Psalm 41:7

All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

41:5-13 We complain, and justly, of the want of sincerity, and that there is scarcely any true friendship to be found among men; but the former days were no better. One particularly, in whom David had reposed great confidence, took part with his enemies. And let us not think it strange, if we receive evil from those we suppose to be friends. Have not we ourselves thus broken our words toward God? We eat of his bread daily, yet lift up the heel against him. But though we may not take pleasure in the fall of our enemies, we may take pleasure in the making vain their designs. When we can discern the Lord's favour in any mercy, personal or public, that doubles it. If the grace of God did not take constant care of us, we should not be upheld. But let us, while on earth, give heartfelt assent to those praises which the redeemed on earth and in heaven render to their God and Saviour.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

All that hate me whisper together against me - They talk the matter over where they suppose that no one can hear; they endeavonr to collect and arrange all that can be said against me; they place all that they can say or think as individuals, all that they have separately known or suspected, into "common stock," and make use of it against me. There is a conspiracy against me - a purpose to do me all the evil that they can. This shows that, in the apprehension of the sufferer, the one who came to see for himself Psalm 41:6 came as one of a company - as one deputed or delegated to find some new occasion for a charge against him, and that he had not to suffer under the single malignity of one, but under the combined malignity of many.

Against me do they devise my hurt - Margin, as in Hebrew: "evil to me." That is, they devise some report, the truth of which they endeavor to confirm by something that they may observe in my sickness which will be injurious to me, and which will prove to the world that I am a bad man - a man by whose death the world would be benefited. The slanderous report on which they seemed to agree is mentioned in the following verse - that he was suffering under a disease which was directly and manifestly the result of a sinful life, and that it must be fatal.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7, 8. So of others, all act alike.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Whisper together against me, i.e. secretly defame me, and closely plot against me.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

All that hate me whisper together against me,.... That is, they privately conspired against him; see Matthew 22:15;

against me do they devise my hurt; not only to take away his name and credit, but his life.

Geneva Study Bible

All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. The scene outside the house is graphically depicted. We see the associates waiting, eager for news. With a transparent pretence of secrecy they whisper together, and divert themselves with anticipating the worst.

do they devise my hurt] Or, imagine evil for me, indulging in uncharitable speculations as to the cause of his illness (cp. Job 22:5 ff.), and hoping for a fatal issue of it. The next verse is a summary of their malevolent conversation.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - All that hate me whisper together against me; i.e. gather themselves into knots, and hold whispered conversations about me - as conspirators are apt to do. Against me do they devise my hurt; literally, hurt to me. Psalm 41:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 41:8-10) Continuation of the description of the conduct of the enemies and of the false friend. התלחשׁ, as in 2 Samuel 12:19, to whisper to one another, or to whisper among themselves; the Hithpa. sometimes (cf. Genesis 42:1) has a reciprocal meaning like the Niphal. The intelligence brought out by hypocritical visitors of the invalid concerning his critical condition is spread from mouth to mouth by all who wish him ill as satisfactory news; and in fact in whispers, because at that time caution was still necessary. עלי stands twice in a prominent position in the sense of contra me. רעה לּי belong together: they maliciously invent what will be the very worst for him (going beyond what is actually told them concerning him). In this connection there is a feeling in favour of בּליּעל being intended of an evil fate, according to Psalm 18:5, and not according to Psalm 101:3 (cf. Deuteronomy 15:9) of pernicious or evil thought and conduct. And this view is also supported by the predicate יצוּק בּו: "a matter of destruction, an incurable evil (Hitzig) is poured out upon him," i.e., firmly cast upon him after the manner of casting metal (Job 41:15.), so that he cannot get free from it, and he that has once had to lie down will not again rise up. Thus do we understand אשׁר in Psalm 41:9; there is no occasion to take it as an accusative by departing from the most natural sense, as Ewald does, or as a conjunction, as Hitzig does. Even the man of his peace, or literally of his harmonious relationship (אישׁ שׁלום as in Obadiah 1:7, Jeremiah 20:10; Jeremiah 38:22), on whom he has depended with fullest confidence, who did eat his bread, i.e., was his messmate (cf. Psalm 55:15), has made his heel great against him, lxx ἐμεγάλυνεν ἐπ ̓ ἐμὲ πτερνισμόν. The combination הגדּיל עקב is explained by the fact that עקב is taken in the sense of a thrust with the heel, a kick: to give a great kick, i.e., with a good swing of the foot.