Psalm 70:2

Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) There are two omissions here from Psalm 40:14, “together” and “to destroy it.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

70:1-5 The speedy destruction of the wicked, and the preservation of the godly. - This psalm is almost the same as the last five verses of #Ps 40". While here we behold Jesus Christ set forth in poverty and distress, we also see him denouncing just and fearful punishment on his Jewish, heathen, and antichristian enemies; and pleading for the joy and happiness of his friends, to his Father's honour. Let us apply these things to our own troubled circumstances, and in a believing manner bring them, and the sinful causes thereof, to our remembrance. Urgent trials should always awake fervent prayers.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul - The only change here from Psalm 40:14, is the omission of the word "together" which occurs there, and the omission of the words "to destroy it."

Let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt - This corresponds in the Hebrew entirely with Psalm 40:14.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

PSALM 70

Ps 70:1-5. This corresponds to [606]Ps 40:13-17 with a very few variations, as "turn back" (Ps 70:3) for "desolate," and "make haste unto me" (Ps 70:5) for "thinketh upon me." It forms a suitable appendix to the preceding, and is called "a Psalm to bring to remembrance," as the thirty-eighth [see on [607]Ps 38:1, title].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let them be ashamed and confounded,.... In Psalm 40:14 it is added, "together"; See Gill on Psalm 40:14;

that seek after my soul; or "life"; in Psalm 40:14 it is added, "to destroy it"; for that was the end of their seeking after it;

let them be turned backward, &c. See Gill on Psalm 40:14.

Geneva Study Bible

Let them be ashamed and {c} confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt.

(c) He was assured that the more they raged, the nearer they were to destruction, and he the nearer to his deliverance.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. The whole verse is a repetition, with variations, of Psalm 35:4; Psalm 35:26 (cp. Psalm 38:12); and Psalm 35:3-5 recall Psalm 35:21; Psalm 35:25; Psalm 35:27; Psalm 35:10, of the same Psalm.

that seek after my soul] Or, that seek my life. The text of Psalm 40:13 is fuller, ‘Let them be … confounded together … my life to destroy it.’

let them be turned backward &c.] Render with R.V.,

Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonour

That delight In my hurt.

With the last line contrast Psalm 35:27.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Let them be ashamed and confounded. Psalm 40:14 adds, "together." That seek after my soul. Psalm 40 adds, "to destroy it." Let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt. Identical with Psalm 40:14, and translated more literally. Psalm 70:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

We see at once at the very beginning, in the omission of the רצה (Psalm 40:14), that what we have here before us is a fragment of Psalm 40, and perhaps a fragment that only accidentally came to have an independent existence. The להצּילני, which was under the government of רצה, now belongs to הוּשׁה, and the construction is without example elsewhere. In Psalm 70:3 ( equals Psalm 40:15) יחד and לספּותהּ are given up entirely; the original is more full-toned and soaring. Instead of ישׁמּוּ, torpescant, Psalm 70:4 has ישׁוּבוּ, recedant (as in Psalm 6:11, cf. Psalm 9:18), which is all the more flat for coming after יסגו אחור. In Psalm 70:4, after ויאמרים the לי, which cannot here (cf. on the contrary, Psalm 35:21) be dispensed with, is wanting.