Psalm 27:12

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) By slightly changing a letter, we avoid the awkward ellipse in Psalm 27:13, and get

“Such as breathe out cruelty against me,

So that I did not believe to see,” &c

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

27:7-14 Wherever the believer is, he can find a way to the throne of grace by prayer. God calls us by his Spirit, by his word, by his worship, and by special providences, merciful and afflicting. When we are foolishly making court to lying vanities, God is, in love to us, calling us to seek our own mercies in him. The call is general, Seek ye my face; but we must apply it to ourselves, I will seek it. The word does us no good, when we do not ourselves accept the exhortation: a gracious heart readily answers to the call of a gracious God, being made willing in the day of his power. The psalmist requests the favour of the Lord; the continuance of his presence with him; the benefit of Divine guidance, and the benefit of Divine protection. God's time to help those that trust in him, is, when all other helpers fail. He is a surer and better Friend than earthly parents are, or can be. What was the belief which supported the psalmist? That he should see the goodness of the Lord. There is nothing like the believing hope of eternal life, the foresights of that glory, and foretastes of those pleasures, to keep us from fainting under all calamities. In the mean time he should be strengthened to bear up under his burdens. Let us look unto the suffering Saviour, and pray in faith, not to be delivered into the hands of our enemies. Let us encourage each other to wait on the Lord, with patient expectation, and fervent prayer.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies - Let them not accomplish their desires in regard to me; let them not be able to carry out their purposes. The word here rendered "will" means properly "soul," but it is used here evidently to denote "wish" or "desire." Compare Psalm 35:25.

For false witnesses are risen up against me - People who would lay false charges against him, or who would wrongfully accuse him. They charged him with crimes which he never committed, and they persecuted him as if he were guilty of what they alleged against him.

And such as breathe out cruelty - That is, they meditate violence or cruel treatment. They are intent on this; they pant for it. Saul of Tarsus thus "breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord." See the notes at Acts 9:1.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. will—literally, "soul," "desire" (Ps 35:25).

enemies—literally, "oppressors." Falsehood aids cruelty against him.

breathe out—as being filled with it (Ac 9:1).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The will, or lust, or desire, Heb. soul; which is so taken, Psalm 41:2 78:18 Ezekiel 16:27.

Such as breathe out cruelty; he presseth his request upon the quality of his enemies, who were both false and cruel, and in both respects hateful to God and men.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies,.... It is a dreadful thing for a man to be given up to his own heart's lusts, and to be delivered up into the hands of Satan; who would fain have even the people of God themselves in his hands, that he might distress them at pleasure, if not destroy them; and also to be suffered to fall into the hands of wicked men, whose tender mercies are cruel;

for false witnesses are risen up against me; laying to his charge, that he sought to take away from Saul his crown and kingdom, and even his life, 1 Samuel 24:9;

and such as breathe out cruelty; as Doeg the Edomite, whose tongue was as a sharp razor, and by whose hands four score and five priests were slain, on account of David's being supplied with bread by Ahimelech; the word is in the singular number; see Psalm 52:1; compare with this clause Acts 9:1; and Horace's phrase, "Spirabat amores" (l).

(l) Carmin. l. 4. Ode. 13. v. 19.

Geneva Study Bible

Deliver me not over unto the {g} will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

(g) But either pacify their wrath, or bridle their rage.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. enemies] R.V., adversaries, as in Psalm 27:2.

false witnesses] Slanderous calumniators are meant, rather than actual witnesses in court. Cp. Psalm 35:11; Proverbs 6:19.

such as breathe out cruelty] Bent on injuring him by their talk. For the phrase cp. Acts 9:1.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies; literally, the soul of mine enimies; i.e. their desire (see Psalm 35:25; Psalm 41:2), which was no doubt to capture him, and. bring him a prisoner to Jerusalem. For false witnesses are risen up against me. The party which attached itself to Absalom accused David of cruelty to the house of Saul (2 Samuel 16:8), and probably of other crimes and misdemeanours. Absalom himself accused him of a failure in his kingly duties (2 Samuel 15:8). And such as breathe out cruelty; or, violence. To "breathe out" violence, threats, slaughter, malice, etc., is a common metaphor in many languages (Acts 9:1; Aristoph., 'Eq.,' 1. 437; Her, 'Od.,' 4. 13, 1. 19, etc.). Psalm 27:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

He is now wandering about like a hunted deer; but God is able to guide him so that he may escape all dangers. And this is what he prays for. As in Psalm 143:10, מישׁור is used in an ethical sense; and differs in this respect from its use in Psalm 26:12. On שׁררים, see the primary passage Psalm 5:9, of which this is an echo. Wily spies dodge his every step and would gladly see what they have invented against him and wished for him, realised. Should he enter the way of sin leading to destruction, it would tend to the dishonour of God, just as on the contrary it is a matter of honour with God not to let His servant fall. Hence he prays to be led in the way of God, for a oneness of his own will with the divine renders a man inaccessible to evil. נפשׁ, Psalm 27:12, is used, as in Psalm 17:9, and in the similar passage, which is genuinely Davidic, Psalm 41:3, in the signification passion or strong desire; because the soul, in its natural state, is selfishness and inordinate desire. יפח is a collateral form of יפיח; they are both adjectives formed from the future of the verb פּוּח (like ירב, יריב): accustomed to breathe out (exhale), i.e., either to express, or to snort, breathe forth (cf. πνεῖν, or ἐμπνεῖν φόνον and θόνοῦ, θυμον, and the like, Acts 9:1). In both Hitzig sees participles of יפח (Jeremiah 4:31); but Psalm 10:5 and Habakkuk 2:3 lead back to פּוּח (פּיח); and Hupfeld rightly recognises such nouns formed from futures to be, according to their original source, circumlocutions of the participle after the manner of an elliptical relative clause (the ṣifat of the Arabic syntax), and explains יפיח כּזבים, together with יפח חמס, from the verbal construction which still continues in force.