10 As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, "Where is your God?"
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
It is as a slaughter in my bones. This verse is somewhat involved in point of expression; but as to the meaning of it there is no obscurity. David here affirms that the grief which he experienced from the reproaches of his enemies, wounded him in no degree less than if they had pierced through his bones. The word vrtsh, beretsach, signifies killing; and, therefore, I have retained this idea in the translation of it. And yet I do not condemn the opinion of those who render it a slaughtering sword. [1] There is here a difference as to the reading, arising from the great similarity which there is between the two letters v, beth, and k, caph, the mark of similitude. As the letter v beth, is often superfluous, I would rather be disposed, in a doubtful matter like this, to omit it altogether. But as I have said, the sense is perfectly plain, except that interpreters do not seem to take this sufficiently into their consideration, that by the terms my bones, the bitterness of grief is referred to; for we feel much more acutely any injury which is done to the bones, than if a sword should pierce the bowels, or the other parts of the body which are soft and yielding. Nor should the children of God regard this similitude as hyperbolical; and if one should wonder why David took so sorely to heart the derision of his enemies, he only manifests in this his own insensibility. For of all the bitter evils which befall us, there is nothing which can inflict upon us a severer wound than to see the wicked tear in pieces the majesty of God, and endeavor to destroy and overturn our faith. The doctrine taught by Paul, (Galatians 4:24,) concerning the persecution of Ishmael, is well known. Many consider his childish jesting as of little moment, but as it tended to this effect, that the covenant of God should be esteemed as a thing of no value, it is on that account, according to the judgment of the Holy Spirit, to be accounted a most cruel persecution. David, therefore, with much propriety, compares to a slaughtering sword, which penetrates even within the bones and marrow, the derision of his enemies, by which he saw his own faith and the word of God trampled under foot. And would to God that all who boast themselves of being his children would learn to bear their private wrongs more patiently, and to manifest the same vehement zeal for which David is here distinguished, when their faith is assailed to the dishonor of God, and when the word also which gives them life is included in the same reproach!
1 - The original word rtsch retsach, is constantly used in prose for a homicide, or murderer, being derived from the verb rtsch ratsach, which signifies to slay, to murder; and although it is not used in any other passage for a sword, "it may," as Horsley observes, "very naturally, in poetry, be applied to the instrument of slaughter, the sword." In support of this view, he refers to a passage in one of the tragedies of Sophocles, in which Ajax calls his sword, upon which he is about to fall, O sphageus which gives the literal rendering of the Hebrew rtsch, retsach, murderer Horsley's rendering is, "While the sword is in my bones."
As with a sword in my bones - Margin, killing. The treatment which I receive in their reproaches is like death. The word rendered "sword" - רצח retsach - means properly killing, slaying, breaking in pieces, crushing. It occurs only here and in Ezekiel 21:22, where it is rendered slaughter. The Septuagint renders it, "In the bruising of my bones they reproach me." The Vulgate, "While they break my bones they reproach me." Luther, "It is as death in my bones, that my enemies reproach me." The idea in the Hebrew is, that their reproaches were like breaking or crushing his very bones. The idea of the "sword" is not in the original.
Mine enemies reproach me - That is, as one forsaken of God, and as suffering justly under his displeasure. Their argument was, that if he was truly the friend of God, he would not leave him thus; that the fact of his being thus abandoned proved that he was not a friend of God.
While they say daily unto me - They say this constantly. I am compelled to hear it every day.
Where is thy God? - See the notes at Psalm 42:3.
[As] with a sword in my (i) bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where [is] thy God?
(i) That is, I am most grievously tormented.
As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me,.... The reproaches of his enemies were grievous and cutting to him, as if a sword pierced through the marrow in his bones, which, being very sensitive, gives exquisite pain. There is a various reading here: some copies, as Vatablus observes, read "in", or with, and others "as", which seems to be the truest; and our translators supply "as", to make the sense, though they read "with"; but some (n) only read "as"; and the sense is, the reproaches cast upon the psalmist were as a sword cutting and killing; and these reproaches were as follow;
while they say daily unto me, where is thy God? See Gill on Psalm 42:3.
(n) , Symmachus in Drusius; "ut occisio", Pagninus, Amama; so Aben Ezra interprets it.
As - As a sword, which cutteth the very bones, so painful are their reproaches.
*More commentary available at chapter level.