They reward me evil for good, to the bereaving of my soul.
Parallel Translations
-
They reward me evil for good, to the bereaving of my soul.
-
They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.
-
They repay me evil for good; bereavement is come to my soul.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Psalms 35:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 10:32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?”
- Jeremiah 18:20 Should evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.
- Psalms 38:20 They who render evil for good are also adversaries to me, because I follow what is good.
- Proverbs 17:13 Whoever rewards evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.
- Luke 23:21-23 but they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify him!” He said to them the third time, “Why? What evil has this man done? I have found no capital crime in him. I will therefore chastise him and release him.” But they were urgent with loud voices, asking that he might be crucified. Their voices and the voices of the chief priests prevailed.
- Psalms 109:3-5 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause. In return for my love, they are my adversaries; but I am in prayer. They have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
- 1 Samuel 20:31-33 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you will not be established, nor will your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die!” Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Saul cast his spear at him to strike him. By this Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.
- 1 Samuel 19:4-5 Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul his father, and said to him, “Don’t let the king sin against his servant, against David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you; for he put his life in his hand, and struck the Philistine, and Yahweh worked a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?”
- 1 Samuel 19:15 Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.”
- 1 Samuel 22:13-14 Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as it is today?” Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, “Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, captain of your body guard, and honored in your house?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 12. They render me evil for good. David again…
12. They render me evil for good. David again shows that the malice of his enemies was of a very aggravated character, because they not only oppressed him wrongfully, seeing he was innocent, and had given them no occasion of offense, but also because even those who had received much enjoyment and many favors from him, recompensed him in a very strange and ungrateful manner. Such disgraceful conduct wounds the feelings of good men very severely, and seems quite intolerable. But it is an inexpressibly great consolation when we can testify before God, that we have attempted by every means in our power to soothe the minds of our enemies, and to bow them to gentleness, although, notwithstanding, they are hurried on by insatiable cruelty in desiring our hurt; for God will not suffer this barbarous and brutal ingratitude to pass unpunished. Their cruelty is farther expressed when it is said that they endeavored to bereave (for so it is properly in the Hebrew “Ont tasch, de rendre orpheline car il y a ainsi proprement en Hebrieu.” — Fr.
“When the Orientals,” says Boothroyd, “pray seriously in grief, they hide their face in their bosom: and to this custom the Psalmist here alludes. Rabbi Levi, Dathe, and others, explain it in like manner.”
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain To have taken from me all comfort and brought…
To have taken from me all comfort and brought me into despair.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 35:12 They rewarded me evil for good [to]…
Psa 35:12 They rewarded me evil for good [to] the spoiling of my soul.
Ver. 12. They rewarded me evil for good] To render good for evil is divine, good for good is human, evil for evil is brutish; but evil for good is devilish.
Read full note →
To the spoiling of my soul] i.e. To the depriving me of that life which I have so often hazarded to save theirs. Intentant caedem (Kimchi). Or, this their devilish dealing with me, erat mihi quasi mors amarum, was as bitter as death to me.
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 For good; for the good offices which did to…
For good; for the good offices which did to divers of them when I had favour and power in Saul’s court and camp.
To the spoiling of my soul, i.e. to the stripping of my person of all my comforts and hopes, and of my life itself.
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 They rewarded me evil for good,.... For the good…
They rewarded me evil for good,.... For the good David did in killing Goliath, and slaying his ten thousands of the Philistines, and thereby saving his king and country, Saul and his courtiers envied him, and sought to slay him: so our Lord Jesus Christ, for all the good he did to the Jews, by healing their bodies of diseases, and preaching the Gospel to them for the benefit of their souls, was rewarded with reproaches and persecutions, and at last with the shameful death of the cross; and in like manner are his people used; but this is an evil that shall not go unpunished; see Pro 17:13. It is added,
to the spoiling of my soul; or "to the bereaving of it" (t); causing it to be fatherless; that is, to the bereaving it of its joy, peace, and comfort; so fatherless is put for comfortless, Joh 14:18; or to the taking away of his soul, which being separated from the body, its companion is left alone, as one that is fatherless.
Read full note →
(t) "orbitatem", Montanus, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.
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 12. To the spoiling of my soul] To…
Verse 12. To the spoiling of my soul] To destroy my life; so נפש nephesh should be translated in a multitude of places, where our translators have used the word soul.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain They rewarded me evil for good - They recompensed,…
They rewarded me evil for good - They recompensed, or returned evil instead of good. The manner in which they did it he states in the following verses.
To the spoiling of my soul - Margin, “depriving.” The Hebrew word means “the being forsaken,” or “abandoned.” The idea is, that owing to this conduct he was forsaken or abandoned by all in whom he might have put confidence.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Though they rendered evil for good, he showed a…
Though they rendered evil for good, he showed a tender sympathy in their affliction.
spoiling--literally, "bereavement." The usual modes of showing grief are made, as figures, to express his sorrow.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Spoiling of my soul—Bereaving “my soul.” The word…
12. Spoiling of my soul—Bereaving “my soul.” The word is used only of the bereavement of a mother of her children, or a wild beast of her young.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. They rewarded &c.] Better, as R.V., they reward.…
12. They rewarded &c.] Better, as R.V., they reward. As in the preceding verse he speaks of what is still going on. His enemies are guilty of the basest ingratitude. Cp. Psa_38:20; Psa_109:5; Pro_17:13. Saul confessed that he had treated David thus (1Sa_24:17 ff.).
to the spoiling of my soul] Render as R.V., to the bereaving of my soul: or perhaps, it is bereavement to my soul. Such conduct makes him feel as desolate as the childless mother.
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 (12) To the spoiling of my soul.—Literally, desolation to…
(12) To the spoiling of my soul.—Literally, desolation to my soul. We may paraphrase,
“They rewarded me evil for good,
Read full note →
Which to me was desolation.”
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 They rewarded me evil for good (comp. ver. 13).…
They rewarded me evil for good (comp. ver. 13). Among those who slandered him were persons with whose troubles he had sympathized, and for whom he had prayed with fasting when they were sick. His worst persecutor, Saul, admitted the charge here made. "Thou art more righteous than I," he said; "for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil". (1Sa_24:17) To the spoiling of my soul; or, the desolating of my soul. The result of his enemies" machinations against him was to make him a fugitive and a wanderer, to separate him from the friend whom he tenderly loved, from his wife, his parents, and the greater part of his acquaintance.
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. 12. They rewarded me evil for good. This…
Ver. 12. They rewarded me evil for good. This is devilish; but men have learned the lesson well of the old Destroyer, and practise it most perfectly. To the spoiling of my soul. They robbed him of comfort, and even would have taken his life had it not been for special rescues from the hand of God. The wicked would strip the righteous naked to their very soul: they know no pity. There are only such limits to human malice as God himself may see fit to place.
Ver. 12. They rewarded me evil for good. For the good David did in killing Goliath, and slaying his ten thousands of Philistines, and thereby saving his king and country, Saul and his courtiers envied him, and sought to slay him: so our Lord Jesus Christ, for all the good he did to the Jews, by healing their bodies of diseases, and preaching the gospel to them for the benefit of their souls, was rewarded with reproaches and persecutions, and at last with the shameful death of the cross; and in like manner are his people used, but this is an evil that shall not go unpunished: see Pr 17:13. John Gill.
Read full note →
Ver. 12. To the spoiling of my soul. They robbed not his body of goods but his soul of consolation. They bereaved his soul (that is the word), like a widow who loses her children in whom she delighted and found succour. They were not content with injuring his estate, but they were for ruining the man himself by their undeserved malice, they attacked him in name and reputation, which were as dear to him as his sons and daughters, or even as his soul. It is evermore an injury to the soul to be attacked with slander, it puts a man into a warring attitude, endangers his peace of mind, imperils his enjoyment of quiet contemplation, and tends to interrupt his communion with God. Thus the spiritual nature is despoiled and suffers bereavement. C. H. S.
Ver. 12. How a soul may be robbed.
Psalms 35:13*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.