Commentary on Psalms Volume 2 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
106 this clearly shows that they utterly cut off from him all hope of recovery. And certainly it was a sore temptation to David, who had in himself the testimony of a good conscience, to think that he was regarded by men as one who was pursued by the vengeance of God, nay, that they even cast him headlong into hell. But it pleased God thus to try his servant, that, trusting to the testimony of his own conscience, he should pay no regard to what men might say, or be troubled by the reproaches they might cast upon him. It was also his design to teach us, by his example, that we must seek the reward of our righteousness elsewhere than in this world, since we see with what unequal balances the world often sets itself to estimate the difference between virtue and vice.
9. Even the man of my peace. As the very height of all his miseries, David here declares that he had found the same treachery in some one, or, indeed, in many of his greatest friends. For the change of number is very frequent in the Hebrew language, so that he may speak of several individuals as if they were only one person. Thus the meaning would be: Not only the common people, or strangers of whom I had no knowledge or acquaintance, but my greatest friends, nay, even those with whom I was most intimate, and those of my own household, whom I admitted to eat and drink with me at
There seems some difficulty as to what is meant by the words,לעיעלdebar beliyaäl They are literally a word of Belial But word in Hebrew is often used for a thing or matter, Exodus 18:16; Deuteronomy 17:4; 1 Kings 14:13. And Belial is used by the Hebrews to designate any detestable wickedness. Thus the original words bring out the meaning which Calvin fixes upon them; and in the same sense they are understood by several critics. Dr Geddes reads "a lawless deed;" and he explains the expression as referring to "David's sin in the case of Uriah; which his enemies now assign as the cause of his present calamity; as if they had said, 'This sin hath at length overtaken him,' etc." Horsley reads, "Some cursed thing presseth heavily upon him;" and by "some cursed thing" he understands "the crime which they supposed to be the cause of the divine judgment upon him." Fry reads, "Some hellish crime cleaveth unto him." Cresswell adopts the interpretation of M. Flaminius: "They say, Some load of iniquity presses upon him, (or clings to him,) so that from the place where he lieth he will rise no more." But there is another sense which the words will bear. The Septuagint reads, "λόγος παράνομος;" the Vulgate, "a wicked word;" the Chaldee, "a perverse word;" the Syriac, "a word of iniquity;" and the Arabic, "words contrary to law;" and so the expression may mean a grievous slander or calumny. This is the sense in which it is understood by Hammond. "And this," says he, "is said to cleave to him on whom it is fastened; it being the nature of calumnies, when strongly affixed on any, to cleave fast, and leave some evil mark behind them: "Calumniare fortiter, aliquid hoerebit." In our vulgar version it is "an evil disease." And,דברdebar, no doubt sometimes signifies a plague or pestilence According to this rendering, the sense will be, he is smitten with an evil disease on account of his crimes, from which he will never recover.
So Hammond reads with our English version, Now that he lieth he shall rise again no more, and thinks that this is a proverbial phrase which was in use among the Hebrews, and which was applied to any sort of ruin, as well as to that which is effected by bodily disease. "The calumniator," he observes, "may destroy and ruin as well as the pestilence; and from him was David's danger most frequently, and not from a pestilential disease."