Psalms 94:3-13

3 How long shall the wicked, O Jehovah, how long shall the wicked triumph?
4 [How long] shall they utter [and] speak insolence -- all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
5 They crush thy people, O Jehovah, and afflict thine inheritance;
6 They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless,
7 And say, Jah will not see, neither will the God of Jacob regard [it].
8 Understand, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see?
10 He that instructeth the nations, shall not he correct -- he that teacheth man knowledge?
11 Jehovah knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Jah, and whom thou teachest out of thy law;
13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days of evil, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

Psalms 94:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 94

Some, as Jarchi and others, think this psalm was written by Moses; others, with greater probability, assign it to David; as do the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions; and which all but the Syriac version say it was composed to be sung on the fourth day of the week, on which day the Talmudists say it was sung; see the argument of the preceding psalm. This psalm and others, that go before and follow, are without any title in the Hebrew Bible: the title of it in the Syriac version is,

``a Psalm of David, concerning the company of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; but spiritually, concerning the persecution against the church;''

not of the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt, as some; nor of the Jews in their present exile, as Kimchi; but rather of the people of God under the tyranny of antichrist; who are represented as complaining of his insults and cruelty, and as comforting themselves in the hopes of deliverance, and in the view of his destruction.

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Or 'chasteneth.'
  • [b]. Or 'a breath,' as Job 7.16; Ps. 39.5,6,11, &c.
  • [c]. See Note c, Ps. 68.4.
  • [d]. Geber: see Job 3.3.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.