Psalms 38:11

Psa 38:11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

Ver. 11. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore] Heb. my stroke, which, therefore, some Jewish doctors will have to be the leprosy, which was noisome and contagious; and, therefore, by the law of God, none were to come near such, Prae horrore detrectantes accedere (Trem.). So among the Persians none might come near a Pisaga (so they called a leper), and therefore Megabyzus, having offended Artaxerxes, kept himself five years from court, pretending himself a leper, and in that space made his peace with the king (Ctes. Pers.). But in David’s friends, who dealt thus with him, it was not so much fear of danger as pride and perfidy that made them deny him all duty and friendship, Psa 31:11. Job was so used, Job 6:15; and our Saviour, when he hung naked on the cross, Luk 23:49; and St Paul, when he made his defence before Nero, 2Ti 4:16. So was not Orestes by his friend Pylades, nor Damon by his Pythias, nor Achilles by Patroclus, which made Alexander cry out, O felicem iuvenem! O faithful youth, Trouble trieth who are friends, who traitors (Sophoc.; Val. Max.; Plutarch in Alex.).

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 38:11-13. My lovers and friends stand aloof — Either through neglect and contempt, or disdain of me. They that seek my life lay snares for me — That if my affliction or trouble do not kill me, they may destroy me some other way; and imagine deceits all the day long — They design mischief, but cover it with fair pretences. But I, as a deaf man, heard it not — I carried myself toward them as if I had no ears to hear what they said, either to me or of me, nor a tongue to answer or reprove them for their reproaches and calumnies. And he was thus silent, not for want of just answers to them, but to testify his humiliation for his sins, and his acceptation of the punishment which he had brought upon himself.

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

12. (Psa 38:11). My lovers and my friends away from my stroke will stand, and my neighbours afar off have stood. He now gives expression to the anguish caused by human unkindness, and first, by that of such as he believed to be his friends. These are represented as standing aloof, literally from before, i.e. out of sight, as in Gen 21:16, and Isa 1:16, not over against, as im flying opposition or hostility. What he here complains of is indifference and neglect, as appears from the parallel expression, far off, literally from afar, according to a common Hebrew idiom which expresses the position of an object in terms strictly denoting in motion or direction. See for example Gen 2:8, where eastward is in Hebrew from, the east, and the familiar phrase from the right or left hand, where we say at or on it. This usage renders it unnecessary, although not inadmissible, in the case before us, to supply a word, "they stand (looking) from afar." The word translated neighhours means those near one, either in local habitation or affinity, and may therefore be considered as including the idea expressed in the English Version, kinsmen. Unless the variation of the tenses in this sentence is entirely unmeaning, which is highly improbable, both in itself and from analogy, the last clause may be understood to state as an actual reality, what is only apprehended in the first as probable or certain but still future. As if he had said, "My friends will no doubt stand aloof from this affliction; nay, they are already afar off."—Stroke is here put for a providential or divine infliction in general, not for sickness exclusively, much less for a particular disease, such as the leprosy, which Jerome actually introduces into his translation. See below, on Psa 39:11 (10), and compare Job 19:21, Isa 53:4. Some suppose that there is an allusion to this verse in the statement made by one of the evangelists, that the women who had followed Christ from Galilee, and all his acquaintances, stood afar off, gazing at his crucifixion. See Luk 23:49, and compare Mar 15:40-41.

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

Partly for fear and partly for pride, they denied all duty and friendship.

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

Friends desert, but foes increase in malignity.

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 11. My lovers] Those who professed much affection for me; my friends, רעי reai, my companions, who never before left my company, stand aloof.

My kinsmen] קרובי kerobai, my neighbours, stand afar off. I am deserted by all, and they stand off because of נגעי nigi, my plague. They considered me as suffering under a Divine judgment; and, thinking me an accursed being, they avoided me lest they should be infected by my disease.

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

11 My friends and my companions stand away from my sore Here David enumerates other circumstances to show the aggravated character of his misery, that he might excite the compassion of God. One of these is, that he finds no help or solace among men. In saying that his friends stand away from him, he means, that they cease from performing any of the offices of humanity towards him. This might happen either from pride or fear. If they withdrew from this poor afflicted man because they despised him, they were cruel and proud; and if they refused him their assistance for fear of being brought into odium, it was most unpardonable cowardice. But in the meantime, it augmented not a little the calamity of David, that even his friends and kinsfolk dared not to show any token of compassion towards him. It is, indeed, a very sore trial, when a man, who has had a great number of friends, comes to be abandoned by them all.

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.

(11) Sore is rather stroke, as in margin, or plague. His friends, looking on him as “one smitten of God,” and thinking “he must be wicked to deserve such pain,” abandon him as too vile for their society.

Kinsmen.—Render rather, as in margin, neighbours, or near ones.

Those who should have been near me stand aloof.

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

11. from my sore] R.V. from my plague. The word is specially used of the plague of leprosy (Lev_13:3, &c.). His friends treat him as a leper, standing over against him, within sight but at a distance. Even his near kinsmen falsify their name by standing afar off. (LXX. οἱ ἔγγιστά μου μακρόθεν ἔστησαν.)

Comp. Psa_31:11-13; Psa_69:8; Psa_88:18; Job_19:13 ff.; Isa_53:4.

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

They also that seek after my life,.... His avowed and implacable enemies, whom nothing would satisfy but the taking away of his life: these came too near him; for these, he says,

lay snares for me, as Satan does for the souls of men, as the Jews did for Christ, and as wicked men do for the saints, Psa 124:7;

and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things; to the injury of his character and reputation:

and imagine deceits all the day long; contrive artful schemes to deceive; see Psa 35:20.

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

My lovers - See the notes at Psa 31:11. The reference here is to those who professed to be his friends.

And my friends - The word used here means properly an acquaintance, a companion, a friend, Job 2:11; Job 19:21; then, a lover, a friend, a neighbor. The phrase here would be synonymous with our word “kinsmen.”

Stand aloof - They are unwilling to come near me; they leave me to suffer alone.

From my sore - Margin: “stroke.” The Hebrew word means properly a stroke, a blow, Deu 17:8; Deu 21:5; then a stroke in the sense of calamities or judgments, such as God brings upon men: Gen 12:17; Exo 11:1. The meaning here is, that they stand aloof from him, or refuse to come near him, as if he were afflicted with some contagious disease.

And my kinsmen - Margin: “neighbors.” The Hebrew word used here - קרוב qârôb - means properly near, nigh; spoken of a place, Gen 19:20; then of time, Isa 13:6; then of kindred or affinity, Num 27:11; and then of friendship, meaning our intimate acquaintance - as we should say, those who are “near” to us, Job 19:14. The word would be applicable to neighbors or to warm personal friends.

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

Either through neglect, and contempt, or disdain of me; or through delicacy and abhorrency from loathsome and sadding spectacles; or through fear of infection, or some other inconveniences.

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

Ver. 11. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore. Whatever affection they might pretend to, they kept out of his company, lest as a sinking vessel often draws down boats with it, they might be made to suffer through his calamities. It is very hard when those who should be the first to come to the rescue, are the first to desert us. In times of deep soul trouble, even the most affectionate friends cannot enter into the sufferer's case; let them be as anxious as they may, the sores of a tender conscience they cannot bind up. Oh, the loneliness of a soul passing under the convincing power of the Holy Ghost! And my kinsmen stand afar off. As the women and others of our Lord's acquaintances from afar gazed on his cross, so a soul wounded for sin sees all mankind as distant spectators, and in the whole crowd finds none to aid. Often relatives hinder seekers after Jesus, oftener still they look on with unconcern, seldom enough do they endeavour to lead the penitent to Jesus.

Ver. 11. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off. So miserable am I, that I am left alone as one utterly forsaken; they are all pieces that recoil and fly back at the first voice of the powder. Yet it is not so much me they stand aloof from as my sore; for if it were not for my sore, I should have enough of their company easily enough; but they cannot abide sores, their eyes are too tender to endure to see them, and yet hard enough not to relieve them. Or is it they stand aloof, that is, so near as to show they are willing enough to see them; but yet so far off as to show they have no meaning to come and help them! ...My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore, as fearing more my sore than me; but my kinsmen stand afar off, as fearing me no less than my sore; and where my lovers and friends by standing aloof do but violate the law of a contracted friendship, my kinsmen by standing afar off violate even the law of natural affection; and is not this a grievous thing, that the law of reason, the law of friendship, the law of nature, shall all be broken rather than I shall be relieved or find assistance? Sir Richard Baker.

Ver. 11. My lovers and my friends stand afar off. Deserted by false friends, but conqueror through thee, to thee I speed, who though seeming to act the part of an enemy, yet never changest thy love; but lovest for ever him whom thou once hast loved. When you seem afar off, you are near. I conceive this sorrow on account of the treachery of false friends, and the cowardliness of my kinsfolk, who are to me as piercing thorns rather than sweet smelling roses. The proof of affection is seen by deeds. I hear the name of kinsman and friend; I see no deed. To thee, therefore, I flee, whose word is deed; for I need thy help. From the Latin of A. Rivetus.

None.

Psalms 38:12*

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

11. Lovers… friends… kinsmen—The enumeration covers close friends, companions; neighbours or associates; and kinsmen. These did not come near him, but stood “from before him,” “far off and round about.” See Psa_31:11; Job_19:13-14

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

My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; or, from my stroke. (comp. Psa_39:10, where the same word is used) The psalmist feels himself to be "stricken, smitten of God". (Isa_53:4) He looks for comfort and sympathy to his friends, but they, with a selfishness that is only too common, hold aloof, draw away item him, and desert him. (comp. Job_19:13, Job_19:14) And my kinsmen stand afar off; or, my neighbours. The stricken deer is forsaken by the rest of the herd. (comp. Mat_26:56, Mat_26:58)

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

lay snares for me

The plots of the writer's enemies are spoken of as if they were traps that they had set to catch him like an animal. AT: "set traps to catch me" (See: Metaphor)

speak destructive words and say deceitful words

These two phrases mean basically the same thing and emphasize the hurtful nature of what these people say. (See: Parallelism)

translationWords

companion

neighbor

life

snare

word

deceive

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

engulfed Heb. סחרחר, surrounded by grief. This is one of the double words, like (Lev. 13: 49), “dark green (ירקרק), dark red (אדמדם),” (Ned. 66b) “round (סגלגל)” (Lam. 1:20), “my spirits are troubled (חמר מרו).”

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.