Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS - VOLUME 2
But still the Apostle John justly declares that this Scripture was fulfilled when the soldiers gave Christ vinegar to drink upon the cross, (John 19:2830;) for it was requisite that whatever cruelty the reprobate exercise towards the members of Christ, should by a visible sign be represented in Christ himself. We have stated on the same principle, in our remarks upon Psalm 22:18, that when the soldiers parted the garments of Christ among them, that verse was appropriately quoted, "They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots;" although David's object was to express by figurative language that he was robbed, and that all his goods were violently taken from him, and made a prey of by his enemies. The natural sense must, however, be retained; which is, that the holy prophet had no relief afforded him; and that he was in a condition similar to that of a man who, already too much afflicted, found, as an additional aggravation of his distress, that his meat was poisoned, and his drink rendered nauseous by the bitter ingredients with which it had been mingled.
Psalm 69:22-29
22. Let 567 their table before them be for a snare; and their prosperity 568 [or things for peace] for a net. 23. Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see; and make their loins continually to tremble. 24. Pour out thy wrath upon them; and let thy hot displeasure seize them. 25. Let their habitation be desolate; let none dwell in their tent; 26. For they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded, [literally of thy wounded ones.] 27. Add iniquity to their iniquity; and let them not
The word,ראשrosh, here denominated gall, is thought by Celsius, Michaelis, Boothroyd, and others, to be hemlock According to Dr Adam Clarke and Williams, it refers to bitters in general, and particularly those of a deleterious nature. Bochart, from a comparison of this passage with John 19:29, thinks that,ראשrosh, is the same herb as the Evangelist calls ὑσσωπος, "hyssop;" a species of which growing in Judea, he proves from Isaac Ben Orman, an Arabian writer, to be so bitter, as not to be eatable. Theophylact expressly tells us that the hyssop was added as being deleterious or poisonous; and 'Nonnus' paraphrase is, "one gave the deadly acid mixed with hyssop." See Parkhurst on.ראשThe word occurs in Deuteronomy 29:18; 32:33; and is, in the latter place, rendered poison In Hosea 10:4, it is rendered hemlock; and in Amos 6:12, it is put in apposition with a word there translated hemlock, although the same word is also rendered wormwood
Vinegar, we conceive, here means sour wine, such as was given to slaves or prisoners in the East. Persons in better circumstances used lemons or pomegranates to give their drink a grateful acidity. It was therefore a great insult offered to a royal personage to give him in his thirst the refreshment of a slave or of a wretched prisoner; and David employs this figure to express the insults which were offered to him by his enemies. See Harmer's Observations, volume 2, pp. 158, 159.
This and the following verses, which are here expressed in the form of imprecations, are translated by many in the future tense, as predictions: "Their table before them shall be for a snare," etc.