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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
7.All those who see me mock at me, etc., (505) This is an explanation of the preceding sentence. He had said that he was an object of scorn to the lowest of men, and, as it were, to the refuse of the people. He now informs us of the ignominy with which he had been treated, — that not content with opprobrious language, they also showed their insolence by their very gesture, both by shooting out their lips, (506) and by shaking their heads. As the words which we renderthey thrust out the lip, is, in the Hebrew, they open with the lip, (507) some explain them as meaning to rail. But this view does not appear to me to be appropriate; for the letter ב beth, which signifies with, is here superfluous, as it often is in the Hebrew. I have therefore preferred rendering the original words, they thrust out the lip; which is the gesture of those who mock openly and injuriously. The reproachful language which follows was much more grievous when they alleged against him that God, who he openly avowed was his father, was turned away from him. We know that David, when he saw himself unjustly condemned of the world, was accustomed to support and console himself with the assurance, that since he had the approving testimony of a good conscience, he had God in heaven for his guardian, who was able to execute vengeance upon his revilers. (508) But now, all who saw him reproached him, that with vain arrogance he had groundlessly boasted of the succor he would receive from God. Where is that God, say they, on whom he leaned? Where is that love to which he trusted? Satan has not a more deadly dart for wounding the souls of men than when he endeavors to dislodge hope from our minds, by turning the promises of God into ridicule. David’ enemies, however, do not simply say that his prayers were in vain, and that the love of God of which he boasted was fallacious; but they indirectly charge him with being a hypocrite, in that he falsely pretended to be one of the children of God, from whom he was altogether estranged.
(505) Bishop Horsley reads these words, “ who see me insult [me] with gestures of derision:” and says, “ can no otherwise render the verb לעג, than by this periphrasis. Bishop Mant translates the whole verse thus,
“ who to slaughter see me led,
Deride my state distrest;
They curl the lip, they shake the head,
They point the taunting jest:”
And observes, “ distinctness and colouring of the prophetic picture here are as striking to the imagination, as the subject is painful to the heart.”
(506) “ protrude the lower lip is, in the East, considered a very strong indication of contempt. Its employment is chiefly confined to the lower orders.” —Illustrated Commentary upon the Bible.
(507) בשפה,besaphah, with the lip.
(508) “Qu’ avoit Dieu au ciel pour garent qui s’ bien faire la vengence de ses mesdisans.” —Fr.