Psalm 109:13

Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Posterity.—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.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 109:13-15. Let his posterity, &c. — His posterity shall be cut off, &c: they suffered an excision by the Roman sword, and in the generation following, their name, as a church, and civil polity, were blotted out of the list of states and kingdoms. Let the iniquity of his father be remembered — Hebrew, יזכר, it shall be remembered against him, or punished in him, as God had threatened to deal with great delinquents, Exodus 20:5. Let them be — יהיו, they shall be, namely, the sins of his parents last mentioned; before the Lord — In God’s sight and memory, to provoke him to punish them: they shall not be covered nor pardoned. That upon them, as Christ foretold, might come all the righteous blood shed from the blood of righteous Abel; &c., Matthew 22:25. For “the blood of the prophets cried for vengeance against those who crucified the Lord of the prophets.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

109:6-20 The Lord Jesus may speak here as a Judge, denouncing sentence on some of his enemies, to warn others. When men reject the salvation of Christ, even their prayers are numbered among their sins. See what hurries some to shameful deaths, and brings the families and estates of others to ruin; makes them and theirs despicable and hateful, and brings poverty, shame, and misery upon their posterity: it is sin, that mischievous, destructive thing. And what will be the effect of the sentence, Go, ye cursed, upon the bodies and souls of the wicked! How it will affect the senses of the body, and the powers of the soul, with pain, anguish, horror, and despair! Think on these things, sinners, tremble and repent.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let his posterity be cut off - To have a numerous posterity, to have the name and family perpetuated, was regarded among the Hebrews as one of the greatest and most desirable blessings. Hence, to pray that all one's family might be cut off was one of the severest forms of malediction which could be employed.

And in the generation following - The very next generation. Let not his family be perpetuated at all.

Let their name be blotted out - As a name is erased from a catalogue or muster-roll when one dies.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. posterity—literally, "end," as in Ps 37:38, or, what comes after; that is, reward, or success, or its expectation, of which posterity was to a Jew a prominent part.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In the generation following, Heb. in another generation; either in the third generation, or in the second, or that which next followed the generation of his fathers. So in this clause he limits the time of that destruction which he imprecates or foretells in the former.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let his posterity be cut off,.... As the seed of the wicked are said to be, Psalm 37:28, or cut down, as a tree to the very root; as the Jewish nation was by the axe of God's judgment, which, John says, was laid to the root of the tree, and the blow just going to be given, as it was in a few years after, Matthew 3:10 or, as the Targum,

"let his end be for destruction;''

and so the Syriac version, "let their end be for destruction"; their last end, which it is said shall be cut off, and issue in death, eternal death; when the end of a good man is peace and eternal life, see Psalm 37:37.

And in the generation following let their name be blotted out: or, in another age (d); the next age, the third generation; meaning the name of the posterity of Judas, and the name of the people of the Jews, so as to be spoken of with honour and reputation; but, instead of that, they are for a taunt, a proverb, and a curse, in all places.

(d) "in generatione altera", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

Geneva Study Bible

Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. Cp. Psalm 37:28; Psalm 37:38; Job 18:13-21. May his sons die childless, and in the next generation their name be removed from the register of citizens. Cp. Psalm 69:28. An Israelite, with his strong sense of family solidarity, looked forward to living on in his descendants; and the extinction of the family was contemplated as the most terrible of calamities. P.B.V. ‘his name,’ follows the Vulg. from the LXX.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - Let his posterity be cut off. If he have children; let them die without offspring; literally, let them be for extinction. And in the generation following let their name be blotted out. This would be the natural result if the preceding wish were accomplished. The family having come to an end, their very name would be soon forgotten (comp. Job 18:18; Psalm 37:28; Proverbs 10:7). Psalm 109:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Piel נקּשׁ properly signifies to catch in snares; here, like the Arabic Arab. nqš, II, IV, corresponding to the Latin obligare (as referring to the creditor's right of claim); nosheh is the name of the creditor as he who gives time for payment, gives credit (vid., Isaiah 24:2). In Psalm 109:12 משׁך חסד, to draw out mercy, is equivalent to causing it to continue and last, Psalm 36:11, cf. Jeremiah 31:3. אחריתו, Psalm 109:13, does not signify his future, but as Psalm 109:13 (cf. Psalm 37:38) shows: his posterity. יהי להכרית is not merely exscindatur, but exscindenda sit (Ezekiel 30:16, cf. Joshua 2:6), just as in other instances חיה ל corresponds to the active fut. periphrasticum, e.g., Genesis 15:12; Isaiah 37:26. With reference to ימּח instead of ימּח (contracted from ימּחה), vid., Ges. 75, rem. 8. A Jewish acrostic interpretation of the name ישׁוּ runs: ימּח שׁמו וזכרו. This curse shall overtake the family of the υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας. All the sins of his parents and ancestors shall remain indelible above before God the Judge, and here below the race, equally guilty, shall be rooted out even to its memory, i.e., to the last trace of it.