Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 26:9

9. Gather not my soul with sinners , nor my life with bloody men.

(i. e.) My Life, as it is explained in the next Clause. Do not bind me up in the same Bundle, nor put me into the same accursed, and miserable Condition with them. Seeing I have had so great an Antipathy against them, in the whole Course of my Life, v. 4. 5. let me not dye their Death, as Balaam on the contrary desired to dye the Death of the Righteous, Numb. 23. 10. And seeing I have loved thy House and Worship, and indeavoured to serve thee acceptably, not only with Ceremonial cleanness, but with moral purity of Heart and Life, v. 6, 7, 8. do not deal with me as thou wilst with those that are filled with ungodlyness and unrighteousness, do not destroy me with them, the Righteous with the wicked, Gen 18. 23. but save me in the common Calamity, as thou hast promised and used to do in like Cases. The Hebrew word, Asaph, rendred gathering, is oft put for taking away, as Gen. 30. 23. Isa. 4. 1. Ier. 8. 13. and 16. 5. and that by Destruction or Death, as 1 Sam. 15. 6. I[illegible: 1+ letters]a. 57. 1. Ier. 8. 13. Ezek. 34. 29. H[illegible: 1+ letters]ea 4. 3. The ground of which Phrase may be either, because by death mens Souls or Spirits are gathered and returned to God, Eccles. 12. 7. who had dispersed them all the World over: or because the several sorts of Men, good and bad, which live here together Promiscuously, are there severed, and all of one sort of them gathered together, unto their Fathers or People, as i[illegible: 1+ letters] is expressed, Gen. 15. 15. Numb. 20. 24. 2 Kings 22. 20. Comp. Heb. 12. 23.

Profligate and O[illegible: 1+ letters]stinate sinners, as the following Words describe them, such being oft called sinners by way of Eminency, as 1 Sa[illegible: 1+ letters]. 15. 18. Psal. 1. 1. and 104. 35. Isa. 1. 28. and 33. 14.

Marginal references: Or, Take not away, Psal. [illegible: 1+ letters]8. 3.; Heb. men of Blood.