He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
He - God. The poet reverentially suppresses the name of God when speaking of calamities inflicted.
Byword - (Deuteronomy 28:37; Psalms 69:11). My awful punishment makes my name execrated everywhere, as if I must have been superlatively had to have earned it.
Aforetime ... tabret - as David was honoured (1 Samuel 18:6) [from top (H8596), a drum]. Rather, from a different Hebrew root х topet (H8611), from tuwp], the sound expressing the act of spitting-`I am treated to my face as an object of disgust.' Literally, an object to be spit upon in the face (Numbers 12:14). So Raca, from a root to spit means (Matthew 5:22). (Umbreit).