2 Samuel 1:12

1:12 They lamented and wept and fasted until evening because Saul, his son Jonathan, the Lord’s people, and the house of Israel had fallen by the sword.

2 Samuel 4:10-11

4:10 when someone told me that Saul was dead – even though he thought he was bringing good news ¹  – I seized him and killed him in Ziklag. That was the good news I gave to him! 4:11 Surely when wicked men have killed an innocent man as he slept ²  in his own house, should I not now require his blood from your hands and remove ³  you from the earth?”

2 Samuel 16:5-8

Shimei Curses David and His Men

16:5 Then King David reached ⁴  Bahurim. There a man from Saul’s extended family named Shimei son of Gera came out, yelling curses as he approached. ⁵  16:6 He threw stones at David and all of King David’s servants, as well as all the people and the soldiers who were on his right and on his left. 16:7 As he yelled curses, Shimei said, “Leave! Leave! You man of bloodshed, you wicked man! ⁶  16:8 The Lord has punished you for ⁷  all the spilled blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you rule. Now the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. Disaster has overtaken you, for you are a man of bloodshed!”

Psalms 35:13-14

35:13 When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, ⁸ 

and refrained from eating food. ⁹ 

(If I am lying, may my prayers go unanswered!) ¹⁰ 

35:14 I mourned for them as I would for a friend or my brother. ¹¹ 

I bowed down ¹²  in sorrow as if I were mourning for my mother. ¹³ 

Psalms 35:25-26

35:25 Do not let them say to themselves, ¹⁴  “Aha! We have what we wanted!” ¹⁵ 

Do not let them say, “We have devoured him!”

35:26 May those who want to harm me be totally embarrassed and ashamed! ¹⁶ 

May those who arrogantly taunt me be covered with shame and humiliation! ¹⁷ 

Proverbs 17:5

17:5 The one who mocks the poor ¹⁸  insults ¹⁹  his Creator;

whoever rejoices over disaster will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 24:17-18

24:17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, ²⁰ 

and when he stumbles do not let your heart rejoice,

24:18 lest the Lord see it, and be displeased, ²¹ 

and turn his wrath away from him. ²² 

[4:10]  ¹ tn Heb “and he was like a bearer of good news in his eyes.”

[4:11]  ¹ tn Heb “on his bed.”

[4:11]  ² tn See HALOT 146 s.v. II בער. Some derive the verb from a homonym meaning “to burn; to consume.”

[16:5]  ¹ tn Heb “came to.” The form of the verb in the MT is odd. Some prefer to read וַיַּבֹא (vayyavo’), preterite with vav consecutive) rather than וּבָא (uva’), apparently perfect with vav), but this is probably an instance where the narrative offline vÿqatal construction introduces a new scene.

[16:5]  ² tn Heb “And look, from there a man was coming out from the clan of the house of Saul and his name was Shimei son of Gera, continually going out and cursing.”

[16:7]  ¹ tn Heb “man of worthlessness.”

[16:8]  ¹ tn Heb “has brought back upon you.”

[35:13]  ¹ tn Heb “as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth.” Sackcloth was worn by mourners. When the psalmist’s enemies were sick, he was sorry for their misfortune and mourned for them.

[35:13]  ² sn Fasting was also a practice of mourners. By refraining from normal activities, such as eating food, the mourner demonstrated the sincerity of his sorrow.

[35:13]  ³ tn Heb “and my prayer upon my chest will return.” One could translate, “but my prayer was returning upon my chest,” but the use of the imperfect verbal form sets this line apart from the preceding and following lines (vv. 13a, 14), which use the perfect to describe the psalmist’s past actions.

[35:14]  ¹ tn Heb “like a friend, like a brother to me I walked about.”

[35:14]  ² sn I bowed down. Bowing down was a posture for mourning. See Ps 38:6.

[35:14]  ³ tn Heb “like mourning for a mother [in] sorrow I bowed down.”

[35:25]  ¹ tn Heb “in their heart[s].”

[35:25]  ² tn Heb “Aha! Our desire!” The “desire” of the psalmist’s enemies is to triumph over him.

[35:26]  ¹ tn Heb “may they be embarrassed and ashamed together, the ones who rejoice over my harm.”

[35:26]  ² tn Heb “may they be clothed with shame and humiliation, the ones who magnify [themselves] against me.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 26 are understood as jussives (see vv. 24b-25, where the negative particle אַל (’al) appears before the prefixed verbal forms, indicating they are jussives). The psalmist is calling down judgment on his enemies.

[17:5]  ¹ sn The parallelism helps define the subject matter: The one who “mocks the poor” (NAB, NASB, NIV) is probably one who “rejoices [NIV gloats] over disaster.” The poverty is hereby explained as a disaster that came to some. The topic of the parable is the person who mocks others by making fun of their misfortune.

[17:5]  ² sn The Hebrew word translated “insults” (חֵרֵף, kheref) means “reproach; taunt” (as with a cutting taunt); it describes words that show contempt for or insult God. The idea of reproaching the Creator may be mistaking and blaming God’s providential control of the world (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 337). W. G. Plaut, however, suggests that mocking the poor means holding up their poverty as a personal failure and thus offending their dignity and their divine nature (Proverbs, 187).

[24:17]  ¹ sn The saying (vv. 17, 18) warns against gloating over the misfortune of one’s enemies. The prohibition is formed with two negated jussives “do not rejoice” and “let not be glad,” the second qualified by “your heart” as the subject, signifying the inner satisfaction of such a defeat.

[24:18]  ¹ tn Heb “and [it is] evil in his eyes.”

[24:18]  ² sn The judgment of God should strike a note of fear in the heart of people (e.g., Lev 19:17-18). His judgment is not to be taken lightly, or personalized as a victory. If that were to happen, then the Lord might take pity on the enemies in their calamity, for he champions the downtrodden and defeated. These are probably personal enemies; the imprecatory psalms and the prophetic oracles present a different set of circumstances for the downfall of God’s enemies – even the book of Proverbs says that brings joy to the community.