Rashi on TanakhPsalms 109

O God of my praise, be not silent This was said regarding all Israel.

For the mouth of a wicked man Ishmael.

Instead of my love for You, they hinder me.

but I am at prayer But I pray to You constantly. I found:

evil instead of good I sacrifice seventy bulls every year for the seventy nations, and we request rain, yet they harm us. Shocher Tov (109:4).

When he is judged before You, may he emerge from Your judgment guilty and wicked.

his office of dignity Heb. פקדתו, his greatness, provostie or pruvote in Old French, like (Esther 2: 3): “And let the king appoint officers (פקידים).”

and [people] should ask and search from their ruins Everyone will ask about them, what happened to So-and-so and So-and-so, because of the rumor of ruin that emerged about them.

And “search” (וְדָרְשוּ) means from others, because it is vowelized with a short “kamatz,” and וְשִׁאֵלוּ also means from others, that others should ask about them. This can also be interpreted as וְשִׁאֵלוּ, of the intensive conjugation, meaning that they will go around by the doors [to beg for alms].

May a creditor search out all he has Heb. ינקש. A person who toils and searches, and longs passionately to do something is described by the expression מִתְנַקֵשׁ, i.e., shaken and going from place to place, like (Dan. 5:6): “and his knees knocked (נקשן) against each other.”

in another generation that will come after his being cut off, his name and his fame will be blotted out so that not even a remembrance will remain of him in the mouth of the generation that is born in the world after his name will be destroyed, sa retremure in Old French, its extirpation.

the iniquity against his forefathers The iniquity that he sinned against his forebears, to Abraham, whose life he shortened by five years, and to his father he caused blindness.

and the sin against his mother that he destroyed her womb, and that he caused the day of her burial to be concealed from the people, lest they curse her for Esau emerged from her womb, as it is said (Gen. 35:8): “Deborah, Rebecca’s nurse, died...the Plain of Weeping.” In Greek, another is called “allon,” for Jacob had another mourning along with that of Deborah, for his mother died and they concealed her death.

May they be [May] these iniquities [be] before the Lord constantly.

and may He cut off their remembrance from the earth [the remembrance] of Esau and his chieftains.

Because he did not remember to do kindness to engage in the mourning of his father, as Jacob had made a pottage of lentils to console Isaac, for on that day Abraham had died.

a poor...man Israel.

And he loved a curse [Esau loved] the curse of the Holy One, blessed be He, Whose existence he denied.

And he donned a curse He brought himself into a curse and was satisfied with breaking off the yoke of the sacrifice and the priestly blessing and the curse of the heathens.

May it be to him [May] the curse [be to him] as an envelopment like a garment. [This] I found.

and as a girdle...constantly Heb. ולמזח, a girdle, and so, (Job 12:21): “and loosens the belt (מזיח) of the strong.” He loosens the belt of the strong.

Like a shadow when it lengthens at eventide.

I was stirred up an expression of stirring and mixing and astonishment, like a locust, which wanders to and fro and is stirred up. [This] I found:

and enwrap themselves...like a cloak which enwraps and envelops the entire body.