Psalms 35:15,16 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But in mine adversity Hebrew, בצלעי, betzalgni, in my halting, that is, when I was in great danger of falling into mischief. When I had any sickness or ill success in my affairs, and was almost lost, for such are often said to halt, in the Scripture; they rejoiced and gathered themselves together These very men (such was their inhumanity!) could not dissemble the joy they conceived when the news was brought of any evil that befell me, but ran to tell one another, and assembled themselves together that they might publicly testify how glad they were to hear it. Yea, the very abjects Hebrew, נכים, neechim, loripedes, the bow-legged, or, lame. It means, properly, percussi aut læsi pedibus, persons wounded or hurt in their feet. The sense is, vile persons, the very scum of the people, persons so mean that I did not so much as know there were such men in the world, met together to revile me; nay, the cripples, who could not walk without trouble and pain, were as forward as any others to go to these meetings on this occasion. They did tear me That is, my good name, with scoffs, and calumnies, and reproaches, and curses; and ceased not Hebrew, ולא דמו, velo damu, were not silent, that is, they acted thus unweariedly and continually; with hypocritical, or profane, mockers Whose common practice it was to scoff at, and deride, others; in feasts Hebrew, לעגי מעוג, sanniones placentæ, vel cibi, buffoons, or jesters, for a cake, or morsel of bread; namely, parasites, qui gulæ causa aliis adulantur, says Buxtorf, who flatter others for the sake of their belly. They made themselves buffoons and jesters, and accustomed themselves to mock and deride David, that they might gain admittance to the tables of great men, where they might fill their bellies, which was all that they sought, or got by such conduct. They gnashed upon me with their teeth They used all expressions of rage and hatred against me, which they did to curry favour with my great and powerful adversaries. The indignities and outrage which the Lord Jesus endured from the Jews seem to be plainly foretold in these two verses. See Mark 14:65.