Psalm 129:5

Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 129:5-8. Let them all be confounded, &c. — Hebrew, יבשׁו ויסגו אחור, they shall all be confounded, and turned back — Forced to retreat with shame and disappointment. And so in the next verse, instead of Let them be, read, They shall be as grass upon the house tops — Which there were flat, and therefore more capable of grass, or green corn, growing between the stones than ours are; which withereth, &c. — Which, having no deep root, never comes to maturity. And so all their designs shall be abortive. Thus the enemies of God’s church wither of themselves, and stay not till they are rooted out by the judgments of God. Neither do they which go by — According to the ancient and laudable custom of saluting and praying for the prosperity of harvest labours; say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you, &c. — Which was a usual salutation given by passengers to reapers, as we see Ruth 2:4. If, in a similar way, we acknowledge God’s providence, testify our good-will to our neighbours, and commend their industry, our kind wishes will be accepted as pious ejaculations, if they come from devout and upright hearts. But religious expressions, being sacred things, must never be made use of in light and ludicrous actions. Mowing the grass on the house-top would be a jest, and therefore those that have a reverence for the name of God will not prostitute to such an action those forms of salutation which savour of devotion; for holy things must not be jested with.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

129:5-8 While God's people shall flourish as the loaded palm-tree, or the green and fruitful olive, their enemies shall wither as the grass upon the house-tops, which in eastern countries are flat, and what grows there never ripens; so it is with the designs of God's enemies. No wise man will pray the Lord to bless these mowers or reapers. And when we remember how Jesus arose and reigns; how his people have been supported, like the burning but unconsumed bush, we shall not fear.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let them all be confounded and turned back ... - This might be rendered in the indicative, "they are ashamed," but the connection seems to require the rendering in our version. It is a prayer that God would now interpose as he had done in former times, and that he would cause all the haters of Zion to be put to shame as formerly.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5, 6. The ill-rooted roof grass, which withers before it grows up and procures for those gathering it no harvest blessing (Ru 2:4), sets forth the utter uselessness and the rejection of the wicked.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Forced to retreat with shame and disappointment.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let them all be confounded,.... Or "ashamed": as all the enemies of God's people will be sooner or later, either in this world, or however when Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven; or let them be disappointed of their views, aims, and ends, when they will be confounded, as disappointed persons are;

and turned back; from pursuing their designs and accomplishing them; as the Assyrian monarch was, who had a hook put into his nose, and a bridle in his lips, and was turned back by the way he came, Isaiah 37:29;

that hate Zion; the inhabitants of Zion, who are called out of the world, and separated from the men of it, and therefore hated by them; the King of Zion, the Messiah, whom they will not have to reign over them; the doctrines of the Gospel, the word that comes out of Zion, to which they are utter enemies; and the laws and ordinances of Zion, the discipline of God's house, which they cannot bear to be under and submit unto.

Geneva Study Bible

Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. Put to shame and turned backward

Shall be all that hate Zion.

It is difficult to decide whether these words are a prayer, as most Versions and commentators render them; or an expression of faith, that Israel’s enemies will be foiled and repulsed in the present crisis as they were in the past. On the whole the latter explanation seems best. Cp. Psalm 6:10. The haters of Zion were such as Sanballat and Tobiah, who “were grieved exceedingly” when Nehemiah came “to seek the welfare of the children of Israel” (Nehemiah 2:10), and all who joined them in endeavouring to prevent the restoration of Jerusalem.

5–8. The enemies of Zion shall be destroyed before their malicious schemes are matured.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Let them all be confounded; or, "they shall all be confounded," or "put to shame." And turned back. Made to turn their backs upon their foes. That hate Zion. That have shown themselves enemies to Israel. The main verbs are in the future tense, but may be taken as expressive either of a wish or of a confident expectation. Psalm 129:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Elsewhere it is said that the enemies have driven over Israel (Psalm 66:12), or have gone over its back (Isaiah 51:23); here the customary figurative language חרשׁ און in Job 4:8 (cf. Hosea 10:13) is extended to another figure of hostile dealing: without compassion and without consideration they ill-treated the stretched-forth back of the people who were held in subjection, as though it were arable land, and, without restraining their ferocity and setting a limit to their spoiling of the enslaved people and country, they drew their furrow-strip (מעניתם, according to the Ker מענותם) long. But מענה does not signify (as Keil on 1 Samuel 14:14 is of opinion, although explaining the passage more correctly than Thenius) the furrow ( equals תּלם, גּדוּד), but, like Arab. ma‛nât, a strip of arable land which the ploughman takes in hand at one time, at both ends of which consequently the ploughing team (צמד) always comes to a stand, turns round, and ploughs a new furrow; from ענה, to bend, turn (vid., Wetzstein's Excursus II p. . It is therefore: they drew their furrow-turning long (dative of the object instead of the accusative with Hiph., as e.g., in Isaiah 29:2, cf. with Piel in Psalm 34:4; Psalm 116:16, and Kal Psalm 69:6, after the Aramaic style, although it is not unhebraic). Righteous is Jahve - this is an universal truth, which has been verified in the present circumstances; - He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked (עבות as in Psalm 2:3; here, however, it is suggested by the metaphor in Psalm 129:3, cf. Job 39:10; lxx αὐχένας, i.e., ענוק), with which they held Israel bound. From that which has just been experienced Israel derives the hope that all Zion's haters (a newly coined name for the enemies of the religion of Israel) will be obliged to retreat with shame and confusion.