Psalm 92:11

Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) Mine eye also.—Better, And my eye looked upon (was able to look without fear) my insidious foes, and for their rising against me as villains my ears listened (without alarm).

Benson Commentary

Psalm 92:11. Mine eye also shall see my desire, &c. — The words, my desire, are twice inserted in this verse by our translators, and it seems improperly, as there is nothing for them in the original, which is literally, Mine eye also shall look upon mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear of the wicked that rise up against me; nor are they found in the Septuagint, or in several other versions ancient and modern. There is indeed an ellipsis, but, as Dr. Horne observes, would it not be better to supply it thus: “Mine eye shall behold the fall of mine enemies; and mine ears shall hear of the destruction of the wicked?” &c. The psalmist undoubtedly foresaw their dreadful doom, but we cannot infer, from that circumstance, that he desired it.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

92:7-15 God sometimes grants prosperity to wicked men in displeasure; yet they flourish but for a moment. Let us seek for ourselves the salvation and grace of the gospel, that being daily anointed by the Holy Spirit, we may behold and share the Redeemer's glory. It is from his grace, by his word and Spirit, that believers receive all the virtue that keeps them alive, and makes them fruitful. Other trees, when old, leave off bearing, but in God's trees the strength of grace does not fail with the strength of nature. The last days of the saints are sometimes their best days, and their last work their best work: perseverance is sure evidence of sincerity. And may every sabbath, while it shows forth the Divine faithfulness, find our souls resting more and more upon the Lord our righteousness.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Mine eye also shall see my desire - That is, I shall be permitted to see the destruction of my foes; I shall be gratified with seeing them overthrown. On the sentiment here expressed, see Psalm 54:7, note; Psalm 59:10, note.

On mine enemies - The word used here - שׁור shûr - occurs nowhere else. It means, properly, a lier-in-wait; one who "watches;" one who is in ambush; and refers to persons who "watched" his conduct; who "watched" for his ruin.

And mine ears ... - literally, "Of those rising up against me, evil-doers, my ear shall hear." He would hear of their ruin; he would hear what he desired to hear.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. see … [and] … hear my desire—or, literally, "look on" my enemies and hear of the wicked (compare Ps 27:11; 54:7)—that is, I shall be gratified by their fall.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

My desire, to wit, in the ruin of thine and mine incorrigible enemies.

Shall hear; what I do not see myself, I shall understand by the certain reports of others.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Mine eyes also shall see my desire on mine enemies,.... The Targum supplies thus,

"shall see destruction;''

Aben Ezra, shall see "the vengeance of God", as in Psalm 58:10, and Kimchi, as we do, shall "see what I will", or "my desire"; which arose not from a revengeful spirit, or from a spirit of private revenge, but from a regard to the glory of God, and the honour of his name; and in no other view could the destruction of fellow creatures, though his enemies, be grateful to him:

and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me; he should see the ruin of some, and hear of the destruction of others; that which his eyes saw not, his ears should hear; the report would be brought to him; as in the latter day the voice of the angel will be heard, "Babylon is fallen"; and other voices heard in heaven, giving glory to God; an account of which will be acceptable to the saints, because of the justice of God, and the honour of it, as well as because it will make for their future peace and comfort, Revelation 18:2.

Geneva Study Bible

Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. And mine eye hath seen (its desire) upon them that laid wait for me:

Mine ear heard (its pleasure) of them that rose up against me to do evil.

Cp. Psalm 54:7; Psalm 59:10, &c. Do the words grate upon our ears as we repeat the Psalm? Their form indeed belongs to the O.T., yet even the Christian is bidden to rejoice at the judgement of the enemies of God’s kingdom (Revelation 18:20).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies (comp. Psalm 54:7; Psalm 59:10). The "desire" is probably that expressed in Psalm 91:13. And mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. This is an unusual phrase, but sufficiently intelligible. Triumph over enemies is perceived both by the eye and by the ear. Psalm 92:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The hitherto oppressed church then stands forth vindicated and glorious. The futt. consec. as preterites of the ideal past, pass over further on into the pure expression of future time. The lxx renders: καὶ ὑψωθήσεται (ותּרם) ὡς μονοκέρωτος τὸ κέρας μου. By ראים (incorrect for ראם, primary form ראם), μονόκερως, is surely to be understood the oryx, one-horned according to Aristotle and the Talmud (vid., on Psalm 29:6; Job 39:9-12). This animal is called in Talmudic קרשׂ (perhaps abbreviated from μονόκερως); the Talmud also makes use of ארזילא (the gazelle) as synonymous with ראם (Aramaic definitive or emphatic state רימא).

(Note: Vid., Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmud, 146 and 174.)

The primary passages for figures taken from animal life are Numbers 23:22; Deuteronomy 33:17. The horn is an emblem of defensive power and at the same time of stately grace; and the fresh, green oil an emblem of the pleasant feeling and enthusiasm, joyous in the prospect of victory, by which the church is then pervaded (Acts 3:19). The lxx erroneously takes בּלּותי as infin. Piel, τὸ γῆράς μου, my being grown old, a signification which the Piel cannot have. It is 1st praet. Kal from בּלל, perfusus sum (cf. Arabic balla, to be moist, ballah and bullah, moistness, good health, the freshness of youth), and the ultima-accentuation, which also occurs in this form of double Ajin verbs without Waw convers. (vid., on Job 19:17), ought not to mislead. In the expression שׁמן רענן, the adjective used in other instances only of the olive-tree itself is transferred to the oil, which contains the strength of its succulent verdure as an essence. The ecclesia pressa is then triumphans. The eye, which was wont to look timidly and tearfully upon the persecutors, the ears, upon which even their name and the tidings of their approach were wont to produce terror, now see their desire upon them as they are blotted out. שׁמע בּ (found only here) follows the sense of ראה בּ, cf. Arab. nḍr fı̂, to lose one's self in the contemplation of anything. שׁוּרי is either a substantive after the form בּוּז, גּוּר, or a participle in the signification "those who regarded me with hostility, those who lay in wait for me," like נוּס, fled, Numbers 35:32, סוּר, having removed themselves to a distance, Jeremiah 17:13, שׁוּב, turned back, Micah 2:8; for this participial form has not only a passive signification (like מוּל, circumcised), but sometimes too, a deponent perfect signification; and חוּשׁ in Numbers 32:17, if it belongs here, may signify hurried equals in haste. In שׁוּרי, however, no such passive colouring of the meaning is conceivable; it is therefore: insidiati (Luzatto, Grammatica, 518: coloro che mi guatavano). There is no need for regarding the word, with Bttcher and Olshausen, as distorted from שׁררי (the apocopated participle Pilel of the same verb); one might more readily regard it as a softening of that word as to the sound (Ewald, Hitzig). In Psalm 92:12 it is not to be rendered: upon the wicked doers (villains) who rise up against me. The placing of the adjective thus before its substantive must (with the exception of רב when used after the manner of a numeral) be accounted impossible in Hebrew, even in the face of the passages brought forward by Hitzig, viz., 1 Chronicles 27:5; 1 Samuel 31:3;

(Note: In the former passage כהן ראשׁ is taken as one notion (chief priest), and in the latter אנשׁים בקשׁת (men with the bow) is, with Keil, to be regarded as an apposition.)

it is therefore: upon those who as villains rise up against. The circumstance that the poet now in Psalm 92:13 passes from himself to speak of the righteous, is brought about by the fact that it is the congregation of the righteous in general, i.e., of those who regulate their life according to the divine order of salvation, into whose future he here takes a glance. When the prosperity lit. the blossoming of the ungodly comes to an end, the springing up and growth of the righteous only then rightly has its beginning. The richness of the inflorescence of date-palm (תּמר) is clear from the fact, that when it has attained its full size, it bears from three to four, and in some instances even as many as six, hundred pounds of fruit. And there is no more charming and majestic sight than the palm of the oasis, this prince among the trees of the plain, with its proudly raised diadem of leaves, its attitude peering forth into the distance and gazing full into the face of the sun, its perennial verdure, and its vital force, which constantly renews itself from the root - a picture of life in the midst of the world of death. The likening of the righteous to the palm, to the "blessed tree," to this "sister of man," as the Arabs call it, offers points of comparison in abundance. Side by side with the palm is the cedar, the prince of the trees of the mountain, and in particular of Mount Lebanon. The most natural point of comparison, as ישׂגּה (cf. Job 8:11) states, is its graceful lofty growth, then in general τὸ δασὺ καὶ θερμὸν καὶ θρέψιμον (Theodoret), i.e., the intensity of its vegetative strength, but also the perpetual verdure of its foliage and the perfume (Hosea 14:7) which it exhales.