Psalms 27:12

Psa 27:12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

Ver. 12. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies] Heb. unto the soul; for the wicked are carried on against the godly, with all their soul, as it were.

For false witnesses] Such as whereof Saul’s court was full, viz. his Aiones et Negones, who fed his humour by traducing and denigrating innocent David.

And such as breathe out cruelty] As Saul breathed out threatening against the disciples, Act 9:1; so did David’s spit fires.

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.

12. (Psa 27:12) Give me not up to the will of my enemies; for risen up against me are witnesses of falsehood, and a breather forth of cruelty. The word translated will properly means soul, and is here used for the ruling wish or heart's desire, as in Psa 35:25. The second clause assigns the ground or reason of this prayer. As if he had said, I have reason to ask this, for there have risen up, etc.—One breathing violence or cruelty, a strong but natural expression for a person, all whose thoughts and feelings are engrossed by a favourite purpose or employment, so that he cannot live or breathe without it. Compare the description of Saul's persecuting zeal in Act 9:1, and the Latin phrases, spirare minas, anhelare scelus.

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

But either pacify their wrath, or bridle their rage.

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

will--literally, "soul," "desire" (Psa 35:25).

enemies--literally, "oppressors." Falsehood aids cruelty against him.

breathe out--as being filled with it (Act 9:1).

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

Verse 12. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies] To their soul benephesh; their whole soul thirsts for my destruction. Let them not be gratified. They have suborned witnesses against me, but they are false witnesses: unmask their wickedness, and confound their counsels.

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

12. Give me not up to the desire of mine oppressors. The Hebrew noun נפש, nephesh, signifies lust, will, or desire; and the language of David implies, Deliver me not up to the pleasure or lust of mine enemies, and thus he intimates, that they greedily gaped for his destruction. God delivers his people in two ways; either by appeasing the cruelty of the wicked, and rendering them meek; or, if he permit them to burn with fury, by restraining their power and violence, so that they desire and endeavor in vain to do mischief. The Psalmist afterwards adds, that he is persecuted both with slanders and false accusations, and also by open violence; for when he says, that they bring forth violence, Hammond renders the words “breathers or speakers of injury or rapine; חמס, signifying injury or rapine, and פוח, speak.” Ainsworth reads, “He that breatheth or puffeth out violent wrong.

“De glaives et autre tels efforts.” — Fr. “From the sword and other such weapons.”

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.

(12) By slightly changing a letter, we avoid the awkward ellipse in Psa_27:13, and get

“Such as breathe out cruelty against me,

So that I did not believe to see,” &c

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

12. enemies] R.V., adversaries, as in Psa_27:2.

false witnesses] Slanderous calumniators are meant, rather than actual witnesses in court. Cp. Psa_35:11; Pro_6:19.

such as breathe out cruelty] Bent on injuring him by their talk. For the phrase cp. Act_9:1.

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.

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies,.... It is a dreadful thing for a man to be given up to his own heart's lusts, and to be delivered up into the hands of Satan; who would fain have even the people of God themselves in his hands, that he might distress them at pleasure, if not destroy them; and also to be suffered to fall into the hands of wicked men, whose tender mercies are cruel;

for false witnesses are risen up against me; laying to his charge, that he sought to take away from Saul his crown and kingdom, and even his life, Sa1 24:9;

and such as breathe out cruelty; as Doeg the Edomite, whose tongue was as a sharp razor, and by whose hands four score and five priests were slain, on account of David's being supplied with bread by Ahimelech; the word is in the singular number; see Psa 52:1; compare with this clause Act 9:1; and Horace's phrase, "Spirabat amores" (l).

(l) Carmin. l. 4. Ode. 13. v. 19.

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

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies - Let them not accomplish their desires in regard to me; let them not be able to carry out their purposes. The word here rendered “will” means properly “soul,” but it is used here evidently to denote “wish” or “desire.” Compare Psa 35:25.

For false witnesses are risen up against me - People who would lay false charges against him, or who would wrongfully accuse him. They charged him with crimes which he never committed, and they persecuted him as if he were guilty of what they alleged against him.

And such as breathe out cruelty - That is, they meditate violence or cruel treatment. They are intent on this; they pant for it. Saul of Tarsus thus “breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” See the notes at Act 9:1.

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

The will, or lust, or desire, Heb. soul; which is so taken, Psa 41:2; 78:18; Eze 16:27.

Such as breathe out cruelty; he presseth his request upon the quality of his enemies, who were both false and cruel, and in both respects hateful to God and men.

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

Ver. 12. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies; or I should be like a victim cast to the lions, to be rent in pieces and utterly devoured. God be thanked that our foes cannot have their way with us, or Smithfield would soon be on a blaze again. For false witnesses are risen up against me. Slander is an old fashioned weapon out of the armoury of hell, and is still in plentiful use; and no matter how holy a man may be, there will be some who will defame him. "Give a dog an ill name, and hang him; "but glory be to God, the Lord's people are not dogs, and their ill names do not injure them. And such as breathe out cruelty. It is their vital breath to hate the good; they cannot speak without cursing them; such was Paul before conversion. They who breathe out cruelty may well expect to be sent to breathe their native air in hell; let persecutors beware!

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Psalms 27:13*

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

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies; literally, the soul of mine enemies; i.e. their desire, (see Psa_35:25 Psa_41:2) which was no doubt to capture him, and. bring him a prisoner to Jerusalem. For false witnesses are risen up against me. The party which attached itself to Absalom accused David of cruelty to the house of Saul, (2Sa_16:8) and probably of other crimes and misdemeanours. Absalom himself accused him of a failure in his kingly duties. (2Sa_15:8) And such as breathe out cruelty; or, violence. To "breathe out" violence, threats, slaughter, malice, etc., is a common metaphor in many languages. (Act_9:1; Aristoph., "Eq.," 1. 437; Her, "Od.," 4. 13, 1. 19, etc.)

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

to the desires of my adversaries To the desire of my enemies, to have their desire fulfilled through me.

and speakers of evil Heb. ויפח חמס, speakers of evil. Another explanation: An expression of a trap (פח).

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.