Psalm 109:12-22

12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.

13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation.

14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the Lord, and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15 Let them be before the Lord continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.

16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.

17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.

18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones.

19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around himself, like a belt that he wears every day."

20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the Lord, of those who speak evil against my life.

21 But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name's sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.

22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.

Psalm 109:12-22 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. This psalm was written by David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, concerning Judas the betrayer of Christ, as is certain from Acts 1:16 hence it is used to be called by the ancients the Iscariotic psalm. Whether the occasion of it was the rebellion of Absalom, as some, or the persecution of Saul, as Kimchi; and whoever David might have in view particularly, whether Ahithophel, or Doeg the Edomite, as is most likely; yet it is evident that the Holy Ghost foresaw the sin of Judas, and prophesies of that, and of the ruin and misery that should come upon him; for the imprecations in this psalm are no other than predictions of future events, and so are not to be drawn into an example by men; nor do they breathe out anything contrary to the spirit of Christianity, but are proofs of it, since what is here predicted has been exactly accomplished. The title in the Syriac version is, "a psalm of David when they created Absalom king without his knowledge, and for this cause he was slain; but to us it expounds the sufferings of the Christ of God;" and indeed he is the person that is all along speaking in this psalm.

Footnotes

• [a] Cn: Heb [fathers]
• [b] Gk: Heb [their]