Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Parallel Translations
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Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
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Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
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Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Cross-references (3)
Passages linked to Psalms 109:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 22:24 and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
- Jeremiah 18:21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless and widows. Let their men be killed and their young men struck by the sword in battle.
- Lamentations 5:3 We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 109:9 Let his children be fatherless, and his…
Psa 109:9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Ver. 9. Let his children be fatherless] Helpless and shiftless. A sore vexation to many on their death beds, and just enough on graceless persecutors. But happy are they who, when they lie a dying, can say, as Luther did, Domine Deus gratias ago tibi quod volueris me esse pauperem, &c., Lord God, I thank thee for my present poverty, but future hopes. I have not any houses, lands, possessions, money, to leave behind me. Thou hast given me life and children, behold, I return them back to thee, and beseech thee to nourish them, teach them, keep them safe, as hitherto thou hast done me, O thou Father of the fatherless, and judge of widows.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Fatherless; whilst they are but children, and so unable…
Fatherless; whilst they are but children, and so unable to provide for themselves.
A widow; either made a widow by his death; or constantly a widow; all persons abhorring her who was related to so vile a miscreant.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a…
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. This sometimes is the case of good men, who leave widows and fatherless children, whom the Lord shows mercy to; being the Father of the fatherless, and the Judge of the widow, Psa 68:5, but sometimes it is threatened and comes as a judgment, when the Lord shows no mercy and favour to them, Exo 22:24. And this is the case here, which very probably was literally fulfilled in Judas, who might have a wife and children; since it looks as if the other apostles had, and certain it is that one of them had a wife, even Peter, in the times of Christ; see Co1 9:5. And this was verified in the people of the Jews; whom the Lord divorced from himself, and wrote a "loammi" upon them, and left them as orphans and fatherless, Hos 1:9. This will never be the case of Christ's people, or the Christian church, Joh 14:18, though it will be of the antichristian one, Rev 18:7.
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Psalms 109:10
psa 109:10
psa 109:10
psa 109:10Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg,.... Wander from place to place, begging their bread: this is denied of the children of good men in David's time, Psa 37:25 yet was threatened to the children of Eli, Sa1 2:36 and was very likely literally true of the children of Judas; and was certainly the case of multitudes of the children of the Jews, the posterity of them that crucified Christ, at the time of their destruction by the Romans; when great numbers were dispersed, and wandered about in various countries, as vagabonds, begging their bread from door to door; which is reckoned (a) by them a great affliction, and very distressing.
Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places; either describing, as Kimchi thinks, the miserable cottages, forlorn and desolate houses, in which they lived, and from whence they went out to everyone that passed by, to ask relief of them; or it may be rendered,
because of their desolate places (b); or, "after them"; so the Targum, "after their desolation was made"; when their grand house was left desolate, their temple, as our Lord said it should, and was, Mat 23:38, and all their other houses in Jerusalem and in Judea; then were they obliged to seek their bread of others elsewhere, and by begging. The Syriac version wants this verse.
(a) Mifchar Hapeninim apud Buxtorf. Florileg. Heb. p. 262, 263. (b) So De Dieu, Gejerus, and some in Michaelis.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. Let his children be fatherless, c.] It…
Verse 9. Let his children be fatherless, c.] It is said that Judas was a married man, against whom this verse, as well as the preceding is supposed to be spoken and that it was to support them that he stole from the bag in which the property of the apostles was put, and of which he was the treasurer.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 109:9-10. Let his children be — Hebrew, יהיו…
Psa 109:9-10. Let his children be — Hebrew, יהיו בניוjihju banaiv, his children shall be fatherless — Namely, while they are but children, and so are unable to provide for themselves; and his wife a widow — Made a widow by his death, and continuing a widow. Let his children be vagabonds — Hebrew, ונוע ינועו בניו, in wandering, his children shall wander, that is, they shall certainly wander, and beg — Not knowing where to obtain the least sustenance. Let them seek, &c., out of their desolate places — Into which they have fled for fear and shame, as not daring to show their faces among men. “If, by the wretched death of Judas,” says the last-mentioned divine, “his wife became a widow, and his children orphans, vagabonds, and beggars, their fate was but a prelude to that of thousands and tens of thousands of the same nation, whose husbands and fathers came afterward to a miserable end at the destruction of Jerusalem. Their children and children’s children have since been continually vagabonds upon the earth, in the state of Cain, when he had murdered his righteous brother, not cut off, but marvellously preserved for punishment and wo.” Thus also Dr. Hammond on these verses: “By this is described, in a very lively manner, the condition of the Jewish posterity, ever since their ancestors fell under that signal vengeance for the crucifying of Christ. 1st, Their desolations and devastations in their own country, and being rejected thence. 2d, Their continual wanderings from place to place, scattered over the face of the earth: and, 3d, Their remarkable covetousness, keeping them always poor and beggarly, be they never so rich, and continually labouring and moiling for gain, as the poorest are wont to do; and this is continually the constant course attending this people, wheresoever they are scattered.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Let his children be fatherless - Hebrew, “his sons.”…
Let his children be fatherless - Hebrew, “his sons.” This is what “always” occurs when a criminal who is a father is executed. It is one of the consequences of crime; and if the officer of justice does his duty, of course, the sons of such a man “must” be made fatherless. The prayer is, simply, that justice may be done, and all this is but an enumeration of what must follow from the proper execution of the laws.
And his wife a widow - This implies no malice against the wife, but may be consistent with the most tender compassion for her sufferings. It is simply one of the consequences which must follow from the punishment of a bad man. The enumeration of these things shows the enormity of the crime - just as the consequences which follow from the execution of a murderer are an illustration of the divine sense of the evil of the offence.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9, 10. The curse of his misdeeds falls even…
9, 10. The curse of his misdeeds falls even upon his wife and children. This is the climax of awfulness in the imprecation. But a man’s family was regarded as part of himself; his punishment was not complete unless they were included in it; and for full retribution they must share his ruin, for doubtless, this man’s schemes, if successful, would have involved the ruin of the Psalmist’s family. See Introd. p. xcii.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (9) Children . . . wife.—It is one of…
(9) Children . . . wife.—It is one of the sadly peculiar features of this series of curses that the resentment of the imprecator cannot satisfy itself on the person of his foe, but fastens also on his innocent descendants. To invoke a speedy death does not content him; he must feast his anger with the thought of the fatherless children and desolate widow.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a…
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Necessary consequences of his own condemnation to death.
Vers. 9, 10. The vicarious feature in judgments.
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"Let his children be orphans, and his wife a widow." There are few Bible difficulties more perplexing than that which is created by the fact, that a man"s punishments are recognized as righteously affecting, not himself only, but also his children, and those dependent on him. We naturally resist this, and say, "Every man ought to bear his own burden," and a man"s punishment should be limited to himself. It is not so; it never has been so; it never can be so, because men are so closely bound together, and related, that if "one member suffers, all the members suffer with it." While this has a trying side, involving a sad extension of suffering, we should never forget that it has also a bright side, involving a most glorious extension of our privileges and pleasures. The vicarious feature in life is the sweet secret of three parts of its blessedness.
I VICARIOUS SUFFERING IS THE UNIVERSAL FACT OF LIFE. Diseased parents involve their children in disease. Sinful parents convey evil tendencies to their children. Unthrifty parents bring their children into misery. Unfortunate parents lead all belonging to them into misfortune. So unworthy kings bring woe on all their people. The consequences of wrongdoing never can be circumscribed. Every man that lives is the victim of some vicarious disability. However we may explain it, we must take the principle into account.
II VICARIOUS SUFFERING IS TAKEN UP, AND USED, BY RELIGION. It is recognized in the Divine punishment of the first act of self-will; and in the first act of murder. Cain"s posterity suffer for Cain"s sin. It is declared as a principle in connection with the Decalogue. (Exo_20:5) It is illustrated in the judgments on Korah and Dathan and Achan; and also in the family of King Saul. It is seen on its brighter side in the Christian baptism of a man and his household; as see Act_16:31-33.
III VICARIOUS SUFFERING IS PLACED UNDER STRICT CHRISTIAN LIMITATIONS. It is seen to concern only physical and temporal disabilities. And the Christian rule of life ever tends to limit the conveyance of bodily evils. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 9. Let his children be fatherless, and his…
Ver. 9. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. This would inevitably be the case when the man died, but the psalmist uses the words in an emphatic sense, he would have his widow "a widow indeed", and his children so friendless as to be orphaned in the bitterest sense. He sees the result of the bad man's decease, and includes it in the punishment. The tyrant's sword makes many children fatherless, and who can lament when his barbarities come home to his own family, and they too, weep and lament. Pity is due to all orphans and widows as such, but a father's atrocious actions may dry up the springs of pity. Who mourns that Pharaoh's children lost their father, or that Sennacherib's wife became a widow? As Agag's sword had made women childless none wept when Samuel's weapon made his mother childless among women. If Herod had been slain when he had just murdered the innocents at Bethlehem no man would have lamented it even though Herod's wife would have become a widow. These awful maledictions are not for common men to use, but for judges, such as David was, to pronounce over the enemies of God and man. A judge may sentence a man to death whatever the consequences may be to the criminal's family, and in this there will be no feeling of private revenge, but simply the doing of justice because evil must be punished. We are aware that this may not appear to justify the full force of these expressions, but it should never be forgotten that the case supposed is a very execrable one, and the character of the culprit is beyond measure loathsome and not to be met by any common abhorrence. Those who regard a sort of effeminate benevolence to all creatures alike as the acme of virtue are very much in favour with this degenerate age; these look for the salvation of the damned, and even pray for the restoration of the devil. It is very possible that if they were less in sympathy with evil, and more in harmony with the thoughts of God, they would be of a far sterner and also of a far better mind. To us it seems better to agree with God's curses than with the devil's blessings; and when at any time our heart kicks against the terrors of the Lord we take it as a proof of our need of greater humbling, and confess our sin before our God.
Ver. 9. Let his children be fatherless. Helpless and shiftless. A sore vexation to many on their death beds, and just enough upon graceless persecutors. But happy are they who, when they lie dying, can say as Luther did, "Domine Deus gratias ago tibi quod velueris me esse pauperem, et mendicum, & c. Lord God, I thank thee for my present poverty, but future hopes. I have not an house, lands, possessions, or monies to leave behind me. Thou hast given me wife and children; behold, I return them back to thee, and beseech thee to nourish them, teach them, keep them safe, as hitherto thou hast done, O thou father of the fatherless, and judge of widows." John Trapp.
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Ver. 9-10,12-13. "His children; ""his posterity." Though in matters of a civil or judicial character, we have it upon the highest authority that the children are not to be made accountable for the fathers, nor the fathers for the children, but every transgressor is to bear the penalty of his own sin; yet, in a moral, and in a social and spiritual sense, it is impossible that the fathers should eat sour grapes, and yet that the children's teeth should not be set on edge. The offspring of the profligate and the prodigal may, and often do, avoid the specific vices of the parent; but rarely, if ever, do they escape the evil consequences of those vices. And this reaction cannot be prevented, until it shall please God first to unmake and then to remodel his whole intelligent creation. T. Dale, in a Sermon to Heads of Families, 1839.
Ver. 9-13. Under the Old Covenant, calamity, extending from father to son, was the meed of transgression; prosperity, vice versa, of obedience: (see Solomon's prayer, 2Ch 6:23): and these prayers of the psalmist (cf. Ps 10:13, 12:1 58:10, etc.) may express the wish that God's providential government of his people should be asserted in the chastisement of the enemy of God and man. Speaker's Commentary.
Psalms 109:10*
Ver. 9-10. When we consider of whom this Psalm is used there will be no difficulty about it. No language could be more awful than that of Ps 109:6-19. It embraces almost every misery we can think of. But could any man be in a more wretched condition than Judas was? Could any words be too severe to express the depth of his miseryof him, who, for three whole years, had been the constant attendant of the Saviour of mankind; who had witnessed his miracles, and had shared his miraculous powers; who had enjoyed all the warnings, all the reproofs of his love, and then had betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver? Can we conceive a condition more miserable than that of Judas? And this Psalm is a prophecy of the punishment that should overtake him for his sin. S. Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles, quotes part of this psalm, and applies it to Judas: he applies it as a prophecy of the punishment he should suffer on the betrayal of the Son of God.
It is probable that in this psalm, when it uses the word children, it does not mean those who are his offspring by natural descent, but those who resemble him, and who partake with him in his wickedness. This is a common meaning of the word sons, or children, in Holy Scripture. As where our blessed Lord tells the Jews, Ye are of your father the devil, he could not mean that the Jews were the natural descendants of the devil, but that they were his children because they did his works. Again, when they are called Abraham's children, it means those who do the works of Abraham. So in this psalm, where it is foretold that fearful punishment should happen to Judas for the betrayal of his Lord, and should be extended to his children, it means his associates, his companions, and imitators in wickedness. F.H. Dunwell, in "A Tract on the Commination Service", 1853.
Ver. 10, 12-13. It is for public ends that the psalmist prayed that the families of the wicked might be involved in their ruin. These are very terrible petitions; but it is God, not man, who has appointed these calamities as the ordinary consequences of persistence in wickedness. It is God, not man, who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generations. It is because this is the ordinary portion of the transgressors, and that thus in God's wonted way his abhorrence of the transgressions of his enemies might be marked, that the psalmist prays for these calamities. He asks God to do what he had declared he would do, and this for public ends, for he says: "I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul", Ps 109:30-31. R.A. Bertram, in "The Imprecatory Psalms", 1867.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.