Psalms 109:4-14

4 In return for my love, they are my adversaries; But I am in prayer.

5 They have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love.

6 Set a wicked man over him. Let an adversary stand at his right hand.

7 When he is judged, let him come forth guilty. Let his prayer be turned into sin.

8 Let his days be few. Let another take his office.

9 Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow.

10 Let his children be wandering beggars. Let them be sought from their ruins.

11 Let the creditor seize all that he has. Let strangers plunder the fruit of his labor.

12 Let there be none to extend kindness to him, Neither let there be any to have pity on his fatherless children.

13 Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out.

14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by Yahweh. Don't let the sin of his mother be blotted out.

Psalms 109:4-14 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.