תהלים 18:4

Hebrew Modern Translation

אפפוני חבלי מות ונחלי בליעל יבעתוני׃

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Aleppo Codex
[18:5] חבלי-מות ונחלי בליעל יבעתוני

Biblia Hebrica Stuttgartensia (1967/77)
[18:5] אֲפָפ֥וּנִי חֶבְלֵי־מָ֑וֶת וְֽנַחֲלֵ֖י בְלִיַּ֣עַל יְבַֽעֲתֽוּנִי ׃

Westminster Leningrad Codex
[18:5] אֲפָפוּנִי חֶבְלֵי־מָוֶת וְֽנַחֲלֵי בְלִיַּעַל יְבַֽעֲתֽוּנִי ׃

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

sorrows: Psalms 116:3, 2 Samuel 22:5, 2 Samuel 22:6, Isaiah 13:8, Isaiah 53:3, Isaiah 53:4, Matthew 26:38, Matthew 26:39, Mark 14:33, Mark 14:34, 2 Corinthians 1:9

floods: Psalms 22:12, Psalms 22:13, Psalms 22:16, Jonah 2:2-7, Matthew 26:47, Matthew 26:55, Matthew 27:24, Matthew 27:25, Matthew 27:39-44, Acts 21:30

ungodly men: Heb. Belial

Reciprocal: Genesis 32:7 - greatly Job 27:20 - Terrors Job 30:14 - as a wide Psalms 18:6 - distress Psalms 27:2 - wicked Psalms 46:3 - the waters Psalms 55:4 - terrors Psalms 55:8 - the windy storm Psalms 69:1 - the waters Psalms 91:15 - He shall Psalms 93:3 - The floods Psalms 119:143 - Trouble Psalms 124:4 - the waters Psalms 130:1 - Out of Psalms 142:2 - I showed Isaiah 17:12 - make a noise Jeremiah 51:42 - General Lamentations 3:54 - Waters Revelation 12:15 - cast Revelation 17:15 - The waters

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The sorrows of death compassed me,.... These words and the following, in this verse and Psalms 18:5, as they respect David, show the snares that were laid for his life, the danger of death he was in, and the anxiety of mind he was possessed of on account of it; and as they refer to Christ, include all the sorrows of his life to the time of his death, who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief personally, and bore and carried the sorrows and griefs of all his people; and may chiefly intend his sorrows in the garden, arising from a view of the sins of his people, which he was about to bear upon the cross; and from an apprehension of the wrath of God, and curse of the law, which he was going to sustain for them, when his soul was περιλυπος, encompassed about with sorrow, even unto death, Matthew 26:38; when his sorrow was so great, and lay so heavy upon him, that it almost pressed him down to death, he could scarce live under it; and may also take in the very pains and agonies of death; he dying the death of the cross, which was a very painful and excruciating one; see Psalms 22:14; The Hebrew word for "sorrows" signifies the pains and birth throes of a woman in travail; and is here fitly used of the sufferings and death of Christ; through which he brought forth much fruit, or many sons to glory. The Targum is,

"distress has encompassed me, as a woman that sits upon the stool, and has no strength to bring forth, and is in danger of dying.''

In 2 Samuel 22:5, it is "the waves" or "breakers of death compassed me"; and the word there used is rendered in Hosea 13:13; "the breaking forth of children"; moreover the same word signifies "cords" r, as well as pains and sorrows; and the allusion may be to malefactors being bound with cords when led to execution, and put to death; and may here signify the power of death, under which the Messiah was held for a while, but was loosed from it at his resurrection; to which sense of the word, and to the words here, the Apostle Peter manifestly refers, Acts 2:24;

and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; meaning either the multitude of them, as Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Roman soldiers, and people of the Jews, who all gathered together against him; so the Targum renders it, "a company of wicked men"; or the variety of sufferings he endured by them; as spitting upon, buffering, scourging, c. The word rendered "ungodly men [is] Belial" and signifies vain, worthless, and unprofitable men; men of no figure or account; or lawless ones, such as have cast off the yoke of the law, are not subject to it; persons very wicked and profligate. The word in the New Testament seems to be used for Satan, 2 Corinthians 6:15; where it is so rendered in the Syriac version, and he may be designed here; and by the floods of Belial may be meant, not so much the temptations of Satan in the wilderness, as his violent and impetuous attacks upon Christ in the garden, when being in an agony or conflict with him, his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood, Luke 22:44. The Septuagint render the word, "the torrents of iniquity troubled me"; which was true of Christ, when all the sins of his people came flowing in upon him, like mighty torrents, from all quarters; when God laid on him the iniquity of them all, and he was made sin for them; and in a view of all this "he began to be sore amazed", Mark 14:33; compare with this Psalms 69:1. Arama interprets Belial of the evil imagination in David, who had a war in himself.

r חבלי מות "funes mortis", Musculus, Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth, Hammond.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The sorrows of death compassed me - Surrounded me. That is, he was in imminent danger of death, or in the midst of such pangs and sorrows as are supposed commonly to attend on death. He refers probably to some period in his past life - perhaps in the persecutions of Saul - when he was so beset with troubles and difficulties that it seemed to him that he must die. The word rendered “sorrows” - חבל chebel - means, according to Gesenius, “a cord, a rope,” and hence, “a snare, gin, noose;” and the idea here is, according to Gesenius, that he was taken as it were in the snares of death, or in the bands of death. So Psalms 116:3. Our translators, however, and it seems to me more correctly, regarded the word as derived from the same noun differently pointed - הבל chēbel - meaning “writhings, pangs, pains,” as in Isaiah 66:7; Jeremiah 13:21; Jeremiah 22:23; Hosea 13:13; Job 39:3. So the Aramaic Paraphrase, “Pangs as of a woman in childbirth came around me.” So the Vulgate, “dolores.” So the Septuagint, ὠδῖνες ōdines. The corresponding place in 2 Samuel 22:0 is: “The waves of death.” The word which is used there - משׁבר mishbâr - means properly waves which break upon the shore - “breakers.” See Psalms 42:7; Psalms 88:7; Jonah 2:3. Why the change was made in the psalm it is not possible to determine. Either word denotes a condition of great danger and alarm, as if death was inevitable.

And the floods of ungodly men - Margin, as in Hebrew, “Belial.” The word “Belial” means properly “without use or profit;” and then worthless, abandoned, wicked. It is applied to wicked men as being “worthless” to society, and to all the proper ends of life. Though the term here undoubtedly refers to “wicked” men, yet it refers to them as being worthless or abandoned - low, common, useless to mankind. The word rendered floods - נחל nachal - means in the singular, properly, a stream, brook, rivulet; and then, a torrent, as formed by rain and snow-water in the mountains, Job 6:15. The word used here refers to such men as if they were poured forth in streams and torrents - in such multitudes that the psalmist was likely to be overwhelmed by them, as one would be by floods of water. “Made me afraid.” Made me apprehensive of losing my life. To what particular period of his life he here refers it is impossible now to determine.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 18:4. The sorrows of death compassed me — חבלי מות chebley maveth, the cables or cords of death. He was almost taken in those nets or stratagems by which, if he had been entangled, he would have lost his life. The stratagems to which he refers were those that were intended for his destruction; hence called the cables or cords of death.

The floods of ungodly men — Troops of wicked men were rushing upon him like an irresistible torrent; or like the waves of the sea, one impelling another forward in successive ranks; so that, thinking he must be overwhelmed by them, he was for the moment affrighted; but God turned the torrent aside, and he escaped.