John Gill Commentary Psalms 56:5

"All the day long they wrest my words: All their thoughts are against me for evil." — Psalms 56:5 (ASV)

Every day they wrest my words
Form, fashion, and shape them at their pleasure; construe them, and put what sense upon them they think fit. The word ^F21 is used of the formation of the human body, in (Job 10:8) ; They put his words upon the rack, and made them speak what he never intended; as some men wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction, (2 Peter 3:16) ; and as the Jews wrested the words of Christ, (John 2:19) (Matthew 26:60Matthew 26:61) .

The word has also the sense of causing vexation and grief, (Isaiah 63:10) ; and so it may be rendered here, "my words cause grief" ^F23 ; to his enemies; because he had said, in the preceding verses, that he would trust in the Lord, and praise his word, and not be afraid of men; just as the Sadducees were grieved at the apostles preaching, through Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, (Acts 4:1Acts 4:2) .

Or they caused grief to himself; for because of these his enemies reproached him, cursed him, and distressed him. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin render it, "they cursed my words"; or despised them, as the Ethiopic and Arabic versions:

all their thoughts [are] against me for evil ;
their counsels, schemes, and contrivances, were all formed to do him all the hurt and mischief they could.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F21: (wbuey) "fingunt mea verba", Cocceius, Gusset. p. 628. "They painfully form and frame my words", Ainsworth.
• F23: "Dolore afficient", Montanus, Gejerus, Vatablus.