From the early Church Fathers to now.
1 Patristic · 2 Jewish · 1 Catholic
“They have cast me forth and now they have surrounded me: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth.”
“"Casting Me forth they have now compassed Me about" [Psalm 17:11]. Casting Me forth outside the city, they have now compassed Me about on the Cross. "Their eyes they have determined to turn down on the earth." The bent of their heart they have determined to turn down on these earthly things: deeming Him, who was slain, to endure a mighty evil, and themselves, that slew Him, none.”
“[By] our footsteps they surround us now By our footsteps, the enemies surround us now, and they set their eyes roaming over the land, to raid the land. It appears to me that David prayed this prayer after the incident of Uriah and Joab had happened to him, and the Israelites were in the land of the children of Ammon besieging Rabbah (II Sam. 11), and David feared that they would be defeated there because of the sin that he had committed, and the Philistines, Moab, Edom, and all the evil neighbors of Eretz Israel, who looked forward to the day of their misfortune, would hear and march against them.”
“At our steps: – אַשֻּׁרֵינוּ with a daghesh in the shin; and so: “if my step (אַשֻּׁרִי) has turned aside from Thy way” (Job 31:7). now have they surrounded us: – The Kethib (סבבוני = they have surrounded me) is written with yodh, but the Keri reads with waw (סבבונו = they have surrounded us); (the expression) is plural (us) as referring to himself and his friends who collected together with him as he fled before Saul, and singular as referring to himselt, for he is the principal. And he says: our steps, because when they have come to know our way in which we go now they have surrounded us, (i.e.) at once they pursue us and surround us. They set their eyes to cast us down in the earth: – They set their eyes upon our way to cast their net in the earth to take us.”
“Third, regarding deed. First, he shows how one proceeds to deed. Second, the cause of this, at "They have set their eyes." In the action he sets forth two things. First, the contempt. Second, the eagerness to do harm; and yet when someone despises, he is not eager to harm. And therefore he says, "casting me out," that is, despising me. Is. 33: "He has cast away cities; he has not regarded men." And yet "they surrounded me on every side with eagerness." And this the Jews did to Christ, when they cast him out of the city: Lk. 4. "And they surrounded me," gathering together for the spectacle to mock him (Acts 7). And the reason for this is that they do not look to God but to earthly things: Ps. 3: "There is no salvation for him in his God." "They set their eyes to turn them toward the earth," namely, the sinners set the intention of their heart to turn toward earthly things, with deliberation and persistence. Prov. 17: "The eyes of fools," that is, of sinners, "are on the ends of the earth." And therefore they do not receive the light of grace: Eccl. 2: "The eyes of the wise man are in his head; the fool," that is, the sinner, "walks in darkness," that is, in sins. Dan. 13: "They turned away their eyes so as not to see heaven." And this literally occurred among the Jews, when they said (Jn. 11): "Lest perhaps the Romans come and take away our place and our nation." Or "toward the earth," that is, toward the flesh of Christ, whose weakness alone they considered, and not his divinity; as if to say: they set their eyes, etc.”
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.