Romans 11:9

And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) And David saith.—It appears highly improbable that this Psalm was really written by David. Nor can the Davidic authorship be argued strongly from this passage, as “David” merely seems to stand for the Book of Psalms, with which his name was traditionally connected.

St. Paul is quoting freely from the LXX. In the original of Psalms 69 these verses refer to the fate invoked by the psalmist upon his persecutors; here they are applied by St. Paul to the fiat of the Almighty which had been pronounced against the unbelieving people of Israel.

Let their table . . .—In the very moment of their feasting, let them be caught in a stratagem of their enemies.

And a trap.—These words are not found either in the Hebrew or in the LXX., and appear to be added by St. Paul. Translate rather, Let them be for a chase—i.e., instead of feasting, let them be hunted and persecuted.

And a recompence unto them.—Similarly the LXX. The Hebrew is, “When they are in peace, let it be a trap” (“that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap”—A.V.)—i.e., when they are eating and drinking securely, let them be caught as in a trap; let their security itself deceive them. By “recompence unto them” the Apostle means, Let their prosperity bring upon them retaliation for what they have done—namely, for their rejection of Christ.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:1-10 There was a chosen remnant of believing Jews, who had righteousness and life by faith in Jesus Christ. These were kept according to the election of grace. If then this election was of grace, it could not be of works, either performed or foreseen. Every truly good disposition in a fallen creature must be the effect, therefore it cannot be the cause, of the grace of God bestowed on him. Salvation from the first to the last must be either of grace or of debt. These things are so directly contrary to each other that they cannot be blended together. God glorifies his grace by changing the hearts and tempers of the rebellious. How then should they wonder and praise him! The Jewish nation were as in a deep sleep, without knowledge of their danger, or concern about it; having no sense of their need of the Saviour, or of their being upon the borders of eternal ruin. David, having by the Spirit foretold the sufferings of Christ from his own people, the Jews, foretells the dreadful judgments of God upon them for it, Ps 69. This teaches us how to understand other prayers of David against his enemies; they are prophecies of the judgments of God, not expressions of his own anger. Divine curses will work long; and we have our eyes darkened, if we are bowed down in worldly-mindedness.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And David saith ... - This quotation is made from Psalm 69:22-23. This Psalm is repeatedly quoted as having reference to the events recorded in the New Testament. (See the note at Acts 1:2.) This quotation is introduced immediately after one that undoubtedly refers to the Lord Jesus. Psalm 69:21, "they gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." The passage here quoted immediately follows as an imprecation of vengeance for their sins. "Let their table," etc. The quotation is not made, however, either literally from the Hebrew or from the Septuagint, but the sense only is retained. The Hebrew is, "Let their table before them be for a snare, and for those at peace, let it be for a gin." The Septuagint is, "Let their table before them be for a snare, and for a stumbling-block, and for an offence." The ancient Targum is, "Let their table which they had prepared before me be for a snare, and their sacrifices be for an offence."

The meaning is this. The word "table" denotes food. In this they expected pleasure and support. David prays that even this, where they expected joy and refreshment, might prove to them the means of punishment and righteous retribution. A snare is that by which birds or wild beasts were taken. They are decoyed into it, or walk or fly carelessly into it, and it is sprung suddenly on them. So of the Jews. The petition is, that while they were seeking refreshment and joy, and anticipating at their table no danger, it might be made the means of their ruin. The only way in which this could be done would be, that their temporal enjoyments would lead them away from God, and produce stupidity and indifference to their spiritual interests. This is often the result of the pleasures of the table, or of seeking sensual gratifications. The apostle does not say whether this prayer was right or wrong. The use which he seems to make of it is this, that David's imprecation was to be regarded in the light of a prophecy; that what he prayed for would come to pass; and that this had actually occurred in the time of the apostle; that their very enjoyments, their national and private privileges, had been the means of alienating them from God; had been a snare to them; and was the cause of their blindness and infidelity. This also is introduced in the psalm as a punishment for giving him vinegar to drink; and their treatment of the Messiah was the immediate cause why all this blindness had come upon the Jews.

A trap - This properly means anything by which wild beasts are taken in hunting. The word "snare" more properly refers to birds.

And a stumbling-block - Anything over which one stumbles or falls. Hence, anything which occasions us to sin, or to ruin ourselves.

And a recompense - The Hebrew word translated "what should have been for their welfare," is capable of this meaning, and may denote their recompense, or what is appropriately rendered to them. It means here that their ordinary comforts and enjoyments, instead of promoting their permanent welfare, may be the occasion of their guilt and ruin. This is often the effect of earthly comforts. They might lead us to God, and should excite our gratitude and praise; but they are often abused to our spiritual slumber and guilt, and made the occasion of our ruin. The rich are thus often most forgetful of God; and the very abundance of their blessings made the means of darkness of mind, ingratitude, prayerlessness, and ruin. Satisfied with them, they forget the Giver; and while they enjoy many earthly blessings, God sends barrenness into their souls. This was the guilt of Sodom, "pride, and fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness," Ezekiel 16:49; and against this Moses solemnly warned the Jews; Deuteronomy 6:11-12; Deuteronomy 8:10-12. This same caution might be extended to the people of this land, and especially to those who are rich, and are blessed with all that their hearts have wished. From the use which the apostle makes of this passage in the Psalms, it is clear that he regarded it rather as a prophetic denunciation for their sins - a prediction of what would be - than as a prayer. In his time it had been fulfilled; and the very national privileges of the Jews, on which they so much prided themselves, and which might have been so great blessings, were the occasion of their greater sin in rejecting the Messiah, and of their greater condemnation. Thus, their table was made a trap, etc.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. And David saith—(Ps 69:23), which in such a Messianic psalm must be meant of the rejecters of Christ.

Let their table, &c.—that is, Let their very blessings prove a curse to them, and their enjoyments only sting and take vengeance on them.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 9,10. David saith; viz. in Psalm 69:22,23. The apostle tieth not himself to the very words of the psalmist, but being guided by the same Spirit by which David wrote, he adds and alters some words, without diminishing the sense.

Let their table be made a snare, &c.: some take these words for a prayer; others, a prophecy. David, in the person of Christ, (of whom he was a type), doth complain and prophesy of the extreme injuries and oppressions wherewith the Jews (his own people) should vex him; as that they should give him gall for meat, and in his thirst, give him vinegar to drink, Romans 11:21. Therefore, by way of imprecation, he prayeth down the wrath of God upon them: particularly, he prophesies or prays, that all their most pleasant things might be turned to their destruction; that their understandings might be darkened, so as they shall discern nothing of heavenly things; that they might savour nothing but earthly things, and be unable to lift up their heads and hearts to God, and to his gospel. Now David having, by the Spirit of prophecy, prayed down such miseries upon the Jews, they must be fulfilled; therefore the general unbelief and hardness of heart that is amongst that people is not to be wondered at.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And David saith,.... That is, Christ by the mouth of David, or David in the person of Christ; for the psalm out of which the following words are taken is a prophecy of the Messiah, as appears from some passages cited out of it in the New Testament, and applied to Christ; compare Romans 11:4 with John 15:25, and Romans 11:9 with John 2:17, and Romans 11:21 with John 19:28; and what are here cited are not so much imprecations, as predictions of what should befall the Jews, by way of recompense for their ill usage of the Messiah, in giving him gall for meat, and vinegar for drink, Matthew 27:34,

let their table be made a snare, and a trap and a stumbling block. By their "table" may be meant, the altar; see Malachi 1:7; and the sacrifices offered up upon it, their meat offerings and drink offerings, and all others; likewise the laws concerning the difference of meats, and indeed the whole ceremonial law may be intended, which lay in meats and drinks, and such like things: now the Jews placing their justifying righteousness before God, in the observance of these rites and ceremonies, and imagining that by these sacrifices their sins were really expiated and atoned for, they neglected and submitted not to the righteousness of Christ, but went about to establish their own; so that that which should have led them to Christ, became an handwriting of ordinances against them, and rendered Christ of no effect to them: moreover, the sacred writings, which are full of spiritual food and divine refreshment, the prophecies of the Old Testament, which clearly pointed out Christ, not being understood, but misapplied by them, proved a trap, a snare, and a stumbling block to them; so that they rejected the true Messiah, which issued in their utter ruin and destruction: yea, the preaching of the Gospel, the salutary truths and wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ, were a stumbling block to the Jews, nay, even the savour of death unto death. Though these words may be literally understood of their table mercies, the necessary provisions of life, their common food and drink, of which they had great scarcity in their last wars; so that they not only by wicked methods stole it from one another, but ate what was forbidden by their law, and what was abhorrent to nature, as one is said to eat her own child; nor is it to be overlooked what is suggested by some, that the passover may be meant by their "table"; which was their grand yearly feast, and which they were eating (s) when they were surrounded and taken by the Roman army, like birds in a net, or beasts in a trap: and all this as

a recompense to them; a just judgment upon them, by way of retaliation for their ill treatment of Christ when on the cross, giving him gall and vinegar for his meat and drink.

(s) Josephus de Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9.

Geneva Study Bible

And David saith, {i} Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:

(i) As unhappy birds are enticed by that which is their sustenance, and then killed, and so did that thing turn to the Jew's destruction, out of which they sought life, that is, the law of God, for the preposterous zeal of which they refused the Gospel.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Romans 11:9-10. A further Scripture proof of ἐπωρώθησαν, and that from Psalm 69:23-24, quoted with free deviation from the LXX. The composer of this psalm is not David (in opposition to Hengstenberg, Hävernick), but some one of much later date; a circumstance which we must judge of analogously to the expression of Christ, Matthew 22:43. The suffering theocrat of the psalm is, as such, a type of the Messiah, and His enemies a type of the unbelieving Jews; hence Paul could find the fulfilment of the passage in the πώρωσις of the latter. Consequently, in pursuance of this typical reference, the sense in which he takes the words is as follows: “Let their table become to them for (let it be turned for them into, comp. John 16:20) a snare, and for a chase, and for a trap, and (so) for a retaliation;” i.e., while they feast and drink securely and carelessly at their well-furnished table, let the fate of violence overtake them unawares, just as wild beasts are surprised in a snare, and by the capture of the chase, and by a trap; and so must retaliation alight upon them for that which they have done (in rejecting, namely, faith on Christ). But what violent calamity is meant, the sequel expresses, namely: “Darkened must their eyes become, that they may not see,” i.e. they must become spiritually blinded, incapable of discerning the truth of salvation; and finally the same thing under another figure: “And bend their back always,” denoting the keeping them in bondage, and that, in the sense of the apostle, the spiritual bondage of the unfree condition of the inner life produced by the πώρωσις. The hardening, therefore, which Paul recognises as predicted in the passage, does not lie in ἡ τράπεζα αὐτῶν (Fritzsche),—which is not to be explained “of the law and its works, which was Israel’s food” (Philippi, following older expositors, also Tholuck),—but in γενηθήτω εἰς παγίδα κ.τ.λ., and is more precisely indicated in Romans 11:10. The express repetition in Romans 11:10 of the becoming blinded, already designated in Romans 11:8, forbids our explaining the prophetic images in Romans 11:9-10 generally as representations of severe divine judgments like Pharaoh’s overthrow, in which case the specific point of the citation would be neglected (in opposition to Hofmann).

καὶ εἰς θήραν] stands neither in the Hebrew nor in the LXX.; but θήρα means chase, not net (Tholuck, Ewald), to establish which signification the solitary passage Psalm 35:8, where the LXX. render רֶשֶׁת inexactly by θήρα, cannot suffice. It often means booty (van Hengel) in the LXX. and in classical Greek; but this is not appropriate here, where the “becoming for a booty” is said not of such as men, but of the ΤΡΆΠΕΖΑ. This shall be turned for them into a chase, so that they, in their secure feasting, become like to the unfortunate object of the chase, which is captured by the hunter.

σκάνδαλον] corresponding primarily to the classical σκανδάληθρον, the stick set in a trap (Schol. Ar. Ach. 687), is frequently in the LXX. (see Schleusner, Thes. V. p. 38), and so also here, the translation of מוֹקֵשׁ, snare, by which we must therefore abide.

ἈΝΤΑΠΌΔΟΜΑ is not found in classical Greek, but often in the LXX. and Apocrypha, Luke 14:12.

ΚΑῚ ΤῸΝ ΝῶΤΟΝ Κ.Τ.Λ.] is to be taken, according to the context, as the expression of the idea of hardening (represented as a bending together under the yoke of spiritual servitude), not, with Fritzsche, of rendering miserable through the withdrawal of the Messianic salvation. On the masculine Ὁ ΝῶΤΟς, see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 290.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. And David saith] Psalm 69:22, (LXX. Psalm 68:23.) The quotation is nearly (in Romans 11:10 verbatim) with the LXX.; which in the first of the two verses expands the Hebrew. The Heb. there may be rendered, “May their table before them become a trap, and let it be, when they are at peace, (in security,) a snare.” The idea of requital lies in the root of the Heb. word for “peace;” and thus the LXX. interpreted “unto requitals of them;” assuming another form of the word.—The whole Psalm is full of Messiah.—The point of the quotation is that the Psalm indicates a judicial turning of blessings into curses, and a judicial blindness and impotence of the soul, as the way in which retribution would come on Messiah’s enemies. “Seeing then that this imprecation remains for all the adversaries of Christ—that their meat should be converted into poison, (as we see that the Gospel is to be the savour of death unto death,)—let us embrace with humility and trembling the grace of God.” (Calvin.)

Bengel's Gnomen

Romans 11:9. Γενηθήτω—αὐτῶν εἰς παγίδα καὶ εἰς θήραν καὶ εἰς σκάνδαλον καὶ εἰς ἀνταπόδομα αὐτοίς—σύγκαμψον) Psalm 69:22-23, LXX., γενηθήτω—αὐτῶν ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν εἰς παγίδα καὶ εἰς ἀνταπόδοσιν καὶ εἰς σκάνδαλον. Let their—be made before their eyes into a snare, and for a recompence, and for an offence.—σύγκαμψον.—τράπεζα, a table) שלחן, Psalm 69:22, where, on comparing with it the preceding verse, there is an allegory, i.e., while they are carelessly taking their food, let them be taken themselves.—σκάνδαλον, stumbling-block) It is taken in the more literal sense in this passage, to correspond with the synonyms, noose and instrument of capture (laqueus and captio); for σκάνδαλον is the moveable stick in a trap. It corresponds to מוקש in the above psalm. There is a gradation: the noose (laqueus) catches a part, for example, the foot; the instrument of capture (captio, θήρα, trap) holds the whole; the stumbling-block (scandalum) not only catches, but also hurts.—ἀνταπόδομα, recompence) Their fault, therefore, not the absolute decree of God, was the mediating cause of their rejection.

Romans 11:9

Vincent's Word Studies

David saith

Psalm 69:23, Psalm 69:24. It is doubtful whether David was the author. Some high authorities are inclined to ascribe it to Jeremiah. David here may mean nothing more than the book of Psalm.

Table

Representing material prosperity: feasting in wicked security. Some explain of the Jews' presumptuous confidence in the law.

Snare (παγίδα)

From πήγνυμι to make fast. The anchor is called παγὶς the maker-fast of the ships.

Trap (θήραν)

Lit., a hunting. Only here in the New Testament, and neither in the Hebrew nor Septuagint. Many render net, following Psalm 35:8, where the word is used for the Hebrew resheth net. No kind of snare will be wanting. Their presumptuous security will become to them a snare, a hunting, a stumbling-block.

A recompense (ἀνταπόδομα)

Substituted by the Septuagint for the Hebrew, to them at ease. It carries the idea of a just retribution.