Psalm 40:15

Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

40:11-17 The best saints see themselves undone, unless continually preserved by the grace of God. But see the frightful view the psalmist had of sin. This made the discovery of a Redeemer so welcome. In all his reflections upon each step of his life, he discovered something amiss. The sight and sense of our sins in their own colours, must distract us, if we have not at the same time some sight of a Saviour. If Christ has triumphed over our spiritual enemies, then we, through him, shall be more than conquerors. This may encourage all that seek God and love his salvation, to rejoice in him, and to praise him. No griefs nor poverty can render those miserable who fear the Lord. Their God, and all that he has or does, is the ground of their joy. The prayer of faith can unlock his fulness, which is adapted to all their wants. The promises are sure, the moment of fulfilment hastens forward. He who once came in great humility, shall come again in glorious majesty.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let them be desolate - The word here employed means to be astonished or amazed; then, to be laid waste, or made desolate. As used here, it refers to their purposes, and the wish or prayer is that they might be wholly unsuccessful, or that in respect to success they might be like a waste and desolate field where nothing grows.

For a reward - The word used here - עקב ‛êqeb - means the end, the last of anything; then, the recompence, reward, wages, as being the end, the result, or issue of a certain course of conduct. That is, in this case, the desolation prayed for would be a proper recompence for their purpose, or for what they said. "Of their shame." Of their shameful act or purpose; their act as deserving of ignominy.

That say unto me, Aha, aha - That use language of reproach and contempt. This is a term of exultation over another; a word of rejoicing at the calamities that come on another; an act of joy over a fallen enemy: Ezekiel 25:3; see Psalm 35:21, note; Psalm 35:25, note. As understood of the Messiah, this would refer to the taunts and reproaches of his enemies; the exultation which they manifested when they had him in their power - when they felt secure that their vexations in regard to him were at an end, or that they would be troubled with him no more. By putting him to death they supposed that they might feel safe from further molestation on his account. For this act, this note of exultation and joy, on the part of the Jewish rulers, and of the people as stimulated by those rulers, the desolation which came upon them (the utter ruin of their temple, their city, and their nation) was an appropriate reward. That desolation did not go beyond their desert, for their treatment of the Messiah - as the ruin of the sinner in the future world will not go beyond his desert for having rejected the same Messiah as his Saviour.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. for a reward—literally, "in consequence of."

Aha—(Compare Ps 35:21, 25).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Desolate, or amazed, or dismayed, or overthrown: of such imprecations I have spoken before.

Their shame, i.e. their sinful and shameful actions, as shame is put for a shameful idol, Hosea 9:10, and as fear is oft put for the evil feared.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame,.... Of their shameful wishes, words, and actions, as they were: their habitations in Jerusalem were desolate, and so was their house or temple there, and their whole land, and they themselves were stripped of everything, when Jerusalem was taken and destroyed; see Matthew 23:38, Acts 1:20;

that say unto me, Aha, aha; words expressive of joy, Psalm 35:21, exulting at his miseries and sufferings on the cross, Matthew 27:39; so the Targum,

"we have rejoiced at his destruction, with joy at his affliction.''

Geneva Study Bible

Let them be {m} desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.

(m) Let the same shame and confusion come on them, which they intended to have brought on me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

15. R.V., Let them be desolate (Lamentations 1:16) by reason of their shame, the defeat of their malicious plans: or, less probably, let them be astonished (Leviticus 26:32) for a reward of their shame, at the shame which is their recompense. Psalm 70:4 reads let them turn back, as in Psalm 6:10. The difference of reading probably arose out of the confusion of sound or form between M and B (ישמו—ישבו).

Aha, aha] The exclamation of malicious pleasure at another’s misfortune. Cp. Psalm 35:21; Psalm 35:25.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame; rather, by reason of their shame (Kay, Alexander, Revised Version). Let the shame and disgrace that attach to them (ver. 14) cause them to be desolate, or deserted of all. That say unto me, Aha, aha! (comp. Psalm 35:21, 25). Psalm 40:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In the midst of such sufferings, which, the longer they last, discover him all the more to himself as a sinner, he prays for speedy help. The cry for help in Psalm 40:14 turns with רצה towards the will of God; for this is the root of all things. As to the rest, it resembles Psalm 22:20 (Psalm 38:23). The persecuted one wishes that the purpose of his deadly foes may as it were rebound against the protection of God and miserably miscarry. לספּותהּ, ad abripiendam eam (with Dagesh in the פ according to Ges. 45, 2, Ew. 245, a, and not as Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 1235, states, aspirated),

(Note: After ל the aspirate usually disappears, as here and in Psalm 118:13; but there are exceptions, as לנתושׁ ולנתוץ, Jeremiah 1:10, and frequently, לשׁדוד, ib. Psalm 57:4. After ב and כ it usually remains, as in Psalm 87:6, Job 4:13; Job 33:15; 2 Samuel 3:34; 1 Kings 1:21; Ecclesiastes 5:10; but again there are exceptions, as בּשׁכּן, Genesis 35:22, בּזכּר, Jeremiah 17:2. In Genesis 23:2 it is pointed לבכּתהּ according to the rule, and in my Comment. S. 423 it is to be read "with a Dagesh.")

is added to מבקשׁי נפשׁי by way of explanation and definiteness. ישׁמּוּ, from שׁמם, to become torpid, here used of outward and inward paralysis, which is the result of overpowering and as it were bewitching surprise or fright, and is called by the Arabs ro‛b or ra‛b (paralysis through terror) cf. Job, note at Psalm 18:12. An על following upon ישׁמּוּ looks at first sight as though it introduced the object and reason of this fright; it is therefore not: as a reward, in consequence of their infamy, which would not be על־עקב, but merely the accusative עקב (Isaiah 5:23, Arabic ‛qîba), it is rather: on account of the reward (Psalm 19:12) of their disgrace (cf. as belonging to the same period, Psalm 109:29; Psalm 35:26), i.e., of the reward which consists in their being put to shame (Hitzig). לי as in Psalm 3:3; Psalm 41:6 : with reference to me. האח האח (Aquila, ἀὰ ἀὰ, αὐτῇ συγχρησάμενος, as Eusebius says, οὕτως ἐχούσῃ τῇ Ἑβραΐκῆ φωνῇ) is an exclamation of sarcastic delight, which finds its satisfaction in another's misfortune (Psalm 35:25).