Verse 6
Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit ,.... The Targum interprets it of
"captivity which was like unto the lowest pit;'
and so Jarchi and Kimchi. Some understand it of a prison or dungeon, into which the psalmist was put; it may be interpreted of the pit of the grave, into which Christ was laid; though he continued in it not so long as to see corruption; from that prison and judgment he was quickly taken, Psalm 16:10 , "in darkness"; both corporeal and spiritual, Matthew 27:45 , and it is in the Hebrew text "in darknesses" F11 במחשכים "in loca tenebrosa", Tigurine version, Musculus; "in tenebrosissimis", Junius & Tremellius; "in densis tenebris", Piscator; "in caligines, vel obscuritates", Gejerus. , denoting both:
in the deeps ; in the deep waters of affliction, sorrows, and sufferings; see Psalm 69:1 . The allusion is to a dark and deep pit, under ground, such as in the eastern countries they used to put their captives and prisoners into in the night, and take them out in the morning; and which custom continues still among the Turks. Leo Africanus F12 Descriptio Africae, l. 3. p. 413. says he has seen three thousand Christian captives together, clothed in a woollen sack, and chained to one another; and in the night put into pits or ditches under ground; see Zechariah 9:11 .
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