Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies
It is a dreadful thing for a man to be given up to his own heart's lusts, and to be delivered up into the hands of Satan; who would fain have even the people of God themselves in his hands, that he might distress them at pleasure, if not destroy them; and also to be suffered to fall into the hands of wicked men, whose tender mercies are cruel;
for false witnesses are risen up against me;
laying to his charge, that he sought to take away from Saul his crown and kingdom, and even his life, ( 1 Samuel 24:9 ) ;
and such as breathe out cruelty;
as Doeg the Edomite, whose tongue was as a sharp razor, and by whose hands four score and five priests were slain, on account of David's being supplied with bread by Ahimelech; the word is in the singular number; see ( Psalms 52:1-4 ) ( 1 Samuel 22:18 ) ; compare with this clause ( Acts 9:1 ) ; and Horace's phrase, "Spirabat amores" F12.