Psalms 35:12

12 I am devastated because they pay me back with evil instead of good.

Psalms 35:12 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 35:12

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 ( Proverbs 17:13 ) . It is added,

[to] the spoiling of my soul;
or "to the bereaving of it" ^F20; causing it to be fatherless; that is, to the bereaving it of its joy, peace, and comfort; so fatherless is put for comfortless, ( John 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 (lwkv) "orbitatem", Montanus, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.

Psalms 35:12 In-Context

10 All my bones will say, "O LORD, who can compare with you? You rescue the weak person from the one who is too strong for him and weak and needy people from the one who robs them."

11 Malicious people bring charges against me. They ask me things I know nothing about.

12 I am devastated because they pay me back with evil instead of good.

13 But when they were sick, I wore sackcloth. I humbled myself with fasting. When my prayer returned unanswered,

14 I walked around as if I were mourning for my friend or my brother. I was bent over as if I were mourning for my mother.