Psa 38:11-16 | Clarke | STEP | Verse 11 My lovers - Those who professed much affection for me; my friends, רעי reai, my companions, who never before left my company, stand aloof. My kinsmen - קרובי kerobai, my neighbors, stand afar off. I am deserted by all, and they stand off because of נגעי nigi, my plague. They considered me as suffering under a Divine judgment; and, thinking me an accursed being, they avoided me lest they should be infected by my disease.

Psalms 38:11-16

Verse 11

My lovers - Those who professed much affection for me; my friends, רעי reai, my companions, who never before left my company, stand aloof.

My kinsmen - קרובי kerobai, my neighbors, stand afar off. I am deserted by all, and they stand off because of נגעי nigi, my plague. They considered me as suffering under a Divine judgment; and, thinking me an accursed being, they avoided me lest they should be infected by my disease. Verse 12

They also that seek after my life - They act towards me as huntsmen after their prey; they lay snares to take away my life. Perhaps this means only that they wished for his death, and would have been glad to have had it in their power to end his days. Others spoke all manner of evil of him, and told falsities against him all the day long. Verse 13

But I, as a deaf man - I was conscious of my guilt, I could not vindicate myself; and I was obliged in silence to bear their insults. Verse 14

No reproofs - תוכחות tochachoth, arguments or vindications; a forensic term. I was as a man accused in open court, and I could make no defense. Verse 15

In thee, O Lord, do I hope - I have no helper but thee.

Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God - Thou art eternal in thy compassions, and wilt hear the prayer of a penitent soul. In the printed copies of the Hebrew text we have אדני אלהי Adonai Elohai, Lord my God; but, instead of אדני Adonai, one hundred and two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. read יהוה Yehovah. As this word is never pronounced by the Jews, and they consider it dreadfully sacred, in reading, wherever it occurs, they pronounce אדני Adonai; and we may well suppose that Jewish scribes, in writing out copies of the sacred Scriptures, would as naturally write Adonai for Yehovah, as they would in reading supply the former for the latter. Verse 16

When my foot slippeth - They watched for my halting; and when my foot slipped, they rejoiced that I had fallen into sin!