“And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:”
Romans 11:9, KJV
“And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them;”
Romans 11:9, ESV
Table of Contents
- Romans 11:9 Meaning – And David saith
- Romans 11:9 Meaning – Let their table become a snare and a trap
Romans 11:9 Meaning – And David saith
The words are a little changed in this quotation from the Psalmist, but without any violation of the sense.
“Let their table become a snare before them; and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.”
No mention is made of recompense in David, but there is a general agreement in the whole passage between him and the apostle.
The Psalmist curses the wicked, and wishes that every source of their happiness, and object of their desire, which he means by table and their welfare, may prove their ruin and destruction.
Calvin, John – Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans tr. Francis Sibson (1834)
The last passage referred to is cited from Psalm 69:22. There is no reasonable doubt that this psalm is a direct prediction respecting the sufferings of the Messiah, and the glories which were to follow. It has all the characteristics of the Messianic psalms; there is much in it that cannot without violence be applied to any but the Messiah — nothing in it, rightly interpreted, that is not applicable to Him; in its structure, it exactly corresponds to other psalms undoubtedly Messianic; and passages from it are repeatedly cited in the New Testament as predictions. Its awful imprecations by the Messiah are illustrative of what the apostle meant when he represented his kinsmen, his brethren according to the flesh, as an “anathema by Christ.” They are a prediction of what should befall the opposers of the Messiah, as the righteous punishment of their opposition to Him.
Brown, John – Analytical exposition of the epistle of Paul the apostle to the Romans (1857)
It is highly erroneous to suppose, with Mr. Stuart, that the Apostle quotes these passages merely to illustrate a general principle. In this sense they could be of no use. But they are eminently to the purpose as predictions.
Haldane, Robert – Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans (1874)
Romans 11:9 Meaning – Let their table become a snare and a trap
Another testimony is from David (Psalm 69:23-24) who (as a type of Christ) prays against his enemies, that all the benefits of God, and the Gospel also tendered to them, might be to them an occasion of ruin, that afterwards they might savour nothing but earthly things, who being so often warned of God, would not relish heavenly things, and that in just revenge of their unthankfulness.
Dickson, David – An Exposition of All St. Paul’s Epistles (1659)
Their table was to be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense to them ; their eyes were to be darkened, so as not to see, and their back to be bowed down always.
The general meaning is that their privileges and advantages, through their abuse of them, should be the occasion of their delusion and punishment. They were to become the victims of delusion, and the subjects of a most degrading spiritual slavery. The prediction was fulfilled in the case of the Jews of the apostle’s age, and continues to be fulfilled in the case of their posterity who walk in their footsteps. The Old Testament, through their misinterpretation, confirms them in their unbelief, and they are under the bondage of Talmudic superstition. Indeed, it has been remarked, that the first part of the prophecy was verified even to the letter in the case of the Jews, when, in the destruction of their city, “wrath came on them to the uttermost.”
“Their table” — their paschal feast, was a snare to take them, a stumbling-block, an occasion of their fall, when, towards the close of the Jewish war under Titus, a vast multitude, collected from all quarters to observe the passover and to supplicate the assistance of their God against their enemies, met, in the crucifixion of thousands of them, with “a recompense” — a most appropriate punishment of their great national sin in having, by the hands of the Romans, crucified and slain the Messiah.
This state of spiritual blindness and obduracy, and dereliction by God, and deep degradation and suffering, into which the Jewish people generally sunk on their rejecting the Messiah, and which still continues — for hitherto it has only been a very small remnant that have attained Messianic blessings — is not to continue always. By means of these awful events, those blessings were communicated more speedily and more extensively to the Gentiles than otherwise they could have been, and a destined period would assuredly arrive, when the great body of the Jews, remaining a distinct people, and the great body of the Gentile nations, should, by submitting to “the righteousness of God,” become heirs of the common salvation.
The manner in which the manifested Divine method of justification works out its great intended results, remains unchanged, unchangeable. The Divine testimony respecting it must be believed, in order to its benefits being realized. This testimony, contained in the apostolic writings, must be urged on the attention of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles. As there is nothing restrictive in the revelation itself, it ought to be made known to men of every nation, people, kindred, and tongue — to every human creature under heaven. This is the Church’s duty; but, alas! how very imperfectly has it been performed! Where this testimony is made known, no human being remains personally uninterested in the blessings it reveals and conveys, but by his own wilful unbelief. We cannot plead that we have not heard. Yet, is it not true, that not all of us who have heard have believed? What is the reason? Not want of plainness in the testimony, not want of power in the evidence. The true reason, in the case of unbelievers now, as in the case of the Jews then, is, they like neither the Saviour nor the salvation. But we must either have this Saviour or none at all — this salvation or perdition must be our portion — “There is no name given under heaven among men by which we may be saved, but the name Jesus.” If any of us at last are found uninterested in the Divine method of Justification, and therefore liable to the tremendous evils from which it alone saves, we shall be found, in some respects, even more guilty than the unbelieving Jews in the primitive age; and He who spared not them, assuredly will not spare us.
There are some practical instructions very distinctly, though indirectly, intimated in the commencing paragraph of the eleventh chapter, which I think it right briefly to notice before proceeding to the illustration of the next subdivision of the apostle’s argument. (1.) Let us be cautious as to the conclusions we draw from acknowledged and undoubted truths. They by no means warrant all the inferences which have been plausibly drawn from them. (2.) Let us be cautious and charitable in the judgments we form of bodies of men: God may have people where we would not expect to find them. (3.) Let us guard against desponding views with regard to religion. Elijah’s mistake has often been committed. (4.) Let us take heed not to resist the fair influence of truth and its evidence. If we do, we need not wonder that we should be delivered over to the hands of the great deceiver — “given up to strong delusions, to believe a lie” and be involved in the condemnation of those who, if they make not lies, love them, and who believe not the truth, just because they loved it not. For, as our Christian poet has it: —
“He that will be cheated: to the last,
Brown, John – Analytical exposition of the epistle of Paul the apostle to the Romans (1857)
Delusions, strong as hell, shall bind him fast.”
Let them experience misery and disappointment in their daily occupations and concerns, and let them find those things, of whatever description — whether sacred or common — which were calculated to be for their welfare and advantage, a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a punishment to them.
For the hope of retaining their temporal kingdom, they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, and by this means they lost the kingdom also, with all temporal prosperity, John 11:48,50.
Mr. Stuart observes, ‘It is enough to say, at present, that the Apostle, in making this quotation, need not be supposed to design anything more than to produce an instance from the Psalms, where the same principle is developed as is contained in the assertions which he had made; i.e., the ancient Scriptures speak of a part of Israel as blind and deaf, as in deep distress and under heavy punishment because of their unbelief and disobedience. What happened in ancient times may take place again; it has, in fact, happened at the present time.’
How trifling would be the conduct of the Apostle, according to this representation of Mr. Stuart?
Are all these quotations made just for the purpose of showing that something in some way similar happened long ago?
Is this likeness merely accidental?
Whatever application the words might have to David and David’s times, their import as a proper prediction is clear, and since they are so appropriated by the Apostle, ought never to be questioned.
These words of the Old Testament Scriptures are too strong to represent anything else, in their full extent, but the fearful blindness of the Jews in the time of the Messiah, when they saw His miracles, and nevertheless did not perceive their import; when they heard, yet did not listen to the calls of His Gospel.
Then, truly, their heart was made fat, and their ears heavy, and their eyes were closed, John 12:40; and then, by the issue, it appeared that God would not convert them, because He would not any more at that time do them good.
The predictions concerning their spiritual blindness, as well as the denunciations contained in these verses, have been literally accomplished.
Many pretend to find a difficulty in regard to the threatenings denounced against the enemies of God in the Psalms, but the difficulty arises from their own erroneous views of the subject.
Does it imply a malicious or revengeful temper to utter the dictates of the Spirit of God, whoever may be the object of the Divine denunciations?
This is not merely trifling, but blasphemous.
To represent this passage otherwise than as a prediction, gives a false view of the sixty-ninth Psalm, from which the quotation is taken, which contains so illustrious a prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God had announced by David, in that Psalm, the maledictions it records in connection with crimes committed by the Jews.
Those here quoted, in the 9th and 10th verses, immediately follow the prophetical description in the Psalm of their treatment of the Messiah.
It should also be observed, that during the whole period of the former dispensation, God employed the most powerful external means to bring them back to Himself, so that they were entirely without excuse.
The sixty-ninth Psalm consists of three parts.
The first respects the violent persecutions which the Lord Jesus Christ experienced from His enemies and the Jews.
The second part is a prediction of the fearful judgments of the Lord, especially upon the traitor Judas.
The third part regards the exaltation of Jesus Christ to glory, and the success of the Gospel.
First, the prophetical characters of the Psalm are representative of the extraordinary sufferings of Him of whom it speaks, and of the reproaches against Him — sufferings and persecutions which would be both exaggerated were they limited to those persecutions which David endured at the hand of His enemies.
Secondly, the cause of His sufferings is ascribed to His love of God.
‘For Thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered My face. I am become a stranger unto My brethren, and an alien unto My mother’s children. For the zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon Me.’
Now, we do not read that David was ever persecuted on account of his religion, nor that he suffered because of His love to God.
Thirdly, although the words, ‘They gave Me also gall for My meat; and in My thirst they gave me vinegar to drink,’ may be understood figuratively of David, they cannot be literally applied to him, but they apply literally to Jesus Christ.
The first division of the Psalm, which foretells the ruin of the persecutors, is too strong to be understood of the persecutors of David, as appears from what is said from the 22nd to the 28th verses inclusive, which conclude with these awful words: ‘Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into Thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.’
It cannot be said that the enemies of David were absolutely cut off from the covenant of God; but these words were fully accomplished on the body of the nation of the Jews, when they did not attain, as the Apostle says, to the law of righteousness, and refused to submit themselves unto the righteousness of God.
They were, therefore, blinded or hardened; the awful maledictions contained in the verses before us descended on their devoted country, and thus they were blotted out of the book of the living, and were not written with the righteous.
In the third part of the Psalm, the deliverance vouchsafed by God is declared: ‘Let Thy salvation, O God, set me up on high,’ which signifies the ascension of the Lord to heaven.
It is afterwards said, ‘I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns or hoofs,’ which marks the abolition of the legal sacrifices.
Finally, the filling of the earth with the glory of God is declared. ‘Let the heaven and earth praise Him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein.’
This is too great to be applied to the temporal deliverances which God vouchsafed to David, the fame of which did not extend so far. It must, then, be ascribed to the glory which God received after the exaltation of Jesus Christ, as He Himself said, ‘Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.’
The words in the beginning of the 9th verse of this Psalm, ‘The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up,’ are applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, John 2:17; and the concluding words, ‘The reproaches of them that reproached Thee, are fallen upon Me,’ by Paul, Romans 15:8.
‘They gave Me also gall for My meat; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink,’ is applied in the three Gospels, by Matthew, and Mark, and John, to what took place at His crucifixion.
The words contained in the 25th ‘Let their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents,’ applied to Judas, Acts 1:20, who may be considered in this matter as the representative of the nation.
‘Let their table become a snare before them,’ verse 22, is quoted by the Apostle in the verse before us, predicting the condition of the Jewish nation when he wrote.
And are all these passages to be considered as quoted by way of accommodation, and not as predictions?
Such an interpretation is not only erroneous, but is degrading to the Holy Scriptures, and utterly at variance with true meaning.
Haldane, Robert – Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans (1874)
