God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
strength · noun, common masculine singular absolute
destroy
יִתָּצְךָ֪yi.ta.tze.Kha
H5422
to tear down · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
ever
לָ֫נֶ֥צַחla.Ne.tzach
H5331
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
away
יַחְתְּךָ֣yach.te.Kha
H2846
to lay hold of · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
out
וְיִסָּחֲךָ֣ve.yi.sa.cha.Kha
H5255
to tear away · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
place
מֵאֹ֑הֶלme.'O.hel
H168
a tent (as clearly conspicuous from a distance) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
out
וְשֵֽׁרֶשְׁךָ֨ve.she.resh.Kha
H8327
to root · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
land
מֵאֶ֖רֶץme.'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
living
חַיִּ֣יםchai.Yim
H2416
alive · adjective, masculine plural absolute
Selah
סֶֽלָהSe.lah
H5542
suspension (of music) · interjection
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
Proverbs 2:22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
Psalms 27:13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall ha…
Job 18:14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
Proverbs 12:19 The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment.
Proverbs 19:9 A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.
Isaiah 38:11 I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
Job 20:6-7 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 52:1-5
The title is a brief account of the story which the psalm refers to. David now, at length, saw it necessary to quit the court, and shift for his own safety, for fear of Saul, who had once and again attempted to murder him. Being unprovided wit harms and victuals, he, by a wile, got Ahimelech the priest to furnish him with both. Doeg an Edomite happened to be there, and he went and informed Saul against Ahimelech, representing him as confederate with a traitor, upon which accusation Saul grounded a very bloody warrant, to kill all the priests; and Doeg, the prosecutor, was the executioner, Sa1 22:9, etc. In these verses,
I. David argues the case fairly with this proud and mighty man, Psa 52:1…
likewise--or, "so," "also," as you have done to others God will do to you (Psa 18:27). The following terms describe the most entire ruin.
John Gill on Psalms 52:5
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever,.... As a just retaliation for the mischief done to others; or, "therefore God shall destroy" (z), &c. even body and soul in hell, with an everlasting destruction, which will be the case of every wicked man, and particularly of the antichristian party, Revelation 14:10; the word is used of breaking down the house in which the leprosy was, Leviticus 14:45; and denotes the utter extinction of Doeg's family, and the irrecoverable ruin of antichrist, Revelation 18:21;
he shall take thee away; as fire from the hearth, Isaiah 30:14; or as burning coals from the altar: a word from the root here used signifies a censer: and the meaning is, that as his tongue…
Psalm 52:5-7
5. God shall likewise destroy thee for ever: he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah 6. The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him. 7. Lo! this is the man that made not God his strength; and trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever. From these words it is made still more evident that his object in dwelling upon the aggravated guilt of Doeg, was to prove the certainty of his approaching doom, and this rather for his own conviction and comfort, than with a view to alarming the conscience of the off…
The Church Fathers
Because of this there follows in the Psalm, "You have loved all words of sinking under" [Psalm 52:5]. Rescue therefore yourself, if you can, from sinking under. From shipwreck you are fleeing, and dost embrace lead! If you will not sink, catch at a plank, be borne on wood, let the Cross carry you through. But now because you are a Doeg the Edomite, a "motion," and "of earth," you do what? "You have loved all words of sinking-under, a tongue deceitful." This has preceded, words of sinking-under have followed a tongue deceitful. What is a tongue deceitful? A minister of guile is a tongue deceitful, of men bearing one thing in heart, another thing from mouth bringing forth. But in these is overthrowing, in these sinking under.
And he will scrape you away from the tent, and will uproot you from the land of the living forever—so that the righteous, when they see it, will be afraid and will mock him, saying, "Look! a man who did not set God before himself as his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth, and empowered himself in his own disaster!" And this was said as though to Doeg, who was a Syrian by descent, but lived in the midst of Israel—and, I suppose, perhaps even entered the tabernacle of God along with the multitude, pretending to be pious. But it was also said to everyone who is powerful in wickedness, who uses his tongue instead of a sword for the destruction of souls: the "farmer of souls" would pluck him out just like some bitter and destructive root, even if he seems for some brief time to have been planted in the tabernacle of God and in his Church. Such a person, after being plucked out and cast away far from the tabernacle of the holy, will lie as a pitiable spectacle for the benefit and chastening of those who see him—they will take in with their eyes the severe judgment of God against such a person and will make every effort and guard themselves against falling into a similar situation. Later, when they recall with their memory the former boasting of the one who was powerful in wickedness, his grandeur and arrogance, but also see the humiliation and destruction that pursued him after that, they will consider him a laughing-stock, considering how he has fallen so low from such a height. And they will accept the judgment of God, confessing that it is righteous. Then, they will also go through the reasons why the impious one has suffered these things and justify God's judgment. For he ought not to have been haughty-minded over riches, nor to have been exalted over the vanity of the present life, but to have made God alone his hope and help, and not to have wavered in this hope. But he abandoned the good anchor of his own soul, and by hanging his hopes on vain wealth he made himself a joke, incurring nothing more than laughter for his vain and thoughtless boastfulness.
Dictionary and topics
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Doeg — Fearful, an Edomite, the chief overseer of Saul’s flocks (1 Sam. 21:7). At the command of Saul he slew the high priest Ahimelech (q.v.) at Nob, together with all the priests to the number of…
Falsehood · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Punishment Of The Wicked, The · Future described as: Everlasting destruction — Future described as: Everlasting destruction
Rich, The · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The announcement of the divine retribution begins with גּם as in Isa 66:4; Eze 16:43; Mal 2:9. The אהל is not, as one might suppose, the holy tent or tabernacle, that he has desecrated by making it the lurking-place of the betrayer (Sa1 21:7), which would have been expressed by מאהלו, but his own dwelling. God will pull him, the lofty and imperious one, down (נתץ, like a tower perhaps, Jdg 8:9; Eze 26:9) from his position of honour and his prosperity, and drag him forth out of his habitation, much as one rakes a coal from the hearth (חתה Biblical and Talmudic in this sense), and tear him out of this his home (נסח, cf. נתק, Job 18:14) and remove him far away (Deu 28:63), because he has betray…
God’s judgment on the wicked will come suddenly and forcibly. The godly rejoice in God’s justice, not in the misfortunes of the wicked.
52:5 God will strike the wicked down like a pagan altar, idol, or unclean vessel (Exod 34:13; Lev 11:35; 2 Kgs 10:27).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 52:5
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever. Fain would the persecutor destroy the church, and therefore God shall destroy him, pull down his house, pluck up his roots, and make an end of him. He shall take thee away. God shall extinguish his coal and sweep him away like the ashes of the hearth; he would have quenched the truth, and God shall quench him. And pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, like a plant torn from the place where it grew, or a captive dragged from his home. Ahimelech and his brother priests were cut off from their…