Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

Behold, he travaileth with iniquity; Yea, he hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

Behold he hath been in labour with injustice; he hath conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity.

Lo, he travaileth with iniquity, And he hath conceived perverseness, And hath brought forth falsehood.

That man is a worker of evil; the seed of wrongdoing has given birth to deceit.

He hath also prepared for him the weapons of death, Yea, His arrows which He made sharp.

Behold, he shall travail David has hitherto shown how great and formidable the danger was which was near him. In this verse, laughing to scorn the presumptuous and foolish attempts of Saul, and his magnificent preparations, he declares that they had failed of accomplishing their object. By the demonstrative adverb Behold, he enhances the wonder, inasmuch as such a result fell out, on his part altogether unlooked for. Behold, says he, after he has travailed to bring forth wickedness, like as he had conceived mischief, at length there comes forth only empty wind and vanity, because God frustrated his expectations, and destroyed all these wicked attempts. [1] Iniquity and mischief are here put for every kind of violence and outrage [2] which Saul intended to inflict upon David. Some interpreters think that the order of the words is inverted, because travailing to bring forth is put before conceiving; but I think that the words have their proper place if you explain them thus: Behold, he shall travail to bring forth wickedness, for he hath conceived mischief; that is to say, as he long ago devised with himself my destruction, so he will do his utmost to put his design into execution. David afterwards adds, he hath brought forth falsehood This implies that Saul had been disappointed in his expectation; as Isaiah, (Isaiah 26:18,) in like manner, speaks of unbelievers "bringing forth wind," when their success does not correspond to their wicked and presumptuous attempts. As often, therefore, as we see the ungodly secretly plotting our ruin, let us remember that they speak falsehood to themselves; in other words deceive themselves, and shall fail in accomplishing what they devise in their hearts. [3] If, however, we do not perceive that they are disappointed in their designs until they are about to be brought forth, let us not be cast down, but bear it with a spirit of patient submission to the will and providence of God.

Footnotes

1 - "Pource que Dieu l'a frustre de son attente et renverse toutes ces meschantes entreprises."--Fr.

2 - "Pour toutes violences et outrages."--Fr.

3 - "C'est a dire, se decoyvent et ne viendront a bout de ce qu'ils couvent en leurs coeurs."--Fr.

Behold, he travaileth with iniquity - The wicked man does. The allusion here is to the pains and throes of child-birth; and the idea is, that the wicked man labors or struggles, even with great pain, to accomplish his purposes of iniquity. All his efforts, purposes, plans, are for the promotion of evil.
And hath conceived mischief - That is, he hath formed a scheme of mischief. The allusion here is common when speaking of forming a plan of evil.
And brought forth falsehood - The birth is falsehood; that is, self-deception, or disappointment. It does not mean that falsehood was his aim or purpose, or that he had merely accomplished a lie; but the idea is, that after all his efforts and pains, after having formed his scheme, and labored hard (as if in the pangs of child-birth) to bring it forth, it was abortive. He would be disappointed, and would fail at last. This idea is expressed more distinctly in the following verse, and the design of the whole is to say that any plan or purpose of wickedness must be in the end a failure, since God is a righteous Judge, and will vindicate His own cause.

He travaileth with iniquity - All these terms show the pitch of envy, wrath, and malevolence, to which Saul had carried his opposition against David. He conceived mischief; he travailed with iniquity; he brought forth falsehood - all his expectations were blasted.

Behold, he travaileth with iniquity,.... Is full of it, and big with it, as a woman with child, and eagerly desires to bring it forth, and is in pain till he commits it;
and hath conceived mischief; that which is injurious to God and the perfections of his nature, a transgression of his law, and an affront to his justice and holiness, is doing wrong to fellow creatures, and harm to themselves, either to their name and credit, or to their substance and estates, or to their bodies and souls, and it may be to them all; and yet this they conceive, they devise it in their hearts, and form schemes how to bring it to pass, and which they do with great freedom, deliberation, and pleasure;
and brought forth falsehood; or "vanity" (k), or a vain thing, as the same word is rendered in Job 15:35; no fruit at all, but wind, or stubble, Isaiah 26:17; that which deceives does not answer the expectation, but the contrary to it; the sense is, that wicked men having devised mischievous things against the saints, they are big with expectations of success, and strive to bring their purposes to bear, but are miserably disappointed, for it all ends in vanity and vexation of spirit to themselves.
(k) "rem inanem", so some in Vatablus; "vanitatem", Gejerum.

The first clause expresses the general idea that wicked men labor to do evil, the others carry out the figure fully.

(Hebrews.: 7:15-18) This closing strophe foretells to the enemy of God, as if dictated by the judge, what awaits him; and concludes with a prospect of thanksgiving and praise. Man brings forth what he has conceived, he reaps what he has sown. Starting from this primary passage, we find the punishment which sin brings with it frequently represented under these figures of הדה and ילד (הוליד, חבּל, חיל), זרע and קצר, and first of all in Job 15:35. The act, guilt, and punishment of sin appear in general as notions that run into one another. David sees in the sin of his enemies their self-destruction. It is singular, that travail is first spoken of, and then only afterwards pregnancy. For חבּל signifies, as in Song 8:5, ὠδίνειν, not: to conceive (Hitz.). The Arab. ḥabila (synonym of ḥamala) is not to conceive in distinction from being pregnant, but it is both: to be and to become pregnant. The accentuation indicates the correct relationship of the three members of the sentence. First of all comes the general statement: Behold he shall travail with, i.e., bring forth with writhing as in the pains of labour, און, evil, as the result which proceeds from his wickedness. Then, by this thought being divided into its two factors (Hupf.) it goes on to say: that is, he shall conceive (concipere) עמל, and bear שׁקר. The former signifies trouble, molestia, just as πονηρία signifies that which makes πόνον; the latter falsehood, viz., self-deception, delusion, vanity, inasmuch as the burden prepared for others, returns as a heavy and oppressive burden upon the sinner himself, as is said in Psalm 7:17; cf. Isaiah 59:4, where און instead of שׁקר denotes the accursed wages of sin which consist in the unmasking of its nothingness, and in the undeceiving of its self-delusion. He diggeth a pit for himself, is another turn of the same thought, Psalm 57:7; Ecclesiastes 10:8. Psalm 7:16 mentions the digging, and Psalm 7:16 the subsequent falling into the pit; the aorist ויּפּל is, for instance, like Psalm 7:13, Psalm 16:9; Psalm 29:10. The attributive יפעל is virtually a genitive to שׁחת, and is rightly taken by Ges. 124, 3, a as present: in the midst of the execution of the work of destruction prepared for others it becomes his own. The trouble, עמל, prepared for others returns upon his own head (בּראשׁו, clinging to it, just as על־ראשׁו signifies descending and resting upon it), and the violence, חמס, done to others, being turned back by the Judge who dwells above (Micah 1:12), descends upon his own pate (קדקדו with o by q, as e.g., in Genesis 2:23). Thus is the righteousness of God revealed in wrath upon the oppressor and in mercy upon him who is innocently oppressed. Then will the rescued one, then will David, give thanks unto Jahve, as is due to Him after the revelation of His righteousness, and will sing of the name of Jahve the Most High (עליון as an appended name of God is always used without the art., e.g., Psalm 57:3). In the revelation of Himself He has made Himself a name. He has, however, revealed Himself as the almighty Judge and Deliverer, as the God of salvation, who rules over everything that takes place here below. It is this name, which He has made by His acts, that David will then echo back to Him in his song of thanksgiving.

Travelleth - This metaphor denotes his deep design, and vigorous endeavours for doing mischief, and his restlessness and pain 'till he have accomplished it.