Psalms 69:25

Psa 69:25 Let their habitation be desolate; [and] let none dwell in their tents.

Ver. 25. Let their habitation be desolate] Heb. their palaces, or castles, so named of being fair and high built, in row and order. It is here put not only for their habitation, but for their function. See Act 1:20.

And let none dwell in their tents] Lege et luge, Read and lament, saith one, speaking of the ruin of Jerusalem by the Romans, under Vespasian, and again under Hadrian, by whom all Judaea was left almost uninhabited, the Jews utterly banished, and forbidden upon pain of death to look toward their own country (Dio in Hadrian). At this day there be not to be found in Jerusalem itself a hundred households of Jews. Behold the severity of God for the contempt of Christ and his people (Breerwood’s Enquirer).

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 69:25. Let their habitation — Hebrew, שׂירתם, tiratham, their palace, as the same word is rendered Son 8:9, or castle, as Gen 25:16, and Num 31:10. It is meant either of their temple, in which they placed their glory and their confidence for safety, or more generally of their strong and magnificent buildings and houses in which they dwelt, as it follows in the next clause. And let none dwell in their tents — None of their posterity, or none at all. Let the places be accounted execrable and dreadful. Bishop Patrick’s paraphrase is, “Let their most magnificent structures be laid waste; and root them out so entirely, that there may not be a man left to dwell in their poorest cottages.” This verse had a most eminent completion in the final destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish state and nation, according to the predictions of the Lord Jesus, Mat 23:36-38; Luk 21:6, &c. Jerusalem has indeed been again partly rebuilt, and inhabited by Gentiles, by Christians, and by Saracens, but no more by the Jewish people.

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

26. (Psa 69:25). Let their home be desolated, in their tents may there be no one dwelling, or let no one dwell. The word translated home seems properly to mean an enclosure, with special reference, perhaps, to an encampment or collection of tents (Gen 25:16, Num 21:10). The translation castle in the English version of the places just referred to, and that of palace in the margin of the one before us, seem entirely conjectural. The Septuagint here has a Greek word, meaning a place to pass the night in, especially for flocks and herds, and thence transferred to farm or country houses. This expression is retained in Act 1:20, where the verse before us is quoted, in connection with Psa 109:8, and applied to Judas Iscariot, not as an individual merely, but as a type and representative of the Jewish people, in their malignant and perfidious enmity to Christ. This does not prove our Lord to be the exclusive subject of the whole psalm, a conclusion forbidden by the confession of sin in Psa 69:5 above; but it does shew that He is not only one, but the chief member, nay the great type and representative, of the whole class of innocent sufferers at the hands of wicked enemies. See also Mat 23:38.

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

69:25 Peter quoted this verse after the death of Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:20).

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

Punish not only them, but their posterity, which shall be like unto them.

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

25 Let their habitation be desolate. Here he proceeds farther than in the preceding verse, praying that God would cause his wrath to descend to their posterity; and it is no new thing for the sins of the fathers to be cast into the bosom of the children. As David uttered these imprecations by the inspiration and influence of the Holy Spirit, so he took them out of the law itself, in which God threatens that he will

“visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him,” (Exodus 20:5)

In this way he desires that the memorial of them may be cursed, and that thus God would not spare them even after their death.

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.

(25) Habitation.—The derivation is from a word meaning circle, and a better rendering is therefore encampment or village. Nomadic tribes pitch their tents in an enclosed ring. The derivation of the English town is precisely similar. The desolation of his homestead was, to the Arab, the most frightful of calamities. (Comp. Job_18:15. For St. Peter’s use of this verse, combined with Psa_109:8, see Act_1:20, and Note, 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.

25. their habitation] Rather, as R.V. marg., their encampment; cp. Gen_25:16; Num_31:10; Eze_25:4 (R.V.). The language is a survival from the habits of nomad life, with which however the Israelites must always have been familiar. Cp. Jer_4:20; Jer_10:20. To the Oriental no prospect was more terrible than that of the complete extermination of his family. Cp. Job_18:19; Pro_14:11.

The quotation in Act_1:20 is a free adaptation of the LXX.

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.

Let their habitation be desolate,.... Which is applied to Judas, Act 1:20; but not to the exclusion of others; for it must be understood of the habitations of others; even of their princes and nobles, their chief magistrates, high priest and other priests, scribes, and doctors of the law: for the word may be rendered, "their palace" or "castle" (k), as it is by some; and so may denote the houses of their principal men, the members of their sanhedrim; their houses great and fair, of which there were many in Jerusalem when it was destroyed; see Isa 5:9; as well as the habitations of the meaner sort of people, which all became desolate at that time; and particularly their house, the temple, which was like a palace or castle, built upon a mountain. This was left desolate, as our Lord foretold it would, Mat 23:38;

and let none dwell in their tents; the city of Jerusalem was wholly destroyed and not a house left standing in it, nor an inhabitant of it; it was laid even with the ground, ploughed up, and not one stone left upon another, Luk 19:44.

(k) "palatium eorum", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Cocceius, Michaelis; "castella eorum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "palatium vel casteilum eorum", Gejerus; so Ainsworth.

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

Let their habitation be desolate - Margin, “their palace.” The Hebrew word means properly a wall; then, a fortress or castle; and then it means also a nomadic encampment, a rustic village, a farm-hamlet. The word conveys the idea of an “enclosure,” with special reference to an encampment, or a collection of tents. The Septuagint renders it here ἔπαυλις epaulis, meaning a place to pass the night in, especially for flocks and herds. The Hebrew word - טירה ṭı̂yrâh - is rendered “castles” in Gen 25:16; Num 31:10; 1Ch 6:54; “palaces” in Son 8:9; Eze 25:4; “rows” in Eze 46:23; and “habitation” in this place. It does not occur elsewhere. Here it means their “home,” - their place of abode, - but with no particular reference to the “kind” of home, whether a palace, a castle, or an encampment. The idea is, that the place which they had occupied, or where they had dwelt, would be made vacant. They would be removed, and the place would be solitary and forsaken. It is equivalent to a prayer that they might be destroyed.

And let none dwell in their tents - Margin, as in Hebrew, “let there not be a dweller.” That is, Let their tents where they had dwelt be wholly forsaken. This passage is quoted in Act 1:20, as applicable to Judas. See the notes at that passage.

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

Their habitation, Heb. their palace, as this word signifies, Gen 25:16; Num 31:10; Son 8:9. Either,

1. Their temple, in which they place their glory and safety. Or rather,

2. and more generally, Their strongest and most magnificent buildings and houses, in which they dwelt, as it follows in the next clause, which explains this.

None; either,

1. None of their posterity. Destroy them both root and branch. Or,

2. None at all. Let the places be accounted execrable and dreadful.

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

Ver. 25. Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. This may signify that their posterity shall be cut off, and the abode which they occupy shall be left a ruin; or, as our Lord quoted it, it refers to the temple, which was left by its divine occupant and became a desolation. What occurs on a large scale to families and nations is often fulfilled in individuals, as was conspicuously the case with Judas, to whom Peter referred this prophecy, Ac 1:20, "For it is written in the book of Psalms, let this habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein." The fierce proclamation of Nebuchadnezzar, "that every people, nation, and language, that speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill, "is but an anticipation of that dread hour when the enemies of the Lord shall be broken in pieces, and perish out of the land.

Ver. 25. Let their habitation; that is, not only the place where they dwell, but even their very offices and functions, be void, viz., by thy just taking them away from amongst men; and let none, viz., of their seed and posterity, dwell in their tents, viz., that they have dwelt in: he meaneth, that he would have them die without heir or issue. Thomas Wilcocks.

Ver. 25. Let none dwell in their tents. After the temple itself was taken, or rather turned to ashes, the miserable remnant of the Jewish people begged of Titus that he would permit them to pass through the breeches of the wall with their wives and children, and go into the wilderness--a request which he indignantly refused. (Josephus). So that, literally, "there was no inhabitant for their tents." John Mason Good.

None.

Psalms 69:26*

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

25. Let their habitation be desolate—Again the verb should take the declarative, not the optative, sense: Their habitation shall be laid waste.

The imagery is nomadic, after the true Arab life, and the word “habitation” may take the sense of encampment, or village life in the desert, with the radical idea of fortified, or strong, “habitation,” where the greater safety was enjoyed. To lay these waste by plunder and rapine, or by divine judgments, was a most terrible calamity to a Shemite. In Psa_69:23 their “loins” are represented as shaking through fear and alarm; here their safest dwellingplaces are laid waste, and they hence rooted out.

Let none dwell in their tents—The Apostle Peter says of this entire verse, that “the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake [it] before concerning Judas.” Act_1:16-20. It is, therefore, in harmony with eternal justice, and with the spirit of the New Testament, no less than with that of the Old.

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

Let their habitation be desolate; literally, their encampment Tirah (hryfi) is the circular enclosure of a nomadic tribe, within which it kept its cattle or took refuge itself. (Gen_26:16 Num_31:10) Nomadic expressions remained in use after nomadic habits had ceased. (see 1Ki_12:16) And let none dwell in their tents. A duplication of the preceding clause.

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