Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
9. Destroy, Hare, Green, and others, conjecture that the first verb in the verse, “destroy,” had been originally “divide” — “divide, O Lord! divide their tongues.” In Scripture we sometimes meet with an elegant repetition of this kind, as in Psalm 59:13, “Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be.” O Lord; and divide their tongue Having now composed, as it were...
Destroy, O Lord. Put mine enemies to the rout. Let them be devoured by the sword, since they have unsheathed it against me. How could we expect the exiled monarch to offer any other prayer than this against the rebellious bands of Absalom, and the crafty devices of Ahithophel? Divide their tongues. Make another Babel in their debates and councils of war. Set them at cross purposes.
Jerusalem fell into rebellion with Absalom and became a harlot, her streets filled with nothing but violence and strife day and night. Where once was loyalty and love, there remained only wickedness legalized, deceit and guile never departing from her. The royal city, the holy city, became a den of mutual wrong and vexation.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 55:9-15