spirit, and the investing of it with a body of glory,--its fitting instrument, its joyous friend. Turn to the positive side of this triumphant confidence. Thou wilt show me the path of life. That means a road which is life all the way along, and leads to a more perfect and ultimate form thereof. The Psalmist is sure that when the path dips down into any valley of the shadow of death it is still a path to life. Mark the other portions of this triumphant positive confidence. Communion of earth, imperfect as it is, yields analogies, by the heightening and purifying of which we may construct for ourselves some dim, indeed, but reliable, visions of the blessedness of heaven. The enlargement and perfecting of this earthly experience is to be looked for in two directions. The fulness of joy is in Thy presence. And at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

III. The fulfilment of this triumphant confidence. The Psalmist died. The essence of his hope was fulfilled; the form was not. The words point to an ideal which the Psalmist strained after, and did not realist. In Christ alone was realised, in its completeness, that life of communion which delivers from,, death. Though there still remains the physical fact, all that makes it death is gone for him who trusts in Jesus Christ. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Joy in Christs resurrection

We are warranted in taking this Psalm to ourselves, inasmuch as the first verses of it plainly belong to David as well as to Christ. Every part of the Psalm may be applied to David in some sense, except that one clause m which our Lord only can be meant, Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. See what consolation devout persons had, even under the Old Testament: they did, as it were, keep a kind of Easter beforehand. Observe what use the man after Gods own heart made of his nightly pain and sickness. As he lay awake he practised himself in heavenly contemplations. In what he says he could not mean less than this: that he had a fair and reasonable hope of being somehow delivered from the power of death, and made partaker of heavenly joys in the more immediate presence of God. Yet even the greatest of the old fathers only saw through a glass darkly the things which Christians see face to face. Such as desire to offer to God thanksgivings worthy of His Gospel will find it no small help to know that their unworthy thanksgivings are very far from being single and alone. The saints before Christ partake of our devout joy and hope of immortality.

1. See what kind of persons may reasonably hope to persevere in well-doing and in Gods favour; namely, those who make it a rule to live always as in Gods especial presence. If you want to have a cheerful and rational dependence on your continuance in well-doing, this one thing you must do, you must set God always before you. You must never act as if you were alone in the world. This is the only assurance of salvation that can be reasonably depended on by any man in his own case; namely, the sober yet cheerful hope which arises from a pure conscience, from long-continued habits of real piety and goodness. All assurance besides this is more or less fanciful and dangerous. If a man is endeavouring to keep on this safe ground of assurance he may, without presumption, look for the other comforts mentioned in the Psalm. He may indulge in a calm and reverential joy of heart. The Psalmist notices, as another, the greatest of all fruits of holy trust in the Almighty, that it causes our very flesh, that is, our mortal body, to rest in hope; it makes sleep quiet and secure, and it takes out the sting of death. The chiefest of all privileges is to have hope in the grave; hope that through Him, to whom alone these sacred promises belong of right, our souls shall not be left in hell,--in that dark, unknown condition to which, before the coming of Christ, the name of Hell was usually given. There need not now to be anything forlorn or desolate in our meditations on our departed friends, or on the condition to which we are ourselves approaching. The unseen region where the soul is to lodge is the place where once the Spirit of our Saviour abode, and is therefore under His especial protection, even more than any church or place that is most sacred on earth. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to Tracts for the Times.)

Christ contemplating His future blessedness

We must consider these words as our blessed Masters own words, as much so as though they came from His own lips. They describe the feelings of His human soul while dwelling in a human body in our world. And this gives them a very high interest. We have here some of the outpourings of His soul before His Father.

I. The title He applies to Himself.

1. He calls Himself Gods Holy One. It tells how eminently, conspicuously holy He was.

2. His application of this title to Himself shows us that He deemed it an honourable title. He delights in it, more than in anything besides.

II. His prospect of His resurrection. We learn--

1. That our holy Lord was, as we are, made up of both body and soul. He speaks of both: My soul, and of His body in referring to the corruption, which it should not see.

2. At His crucifixion these two parts of Him were separated. A real dissolution took place. The flesh and the spirit were rent now comes something peculiar to Him.

3. His human frame was saved from corruption. The least taint never touched it. We are familiar with death, and therefore the corruption of death does not make us shudder. But if we saw it for the first time we should abhor it, we should look on it as a token of Gods disgust with us, a fixed purpose on His part to degrade and punish us to the utmost for our transgressions.

4. The resurrection of Christ consisted mainly in a reunion of His body and soul. It is implied in the words, Thou wilt show me the path of life. And here comes out that wonderful truth, the eternal manhood of the Divine Saviour. Death made no essential change in Him. He is not a stranger to us. He is not ashamed to call us brethren. Wonderful condescension!

III. The view He had of His heavenly blessedness. Heaven is meant, we cannot doubt, in the last verse of this Psalm. And we observe--

1. How our Lord tells of nothing in it peculiar to Himself. He places Himself on a level with His people.

2. See the nature of this blessedness. It is joy, and not one only, but pleasures.

3. And perfect, for it is fulness of joy.

4. And permanent, for evermore.

5. And the source of it--God. It is at Gods right hand. St. Peter, quotes the passage thus: Thou shalt make me full of joy with Thy countenance.

6. We and our blessed Lord shall be sharers together in the same happiness in His kingdom.

IV. The effects which His anticipation of this blessedness produced in Him.

1. Joy, gladness of heart. True, He was the Man of sorrows, but they were not unmingled. Many a gleam of light pierced through the darkness. And His joy burst forth in exultation and praise. Luke (chap. 10) tells us how He rejoiced in spirit. And He left the world with something like a conquerors shout.

2. Hope. It reconciled Him to death. It was but as a sleep to Him. (C. Bradley.)

Christs being the Holy One of God

Jesus Christ is that Holy One of God, as--

1. All the holiness of God is in Him.

2. In the special peculiar relation in which He stands to God.

3. He has more of the holiness of God communicated to Him than all other creatures.

4. The holiness of God is more manifested in and by Him than in any other way.

5. He is set apart in a peculiar manner for the bringing about Gods great design of glorifying Himself, in putting an end to sin, and malting an elect world of mankind sinners holy. (James Robe, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ver. 10. Our Lord Jesus was not disappointed in his hope. He declared his Father's faithfulness in the words,

thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, and that faithfulness was proven on the resurrection morning. Among the departed and disembodied Jesus was not left; he had believed in the resurrection, and he received it on the third day, when his body rose in glorious life, according as he had said in joyous confidence,

neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Into the outer prison of the grave his body might go, but into the inner prison of corruption he could not enter. He who in soul and body was preeminently God's "Holy One, "was loosed from the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. This is noble encouragement to all the saints; die they must, but rise they shall, and though in their case they shall see corruption, yet they shall rise to everlasting life. Christ's resurrection is the cause, the earnest, the guarantee, and the emblem of the rising of all his people. Let them, therefore, go to their graves as to their beds, resting their flesh among the clods as they now do upon their couches.

"Since Jesus is mine, I will not fear undressing,

But gladly put off these garments of clay; To die in the Lord is a covenant blessing,

Since Jesus to glory through death led the way."

Wretched will that man be who, when the Philistines of death invade his soul, shall find that, like Saul, he is forsaken of God; but blessed is he who has the Lord at his right hand, for he shall fear no ill, but shall look forward to an eternity of bliss.

Ver. 10. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, etc. The title of this golden text may beThe embalming of the dead saints: the force whereof is to free the souls from dereliction in the state of death, and to secure the bodies of God's saints from corruption in the grave. It is the art which I desire to learn, and at this time, teach upon this sad occasion, (1) even the preparing of this confection against our burials. George Hughes, 1642.

(1) A Funeral Sermon.

Ver. 10. Many of the elder Reformers held that our Lord in soul actually descended into hell, according to some of them to suffer there as our surety, and according to others to make a public triumph over death and hell. This idea was almost universally, and as we believe, most properly repudiated by the Puritans. To prove this fact, it may be well to quote from Corbet's witty itinerary of,

"Four clerks of Oxford, doctors two, and two That would be doctors."

He laments the secularisation of church appurtenances at Banbury, by the Puritans, whom he described as,

"They which tell That Christ hath never descended into Hell,

But to the grave."

C.H.S. The quotation is from Richard Corbet's Poems, 1632.

Ver. 10. My soul in hell. Christ in soul descended into hell, when as our surety he submitted himself to bear those hellish sorrows (or equivalent to them), which we were bound by our sins to suffer for ever. His descension is his projection of himself into the sea of God's wrath conceived for our sins, and his ingression into most unspeakable straits and torments in his soul, which we should else have suffered for ever in hell. This way of Christ's descending into hell is expressly uttered in the person of David, as the type of Christ. Ps 86:13 116:3 69: 1-3. Thus the prophet Isaiah saith, "His soul was made an offering." Isa 53:10. And this I take it David means, when he said of Christ, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." Ps 16:10 Ac 2:1-47. And thus Christ descended into hell when he was alive, not when he was dead. Thus his soul was in hell when in the garden he did sweat blood, and on the cross when he cried so lamentably, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Mt 26:38. Nicholas Byfield's "Exposition of the Creed, "1676.

Ver. 10. In hell. Sheol here, as hades in the New Testament, signifies the state of the dead, the separate state of souls after death, the invisible world of souls, where Christ's soul was, though it did not remain there, but on the third day returned to its body again. It seems best of all to interpret this word of the grave as it is rendered; Ge 42:38 Isa 38:18. John Gill.

Ver. 10. Thine Holy One. Holiness preserves the soul from dereliction, in the state of death, and the body of the saint from corruption in the grave. If it be desired by any that doubt of it, to see the clear issue of this from the text, I shall guide them to read this text with a great accent upon that term, "Thine Holy One, " that they may take special notice of it, even the quality of that man exempted from these evils. In this the Spirit of God puts an emphasis on holiness, as counter working and prevailing over death and the grave. It is this and nothing but this, that keeps the man, dead and buried, from desertion in death, and corruption in the grave. George Hughes.

Ver. 10. The great promise to Christ is, that though he took a corruptible body upon him, yet he should not see corruption, that is, partake of corruption: corruption should have no communion with, much less power over him. Joseph Caryl.

Ver. 10. Quoted by the apostle Peter (Ac 2:27); on which Hackett (Com. in loc.) observes: "The sense then may be expressed thus: Thou wilt not give me up as prey to death; he shall not have power over me, to dissolve the body and cause it to return to dust."

Ver. 10. Jesus dead, the place of his soul and his body. A difficult but interesting topic.

Ver. 10-11. Because he lives we shall live also. The believers, therefore, can also say, Thou wilt show me the path of life. This life means the blessedness reserved in heaven for the people of God after the resurrection. It has three characters. The first regards its source it flows from his presence. The second regards its plenitudeit is fulness of joy. The third regards its permanency the pleasures are for evermore. William Jay.

Psalms 16:11*

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

Psa 16:10. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell — Hebrew, לשׁאול, lesheol, rendered, εις αδην, by the LXX., and εις αδου, in hades, Act 2:27, which word generally means the invisible world, or the state of separate spirits; not a place of torment, which the word αδης, hades, seldom means, and into which Christ’s soul certainly did not go after it left the body, but into paradise, Luk 23:43-46. See Bishop Pearson on the Creed, and Rev 20:14, where death and hell (in the original hades) are said to be cast into the lake of fire, which shows that hades is a different place, or state, from the lake of fire, or what we call hell. The meaning of which passage is evidently, that then, the dead being raised, the state of separate spirits shall no longer have any existence, but men’s souls and bodies, being again united, the wicked shall have their place in the lake of fire, or in hell, properly so called, and the righteous in the third heaven, the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, evidently distinguished from paradise, the place of holy souls, 2Co 12:2; 2Co 12:4; neither wilt suffer thy Holy One — Me, thy holy Son, whom thou hast sanctified and sent into the world; (for it is peculiar to Christ to be called the Holy One of God, Mar 1:24; Luk 4:34;) to see corruption — To be corrupted in the grave as the bodies of others are. Perhaps we ought to observe here that, in our printed Hebrew copies, the word rendered Holy One is plural, חסידיךְ, chesideika: but as the best expositor of the text, St. Peter, (with the LXX.,) renders it in the singular, τον οσιον σου, Act 2:27; Act 13:35, and as several Hebrew manuscripts read it in the singular, and as the Masorites themselves have ordered it to be so read, we may be satisfied it is the true reading.

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

10. (Psa 16:10) For thou wilt not leave my soul to Hell; thou wilt not give thy Holy One to see corruption. He now assigns the ground or reason of the confidence expressed in the preceding verse. "I am sure my soul and body will be safe, because thou canst not, without ceasing to be God and my God, give me up to the destroyer." He does not say leave in but to, i.e. abandon to, give up to the dominion or possession of another. The same Hebrew phrase occurs, with the same sense, in Lev 19:10, Job 39:14, and in Psa 49:11 (10) below.—Hell is here to be taken in its wide old English sense, as corresponding to the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades, the invisible world or state of the dead. See above on Psa 6:6 (5), and Psa 9:18 (17).—Give, i.e. permit, or more emphatically, give up, abandon, which makes the parallelism of the clauses more exact. Thy Holy One, or more exactly, thy favourite, the object of thy special favour. See above, on Psa 4:4 (3). The textual reading is a plural form, the singular being a marginal correction or keri. The Jews contend for the former, and most Christians for the latter, which is favoured by the oldest versions and retained in the New Testament. The essential difference between the two is less than it may seem at first sight, since even the singular is really collective, and includes the whole class of God's chosen and favoured ones, of whom Christ is the head and representative. —To see, i. e. to experience or undergo corruption. Compare the phrase to see death, Luk 2:26.—It has been disputed whether this is derived from the Hebrew meaing "a pit", or from the Hebrews which means corruption. Both allegations are probably true, the antecedent improbability of such a double sense and derivation being counterbalanced by that which is of a different sense and gender. The use of this equivocal expression may have been intentional, in order to make it applicable both to David and to Christ. (See above, on the preceding verse.) To both, the words contain a promise of deliverance from death, but in the case of Christ with a specific reference to his actual escape from the corruption which is otherwise inseparable from dissolution. Believers in general are saved from the perpetual dominion of death, but Christ was saved even from the first approach of putrefaction. In this peculiar and most pregnant sense the words are applied to Christ exclusively by two apostles, and in that sense declared to be inapplicable to David. (Act 2:29-31; Act 13:35-37.) Their reasoning would utterly forbid the application to any lower subject, were it not for the ambiguity or twofold meaning of the Hebrew word, which cannot therefore be explained away without embarrassing the interpretation of this signal prophecy.

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

16:10 The psalmist expresses his confidence that life continues beyond death. The apostles applied this text to the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:25-33; 13:35).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

This is chiefly meant of Christ, by whose resurrection all his members have immortality.

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

Verse 10. Thine Holy One] This is in the plural number, חסידיך chasideycha, thy Holy Ones; but none of the versions translate it in the plural; and as it is in the singular number, חסידך chasidecha, in several ancient editions, among which is the Complutensian Polyglot, and no less than two hundred and sixty-four of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and in the quotation by St. Peter, in Ac 2:27; Ac 13:35, we may take it for granted that the present reading is a corruption; or that חסידיך is an emphatic singular.

As to leaving the soul in hell, it can only mean permitting the life of the Messiah to continue under the power of death; for שאול sheol signifies a pit, a ditch, the grave, or state of the dead. See Clarke on Ac 2:25, &c.

See corruption.] All human beings see corruption, because born in sin, and liable to the curse. The human body of Jesus Christ, as being without sin, saw no corruption.

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

The Psalmist goes on to explain still more fully the preceding doctrine, by declaring that as he is not afraid of death, there is nothing wanting which is requisite to the completion of his joy. Whence it follows, that no one truly trusts in God but he who takes such hold of the salvation which God has promised him as to despise death. Moreover, it is to be observed, that David’s language is not to be limited to some particular kind of deliverance, as in Psalm 49:15, where he says, “God hath redeemed my soul from the power of the grave,” and in other similar passages; but he entertains the undoubted assurance of eternal salvation, which freed him from all anxiety and fear. It is as if he had said, There will always be ready for me a way of escape from the grave, that I may not remain in corruption. God, in delivering his people from any danger, prolongs their life only for a short time; but how slender and how empty a consolation would it be to obtain some brief respite, and to take breath for a short time, until death, coming at last, should terminate the course of our life, “Jusqu’a ce que la mort finalement venant, rompist le cours de nos jours.” — Fr.

Thus we have the authority of two apostles for understanding the concluding part of this psalm as a prophecy of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

“Et les faire venir a la participation de ce bien.” — Fr.

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.

(10) Leave.—Rather, commit, or give up.

In hell.—Better, to the unseen world (Sheôl), as in Psa_6:5, where see Note.

Holy One.—Better, thy chosen, or favoured, or beloved One. Heb., chasîd, which, starting from the idea of one standing in a state of covenant favour with Jehovah, gathers naturally, to this passive sense, an active one of living conformably to such a state; “gracious” as well as “graced,” “blessing” as well as “blessed;” and so generally as in Authorised Version, “saint,” “holy” (see Psa_4:3; Psa_145:17, and especially Psa_1:5, “My saints, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”) The received Heb. text has the word in the plural, but with the marginal note that the sign of the plural is superfluous. The weight of MS. authority of all the ancient versions, and of the quotations Act_2:27; Act_13:35, is for the singular.

Corruption.—Heb., shachath, a pit (from root, meaning to sink in), as in Psa_7:15, where LXX. rightly “abyss,” though here and generally “destruction (not “corruption”), as if from shakhath, “to destroy.” Even in Job_17:14 “the pit” would give as good a parallelism to “worm” as “corruption.” The meaning of the passage is clearly that Jehovah will not abandon His beloved to death. “To be left to Sheôl” and “to see the pit” are synonyms for “to die,” just as “to see life” (Ecc_9:9, Authorised Version, “live joyfully”) is “to be alive;” or, as in next clause, “to make to see the path of life.” At the same time we discern here the first faint scintillation of that light of immortality which we see struggling to break through the darkness in all the later literature of Israel; the veil over the future of the individual, if not lifted, is stirred by the morning breath of a larger faith, and so the use is justified which is made of this passage in the New Testament (Act_2:25). (See New Testament Commentary.)

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

10. Once more the translation must be revised;

For thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol;

Neither wilt thou suffer thy beloved one to see the pit.

Jehovah will not surrender him to the unseen world, which is like some monster gaping for its prey. He can plead, as one of Jehovah’s beloved ones (chasîd, see on Psa_4:3, and Appendix, Note I) for the exercise of His lovingkindness (Psa_17:7). The text (Kthîbh) has thy loved ones (plur.), but the traditional reading (Qrç) thy loved one (sing.) is supported by all the versions and required by the context.

The word shachath, rendered corruption by LXX, Vulg., and Jerome, probably means the pit (R.V. marg.) i. e. the grave. ‘Pit’ must be its meaning in many passages (e.g. Psa_7:15; Psa_30:9; Pro_26:27), and may be its meaning always. Shachath might be derived from a root meaning to destray (not properly to decay), but it is unnecessary to assume that the same form has two derivations and senses. ‘To see the pit’ (Psa_49:9) = ‘to see (i. e. experience) death,’ Psa_89:48.

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 thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,.... Meaning, not in the place of the damned, where Christ never went, nor was; for at his death his soul was committed to his Father, and was the same day in paradise: but rather, "sheol" here, as "hades" in the Near Testament, signifies the state of the dead, the separate state of souls after death, the invisible world of souls, where Christ's soul was; though it was not left there, nor did it continue, but on the third day returned to its body again; though it seems best of all to interpret it of the grave, as the word is rendered in Gen 42:38; and then by his "soul" must be meant, not the more noble part of his human nature, the soul, in distinction from the body; for as it died not, but went to God, it was not laid in the grave; but either he himself, in which sense the word "soul" is sometimes used, even for a man's self, Psa 3:2. For it might be truly said of him, God's Holy One, that he was laid in the grave, though not left there; or rather his dead body, for so the word "nephesh" is rendered in Num 9:6; so "anima" is used in Latin authors (u): this was laid in the grave; for Joseph having begged it of Pilate, took it down from the cross, and laid it in his own new tomb; though it was the will of God it should not be left there, but be raised from the dead, as it was on the third day, before it was corrupted, as follows:

neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption; that is, to lie so long in the grave as to putrefy and be corrupted; wherefore he was raised from the dead on the third day, according to the Scriptures, before the time bodies begin to be corrupted; see Joh 11:39; and this was owing not to the care of Joseph or Nicodemus, in providing spices to preserve it, but of God who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; and who would not suffer his body to be corrupted, because he was holy, and because he was his Holy One; that so as there was no moral corruption in him, there should be no natural corruption in him; so the Jewish Midrash (w) interprets it, that

"no worm or maggot should have power over him;''

which is not true of David, nor of any but the Messiah. This character of "Holy One" eminently belongs to Christ above angels and men, yea, it is often used of the divine Being, and it agrees with Christ in his divine nature, and is true of him as man; he is the holy thing, the holy child Jesus; his nature is pure and spotless, free from the taint of original sin; his life and conversation were holy and harmless, he did no sin, nor knew any, nor could any be found in him by men or devils; his doctrines were holy, and tended to promote holiness of life; all his works are holy, and such is the work of redemption, which is wrought out in consistence with and to the glory of the holiness and righteousness of God; Christ is holy in all his offices, and is the fountain of holiness to his people; and he is God's Holy One, he has property in him as his Son, and as Mediator, and even as an Holy One; for he was sanctified and sent into the world by him, being anointed with the holy oil of his Spirit without measure. The word may be rendered, a "merciful" (x) or "liberal" and "beneficent one": for Christ is all this; he is a merciful as well as a faithful high priest, and he generously distributes grace and glory to his people.

(u) "--animamque sepulchro coudimus--". Virgil. Aeneid. 3. v. 67. (w) Apud Kimchi in v. 9. (x) "misericordem tuum", Pagninus, Montanus; "beneficus tuus", Piscator.

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

For thou will not leave - The language used here implies, of course, that what is here called the soul would be in the abode to which the name hell is given, but “how long” it would be there is not intimated. The thought simply is, that it would not be “left” there; it would not be suffered to “remain” there. Whether it would be restored to life again in a few days, or after a longer period, is not implied in the term used. It would be fulfilled, though, as in the case of the Lord Jesus, the resurrection should occur in three days; or though, as in the case of David, it would occur only after many ages; or though, as Abraham believed of Isaac if he was offered as a sacrifice Heb 11:19, he should be restored to life at once. In other words, there is no allusion in this language to time. It is only to the “fact” that there would be a restoration to life.

My soul - DeWette renders this, “my life.” The Hebrew word - נפשׁ nephesh - which occurs very frequently in the Scriptures, means properly “breath;” then, the vital spirit, life; then, the rational soul, the mind; then, an animal, or animated thing - that which “lives;” then, oneself. Which of these senses is the true one here must be determined from the connection, and the meaning could probably be determined by a man’s asking himself what he would think of if he used similar language of himself - “I am about to die; my flesh will go down to the grave, and will rest in hope - the hope of a resurrection; my breath - my soul - will depart, and I shall be dead; but that life, that soul, will not be extinct: it will not be “left” in the grave, the abode of the dead; it will live again, live on forever.” It seems to me, therefore, that the language here would embrace the immortal part - that which is distinct from the body; and that the word here employed may be properly understood of the soul as we understand that word. The psalmist probably understood by it that part of his nature which was not mortal or decaying; that which properly constituted his life.

In hell - - לשׁאול lishe'ôl, “to Sheol.” See Psa 6:5, note; Isa 5:14, note. This word does not necessarily mean hell in the sense in which that term is now commonly employed, as denoting the abode of the wicked in the future world, or the place of punishment; but it means the region or abode of the dead, to which the grave was regarded as the door or entrance - the under-world. The idea is, that the soul would not be suffered to remain in that under-world - that dull, gloomy abode (compare the notes at Job 10:21-22), but would rise again to light and life. This language, however, gives no sanction to the words used in the creed, “he descended into hell,” nor to the opinion that Christ went down personally to “preach to the spirits in prison “ - the souls that are lost (compare the notes at 1Pe 3:19); but it is language derived from the prevailing opinion that the soul, through the grave, descended to the under-world - to the abodes where the dead were supposed still to reside. See the notes at Isa 14:9. As a matter of fact, the soul of the Saviour at his death entered into “paradise.” See the notes at Luk 23:43.

Neither wilt thou suffer - literally, “thou wilt not give;” that is, he would not give him over to corruption, or would not suffer him to return to corruption.

Thine Holy One - See the notes at Act 2:27. The reading here in the text is in the plural form, “thy holy ones;” the marginal reading in the Hebrew, or the Qeri’, is in the singular, “thine Holy One.” The singular form is followed by the Aramaic Paraphrase, the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Arabic, and in the New Testament, Act 2:27. The Masoretes have also pointed the text as if it were in the singular. Many manuscripts and earlier editions of the Bible, and all the ancient versions, read it in the same manner. It is probable, therefore, that this is the true reading. The Hebrew word rendered holy one - חסיד châsı̂yd - means properly kind, benevolent, liberal, good, merciful, gracious, pious. Gesenius, Lexicon. It would be applicable to any persons who are pious or religious, but it is here restricted to the one whom the psalmist had in his eye - if the psalm referred to himself, then to himself; if to the Messiah, then to him. The term is several times given to the Saviour as being especially adapted to him. See Mar 1:24; Luk 4:34; Act 3:14; compare Luk 1:35. It is applied to him as being eminently holy, or as being one whom God regarded as especially his own. As the passage here is expressly applied to him in the Acts of the Apostles Act 2:27, there can be no doubt that it was intended by the Spirit of inspiration to designate him in this place, whatever reference it may have had primarily to David himself.

To see - That is, to experience; to be acquainted with. The word is used often to denote perceiving, learning, or understanding anything by experience. Thus, “to see life,” Ecc 9:9; “to see death,” Psa 89:48; “to see sleep,” Ecc 8:16; “to see famine,” Jer 5:12; “to see good,” Psa 34:12; “to see affliction,” Lam 3:1; “to see evil,” Pro 27:12. Here it means that he would not “experience” corruption; or would not return to corruption.

Corruption - - שׁחת shachath. This word is frequently used in the Scriptures. It is translated “ditch” in Job 9:31; Psa 7:15; “corruption” (as here), in Job 17:14; Psa 49:9; Jon 2:6; “pit,” in Job 33:18, Job 33:24, Job 33:28, Job 33:30; Psa 9:15; Psa 30:9; Psa 35:7; Pro 26:27; Isa 38:17; Isa 51:14; Eze 19:4; Eze 28:8; “grave,” in Job 33:22; and “destruction,” in Psa 55:23. The common idea, therefore, according to our translators, is the grave, or a pit. The “derivation” seems not to be certain. Gesenius supposes that it is derived from שׁוח shûach - “to sink or settle down;” hence, a pit or the grave. Others derive it from שׁחת shāchath, not used in Qal, to destroy. The verb is used in various forms frequently; meaning to destroy, to ruin, to lay waste. It is translated here by the Latin Vulgate, “corruptionem;” by the Septuagint, διαφθοράν diaphthoran, corruption; by the Arabic in the same way.

The same word which is employed by the Septuagint is employed also in quoting the passage in the New Testament, where the argument of Peter Act 2:27, and of Paul Act 13:35-37, is founded on the supposition that such is the sense of the word here; that it does not mean merely “the pit, or the grave;” that the idea in the psalm is not that the person referred to would not go down to the grave, or would not “die,” but that he would not moulder back to dust in the grave, or that the “change” would not occur to him in the grave which does to those who lie long in the tomb. Peter and Paul both regard this as a distinct prophecy that the Messiah would be raised from the grave “without” returning to corruption, and they argue from the fact that David “did” return to corruption in the grave like other men, that the passage could not have referred mainly to himself, but that it had a proper fulfillment, and its highest fulfillment, in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This interpretation the believer in the inspiration of Peter and Paul is bound to defend, and in reference to this it may be remarked,

(1) that it cannot be demonstrated that this is not the meaning of the word. The word may be as “fairly” derived from the verb to corrupt, as from the verb to sink down, and, indeed, more naturally and more obviously. The grammatical form would rather suggest this derivation than the other.

(2) It “is” a fair construction of the original word. It is such a construction as may be put upon it without any “forced” application, or any design to defend a theory or an opinion. In other words, it is not a mere “catch,” or a grasp at a “possible” meaning of the word, but it is a rendering which, on every principle of grammatical construction, may be regarded as a “fair” interpretation. Whatever may have been the exact idea in the mind of David, whether he understood this as referring only to himself, and to the belief that he would not “always” remain in the grave, and under the power of corruption; or whether he understood it as referring primarily to himself, and ultimately and mainly to the Messiah; or whether he understood it; as referring solely to the Messiah; or whether he did not at all understand the language which the Holy Spirit led him to employ (compare the notes at 1Pe 1:11-12), it is equally true that the sense which the apostles put on the words, in their application of the passage to the Messiah, is a suitable one.

(3) The ancient versions, as has been seen above, confirm this. Without an exception they give the sense of “corruption” - the very sense which has been given to the word by Peter and Paul. The authors of these versions had no theory to defend, and it may be presumed that they had a just knowledge of the true meaning of the Hebrew word.

(4) It may be added that this interpretation accords with the connection in which the word occurs. Though it may be admitted that the connection would not “necessarily” lead to this view, yet this interpretation is in entire harmony with the statements in the previous verses, and in the following verse. Thus, in the previous verse, the psalmist had said that “his flesh would rest in hope,” - a sentiment which accords with either the idea that he would at some future period be raised from the grave, and would not perish forever, though the period of the resurrection might be remote; or with the idea of being raised up so soon that the body would not return to corruption, that is, before the change consequent on death would take place. The sentiment in the following verse also agrees with this view. That sentiment is, that there is a path to life; that in the presence of God there is fulness of joy; that at his right hand there are pleasures forevermore - a sentiment, in this connection, founded on the belief of the resurrection from the dead, and equally true whether the dead should be raised immediately or at some remote period. I infer, therefore, that the apostles Peter and Paul made a legitimate use of this passage; that the argument which they urged was derived from a proper interpretation of the language; that the fair construction of the psalm, and the fact that David “had” returned to corruption, fully justified them in the application which they made of the passage; and that, therefore, it was the design of the Holy Spirit to convey the idea that “the Messiah” would be raised from the dead without undergoing the change which others undergo in the grave; and that it was thus “predicted” in the Old Testament, that be would be raised from the dead in the manner in which he was.

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

My soul, i.e. my person, as this word is every where used by a synecdoche of the part, and then the person by another synecdoche of the whole is put for the body. The soul is oft put for the body; either for the living body, as Psa 35:3 105:18, or for the carcass or dead body, as it is taken Lev 19:28; 21:1; Num 5:2; 6:6,9,11; 9:10; 19:11,13; and so it is interpreted in this very place, as it is produced, Act 2:29, &c.; Act 13:36,37.

In hell, i.e. in the grave or state of the dead, as appears,

1. From the Hebrew word scheol, which is very frequently so understood, as is undeniably evident from Gen 42:38; Num 16:30; Job 14:13; compared with Job 17:13; Psa 18:5; 30:3; 141:7; Ecc 9:10; Eze 32:21,27; Jon 2:2, and many other places.

2. From the following clause of this verse.

3. From Ac 2; 13;, where it is so expounded and applied. Thine Holy One, i.e. me thy holy Son, whom thou hast sanctified and sent into the world: It is peculiar to Christ to be called the Holy One of God, Mar 1:24; Luk 4:34. To see corruption, or rottenness, i.e. to be corrupted or putrefied in the grave, as the bodies of others are. Seeing is oft put for perceiving by experience; in which sense men are said to see good, Psa 34:12, and to see death, or the grave, Psa 89:48; Luk 2:26; Joh 8:51, and to see sleep, Ecc 8:16. And the Hebrew word shochath, though sometimes by a metonymy it signifies the pit or place of corruption, yet properly and generally it signifies corruption or perdition, as Job 17:14; 33:18,30; Psa 35:7; 55:23; Jon 2:6, and is so rendered by the seventy Jewish interpreters, Psa 107:20; Pro 28:10; Jer 13:4; 15:3; Lam 4:20; Eze 19:4; 21:31. And so it must be understood here, although some of the Jews, to avoid the force of this argument, render it the pit. But in that sense it is not true; for whether it be meant of David, as they say, or of Christ, it is confessed that both of them did see the pit, i.e. were laid in the grave. And therefore it must necessarily be taken in the other sense now mentioned; and so it is properly and literally true in Christ alone, although it may in a lower and metaphorical sense be applied to David, who had a just and well-grounded confidence, that although God might bring him into great dangers and distresses, which are called the sorrows of death, and the pains of hell, Psa 116:3; yet God would not leave him to perish in or by them.

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

10. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell— “Hell” is here used in its old English sense, in which it is the fittest English word for the Hebrew שׁאול, (sheol,) and its corresponding Greek, αδης, (hades,) both signifying, pit, grave, under world, unseen world, region of the dead, especially the place of departed spirits, whether good or bad. Our English translators have rendered sheol by grave thirty times out of the sixty-four times it occurs. It sometimes means the place of future punishment, never the region of the blessed; the context always determining its specific sense in a given place. The text in the original simply reads, “Thou wilt not abandon my soul to sheol,”—that is, to the dominion of death. But לשׁאול, (to sheol,) might be rendered in sheol, the preposition denoting rest in a place, as well as motion to it. It is not that he should not taste death, but that his body should rest in hope of deliverance, and not be left or abandoned to the grave. See note on Psa_6:5. So convinced were the ancient Jews that the language applied to one literally dead, that they had a tradition that the body of David never decayed.

Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption— “This forms, in our text, an essential member in the progress of thought, and an important declaration and revelation respecting the resurrection of the body.”—Moll. It is the gist of the Messianic application of the psalm, so literally and forcibly applied by Peter and Paul, Act_2:27; Act_13:35.

Holy One—Saint. The word חסידיךְ, is, in our present Hebrew Bibles, plural—holy ones, saints.—which completely evades the Messianic application of the passage; and it has been charged that the Jews, in the Masoretic, or common Hebrew, text, have changed the word for this purpose from its original singular form. But this is improbable; for besides that they have given the singular pointing to the word in the text, (ד, for ד,) they have, in Keri, or margin, marked the plural yod (י) as redundant. It is certain that the present reading is an error.

The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac, give the singular, indicating that that was anciently the true reading, with which the weight of testimony from the MSS. accords. Dr. Kennicott, (“Dissertations,” etc.,) out of thirty-two manuscripts, found twenty-eight of the oldest and best which had the singular. Modern critical authority amply concedes this point. Indeed, it would be enough to say that a plural signification simply contradicts all fact, for the saints do die and see corruption. Only in its prophetic designation of some one particular person can it be true, and this person both Peter and Paul directly affirm to be Jesus. Act_2:27 and Act_13:35.

Corruption—Whether the Hebrew word denotes “corruption” in the sense of putrescence, decomposition, or only pit, grave, involving the simple idea of death, depends upon its derivation. The Septuagint, διαρθοσαν, (corruption,) is derived from שׁהת, (shahath,) to reduce to ruins, crush, corrupt. So, also, the ancient versions generally, and so Peter and Paul used it. Act_2:27. This is allowable by competent critics, (Gesenius, Winer, Moll, Furst, etc.,) and so ought to settle the question. Others derive it from שׁוחה, (shoohhah,) pit, grave, as Jer_18:20; Jer_18:22. The difference is, that the former has the idea of remaining in the grave till decomposition: the latter of simply dying and being buried: as if the psalmist had said, “Thou wilt not suffer me to see the pit or grave,” that is, Thou wilt not suffer me to die and be buried—the flatness of which, as seen in Psa_16:9, is its own refutation. Besides, “to see the pit,” is admitted on all hands to have the sense of “to succumb to the dominion of death,” and denotes a permanent state, opposed to the phrase, “To see life.” Psa_16:11; Psa_49:9; Joh_3:36. The word “suffer,” also, means to give, to give up, to deliver up, and answers to “leave,” or forsake, in the previous hemistich. The idea, then, in both lines of the distich is, that of abandonment to sheol, or the grave, which involves decomposition or corruption, which the psalmist asserts God will not do.

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

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; literally, to Sheol, or "to Hades." The confidence in a future life shown here is beyond that exhibited by Job. Job hopes that he may not always remain in Hades, but may one day experience a "change" or "renewal"; (Job_14:14) David is certain that his soul will not be left in hell. Hell (Sheol) is to him an "intermediate state," through which a man passes between his life in this world and his final condition in some blest abode. Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. The present Hebrew text has "thy holy ones," i.e. thy saints generally; but the majority, of the manuscripts, all the ancient versions, and even the Hebrew revised text (the Keri) have the word in the singular number, thus agreeing with Act_2:27, 31 13:35, which give us the translation, to , and declare the psalmist to have spoken determinately of Christ. Certainly he would not have spoken of himself as "God"s holy one." The translation of shachath (tjv) by "corruption" has been questioned, and it has been rendered "the pit," or "the grave," but quite gratuitously. The LXX have diafyora as the equivalent; and the rabbinical commentators, giving it the same meaning, but expounding it of David, invented the myth that David"s body was miraculously preserved from corruption.

The antidote to death.

"Thou wilt not leave," etc. More than thirty generations of believers read and sang this psalm, pondered and prayed over it, and drew, no doubt, sweet though vague comfort from this verse, before the hidden glory of its meaning was disclosed. The temple built by David"s son was laid in ashes. The Scriptures were carried with the captives to Babylon, and brought back. A second and at last a third temple arose on Mount Moriah. Empires arose and fell. Above one thousand years rolled away. At last, one summer morning, when the Feast of Pentecost had returned in its yearly round, and Jerusalem was filled with gladness, the time arrived for putting the key into the lock. The same Spirit who inspired the prophecy, interpreted it. "Peter, standing up with the eleven," etc. (Act_2:14, Act_2:25-32)

I THE CONTRAST BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH, IN ITS TWO MOST FEARFUL ASPECTS.

1. The separation of the soul. "My soul in hell," or "to hell." The Revisers here (and elsewhere) have given the Hebrew word Sheol, because the English word "hell" has come to be applied exclusively to the state of the lost. Thanks to the gospel, we have no word by which to translate this Hebrew word, because we have no corresponding idea. Often it is translated "grave;" but only figuratively it never means a literal sepulchre. It is the world, place, or state of departed spirits, good or bad, happy or unhappy (in Greek, Hades). It is this view of death the parting, rending asunder of spirit and body, which Solomon describes. (Ecc_12:7) It is this which appals. We see the deserted house of clay; but where is the tenant? Gone, as if into nothingness and eternal silence.

2. The corruption of the body. The other view of death increases our distress. Death may come gently, as though but a deeper sleep; even with a solemn, sad beauty of its own. But the beauty death brings, it hastens to destroy. Just because that sleeping form is so dear, we must hasten to hide it out of sight. Cover it with green turf and flowers. Let not thought pierce the secrets of the grave. Nothing is plainer than that God meant death to be terrible. It is something wholly different to man from what it is to the lower animals. God knew we should love sin, and think it beautiful. So when he tells us "the wages of sin is death," it is as though he said, "Look at what death does to the body; that is the image of what sin does to the soul!" Whither shall we turn? The answer gleams forth in that word "not." "Thou wilt not leave," etc. Here is

II THE ANTIDOTE TO THE TERROR OF DEATH IN THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS. (Act_2:31, Act_2:32) So St. Paul at Antioch in Pisidia. (Act_13:34-37) We are not now concerned with any reference these words may have to David himself. Modern critics are intensely anxious always to find a precise occasion for every psalm (after the manner of Horace"s odes), though such a rule would be wholly misleading if applied to modern poetry. But suppose it so. What concerns us is the glorious event to which the Apostles Peter and Paul apply these words as a prophecy. "Now is Christ risen from the dead; Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

1. Christ"s resurrection proves the fact of immortality; q.d. that death, which destroys the bodily life, does not touch the spirit, the self. "Behold," he said, "it is I myself not a spectre, a phantom. "This same Jesus," said the angels. (Luk_24:39 Act_1:11) The doctrine or belief of immortality was common to Jews and Gentiles. The Egyptians based their religion on it. The Greeks had their Elysium and Tartarus. So other nations. What was wanted was not doctrine, but proof. No proof so entirely decisive as this that One should publicly die, and be buried, and rise from the dead. The value of the resurrection of Christ"s body lay in the proof thus given, that, though his body died, he lived. Death, then, does not end us. Hence the only way in which denial of immortality can now be maintained is by denying the resurrection of Jesus. For its reality there is not only

(1) that mass of testimony which St. Paul summarizes; (1Co_15:5-8; comp. Act_2:32, etc.) and

(2) the utter failure of the Jewish authorities to produce any contrary evidence; but

(3) the whole history of the founding of Christianity, based entirely on this fact. It would have been utterly contrary to human nature for the disciples to have preached and suffered as they did, had they not believed in the Saviour they preached; equally impossible for them to have believed, if he had not really risen. Further, neither their faith nor their preaching would have availed, had not the living Christ fulfilled his promises. (Mat_28:20 Act_1:4, Act_1:5)

2. Christ"s resurrection is the assurance. As he has been one with us in death, we are to be one with him in life. His resurrection is the seal both of his power and of his faithfulness; and both are pledged. (Joh_10:28-30 Joh_14:19) True, this flesh must "see corruption;" this "earthly house be dissolved." But for the humblest believer, as much as for an apostle, "to depart," is" to be with Christ;" "Absent from the body, at home with the Lord". (Php_1:23 2Co_5:8) And the body is to be "raised incorruptible;" not fleshly, but spiritual. (Php_3:20, 21 1Co 15:50-53Jo 1Co 5:28, 29 6:39) Because he lives, where he lives, as he lives, we shall live also.

CONCLUSION. All this turns on one simple, infinitely significant questionAre we his?

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

Hell - In the state of the dead. Holy one - Me thy holy son, whom thou hast sanctified and sent into the world. It is peculiar to Christ, to be called the holy one of God. To see - To be corrupted or putrefied in the grave, as the bodies of others are.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

hell

Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol: Neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy one to see the pit: – For I know that while I hold fast to life, that is the right way that I am in – and this is what he means in saying Thy holy one – I know that Thou wilt not leave my soul to go down to Sheol with the body, but wilt raise it to Thy glory. And in the Haggadic interpretation (Shoher Tob) (the explanation is given): “Everyone who hears himself reviled and holds his peace, in judgment is called ‘holy one.’” Thou wilt not suffer: a repetition of the thought with a change of words.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.