Psalm 94:5

They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Break in pieces.—Or, crush. (See Isaiah 3:15, where the word is in parallelism with “grind the faces of the poor.”)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 94:5-7. They afflict thy heritage — Those righteous persons whom thou hast chosen for thy portion or inheritance. They slay the widow, &c. — Whom common humanity obliged them to spare, pity, and relieve. Yet they say, The Lord shall not see — Their meeting with impunity and prosperity in their impious and barbarous practices makes them ready to doubt, or to deny, the providence of God in the government of his church and of the world. Neither doth the God of Jacob regard it — Though there are such evident demonstrations of the divine interpositions in favour of Jacob, and of his watchful care over them as his people, yet, for all that, they fancy he does not regard, nor will call them to any account for their doings.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

94:1-11 We may with boldness appeal to God; for he is the almighty Judge by whom every man is judged. Let this encourage those who suffer wrong, to bear it with silence, committing themselves to Him who judges righteously. These prayers are prophecies, which speak terror to the sons of violence. There will come a day of reckoning for all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against God, his truths, and ways, and people. It would hardly be believed, if we did not witness it, that millions of rational creatures should live, move, speak, hear, understand, and do what they purpose, yet act as if they believed that God would not punish the abuse of his gifts. As all knowledge is from God, no doubt he knows all the thoughts of the children of men, and knows that the imaginations of the thoughts of men's hearts are only evil, and that continually. Even in good thoughts there is a want of being fixed, which may be called vanity. It concerns us to keep a strict watch over our thoughts, because God takes particular notice of them. Thoughts are words to God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They break in pieces thy people - They tread down; they grind; they crush. The Hebrew word is often used as meaning to crush under foot; to trample on; and hence, it means to oppress. Lamentations 3:34; Isaiah 3:15.

And afflict - To wit, by oppression and wrong. If this refers to foreigners, it means that they did this by invasion and by the ravages of war.

Thine heritage - Thy people, regarded as an inheritance or possession. See Psalm 28:9, note; Psalm 33:12, note; Psalm 68:9, note; Psalm 74:2, note; Isaiah 19:25, note; Isaiah 47:6, note; 1 Peter 5:3, note.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5, 6. thy people [and] thine heritage—are synonymous, the people being often called God's heritage. As justice to the weak is a sign of the best government, their oppression is a sign of the worst (De 10:18; Isa 10:2).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Those righteous persons whom thou hast chosen for thy portion or inheritance.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They break in pieces thy people, O Lord,.... Not the Israelites, as Kimchi; but the church of Christ, by their anathemas, cruel edicts, and persecutions; by confiscating their goods, imprisoning their persons, putting them to cruel deaths; and by such means think to "wear out" the saints of the most High, the Lord's covenant and peculiar people; which is mentioned as an aggravation of their sin, and as an argument with the Lord to arise on their behalf:

and afflict thine heritage; the church, styled God's heritage, 1 Peter 5:3, whom the Lord has chosen for his inheritance; and are dear to him, as his portion, his jewels, and even as the apple of his eye; and yet these are afflicted all manner of ways by their persecuting enemies, as Israel was of old in Egypt.

Geneva Study Bible

They {d} break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.

(d) Seeing the Church was then so sore oppressed, it ought not to seem strange to us, if we see it so now, and therefore we must call to God, to take our cause in hand.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. They break in pieces] Or, crush (as Isaiah 3:15; Proverbs 22:22), by violence and extortion. Thy people … thine inheritance, as in Psalm 28:9. Cp. Deuteronomy 4:20.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - They break in pieces thy people, O Lord; or, "crush," "oppress" (comp. Isaiah 3:15; Proverbs 22:22, where the verb is evidently used, not of foreign foes, but of domestic oppressors). And afflict thine heritage; or, "thine inheritance" - those whom thou hast taken to be thy "peculiar people" (Deuteronomy 14:2), thine own exclusive possession. Psalm 94:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The second strophe describes those over whom the first prays that the judgment of God may come. הבּיע (cf. הטּיף) is a tropical phrase used of that kind of speech that results from strong inward impulse and flows forth in rich abundance. The poet himself explains how it is here (cf. Psalm 59:8) intended: they speak עתק, that which is unrestrained, unbridled, insolent (vid., Psalm 31:19). The Hithpa. התאמּר Schultens interprets ut Emiri (Arab. 'mı̂r, a commander) se gerunt; but אמיר signifies in Hebrew the top of a tree (vid., on Isaiah 17:9); and from the primary signification to tower aloft, whence too אמר, to speak, prop. effere equals effari, התאמּר, like התימּר in Isaiah 61:6, directly signifies to exalt one's self, to carry one's self high, to strut. On ודכּאוּ cf. Proverbs 22:22; Isaiah 3:15; and on their atheistical principle which ויּאמרוּ places in closest connection with their mode of action, cf. Psalm 10:11; Psalm 59:8 extrem. The Dagesh in יּהּ, distinct from the Dag. in the same word in Psalm 94:12, Psalm 118:5, Psalm 118:18, is the Dag. forte conjunct. according to the rule of the so-called דחיק.