FALSE WITNESS BIBLE TRIAL

The wicked would strip the righteous naked to their very soul: they know no pity. 'To the spoiling of my soul.' They robbed him of comfort, and even would have taken his life had it not been for special rescues from the hand of God. 'They rewarded me evil for good.' This is devilish but men have learned the lesson well of the old Destroyer, and practise it most perfectly. It is well when our hands are so clean that no trace of dirt is upon them. He was not only innocent, but ignorant of the fault alleged. 'they laid to my charge things that I knew not.' He had not even a thought of sedition he was loyal even to excess yet they accused him of conspiring against the Lord's anointed. To please Saul, there were always men to be found mean enough to impeach David.

'False witnesses did rise up.' This is the old device of the ungodly, and we must not wonder if it be used against us as against our Master. The Treasury of David11 False witnesses did rise up they laid to my charge things that I knew not.ġ2 They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.ġ3 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.ġ4 I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother.ġ5 But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not they did tear me, and ceased not:ġ6 With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.ġ7 Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions.ġ8 I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people. What those charges were the psalmist does not specify but it is not uncommon for a good man to be falsely accused, and we are certain that such things occurred in the life of David. Things that I knew not - Of which I had no knowledge which never came into my mind. Hence, it is synonymous with our expression of laying to the charge of anyone or of accusing anyone.

FALSE WITNESS BIBLE TRIAL

The usage appears to have been derived from courts, where the forms of trial may have been in the way of question and answer - the mode of accusation having been in the form of 'asking' how a thing was, or whether it was so and the defense being regarded as an 'answer' to such an inquiry. They laid to my charge - Margin, as in Hebrew: 'they asked me.' The word 'asked' here seems to be used in the sense of 'demand ' that is, they demanded an 'answer' to what was said. Their conduct was injurious to me as an act of 'violence' would be. That is, they were persons who, in what they said of me, were guilty of injustice and wrong. They will reward me, &c., which seems to intimate that the prophet was speaking of what was then future, and in the person of him against whom false witnesses did arise, to whose charge they laid things he knew not, and whom they rewarded evil for good “who, because our souls were sick, clothed himself with the sackcloth of our flesh mourning at the very thought that his prayers, in any measure, should return into his own bosom.” See Fenwick.īarnes' Notes on the BibleFalse witnesses did rise up - Margin, 'witnesses of wrong.' The Hebrew is, 'witnesses of 'violence,'' חמס châmâs. But the Hebrew verbs, יקומו, ישׁאלו, ישׁלמו, jeshallemu, jishalu, jekumu, are all in the future tense, and the clauses are more properly rendered, False witnesses will rise up, &c. This interpretation of the passage, the reader will observe, is given according to the present translation. To the spoiling of my soul - That is, to the stripping of my person of all my comforts and hopes, and of my life itself. They rewarded me evil for good - For the good offices which I performed to divers of them when I had favour and power in Saul’s court and camp. They laid to my charge things I knew not - They accused me to Saul of treacherous designs against his crown and life, and of other crimes of which I was wholly innocent and ignorant.

False witness bible