Psalms 34:16

Psa 34:16 The face of the LORD [is] against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

Ver. 16. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil] Let not such dream of a long and happy life, as Psa 34:12. This they are apt to do; but shall be carried from a fool’s paradise to a true prison. For that people may not imagine God to be μονοφθαλμαν, and so made up of mercy as to forget his judgments, the wicked are here assured, that the face of the Lord is against them, that he beholdeth them from heaven with a terrible countenance, that he is grievously angry with them, and will surely and severely punish them, and theirs after them.

To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth] And so to cross them in the thing that they most coveted, viz. to renown themselves among men. God writeth them in the earth in opposition to those whose names are written in heaven, Luk 10:20, because they forsook the Lord, the fountain of living waters, Jer 17:13.

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.

(Heb.: 34:17-22) The poet now recommends the fear of God, to which he has given a brief direction, by setting forth its reward in contrast with the punishment of the ungodly. The prepositions אל and בּ, in Psa 34:16 and Psa 34:17, are a well considered interchange of expression: the former, of gracious inclination (Psa 33:18), the latter, of hostile intention or determining, as in Job 7:8; Jer 21:10; Jer 44:11, after the phrase in Lev 17:10. The evil doers are overwhelmed by the power of destruction that proceeds from the countenance of Jahve, which is opposed to them, until there is not the slightest trace of their earthly existence left. The subjects to Psa 34:18 are not, according to Psa 107:17-19, the עשׁי רע (evil doers), since the indispensable characteristic of penitence is in this instance wanting, but the צדיקים (the righteous). Probably the פ strophe stood originally before the ע strophe, just as in Lam 2-4 the פ precedes the ע (Hitzig). In connection with the present sequence of the thoughts, the structure of Psa 34:18 is just like Psa 34:6 : Clamant et Dominus audit = si qui (quicunque) clamant. What is meant is the cry out of the depth of a soul that despairs of itself. Such crying meets with a hearing with God, and in its realisation, an answer that bears its own credentials. "The broken in heart" are those in whom the egotistical, i.e., self-loving life, which encircles its own personality, is broken at the very root; "the crushed or contrite (דּכּאי, from דּכּא, with a changeable ā, after the form אילות from איּל) in spirit" are those whom grievous experiences, leading to penitence, of the false eminence to which their proud self-consciousness has raised them, have subdued and thoroughly humbled. To all such Jahve is nigh, He preserves them from despair, He is ready to raise up in them a new life upon the ruins of the old and to cover or conceal their infinitive deficiency; and, they, on their part, being capable of receiving, and desirous of, salvation, He makes them partakers of His salvation. It is true these afflictions come upon the righteous, but Jahve rescues him out of them all, מכּלּם = מּכּלּן (the same enallage generis as in Rut 1:19; Rut 4:11). He is under the most special providence, "He keepeth all his bones, not one of them (ne unum quidem) is broken" - a pictorial exemplification of the thought that God does not suffer the righteous to come to the extremity, that He does not suffer him to be severed from His almighty protecting love, nor to become the sport of the oppressors. Nevertheless we call to mind the literal fulfilment which these words of the psalmist received in the Crucified One; for the Old Testament prophecy, which is quoted in Joh 19:33-37, may be just as well referred to our Psalm as to Exo 12:46. Not only the Paschal lamb, but in a comparative sense even every affliction of the righteous, is a type. Not only is the essence of the symbolism of the worship of the sanctuary realised in Jesus Christ, not only is the history of Israel and of David repeated in Him, not only does human suffering attain in connection with Him its utmost intensity, but all the promises given to the righteous are fulfilled in Him κατ ̓ ἐξοχήν; because He is the righteous One in the most absolute sense, the Holy One of God in a sense altogether unique (Isa 53:11; Jer 23:5, Zac 9:9; Act 3:14; Act 22:14). - The righteous is always preserved from extreme peril, whereas evil (רעה) slays (מותת stronger than המית) the ungodly: evil, which he loved and cherished, becomes the executioner's power, beneath which he falls. And they that hate the righteous must pay the penalty. Of the meanings to incur guilt, to feel one's self guilty, and to undergo punishment as being guilty, אשׁם (vid., on Sa1 14:13) has the last in this instance.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

17. (Psa 34:16). The face of Jehovah (is) with evil-doers, to destroy from the earth their memory. The same unsleeping vigilance is exercised towards others also, but for a very different purpose. The face of the Lord is with evil-doers, i.e. visible or present to them, no less than to good men. The preposition before evil-doers is not the same that occurs twice in the verse preceding, and which properly denotes direction, but another meaning in, or with. The unfavourable sense, against, which it may seem to have both here and elsewhere (e. g. Jer 21:10; Jer 44:11), is suggested by the context. In all these cases some interpreters suppose the sense to be that the eyes or face of God penetrate, as it were, and rest in the object.—The design with which Jehovah watches evil-doers is not to interpose for their deliverance or relief, but to destroy from the earth their very memory, a strong expression for entire extirpation. Compare Exo 17:14, Deu 25:19, Isa 26:14, and see above, on Psa 9:6-7 (5, 6).

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

The anger of God doth not only destroy the wicked, but also abolisheth their name forever.

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

face . . . against--opposed to them (Lev 17:10; Lev 20:3).

cut off the remembrance--utterly destroy (Psa 109:13).

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

(16) To cut off.—Notice the fear, so intense and recurring to the Semitic mind, of the extinction of race. (Comp. Psa_21:10; Job_18:17, &c)

This verse, according to the sense, should certainly change places with Psa_34:15. This would disarrange the acrostic, bringing pe before ayin; but, as in Lamentations 2, 3, 4 the same sequence of letters occurs, we are led to the conclusion that the order of the alphabet was not definitely or invariably fixed in respect of these two letters, a license intelligible enough when we remember that tsadde, which follows pe, was often interchanged with ayin, which precedes it.

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

16. The face of the Lord means the manifestation of His Presence, either as here in wrath (cp. Psa_9:3), or as in Num_6:25, in blessing. See Oehler’s O.T. Theology, § 57. Comp. “The Lord looked forth upon the host of the Egyptians … and discomfited them” (Exo_14:24).

the remembrance of them] Or, their memorial; even the name by which they might be remembered. Cp. Psa_9:5-6; Job_18:17. Contrast Psa_112:6.

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.

The face of the Lord is against them that do evil,.... Not against everyone that sins; for the righteous are not without sin; they have sin in them, and they do no good without it; but against them that live in sin, whose course of life is a series of wickedness, and they are workers of iniquity; and have no sense of sin, nor sorrow for it, go on in it without shame or fear; against these the face of the Lord is, he shows his resentment, and stirs up his wrath. For the Lord to be against a man is dreadful; a fearful thing it is to fill into his hands as a God of vengeance; there is no standing before him when once he is angry: and to have the face of God against a man is intolerable, when it is to destroy, and

to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth; so that they shall be no more thought of, nor spoken of, but with contempt and reproach; an everlasting mark of infamy being upon their names; see Pro 10:7.

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

The face of the Lord - This phrase is synonymous with that in the previous verse: “The eyes of the Lord.” The meaning is, that the righteous and the wicked are alike under the eye of God; the one for protection, the other for punishment. Neither of them can escape His notice; but at all times, and in all circumstances, they are equally seen by Him.

Is against them that do evil - The wicked; all that do wrong. In the former verse the statement is, that the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, that is, for their protection; in this case, by a change of the preposition in the original, the statement is, that His face is “against” them that do evil, that is, He observes them to bring judgment upon them.

To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth - To cut off themselves, - their families - and all memorials of them, so that they shall utterly be forgotten among people. Compare Psa 109:13-15. So, in Pro 10:7, it is said, “The memory of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot.” Two things are implied here:

(1) That it is “desirable” to be remembered after we are dead. There is in us a deep-rooted principle, of great value to the cause of virtue, which prompts us to “desire” that we may be held in grateful recollection by mankind after we have passed away; that is, which prompts us to do something in our lives, the remembrance of which the world will not “willingly let die.” - Milton.

(2) The other idea is, that there is a state of things on earth which has a tendency to cause the remembrance of the wicked to die out, or to make people forget them. There is nothing to make men desire to retain their recollection, or to rear monuments to them. People are indeed remembered who are of bad eminence in crime; but the world will forget a wicked man just as soon as it can. This is stated here as a reason particularly addressed to the young Psa 34:11 why they should seek God, and pursue the ways of righteousness. The motive is, that men will “gladly” retain the remembrance of those who are good; of those who have done anything worthy to be remembered, but that a life of sin will make men desire to forget as soon as possible all those who practice it. This is not a low and base motive to be addressed to the young. That is a high and honorable principle which makes us wish that our names should be cherished by those who are to live after us, and is one of the original principles by which God keeps up virtue in the world - one of those arrangements, those safeguards of virtue, by which we are prompted to do right, and to abstain from that which is wrong. It is greatly perverted, indeed, to purposes of ambition, but, in itself, the desire not to be forgotten when we are dead contributes much to the industry, the enterprise, and the benevolence of the world, and is one of the most efficacious means for preserving us from sin.

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

The face of the Lord, i.e. his anger, oft called his face, as Lev 17:10; 20:5; Jer 44:11; Lam 4:16, because anger discovers itself in the face.

Them that do evil, i.e. whose common course, and study, arid business it is to do evil; for else there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not, Ecc 7:20. To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth; utterly to deprive both them and their children of that worldly happiness, which is the only thing that they desire, and seek by their wicked courses.

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

Ver. 16. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil. God is not indifferent to the deeds of sinners, but he sets his face against them, as we say, being determined that they shall have no countenance and support, but shall be thwarted and defeated. He is determinately resolved that the ungodly shall not prosper; he sets himself with all his might to overthrow them. To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. He will stamp out their fires, their honour shall be turned into shame, their names forgotten or accursed. Utter destruction shall be the lot of all the ungodly.

Ver. 16. The evil man checkmated in life, and forgotten in death.

Psalms 34:17*

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

The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Conversely, God turns away his face from the wicked, anti punishes them by causing their very memory to perish from among men. (comp. Job_18:17 Psa_109:13 Pro_10:7) The natural wish for continuance, which causes men to build themselves monuments, and erect other great works, and delight in offspring, and seek to establish their families, and create entails, and have their portraits taken, and "call the lands after their own names", (Psa_49:11) was especially strong in the Hebrew race, and made the threat that their remembrance should be cut off peculiarly terrible to them.

God"s face.

"The face" is the organ of expression. The thoughts, the feelings, the inward movements of the soul, show themselves by the face. Therefore "the lace" stands for the man; (Gen_48:11) and when God is spoken of after the manner of men, his face is put for himself. (Exo_33:14) The text is like the mystic pillar of the wilderness. It has two aspects. While God looks forth with love and favour towards his people, he shows himself as terrible to his enemies. (Exo_14:24) His face, wherever seen, is always against those who wilfully and wickedly persist in doing evil.

I GOD"S FACE IN NATURE IS AGAINST THEM THAT DO EVIL. There is law in nature. To obey the law is to conquer, to disobey is to suffer. As to transgressors, there is neither exception nor immunity. We see the stern, unbending severity of law in the awful passage, Pro_1:24-31.

II GOD"S FACE IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES IS AGAINST THEM THAT DO EVIL. Take the ten commandments, and from the first to the last it is the same. The Law is holy and just and good. It demands obedience from all, and denounces condemnation and wrath against transgressors, without respect of persons. The recorded judgments of God may be held as expressing the same thing. All through, from Genesis to Malachi, whether as respects nations or individuals, God"s face is against the evil-doer. In no part of Scripture is this brought out more vividly and forcibly than in the Psalms.

III GOD"S FACE, IN THE PERSON OF HIS SON AND OUR SAVIOUR, IS AGAINST THEM THAT DO EVIL. Christ, in his doctrine, his precepts, his example, and in his redemptive work, is wholly and for ever against sin. His object is to "take away sin," and to bring them that do evil to do good and to be the loving and obedient children of God, that they may walk in the light of God"s favour for ever. W.F.

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

The face - His anger, which discovers itself in the face.

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