Psalm 109:15

Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

109:6-20 The Lord Jesus may speak here as a Judge, denouncing sentence on some of his enemies, to warn others. When men reject the salvation of Christ, even their prayers are numbered among their sins. See what hurries some to shameful deaths, and brings the families and estates of others to ruin; makes them and theirs despicable and hateful, and brings poverty, shame, and misery upon their posterity: it is sin, that mischievous, destructive thing. And what will be the effect of the sentence, Go, ye cursed, upon the bodies and souls of the wicked! How it will affect the senses of the body, and the powers of the soul, with pain, anguish, horror, and despair! Think on these things, sinners, tremble and repent.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let them be before the Lord continually - Let their sins never pass from the mind of God. Let him never so forget them as not to inflict punishment for them.

That he may cut off the memory of them from the earth - That they may be wholly forgotten among people. Let their very name perish; and let the offender in this case be in the condition of those who have no ancestors to whom they can refer with pride and pleasure. The idea here is drawn from the honor which is felt in being able to refer to ancestors worthy of being remembered for their virtues.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14, 15. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered, &c.—Added to the terrible overthrow following his own sin, let there be the imputation of his parents' guilt, that it may now come before God, for His meting out its full consequences, in cutting off the memory of them (that is, the parents) from the earth (Ps 34:16).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Let them, the sins of his parents last mentioned, be before Lord; in God’s sight and memory, to provoke God them: let them not be covered or pardoned.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let them be before the Lord continually,.... And not cast behind his back, or into the depths of the sea, never to be seen more, as sins are when forgiven; but be always in sight, as loathsome and abominable, and causing those that committed them to be abhorred for them; and be before him, as a Judge, to examine them, the nature and kind of them, and to condemn and punish for them; see Exodus 20:5. The Targum is,

"let them be before the Word of the Lord always;''

see Hebrews 4:13.

That he may cut off the memory of them from the earth; so that they may not be remembered with any applause, or their name spoken of with any commendation; see Job 18:17.

Geneva Study Bible

Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. Let them be] The iniquity and sin. Cp. Psalm 90:8; Lamentations 1:22.

the memory of them] Of his ancestors and all their posterity. Cp. Psalm 34:16.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - Let them be before the Lord continually; i.e. let these sins be present to the mind of God constantly, that he may visit for them constantly, even to the bitter end; and so may cut off the memory of them (i.e. of the original sinners) from the earth (comp. ver. 13). Psalm 109:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Piel נקּשׁ properly signifies to catch in snares; here, like the Arabic Arab. nqš, II, IV, corresponding to the Latin obligare (as referring to the creditor's right of claim); nosheh is the name of the creditor as he who gives time for payment, gives credit (vid., Isaiah 24:2). In Psalm 109:12 משׁך חסד, to draw out mercy, is equivalent to causing it to continue and last, Psalm 36:11, cf. Jeremiah 31:3. אחריתו, Psalm 109:13, does not signify his future, but as Psalm 109:13 (cf. Psalm 37:38) shows: his posterity. יהי להכרית is not merely exscindatur, but exscindenda sit (Ezekiel 30:16, cf. Joshua 2:6), just as in other instances חיה ל corresponds to the active fut. periphrasticum, e.g., Genesis 15:12; Isaiah 37:26. With reference to ימּח instead of ימּח (contracted from ימּחה), vid., Ges. 75, rem. 8. A Jewish acrostic interpretation of the name ישׁוּ runs: ימּח שׁמו וזכרו. This curse shall overtake the family of the υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας. All the sins of his parents and ancestors shall remain indelible above before God the Judge, and here below the race, equally guilty, shall be rooted out even to its memory, i.e., to the last trace of it.