Psalm 109:8

Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Office.—See Note, Psalm 109:6. Evidently some post of power and influence.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 109:8. Let his days be few — The days of his life. Let him die an untimely death. So did Ahithophel, and so did Judas; both hanging themselves. And let another take his office — Made void by his death. This is the clause which St. Peter has cited and applied to Judas, in his discourse to the disciples, at the election of Matthias into Judas’s place. He cites, at the same time, a clause from Psalm 69:25; Let their habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein. This latter sentence, though in the plural number in the Hebrew, yet is applied by St. Peter in the singular number to Judas. The passage in this Psalm is singular, “yet applicable,” says Dr. Horne, “not to Judas only, but to the whole nation of the Jews; whose days, after they had crucified the Lord of glory, were few; who were dispossessed of the place and office which they held as the church of God, and to which, with all its honours and privileges, the Gentile Christian Church succeeded in their stead, when the Aaronical priesthood was abolished, and that of the true Melchisedek established for ever.”

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 his days be few - Let him be soon cut off; let his life be shortened. It cannot be wrong for an officer of justice to aim at this; to desire it; to pray for it. How strange it would be for a magistrate to pray "that a murderer or a traitor should be long lived!"

And let another take his office - So every man acts, and practically prays, who seeks to remove a bad and corrupt man from office. As such an office must be filled by someone, all the efforts which he puts forth to remove a wicked man tend to bring it about that "another should take his office;" and for this it is "right" to labor and pray. The act does not of itself imply malignity or bad feeling, but is consistent with the purest benevolence, the kindest feelings, the strictest integrity, the sternest patriotism, and the highest form of piety. The word rendered office here is in the margin "charge." It properly denotes a "mustering, an enumeration;" then, care, watch, oversight, charge, as in an army, or in a civil office. In Acts 1:20, this passage is applied to Judas, and the word - the same word as in the Septuagint here - is rendered in the text "bishopric," in the margin, "office." See the notes at that passage. It had no original reference to Judas, but the language was exactly adapted to him, and to the circumstances of the case, as it is used by the apostle in that passage.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. The opposite blessing is long life (Ps 91:16; Pr 3:2). The last clause is quoted as to Judas by Peter (Ac 1:20).

office—literally, "charge," Septuagint, and Peter, "oversight" [1Pe 5:2].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Let his days be few; the days of his life. Let him die an untimely death.

His office, made void by his death. He also implies that his enemy was a man of power and reputation.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let his days be few,.... The days of men in common are but few at most: length of days, either beyond or according to the usual term of life, is reckoned a blessing; and to be cut off in the midst of a man's days a curse; when this is by the immediate hand of God, as a visible token of his displeasure; or by the hand of the civil magistrate, for some capital offence; or by a man's own hands, which was the case of Judas; whose days were but few, in comparison of the other apostles, who outlived him many years; especially the Apostle John, who lived sixty years after, at least. The Syriac version renders it, "let their days be few"; and so it reads the whole context in the plural number, both in the verses preceding and following; and the whole may be interpreted of the Jews, as it is by Theodoret, as well as of Judas; since they were concerned in the same sin, and are equally charged as the betrayers and murderers of Christ, Acts 7:52, and their days as a nation and church after the death of Christ were very few; within forty years, or thereabout, their city and temple were destroyed.

And let another take his office; or bishopric, as the Septuagint version and the Apostle Peter call it; who cites this passage, and applies it to Judas, in Acts 1:20. His office was the office of an apostle, an high and honourable one, the chief office in the church: it was a charge, as the word signifies; a charge of souls, an oversight of the flock; which is to be taken not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre's sake, but of a ready mind. Judas took it for filthy lucre's sake, and it was taken away from him, and given to another; to Matthias, on whom the lot fell, and who was numbered with the apostles in his room, Acts 1:21. This is true also of the priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, who were divested of their offices in a very little time; three shepherds were cut off in one month, Zechariah 11:8. There being a change of the priesthood, law, and ordinances, there was a change of offices and officers; new ordinances were appointed by Christ, and new officers created, on whom gifts were bestowed suitable to their work.

Geneva Study Bible

Let his days be few; and let another take his {e} office.

(e) This was chiefly accomplished in Judas, Ac 1:20.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. Let his life come prematurely to an end (Psalm 37:35-36; Psalm 55:23), and let another man succeed him in his post of authority: or perhaps, let his life be short and withal dishonoured by degradation from his office. Cp. Isaiah 22:19 ff. The rendering let another take his store is less probable.

The second clause is quoted together with Psalm 69:25 in Acts 1:20. Judas was the antitype of the man who requited love with treachery, and the words of Scripture are appealed to as a solemn sanction for filling up his office by the election of another Apostle.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Let his days be few. There were Divine promises that "bloodthirsty and deceitful men" should not "live out half their days," which might naturally be regarded as justifying this wish (see Psalm 55:23; Proverbs 10:27; Ecclesiastes 7:17). And let another take his office. Τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ, LXX. Applied by St. Peter to Judas (Acts 1:20). Psalm 109:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The writer now turns to one among the many, and in the angry zealous fervour of despised love calls down God's judgment upon him. To call down a higher power, more particularly for punishment, upon any one is expressed by על (הפקיד) פּקד, Jeremiah 15:3; Leviticus 26:16. The tormentor of innocence shall find a superior executor who will bring him before the tribunal (which is expressed in Latin by legis actio per manus injectionem). The judgment scene in Psalm 109:6, Psalm 109:7 shows that this is what is intended in Psalm 109:6: At the right hand is the place of the accuser, who in this instance will not rest before the damnatus es has been pronounced. He is called שׂטן, which is not to be understood here after 1 Samuel 29:4; 2 Samuel 19:22, but after Zechariah 3:1; 1 Chronicles 21:1, if not directly of Satan, still of a superhuman (cf. Numbers 22:22) being which opposes him, by appearing before God as his κατήγωρ; for according to Psalm 109:7 the שׂטן is to be thought of as accuser, and according to Psalm 109:7 God as Judge. רשׁע has the sense of reus, and יצא refers to the publication of the sentence. Psalm 109:7 wishes that his prayer, viz., that by which he would wish to avert the divine sentence of condemnation, may become לחטאה, not: a missing of the mark, i.e., ineffectual (Thenius), but, according to the usual signification of the word: a sin, viz., because it proceeds from despair, not from true penitence. In Psalm 109:8 the incorrigible one is wished an untimely death (מעטּים as in one other instance, only, Ecclesiastes 5:1) and the loss of his office. The lxx renders: τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ λάβοι ἕτερος. פּקדּה really signifies the office of overseer, oversight, office, and the one individual must have held a prominent position among the enemies of the psalmist. Having died off from this position before his time, he shall leave behind him a family deeply reduced in circumstances, whose former dwelling - place-he was therefore wealthy - becomes "ruins." His children wander up and down far from these ruins (מן as e.g., in Judges 5:11; Job 28:4) and beg (דּרשׁ, like προσαιτεῖν ἐπαιτεῖν, Sir. 40:28 equals לחם בּקּשׁ, Psalm 37:25). Instead of ודרשׁוּ the reading ודרשׁוּ is also found. A Poel is now and then formed from the strong verbs also,

(Note: In connection with the strong verb it frequently represents the Piel which does not occur, as with דּרשׁ, לשׁן, שׁפט, or even represents the Piel which, as in the case of שׁרשׁ, is already made use of in another signification (Piel, to root out; Poel, to take root).)

in the inflexion of which the Cholem is sometimes shortened to Kametz chatuph; vid., the forms of לשׁן, to slander, in Psalm 101:5, תּאר, to sketch, mark out in outline, Isaiah 44:13, cf. also Job 20:26 (תּאכלהוּ) and Isaiah 62:9 (according to the reading מאספיו). To read the Kametz in these instances as ā, and to regard these forms as resolved Piels, is, in connection with the absence of the Metheg, contrary to the meaning of the pointing; on purpose to guard against this way of reading it, correct codices have ודרשׁוּ (cf. Psalm 69:19), which Baer has adopted.