Psalms 9:12

When he maketh inquisition for blood,.... The Arabic version renders it, "he remembers him that seeks their blood"; that is, the wicked man, that lies in wait for innocent blood, and whose feet are

Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings.

For blood, Heb. bloods; the bloodshed or murder of his innocent and holy ones; which though he may connive at for a season, yet he will certainly call the authors of it to a very severe account, and avenge it upon them. He remembereth them; either, 1. The humble, as it follows, or the oppressed, , that trust in him, and seek to him, , whom he seemed to have forgotten. Or, 2. The bloods last mentioned, for that noun and this pronoun are both of the masculine gender; and then remembering is put for revenging or punishing, as it is ,19 Ne 6:14 44:21, and oft elsewhere. The humble, or meek, as this word, which is used also , is translated , who do not, and cannot, and will not avenge themselves, but commit their cause to me, as the God to whom vengeance belongeth. Or, afflicted or oppressed ones.

Psalms 9:12 When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.Ver. 12. When he maketh inquisition for blood] For innocent blood unjustly spilled; as he did for the blood of Abel, Genesis 4:10, of Naboth, (2 Kings 9:26, "Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth." Murder ever bleeds fresh in the eyes of God) of Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, 2 Chronicles 24:22; those ungrateful guests, who slew those that came to call them: "And when the king heard it" (for blood cries aloud), "he was wroth, and destroyed those murderers," Matthew 22:6-7. These shall have blood to drink, for they are worthy, Revelation 16:6. God draws articles of inquiry in this case as strict and as critical as ever the Inquisition of Spain doth; the proceedings whereof are with greatest secresy and severity. He forgetteth not the cry of the humble] Heb. of the poor, lowly, meek, afflicted. Humility and meekness are collactaneae, twin-sisters, as Bernard hath it.

(12) When.—Better, for he maketh inquisition; literally, the seeker of bloods: i.e., “the avenger of blood.” The allusion is to the goel, the nearest relative of the murdered man, who must, according to Oriental custom, avenge him. The verbs are better in the past, “remembered,” “forgot not.” Them—i.e., the sufferers to be mentioned now. Humble.—This follows the Hebrew margin. Better here, the afflicted. In the Hebrew the two readings give two forms from the same root, generally taken to have, one of them, an ethical, the other, a physical sense; but the distinction is not borne out by Biblical use.

Verse 12. When he maketh inquisition for blood] This not only applies to the Canaanites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines, who shed the blood of God's people unjustly, but to all the nations of the earth who, to enlarge their territory, increase their wealth, or extend their commerce, have made destructive wars. For the blood which such nations have shed, their blood shall be shed. If man should make no inquisition for this iniquitously spilt blood, GOD will do it, for he remembers them; and the cry of the humbled, distressed people, driven to distraction and ruin by such wars, is not forgotten before him.

12. For he that maketh requisition for bloodshed hath remembered them: He hath not forgotten the cry of the humble. The call to praise is based on a definite experience (hath remembered, hath not forgotten), rather than on a general truth (remembereth, forgetteth not). Jehovah is the Goel, the Avenger of blood, who investigates all offences against His sacred gift of human life, and demands satisfaction for them (Genesis 9:5 f.). Such offences ‘cry’ to God for vengeance (Genesis 4:10). ‘Bloodshed’ may include crimes of violence which fall short of actual murder, but rob men of the rightful use and enjoyment of their lives. Cf. Job 24:2 ff. them] The oppressed seekers of Jehovah mentioned in Psalms 9:9-10; the ‘poor’ of the next line. the cry] For illustration comp. Exodus 3:7; Exodus 3:9; 1 Samuel 9:16; Job 34:28. the humble] R.V. the poor, marg. meek. The traditional reading (Qrξ) is ‘anβvξm, though the text (Kthξbh) has ‘aniyyξm. Both words are derived from the same root, meaning to bend or bow down. The first is intransitive in form, and denotes the character of one who bows himself down: lowly, humble, meek (LXX πραΰς). The second is passive in form, and denotes primarily the condition of one who is bowed down by external circumstances of poverty, trouble, or oppression: poor, afflicted (comp. the cognate substantive in Psalms 9:13, my trouble, R.V, affliction). But inasmuch as humility is learnt in the school of affliction and, poverty (cp. Matthew 5:3 with Luke 6:20), it often has the secondary sense of meek, humble (LXX generally πτωχός, πένης, sometimes ταπεινός or πραΰς), and the distinction between the two words is lost. The second of the two words (but not the first) is often coupled or in parallelism with ebhyτn ‘needy,’ Psalms 9:18), or dal ‘weak,’ ‘feeble’ (Psalms 82:3-4); and these words also, though primarily denoting condition, tend to acquire a moral significance. The ‘afflicted,’ ‘poor,’ ‘meek,’ ‘humble,’ are a class that meet us frequently in the Psalms and Prophets. They are those whose condition specially calls for the special protection of Jehovah, and of righteous rulers who are His true representatives (Psalms 72:7; Psalms 72:4; Psalms 72:12); and whose character for the most part fits them to be objects of the divine favour. They are contrasted with the proud, the scorners, the oppressors, whose contemptuous independence and high-handed violence will meet with due punishment (Proverbs 3:34).

When he maketh inquisition for blood - When he “inquires” after blood; that is, when he comes forth with this view, to wit, for purposes of punishment.

11, 12. Sing praises to the Lord—We have here a call for public thanksgiving by all the people in their religious assemblies.