Psalms 109:10

10 May his children be homeless beggars; may they be driven from the ruins they live in!

Psalms 109:10 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 109:10

Let 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, ( Psalms 37:25 ) yet was threatened to the children of Eli, ( 1 Samuel 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 F1 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
F2; 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, ( Matthew 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.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 Mifchar Hapeninim apud Buxtorf. Florileg. Heb. p. 262, 263.
F2 So De Dieu, Gejerus, and some in Michaelis.

Psalms 109:10 In-Context

8 May his life soon be ended; may someone else take his job!
9 May his children become orphans, and his wife a widow!
10 May his children be homeless beggars; may they be driven from the ruins they live in!
11 May his creditors take away all his property, and may strangers get everything he worked for.
12 May no one ever be kind to him or care for the orphans he leaves behind.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. [One ancient translation] be driven from; [Hebrew] seek.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.