תהלים, פרק ס״ט, פסוק כ״ז

A profound sense of injustice arises when suffering is met not with compassion, but with further cruelty. The psalmist justifies his harsh words against his enemies by exposing the depths of their malice. When God issues a decree of hardship, the enemies do not offer mercy to those who are already struggling. Instead, they exploit this vulnerability to add new layers of torment, turning the pain of the victims into a subject of mockery and dark plotting.

The primary approach among commentators is that the enemies relentlessly pursue those whom God has already struck, afflicted, or sent into exile. Even if God is only slightly angry with His people, the enemies take advantage of the situation to multiply the harm, entirely abandoning any sense of pity [רש"י, מאירי]. Their explicit goal is to magnify the suffering of the wounded [מצודת דוד]. While God is the original source of the affliction—since without His will, the enemies would lack the power to cause harm [רד"ק]—the attackers twist this reality to excuse their own actions. They justify their cruelty by claiming they are simply chasing individuals who are already struck down and rejected by God [מלבי"ם].

The victims in this scenario are not the dead, as those who have passed away can no longer feel pain. Rather, they are the deeply wounded, the exiled, and those on the brink of death [רד"ק, מצודת דוד, מאירי, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The enemies' main objective is to deepen this existing agony [רד"ק, אבן עזרא, מצודת דוד]. To do so, they weaponize their words. They gather in councils to plot further ruin against a people who are already fragile and exposed [רש"י, מאירי]. They speak to one another with biting mockery, taking pleasure in the suffering they witness [אבן עזרא, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

The cruelty reaches its peak when the attackers count the dead in front of the traumatized survivors, specifically to shatter their broken hearts. This relentless persecution transcends an attack on the people; it is an intentional assault on God Himself. By constantly bringing up the slaughter and acting with such malice, the enemies seek to provoke and cause deep pain to God, who actively weeps over the suffering of His people [אלשיך].