Let them be blotted out of the book of the living “Let them be cut off before their time, and enjoy none of the blessings which thou hast promised to the righteous.” Bishop Patrick. The psalmist is thought to allude to registers or catalogues, in which the names of living men used anciently to be recorded, and out of which the names of those who died were blotted. This was awfully fulfilled with respect to the unbelieving Jews, vast multitudes of whom fell by the sword and famine, while none of those who embraced the Christian faith perished among them. The nation, as a nation, was blotted out of the list of nations, and became not a people. The words may also be understood, as they are by many commentators, of their rejection from God's covenant, and the privileges of it, which is the book of the truly living, or the book of life. “Let the commonwealth of Israel itself, Israel according to the flesh, now become alienated from that covenant of promise, of which it has hitherto had the monopoly.”
Henry. This has long been the case with the degenerate and apostate Jews, who are no longer the peculiar people of God, nor have they any part or portion in the inheritance of his children. Thus Ezekiel, speaking of the false prophets, They shall not be in the assembly of my people, nor shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, Ezekiel 13:9. This accords well with the next clause, Let them not be written with the righteous Let them not have, or, they shall not have, a place in the congregation of the saints, when they shall all be gathered in the general assembly of those whose names are written in heaven.