Psalms 38:20

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹²Those who seek my life lay snares; those who wish me harm speak destruction, plotting deceit all day long. ¹³But like a deaf man, I do not hear; and like a mute man, I do not open my mouth. ¹⁴I am like a man who cannot hear, whose mouth offers no reply. ¹⁵I wait for You, O LORD; You will answer, O Lord my God. ¹⁶For I said, "Let them not gloat over me-those who taunt me when my foot slips." ¹⁷For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me. ¹⁸Yes, I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin. ¹⁹Many are my enemies without cause, and many hate me without reason. ²⁰Those who repay my good with evil attack me for pursuing the good.²¹Do not forsake me, O LORD; be not far from me, O my God.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

render: Psalms 7:4, Psalms 35:12, Psalms 109:3-5, 1 Samuel 19:4-6, 1 Samuel 23:5, 1 Samuel 23:12, 1 Samuel 25:16, 1 Samuel 25:21, Jeremiah 18:20

because: Matthew 5:10, John 10:32, 1 Peter 3:13, 1 Peter 3:17, 1 Peter 3:18, 1 Peter 4:14-16, 1 John 3:12

Reciprocal: Psalms 69:4 - being Psalms 109:4 - For my Proverbs 17:13 - General Isaiah 66:5 - Your 1 Thessalonians 5:15 - ever 1 Timothy 6:11 - and Hebrews 12:14 - Follow

Cross-References

Genesis 20:9
Then Abimelech called Abraham and asked, "What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought such tremendous guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done."

Leviticus 19:17
You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him.

Judges 14:20
and his wife was given to one of the men who had accompanied him.

2 Samuel 13:3
Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David's brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very shrewd man,

Luke 23:12
That day Herod and Pilate became friends; before this time they had been enemies.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries,....

:-;

because I follow [the thing that] good [is]; or "follow good"; a good God, whom his soul followed hard after, Psalms 63:8; the good Shepherd of the sheep, who led him into green pastures, whither he followed him,

Psalms 23:1; the good Spirit of God his guide, whom he walked after, Romans 8:1; good and holy men of God, whom he took for examples and copied after; and every good work, which he pursued with eagerness and pleasure; and all this drew upon him the hatred of his adversaries.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They also that render evil for good - They whose characteristic it is to return evil for good, are opposed to me. This implies that those who were now seeking his ruin had been formerly benefitted by him. They were persons who cherished no grateful recollection of favors bestowed on them, but who found a pleasure in persecuting and wronging their benefactor. Compare Psalms 35:12-16. “Are my adversaries.” Are now opposed to me; have become my enemies.

Because I follow the thing that good is - This properly means, Because I follow the good. The Hebrew word rendered “because” - תחת tachath - means properly the lower part; what is underneath; then, below; beneath. The idea here is, that the “underlying reason” of what they did was that he followed good, or that he was a righteous man; or, as we say, This was “at the bottom” of all their dealings with him. Sinner as he felt he was (and as he acknowledged he was) before God, and true as it was that his “sickness” was brought upon him by God for his sinfulness, yet the reason why “men” treated him as they did, was that he was a friend of God - a religious man; and their conduct, therefore, was sheer persecution. We may, with entire consistency, be very humble before God, and acknowledge that we deserve all that He brings upon us; and yet, at the same time, we may be sensible that we have not wronged men, and that their conduct toward us is wholly undeserved, is most ungrateful, is sheer malignity against us.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 38:20. Because l follow the thing that good is.] The translation is as bad as the sentence is awkward. תחת רדפי טוב tachath rodpi tob, because I follow goodness. There is a remarkable addition to this verse in the Arabic: "They have rejected me, the beloved one, as an abominable dead carcass; they have pierced my body with nails." I suppose the Arabic translator meant to refer this to Christ.

None of the other Versions have any thing like this addition; only the AEthiopic adds, "They rejected their brethren as an unclean carcass." St. Ambrose says this reading was found in some Greek and Latin copies in his time; and Theodoret has nearly the same reading with the Arabic: Και απερῥιψαν με τον αγαπητον, ῳς νεκρον εβδελυγμενον· "And they cast me, the beloved, out, as an abominable dead carcass." Whence this reading came I cannot conjecture.