Psalm 69:27

Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27, 28) It is doubtful whether these verses give the talk of the enemies just mentioned, or whether the psalmist himself, after a pause, resumes his imprecations. The former supposition certainly adds a fresh force to the prayer of Psalm 69:29; and it is more natural to suppose that the string of curses, once ended, should not be taken up again. On the other hand, would the apostates, against whom the psalm is directed, have put their animosity into the shape of a wish to have names blotted out of God’s book? If so, it must be in irony.

(27) Add iniquity—This may be understood in two different senses: (1) Let sin be added to sin in thy account, till the tale be full. (2) Add guilt for guilt, i.e., for each wrong committed write down a punishment.

And let them not . . .—i.e., let them not be justified in thy sight; not gain their cause at thy tribunal.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 69:27. Add iniquity to their iniquity — Or, give or permit, as תנה, tenah, may be properly rendered. The old version expresses the psalmist’s meaning accurately, Let, or permit, them to fall from one wickedness to another. It is not unusual with God, as a punishment of some great sin or sins, though not to infuse into men any evil, yet, by withdrawing his grace, and leaving them to themselves, to suffer them to commit more sins, and to be so far from being reformed, as daily to grow worse and worse, and at last to become quite obdurate and irreclaimable. The words, however, may be rendered, Add punishment to their punishment, (for the word עוןis often put for the punishment of iniquity.) Send one judgment upon them after another, without ceasing. And let them not come into thy righteousness — Into that way of obedience which thou requirest, and which thou wilt accept, the obedience of faith in the Messiah and his gospel, producing love, and universal holiness and righteousness; or, to thy mercy, thy pardoning mercy, as the original word frequently signifies, so as to be made partakers of it. Let them not obtain an interest in the everlasting righteousness which the Messiah shall bring into the world, Daniel 9:24; the righteousness of God by faith, revealed in the gospel, and witnessed by the law and the prophets, Php 3:9; Romans 1:17; and Romans 3:9, &c., according to which God justifies the ungodly, and accepts them as righteous in his sight. For this was the righteousness which the Jews rejected, Romans 10:3, according to this prediction. Thus, as the first branch of this verse foretels their being guilty of many sins, and adding iniquity to iniquity, so this predicts their rejection of, and therefore their exclusion from, an interest in the only remedy, the remission of sins through faith in the Mediator, and the holiness and happiness consequent thereon.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

69:22-29 These are prophecies of the destruction of Christ's persecutors. Verses 22,23, are applied to the judgments of God upon the unbelieving Jews, in Ro 11:9,10. When the supports of life and delights of sense, through the corruption of our nature, are made the food and fuel of sin, then our table is a snare. Their sin was, that they would not see, but shut their eyes against the light, loving darkness rather; their punishment was, that they should not see, but should be given up to their own hearts' lusts which hardened them. Those who reject God's great salvation proffered to them, may justly fear that his indignation will be poured out upon them. If men will sin, the Lord will reckon for it. But those that have multiplied to sin, may yet find mercy, through the righteousness of the Mediator. God shuts not out any from that righteousness; the gospel excludes none who do not, by unbelief, shut themselves out. But those who are proud and self-willed, so that they will not come in to God's righteousness, shall have their doom accordingly; they themselves decide it. Let those not expect any benefit thereby, who are not glad to be beholden to it. It is better to be poor and sorrowful, with the blessing of the Lord, than rich and jovial, and under his curse. This may be applied to Christ. He was, when on earth, a man of sorrows that had not where to lay his head; but God exalted him. Let us call upon the Lord, and though poor and sorrowful, guilty and defiled, his salvation will set us up on high.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Add iniquity unto their iniquity - Margin, "punishment of iniquity." The literal rendering is, "Give iniquity upon their iniquity." Luther understands this as a prayer that "sin may be made a punishment for sin;" that is, that they may, as a punishment for their former sins, be left to commit still more aggravated crimes, and thus draw on themselves severer punishment. So Rosenmuller renders it, "Suffer them to accumulate sins by rushing from one sin to another, until their crimes are matured, and their destined punishment comes upon them." An idea similar to this occurs in Romans 1:28, where God is represented as having "given the pagan over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient" fit, or proper - "because they did not like to retain him in their knowledge." Perhaps this is the most natural interpretation here, though another has been suggested which the original will bear. According to that, there is an allusion here to the double sense of the equivocal term rendered "iniquity" - עון ‛âvôn - which properly denotes sin as such, or in itself considered, but which sometimes seems to denote sin in its consequences or effects. This latter is the interpretation adopted by Prof. Alexander. Thus understood, it is a prayer that God would add, or give, to their sin that which sin deserved; or, in other words, that he would punish it "as" it deserved.

And let them not come into thy righteousness - Let them not be treated "as" righteous; as those who are regarded by "thee" as righteous. Let them be treated as they deserve. This is the same as praying that a murderer may not be treated as an innocent man; a burglar, as if he were a man of peace; or a dishonest man, as if he were honest. Let people be regarded and treated as they "are in fact;" or, as they deserve to be treated. It seems difficult to see why this prayer may not be offered with propriety, and with a benevolent heart - for to bring this about is what all officers of justice are endeavoring to accomplish.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27, 28. iniquity—or, "punishment of iniquity" (Ps 40:12).

come … righteousness—partake of its benefits.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Add iniquity to their iniquity; give them up to their own vain minds and vile lusts, and to a reprobate sense, and take off all the restraints of thy grace and providence, and expose them to the temptations of the world and of the devil, that so they may grow worse and worse, and at last may fill up the measure of their sins; as is said, Matthew 12:32: compare Romans 1:28,29. Or, Add punishment to their punishment; as this word is oft taken. Send one judgment upon them after another, without ceasing. Let them not

come into thy righteousness; let them never partake of thy righteousness, i.e. either,

1. Of thy faithfulness, in making good thy promises to them. Or,

2. Of thy mercy and goodness. Or rather,

3. Of thy righteousness, properly so called, of that everlasting righteousness which the Messiah shall bring into the world, Daniel 9:24, which is called the righteousness of God, Romans 1:17 Philippians 3:9, &c., which is said to be witnessed by the law and the prophets, Romans 3:21, by and for which God doth justify or pardon sinners, and accept them in Christ as righteous persons. For this was the righteousness which the Jews rejected to their own ruin, Romans 10:3, according to this prediction. Thus as the first branch of the verse maketh or supposeth them guilty of many sins, so this excludes them from the only remedy, the remission of their sins. And that justifying rather than sanctifying righteousness is here meant seems most probable from the phrase, which seems to be a judicial phrase, as we read of coming or entering into judgment, Job 22:4 34:23, and into condemnation, John 5:24, opposite unto which is this phrase, of coming into justification; or, which is all one, into thy righteousness.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Add iniquity to their iniquity,.... Let them alone in sin; suffer them to go on in it; lay no restraints upon them; put no stop in providence in their way; let them proceed from one evil to another, till they fall into ruin: to their natural and acquired hardness of heart, give them up to a judicial hardness; that they may do things that are not convenient, and be damned. Suffer them not to stop at the crucifixion of the Messiah; let them go on to persecute his apostles and followers; to show the utmost spite and malice against the Christian religion; to embrace false Christs, and blaspheme the true one; to believe the greatest lies and absurdities, and commit the foulest of actions; as seditions, rapines, murders, &c. as they did while Jerusalem was besieged; that they may fill up the measure of their sins, and wrath may come upon them to the uttermost, 1 Thessalonians 2:15. The word rendered "iniquity", sometimes signifies "punishment", as in Genesis 4:13; and, according to this sense of it, the words may be differently rendered, and admit a different meaning; either, "give punishment for their iniquity" (m); so Kimchi; that is, punish them according to their deserts, as their sins and iniquities require: or, "add punishment to their punishment" (n); to their present temporal punishment before imprecated, relating to their table mercies, their persons, and their habitations, add future and everlasting punishment; let them be punished with everlasting destruction, soul and body, in hell;

and let them not come into thy righteousness; meaning, not his strict justice or righteous judgment; into that they would certainly come; nor was it the will of the Messiah they should escape it: but either the goodness, grace, and mercy of God, which is sometimes desired by righteousness, as in Psalm 31:1; and the sense is, let them have no share in pardoning grace now, nor obtain mercy in the last day; but be condemned when they are judged, Psalm 109:7. Or rather, the righteousness of Christ, which is called the righteousness of God, that is, the Father; because he approves and accepts of it, and imputes it to his people without works: and seeing the Jews sought for justification by their own works, and went about to establish their own righteousness, and submitted not to Christ's, but despised and rejected it; it was but just that they should be excluded from all benefit and advantage by it, as is here imprecated. The Targum is,

"and let them not be worthy to come into the congregation of shy righteous ones;''

neither here, nor at the last judgment; see Psalm 1:5.

(m) "da punitionem iniquitatis", Pagninus; "appone illis poenam pro iniquitate", Muis. (n) So Junius & Tremellius.

Geneva Study Bible

Add {u} iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.

(u) By their continuance and increasing in their sins, let it be known that they are of the reprobate.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. Some commentators, retaining the A.V. rendering of Psalm 69:26, regard Psalm 69:27-28 as the words of the Psalmist’s enemies, directed against him and his fellow sufferers. This interpretation has been advocated, as removing from the mouth of the Psalmist at any rate the most terrible anathemas. But perplexing as it may be, it is far more natural to see in these verses the climax of his imprecations.

Add iniquity &c.] Instead of taking away their iniquities by forgiveness, let one iniquity accumulate upon another till they are crushed by the load. Cp. Psalm 38:4; Jeremiah 18:23.

let them not come into thy righteousness] Let them have no share in the manifestation of that righteousness or faithfulness to His covenant in virtue of which Jehovah pardons sin and delivers from danger. Cp. Psalm 5:8; Psalm 71:2; Psalm 71:15; Psalm 71:19; Psalm 71:24.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - Add iniquity unto their iniquity. Either "let them fall from one wickedness to another," as the clause is rendered in the Prayer book Version; or "add to the record of their sin in thy book, a further record of other sins, as they commit them." And let them not come into thy righteousness; i.e. let them not receive the gift of thy justifying grace, and so be counted among thy righteous ones. Psalm 69:27

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The description of the suffering has reached its climax in Psalm 69:22, at which the wrath of the persecuted one flames up and bursts forth in imprecations. The first imprecation joins itself upon Psalm 69:22. They have given the sufferer gall and vinegar; therefore their table, which was abundantly supplied, is to be turned into a snare to them, from which they shall not be able to escape, and that לפניהם, in the very midst of their banqueting, whilst the table stands spread out before them (Ezekiel 23:41). שׁלומים (collateral form of שׁלמים) is the name given to them as being carnally secure; the word signifies the peaceable or secure in a good (Psalm 55:21) and in a bad sense. Destruction is to overtake them suddenly, "when they say: Peace and safety" (1 Thessalonians 5:3). The lxx erroneously renders: καὶ εἰς ἀνταπόδοσιν equals וּלשׁלּוּמים. The association of ideas in Psalm 69:24 is transparent. With their eyes they have feasted themselves upon the sufferer, and in the strength of their loins they have ill-treated him. These eyes with their bloodthirsty malignant looks are to grow blind. These loins full of defiant self-confidence are to shake (המעד, imperat. Hiph. like הרחק, Job 13:21, from המעיד, for which in Ezekiel 29:7, and perhaps also in Daniel 11:14, we find העמיד). Further: God is to pour out His wrath upon them (Psalm 79:6; Hosea 5:10; Jeremiah 10:25), i.e., let loose against them the cosmical forces of destruction existing originally in His nature. זעמּך has the Dagesh in order to distinguish it in pronunciation from זעמך. In Psalm 69:26 טירה (from טוּר, to encircle) is a designation of an encamping or dwelling-place (lxx ἔπαυλις) taken from the circular encampments (Arabic ṣı̂rât, ṣirât, and dwâr, duâr) of the nomads (Genesis 25:16). The laying waste and desolation of his own house is the most fearful of all misfortunes to the Semite (Job, note to Psalm 18:15). The poet derives the justification of such fearful imprecations from the fact that they persecute him, who is besides smitten of God. God has smitten him on account of his sins, and that by having placed him in the midst of a time in which he must be consumed with zeal and solicitude for the house of God. The suffering decreed for him by God is therefore at one and the same time suffering as a chastisement and as a witnessing for God; and they heighten this suffering by every means in their power, not manifesting any pity for him or any indulgence, but imputing to him sins that he has not committed, and requiting him with deadly hatred for benefits for which they owed him thanks.

There are also some others, although but few, who share this martyrdom with him. The psalmist calls them, as he looks up to Jahve, חלליך, Thy fatally smitten ones; they are those to whom God has appointed that they should bear within themselves a pierced or wounded heart (vid., Psalm 109:22, cf. Jeremiah 8:18) in the face of such a godless age. Of the deep grief (אל, as in Psalm 2:7) of these do they tell, viz., with self-righteous, self-blinded mockery (cf. the Talmudic phrase ספר בלשׁון הרע or ספר לשׁון הרע, of evil report or slander). The lxx and Syriac render יוסיפוּ (προσέθηκαν): they add to the anguish; the Targum, Aquila, Symmachus, and Jerome follow the traditional text. Let God therefore, by the complete withdrawal of His grace, suffer them to fall from one sin into another - this is the meaning of the da culpam super culpam eorum - in order that accumulated judgment may correspond to the accumulated guilt (Jeremiah 16:18). Let the entrance into God's righteousness, i.e., His justifying and sanctifying grace, be denied to them for ever. Let them be blotted out of ספר חיּים (Exodus 32:32, cf. Isaiah 4:3; Daniel 12:1), that is to say, struck out of the list of the living, and that of the living in this present world; for it is only in the New Testament that we meet with the Book of Life as a list of the names of the heirs of the ζωὴ αἰώνιος. According to the conception both of the Old and of the New Testament the צדיקים are the heirs of life. Therefore Psalm 69:29 wishes that they may not be written by the side of the righteous, who, according to Habakkuk 2:4, "live," i.e., are preserved, by their faith. With ואני the poet contrasts himself, as in Psalm 40:18, with those deserving of execration. They are now on high, but in order to be brought low; he is miserable and full of poignant pain, but in order to be exalted; God's salvation will remove him from his enemies on to a height that is too steep for them (Psalm 59:2; Psalm 91:14). Then will he praise (הלּל) and magnify (גּדּל) the Name of God with song and thankful confession. And such spiritual תּודה, such thank-offering of the heart, is more pleasing to God than an ox, a bullock, i.e., a young ox ( equals פּר השּׁור, an ox-bullock, Judges 6:25, according to Ges. 113), one having horns and a cloven hoof (Ges. 53, 2). The attributives do not denote the rough material animal nature (Hengstenberg), but their legal qualifications for being sacrificed. מקרין is the name for the young ox as not being under three years old (cf. 1 Samuel 1:24, lxx ἐν μόσχῳ τριετίζοντι); מפריס as belonging to the clean four-footed animals, viz., those that are cloven-footed and chew the cud, Leviticus 11. Even the most stately, full-grown, clean animal that may be offered as a sacrifice stands in the sight of Jahve very far below the sacrifice of grateful praise coming from the heart.

When now the patient sufferers (ענוים) united with the poet by community of affliction shall see how he offers the sacrifice of thankful confession, they will rejoice. ראוּ is a hypothetical preterite; it is neither וראוּ (perf. consec.), nor יראוּ (Psalm 40:4; Psalm 52:8; Psalm 107:42; Job 22:19). The declaration conveying information to be expected in Psalm 69:33 after the Waw apodoseos changes into an apostrophe of the "seekers of Elohim:" their heart shall revive, for, as they have suffered in company with him who is now delivered, they shall now also refresh themselves with him. We are at once reminded of Psalm 22:27, where this is as it were the exhortation of the entertainer at the thank-offering meal. It would be rash to read שׁמע in Psalm 69:23, after Psalm 22:25, instead of שׁמע (Olshausen); the one object in that passage is here generalized: Jahve is attentive to the needy, and doth not despise His bound ones (Psalm 107:10), but, on the contrary, He takes an interest in them and helps them. Starting from this proposition, which is the clear gain of that which has been experienced, the view of the poet widens into the prophetic prospect of the bringing back of Israel out of the Exile into the Land of Promise. In the face of this fact of redemption of the future he calls upon (cf. Isaiah 44:23) all created things to give praise to God, who will bring about the salvation of Zion, will build again the cities of Judah, and restore the land, freed from its desolation, to the young God-fearing generation, the children of the servants of God among the exiles. The feminine suffixes refer to ערי (cf. Jeremiah 2:15; Jeremiah 22:6 Chethb). The tenor of Isaiah 65:9 is similar. If the Psalm were written by David, the closing turn from Psalm 69:23 onwards might be more difficult of comprehension than Psalm 14:7; Psalm 51: If, however, it is by Jeremiah, then we do not need to persuade ourselves that it is to be understood not of restoration and re-peopling, but of continuance and completion (Hofmann and Kurtz). Jeremiah 54ed to experience the catastrophe he foretold; but the nearer it came to the time, the more comforting were the words with which he predicted the termination of the Exile and the restoration of Israel. Jeremiah 34:7 shows us how natural to him, and to him in particular, was the distinction between Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. The predictions in Jeremiah 32:1, which sound so in accord with Psalm 69:36., belong to the time of the second siege. Jerusalem was not yet fallen; the strong places of the land, however, already lay in ruins.