(10) Let all mine enemies.--Better rendered either by the present or future. The Psalmist with the eye of faith sees the answer to his prayer.

Return--i.e., retire discomfited and in failure.

"My enemies shall all be blank, and dasht

With much confusion: then grow red with shame;

They shall return in haste the way they came,

And in a moment shall be quite abashed."--

Milton's trans.

Verse 10. - Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed; rather, all mine enemies shall be ashamed and sore vexed (Rosenmuller, Kay, and others). Shame will fall upon David's enemies when their plots have failed, and deep vexation when they find him restored to health (ver. 4) and in the full enjoyment of the Divine favour. Lot them return; rather, they shall return; i.e. "retire... turn their backs," "take to flight." As Hengstenberg says, "David sees his enemies, who are gathered around him for the attack, all at once in alarm give way." And be ashamed suddenly. It is doubly shameful to have to fly when one has been the assailant.

6:8-10 What a sudden change is here! Having made his request known to God, the psalmist is confident that his sorrow will be turned into joy. By the workings of God's grace upon his heart, he knew his prayer was accepted, and did not doubt but it would, in due time, be answered. His prayers will be accepted, coming up out of the hands of Christ the Mediator. The word signifies prayer made to God, the righteous Judge, as the God of his righteousness, who would plead his cause, and right his wrongs. A believer, through the blood and righteousness of Christ, can go to God as a righteous God, and plead with him for pardon and cleansing, who is just and faithful to grant both. He prays for the conversion of his enemies, or foretells their ruin.Let all mine enemies be ashamed,.... Or "they shall be ashamed" (k); and so the following clauses may be rendered, and be considered as prophecies of what would be; though if this be considered as an imprecation, it is wishing no ill; wicked men are not ashamed of their abominations committed by them, neither can they blush; it would be well if they were ashamed of them, and brought to true repentance for them; and if they are not ashamed now, they will be hereafter, when the Judge of quick and dead appears;

and sore vexed; or "troubled" (l); as his bones had been vexed, and his soul had been sore vexed by them; as he knew they would be through disappointment at his recovery, and at his deliverance from the distresses and calamities he was now in, when he should sing for joy of heart, and they should howl for vexation of spirit;

let them return; meaning either from him, from pursuing after him; or to him, to seek his favour, and be reconciled to him, and be at peace with him, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi explain it; unless this word should only signify "again", as it sometimes does, and be read in connection with what follows;

and let them be again ashamed suddenly (m); intimating that his deliverance would be sudden, in a moment, in a very little time, and so would be their disappointment, shame, and confusion. Jarchi, from R. Jonathan and R. Samuel bar Nachmani, refers this to the shame of the wicked in the world to come.

(k) "pudore afficientur", Pagninus, Montanus; "pudefient", Coeceius, Schmidt; so Ainsworth. (l) "conturbantur", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (m) "iterum confundantur", Gejerus.