Proverbia 41:6

Jerome's Latin Vulgate

Quare tristis es, anima mea?
et quare conturbas me?
Spera in Deo, quoniam adhuc confitebor illi,
salutare vultus mei,

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Concident eum amici ? divident illum negotiatores ?

Nova Vulgata (1979)
[41:7] Et si ingrediebatur, ut visitaret, vana loquebatur; cor eius congregabat iniquitatem sibi, egrediebatur foras et detrahebat.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

speaketh: Psalms 12:2, Proverbs 26:24, Proverbs 26:25, Nehemiah 6:1-14, Proverbs 26:24-26, Daniel 11:27, Micah 7:5-7, Luke 11:53, Luke 11:54, Luke 20:20-23, 2 Corinthians 11:26

when: Jeremiah 20:10

Reciprocal: Psalms 10:7 - vanity Psalms 144:8 - mouth Proverbs 12:5 - counsels Matthew 22:15 - how Mark 7:20 - General Luke 6:45 - and an Luke 14:1 - they

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And if he come to see [me],.... Meaning anyone of his enemies, when they came, as pretended, to pay him a friendly visit. A late learned writer x interprets this of Absalom, who visited his father when he had the smallpox, which he thinks, after mentioned, of which his enemies expected he would die, when Absalom pretended great concern for his life; though he, with others, were plotting against him, should he live, to destroy him;

he speaketh vanity; lies and falsehoods, in an hypocritical manner, with a double heart; his mouth and his heart not agreeing together; see

Matthew 22:16;

his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; amasses to itself greater treasures of wickedness still, thought that itself is desperately wicked, and very wickedness: this is to be understood of the enemies of Christ observing his words and actions, and laying them up, with a wicked intention, against a proper time;

[when] he goeth abroad, he telleth [it]; as in the instances concerning giving tribute to Caesar, destroying the temple, and saying he was the son of God, Matthew 22:17; compared with Luke 23:2; compared with Matthew 26:60, compared with John 19:5.

x Delaney's Life of King David, vol. 2. p. 157, 158.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And if he come to see me - If he condescends to visit me in my sickness. The word me is not in the original; and perhaps the idea is not that he came to see the sufferer, but that he came to see “for himself,” though under pretence of paying a visit of kindness. His real motive was to make observation, that he might find something in the expressions or manner of the sufferer that would enable him to make a report unfavorable to him, and to confirm him in his impression that it was desirable such a man should die. He would come under the mask of sympathy and friendship, but really to find something that would confirm him in the opinion that he was a bad man, and that would enable him to state to others that it was desirable he should die.

He speaketh vanity - He utters no expressions of sincerity and truth; he suggests nothing that would console and comfort me; his words are all foreign to the purpose for which a man should visit another in such circumstances, and are, therefore, vain words. What he says is mere pretence and hypocrisy, and is designed to deceive me, as if he had sympathy with me, while his real purpose is to do me mischief.

His heart gathereth iniquity to itself - Or, in his heart he is gathering mischief. That is, in his heart, or in his secret purpose, under the pretence of sympathy and friendship, he is really aiming to gather the materials for doing me wrong. He is endeavoring to find something in my words or manner; in my expressions of impatience and complaining; in the utterances of my unguarded moments, when I am scarcely conscious - something that may be uttered in the honesty of feeling when a man thinks that he is about to die - some reflections of my own on my past life - some confession of sin, which he may turn to my disadvantage, or which may justify his slanderous report that I am a bad man, and that it is desirable that such a man should live no longer. Can anything be imagined more malicious than this?

When he goeth abroad, he telleth it - literally, he tells it to the street, or to those who are without. Perhaps his friends, as malicious as himself, are anxiously waiting without for his report, and, like him, are desirous of finding something that may confirm them in their opinion of him. Or perhaps he designs to tell this to the friends of the sufferer, to show them now that they were deceived in the man; that although in the days of his health, and in his prosperity, he seemed to be a good man, yet that now, when the trial has come, and a real test has been applied, all his religion has been found false and hollow; his impatience, his complaining, his murmuring, and his unwillingness to die, all showing that he was a hypocrite, and was at heart a bad man. Compare the notes at Job 1:9-11.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 41:6. And if he come to see me] This may relate to Ahithophel; but it is more likely that it was to some other person who was his secret enemy, who pretended to come and inquire after his health, but with the secret design to see whether death was despatching his work.

When he goeth abroad, he telleth it.] He makes several observations on my dying state; intimates that I am suffering deep remorse for secret crimes; that God is showing his displeasure against me, and that I am full of sorrow at the approach of death.