properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
confounded
וְיַחְפְּר֨וּve.yach.pe.Ru
H2659
to blush · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine plural
together
יַחַד֮ya.Chad
H3162
properly · adverb
seek
מְבַקְשֵׁ֥יme.vak.Shei
H1245
to search out (by any method · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural construct
soul
נַפְשִׁ֗יnaf.Shi
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
destroy
לִסְפּ֫וֹתָ֥הּlis.Po.Tah
H5595
properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
driven
יִסֹּ֣גוּyi.So.gu
H5472
properly · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
backward
אָ֭חוֹר'A.chor
H268
the hinder part · noun, common masculine singular absolute
shame
וְיִכָּלְמ֑וּve.yi.kal.Mu
H3637
properly · conjunction + verb, niphal, 3rd person masculine plural
wish
חֲ֝פֵצֵ֗יcha.fe.Tzei
H2655
pleased with · adjective, masculine plural construct
evil
רָעָתִֽיra.'a.Ti
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 35:4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.
Psalms 35:26 Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify t…
Psalms 9:3 When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.
Psalms 71:13 Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt.
Isaiah 45:24 Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shal…
John 18:6 As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.
Psalms 31:17-18 Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.
Psalms 70:2-3 Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 40:11–end
The psalmist, having meditated upon the work of redemption, and spoken of it in the person of the Messiah, now comes to make improvement of the doctrine of his mediation between us and God, and therefore speaks in his own person. Christ having done his Father's will, and finished his work, and given orders for the preaching of the gospel to every creature, we are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace, for mercy and grace.
I. This may encourage us to pray for the mercy of God, and to put ourselves under the protection of that mercy, Psa 40:11. "Lord, thou hast not spared thy Son, nor withheld him; withhold not thou thy tender mercies then, which thou hast laid up for us in him; for…
The language is not necessarily imprecatory, but rather a confident expectation (Psa 5:11), though the former sense is not inconsistent with Christ's prayer for the forgiveness of His murderers, inasmuch as their confusion and shame might be the very means to prepare them for humbly seeking forgiveness (compare Act 2:37).
John Gill on Psalms 40:14
Let them be ashamed and confounded together,.... As they will be at the last day, when they shall see him whom they have pierced come in the clouds of heaven, in his own and his Father's glory, and in the glory of the holy angels;
that seek after my soul to destroy it; that is, his life, as did Herod in his infancy, and the Scribes and Pharisees, chief priests and elders of the people of the Jews, frequently, and at last accomplished what they sought after;
let them be driven backward; as those were who came with Judas into the garden to apprehend him, John 18:6;
and put to shame that wish me evil: as did the Jews, who sought all opportunities to ensnare him, and that they might have to a…
Psalm 40:12-15
12. For innumerable evils have compassed me on all sides; my iniquities have laid hold upon me, so that I cannot look up: [93] they are more in number than the hairs of my head; and my heart has failed me. 13. Be thou pleased, O Jehovah! to deliver me: O Jehovah! make haste to help me. 14. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my life to destroy it; let them be turned backward, and put to shame, that seek after my hurt. 15. Let them be destroyed for a reward of their shame who have said to me, [94] Aha, aha!
12. For innumerable evils have compassed me on all sides This phrase, in the original, denotes more than can be expressed in an English translation…
The Church Fathers
"Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it" [Psalm 40:14]. For in a certain passage he makes an accusation, and says, "I looked upon my right hand, and beheld; and there was no man who sought after my soul;" that is, there was no man to imitate Mine example. Christ in His Passion is the Speaker. "I looked on my right hand," that is, not on the ungodly Jews, but on Mine own right hand, the Apostles,-"and there was no man who sought after My soul." So thoroughly was there no man to "seek after My soul," that he who had presumed on his own strength, "denied My soul." But because a man's soul is sought after in two ways, either in order that you may enjoy his society; or that you may persecute him; therefore he here speaks of others, whom he would have "confounded and ashamed," who are "seeking after his soul." But lest you should understand it in the same way as when he complains of some who did not "seek after his soul," He adds, "to destroy it;" that is, they seek after my soul in order to my death. ..."Let them be turned backward and put to shame that wish me evil." "Turned backwards." Let us not take this in a bad sense. He wishes them well; and it is His voice, who said from the Cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Wherefore then doth he say to them, that they should return "backwards"? Because they who before were proud, so that they fell, are now become humble, so that they may rise again. For when they are before, they are wishing to take precedence of their Lord; to be better than He; but if they go behind Him, they acknowledge Him to be better than they; they acknowledge that He ought to go before; that He should precede they follow. Thence He thus rebukes Peter giving Him evil counsel. For the Lord, when about to suffer for our salvation, also foretold what was to happen concerning that Passion itself; and Peter says, "Be it far from Thee," "God forbid it!" "This shall not be!" He would fain have gone before his Lord; would have given counsel to his Master! But the Lord, that He might make him not go before Him, but follow after Him, says, "Get thee behind, Satan!" It is for this reason He said "Satan," because thou art seeking to go before Him, whom thou oughest to follow; but if thou art behind, if thou follow Him, thou wilt henceforth not be "Satan." What then? "Upon this Rock I…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
In the midst of such sufferings, which, the longer they last, discover him all the more to himself as a sinner, he prays for speedy help. The cry for help in Psa 40:14 turns with רצה towards the will of God; for this is the root of all things. As to the rest, it resembles Psa 22:20 (38:23). The persecuted one wishes that the purpose of his deadly foes may as it were rebound against the protection of God and miserably miscarry. לספּותהּ, ad abripiendam eam (with Dagesh in the פ according to Ges. 45, 2, Ew. 245, a, and not as Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 1235, states, aspirated),
(Note: After ל the aspirate usually disappears, as here and in Psa 118:13; but there are exceptions, as לנתושׁ ולנתוץ,…
The psalmist is troubled by both his adversities and his own sins and prays for rescue. • This passage is repeated almost verbatim as Ps 70.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 40:14
Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Whether we read this as a prayer or a prophecy it matters not, for the powers of sin, and death, and hell, may well be ashamed as they see the result of their malice for ever turned against themselves. It is to the infinite confusion of Satan that his attempts to destroy the Saviour destroyed himself; the diabolical conclave who plotted in council are now all alike put to shame, for the Lord Jesus has met them at all points, and turned all their wisdom into foolish…
