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Some wild nomad tribe supporting itself by pillage, terrifying the inhabitants of a beleaguered city with an outlandish gesture and speech, seems indicated by the recurring simile of the “dogs” (<a href="/psalms/59-6.htm" title="They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.">Psalm 59:6</a>; <a href="/context/psalms/59-14.htm" title="And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.">Psalm 59:14-15</a>). And, again, the mode in which the heathen are spoken of in <a href="/psalms/59-8.htm" title="But you, O LORD, shall laugh at them; you shall have all the heathen in derision.">Psalm 59:8</a>, and the effect to be produced far and wide by the evidence of Jehovah’s power (<a href="/psalms/59-13.htm" title="Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah.">Psalm 59:13</a>) seems to point to a foreign invasion. But, on the other hand, the prominence given to the <span class= "ital">utterances </span>of this poet’s foes (<a href="/psalms/59-7.htm" title="Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, does hear?">Psalm 59:7</a>; <a href="/psalms/59-12.htm" title="For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.">Psalm 59:12</a>), seems to indicate that his danger was rather from calumnious and false accusations than from hostile violence. Was he merely the mouthpiece of the righteous part of the community, whom a hostile or renegade party is trying to devour, body and soul, character and substance, as the gaunt scavenger dogs devour in an Eastern city? At first sight an apparent double refrain (<a href="/psalms/59-6.htm" title="They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.">Psalm 59:6</a>; <a href="/psalms/59-14.htm" title="And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.">Psalm 59:14</a>; Psalms , 9, 17) promises a regular poetical form, but the strophes are unequal and the parallelism loose.<p><span class= "ital">Title.</span>—See titles, Psalms 4, 57, 16, and see <span class= "ital">Introduction.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-1.htm">Psalm 59:1</a></div><div class="verse">To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.</div>(1) <span class= "bld">Defend me.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">set me on high, i.e., </span>place me on some lofty and secure height.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-3.htm">Psalm 59:3</a></div><div class="verse">For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not <i>for</i> my transgression, nor <i>for</i> my sin, O LORD.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">For, lo, they lie in wait</span> <span class= "bld">. . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">for look, they have laid an ambush.</span><p><span class= "bld">Mighty.</span>—Perhaps with the idea of insolence in their strength.<p><span class= "bld">Not for my transgression</span> <span class= "bld">. . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Without transgression or fault of mine, </span>as in next verse.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-4.htm">Psalm 59:4</a></div><div class="verse">They run and prepare themselves without <i>my</i> fault: awake to help me, and behold.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">They run and prepare.</span>—These words might both be taken in a military sense. For “run,” see <a href="/psalms/18-29.htm" title="For by you I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.">Psalm 18:29</a>; <a href="/job/15-26.htm" title="He runs on him, even on his neck, on the thick bosses of his bucklers:">Job 15:26</a>; <a href="/job/16-14.htm" title="He breaks me with breach on breach, he runs on me like a giant.">Job 16:14</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Help me.</span>—Literally, as in margin, <span class= "ital">meet. </span>It is found in a hostile sense, and never in the sense of helping. A suggested emendation, “Awake to my <span class= "ital">calling, </span>and behold,” removes the difficulty.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-5.htm">Psalm 59:5</a></div><div class="verse">Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Therefore</span> <span class= "bld">. . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Yea, even Thou <span class= "bld">. . .</span> </span>Not only is there an emphatic “thou,” but the passion of prayer cannot exhaust itself without piling up all the customary names of the Divine Being.<p><span class= "bld">God of</span> <span class= "bld">Israel.</span>—This is added so emphatically because of the “heathen,” against whom aid is invoked.<p><span class= "bld">All the heathen . . . wicked transgressors.</span>—These two terms are not synonymous, but contrasted. There were not only foreign, but domestic foes, viz., the party who, pretending to be loyal Israelites, were yet intriguing with the foreigners. The literal “coverers of wickedness” implies concealment and treachery.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-6.htm">Psalm 59:6</a></div><div class="verse">They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">A dog.</span>—This comparison to the gaunt half-starved wild dogs of an Eastern town has met us before (<a href="/psalms/22-16.htm" title="For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.">Psalm 22:16</a>). The verbs should be rendered as futures here and in <a href="/psalms/59-15.htm" title="Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.">Psalm 59:15</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Make a noise.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">howl. </span>(See Note <a href="/psalms/55-7.htm" title="See, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.">Psalm 55:7</a>.) An English traveller has described the noise made by the dogs of Constantinople: “The noise I heard then I shall never forget. The whole city rang with one vast riot. Down below me at Tophane; over about Stamboul; far away at Scutari; the whole 60,000 dogs that are said to overrun Constantinople appeared engaged in the most active extermination of each other without a moment’s cessation. The yelping, howling, barking, growling, and snarling were all merged into one uniform and continuous even sound” (Albert Smith, <span class= "ital">A Month at Constantinople, </span>quoted from Spurgeon’s <span class= "ital">Treasury of David</span>)<span class= "ital">.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-7.htm">Psalm 59:7</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords <i>are</i> in their lips: for who, <i>say they</i>, doth hear?</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Behold.</span>—Without question this word should, as Mr. Burgess suggests, be emended to “spears” (<span class= "ital">chanîth </span>instead of <span class= "ital">hinneh</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>to give—<p>“Spears they pour out with their mouths,<p>Swords with their lips.”<p>(Comp. <a href="/psalms/57-5.htm" title="Be you exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be above all the earth.">Psalm 57:5</a>, and<p>“She speaks poniards.”—<span class= "ital">As You Like <span class= "bld">It.</span></span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-8.htm">Psalm 59:8</a></div><div class="verse">But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Laugh.</span>—Comp. <a href="/psalms/2-4.htm" title="He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.">Psalm 2:4</a>, Note. Probably the same contrast is intended in these clauses as in <a href="/psalms/59-5.htm" title="You therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.">Psalm 59:5</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-9.htm">Psalm 59:9</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Because of</i> his strength will I wait upon thee: for God <i>is</i> my defence.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">His strength.</span>—This gives no intelligible meaning, and <a href="/psalms/59-17.htm" title="To you, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defense, and the God of my mercy.">Psalm 59:17</a> shows that the ancient versions (and some MSS.) are right in reading “my strength” (vocative). The first two words of the next verse must also be brought back to this: “My strength, on Thee let me wait. For God is my fortress, God of my grace (or mercy),” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>my gracious or merciful God.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-10.htm">Psalm 59:10</a></div><div class="verse">The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see <i>my desire</i> upon mine enemies.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Prevent</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, come to meet. (See <a href="/psalms/21-3.htm" title="For you prevent him with the blessings of goodness: you set a crown of pure gold on his head.">Psalm 21:3</a>, Note.)<p><span class= "bld">See my desire.</span>—See Note, <a href="/psalms/54-7.htm" title="For he has delivered me out of all trouble: and my eye has seen his desire on my enemies.">Psalm 54:7</a>. (Comp. <a href="/psalms/92-11.htm" title="My eye also shall see my desire on my enemies, and my ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.">Psalm 92:11</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-11.htm">Psalm 59:11</a></div><div class="verse">Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Slay them not, lest my people forget . . .</span>—The Spartans refused to allow the destruction of a neighbouring city, which had often called forth their armies, saying, “Destroy not the whetstone of our young men.” Timon, in the play, is made to say—<p>“Live loath’d and long<p>You smiling smooth detested parasites,”<p>that the ruin of Athens might be complete, if deferred. National feeling, too, has often insisted on extreme modes of punishment, partly from vindictive feeling, partly for deterrent purposes. Witness the sequel to the Indian mutiny. But where is the parallel to the feeling that seems uppermost in the Psalmist’s mind, viz., a wish for protracted retribution on the nations for the moral benefit of Israel?<p><span class= "bld">Scatter them.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">make them wander</span>: a word applied to Cain and to the Israelite wanderings in the wilderness.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-12.htm">Psalm 59:12</a></div><div class="verse"><i>For</i> the sin of their mouth <i>and</i> the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying <i>which</i> they speak.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">For</span> <span class= "bld">the sin . . .</span>—As the text stands, it runs: <span class= "ital">Sin of their mouth, word of their lips, and they are taken in their pride, and cursing and lying they say</span>; where some would supply a copula, “The sin of their mouth is the word of their lips,” which seems tautological nonsense. But, perhaps, we should take the accusative as adverb of instrument: <span class= "ital">By the sin of their mouth, by the word of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride.</span><p><span class= "bld">And for cursing and lying which they speak.</span>—That is, let their own malignant slanders, their blasphemous lies, recoil on their own heads; a frequent thought in the Psalms.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-13.htm">Psalm 59:13</a></div><div class="verse">Consume <i>them</i> in wrath, consume <i>them</i>, that they <i>may</i> not <i>be</i>: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">That they may not be.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">That they may be no more. </span>These words are to be taken closely together. The signal overthrow of the poet’s foes is to be a proof to the ends of the world of the sovereign rule of the God of Jacob.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/59-15.htm">Psalm 59:15</a></div><div class="verse">Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Let them wander.</span>—This verse is variously understood. The margin gives the rendering of most modern scholars; but what does it mean by “They will pass the night”? To say they will not go away unsatisfied seems poor. Ewald’s conjecture, “They will satisfy themselves forsooth, and remain,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>die, seems strained. 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