Psalms 35: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This psalm is a prayer for help against enemies who attack the speaker without cause. He asks the LORD to take up weapons and fight for him, and he asks that the traps his enemies set would catch them instead. He describes how he mourned and fasted when these same people were sick, and how they repaid him with lies and mockery. He ends by asking God to judge his case, and promising to give thanks in public when God clears him.

Claim by Claim

1. 35:1
   • This psalm is ascribed to David.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to contend against those who contend with him.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to make war on those who make war on him.
2. 35:2
   • The speaker asks the LORD to take hold of a small shield and a large body-shield.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to rise up as his help.
3. 35:3
   • The speaker asks the LORD to draw out the spear and to block the way against his pursuers.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to say to his soul, 'I am your salvation.'
4. 35:4
   • The speaker asks that those who seek his life be shamed and humiliated.
   • The speaker asks that those who plan harm against him be turned back and disgraced.
5. 35:5
   • The speaker asks that his enemies be like chaff before the wind.
   • The speaker asks that the angel of the LORD drive them away.
6. 35:6
   • The speaker asks that his enemies' way be dark and slippery.
   • The speaker asks that the angel of the LORD pursue them.
7. 35:7
   • Without cause his enemies hid their net for him in a pit.
   • Without cause they dug a pit for his life.
8. 35:8
   • The speaker asks that ruin come upon his enemy when he does not know it.
   • The speaker asks that the net the enemy hid catch the enemy himself.
   • The speaker asks that the enemy fall into that ruin.
9. 35:9
   • The speaker's soul will rejoice in the LORD.
   • The speaker's soul will delight in the LORD's salvation.
10. 35:10
    • All the speaker's bones will say that no one is like the LORD.
    • The LORD rescues the afflicted from one stronger than he is.
    • The LORD rescues the afflicted and the needy from the one who robs him.
11. 35:11
    • Violent witnesses rise up against the speaker.
    • They question him about things he does not know.
12. 35:12
    • They repay him evil in place of good.
    • This leaves his soul bereaved.
13. 35:13
    • When his enemies were sick, the speaker's clothing was sackcloth.
    • The speaker afflicted his own soul with fasting.
    • His prayer returned upon his own bosom, which may mean it came back unanswered or that it returned to himself as a blessing.
14. 35:14
    • The speaker went about as though mourning a friend or a brother.
    • The speaker bowed down in dark grief, like one mourning for his mother.
15. 35:15
    • When the speaker stumbled, they rejoiced and gathered together.
    • Attackers gathered together against him.
    • The speaker did not know them, or did not know of the gathering.
    • They tore at him and did not stop, the tearing being either physical assault or slander.
16. 35:16
    • The verse describes godless mockers, with a phrase whose sense is uncertain, possibly mockers over a cake or profane jesters at a feast.
    • They gnashed their teeth at the speaker.
17. 35:17
    • The speaker asks the Lord how long he will look on.
    • The speaker asks the Lord to bring his soul back from their ravages.
    • The speaker asks the Lord to rescue his only one, his precious life, from young lions.
18. 35:18
    • The speaker will give thanks to the LORD in the great assembly.
    • The speaker will praise the LORD among a mighty people.
19. 35:19
    • The speaker asks that those who are his enemies falsely not rejoice over him.
    • The speaker asks that those who hate him without cause not wink the eye.
20. 35:20
    • They do not speak peace.
    • They devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.
21. 35:21
    • They opened their mouth wide against the speaker.
    • They said, 'Aha, aha.'
    • They said their eye has seen it.
22. 35:22
    • The speaker says the LORD has seen this.
    • The speaker asks the LORD not to keep silent.
    • The speaker asks the Lord not to be far from him.
23. 35:23
    • The speaker asks God to rouse himself and awake to his judgment.
    • The speaker asks God to awake to his cause.
    • The speaker addresses him as my God and my Lord.
24. 35:24
    • The speaker asks the LORD his God to judge him according to the LORD's righteousness.
    • The speaker asks that they not rejoice over him.
25. 35:25
    • The speaker asks that they not say in their hearts, 'Aha, our desire.'
    • The speaker asks that they not say, 'We have swallowed him up.'
26. 35:26
    • The speaker asks that those who rejoice at his harm be ashamed and disgraced together.
    • The speaker asks that those who magnify themselves against him be clothed with shame and dishonor.
27. 35:27
    • The speaker asks that those who delight in his vindication shout for joy and be glad.
    • The speaker asks that they say continually, 'Let the LORD be magnified.'
    • The LORD delights in the well-being of his servant.
28. 35:28
    • The speaker's tongue will utter God's righteousness.
    • The speaker's tongue will utter God's praise all day long.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

35:1

The psalm opens in the language of a lawsuit. "Plead my cause" translates a Hebrew legal term meaning to take up someone's side in a dispute or act as his advocate in court. That courtroom picture runs through the whole psalm (case, witnesses, judgment, verdict) mixed with the picture of a battle.

35:2

"Shield" and "buckler" are two different Hebrew words for two different pieces of equipment: a small round shield carried on the arm, and a large one, sometimes nearly body-height, that a soldier could crouch behind. The image is of God arming himself like a warrior.

35:3

The second Hebrew word in this line is uncertain. It may name another weapon, a javelin or battle-axe, or it may be a verb meaning "close up" or "bar the way," which is how the King James took it. Ancient translators disagreed, and both readings survive.

35:4

"Confounded" in the King James means beaten and embarrassed at the same time, not just puzzled.

35:5

"Angel" translates a Hebrew word that simply means "messenger." In older Hebrew writing the messenger of the LORD is a figure who speaks and acts on God's behalf, and in some passages fights his battles.

35:6

Roads in the hill country were unpaved tracks along slopes and ridges. To be caught on one after dark, in the wet, with someone behind you, was a genuine danger, not just an image.

35:7

This describes a hunter's trap: a pit dug in the ground, with a net spread over the mouth and hidden, so that an animal walking across it was caught and dropped in at once.

35:8

Falling into your own trap was a common way of saying it. It means the mean plan came back on the one who made it.

35:10

"All my bones shall say" is a Hebrew way of saying "every part of me", the whole person, body included, not just the voice.

35:11

An Israelite court reached its verdict from the testimony of witnesses; there were no investigators to check their story. A pair of witnesses willing to lie could therefore destroy a man, which is why false testimony is treated so seriously throughout the Hebrew scriptures.

35:12

The Hebrew word behind "the spoiling of my soul" normally means the loss of a child. It is used here for a loss that leaves a person stripped and bereaved; translators render it variously, since its exact force in this line is unclear.

35:13

Sackcloth was coarse, dark cloth woven from goat hair, worn next to the skin as a public sign of grief or distress. Going without food was part of the same practice: mourning or pleading with God was something a person showed on the body, not only felt inwardly. The last line is ambiguous in Hebrew: it may mean the prayer came back unanswered, or that the good he prayed for others returned to him instead.

35:14

Mourning for a mother was regarded in this culture as the sharpest grief a person could show. The point is that he grieved for his enemies as hard as anyone grieves at all.

35:15

"Abjects" is an old English word for the lowest sort of people. The Hebrew word here is obscure: it may mean "smiters" or "attackers," or people of no standing; translators differ.

35:16

This line is one of the most damaged and disputed in the Psalms. The Hebrew can be read as "godless mockers at a feast," or as jesters who will mock a man for the price of a cake of bread. Grinding or gnashing the teeth was a recognized gesture of open hostility and rage, like baring the teeth.

35:17

"My darling" translates a Hebrew word meaning "my only one", a person's life spoken of as the single, irreplaceable thing he owns.

35:18

The "great congregation" is the crowd assembled for worship. Someone rescued after praying publicly was expected to come back and give thanks publicly, in front of the same people who had heard him ask.

35:19

Winking or narrowing the eye was a known signal of shared malice, the look conspirators give each other when a scheme is working.

35:20

"The quiet in the land" describes people who keep to themselves and cause no trouble; the phrase stresses that the victims have given no provocation at all.

35:21

Opening the mouth wide is the image of a beast about to swallow something. "Aha, aha" is a jeer of triumph over a fallen enemy. "Our eye hath seen it" is a claim to be eyewitnesses, which connects back to the false witnesses in verse 11: they are saying they caught him in the act.

35:23

Asking God to "awake" and "stir up" himself is standard language of complaint in the Psalms, the picture of a judge who has to rise from his seat before the case can be heard. It is a demand for action, not a claim about God being asleep.

35:24

"Judge me" here does not mean "condemn me." In this legal language it means "try my case and declare me in the right", what we would call clearing someone's name.

35:25

"We have swallowed him up" is a common Hebrew idiom for destroying someone completely, leaving nothing behind, the way the earth or the grave swallows a person.

35:26

"Clothed with shame" is an idiom: disgrace worn where everyone can see it, like a garment, rather than felt privately.

35:27

"Favour my righteous cause" means side with him in the legal dispute, the way people in court back the party they believe is innocent. "Prosperity" translates the Hebrew word shalom, which means wholeness and well-being, a life that is intact, rather than wealth.