Psalms 56:5
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All day long they twist my words; all their thoughts are on my demise.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
This second strophe describes the adversaries, and ends in imprecation, the fire of anger being kindled against them. Hitzig's rendering is: "All the time they are injuring my concerns," i.e., injuring my interests. This also sounds unpoetical. Just as we say חמס תורה, to do violence to the Tפra (Zep 3:4; Eze 22:26), so we can also say: to torture any one's words, i.e., his utterances concerning himself, viz., by misconstruing and twisting them. It is no good to David that he asseverates his innocence, that he asserts his filial faithfulness to Saul, God's anointed; they stretch his testimony concerning himself upon the rack, forcing upon it a false meaning and wrong inferences. They band themselves together, they place men in ambush. The verb גּוּר signifies sometimes to turn aside, turn in, dwell (= Arab. jâr); sometimes, to be afraid (= יגר, Arab. wjr); sometimes, to stir up, excite, Psa 140:3 (= גּרה); and sometimes, as here, and in Psa 59:4, Isa 54:15 : to gather together (= אגר). The Ker reads יצפּונוּ (as in Psa 10:8; Pro 1:11), but the scriptio plena points to Hiph. (cf. Job 24:6, and also Psa 126:5), and the following המּה leads one to the conclusion that it is the causative יצפּינוּ that is intended: they cause one to keep watch in concealment, they lay an ambush (synon. האריב, Sa1 15:5); so that המה refers to the liers-in-wait told off by them: as to these - they observe my heels or (like the feminine plural in Psa 77:20; Psa 89:52) footprints (Rashi: mes traces), i.e., all my footsteps or movements, because (properly, "in accordance with this, that," as in Mic 3:4) they now as formerly (which is implied in the perfect, cf. Psa 59:4) attempt my life, i.e., strive after, lie in wait for it (קוּה like שׁמר, Psa 71:10, with the accusative = קוּה ל in Psa 119:95…
Open source ↗It seems by this, and many other psalms, that even in times of the greatest trouble and distress David never hung his harp upon the willow-trees, never unstrung it or laid it by; but that when his dangers and fears were greatest he was still in tune for singing God's praises. He was in imminent peril when he penned this psalm, at least when he meditated it; yet even then his meditation of God was sweet. I. He complains of the malice of his enemies, and begs mercy for himself and justice against them (Psa 56:1, Psa 56:2, Psa 56:5-7). II. He confides in God, being assured that he took his part, comforting himself with this, that therefore he was safe and should be victorious, and that while he lived he should praise God (Psa 56:3, Psa 56:4, Psa 56:8-13). How pleasantly may a good Christian, in singing this psalm, rejoice in God, and praise him for what he will do, as well as for what he has done. To the chief musician upon Jonath-elem-rechokim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.
Open source ↗56:5-7 The psalmist specifies his charge against his attackers as he prays for their evil to cease.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
Then the Pharisees went out and conspired to trap Jesus in His words.
waiting to catch Him in something He might say.
All who hate me whisper against me; they imagine the worst for me:
He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
“I will give her to David,” Saul thought, “so that she may be a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “For a second time now you can be my son-in-law.”
Then Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage. Only be valiant for me and fight the LORD’s battles.” But Saul was thinking, “I need not raise my hand against him; let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”
Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.”
Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”
and declared, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”
he grew even more afraid of David. So from then on Saul was David’s enemy.