Psalm 34:21

Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) Desolate.—Better (as in margin), shall be found guilty, or condemned.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 34:21. Evil shall slay the wicked — Either, 1st, The evil of sin: his own wickedness, though designed against others, shall destroy himself. Or, 2d, The evil of misery. While the afflictions of good men shall have a happy issue, theirs shall end in their total and final destruction. They that hate the righteous shall be desolate — That persecute them and plot their ruin, which is an evidence they hate them, whatsoever they may pretend to the contrary. Dr. Kennicott translates this latter clause, The haters of the Just One, Jehovah shall make desolate; a prediction awfully fulfilled in the punishment of the persecutors of the Messiah, one of whose proper titles this was, Acts 3:14.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

34:11-22 Let young persons set out in life with learning the fear of the Lord, if they desire true comfort here, and eternal happiness hereafter. Those will be most happy who begin the soonest to serve so good a Master. All aim to be happy. Surely this must look further than the present world; for man's life on earth consists but of few days, and those full of trouble. What man is he that would see the good of that where all bliss is perfect? Alas! few have this good in their thoughts. That religion promises best which creates watchfulness over the heart and over the tongue. It is not enough not to do hurt, we must study to be useful, and to live to some purpose; we must seek peace and pursue it; be willing to deny ourselves a great deal for peace' sake. It is the constant practice of real believers, when in distress, to cry unto God, and it is their constant comfort that he hears them. The righteous are humbled for sin, and are low in their own eyes. Nothing is more needful to true godliness than a contrite heart, broken off from every self-confidence. In this soil every grace will flourish, and nothing can encourage such a one but the free, rich grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The righteous are taken under the special protection of the Lord, yet they have their share of crosses in this world, and there are those that hate them. Both from the mercy of Heaven, and the malice of hell, the afflictions of the righteous must be many. But whatever troubles befal them, shall not hurt their souls, for God keeps them from sinning in troubles. No man is desolate, but he whom God has forsaken.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Evil shall slay the wicked - That is, his own wicked conduct will be the cause of his destruction. His ruin is not arbitrary, or the mere result of a divine appointment; it is caused by sin, and is the regular and natural consequence of guilt. In the destruction of the sinner, there will not be any one thing which cannot be explained by the supposition that it is the regular effect of sin, or what sin is, in its own nature, suited to produce. The one will measure the other; guilt will be the measure of all that there is in the punishment.

And they that hate the righteous - Another term for the wicked, or a term designating the character of the wicked in one aspect or view. It is true of all the wicked that they must hate the righteous in their hearts, or that they are so opposed to the character of the righteous that it is proper to designate this feeling as "hatred."

Shall be desolate - Margin, "shall be guilty." Prof. Alexander and Hengstenberg render this, as in the margin, "shall be guilty." DeWette, "shall repent." Rosenmuller, "shall be condemned." The original word - אשׁם 'âsham - means properly to fail in duty, to transgress, to be guilty. The primary idea, says Gesenius (Lexicon), is that of "negligence," especially in going, or in gait, as of a camel that is slow or faltering. Then the word means to be held or treated as faulty or guilty; and then, to bear the consequences of guilt, or to be punished. This seems to be the idea here. The word is sometimes synonymous with another Hebrew word - ישׁם yâsham - meaning to be desolate; to be destroyed; to be laid waste: Ezekiel 6:6; Joel 1:18; Psalm 5:10. But the usual meaning of the word is undoubtedly retained here, as signifying that, in the dealings of Providence, or in the administering of divine government, such men will be held to be guilty, and will be treated accordingly; that is, that they will be punished.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21, 22. Contrast in the destiny of righteous and wicked; the former shall be delivered and never come into condemnation (Joh 5:24; Ro 8:1); the latter are left under condemnation and desolate.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Evil; either,

1. The evil of sin. His own wickedness, though designed against others, shall destroy himself. Or,

2. The evil of misery. When the afflictions of good men shall have a happy issue, theirs shall end in their total and final destruction.

That hate the righteous; that persecute them, and plot their ruin; which is an evidence that they hate them, whatsoever they may pretend to the contrary.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Evil shall slay the wicked,.... Meaning either the evil they designed against the righteous shall return and fall upon their heads, to their own ruin; or the evil of affliction, which to them is the evil of punishment, both here and hereafter, from which they will have no deliverance in the end; though the righteous have from their afflictions, being not properly punishments, but chastisements for sin, and are but for a time; or else the evil of sin, which is the cause of death corporeal and eternal;

and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate; or "shall be guilty" (n); be found so; or "shall be condemned", or "damned", as the Targum renders it. All wicked men hate the righteous, both Jesus Christ the righteous, and his people; and that because they are righteous, and do not run into the same excess of wickedness with them, these will be arraigned at the day of judgment, and will be convicted of all their hard speeches which they have spoken against Christ and his members; and will be pronounced guilty, and will be punished with everlasting destruction.

(n) "rei fiunt", Cocceius; "reatum habebunt", Schmidt; "damnabuntur", Gejerus; "shall be condemned as guilty", Ainsworth.

Geneva Study Bible

Evil shall slay the {n} wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.

(n) Their wicked enterprises will turn to their own destruction.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. While the righteous is rescued out of all evils (Psalm 34:19), evil brings the wicked to his death. His evil ways work out their own punishment, and divine retribution overtakes him. (Romans 6:21; Romans 6:23.)

21, 22. shall be desolate] R.V. shall be condemned; or, marg., held guilty. Cp. Psalm 5:10.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - Evil shall slay the wicked. His own misconduct shall bring destruction upon the wicked man-destruction of the body in many cases (Psalm 7:15, 16), in all, if he persists in his wickedness, destruction of the soul. And they that hate the righteous shall be desolate; rather, shall be held guilty (comp. Psalm 5:10, and the comment ad loc.). Psalm 34:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 34:17-22) The poet now recommends the fear of God, to which he has given a brief direction, by setting forth its reward in contrast with the punishment of the ungodly. The prepositions אל and בּ, in Psalm 34:16 and Psalm 34:17, are a well considered interchange of expression: the former, of gracious inclination (Psalm 33:18), the latter, of hostile intention or determining, as in Job 7:8; Jeremiah 21:10; Jeremiah 44:11, after the phrase in Leviticus 17:10. The evil doers are overwhelmed by the power of destruction that proceeds from the countenance of Jahve, which is opposed to them, until there is not the slightest trace of their earthly existence left. The subjects to Psalm 34:18 are not, according to Psalm 107:17-19, the עשׁי רע (evil doers), since the indispensable characteristic of penitence is in this instance wanting, but the צדיקים (the righteous). Probably the פ strophe stood originally before the ע strophe, just as in Lamentations 2-4 the פ precedes the ע (Hitzig). In connection with the present sequence of the thoughts, the structure of Psalm 34:18 is just like Psalm 34:6 : Clamant et Dominus audit equals si qui (quicunque) clamant. What is meant is the cry out of the depth of a soul that despairs of itself. Such crying meets with a hearing with God, and in its realisation, an answer that bears its own credentials. "The broken in heart" are those in whom the egotistical, i.e., self-loving life, which encircles its own personality, is broken at the very root; "the crushed or contrite (דּכּאי, from דּכּא, with a changeable ā, after the form אילות from איּל) in spirit" are those whom grievous experiences, leading to penitence, of the false eminence to which their proud self-consciousness has raised them, have subdued and thoroughly humbled. To all such Jahve is nigh, He preserves them from despair, He is ready to raise up in them a new life upon the ruins of the old and to cover or conceal their infinitive deficiency; and, they, on their part, being capable of receiving, and desirous of, salvation, He makes them partakers of His salvation. It is true these afflictions come upon the righteous, but Jahve rescues him out of them all, מכּלּם equals מּכּלּן (the same enallage generis as in Ruth 1:19; Ruth 4:11). He is under the most special providence, "He keepeth all his bones, not one of them (ne unum quidem) is broken" - a pictorial exemplification of the thought that God does not suffer the righteous to come to the extremity, that He does not suffer him to be severed from His almighty protecting love, nor to become the sport of the oppressors. Nevertheless we call to mind the literal fulfilment which these words of the psalmist received in the Crucified One; for the Old Testament prophecy, which is quoted in John 19:33-37, may be just as well referred to our Psalm as to Exodus 12:46. Not only the Paschal lamb, but in a comparative sense even every affliction of the righteous, is a type. Not only is the essence of the symbolism of the worship of the sanctuary realised in Jesus Christ, not only is the history of Israel and of David repeated in Him, not only does human suffering attain in connection with Him its utmost intensity, but all the promises given to the righteous are fulfilled in Him κατ ̓ ἐξοχήν; because He is the righteous One in the most absolute sense, the Holy One of God in a sense altogether unique (Isaiah 53:11; Jeremiah 23:5, Zechariah 9:9; Acts 3:14; Acts 22:14). - The righteous is always preserved from extreme peril, whereas evil (רעה) slays (מותת stronger than המית) the ungodly: evil, which he loved and cherished, becomes the executioner's power, beneath which he falls. And they that hate the righteous must pay the penalty. Of the meanings to incur guilt, to feel one's self guilty, and to undergo punishment as being guilty, אשׁם (vid., on 1 Samuel 14:13) has the last in this instance.