Psalms 4:2

O ye sons of men,.... Meaning great men, the nobles of Israel; and so the Jewish interpreters (k) generally explain it; such as Ahithophel, and others, who were in the conspiracy with Absalom, 2

O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah. (Will ye turn) my glory into shame?

O ye sons of men, i.e. princes and potentates, as this Hebrew phrase seems and is thought to signify, who are engaged with Saul or Absalom against me. Will ye turn my glory into shame? or, shall my glory be for a shame, i.e. be made by you matter of reproach and scorn? By his glory probably he means that high honour and royal majesty which God had either promised to him, or conferred upon him; wherein, when he was in great straits and dangers, they might possibly reproach him in some sort as this: Is this the man, whom God so highly loves, and honours, and will exalt, who now flees from one mountain or cave to another, who runs away to the Philistines, whom his own son hath banished out of the land? Is this the effect of his glorying and boasting of God’ s favour and promises? Love vanity, i.e. affect and pursue these courses and designs of opposing me and my kingdom, which you will certainly find to be vain, and to no purpose. Leasing or, lying; the same thing with vanity; these two words being promiscuously used, as . Only this seems to add some emphasis, and to intimate the fair hopes and promising probabilities of success which they had, and which aggravate their disappointment. Or by lying he may design those horrid calumnies, which the partisans either of Saul or Absalom had raised against him, and which they joined with their other endeavours to make him odious to all the people, and so the better to effect his ruin.

Psalms 4:2 O ye sons of men, how long [will ye turn] my glory into shame? [how long] will ye love vanity, [and] seek after leasing? Selah.Ver. 2. O ye sons of men] Ye nobles, Psalms 49:1-2, who think to carry all before you with those big looks, and bubbles of words: ye who are potent at court, and therefore insolent above measure. David, having poured out his heart to God in prayer, takes heart of grace thus freely to bespeak these great ones his enemies. How long will ye turn my glory into shame?] i.e. Attempt to put me beside the kingdom, whereunto God hath designed and destined me? You think, belike, to jeer me out of my right, and, by casting upon me cart loads of calunmies and contumelies, to make me desist, and hang up my hopes. But it is otherwise, believe it. Psalms 14:6-7, "Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge." But will he therefore stop praying? No; for in the next words he falls on, and says, "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!" &c. How long will ye love vanity? &c.] i.e. Trouble yourselves to no purpose, while ye plot and plough mischief to him who is blessed, and shall be blessed, ingratiis vestris? You love, you seek; that is, you both inwardly affect wickedness and outwardly act it; but all in vain.

(2)Sons of men.—A literal rendering of a Hebrew phrase generally interpreted as “men of high degree.” Luther translates “gentlemen” (see Psalms 49:2), where it is “high,” as contrasted with “low.” (Comp. Psalms 62:9, “men of high degree.”) How long?—Literally, how long to shame my glory? which, after the analogy of Psa 37:26, “his seed is for a blessing,” must mean How long shall my glory be for shame (opprobrio)? The LXX. and Vulg. follow a different and probably correct reading: “How long will ye be heavy (or slow) of heart? “They also indicate that an interrogative has dropped out before the second clause, so that it is rightly supplied by the Authorised Version. Seek after.—In Hebrew the intensive conjugation, to seek earnestly, or again and again.Leasing—i.e., lying. (Comp. Psalms 4:6.) So in Wycliffe’s New Testament: “Whanne he speketh leesing, he speketh of his own; for he is a lere, and is fader of it” (John 8:44). “Lesyngmongers” (1 Timothy 1:10). Chaucer uses the word; and it is common in Piers Ploughman. Shakespeare also knows the word:— “Now Mercury indue thee with leasing, For thou speakest well of fools.”—Twelfth Night.(See Bible Educator, iv. 3,) Milton’s translation is— “To love, to seek, to prize Things false and vain, and nothing else but lies.” For “Selah,” see Note, Psalms 3:2. From this verse we gather that the report of the calumny uttered against him in Jerusalem had reached the king’s ears.

Verse 2. O ye sons of men] בני איש beney ish, ye powerful men-ye who are now at the head of affairs, or who are leaders of the multitude. Love vanity] The poor, empty, shallow-brained, pretty-faced Absalom; whose prospects are all vain, and whose promises are all empty! Seek after leasing?] This is a Saxon word, from [Anglo-Saxon], falsehood, from [A.S.], to lie. Cardmarden has adopted this word in his translation, Rouen, 1566. It is in none of the Bibles previously to that time, nor in any after, as far as my own collection affords me evidence; and appears to have been borrowed by King James's translators from the above. Selah.] Mark this! See what the end will be!

2. O ye sons of men] From appealing to God he turns to remonstrate with the rebels, and singles out the leaders from the general mass. The phrase used is bnηξsh, which in Psalms 49:2 is rendered ‘high,’ and in Psalms 62:9, ‘men of high degree,’ in opposition to bnηβdβm, rendered ‘low’ and ‘men of low degree.’ At the same time by calling them ‘sons of men’ he contrasts them with God, the defender of his cause. my glory] There is no need to inquire whether David’s personal honour or his royal dignity is meant. Both are included, for both were defamed and insulted. But it was an aggravation of the rebels’ offence that the king had a special ‘glory’ as the representative of Jehovah. Cp. Psalms 3:3, note. vanity … leasing] The rebellion is a vain thing, destined to end in failure, like the threatened uprising of the nations (Psalms 2:1): it is a lie, for it is based on the false principle of personal ambition setting itself up against the divinely appointed king. Cp. Isaiah 28:15; Isaiah 28:17. Another possible interpretation would refer the words to the false imputations and underhand intrigues by which Absalom and his confederates sought to tarnish David’s reputation and undermine his authority. Cp. 2 Samuel 15:2 ff. But the verbs used (love … seek) point rather to the end desired than to the means employed. leasing] R.V. falsehood. Leasing (Psalms 5:6) is an obsolete word for a lie: from A.S. leαs, empty, and so false: used by Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare. Cp. Faerie Queene, 11. 11. 10: “Slaunderous reproches, and fowle infamies, Leasinges, backbytinges.”

O ye sons of men - Turning from God to men; from Him in whom he hoped for protection to those who were engaged in persecuting him.

2. Sons of men—The Hebrew denotes men of rank, as distinguished from the other form, for the common people.