John Gill Commentary Psalms 27:12

"Deliver me not over unto the will of mine adversaries: For false witnesses are risen up against me, And such as breathe out cruelty." — Psalms 27:12 (ASV)

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies
It is a dreadful thing for a man to be given up to his own heart's lusts, and to be delivered up into the hands of Satan; who would fain have even the people of God themselves in his hands, that he might distress them at pleasure, if not destroy them; and also to be suffered to fall into the hands of wicked men, whose tender mercies are cruel;

for false witnesses are risen up against me ;
laying to his charge, that he sought to take away from Saul his crown and kingdom, and even his life, (1 Samuel 24:9) ;

and such as breathe out cruelty ;
as Doeg the Edomite, whose tongue was as a sharp razor, and by whose hands eighty-five priests were slain, on account of David's being supplied with bread by Ahimelech; the word is in the singular number; see (Psalms 52:1–4) (1 Samuel 22:18) ; compare with this clause (Acts 9:1) ; and Horace's phrase, "Spirabat amores" ^F12 .

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FOOTNOTES:

• F12: Carmin. l. 4. Ode. 13. v. 19.