Verse-by-Verse Bible CommentaryPsalms 30:3
O LORD, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit. Jump to: Clarke Commentary • Barne's Notes • Gill's Exposition • Geneva Study Bible • Commentary Critical and Explanatory • Scofield's Notes • Trapp's Commentary • Poole's Annotations • Whedon's Commentary • Haydock's Catholic Commentary • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes • Commentary Critical and Explanatory - Unabridged • Ellicott's Commentary • Treasury of Knowledge • Other Authors
Adam Clarke CommentaryThou hast brought up my soul from the grave - I and my people were both about to be cut off, but thou hast spared us in mercy, and given us a most glorious respite. Copyright Statement Bibliography Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole BibleO, Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave - My life; me. The meaning is, that he had been in imminent danger of death, and had been brought from the borders of the grave. The word here rendered “grave” is “Sheol” - a word which, properly used, commonly denotes the region of the dead; the underworld which is entered through the grave. Compare Isaiah 14:9, note; Psalm 6:5, note. Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit - More literally, “thou hast caused me to live from them which go down to the pit;” that is, thou hast distinguished me from them by keeping me alive. The word “pit” here means the same as the grave. See the notes at Psalm 28:1. Copyright Statement Bibliography John Gill's Exposition of the Whole BibleO Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave,.... When his life being in danger, was near unto it, Job 33:22; otherwise the soul dies not, nor does it lie and sleep in the grave; or "thou hast brought up my soul from hell" thou hast kept me alive: preserved his corporeal life when in danger, and maintained his spiritual life; and quickened him by his word, under all his afflictions, and kept him from utter and black despair; that I should not go down to the pit; either of the grave or hell. There is in this clause a "Keri" and a "Cetib"; a marginal reading, and a textual writing: according to the latter it is, "from them that go down to the pit"; which some versions Copyright Statement Bibliography Geneva Study BibleO LORD, thou hast brought up my d soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.(d) Meaning, that he escaped death most narrowly. Copyright Statement Bibliography Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole BibleThe terms describe extreme danger. soul — or, “myself.” grave — literally, “hell,” as in Psalm 16:10. hast kept me pit — quickened or revived me from the state of dying (compare Psalm 28:1). Copyright Statement Bibliography Scofield's Reference Notesgrave Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Habakkuk 2:5"). Copyright Statement Bibliography John Trapp Complete CommentaryPsalms 30:3 O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Ver. 3. O Lord, thou hast brought up, &c.] Here he saith the same again as before; the better to set forth the greatness of the benefit, and so to excite himself to due thankfulness. The uttermost extremity of a calamity is to be acknowledged after we are delivered out of it, Isaiah 38:10.
Thou hast kept me alive] Thou hast rescued me from instant death; and this I look upon as a resurrection from the dead. Copyright Statement Bibliography Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy BibleThou hast brought up my soul from the grave; my deliverance is a kind of resurrection from the grave, upon the very brink whereof I was. Thou hast kept me alive: this he adds to explain the former phrase, which was ambiguous. To the pit, i.e. into the grave, which is oft called the pit, as Psalms 28:1 69:15 88:4 Isaiah 38:17. Copyright Statement Bibliography Whedon's Commentary on the Bible3. Brought up… from the grave… the pit—The sweeping pestilence had brought him and the nation to the grave’s mouth. See 2 Samuel 24:15-17 Copyright Statement Bibliography George Haydock's Catholic Bible CommentaryA God. Hebrew, "a rock of strength." Septuagint, "a God who holdeth his shield over me," Greek: uperaspisten. (Haydock) --- Refuge. Hebrew, "fortress." (Calmet) Copyright Statement Bibliography E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notessoul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13. the grave. Hebrew Sheol. See App-35. that I should not go down. So in some codices and one early printed edition; but other codices read "from among" [those who were going down], with Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate. the pit = a sepulchre. Hebrew. bor. See note on "well" (Genesis 21:19). Copyright Statement Bibliography Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - UnabridgedO LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Thou hast brought up ... - Hebrew, Sheol; Greek, Hades, the unseen world. David, through overwhelming grief at the calamity which his sinful pride had brought upon the people, had been (2 Samuel 24:10; 2 Samuel 24:14; 2 Samuel 24:17) as it were dead, though still living (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:10; Psalms 6:6-7). Kept me alive ... This is the reading of the Qeri', or Hebrew margin [ miyaar Copyright Statement Bibliography Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(3) Grave.—Sheôl (See Note to Psalms 6:5.) That I should not go down to the pit.—This follows a reading which is considered by modern scholars ungrammatical. The ordinary reading, rightly kept by the LXX. and Vulg., means from these going down to the pit, i.e., from the dead. (Comp. Psalms 28:1.) Copyright Statement Bibliography Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeO LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Copyright Statement Bibliography Ver. 3. O Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from hell; Thou hast brought me alive from among those who go down to the pit. David had been brought near death, through grief, on account of the sufferings in which his criminal conduct had involved his people: compare on Psalms 6:6-7. He was, as it were, dead, though still literally alive: compare 2 Corinthians 10. Calvin: "He thought that he could not otherwise adequately describe the greatness of the favour of God, than by comparing the darkness of that time to that of the grave and the pit." In reference to יוֹרְדֵי בוֹר, compare on Psalms 28:1. "From those," is "taking me out of the number of those." The marginal reading מִיָּרְדִי, "from my going down," that is, "so that I may not go down," is to be decidedly rejected. For the infinitive of ירד, is always רדת (compare Psalms 30:9), and the Psalmist represents himself in the first clause as one who had already sunk to Sheol. The Masorites made the change because they could not understand how the Psalmist reckoned himself among the dead. After this short glance at the circumstances, there follows in the (Psalms 30:4) 4th and (Psalms 30:5) 5th verses the announcement of the kernel of the doctrine which they contain, which extends far beyond the range of individual and personal experience, and is of importance to the whole community of believers. These are exhorted to concur in the praise of the Psalmist for the deliverance vouchsafed to him, because it gloriously illustrates the nature of God. Copyright Statement Bibliography |