Psalm 35:5

Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) As chaff.—Comp. Psalm 1:4, and see Note. There can be little doubt that the “angel of Jehovah” in this and the following verse is (comp. Psalm 104:4) a personification of the “hurricane” itself, which drives before it all obstacles, and overwhelms even whole armies in dangerous places.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 35:5. Let them be — Or, They shall be; as chaff before the wind — That is, dispersed and chased from place to place, finding rest and safety nowhere. And let the angel of the Lord — Whom God employs to defend his people, and to destroy his enemies; chase them — Drive them forward to their destruction, as chaff is driven by a fierce wind.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

35:1-10 It is no new thing for the most righteous men, and the most righteous cause, to meet with enemies. This is a fruit of the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against the Seed of the woman. David in his afflictions, Christ in his sufferings, the church under persecution, and the Christian in the hour temptation, all beseech the Almighty to appear in their behalf, and to vindicate their cause. We are apt to justify uneasiness at the injuries men do us, by our never having given them cause to use us so ill; but this should make us easy, for then we may the more expect that God will plead our cause. David prayed to God to manifest himself in his trial. Let me have inward comfort under all outward troubles, to support my soul. If God, by his Spirit, witness to our spirits that he is our salvation, we need desire no more to make us happy. If God is our Friend, no matter who is our enemy. By the Spirit of prophecy, David foretells the just judgments of God that would come upon his enemies for their great wickedness. These are predictions, they look forward, and show the doom of the enemies of Christ and his kingdom. We must not desire or pray for the ruin of any enemies, except our lusts and the evil spirits that would compass our destruction. A traveller benighted in a bad road, is an expressive emblem of a sinner walking in the slippery and dangerous ways of temptation. But David having committed his cause to God, did not doubt of his own deliverance. The bones are the strongest parts of the body. The psalmist here proposes to serve and glorify God with all his strength. If such language may be applied to outward salvation, how much more will it apply to heavenly things in Christ Jesus!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let them be as chaff before the wind - As chaff is driven away in winnowing grain. See the notes at Psalm 1:4.

And let the angel of the Lord chase them - Drive them away, or scatter them. Angels are often represented in the Scriptures as agents employed by God in bringing punishment on wicked people. See 2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:36; 1 Chronicles 21:12, 1 Chronicles 21:30; 2 Samuel 24:16.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5, 6. (Compare Ps 1:4)—a terrible fate; driven by wind on a slippery path in darkness, and hotly pursued by supernatural violence (2Sa 24:16; Ac 12:23).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

As chaff before the wind, i.e. dispersed and chased from place to place, finding rest and safety no where.

The angel of the Lord; whom God useth to defend his people, and to destroy their enemies.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let them be as chaff before the wind,.... As they are; see Psalm 1:4;

and let the angel of the Lord chase them; either a good angel, who is the Lord's, his creature that ministers unto him, and is ready to obey his orders; and who, as he encamps about the saints and protects them, so he is able to destroy their enemies; as one angel in a night destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt, and another the whole army of the Assyrians, Exodus 12:29; an angel of the Lord, who is swift to fly, and so to chase and overtake, and able to execute whatever is the will of the Lord; or else an evil angel, who is the Lord's, being made by him, though not made evil by him; and who is under his restraints, and can do nothing but by his permission; and who sometimes is employed by the Lord, as the executioner of his wrath upon wicked men; is suffered to distress and torture their consciences in this life, and hereafter drag them into everlasting burnings, prepared for the devil and his angels.

Geneva Study Bible

Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD {d} chase them.

(d) Smite them with the spirit of giddiness that their enterprises may be foolish, and they received just reward.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5, 6. Let them be as chaff before the wind,

The angel of Jehovah thrusting them down.

Let their way be all dark and slippery,

The angel of Jehovah pursuing them.

A terrible picture of a pell-mell rout. Does it not read like a recollection of some incident in a warrior’s life, perhaps some defeat of the Philistines? Helpless as chaff before the wind (Psalm 1:4, Psalm 83:13) they are driven headlong down a dark and slippery track, where they can neither see nor keep their footing, with the dread Angel smiting them down as they vainly strive to escape. “The tracks down the limestone hills of Palestine are often worn as smooth as marble” (Kay).

Most probably the participles should be transposed. Pursuing suits the image of the storm-driven chaff (Isaiah 17:13); thrusting down (Psalm 36:12; Psalm 118:13; Psalm 140:4) agrees better with the picture of the stumbling fugitives. For the angel of Jehovah see note on Psalm 34:7. Cp. the reminiscence of this passage in Jeremiah 23:12.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Let them be as chaff before the wind (comp. Psalm 1:4; Isaiah 17:13; Isaiah 29:5; Hosea 13:3). Chaff is the type of whatever is light, vain, futile, and worthless; chaff driven before the wind represents the confused rout of a beaten army flying without any resistance before an enemy. And let the angel of the Lord chase them; rather, smite them. The angel of the Lord, who protects the righteous (Psalm 34:7), is called on to complete the discomfiture of the wicked ones, who are David's enemies. Psalm 35:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Throughout the next two strophes follow terrible imprecations. According to Frst and others the relation of בּושׁ and חפר is like that of erblassen, to turn pale (cf. Isaiah 29:22 with Psalm 34:6), and errצthen, to turn red, to blush. בושׁ has, however, no connection with בוץ, nor has חפר, Arab. chfr, chmr, any connection with Arab. hmr, to be red; but, according to its radical notion, בּושׁ means disturbari (vid., Psalm 6:11), and חפר, obtegere, abscondere (vid., Psalm 34:6). יסּגוּ, properly "let them be made to fall back" (cf. e.g., Isaiah 42:17). On the figure on Psalm 35:5 cf. Psalm 83:14. The clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve, Psalm 35:5 and Psalm 35:6, are circumstantial clauses, viz., clauses defining the manner. דּחה (giving, viz., them, the push that shall cause their downfall, equivalent to דּחם or דּחם, Psalm 68:28) is closely connected with the figure in Psalm 35:6, and רדפם, with the figure in Psalm 35:5; consequently it seems as though the original position of these two clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve had been disturbed; just as in Psalm 34, the ע strophe and the פ strophe have changed their original places. It is the Angel, who took off Pharaoh's chariot wheels so that they drave them heavily (Exodus 14:25) that is intended here. The fact that this Angel is concerned here, where the point at issue is whether the kingship of the promise shall be destroyed at its very beginning or not, harmonises with the appearing of the מלאך ה at all critical junctures in the course of the history of redemption. חלקלקּות, loca passim lubrica, is an intensive form of expression for חלקות rof noisserp, Psalm 73:18. Just as דּחה recalls to mind Exodus 15, so רדפם recalls Judges 5. In this latter passage the Angel of Jahve also appears in the midst of the conquerors who are pursuing the smitten foe, incarnate as it were in Deborah.