Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 49:14

14. Like sheep they are laid in the grave , death shall feed on them , and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning , and their beauty shall consume in the grave, from their dwelling .

Which for a season are fed in large and sweet Pastures, but at the owners Pleasure are put together in close and Comfortless solds, and led away to the Slaughters, not knowing nor considering whither they are going.

Or, in Hell: For the Hebrew word signifie both.

The first Death shall Consume their Bodies in the Grave, and the second Death shall devour their Souls.

Good men whom here they oppressed and abused at their Pleasure.

Either, 1. Suddendly, or within a very little time, as this Phrase is oft used, as Psal. 30. 5. and 46. 5. and 101. 8. and 143. 8. &c. Or, 2. In the day of general Judgment, and the Resurrection of the Dead. For Death being called the night, Ioh. 9. 4. and sleep in many places, that day is fitly Compared to the Morning, when men awake out of sleep, and enter upon that everlasting day. But whether this or the former be the true meaning of the Phrase, it is sufficiently evident the thing here spoken of, is not done in this Life, but in the next: For, 1. This Proposition and Priviledge being general, and common to all upright Persons is not verified here, it being the lot of many good men to be oppressed and killed by the [illegible: 1+ letters]icked, as is manifest both from Scripture, as Psal. 44. 22. Eccles. 8. 14. and 9. 2. and from the Experience of all Ages of the Church. 2. This Dominion of the just over the wicked happens after the wicked are laid in their Grave, as is here expressed, and Consequently supposeth their future Life and Resurrection: for when one Person rules over another, both are supposed to exist or have a being. Nor is there any Argument against this Sence, but from a vain and absurd Conceit, which some men have entertained, that the Saints in the Old Testament had no firm belief nor Expectation of the Recompences of the Life to come. Which is against evident Reason; and against many clear places of the Old Testament, that cannot without force be wrested to any other Sence; and against the express Testimony of the New Testament concerning them, Heb. 11. and in many other places.

Or, their Form, or Figure, or Image▪ all which come to one, and seems to intimate that all their Glory and Felicity which they had in this Life, was rather imaginary than Real, and indeed but a shadow, as it is called, Eccles. 6. 12. and 8. 13.

Heb. is to Consume, or to be Consumed, (i. e.) Shall be consumed: the infinitive Verb being here put for the Future, as it is Psal. 32. 8. Zeth. 3. 4. and 12. 10.

(i. e.) They shall be hurried from their large, and stately and pleasant Mansions, into a close and dark Grave, But those Words are by divers Interpreters rendred otherwise, and that Peradventure more truly and fitly, to this purpose, Word for Word, the Grave (or rather, Hell, as before, and as this Word Sheol is Confessedly oft used, in the Old Testament, but no where more Conveniently than here) shall be a dwelling, or for a dwelling unto him, or them, or every one of them. Which in the Prophets Phrase is called dwelling with everlasting Burnings, Isa. 33. 14. and, in the Phrase of the New Testament, to be cast into and abide in the lake of Fire, and Brimstone, Revel. 20. 10.

Marginal references: Heb. Hell.; Dan. 7. 22. Mal. 4. 3. Luk. 22. 30. 1 Cor. 6. 2. Rev. 2. 26. & 20. 4.; Or, Strength.; Or, [illegible: 1 word] Grace being an habitation to every one of them.