Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 41:6

"And if he come to see [me], he speaketh falsehood; His heart gathereth iniquity to itself: When he goeth abroad, he telleth it." — Psalms 41:6 (ASV)

And if he come. — A particular individual is singled out here from among the enemies.

To see. — This is the usual word for visiting a sick person (Compare to 2 Samuel 13:5; 2 Kings 8:29).

Vanity. — Better, lies. No more vivid picture of an insincere friend could be given. Pretended sympathy is present at the very bedside, while his eye and ear are open to gather anything that can be spread around or turned into mischief, when the need for concealment is over.

The scene of the king’s visit to the deathbed of Gaunt in Shakespeare’s King Richard II. illustrates the psalmist’s position, and the poet may even have had this verse in his mind when he wrote.

“Should dying men flatter those who live?
No, no; men living flatter those who die.”