Commentary on Psalms Volume 1 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
16. Among perfidious jesters at feasts, they gnash upon me with their teeth. 17. O Lord! 714 how long wilt thou look on? deliver my soul from their tumults, and my only one 715 from the lions. 18. I will magnify thee in the great congregation: 716 I will praise thee before a great people. 717
16. Among perfidious jesters. Others translate it, With hypocrites, but in my opinion David simply relates the combination of his enemies. And the meaning of the expression is to this effect, That among men of a crafty disposition, who had been addicted to deceit, and were consequently lost to all sense of shame, the only and the constant subject of their deliberations was, how they might destroy this afflicted man. David again reverts to the leaders of the people, and to those in power, as the source whence all the mischief took its rise; for this description could not apply to a great part of the common people, who acted rather by thoughtless impulse. He therefore speaks particularly of the rulers, and others of a similar character, and accuses them of cruelty, saying, that they gnash their teeth upon him like furious wild beasts. He first calls them perfidious or wicked, that he may the more easily obtain help and aid of God, as if calling upon him in the extremity of distress; and, secondly, he calls them jesters or mockers, by which he means that they have such effrontery, and are so far lost to all sense of shame, that there is nothing which they will not dare to do. As to the meaning of the word,מעוגmaog, which follows, interpreters are not agreed. Properly, it signifies bread baked upon the hearth upon the embers. Some, however, because they could not elicit from it a meaning suitable to the passage, have thought that it should be taken for talkative jesting, or idle speech. Others, presuming to give a still wider range to their fancy,
Domine — Lat,אדניAdonai — Hebrews "More than fifteen copies collected by Dr Kennicott haveיהוהhere instead ofאדניAmong which is one of the best manuscripts that has been collated. The Jews, in later ages, had a superstitious fear of pronouncing the wordיהוהand therefore insertedאדניor,אלהיםc'est a dire in the place of it very frequently." — Street.
"Assavoir, mon ame unique; c'est a dire, solitaire et delaissee." — Note, Fr. marg. "Namely, my soul alone; that is to say, solitary and forsaken." See note 3, p. 432. In our English Bible the phrase is, "My darling;" but David rather means to intimate his forsaken and unprotected condition, unless God interposed in his behalf. Green reads, "my helpless person."
"Devant un grand peuple." — Fr.
"C'est, beaucoup de peuple." — Note, Fr. marg. "That is, much people."