“They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.”
The reference to those sitting in the gate speaking against the psalmist and drunkards making the psalmist the subject of songs articulates that the persecution extends into public spaces and becomes public mockery. The gate was the place of judgment and public discourse; to be spoken against there is public humiliation. That drunkards sing songs about the psalmist indicates that even the lowest and most contemptible members of society feel entitled to mock the sufferer. This verse emphasizes the totality of the public nature of the shame.
Church Fathers on Psalms 69:12
1. We have been born into this world, and added to the people of God, at that period wherein already the herb from a grain of mustard seed has spread out its branches; wherein already the leaven, which at first was contemptible, has leavened three measures, that is, the whole round world repeopled by the three sons of Noe: Genesis 9:19 for from East and West and North and South shall come they that shall sit down with the Patriarchs, Matthew 8:11 while those shall have been…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!