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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Psalm 109 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/psalms/109.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/psalms/109.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/psalms/109-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../psalms/">Psalm</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../psalms/108.htm" title="Psalm 108">◄</a> Psalm 109 <a href="../psalms/110.htm" title="Psalm 110">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"><span class= "bld"> CIX.</span><p>The peculiar horror of the imprecations in this extraordinary psalm does not lie in the dreadful consequences they invoke. Shakespeare puts curses equally fierce and terrible into Timon’s mouth:<p>“Piety, and fear,<p>Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,<p>Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,<p>Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades,<p>Degrees, observances, customs, and laws,<p>Decline to your confounding contraries,<p>And let confusion live!”<p>Nor is this horror due to the fact, assuming it to be a fact, that these imprecations are not general in their direction, like the misanthrope’s curses, but are levelled at a single individual, for the passions of revenge and hatred intensify by contraction of their range. The whole difficulty of the psalm lies in the fact that it was, as the inscription shows, actually, if not primarily, intended for use in the public service of the sanctuary.<p>But this very use at once divests the psalm of one of the greatest sources of difficulty, its personal character. Whatever its origin, whoever the original object of the imprecations, it is certain that they became public, ecclesiastical, national.<p>It is quite possible that from the first the writer spoke in the name of the persecuted nation against some oppressive heathen prince, such as Antiochus Epiphanes. Certainly, when sung by the congregation it expressed not an individual longing for revenge, but all the pent-up feeling—religious abhorrence, patriotic hatred, moral detestation—of the suffering community.<p>The continuance of its recitation in Christian churches opens up another question, and has, in a great measure, been the motive for the various apologetic explanations that have been started for the psalm. It is strange that even yet the old theory, which justifies the language of the imprecations as prophetically the language of Christ, should find advocates. The “quotation” theory is noticed in the Notes. On the quotation of the imprecations by St. Peter, see Notes, <span class= "ital">New Testament Commentary, </span><a href="/context/acts/1-20.htm" title="For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his position as bishop let another take.">Acts 1:20-21</a>. The parallelism is synthetic.<p><span class= "ital">Title.—“</span>To the chief musician.” (See Note to title of Psalms 4)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-1.htm">Psalm 109:1</a></div><div class="verse">To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;</div>(1) <span class= "bld">God of my praise.</span>—That is, God to whom as covenant God it was a privilege to make <span class= "ital">tehillah. </span>(See <a href="/context/deuteronomy/10-20.htm" title="You shall fear the LORD your God; him shall you serve, and to him shall you hold, and swear by his name.">Deuteronomy 10:20-21</a>, where Jehovah is said to be “the praise” of those who “swear by His name.” Comp. also <a href="/context/psalms/106-2.htm" title="Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can show forth all his praise?">Psalm 106:2-3</a>, and Note, and <a href="/psalms/33-1.htm" title="Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.">Psalm 33:1</a>. Perhaps <span class= "ital">“</span>God of my glory or boast” would more nearly give the force of the original. The psalmist prays that Jehovah’s silence may not make his confident glorifying in the covenant promises vain.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-2.htm">Psalm 109:2</a></div><div class="verse">For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Of</span> <span class= "bld">the deceitful.</span>—Properly, as in margin, <span class= "ital">of deceit; </span>consequently, to make the two expressions alike, it is proposed to read, instead of “mouth of the wicked” (properly, <span class= "ital">of a wicked man</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>“mouth of wickedness.” In any case the best English equivalent will be, “a wicked mouth and a deceitful mouth.” “A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword” (<span class= "ital">Whichcote</span>)<span class= "ital">.</span><p><span class= "bld">Spoken against me.</span>—Rather (comp. <a href="/psalms/12-3.htm" title="The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things:">Psalm 12:3</a>), <span class= "ital">talked with me.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-4.htm">Psalm 109:4</a></div><div class="verse">For my love they are my adversaries: but I <i>give myself unto</i> prayer.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">For my love . . .</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., in return for my love </span>I <span class= "ital">give myself unto prayer. </span>For a concise expression of the same kind as “I prayer,” see <a href="/psalms/120-7.htm" title="I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.">Psalm 120:7</a>, “I peace.” Of course the psalmist means, that in the face of all the taunts and reproaches of his maligners, he simply and naturally has recourse to prayer, and, as the context seems to indicate, prayer <span class= "ital">for them.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-6.htm">Psalm 109:6</a></div><div class="verse">Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Set thou a wicked man over him.</span>—This rendering is abundantly confirmed by <a href="/leviticus/26-16.htm" title="I also will do this to you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.">Leviticus 26:16</a>; <a href="/numbers/4-27.htm" title="At the appointment of Aaron and his sons shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their burdens, and in all their service: and you shall appoint to them in charge all their burdens.">Numbers 4:27</a>; <a href="/numbers/27-16.htm" title="Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation,">Numbers 27:16</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/15-3.htm" title="And I will appoint over them four kinds, said the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.">Jeremiah 15:3</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/51-27.htm" title="Set you up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.">Jeremiah 51:27</a>, against Hitzig’s proposed “Pronounce against him—guilty,” which also would only anticipate <a href="/psalms/109-7.htm" title="When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.">Psalm 109:7</a>. (Comp., too, the noun “office” in <a href="/psalms/109-8.htm" title="Let his days be few; and let another take his office.">Psalm 109:8</a>, from the same verb.) The wish expressed is that the persons indicated may fall into the hands of an unscrupulous judge. If, however, we are to think of the divine judgment, then this clause must be taken as exactly parallel to the next: “Appoint a wicked man against him.” Here the imprecatory part of the psalm begins, and it has been ingeniously argued that the whole of it (<a href="/context/psalms/109-6.htm" title="Set you a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.">Psalm 109:6-20</a>) is a quotation, giving, not the psalmist’s curse on his foes, but theirs on <span class= "ital">him. </span>Such quotations, without any introductory words, are common, and the theory is tenable, but improbable.<p><span class= "bld">Satan.</span>—By no means here a proper name, though the LXX. and Vulg. have <span class= "ital">diabolus. </span>The use of the same word in <a href="/psalms/109-4.htm" title="For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself to prayer.">Psalm 109:4</a>; <a href="/psalms/109-20.htm" title="Let this be the reward of my adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.">Psalm 109:20</a>; <a href="/psalms/109-29.htm" title="Let my adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.">Psalm 109:29</a> is decisive on giving it the general meaning, “adversary” (as in margin) here; even though without the article. Satan is used for the tempting angel in <a href="/1_chronicles/21-1.htm" title="And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.">1Chronicles 21:1</a>, and in <a href="/zechariah/3-1.htm" title="And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.">Zechariah 3:1</a> we find the same post, “at the right hand,” assigned to the accuser. An unscrupulous judge and an adversary as accuser, these are the substance of this imprecation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-7.htm">Psalm 109:7</a></div><div class="verse">When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">When he shall be judged.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">in his being judged. </span>(See margin.) The meaning is, “may he go out of court a condemned man.”<p><span class= "bld">Let his prayer become sin.</span>—If this clause stood by itself, the most natural way would be to give “prayer” and “sin” their usual sense, and see in it the horrible hope that the man’s prayer to God for mercy would be reckoned as “sin.” That such was the result of the performance of religious rites by a wicked man was, it is true, a thought familiar to the Hebrew. (See, in addition to the marginal reference, <a href="/proverbs/15-8.htm" title="The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.">Proverbs 15:8</a>; <a href="/proverbs/21-27.htm" title="The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind?">Proverbs 21:27</a>.) But the judgment just spoken of is that of an earthly tribunal. Hence we must render here, <span class= "ital">let his prayer be an offence, </span>that is, instead of procuring him a mitigation of his sentence, let it rather provoke the unscrupulous judge to make it heavier. For sin in this sense of offence, see <a href="/ecclesiastes/10-4.htm" title="If the spirit of the ruler rise up against you, leave not your place; for yielding pacifies great offenses.">Ecclesiastes 10:4</a>, and comp. <a href="/1_kings/1-21.htm" title="Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders.">1Kings 1:21</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-8.htm">Psalm 109:8</a></div><div class="verse">Let his days be few; <i>and</i> let another take his office.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Office.</span>—See Note, <a href="/psalms/109-6.htm" title="Set you a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.">Psalm 109:6</a>. Evidently some post of power and influence.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-9.htm">Psalm 109:9</a></div><div class="verse">Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Children . . . wife.</span>—It is one of the sadly peculiar features of this series of curses that the resentment of the imprecator cannot satisfy itself on the <span class= "ital">person </span>of his foe, but fastens also on his innocent descendants. To invoke a speedy death does not content him; he must feast his anger with the thought of the fatherless children and desolate widow.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-10.htm">Psalm 109:10</a></div><div class="verse">Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek <i>their bread</i> also out of their desolate places.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Be continually vagabonds.</span>—“Wander and wander about” would better reproduce the original.<p><span class= "bld">Desolate places.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">ruins. </span>They are imagined creeping out of the ruins of their homes to beg. But there was a different reading, followed by the LXX. and Vulg., “let them be driven out of their homes.” This reading involves but a slight literal change. Comp.,<p>“Worse evil yet I pray for on my spouse;<p>Let him still live, through strange towns roam in want,<p>Exiled, suspected, cowering, with no home.”<p>SENECA: <span class= "ital">Med., </span>i. 19.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-11.htm">Psalm 109:11</a></div><div class="verse">Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Let the extortioner.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">let the usurer lay traps to catch all that he hath. </span>So Timon:<p>“Let prisons swallow them,<p>Debts wither them to nothing.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-13.htm">Psalm 109:13</a></div><div class="verse">Let his posterity be cut off; <i>and</i> in the generation following let their name be blotted out.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">Posterity.</span>—The Hebrew theory of the Divine government was, that if ruin did not overtake the sinner himself, it would fall on his posterity; his name would be forgotten, and his race extinct.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-14.htm">Psalm 109:14</a></div><div class="verse">Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Fathers.</span>—The sweet of vengeance lies in its completeness. The curse must strike backwards as well as forwards, and the root as well as the branch be destroyed. Undoubtedly the Mosaic Law, which proclaimed that the “iniquity of the fathers should be visited on the children,” suggested the form of the imprecation.<p><span class= "bld">Sin of his mother.</span>—Is the necessity of the parallel. ism sufficient to account for this mention of the mother, or is some definite circumstance in the poet’s thought? The theory which makes this portion of the psalm (<a href="/context/psalms/109-6.htm" title="Set you a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.">Psalm 109:6-20</a>), a quotation of curses really uttered by Shimei against David, finds an allusion to the Moabitish descent on the mother’s side. (Comp. the Rabbinical explanation of <a href="/psalms/51-5.htm" title="Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.">Psalm 51:5</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-16.htm">Psalm 109:16</a></div><div class="verse">Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">Poor.</span>—The Hebrew word thus rendered, viz., ‘<span class= "ital">anî, </span>has suggested a reference to the murder of the high priest Onias (<a href="//apocrypha.org/2_maccabees/4-34.htm" title="Wherefore Menelaus, taking Andronicus apart, prayed, him to get Onias into his hands; who being persuaded thereunto, and coming to Onias in deceit, gave him his right hand with oaths; and though he were suspected by him, yet persuaded he him to come forth of the sanctuary: whom forthwith he shut up without regard of justice.">2 Maccabees 4:34-36</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-17.htm">Psalm 109:17</a></div><div class="verse">As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.</div>(17, 18) <span class= "bld">Let.</span>—The optatives in the English are wrong. These verses express facts, and the imprecation follows in <a href="/psalms/109-19.htm" title="Let it be to him as the garment which covers him, and for a girdle with which he is girded continually.">Psalm 109:19</a>. Render—<p>He loved cursing; and it comes;<p>He delighted not in blessing; and it departs;<p>Yea, he clothed himself in cursing as with his cloak,<p>And it came like water into his bowels,<p>And like oil into his bones;<p>May it be, &c.<p>Comp. the proverb, “Curses, like chickens, always come home to roost.”<p>The fabled shirt of Nessus, which ate into the mighty form of Hercules, has suggested itself to commentators in illustration of this image. In a good sense the same figure is a favourite one with the Hebrews. (See <a href="/isaiah/11-5.htm" title="And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.">Isaiah 11:5</a>.)<p><a href="/psalms/109-19.htm" title="Let it be to him as the garment which covers him, and for a girdle with which he is girded continually.">Psalm 109:19</a> has struck most commentators as an anticlimax, and the quotation theory is supported by this fact. But imprecations show their impotence in this way; the angry soul can never be quite “unpacked with curses;” the language of passion exhausts itself too soon, and a violent speech often dies away in unintelligible mutterings or even gestures of rage.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-20.htm">Psalm 109:20</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Let</i> this <i>be</i> the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">Reward.</span>—Either “work” or “wages.” The LXX. and Vulg. take it in the former sense, “This is their work who,” &c.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-21.htm">Psalm 109:21</a></div><div class="verse">But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name's sake: because thy mercy <i>is</i> good, deliver thou me.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">Do thou for me.</span>—It is almost impossible in English to retain the emphasis of this appeal, made still more emphatic by the sudden change from imprecation on an enemy to prayer for mercy towards self.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-23.htm">Psalm 109:23</a></div><div class="verse">I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">Shadow when it declineth.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">a lengthened shade. </span>(Comp. <a href="/psalms/102-11.htm" title="My days are like a shadow that declines; and I am withered like grass.">Psalm 102:11</a>, and see Note. <a href="/songs/2-17.htm" title="Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be you like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of Bether.">Song of Solomon 2:17</a>.) When the day declines the shadow lengthens, it becomes longer and longer, till it vanishes in the universal darkness. Thus does the life of the suffering generation pass away.<p><span class= "bld">Tossed up and down.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">tossed </span>or <span class= "ital">shaken out, </span>as from the lap. So LXX. and Vulg. (See <a href="/nehemiah/5-13.htm" title="Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that performes not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the LORD. And the people did according to this promise.">Nehemiah 5:13</a>, where the same verb is three times used.) The grasshopper was an emblem of timidity (<a href="/job/39-20.htm" title="Can you make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.">Job 39:20</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-24.htm">Psalm 109:24</a></div><div class="verse">My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">Faileth of fatness.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">has failed me from fat, i.e., </span>has dwindled away.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-28.htm">Psalm 109:28</a></div><div class="verse">Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.</div>(28-31) It is impossible not to notice the anti-climax in these verses, if they are spoken by the same person as <a href="/context/psalms/109-16.htm" title="Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.">Psalm 109:16-20</a>, and directed against the same enemies, of whom the one there singled out is the prominent figure. It is not only that the effect is weakened by the change back to the plural number, but the same imprecations are repeated in a diluted and modified form. But perhaps in <a href="/psalms/109-28.htm" title="Let them curse, but bless you: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let your servant rejoice.">Psalm 109:28</a> we should drop the <span class= "ital">optative, </span>and read, “they will curse, but thou dost bless.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-29.htm">Psalm 109:29</a></div><div class="verse">Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">Mantle.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">meîl, </span>which was also a garment worn over the tunic.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/109-31.htm">Psalm 109:31</a></div><div class="verse">For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save <i>him</i> from those that condemn his soul.</div>(31) <span class= "bld">For he . . .</span>—Jehovah is the poor man’s advocate, just as an adversary was the wicked man’s accuser.<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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