Psalms 16:4

Their sorrows shall be multiplied,.... Not the sorrows of the saints and excellent ones, by seeing the idolatry of men, as Aben Ezra interprets it; but the sorrows of such [that] hasten [after]

Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.

That hasten after another god; or, that present or endtoo another god, to wit, with oblations, as it follows. God is not expressed in the Hebrew text, but seems fitly and necessarily to be understood, because of the following offerings, which are made to none that is not either really or by reputation a god. The sense is, Idolaters, notwithstanding all their zeal or cost about their idols, gain nothing to themselves but abundance of sorrow and misery. This he mentioneth partly as one reason why he would have no fellowship with them in their idolatrous worship, which he adds in this verse; and partly that by this comparison he might illustrate and commend his own happiness, in having the Lord for his portion, of which he speaks, ,6. Or thus, Let their sorrows be rntdtiplied, &c. Having showed his great respect and affection to the saints and excellent servants of the true God, he now declares what an abhorrency he had for those that forsake the true God, and worship idols; to whom he wisheth increase of their sorrows, whereby they may either be awakened and converted to the Lord again, or may be cut off, if they be impenitent and incorrigible. Drinkofferings; under which he comprehends all their offerings, the reason being for substance the same in all; but he mentions these particularly, because of a special corruption in them above their other sacrifices, to wit, that the very matter of them was unlawful, as we shall see; which also might serve both to convince and deter those Israelites which hearkened after idolatry, and made no conscience of maintaining communion with idolaters, which was the case of many of them in Saul’ s time; and to justify himself for his detestation of them, . and of all fellowship with them. Of blood; in which the Gentiles used (as divers learued men have observed) to offer, and sometimes to drink part of the blood of their sacrifices, whether of beasts or of men, as either of them were sacrificed; which must needs be very hateful to God, because he had so severely forbidden the drinking of blood to his people, either at their sacrifices, or in their common food. Nor take up their names, i.e. of those other gods mentioned before. I abhor the very name and memory of them. Not that he thought it unlawful to name these idols, which is frequently done by holy prophets, but to express the odiousness of the thing by his loathing of the very name and shadow of them. Compare ,17 Ephesians 5:3. Or the sense is, I will not swear by them; for taking up one’ s name is used for swearing, .

Psalms 16:4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied [that] hasten [after] another [god]: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.Ver. 4. Their sorrows shall be multiplied] Many sorrows shall be to those wicked idolaters, Psalms 32:10, some of their own creating by their superstitions and will worships (vide Plutarch, περιδεισιδαιμονιας); others from a jealous and just God; others from the devil, who acteth and agitateth them, beateth and whippeth them (as at this day he doth the poor Indians, who worship devils in most terrible figure; believing that they are permitted of God to punish or spare them at their pleasure); and some they shall be sure of from me whenever I come to the kingdom. Some, after the Chaldee, read it, their idols are multiplied. The old heathens had thirty thousand in Hesiod’ s days. In China there are said to be at this day no fewer than a hundred thousand idols, which they use to whip if they come not at a call to help them. Before a sick man they put the devil’ s picture, that he may learn to know him in another world, and take him for his friend. That hasten after another god] Or, that endow another god. Superstition is not only painful but chargeable. The story is told of one king of England, that he bestowed as much upon a cross as the revenues of his kingdom came to in a year. Idolaters lavish out of the bag, and spare for no cost; witness the Papists’ vowed presents and memories, as they call them, hung up in honour to their male and female saints, the Lady of Loretto especially. But it was the serpent’ s grammar that first taught men to decline God in the plural number, Eritis sicut Dii, you will be as gods, as Damianus observeth from Genesis 3:5, and hence that innumerable rabble. The Jesuits boast of their Ignatii Apotheosis; and Cardinal Bembus is not ashamed to say of his St Francis, quod in deorum numerum ab Ecclesia Romana sit relatus (Hist. Venet.). Is not this abominable idolatry? 1 Peter 4:3. Their drink offerings of blood] Many heathens sacrificed to their idols (that is, to devils) with man’ s blood, against all laws of humanity and piety. Thus they sacrificed to Bellona, the sister of Mars; as also with blood let out of their own arms (Euseb. de Praep. Evangel.). The priests of Baal (who perhaps was Mars) cut and lanced themselves, 1 Kings 18:28 So do the Mahometan priests of today; as the Papists whip themselves, &c. The old idolaters offered their children in sacrifice to Moloch, or Saturn. David abhorreth the thought of such inhumanities, Neque deos illegitimos, nec illegitime colam, saith he, I will have no such doings. Nor take up their names into my lips] But spit them out of my mouth with utmost detestation, according to the law, Exodus 23:13. It repented Austin that ever he had used the word Fortune, that heathen goddess (Epist.

(4) Their sorrows.—This verse offers also great variation in the ancient versions. The literal text runs Their sorrows [or, idols] (fem.) are multiplied (masc); another they hasten [or, change]. I will not pour out their libations from blood, and will not take their names upon my lips, which, with one or two slight changes in the punctuation, becomes— “They shall multiply their sorrows Who change to another god: I will not pour out their bloody libations, Nor take their names on my lips.” At the same time, from the evident allusion to the curse on Eve in Genesis 3:16, and the fact that the verb rendered “hasten” (comp. margin) means to buy a wife, it seems that the psalmist had the common prophetical figure for idolatry, viz., adultery, in his mind; but as he is not speaking of the Church as a whole, he does not work it out as the prophets do, by representing the idolaters as adulteresses. The “libations of blood” seem to refer to the ghastly rites of Moloch and Chemosh. For the last clause comp. Exodus 23:13. To the Hebrews the very name of a god included a predication of his power. Hence the avoidance of even mentioning baal, but substituting bosheth, i.e., shameful thing, for it, even in proper names.

Verse 4. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god] The Chaldee has: "They multiply their idols, and afterwards hasten that they may offer their gifts." In the Hebrew text there is no word for God, and therefore Messiah or Saviour might be as well substituted; and then the whole will refer to the unbelieving Jews. They would not have the true Christ; they have sought, and are seeking, another Messiah; and how amply fulfilled has the prophetic declaration been in them! Their sorrows have been multiplied for more than 1800 years. The Vulgate and Septuagint, and after them the AEthiopic and Arabic, have given this clause a widely different turn: "their afflictions have been multiplied, and afterwards they have run swiftly;" referring to the suffering saints: the more they were afflicted and persecuted, the more fervent and prosperous they became. Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer] נסך nesech is a libation, whether of wine or water, poured out on the sacrifice. A drink-offering of blood is not a correct form of expression; it is rather the libation on the blood of the sacrifice already made. Coverdale translates the same; but Mathewes, who reformed his text in a few places, has Their brente offeringes of bloude, without much mending the text; though by this the exceptionable idea of a drink-offering of blood is avoided. As applicable to our Lord, here is an intimation that their libations and sacrifices should cease. None of these should exist under the Christian dispensation; Jesus Christ's offering upon the cross being the accomplishment and termination of all such sacrifices. Nor take up their names into my lips.] None of those sacrifices shall be mentioned with any kind of respect after the end of their institution shall have been accomplished; for sacrifice, offering, burnt-offering, and sacrifice for sin, such as are offered according to the law, God would no longer receive; therefore Jesus said; "Lo, I come to do thy will; a body hast thou prepared me." Since that time all these sacrifices have ceased. The old Psalter is curious: - Ver. 4. Multiplicate sunt infirmitates eorum; postea acceleraverunt. Trans. Manyfalded er thair sekenes: and sythen thai hasted thaim. Par. - That es at say; thai knew that thai war ful seke in body and saule, and sythen thai hasted tham til the Leche; for he that feles him seke, he sekes remedy. Il men wenes that thai er noght seke for thi that dye in thair syn. Non congregabo conventicula eroum de sanguinibus, c. Trans. I sal noght gadyr the coventes of tha of blodes ne I sal be menand of their names thurgh my lippis. Par. That est at say, by the coventes of haly men, my servaundes sal nout fleschely, but gastly: for blode bytakyns syn and unclenes that that er in, that folous thair flesche, and the vanites of thair blode; that er comen of grete kyn.

4. Their sorrows] This, and not their idols (Targ. Symm. Jer.), is the right rendering. Cp. Psalms 32:10; 1 Timothy 6:10. that hasten after another god] The Heb. cannot be so rendered. Rightly R.V., that exchange the Lord for another god. Cp. Psalms 106:20; and the exact parallel in Jeremiah 2:11. Less probable is R.V. marg., give gifts for; for though the verb is used of giving a dowry for a wife (Exodus 22:16), and marriage is a common figure for the relationship between God and His people, the wife in this figure always represents the people. Their drink offerings of blood] Variously explained of libations accompanying human sacrifices, or libations of blood offered in idolatrous rituals instead of oil and wine, or libations offered with blood-stained hands and therefore abominable (Isaiah 1:15; Isaiah 59:3); but probably meaning that their libations are as detestable as though they were composed of blood. Cp. Isaiah 66:3. nor take up &c.] R.V., nor take their names upon my lips. Not the idolaters’ names, but the names of their gods, which are the expression of their religion. “In Semitic antiquity the very name of a god included a predication of his power, dignity, or virtues; so that even to utter such names as Baal and Molech, that is Lord and King, was an act of homage.” (Robertson Smith.) Cp. Exodus 23:13; Hosea 2:17; Zechariah 13:2.

Their sorrows shall be multiplied - The word here rendered “sorrows - עצבוּת ‛atstsebôth - may mean either idols or sorrows. Compare Isaiah 48:5; Psalms 139:24; Job 9:28; Psalms 147:3.

4. Hasten after another god—Spoken of the zeal of idol worship-pers, and especially of apostates, who in distress and fear precipitately cast off Jehovah for idols. Such shall multiply sorrows.