Romans 11:9

Romans 11:9. And David saith. The citation is from Psalms 69:22-23, which is attributed to David, in the heading as well as by Paul. Many argue that some parts of the Psalm point to a date after the captivity. But the references to the house of God (Romans 11:9), the description of the opposers (Romans 11:8), and other passages, seem to prove that the date was much earlier. The Psalm is a portrayal of the sufferings of the Servant of Jehovah at the hands of spiritual foes, rather than of the sorrows of the exiled Jews. The latter reference gives to the imprecations a national and personal character which seems revolting. The former points to a Messianic fulfilment, and justifies the Apostle's application of the passage. The imprecations of the Psalm ‘are to be considered as the language of an ideal person, representing the whole class of righteous sufferers, and particularly Him who, though He prayed for His murderers while dying (Luke 23:34), had before applied the words of this very passage to the unbelieving Jews (Matthew 23:38), as Paul did afterwards' (J. A. Alexander).

Let their table. In the Psalm the ‘table' represents the material enjoyments of life; here it is referred by some to the law, or to the presumptuous confidence the Jews had in it; but it is not necessary to define it so closely.

Become a snare; be turned into this.

And a trap. ‘The word more usually signified “a hunt,” or the act of taking or catching, but here a net, the instrument of capture. It is not in the Hebrew nor in the Septuagint, and is perhaps inserted by the Apostle to give emphasis by the accumulation of synonymes' (Alford).

And a stumbling block. This phrase follows the next one in the LXX. The reference to hunting probably led to the transposition.

A recompense unto them. Here the Apostle varies slightly from the form of the LXX, which preserves the sense, but not the figure of the Hebrew. In fact this phrase is an interpretation of the entire verse. ‘While they think they are consuming the spoils of their earthly sense, they become themselves a spoil to every form of retribution' (Lange).