Psalms 109:23
in Psalms 109I am fading away like a lengthening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.
KJV
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.
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This verse in Psalms 109
Commentary
9 notes on this verseI am shaken off like locusts. I indeed had come to protect my people, and I said: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often did I wish to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings." I had come like a hen to protect them: but they received me with a most hostile mind. I had come as a mother: and they slew me as if I were their murderer. I am shaken off. What is this? They persecuted me, they cast me out.
This site's exposition
like a lengthening shadow
on Psalms 109:23-25
Three pictures stand together, a lengthening shadow, a locust shaken off, and knees weak from fasting. The body grows lean and gaunt. The accusers see him and shake their heads, the gesture the mockers make at Psalm 22:7.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"My knees are weak through fasting" (ver. 23). We read, that our Lord Christ underwent a fast of forty days: but had fasting so great power over Him, that His knees were weakened? Or is this more suitably understood of His members, that is, of His saints? "And my flesh is changed because of the oil;" because of spiritual grace, Whence Christ was so called from the Greek word, chrisma, which signifies unction. But the flesh was changed through the oil, not for the worse, but for the better, that is, rising from the dishonour of death to the glory of immortality. ...His flesh was not yet changed. But whether the Holy Spirit be represented by water through the notion of ablution or irrigation, or by oil through that of exultation and the inflaming of charity; It doth not differ from Itself, because Its types are different. For there is a great difference between the lion and the lamb, and yet Christ is represented by both. ...
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth,....
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth. I am a mere shadow, a shadow at the vanishing point, when it stretches far, but is almost lost in the universal gloom of evening which settles over all, and so obliterates the shadows cast by the setting sun. Lord, there is next to nothing left of me, wilt thou not come in before I am quite gone? I am tossed up and down as the locust, which is the sport of the winds, and must go up or down as the breeze carries it.
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth. I am a mere shadow, a shadow at the vanishing point, when it stretches far, but is almost lost in the universal gloom of evening which settles over all, and so obliterates the shadows cast by the setting sun. Lord, there is next to nothing left of me, wilt thou not come in before I am quite gone? I am tossed up and down as the locust, which is the sport of the winds, and must go up or down as the breeze carries it. The psalmist felt as powerless in his distress as a poor insect, which a child may toss up and down at its pleasure. He entreats the divine pity, because he had been brought to this forlorn and feeble condition by the long persecution which his tender heart had endured. Slander and malice are apt to produce nervous disorders and to lead on to pining diseases. Those who use these poisoned arrows are not always aware of the consequences; they scatter fire brands and death and say it is sport.
I am gone like the shadow - “I have walked like the declining shadow,” - I have passed my meridian of health and life; and as the sun is going below the horizon, so am I about to go under the earth. I am tossed up and down as the locust - When swarms of locusts take wing, and infest the countries in the east, if the wind happen to blow briskly, the swarms are agitated and driven upon each other, so as to appear to be heaved to and fro, or tossed up and down. Dr. Shaw, who has seen this, says it gives a lively idea of the comparisons of the psalmist.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth - See the notes at Psa 102:11. I am tossed up and down as the locust - Agitated, moved, driven about, as a cloud of locusts is by the wind. The meaning of the whole is, that he was frail and weak, and needed strength from on high.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth - See the notes at Psa 102:11. I am tossed up and down as the locust - Agitated, moved, driven about, as a cloud of locusts is by the wind. The meaning of the whole is, that he was frail and weak, and needed strength from on high.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כְּצֵל־ | ketzel- | like a shadow | H6738 → | 49 times |
| כִּנְטוֹת֥וֹ | kintoto | when stretches out it | H5186 → | 214 times |
| נֶהֱלָ֑כְתִּי | nehelakheti | I have vanished | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| נִ֝נְעַ֗רְתִּי | ninarti | I have been shaken off | H5287 → | |
| כָּֽאַרְבֶּֽה׃ | kaarbeh | like <the> locust | H697 → | 24 times |
כְּצֵל־like a shadow
ketzel-H6738 →49 times
כִּנְטוֹת֥וֹwhen stretches out it
kintotoH5186 →214 times
נֶהֱלָ֑כְתִּיI have vanished
nehelakhetiH1980 →1546 times
נִ֝נְעַ֗רְתִּיI have been shaken off
ninartiH5287 →
כָּֽאַרְבֶּֽה׃like <the> locust
kaarbehH697 →24 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 14:2Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
it leads to
- Isaiah 40:6–8
A voice says, “Cry out!” And I asked, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field.
- 1 Peter 1:24
For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
- Job 8:9
For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.
- Psalms 103:15–16
As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field;
- 1 Chronicles 29:15
For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
- Isaiah 40:6–8
Through
1 Chronicles 29:15For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
it leads to
- Psalms 144:4
Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- Leviticus 25:23
The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.
- Psalms 102:11
My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
- Psalms 144:4
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies2
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About Psalms
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, On the Psalms, Psalm 109; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 5; Jerome, Homily 35, on Psalm 108 and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).