Psalms 94:5

Psa 94:5 They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.

Ver. 5. They break in pieces thy people] They make potsherds of them. And this is the best use they make of thy patience; break it off, therefore.

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.

Ver. 5. They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, grinding them with oppression, crushing them with contempt. Yet the men they break in pieces are God's own people, and they are persecuted because they are so; this is a strong plea for the divine interposition.

And afflict thine heritage, causing them sorrowful humiliation and deep depression of heart. The term, "thine heritage, "marks out the election of the saints, God's peculiar interest and delight in them, his covenant relation, of long standing, to them and their fathers; this also is a storehouse of arguments with their faithful God. Will he not defend his own? Will a man lose his inheritance, or permit it to be contemptuously despoiled? Those who are ground down, and trampled on, are not strangers, but the choice and chosen ones of the Lord; how long will he leave them to be a prey to cruel foes

Ver. 5. They break in pieces thy people. They tread down; they grind; they crush. The Hebrew word is often used as meaning to crush under foot; to trample on; and hence it means to oppress. La 3:34, Isa 3:15. Albert Barnes.

Ver. 5-10.

1. High handed oppression by the wicked (Ps 94:5-6).

2. Hard hearted indifference to Divine supervision (Ps 94:7).

3. Clear headed demonstration of the Divine cognisance and vengeance (Ps 94:8-10). C.A.D.

Psalms 94:6*

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

Psa 94:5-7. They afflict thy heritage — Those righteous persons whom thou hast chosen for thy portion or inheritance. They slay the widow, &c. — Whom common humanity obliged them to spare, pity, and relieve. Yet they say, The Lord shall not see — Their meeting with impunity and prosperity in their impious and barbarous practices makes them ready to doubt, or to deny, the providence of God in the government of his church and of the world. Neither doth the God of Jacob regard it — Though there are such evident demonstrations of the divine interpositions in favour of Jacob, and of his watchful care over them as his people, yet, for all that, they fancy he does not regard, nor will call them to any account for their doings.

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

5. (Psa 94:5) Thy people, Jehovah, they grind (or crush), and thy inheritance theyhumble (or afflict). The first verb means to bruise, break in pieces, or reduce to powder. The people and heritage of God are synonymous expressions, the people being so called because they belonged to him, and were possessed by him, from generation to generation. The terms of this verse seem to point out foreign persecutors or oppressors as the subject of complaint.

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

Seeing the Church was then so sore oppressed, it ought not to seem strange to us, if we see it so now, and therefore we must call to God, to take our cause in hand.

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

Verse 5. They break in pieces thy people] This was true of the Babylonians. Nehuchadnezzar slew many; carried the rest into captivity; ruined Jerusalem; overturned the temple; sacked, pillaged, and destroyed all the country.

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

5 They break in pieces thy people, O Jehovah! Having spoken of their discourse or language as vain-glorious and shameless, he proceeds to speak of their deeds, in cruelly persecuting the Church. It is hard that even the subjects of heathen princes should be subjected to unjust persecution, but a more intolerable thing still, that those who are God’s own people, his peculiar inheritance, should be trampled under the foot of tyranny. The prayer before us is one which, as I have already remarked, is given with the intention that we should prefer it ourselves, when we or others may be persecuted by wicked men, and especially intestine enemies. Our safety is dear to the Lord, not only as we are men, the workmanship of his hand, but as we are his peculiar heritage; and this should lead us, when wronged at any time, to betake ourselves to God with the more confidence. It is farther added — that they spare not the widow, and the orphan, and murder the stranger God, while he has commanded us in general to cultivate equity and justice in our common intercourse, has commended the orphan, widow, and stranger, to our peculiar care, as being more exposed to injury, and therefore more entitled to humanity and compassion. To treat such objects with cruelty argues a singular degree of impiety, and contempt of divine authority, and is not only an outrage of common justice, but the infraction of a privilege of special protection which God has condescended to cast around them. They who are chargeable with such conduct, particularly provoke the divine anger. As to little children especially, their helplessness and tender age will even protect them from being attacked by dogs and wild beasts. And what shall we think of the monstrous inhumanity of men, who would make them the objects of their assault? We have here a specimen of the dreadful state of matters which must then have prevailed in the Church of God. The law was there, and the ordinances of divine appointment, yet we see to what an awful extent every species of wickedness abounded. Let us beware lest we fall into a similar state of corruption, and should it so happen under our own observation that men persecute the stranger, seize the widow, and rob the fatherless, let us, in imitation of the Psalmist, who would have us alleviate their misfortunes, pray God to undertake their defense.

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.

(5) Break in pieces.—Or, crush. (See Isa_3:15, where the word is in parallelism with “grind the faces of the poor.”)

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

5. They break in pieces] Or, crush (as Isa_3:15; Pro_22:22), by violence and extortion. Thy people … thine inheritance, as in Psa_28:9. Cp. Deu_4:20.

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 break in pieces thy people, O Lord,.... Not the Israelites, as Kimchi; but the church of Christ, by their anathemas, cruel edicts, and persecutions; by confiscating their goods, imprisoning their persons, putting them to cruel deaths; and by such means think to "wear out" the saints of the most High, the Lord's covenant and peculiar people; which is mentioned as an aggravation of their sin, and as an argument with the Lord to arise on their behalf:

and afflict thine heritage; the church, styled God's heritage, Pe1 5:3, whom the Lord has chosen for his inheritance; and are dear to him, as his portion, his jewels, and even as the apple of his eye; and yet these are afflicted all manner of ways by their persecuting enemies, as Israel was of old in Egypt.

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

They break in pieces thy people - They tread down; they grind; they crush. The Hebrew word is often used as meaning to crush under foot; to trample on; and hence, it means to oppress. Lam 3:34; Isa 3:15.

And afflict - To wit, by oppression and wrong. If this refers to foreigners, it means that they did this by invasion and by the ravages of war.

Thine heritage - Thy people, regarded as an inheritance or possession. See Psa 28:9, note; Psa 33:12, note; Psa 68:9, note; Psa 74:2, note; Isa 19:25, note; Isa 47:6, note; 1Pe 5:3, note.

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

Those righteous persons whom thou hast chosen for thy portion or inheritance.

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

5. Break in pieces—Crush.

Afflict—Literally, Cast down to the ground, bring low. The phrase answers to “break in pieces,” crush, in the preceding member.

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

They break in pieces thy people, O Lord; or, "crush," "oppress". (comp. Isa_3:15 Pro_22:22, where the verb is evidently used, not of foreign foes, but of domestic oppressors) And afflict thine heritage; or, "thine inheritance those whom thou hast taken to be thy "peculiar people", (Deu_14:2) thine own exclusive possession.

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

afflict the nation

Here the metonym "nation" refers to the people of the nation. AT: "afflict the people of the nation" (See: Metonymy)

They crush

The psalmist speaks of powerful people treating powerless people badly as if it were crushing them or breaking them in pieces. See how "break in pieces" is translated in Psalms 72:4. AT: "They completely destroy" or "They greatly harm" (See: Metaphor)

the widow

"women whose husbands have died"

the fatherless

"children without fathers"

the God of Jacob does not take notice of it

"the God of Israel does not see what we do"

translationWords

people of God

afflicted

nation

Jacob

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