Salmos 39:2

La Biblia de las Americas

Enmudecí y callé; guardé silencio aun acerca de lo bueno, y se agravó mi dolor.

Parallel Translations

La Biblia Reina-Valera
Enmudec� con silencio, call�me aun respecto de lo bueno: Y excit�se mi dolor.

La Biblia Reina-Valera Gomez
Enmudec� con silencio, me call� aun respecto de lo bueno; y se agrav� mi dolor.

Sagradas Escrituras (1569)
Enmudec� en silencio, me call� aun de lo bueno; y se alborot� mi dolor.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I was: Psalms 38:13, Psalms 38:14, Isaiah 53:7, Matthew 27:12-14

even: Matthew 7:6

my sorrow: Job 32:19, Job 32:20, Acts 4:20

stirred: Heb. troubled

Reciprocal: Job 3:1 - opened Job 6:24 - I will Job 20:2 - my thoughts Ecclesiastes 3:7 - time to keep Jeremiah 8:14 - be silent Mark 14:61 - he held Luke 23:9 - but Acts 8:32 - opened James 1:26 - bridleth

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I was dumb with silence,.... Quite silent, as if he had been a dumb man, and could not speak; so he was before men, especially wicked men, and under the afflicting hand of God; see Psalms 39:9; thus he put his resolution into practice;

I held my peace, [even] from good; that is, he said neither good nor bad: this expresses the greatness of his silence: he did not choose to open his lips, and say anything that was good, lest evil should come out along with it; though this may be considered as carrying the matter too far, even to a criminal silence; saying nothing of the affliction he laboured under as coming from the hand of God, and of his own desert of it; nor praying to God for the removal of it, nor giving him thanks for his divine goodness in supporting him under it, and making it useful to him; though it seems rather to have respect to his silence concerning the goodness of his cause before men; he said not one word in the vindication of himself; but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously. The Targum and Jarchi interpret it of his silence and cessation "from the words of the law": he said nothing concerning the good word of God; which sense, could it be admitted, the words in

Jeremiah 20:9; might be compared with these and the following;

and my sorrow was stirred; this was the issue and effect of his silence; his sorrow being pent up, and not let out and eased by words, swelled and increased the more; or the sorrow of his heart was stirred up at the insults and reproaches of his enemies, as Paul's spirit was stirred up by the superstition and idolatry of the city of Athens,

Acts 17:16.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I was dumb with silence - Compare Psalms 38:13. The addition of the words “with silence,” means that he was entirely or absolutely mute; he said nothing at all. The idea is, that he did not allow himself to give utterance to the thoughts which were passing in his mind in regard to the divine dealings. He kept his thoughts to himself, and endeavored to suppress them in his own bosom.

I held my peace, even from good - I said nothing. I did not even say what I might have said in vindication of the ways of God. I did not even endeavor to defend the divine character, or to explain the reasons of the divine dealings, or to suggest any considerations which would tend to calm down the feelings of complaint and dissatisfaction which might be rising in the minds of other men as well as my own.

And my sorrow was stirred - The anguish of my mind; my trouble. The word “stirred” here, rendered in the margin “troubled,” means that the very fact of attempting to suppress his feelings - the purpose to say nothing in the case - was the means of increased anguish. His trouble on the subject found no vent for itself in words, and at length it became so insupportable that he sought relief by giving utterance to his thoughts, and by coming to God to obtain relief. The state of mind referred to here is that which often occurs when a man broods over his own troubled thoughts, and dwells upon things which are in themselves improper and rebellious. We are under no necessity of endeavoring to vindicate the psalmist in what he here did; nor should we take his conduct in this respect as our example. He evidently himself, on reflection, regarded this as wrong; and recorded it not as a pattern for others, but as a faithful transcript of what was passing at the time through his own mind. Yet, wrong as it was, it was what often occurs even in the minds of good men. Even they, as in the cases referred to above, often have thoughts about God and his dealings which they do not dare to express, and which it would do harm to express. They, therefore, hide them in their own bosom, and often experience just what the psalmist did - increased trouble and perplexity from the very purpose to suppress them. They should go at once to God. They may say to him what it would not be proper to say to men. They may pour out all their feelings before him in prayer, with the hope that in such acts of praying, and in the answers which they will receive to their prayers, they may find relief.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 39:2. I held any peace, even from good — "I ceased from the words of the law," says the Chaldee. I spoke nothing, either good or bad. I did not even defend myself.

My sorrow was stirred. — My afflictions increased, and I had an exacerbation of pain. It is a hard thing to be denied the benefit of complaint in sufferings, as it has a tendency to relieve the mind, and indeed, in some sort, to call off the attention from the place of actual suffering: and yet undue and extravagant complaining enervates the mind, so that it becomes a double prey to its sufferings. On both sides there are extremes: David seems to have steered clear of them on the right hand and on the left.