--- title: "Psalms 36 - Study King James Bible with clarkes commentary" description: "Read Psalms 36 with clarkes commentary commentary. 1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. 2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until" image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg" url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/36" --- [ Read](/kjv/psalms/36)[ Commentary](/study/psalms/36)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/psalms/36) Audio 1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, *that there is* no fear of God before his eyes. 2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.* 3 The words of his mouth *are* iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, *and* to do good. 4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way *that is* not good; he abhorreth not evil.* 5 Thy mercy, O LORD, *is* in the heavens; *and* thy faithfulness *reacheth* unto the clouds. 6 Thy righteousness *is* like the great mountains; thy judgments *are* a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.* 7 How excellent *is* thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.* 8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.* 9 For with thee *is* the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. 10 O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.* 11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. 12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise. [Psalms 35](/study/psalms/35) [Psalms 37](/study/psalms/37) ## Commentary To verse 1 The *title* in the Hebrew is, *To the conqueror, to the servant of* *Jehovah, to David*. The *Syriac* and *Arabic* suppose it to have been composed on occasion of Saul's persecution of David. *Calmet* supposes, on good grounds, that it was written during the Babylonish captivity. It is one of the finest Psalms in the whole collection. Verse [Psalms 36:1](/kjv/psalms/36/1). ***The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart*** — It is difficult to make any sense of this line as it now stands. How can *the transgression of the wicked speak within my heart*? But instead of לבי *libbi, MY heart*, four of *Kennicott's* and *De* *Rossi's* MSS. have לבו *libbo, HIS heart*. "The speech of transgression to the wicked is in the midst of his heart." "There is no fear of God before his eyes." It is not by *example* that such a person sins; the *fountain* that sends forth the impure streams is *in his own heart*. There the spirit of transgression lives and reigns; and, as he has no *knowledge* of God, so he has no *fear of* *God*; therefore, there is no check to his wicked propensities: all come to full effect. Lust is conceived, sin is brought forth vigorously, and transgression is multiplied. The reading above proposed, and which should be adopted, is supported by the *Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, AEthiopic, Arabic*, and *Anglo-Saxon*. This latter reads the sentence thus: [Anglo-Saxon]; which I shall give as nearly as possible in the order of the original. "Quoth the unrightwise, that he do guilt in himself: is not fear God's at fore eyes his." That is, The unrighteous man saith in himself that he will sin: God's fear is not before his eyes. The old *Psalter*, in *language* as well as *meaning*, comes very near to the Anglo-Saxon: *The unrightwis saide that he trespas in hym self: the* *drede of God es noght before his een*. And thus it paraphrases the passage: *The unryghtwis*, that es the kynde [the whole generation] of wyked men; *saide in hym self*, qwar man sees noght; *that he* *trespas*, that es, he synne at his wil, als [as if] God roght noght [did not care] qwat he did; and so it es sene, *that the drede of* *God es noght by fore his een*; for if he dred God, he durst noght so say." I believe these *versions* give the true sense of the passage. The psalmist here paints the true state of the *Babylonians*: they were *idolaters* of the grossest kind, and worked iniquity with greediness. The account we have in the book of *Daniel* of this people, exhibits them in the worst light; and profane history confirms the account. Bishop *Horsley* thinks that the word פשע *pesha*, which we render *transgression*, signifies the *apostate* or *devil*. *The devil says to the wicked, within his heart, There is* *no fear*; i.e., no cause of fear: "God is not before his eyes." Placing the colon after *fear* takes away all ambiguity in connection with the reading HIS *heart*, already contended for. The *principle of transgression, sin in the heart, says*, or suggests to every *sinner, there is no cause for fear*: go on, do not fear, for there is no danger. He obeys this suggestion, goes on, and acts wickedly, as "God is not before his eyes." ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com","name":"Real Bible Believers","description":"RBB","publisher":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/search?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/36#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","width":672,"height":448,"caption":"Real Bible Believers"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/36#webpage","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/36","name":"Psalms 36 - Study King James Bible with clarkes commentary","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/36#primaryimage"},"author":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"description":"Read Psalms 36 with clarkes commentary commentary. 1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. 2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/36#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/36"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/36#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","name":"Study Bible"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary","name":"clarkes commentary"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms","name":"Psalms"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/36","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/36","name":"36"}}]},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","width":512,"height":512},"logo":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo"},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/RBiblebeliever","https://www.facebook.com/RBibleBelievers"]}]} ```