Psalms 58 commentary

When wrong is done under the form of law, it is worse than any other; especially it is grievous to behold those who profess to be children of God, joining together against any of his people. We should thank the Lord for merciful restraints; we should be more earnest in seeking renewing grace, more watchful over ourselves, and more patient under the effects of fallen nature in others. The corruption of their nature was the root of bitterness. We may see in children the wickedness of the world beginning. They go astray from God and their duty as soon as possibly they can. And how soon will little children tell lies! It is our duty to take pains to teach them, and above all, earnestly to pray for converting grace to make our children new creatures. Though the poison be within, much of it may be kept from breaking forth to injure others. When the Saviour's words are duly regarded, the serpent becomes harmless. But those who refuse to hear heavenly wisdom, must perish miserably, for ever.

David prayed that the enemies of God's church and people might be disabled to do further mischief. We may, in faith, pray against the designs of the enemies of the church. He foretells their ruin. And who knows the power of God's anger? The victories of the Just One, in his own person and that of his servants, over the enemies of man's salvation, produce a joy which springs not from revenge, but from a view of the Divine mercy, justice, and truth, shown in the redemption of the elect, the punishment of the ungodly, and the fulfilment of the promises. Whoever duly considers these things, will diligently seek the reward of righteousness, and adore the Providence which orders all thing aright in heaven and in earth.

PSALM 58

The following psalm consists of two parts. In the commencement, David vindicates his personal integrity from the calumnies cast upon him by his enemies. Having expressed his sense of the grievous injuries which they had inflicted, their cruelty and their treachery, he concludes by an appeal to the judgment of God, and by praying that they might be visited with deserved destruction.

To the chief musician, Destroy not, Michtam of David.

Psalm 58:1-5

1. Do ye indeed speak righteousness? O congregation! do ye judge uprightly? O ye sons of men! 2. Yea, rather in heart ye plot wickedness; your hands weigh out violence upon the earth. 3. They are estranged, being wicked from the womb: they went astray as soon as they were born, speaking lies. 4. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear: 5. Which will not hearken to the voice of the enchanter, charm he never so wisely.

1. Do ye indeed speak righteousness? In putting this question to his enemies, by way of challenge, David displays the boldness of conscious rectitude. It argues that the justice of our cause is demonstratively evident when we venture to appeal to the opposite party himself; for were there any ground to question its justice, it would show an absurd degree of confidence to challenge the testimony of an adversary. David comes forward with the openness of one who was supported by a sense of his integrity, and repels, by a declaration forced from their own lips, the base charges with which they blackened his character in the estimation of such as were simple enough to believe them. “Ye yourselves,” as if he had said, “can attest my innocence, and yet persecute me with groundless calumnies. Are you not ashamed of such gross and gratuitous oppression?” It is necessary, however, to determine who they were whom David here accuses. He calls them a congregation, and again, sons of men The Hebrew word אלם, elem, which I have rendered congregation, some consider to be an epithet applied to righteousness, and translate dumb; “אלם.There is some difficulty in ascertaining the sense of this word. Gesenius derives it from אלם, to be silent: Is justice indeed silent? but this breaks the parallelism, which requires צדק תדברון, ‘will ye speak righteousness?’ in the first line, to correspond with מישרים תשפטו, ‘will ye judge uprightness?’ In the second. Dathe agrees with Bishop Lowth, etc., who propose to point the word אלם, or plene, אלים, judices, ‘O ye judges, or rulers!’ See Exodus 22:27; Psalm 82:1. But this reading, though it makes a very good sense, receives no support from the MSS., or ancient versions. Diodati and De Rossi agree with our translators in taking the word in the sense of assembly, congregation So Schindler אלם, collegatio hominum, congregation, multitudo coetus, ab אלם, ligavit, colligavit. This is probably the true sense. LXX. Vulg. Aeth. and Ar., seem to have read אלם, or אלם.” — (Rogers’ Book of Psalms, volume 2, p. 212.) Walford prefers Dathe’s version. but this does not express the meaning of the Psalmist. Interpreters differ as to what we should understand by the term congregation. Some think that he adverts, by way of accusation, to the meetings which his enemies held, as is usual with those who entertain wicked designs, for the purpose of concerting their plans. I rather incline to the opinion of those who conceive that he here gives (although only in courtesy) the usual title of honor to the counsellors of Saul, who met professedly to consult for the good of the nation, but in reality with no other intention than to accomplish his destruction. Others read, in the congregation — a translation which gives the same meaning to the passage we have already assigned to it, but is not supported by the natural construction of the words. The congregation which David addresses is that assembly which Saul convened, ostensibly for lawful objects, but really for the oppression of the innocent. The term, sons of men, which he immediately afterwards applies to them — taking back, as it were, the title of courtesy formerly given — would seem to be used in contempt of their character, being, as they were, rather a band of public robbers than a convention of judges. Some, however, may be of opinion, that in employing this expression, David had in his eye the universality of the opposition which confronted him — almost the whole people inclining to this wicked factions and that he here issues a magnanimous defiance to the multitude of his enemies. Meanwhile, the lesson taught us by the passage is apparent. Although the whole world be set against the people of God they need not fear, so long as they are supported by a sense of their integrity, to challenge kings and their counsellors, and the promiscuous mob of the people. Should the whole world refuse to hear us, we must learn, by the example of David, to rest satisfied with the testimony of a good conscience, and with appealing to the tribunal of God. Augustine, who had none but the Greek version in his hands, is led by this verse into a subtle disquisition upon the point, that the judgment of men is usually correct when called to decide upon general principles, but fails egregiously in the application of these principles to particular cases, “Argute hic disputant, hominibus rectum esse judicium in generalibus principiis: sed ubi ad hypothesin ventum est, hallucinari,” etc. The French translation runs — “Dispute yci subtilement que les hommes ont un jugement droit et entier es principes generaux, mais quand ce vient a la particularite, que leur raison defaut,” etc. through the blinding and warping influences of their evil passions. All this may be plausible, and, in its own place, useful, but proceeds upon a complete misapprehension of the meaning of the passage.

PSALM 58

Psa 58:1-11. David's critical condition in some period of the Sauline persecution probably occasioned this Psalm, in which the Psalmist teaches that the innate and actual sinfulness of men deserves, and shall receive, God's righteous vengeance, while the pious may be consoled by the evidence of His wise and holy government of men.

1. O congregation--literally, "Oh, dumb"; the word used is never translated "congregation." "Are ye dumb? ye should speak righteousness," may be the translation. In any case, the writer remonstrates with them, perhaps a council, who were assembled to try his cause, and bound to give a right decision.

2. This they did not design; but

weigh ... violence--or give decisions of violence. Weigh is a figure to express the acts of judges.

in the earth--publicly.

3-5. describe the wicked generally, who sin naturally, easily, malignantly, and stubbornly.

6. He prays for their destruction, under the figure of ravenous beasts (Psa 3:7; 7:2).

7. which run continually--literally, "they shall go to themselves," utterly depart, as rapid mountain torrents.

he bendeth ... his arrows--prepares it. The term for preparing a bow applied to arrows (Psa 64:3).

let them ... pieces--literally, "as if they cut themselves off"--that is, become blunted and of no avail.

8-9. Other figures of this utter ruin; the last denoting rapidity. In a shorter time than pots feel the heat of thorns on fire--

10-11. wash ... wicked--denoting great slaughter. The joy of triumph over the destruction of the wicked is because they are God's enemies, and their overthrow shows that He reigneth (compare Psa 52:5-7; 54:7). In this assurance let heaven and earth rejoice (Psa 96:10; 97:1, &c.).

Do ye indeed speak righteousness - Or, O cabinet seeing ye profess to act according to the principles of justice, why do ye not give righteous counsels and just decisions, ye sons of men? Or, it may be an irony: What excellent judges you are! well do ye judge according to law and justice, when ye give decisions not founded on any law, nor supported by any principle of justice! To please your master, ye pervert judgment; and take part against the innocent, in order to retain your places and their emoluments. Saul's counsellors appear to have done so, though in their consciences they must have been satisfied of David's innocence.

Yea, in heart ye work wickedness - With their tongues they had spoken maliciously, and given evil counsel. In their hearts they meditated nothing but wickedness. And though in their hands they held the scales of justice, yet in their use of them they were balances of injustice and violence. This is the fact to which the psalmist alludes, and the figure which he uses is that of justice with her scales or balances, which, though it might be the emblem of the court, yet it did not prevail in the practice of these magistrates and counsellors.

The wicked are estranged from the womb - "This," says Dr. Kennicott, "and the next two verses, I take to be the answer of Jehovah to the question in the two first verses, as the Psa 58:6, Psa 58:7, and Psa 58:8, are the answer of the psalmist, and the remainder contains the decree of Jehovah." He calls these wicked men, men who had been always wicked, originally and naturally bad, and brought up in falsehood, flattery, and lying. The part they acted now was quite in character.

Their poison is like the poison of a serpent - When they bite, they convey poison into the wound, as the serpent does. They not only injure you by outward acts, but by their malevolence they poison your reputation. They do you as much evil as they can, and propagate the worst reports that others may have you in abhorrence, treat you as a bad and dangerous man; and thus, as the poison from the bite of the serpent is conveyed into the whole mass of blood, and circulates with it through all the system, carrying death every where; so they injurious speeches and vile insinuations circulate through society, and poison and blast your reputation in every place. Such is the slanderer, and such his influence in society. From such no reputation is safe; with such no character is sacred; and against such there is no defense. God alone can shield the innocent from the envenomed tongue and lying lips of such inward monsters in the shape of men.

Like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear - It is a fact that cannot be disputed with any show of reason, that in ancient times there were persons that charmed, lulled to inactivity, or professed to charm, serpents, so as to prevent them from biting. See Ecc 10:11; Jer 8:17. The prince of Roman poets states the fact, Virg. Ecl. viii., ver. 71.

Frigidus in prati cantando rumpitur anguis. "In the meadows the cold snake is burst by incantation."

The same author, Aen. vii., ver. 750, gives us the following account of the skill of Umbro, a priest of the Marrubians: -

Quin et Marru bia venit de gente sacerdos,

Fronde super galeam, et felici comptus oliva,

Archippi regis missu, fortissimus Umbro;

Vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris,

Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat,

Mulcebatque iras, et morsus arte levabat. "Umbro, the brave Marubian priest, was there,

Sent by the Marsian monarch to the war.

The smiling olive with her verdant boughs

Shades his bright helmet, and adorns his brows.

His charms in peace the furious serpent keep,

And lull the envenomed viper's race to sleep:

His healing hand allayed the raging pain;

And at his touch the poisons fled again."

Pitt.

There is a particular sect of the Hindoos who profess to bring serpents into subjection, and deprive them of their poison, by incantation. See at the end of this Psalm.

Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers - The old Psalter translates and paraphrases these two verses curiously: -

Vulg. Furor illis secundum similitudinem serpentis; sicut aspidis surdae et obturantis aures suas: Quae non exaudiet vocem incantantium et venefici in cantantis sapienter.

Trans. Wodes (madness) til thaim aftir the liking of the neddir, as of the snake doumb and stoppand her eres.

Paraph. Right calles he tham wod, (mad), for that hafe na witte to se whider that ga: for that louke thair eghen, and rennys till the are thaire wodness til clumsthed that wil noght be turned as of the snake that festis (fastens) the ta ere til the erth, and the tother ere stoppis with hir taile: Sua do thai that thai here not Godis word; that stope thair eris with luf of erthli thing that thai delite thaim in; and with thair taile, that es with all synnes, that that will noght amend.

Trans. The whith salle noght here the voyce of charmand, and of the venim in akare of charmand wisli.

Paraph. This snake stopis hir eres that she be noght broth to light; for if she herd it, she come forth sone, he charmes swa wysli in his craft. Swa the wikkid men wit noght here the voyce of Crist and his lufers that are wys charmes; for thi wild (would) bring them till light of heven. Wyt ye well (know) that he (i.e., Christ) lufes noght charmars and venim makers but be (by) vices of bestes, he takes lickening of vices of men.

It seems as if there were a species of snake or adder that is nearly deaf; and as their instinct informs them that if they listen to the sounds which charmers use they shall become a prey; therefore they stop their ears to prevent the little hearing they have from being the means of their destruction. To this the Old Psalter refers. We have also an account of a species of snake, which, if it cast its eye on the charmer, feels itself obliged to come out of its hole; it therefore keeps close, and takes care neither to see nor be seen. To this also the Old Psalter alludes; and of this fact, if it be one, he makes a good use.

Break their teeth - He still compares Saul, his captains, and his courtiers, to lions; and as a lion's power of doing mischief is greatly lessened if all his teeth be broken, so he prays that God may take away their power and means of pursuing their bloody purpose. But he may probably have the serpents in view of which he speaks in the preceding verse; break their teeth - destroy the fangs of these serpents, in which their poison is contained. This will amount to the same meaning as above. Save me from the adders - the sly and poisonous slanderers: save me also from the lions - the tyrannical and blood-thirsty men.

Let them melt away as waters - Let them be minished away like the waters which sometimes run in the desert, but are soon evaporated by the sun, or absorbed by the sand.

When he bendeth his bow - When my adversaries aim their envenomed shafts against me, let their arrows not only fall short of the mark, but he broken to pieces in the flight. Some apply this to God. When he bends his bow against them, they shall all be exterminated.

As a snail which melteth - The Chaldee reads the verse thus: "They shall melt away in their sins as water flows off; as the creeping snail that smears its track; as the untimely birth and the blind mole, which do not see the sun."

The original word שבלול shablul, a snail, is either from שביל shebil, a path, because it leaves a shining path after it by emitting a portion of slime, and thus glaring the ground; and therefore might be emphatically called the pathmaker; or from ישב yashab to dwell, ב be, in, לול lul, a winding or spiral shell, which is well known to be its house, and which it always inhabits; for when it is not coiled up within this shell, it carries it with it wheresoever it goes. See Bochart. These figures need no farther explanation.

Before your pots can feel the thorns - Ye shall be destroyed with a sudden destruction. From the time that the fire of God's wrath is kindled about you, it will be but as a moment before ye be entirely consumed by it: so very short will be the time, that it may be likened to the heat of the first blaze of dry thorns under a pot, that has not as yet been able to penetrate the metal, and warm what is contained in it.

A whirlwind - Or the suffocating simoon that destroys life in an instant, without previous warning: so, without pining sickness - while ye are living - lively and active, the whirlwind of God's wrath shall sweep you away.

The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance - He shall have a strong proof of the Divine providence, of God's hatred against sinners, and his continual care of his followers.

He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked - This can only mean that the slaughter would be so great, and at the same time so very nigh to the dwelling of the righteous, that he could not go out without dipping his feet in the blood of the wicked. The Syriac, Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon, read hands instead of feet. Every thing that is vindictive in the Psalms must be considered as totally alien from the spirit of the Gospel, and not at all, under our dispensation, to be imitated. If the passage above be really vindictive, and it certainly will admit of the interpretation given above, it is to be considered as not belonging to that state in which the Son of man is come, not to destroy men's lives, but to save.

So that a man shall say - That is, people, seeing these just judgments of God, shall say, There is a reward (פרי peri, fruit) to the righteous man. He has not sown his seed in vain; he has not planted and watered in vain: he has the fruit of his labors, he eats the fruit of his doings. But wo to the wicked, it is ill with him; for the reward of his hands has been given him.

He is a God that judgeth in the earth - There is a God who does not entirely defer judgment till the judgment-day; but executes judgment now, even in this earth; and thus continues to give such a proof of his hatred to sin and love to his followers that every considerate mind is convinced of it. And hence arise the indisputable maxims: "There is, even here, a reward for the righteous;" "There is a God who, even now, judgeth in the earth."

I have seen Indian priests who professed to charm, not only serpents, but the most ferocious wild beasts; even the enraged elephant, and the royal tiger! Two priests of Budhoo, educated under my own care, repeated the Sanscrit incantations to me, and solemnly asserted that they had seen the power of them repeatedly and successfully put to the test. I have mislaid these incantations, else I should insert them as a curiosity; for to charms of the same nature the psalmist most undoubtedly alludes.

The term חובר chober, which we translate charmer, comes from חבד to join, or put together; i.e., certain unintelligible words or sentences, which formed the spell.

I once met with a man who professed to remove diseases by pronouncing an unintelligible jingling jargon of words oddly tacked together. I met with him one morning proceeding to the cure of a horse affected with the farcin. With a very grave countenance he stood before the diseased animal, and, taking off his hat, devoutly muttered the following words; which, as a matter of peculiar favor, he afterwards taught me, well knowing that I could never use them successfully, because not taught me by a woman; "for," said he, "to use them with success, a man must be taught them by a woman, and a woman by a man." What the genuine orthography may be I cannot pretend to say, as I am entirely ignorant of the language, if the words belong to any language: but the following words exactly express his sounds: -

Murry fin a liff cree

Murry fin a liss cree

Ard fin deriv dhoo

Murry fin firey fu

Murry fin elph yew

When he had repeated these words nine times, he put on his hat and walked off, but he was to return the next morning, and so on for nine mornings successively, always before he had broken his fast. The mother of the above person, a very old woman, and by many reputed a witch, professed to do miracles by pronouncing, or rather muttering, certain words or sounds, and by measuring with a cord the diseased parts of the sick person. I saw her practice twice: 1st, on a person afflicted with a violent headache, or rather the effects of a coup de soleil; and, 2ndly, on one who had got a dangerous mote or splinter in his eye. In the first case she began to measure the head, round the temples, marking the length; then from the vertex, under the chin, and so up to the vertex again, marking that length. Then, by observing the dimensions, passed judgment on the want of proportion in the two admeasurements, and said the brain was compressed by the sinking down of the skull. She then began her incantations, muttering under her breath a supplication to certain divine and angelic beings, to come and lift up the bones, that they might no longer compress the brain. She then repeated her admeasurements, and showed how much was gained towards a restoration of the proportions from the spell already muttered. The spell was again muttered, the measurements repeated, and at each time a comparison of the first measurement was made with the succeeding, till at last she said she had the due proportions; that the disease, or rather the cause of it, was removed; and that the operations were no longer necessary.

In the case of the diseased eye, her manner was different. She took a cup of clean pure water, and washed her mouth well. Having done so, she filled her mouth with the same water, and walked to and fro in the apartment (the patient sitting in the midst of the floor) muttering her spell, of which nothing could be heard but a grumbling noise. She then emptied her mouth into a clean white bason, and showed the motes which had been conveyed out of the patient's eye into the water in her mouth, while engaged in muttering the incantation! She proffered to teach me her wonder-working words; but the sounds were so very uncouth, if not barbarous, that I know no combination of letters by which I could convey the pronunciation.

Ridiculous as all this may appear, it shows that this incantation work is conducted in the present day, both in Asia and Europe, where it is professed, in precisely the same manner in which it was conducted formerly, by pronouncing, or rather muttering certain words or sounds, to which they attach supernatural power and efficiency. And from this came the term spell: Anglo-Saxon a word, a charm, composed of such supposed powerful words; and wyrkan spell signified among our ancestors to use enchantments.

O congregation - The word seems to point at Saul's judges and counsellors; who met together to consult what they should do against David. Sons of men - So he calls them; to mind them that they were men, and must give an account to God for all their hard speeches.

Heart - With free choice and consent. Hands - He intimates that they did great wrong under the pretence of justice, and while they seemed exactly to weigh the true proportion between the actions and the recompenses allotted to them, they turned the scale; and pronounced an unjust sentence. Land - Or, in this land, where God is present, and where you have righteous laws to govern you.

Estranged - From God, and from all goodness. Their very natures are corrupt, even from their birth: they are the wicked offspring of sinful parents. Astray - By actual sins, from their childhood, as soon as ever they were capable of the exercise of reason.

Poison - Their malicious disposition.

Not hearken - As they commonly say of the adders, such really are these men: deaf to all my counsels, to their own consciences, and to God's law. Of the charming or enchanting of serpents, mention is made both in other places of scripture, and in all sorts of authors, ancient and modern, Hebrew and Arabick, and Greek and Latin. And particularly the Arabick writers (to whom these creatures were best known) name some sorts of serpents, among which the adder is one, which they call deaf, not because they are dull of hearing, but, as one of them expressly faith, because they will not be charmed.

Their teeth - Their powerful instruments of doing mischief.

Melt away - As waters arising from melted snow, which at first run with great force, but are suddenly gone.

Melteth - Which is quickly dissolved.

Before - Before your pots can be heated. Take them - Violently and irresistibly. Living - Alive, as he did Korah.

Rejoice - For the blessed effects of it; the vindication of God's honour, and the deliverance of himself and of all good men. Wash - There shall be so great a slaughter of his enemies that he might, if he pleased, wash his feet in their blood.

1. DO ye indeed speak righteousness , O congregation ? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men ?

The question implies a Denial: You censure me freely without any Regard to Truth or Justice.

The word signifies a Band, or Company of men; and seems to point at Saul's Judges and Counsellers; who met together to Consult what they should do against David; and probably passed a Sentence upon him, as guilty of Treason and Rebellion.

So he calls them; Either, 1. In Contempt and opposition of the sons of God, or good Men. Or, 2. By way of Admonition, to mind them that they also were Men, and must give an Account to God for all their hard Speeches, and unrighteous decrees against him.

2. Yea, in heart ye work wickedness, ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth .

Or, with your Heart, with free choice and Consent, and not onely by Constraint, and out of Compliance with Saul.

Or, you weigh Violence, or injustice with your Hands. The Phrase of weighing hath respect to their Office, which was to administer Justice, which is usually expressed by a pair of Ballances. So he intimates that they did great wrong under the pretence, and with the Formalities of Justice, and whilst they seemed exactly to weigh and consider the true and fit Proportion between the Actions, and the Recompences alloted to them, they turned the Scale; and Partly, to curry Favour with Saul; and Partly, from their own Malice against David; pronounced an unjust Sentence against him.

Or, in this Land, where God is present, and where you have righteous Laws to govern you, and you profess better things.

Marginal references: Psal. 78. 57.

3. The wicked are estranged from the womb , they go astray, as soon they be born , speaking lyes.

Either, 1. Hyperbolically: even from their tender years. Or, 2. Strictly and Properly. So the Sence is. No wonder they Act so unrighteously, for their very Natures and Principles are corrupt, even from their Birth: They are the wicked offspring of sinful Parents. And this Hereditary and Native corruption, though too common to all Men, he particularly ascribes to these Men; Either, because their immediate Parents were such as did not onely Convey a corrupt Nature to them, but greatly improved it by wicked Counsel and Example: Or because they themselves had improved that stock of Original Corruption, and instead of mortifying it, had made it their great Design, and Constant business to gratifie and obey it.

By actual sins, the Fruit of their Original sin.

From their Child-hood, as soon as ever they were capable of the Exercise of Reason, and the Practise of sinning.

f To wit, from God, Eph. 4. 18. and from all Goodness.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1+ letters] Heb. speaketh of Lyes.; Go astray from the Belly.

4. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent , they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear:

Their virulent and Malicious Disposition.

Partly in it self, being natural and inveterate, and incurable: and Partly, in its most pernicious Effects.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 140. 3.; [illegible: 1 word]. 10. 11. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] like [illegible: 1+ letters]; [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].

5. Which will not hearken to the voyce of charmers, charming never so wisely .

This similitude doth neither justifie the Practise of Charming, which, in the very Word here used is Condemned, Deut. 18. 11. no more than those which are drawn from unjust Steward, Luk. 16. 1. &c. and 18. 2. &c. and from a Thief, Revel. 16. 15. nor yet affirm the Truth of what is Reported, concerning the Asps or Adders, are said to lay one Ear close to the ground, and to cover the other with their Tail, that so they may avoid the Danger of Enchantment; but onely was taken from the common Opinion, which he Poetically mentions to this purpose. As they commonly say of the Asps or Adders, &c. such really are these Men: Deaf to all my Consels, and to the Dictates of their own Consciences, and to the Voyce of Gods Law. And yet of the Charming or inchanting of Serpents, mention is made both in other places of Scripture, as Eccles. 10. 11. Ier. 8. 17. and in all sorts of Authors, Antient and Modern, Hebrew, and Arabick, and Greek and Latin. [Of which see my Latin Synopsis.] And particularly the Arabick Writers (to whom these Creatures were best known) name some sorts of Serpents; among which the Adder is one, which they call Deaf, not because they are dull of Hearing, but, as one of them expressly saith, because they will not be Charmed.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 3. 17. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].

6. Break their teeth , O God, in their mouth: break, out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

Their Power and Instruments of doing Mischief. He mentions Teeth; Partly, because the Adders poison lyes in its Teeth; and Partly, to make way for the following Metaphor.

Called the Grinders; which are more sharp and strong than the rest, and more used in breaking and tearing what they are about to Eat.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 4. 10.

7. Let them melt away as waters, which run continually : when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pietes .

As waters arising from melted Snow, or great Showers, or some other Extraordinary cause, which at first run with great force and Noise, and throw down all that stands in their way, but are suddenly gone, and Run away and Vanish, and return no more.

To wit, any or every one of mine Enemies, as appears from the foregoing and following Words.

(i. e.) Like Arrows broken asunder, whilst a Man shoots, which can do no hurt.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 64. 3.

8. As a snail which melteth , let every one of them pass away : like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun .

Which thrusts forth, and seems to Threaten with its Horns, but is quickly dissolved: For when it goes out of its shell, it spends its Vital moisture, until by degree it waste away and Perish.

Which indeavouring violently and unseasonably to break forth from the Womb is choaked in the Attempt, and doth not Live to see the Light of the Sun.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 3. 16.

9. Before your pots can feel the thorns , he shall take them away as with a whirlwind , both. living, and in his wrath .

(i. e.) The heat of the Fire kindled by the Thorns put under them for that purpose: Before your Pots can be thoroughly heated.

To wit, mine Enemies: Whose sudden Destruction, he describes under this similitude.

(i. e.) Violently and irresistibly.

Heb. as Living (i. e. Alive, as he did Korah, Numb. 16. the Particle, as, being here not a Note of similitude, but of Truth or Asseveration, as it is, Ioh. 1: 14. and oft elsewhere, as hath been noted:) as in (which Proposition is frequently understood) Urath, (i. e.) As a Man moved with great Wrath, destroys his Enemy without Mercy, and is ready to devour him alive, if it were possible: Or, both that which is raw (as the Hebrew word Chai signifies, Levit. 13. 16. 1 Sam. 2. 15. to wit, the raw Flesh, which is supposed to be put into the Pot, that it may be boyled) and the burning Fire. There is indeed great Variety of Construction, and Interpretation of these Hebrew words; which is not strange, especially considering the Conciseness of the Hebrew Language, and that this is a proverbial Speech; nor is it of any great importance, because it is not in any great point of Faith, and because the Sence of it is agreed, the onely difference being about the manner and ground of the Phrase. The learned Reader may see more upon this place, in my Latin Synopsis.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] as [illegible: 1 word] wrath.

10. The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked .

(i. e.) The Vengeance of God upon his implacable Enemies; not simply for himself, but for the Blessed Effects of it: The Vindication of God's Honour, and the Deliverance of himself and of all good Men.

(i. e.) There shall be so great a slaughter of his Enemies that he might, if he so pleased, wash his Feet in their Blood. See the same or like Expressions, Psal. 68. 23. Isa. 63. 3. Revel. 14. 20.

11. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth .

And these Administrations of God's Providence shall be so Evident and Convincing, that not onely good Men shall be sensible thereof, but any man that sees them, yea, even such as were apt to Dispute or doubt of Gods Providence, shall upon this Eminent occasion, break forth into such Exclamations as this, Now I see, that Religion is not a Vain and unprofitable thing, and that there is a God who doth now observe and Govern, and when he sees fit, judgeth the Inhabitants of the Ear[illegible: 1+ letters]h, and will hereafter judge the whole World in righteousness, and Recompence every man according to his Works.

Marginal references: Heb. Fruit of the, &c.

Psa 58:1-2

The text of Psa 58:2 runs: Do ye really dictate the silence of righteousness? i.e., that before which righteousness must become silent, as the collector (cf. Psa 56:1) appears to have read it (אלם = אלּוּם, B. Chullin 89a). But instead of אלם it is, with Houbigant, J. D. Michaelis, Mendelssohn, and others, to be read אלם (= אלים, as in Exo 15:11), as an apostrophe of those who discharge the godlike office of rulers and judges. Both the interrogative האמנם (with ŭ as is always the case at the head of interrogative clauses), num vere, which proceeds from doubt as to the questionable matter of fact (Num 22:37; 1Ki 8:27; 2Ch 6:18), and the parallel member of the verse, and also the historical circumstances out of which the Psalm springs, demand this alteration. Absalom with his followers had made the administration of justice the means of stealing from David the heart of his people; he feigned to be the more impartial judge. Hence David asks: Is it then really so, ye gods (אלים like אלהים, Psa 82:1, and here, as there, not without reference to their superhumanly proud and assumptive bearing), that ye speak righteousness, that ye judge the children of men in accordance with justice? Nay, on the contrary (אף, imo, introducing an answer that goes beyond the first No), in heart (i.e., not merely outwardly allowing yourselves to be carried away) ye prepare villanies (פּעל, as in Mic 2:1; and עולת, as in Psa 64:7, from עולה = עולה, Ps 92:16, Job 5:16, with ô= a + w), in the land ye weigh out the violence of your hands (so that consequently violence fills the balances of your pretended justice). בּני אדם in Psa 58:2 is the accusative of the object; if it had been intended as a second vocative, it ought to have been בּני־אישׁ (Psa 4:3). The expression is inverted in order to make it possible to use the heavy energetic futures. בּארץ (mostly erroneously marked with Pazer) has Athnach, cf. Psa 35:20; Psa 76:12.

Psa 58:3-5

After this bold beginning the boldest figures follow one another rapidly; and the first of these is that of the serpent, which is kept up longer than any of the others. The verb זוּר (cogn. סוּר) is intentionally written זור in this instance in a neuter, not an active sense, plural זרוּ lar, like בּשׁוּ, טבוּ. Bakius recognises a retrospective reference to this passage in Isa 48:8. In such passages Scripture bears witness to the fact, which is borne out by experience, that there are men in whom evil from childhood onwards has a truly diabolical character, i.e., a selfish character altogether incapable of love. For although hereditary sinfulness and hereditary sin (guilt) are common to all men, yet the former takes the most manifold combinations and forms; and, in fact, the inheriting of sin and the complex influence of the power of evil and of the power of grace on the propagation of the human race require that it should be so. The Gospel of John more particularly teaches such a dualism of the natures of men. חמת־למו (with Rebia, as in Joh 18:18) is not the subject: the poison belonging to them, etc., but a clause by itself: poison is to them, they have poison; the construct state here, as in Lam 2:18; Eze 1:27, does not express a relation of actual union, but only a close connection. יאטּם (with the orthophonic Dagesh which gives prominence to the Teth as the commencement of a syllable) is an optative future form, which is also employed as an indicative in the poetic style, e.g., Psa 18:11. The subject of this attributive clause, continuing the adjective, is the deaf adder, such an one, viz., as makes itself deaf; and in this respect (as in their evil serpent nature) it is a figure of the self-hardening evil-doer. Then with אשׁר begins the more minute description of this adder. There is a difference even among serpents. They belong to the worst among them that are inaccessible to any kind of human influence. All the arts of sorcery are lost upon them. מלחשׁים are the whisperers of magic formulae (cf. Arabic naffathât, adjurations), and חובר חברים is one who works binding by spells, exorcism, and tying fast by magic knots (cf. חבר, to bind = to bewitch, cf. Arab. ‛qqd, ‛nn, Persic bend = κατάδεσμος, vid., Isaiah, i. 118, ii. 242). The most inventive affection and the most untiring patience cannot change their mind. Nothing therefore remains to David but to hope for their removal, and to pray for it.

Psa 58:6-9

The verb הרס is used much in the same way in Psa 58:7 as ἀράσσειν (e.g., Iliad, xiii. 577, ἀπὸ δὲ τρυφάλειαν ἄραξεν), which presents a similar onomatope. The form ימּאסוּ is, as in Job 7:5, = ימּסּוּ. The Jewish expositors, less appropriately, compare צנאכם, Num 32:24, and בּזאוּ = בּזזוּ, Isa 18:2, Isa 18:7; שׁאסיך, Chethîb, Jer 30:16, and ראמה, Zec 14:10, more nearly resemble it. The treading (bending) of the bow is here, as in Psa 64:4, transferred to the arrows (= כּונן, Psa 11:2): he bends and shoots off his arrows, they shall be as though cut off in the front, i.e., as inoperative as if they had no heads or points (כּמו as in Isa 26:18). In Psa 58:9 follow two figures to which the apprecatory “let them become” is to be supplied. Or is it perhaps to be rendered: As a snail, which Thou causest to melt away, i.e., squashest with the foot (תּמס, as in Psa 39:12, fut. Hiph. of מסה = מסס), let him perish? The change of the number does not favour this; and according to the usage of the language, which is fond of construing הלך with gerunds and participles, and also with abstract nouns, e.g., הלך תּם, הלך קרי, the words תּמס יהלך belong together, and they are also accented accordingly: as a snail or slug which goes along in dissolution, goes on and dissolves as it goes (תּמס after the form תּבל form בּללIn the Phoenician, the Cyprian copper mine Ταμασσός appears to have taken its name from תמס, liquefactio (Levy, Phönizische Studien, iii. 7).).

The snail has received its name from this apparent dissolving into slime. For שׁבּלוּל (with Dag. dirimens for שׁבלוּל) is the naked slimy snail or slug (Targum, according to ancient conception, זחיל תּבללא “the slimeworm”), from שׁבלל, to make wet, moist.“God has created nothing without its use,” says the Talmud, B. Shabbath 77 b; “He has created the snail (שׁבלול לכתית) to heal bruises by laying it upon them:” cf. Genesis Rabba, ch. 51 init., where שׁבלול is explained by לימצא, סיליי, כיליי, κογχύλη, σέσιλος, limax. Abraham b. David of Fez, the contemporary of Saadia, has explained it in his Arabico-Hebrew Lexicon by אלחלזון, the slug. Nevertheless this is properly the name of the snail with a house (נרתיק), Talmudic חלּזון, and even at the present day in Syria and Palestine Arab. ḥlzûn (which is pronounced ḥalezôn); whereas שׁבלול, in conformity with the etymon and with the figure, is the naked snail or slug. The ancient versions perhaps failed to recognise this, because the slug is not very often to be seen in hot eastern countries; but שׁבלול in this signification can be looked upon as traditional. The rendering “a rain-brook or mountain-torrent (Arabic seil sâbil) which running runs away,” would, to say nothing more, give us, as Rosenmüller has already observed, a figure that has been made use of already in Psa 58:8.

In the second figure, the only sense in which נפל אשׁת belong together is “the untimely birth of a woman;” and rather than explain with the Talmud (B. Môed katan 6 b) and Targum (contrary to the accents): as an abortion, a mole,The mole, which was thought to have no eyes, is actually called in post-biblical Hebrew אשׁת, plur. אישׁות (vid., Keelim xxi. 3). one would alter אשׁת into אשׁה. But this is not necessary, since the construct form אשׁת is found also in other instances (Deu 21:11; 1Sa 28:7) out of the genitival relation, in connection with a close coordinate construction. So here, where בּל־הזוּ שׁמשׁ, according to Job 3:16; Ecc 6:3-5, is an attributive clause to נפל אשׁת (the falling away of a woman = abortions), which is used collectively (Ew. §176, b). The accentuation also harmonizes here with the syntactic relation of the words. In Psa 58:10, אטד (plural in African, i.e., Punic, in Dioscorides atadi'n) is the rhamnus or buckthorn, which, like רתם, the broom, not only makes a cheerful crackling fire, but also produces an ash that retains the heat a long time, and is therefore very useful in cooking. The alternative כּמו - כּמו signifies sive, sive, whether the one or the other. חי is that which is living, fresh, viz., the fresh, raw meat still having the blood in it, the opposite of מבשּׁל (1Sa 2:15); חרון, a fierce heat or fire, here a boiling heat. There is no need to understand חרון metonymically, or perhaps as an adjective = charrôn, of boiled meat: it is a statement of the condition. The suffix of ישׁערנּוּ, however, refers, as being neuter, to the whole cooking apparatus, and more especially to the contents of the pots. The rendering therefore is: whether raw or in a state of heat, i.e., of being cooked through, He (Jahve) carries it away as with a whirlwind. Hengstenberg rightly remarks, “To the raw meat correspond the immature plots, and to the cooked the mature ones.” To us, who regard the Psalm as belonging to the time of Absalom, and not, like Hengstenberg, to the time of Saul, the meat in the pots is the new kingship of Absalom. The greater the self-renunciation with which David at that time looked on at the ripening revolt, disclaiming all action of his own, the stronger the confidence with which he expected the righteous interposition of God that did actually follow, but (as he here supposes possible) not until the meat in the pot was almost done through; yet, on the other side, so quickly, that the pots had scarcely felt the crackling heat which should fully cook the meat.

Psa 58:10-11

Finally, we have a view of the results of the judicial interposition of God. The expression made use of to describe the satisfaction which this gives to the righteous is thoroughly Old Testament and warlike in its tone (cf. Psa 68:24). David is in fact king, and perhaps no king ever remained so long quiet in the face of the most barefaced rebellion, and checked the shedding of blood, as David did at that time. If, however, blood must nevertheless flow in streams, he knows full well that it is the blood of the partisans of his deluded son; so that the men who were led the further astray in their judgment concerning him, the more inactive he remained, will at last be compelled to confess that it does really repay one to be just, and that there is really one higher than the high ones (Ecc 5:7[8]), a deity (אלהים) above the gods (אלים( sdog) who, though not forthwith, will nevertheless assuredly execute judgment in the earth. אך here, as in Job 18:21; Isa 45:14, retains its originally affirmative signification, which it has in common with אכן. אלהים is construed with the plural (Ges. §112, rem. 3), as is frequently the case, e.g., 2Sa 7:23 (where, however, the chronicler, in 1Ch 17:21, has altered the older text). This is not because the heathen are speaking (Baur), but in order to set the infinite majesty and omnipotence of the heavenly Judge in contrast with these puffed-up “gods.” Prayer of an innocent Man Whom Men Are Trying to Take

This Michtam, after the melody Al-tashcheth, coinciding with Psa 57:5 and Psa 58:7 in the figure used in Psa 59:8, is the earliest among the Davidic Psalms which are dated from the time of Saul’s persecution. When Saul sent and they (those who were sent by him) watched the house in order to slay him (David); it therefore belongs to the time spoken of in 1Sa 19:11. This inscription is no more intended to imply that the Psalm was composed on that night before the flight, which was rendered possible by the artifice of Michal, than the inscription of Ps 51 is meant to imply that the origin of the Psalm was coincident with the arrival of Nathan. The בּ of such inscriptions only sets forth in a general way the historical groundwork of the song. If we consider the contents of the Psalm from this point of view, we shall obtain a tolerably distinct picture of the situation. We must imagine that Saul, even before he issued that command to watch David’s house the night through and to slay him in the morning, i.e., to assassinate him behind Michal’s back (1Sa 19:11), sought to get rid of him in some more secret way; that the venal men of his court, themselves not less ill-disposed towards David, had offered him their hand for the deed; and that in consequence of this, great activity, which was probably seen through by him whose life was threatened, was observable in Gibea, and that more especially every evening, when the bandits strolled through the city in order to meet with the dreaded rival and give him his deathblow. The Psalms and the Prophets are often the medium through which we gain a deeper insight into events which are only sketched in the historical books after their most prominent outward features.

In consideration of the fact that the description of the nightly proceedings of the enemies is repeated after the manner of a refrain, and that the poet in Psa 59:17 contrasts his believingly joyous prospects for the coming morning with the ineffectual ardour with which they pass the night patrolling the streets, Psalms 59 seems to be an evening song belonging to those perilous days spent in Gibea.

A Reproof to Wicked Judges.

1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? 2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; 5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

We have reason to think that this psalm refers to the malice of Saul and his janizaries against David, because it bears the same inscription (Al-taschith, and Michtam of David) with that which goes before and that which follows, both which appear, by the title, to have been penned with reference to that persecution through which God preserved him (Al-taschith—Destroy not), and therefore the psalms he then penned were precious to him, Michtams—David's jewels, as Dr. Hammond translates it.

In these verses David, not as a king, for he had not yet come to the throne, but as a prophet, in God's name arraigns and convicts his judges, with more authority and justice than they showed in prosecuting him. Two things he charges them with:

I. The corruption of their government. They were a congregation, a bench of justices, nay, perhaps, a congress or convention of the states, from whom one might have expected fair dealing, for they were men learned in the laws, had been brought up in the study of these statutes and judgments, which were so righteous that those of other nations were not to be compared with them. One would not have thought a congregation of such could be bribed and biassed with pensions, and yet, it seems, they were, because the son of Kish could do that for them which the son of Jesse could not, 1 Sam. xxii. 7. He had vineyards, and fields, and preferments, to give them, and therefore, to please him, they would do any thing, right or wrong. Of all the melancholy views which Solomon took of this earth and its grievances, nothing vexed him so much as to see that in the place of judgment wickedness was there, Eccl. iii. 16. So it was in Saul's time. 1. The judges would not do right, would not protect or vindicate oppressed innocency (v. 1): "Do you indeed speak righteousness, or judge uprightly? No; you are far from it; your own consciences cannot but tell you that you do not discharge the trust reposed in you as magistrates, by which you are bound to be a terror to evil-doers and a praise to those that do well. Is this the justice you pretend to administer? Is this the patronage, this the countenance, which an honest man and an honest cause may expect from you? Remember you are sons of men; mortal and dying, and that you stand upon the same level before God with the meanest of those you trample upon, and must yourselves be called to an account and judged. You are sons of men, and therefore we may appeal to yourselves, and to that law of nature which is written in every man's heart: Do you indeed speak righteousness? And will not your second thoughts correct what you have done?" Note, It is good for us often to reflect upon what we say with this serious question, Do we indeed speak righteousness? that we may unsay what we have spoken amiss and may proceed no further in it. 2. They did a great deal of wrong; they used their power for the support of injury and oppression (v. 2): In heart you work wickedness (all the wickedness of the life is wrought in the heart). It intimates that they wrought with a great deal of plot and management, not by surprise, but with premeditation and design, and with a strong inclination to it and resolution in it. The more there is of the heart in any act of wickedness the worse it is, Eccl. viii. 11. And what was their wickedness? It follows, "You weigh the violence of your hands in the earth" (or in the land), "the peace of which you are appointed to be the conservators of." They did all the violence and injury they could, either to enrich or avenge themselves, and they weighed it; that is, 1. They did it with a great deal of craft and caution: "You frame it by rule and lines" (so the word signifies), "that it may effectually answer your mischievous intentions; such masters are you of the art of oppression." 2. They did it under colour of justice. They held the balances (the emblem of justice) in their hands, as if they designed to do right, and right is expected from them, but the result is violence and oppression, which are practised the more effectually for being practised under the pretext of law and right.

II. The corruption of their nature. This was the root of bitterness from which that gall and wormwood sprang (v. 3): The wicked, who in heart work wickedness, are estranged from the womb, estranged from God and all good, alienated from the divine life, and its principles, powers, and pleasures, Eph. iv. 18. A sinful state is a state of estrangement from that acquaintance with God and service of him which we were made for. Let none wonder that these wicked men dare do such things, for wickedness is bred in the bone with them; they brought it into the world with them; they have in their natures a strong inclination to it; they learned it from their wicked parents, and have been trained up in it by a bad education. They are called, and not miscalled, transgressors from the womb; one can therefore expect no other than that they will deal very treacherously; see Isa. xlviii. 8. They go astray from God and their duty as soon as they are born, (that is, as soon as possibly they can); the foolishness that is bound up in their hearts appears with the first operations of reason; as the wheat springs up, the tares spring up with it. Three instances are here given of the corruption of nature:—1. Falsehood. They soon learn to speak lies, and bend their tongues, like their bows, for that purpose, Jer. ix. 3. How soon will little children tell a lie to excuse a fault, or in their own commendation! No sooner can they speak than they speak to God's dishonour; tongue-sins are some of the first of our actual transgressions. 2. Malice. Their poison (that is, their ill-will, and the spite they bore to goodness and all good men, particularly to David) was like the poison of a serpent, innate, venomous, and very mischievous, and that which they can never be cured of. We pity a dog that is poisoned by accident, but hate a serpent that is poisonous by nature. Such as the cursed enmity in this serpent's brood against the Lord and his anointed. 3. Untractableness. They are malicious, and nothing will work upon them, no reason, no kindness, to mollify them, and bring them to a better temper. They are like the deaf adder that stops her ear, v. 4, 5. The psalmist, having compared these wicked men, whom he here complains of, to serpents, for their poisonous malice, takes occasion thence, upon another account, to compare them to the deaf adder or viper, concerning which there was then this vulgar tradition, that whereas, by music or some other art, they had a way of charming serpents, so as either to destroy them or at least disable them to do mischief, this deaf adder would lay one ear to the ground and stop the other with her tail, so that she could not hear the voice of the enchantment, and so defeated the intention of it and secured herself. The using of this comparison neither verifies the story, nor, if it were true, justifies the use of this enchantment; for it is only an allusion to the report of such a thing, to illustrate the obstinacy of sinners in a sinful way. God's design, in his word and providence, is to cure serpents of their malignity; to this end how wise, how powerful, how well-chosen are the charms! How forcible the right words! But all in vain with most men; and what is the reason? It is because they will not hearken. None so deaf as those that will not hear. We have piped unto men, and they have not danced; how should they, when they have stopped their ears?

Prophetic Imprecations.

6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord . 7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. 8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. 9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. 10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. 11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

In these verses we have,

I. David's prayers against his enemies, and all the enemies of God's church and people; for it is as such that he looks upon them, so that he was actuated by a public spirit in praying against them, and not by any private revenge. 1. He prays that they might be disabled to do any further mischief (v. 6): Break their teeth, O God! Not so much that they might not feed themselves as that they might not be able to make prey of others, Ps. iii. 7. He does not say, "Break their necks" (no; let them live to repent, slay them not, lest my people forget), but, "Break their teeth, for they are lions, they are young lions, that live by rapine." 2. That they might be disappointed in the plots they had already laid, and might not gain their point: "When he bends his bow, and takes aim to shoot his arrows at the upright in heart, let them be as cut in pieces, v. 7. Let them fall at his feet, and never come near the mark." 3. That they and their interest might waste and come to nothing, that they might melt away as waters that run continually; that is, as the waters of a land-flood, which, though they seem formidable for a while, soon soak into the ground or return to their channels, or, in general, as water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, but gradually dries away and disappears. Such shall the floods of ungodly men be, which sometimes make us afraid (Ps. xviii. 4); so shall the proud waters be reduced, which threaten to go over our soul, Ps. cxxiv. 4, 5. Let us by faith then see what they shall be and then we shall not fear what they are. He prays (v. 8) that they might melt as a snail, which wastes by its own motion, in every stretch it makes leaving some of its moisture behind, which, by degrees, must needs consume it, though it makes a path to shine after it. He that like a snail in her house is plenus sui—full of himself, that pleases himself and trusts to himself, does but consume himself, and will quickly bring himself to nothing. And he prays that they might be like the untimely birth of a woman, which dies as soon as it begins to live and never sees the sun. Job, in his passion, wished he himself had been such a one (Job iii. 16), but he knew not what he said. We may, in faith, pray against the designs of the church's enemies, as the prophet does (Hos. ix. 14, Give them, O Lord! what wilt thou give them? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts), which explains this prayer of the psalmist.

II. His prediction of their ruin (v. 9): "Before your pots can feel the heat of a fire of thorns made under them (which they will presently do, for it is a quick fire and violent while it lasts), so speedily, with such a hasty and violent flame, God shall hurry them away, as terribly and as irresistibly as with a whirlwind, as it were alive, as it were in fury."

1. The proverbial expressions are somewhat difficult, but the sense is plain, (1.) That the judgments of God often surprise wicked people in the midst of their jollity, and hurry them away of a sudden. When they are beginning to walk in the light of their own fire, and the sparks of their own kindling, they are made to lie down in sorrow (Isa. l. 11), and their laughter proves like the crackling of thorns under a pot, the comfort of which is soon gone, ere they can say, Alas! I am warm, Eccl. vii. 6. (2.) That there is no standing before the destruction that comes from the Almighty; for who knows the power of God's anger? When God will take sinners away, dead or alive, they cannot contest with him. The wicked are driven away in their wickedness. Now,

2. There are two things which the psalmist promises himself as the good effects of sinners' destruction:— (1.) That saints would be encouraged and comforted by it (v. 10): The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. The pomp and power, the prosperity and success, of the wicked, are a discouragement to the righteous; they sadden their hearts, and weaken their hands, and are sometimes a strong temptation to them to question their foundations, Ps. lxxiii. 2, 13. But when they see the judgments of God hurrying them away, and just vengeance taken on them for all the mischief they have done to the people of God, they rejoice in the satisfaction thereby given to their doubts and the confirmation thereby given to their faith in the providence of God and his justice and righteousness in governing the world; they shall rejoice in the victory thus gained over that temptation by seeing their end, Ps. lxxiii. 17. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked; that is, there shall be abundance of bloodshed (Ps. lxviii. 23), and it shall be as great a refreshment to the saints to see God glorified in the ruin of sinners as it is to a weary traveller to have his feet washed. It shall likewise contribute to their sanctification; the sight of the vengeance shall make them tremble before God (Ps. cxix. 120) and shall convince them of the evil of sin, and the obligations they lie under to that God who pleads their cause and will suffer no man to do them wrong and go unpunished for it. The joy of the saints in the destruction of the wicked is then a holy joy, and justifiable, when it helps to make them holy and to purify them from sin. (2.) That sinners would be convinced and converted by it, v. 11. The vengeance God sometimes takes on the wicked in this world will bring men to say, Verily, there is a reward for the righteous. Any man may draw this inference from such providences, and many a man shall, who before denied even these plain truths or doubted of them. Some shall have this confession extorted from them, others shall have their minds so changed that they shall willingly own it, and thank God who has given them to see it and see it with satisfaction, That God is, and, [1.] That he is the bountiful rewarder of his saints and servants: Verily (however it be, so it may be read) there is a fruit to the righteous; whatever damage he may run, and whatever hardship he may undergo for his religion, he shall not only be no loser by it, but an unspeakable gainer in the issue. Even in this world there is a reward for the righteous; they shall be recompensed in the earth. Those shall be taken notice of, honoured, and protected, that seemed slighted, despised, and abandoned. [2.] That he is the righteous governor of the world, and will surely reckon with the enemies of his kingdom: Verily, however it be, though wicked people prosper, and bid defiance to divine justice, yet it shall be made to appear, to their confusion, that the world is not governed by chance, but by a Being of infinite wisdom and justice; there is a God that judges in the earth, though he has prepared his throne in the heavens. He presides in all the affairs of the children of men, and directs and disposes them according to the counsel of his will, to his own glory; and he will punish the wicked, not only in the world to come, but in the earth, where they have laid up their treasure and promised themselves a happiness—in the earth, that the Lord may be known by the judgments which he executes, and that they may be taken as earnests of a judgment to come. He is a God (so we read it), not a weak man, not an angel, not a mere name, not (as the atheists suggest) a creature of men's fear and fancy, not a deified hero, not the sun and moon, as idolaters imagined, but a God, a self-existent perfect Being; he it is that judges the earth; his favour therefore let us seek, from whom every man's judgment proceeds, and to him let all judgment be referred.

PSAL. LVIII.

To the Master of the Musicke Corrupt not; Michtam of David.

INdeed, O assembly, speake yee justice? judge ye righteousnesses, O sonnes of Adam? Yea in heart ye worke injurious evils in the land, ye weigh the violent wrong of your hands. The wicked are estranged from the wombe, they erre from the belly, speaking a lye. Hot poison they have, like as the hot poison of a Serpent, as of the deafe Aspe, that stoppeth his eare. Which will not heare the voice of charmers, of him that inchanteth, inchantments of him that is made wise. O God, breake their teeth in their mouth; burst out the Lions tushes, O Iehovah. Let them be refused as waters that passe away: bend he his arrowes, be they as cut off. As a snaile that melteth, let him goe away; as the untimely birth of a woman; as they that have not seene the Sunne. Ere that they shall perceive your thornes of the Bramble: even alive, even in wrath, he will tempestuously whirle it away. The just shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the bloud of the wicked. And earthly man shall say, Surely there is fruit for the just; surely there is a God that judge in the earth.

Annotations. COrrupt not] Bring not to perdi[illegible: 1 letter]ion, &c. See Psal. 57. 1. and 16. 1. Vers. 2. O assembly] O band, Company or congregation. The Hebrew Aelem. which hath the signification of binding as a sheafe or bundle, seemeth here to be a company that are combined, and confederate. Or, it may be taken for the binding of the tongue, that is, dumbnesse, (as before in Psal. 56. 1.) and be read thus; Of a truth, doe yee speake dumb justice? or, mutenesse of justice? As blaming them for speaking and boasting of justice, when indeed justice was dumb, and opened not her mouth, but they gave most unjust sentence. righteousnesses, or equities, that is, righteous, plaine, and equall things. Iudges are called Gods, Psal. 82. 6. and therfore should imitate God, who saith, I doe speake justice, and declare righteousnesses, Isa. 45. 19. Vers. 3. yee weigh] or, ye balasse, (of the Hebrew Palas) ye peise. A similitude taken from the weighing of things which should be in even peise and proportion, Prov. 16. 11. so justice should weigh all words and works in equitie, and reward them accordingly: but these weighed out wrong for right. Vers. 4. from the womb] that is, even from their mothers womb, the wicked are estranged (doe alienate themselves) from God, justice, and vertue. This noteth mans naturall corruption. So in Esa. 48. 8. Vers. 5. Hot poison they have] or, Hot wrath is to them. The Hebrew Chamath signifieth both poison and rage or fury, each of them being hot. The Greeke here turneth it rage; the similitude of a serpent rather giveth it to be poison, as Psal. 140. 3. Rom. 3. 13. Deut. 32. 24. Though both are fitly applied to the wicked, who like serpents in fury spit out their venome and malice. like as] or, according to the likenesse. It maketh an exact comparison, as no whit inferiour to the serpent, which was the instrument to poison mankinde, Gen. 3. serpent] or snake, called in Hebrew Nachash, of expertnesse, for it was more subtile than any beast of the field, Gen. 3. 1. deafe aspe] or cockatrice, or the serpent Python. called in Hebrew Pethen, which name noteth (by the contrary) the unperswadednesse which this Psalme sheweth to be naturally in that beast. And so the wicked have the title of Apeitheis, Unperswaded, or Disobedient, Tit. 1. 16. Ephes. 2. 2. stoppeth] Hebr. will stop, that is, usually stoppeth his eare, with his taile (as humane writers report) whiles the other hee layeth on the ground; or, is naturally deafe of it. Vers. 6. the voice of charmers] which with words use to charme serpents, that they can neither bite nor sting, as may be gathered both by this place, and by Eccles. 10. 11. Ier. 8. 17. And these Charmers have their name in Hebrew of whispering, or, soft, sweet, and eloquent speaking, Psal. 41. 8 Isa. 3. 3. of him that inchanteth] or that conjureth, conjoyneth, associateth. Inchanters have this title here, and in Deut. 18. 11. either because by sorcerie they associate serpents, making them tame & familiar, that they hurt not; or because such persons use to bind and tie bands or things about the body, to heale or hurt by sorcery; or because by their conjuring art, they have society and fellowship with Devils. And that these evill arts are not here approved, the Law sheweth, Deut. 18. Onely similitudes are taken from them, as elsewhere from the theefe, Rev. 16. 15. the unrighteous Iudge, Luk. 18. 1, 2, 6, 7. the unjust Steward, Luke 16, &c. of him that is made wise] of the wised, that is, the learned, expert, the cunning mage. Vers. 8. refused as waters] that is, (as the Greeke explaineth,) set at nought, nothing esteemed; as waters that passe away and are not regarded. bend he his arrowes] or, his arrow, (for the Hebrew hath a double reading;) that is, every of his arrowes. And this may be meant of the wicked man, whose arrowes bent at the just, shall be broken: or, of God, who shooteth at the wicked, and cutteth them off. be they as cut off] or, let them be as if they were cut off, or, even as strawes: meaning it of the wickeds arrowes: or if of their owne persons, let them be even cut off, as the Greeke saith, untill they be weakened. Vers. 9. snaile that melteth] or, snaile of melting, that is, a consuming snaile; which creeping out of the shell, casteth her moistures, and so wasteth to death. Also with salt, a snaile melteth into water. let him go away] or, walk meaning, let him die. So where one Prophet saith, to go with thy fathers, 1 Chron. 17. 11. another saith for it, sleepe, that is, die, 2 Sam. 7. 12. the untimelybirth] or fallen birth, meaning fallen before due time. So Iob. 3. 19. Eccles. 6. 3. 5. Vers. 10. Ere that they shall perceive] or, Before men shall understand. He speaketh to the wicked of their sudden destruction. The meaning seemeth to be this: Ere men shall perceive (or feele,) the pricking of your thornes, which are thornes of the Bramble, God will as with a whirlewind destroy every of them. The bramble or brier (mentioned also in Iotha[illegible: 1 letter]s parable, Iudg. 9. 14, 15.) hath strong and sharpe thornes, fit to resemble the evill counsels and deeds of the wicked. The Hebrew Sir is used both for a thorne, and a pot: wherefore some here translate po[illegible: 1 letter]s, yet yeelding the same sense. The Greeke turneth it thornes. as alive] or even quicke; which noteth sudden destruction, as Psal. 55. 16. let them goe downe to hell alive, or their lively vigour, which made them feare no destruction, as Psal. 38. 20. my enemies are alive are mightie. This word is sometime used for raw flesh 1 Sam. 2. 15, which some that translate the former word pots, retain also here. even in wrath, or, a[illegible: 1 letter] with burning anger. We may also understand the word thorne thus: as well the living thorne, (that is, fresh and greene,) as the thorne of burning, that is, the burnt or seare thorne: because on the bramble, some of the thornes are parched and arie, when others are young and greene. he will tempestuously whirle it away] God will take away, (or skare away) it, that is, every thorne, as with a whirlwind or tempest. For, as with a whirlwind that passeth, the wicked is no more, Prov. 10. 25. Vers. 11. his feet in bloud] This noteth both the greatnesse of the slaughter, and comfortable use which the just shall make hereof. Compare Psalm, 68. 24. Esay 63. 3. Rev. 14. 20. Vers. 12. earthly man] Hebr. Adam, put here for men in generall: as son for sons, 2 King, 21. 6. with 2 Chr. 33. 6. See also Ps. 8. 9. fruit] that is, a comfortable reward, after their labours and troubles. As Heb. 12. 11. Jam. 3. 18. So the Chaldee translateth it, a good reward. God that judge] or Gods judging. A mystery of the holy Trinitie, used sundry times in the Scripture, as, Gods caused me to wander, Gen. 20. 13. he is holy Gods, Ios. 24. 19. he is living Gods, Ier. 10. 10. though most commonly it is otherwise. See the note on Psal. 3. 3.

PSAL. LVIII.

VErſ. 1.Una ligati, ut Gen. 37.7. vel. ab [illegible: 2 letters]N Mutus quia congregatio ante oratorem eftquaſi mutus. Aben-Ezra. Do yee indeed speak righteouſneſs O Congregation?] Or, O Councell; you that are gathered together on a knot, under a pretence of doing juſtice, and promoting the publick good by giving faithfull advice to the King. Colloquitur Abner[illegible: 1 letter] & reliquis, ſaith Kimchi, David here talketh to Abner and the reſt, who to pleaſe Saul pronounced David a rebel, and condemned him abſent for an enemy to the State. And for as much as there is no greater injury than that which paſſeth under the name of right, he ſharply debateth the matter with them whom he knew of old to be very corrupt; painting them out in their colours, and denouncing Gods heavy judgments againſt them for their unjuſt dealings with him. The word rendred Congregation is not found elſewhere in that ſenſe. It ſignifieth dumbneſſe; and is by the Spaniſh tranſlators rendred, O audiencia, by Antiphraſis, ut lucus, quia non lucet.

Do ye judge uprightly, O yee ſons of men?] i.e. O ye carnall profane perſons that ſavour not the things of the Spirit, q. d. ye are fit perſons to make Counſellors of State. Sedes prima & vita ima agree not. Dignitas in indigno eſt ornamentum in luto, ſaith Salvian. You do much miſ-become your places.

Verſ. 2. Yea in heart you work wickedneſſe] There the Devill worketh it as in a forge; ye are alwaies plotting and plowing miſchief, and that not ſo much for fear of Saul, or to pleaſe him, as out of the naughtineſſe of your own hearts; and all this you know in your conſciences to be true. Kimchi ſaith, that the word Aph or yea importeth, that their hearts were made for a better purpoſe; and therefore their ſin was the greater. Corruptio optimi p[illegible: 1 letter]ſſima.

You weigh the violence of your hands in the earth] i.e. Your bribes, ſaith Kimchi; theſe ye weigh or poiſe,Manus veſ[illegible: 1 letter]rae [illegible: 1 letter]oncinnant iniquitatem. Vul. quaſi eſſent recta, as if there were no hurt in them; ſo Demoſthenes weighed Harpalus his goblet, to the great danger of his Country, and his own indeleble infamy. The Arabick rendreth it, Manus veſtra in tenebris immerſe ſunt, your hands are drowned in darkneſſe; you ſeem to do all according to law and Juſtice (pictured with a pair of balances in her hand) when indeed you weigh out wrong for right,Trutina juſtior. Prov. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Pythag. Symb. and do things [non-Latin text not transcribed], by partiality, 1 Tim 5.21. by tilting the balance o't'one ſide.

Verſ. 3. The wickedare eſtranged from the womb] q.d. Theſe enemies of mine are old ſinners; hardened and habituated in wickedneſſe from the very womb; it hath alſo grown up with them, and quite turned away their hearts from God and goodneſſe, whereunto they ſtand utterly acroſs, and have an innate Antipathy, they are not only averſe thereto, but adverſe alſo; yea to their ſinews of Iron they have added brows of braſs, Iſa. 48.4. ſinfull indeed we are all by nature, and a birth-blot we bring into the World with us, making us ſtrangers to, and ſtrayers from God. But ſome God ſanctifieth even from the womb, as he did Jeremy; and ſome by the light of nature, not altogether extinct, and by Gods reſtraining grace are reigned in from notorious outrage in ſin. Whereas others caſt off by God, and ſuffered to walk after their own hearts luſts, in pe[illegible: 1 letter]us indies proficiunt, wax every day worſe and worſe, as the Apoſtle ſpeaketh, till their iniquity be full, and ſo wrath come upon them to the utmoſt. But as young Nettles ſting ſtrait, and young Crabfiſhes go backward, and young. Urchins are rough ſo naughty nature ſoon appeareth in little ones. Va[illegible: 1 letter]ezatha the youngeſt of Hamans ſons, is by the Hebrews ſaid to be the moſt malicious; and hath therefore one letter in his name bigger than the reſt.

They go aſtray aſſoon at they be [illegible: 1 letter]orn] Heb. From the b[illegible: 2 letters]y; Partus ſequitur v[illegible: 1 letter]ntrem, no ſooner could they do any thing but they were doing evill, liſping out lyes and ſlanders be[illegible: 1 letter]imes.

Verſ. 4. Their poyſon is like the [illegible: 1 word] a Serpent] Their inbred corruption (the ſpawn of that old Serpent, Gen. 3.) is ſtrong, and full of infection, able to kill both the party in whom it is, and the other alſo upon whom it is caſt. Malice drinketh up the moſt part of its own Venome, but ſome it ſpetteth out upon others; for it is not like the Maid whom Avi[illegible: 1 letter]en mentioneth, who feeding upon Poyſon was her ſelf healthy, yet infected others with her venemous breath.Deut. 32.31 Hot poy[illegible: 1 letter]on have they, like as the Hot poyſon of a Serpent (ſo ſome render it) yea of the worſt ſort of Serpents, the Aſp (for Serpentum quot colores tot dolores, Lib. 8, c. 3 ſaith Iſidore) the venome whereof is incurable, ſaith Pliny; unleſs the members touched therewith bee immediatly cut oft.

They are like the deaf Adder (or Aſp) that ſtoppeth her ear] So that their naughtineſs is not natural only, but habitual, acquired, wilful; they refuſe to bee reformed, they hate to be healed, and muſt therefore be turned over to God with a Noluerunt incantari, they would not be reclaimed, they are uncounſelable, unperſwadeable,. The Adder, or Aſp here hath her name Pethen from perſwadeableneſs; but it is by Antiphraſis. Wicked men are likewiſe ſaid to bee [non-Latin text not transcribed] unperſwaded, or diſobedient, Tit. 1.16. and children of diſobedience, Epheſ. 2.2. ſuch as whom Non perſuadebis etiamſi per ſuaſeres, ſpeak you never ſo perſwaſively, yee ſhall never perſwade. Nay, but we will have a King, ſaid they of old, when they had nothing elſe to ſay. So Pharaoh, when clearly convinced, ſent for the Sorcerers.

Verſ. 5. Which wil not hearken to the voyce of Charmers] Such there are,Vide Plin. lib. 2 c. 7 & l. 8. c. 3. Q[illegible: 1 letter]um caeperet incantatore[illegible: 2 letters] ſuum pati, allidit unam aurem terrae & caud[illegible: 1 letter] obrurat alteram Aug. in [illegible: 1 word] Horat. Epiſt. 2 the Devils ſpel-men, Eccleſ. 10.8. that can inchant ſome kind of Serpents, and ſome they cannot, as Jerem. 8.17. That the Serpent here ſpoken of, when ſhe beginneth to feel the Charmer, clappeth one of her ears cloſe to the ground, and ſtoppeth the other with her tayl, is affirmed by Hierom, Auſtin, and Caſſiodore. And that ſhee doth this, although by harkening to the Charmer provoking her to ſpet out her poyſon, ſhe might renew her age, is affirmed by others; ſemblably, perverſe people will not be perſwaded to live happily, reign everlaſtingly.

— At Paris ut vivat rog[illegible: 1 letter]et que beatus, Cogipoſſe negat.

Verſ. 6. Break their teeth, O God] Diſarm, and diſable them from doing mee miſchief. See Pſal. 3.7. & 10.13. & 57.4. to which laſt hee ſeemeth here to referre.

Verſ. 7. Let them melt away as waters] As Snow-waters before the Sun-beams, quickly melted, and ſoon drunk in by the dry earth, Job 24.19. In Pern, they ſay, there is a River called the Diurnal-river, or the Day[illegible: 1 letter]river, becauſe it falleth with a mighty current in the day, but in the Night is dry, becauſe it is not fed by a Spring, but cauſed meerly by the melting of the Snow, which lyeth on the Mountains thereabouts.

When he bendeth his how] i.e. Let him be utterly fruſtrated, let all his miſchievous deſigns and endeavours be blaſted, and come to nothing. In that famous Battel betwixt Theodoſius and Maximus, Milites nobis qui aderant retulerunt, De civ. Dell. 5. c. 26 ſaith Auguſtine, extorta ſibi eſſe de mantbus quacun que jaculaba[illegible: 1 letter]tur; cum à Theodoſii partibus in adverſaries vehemens ventus iret; & non ſolum quacun que in eos jaciebantur concitatiſſime raperet verum etiam ipſorum tela in eorum corpora retorqueret, the Souldiers told us,Iithmalalu reciprocam haber ſignificationem. Et hoc Sauls contigit. that their Darts thrown againſt the Chriſtians, were by a violent wind brought back upon themſelves. Accordingly ſome render this Hemiſtick thus; When he bendeth, &c. let him be as they that cut off themſelves.

Verſ. 8. As a ſnail which melteth] The Pſalmiſt heapeth up many very fit Similitudes agreeable to theſe mens avarice and ambition, which was to raiſe themſelves and their poſterity to great eſtates: but all ſhould come to nothing ſuddenly.

Verſ. 9. Before your pots can feelth[illegible: 1 letter] th[illegible: 1 letter]rns, &c.] Of this Text we may ſay as one doth of another, it had been eaſie had not Commentatours made it ſo knotty.Proverb. [illegible: 1 word] 2. l. 2. Prov. [illegible: 1 word] I am for that of Druſius, Tractum à ſemicrudis car[illegible: 1 letter]ibus ollâ exiractis priuſquam ignis calorem ſenſcriut; 'Tis a compariſon taken from raw fleſh, taken out of the pot before it hath felt the full force of the fire.

Both living and in his wrath] i.e. When they are moſt vigorous and vivacious, to ſee to, his wrath ſhall ſweep them away.

Verſ. 10. The righteous ſhall rejoyce, &c.] giving God the glory of his juſtice againſt his enemies, and care of his poor people. See Exod. 15.1. Rev. 15.3. H[illegible: 1 letter]ſt. 7.10. & 8. & 9. Prov. 11.10.

He ſhall waſh his feet in the bloud of the wicked] A ſpeech borrowed from great Conquerours, wading up to the anckles in the bloud of their enemies; or as ſome think, from thoſe that tread the Wine-preſs with joy. Some make this the ſenſe, the righteous ſeeing the ruine of the wicked ſhall become more cautious: according to that, Alterius perditio [illegible: 1 letter]ua ſit cautio.

Verſ. 11. So that a man ſhall ſay, verily there is a reward] Not the religious only, but the rational, Paſſim & palam h[illegible: 1 letter]c duo profitebuntur, ſhall every where, and all abroad ſay, as here,

There is a reward] See my Righteous mans recompence.

Verily he is a God that judgeth the earth] Sitteth not idle in Heaven, letting things run here at ſixes and ſevens, as Fate or blinde Fortune will. C[illegible: 1 letter]rioſus eſt, plenuſ que negotii Deus, ſaith Cicero.

Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? The enemies of David were a numerous and united band, and because they so unanimously condemned the persecuted one, they were apt to take it for granted that their verdict was a right one. "What everybody says must be true, "is a lying proverb based upon the presumption which comes of large combinations. Have we not all agreed to hound the man to the death, and who dare hint that so many great ones can be mistaken? Yet the persecuted one lays the axe at the root by requiring his judges to answer the question whether or not they were acting according to justice. It were well if men would sometimes pause, and candidly consider this. Some of those who surrounded Saul were rather passive than active persecutors; they held their tongues when the object of royal hate was slandered; in the original, this first sentence appears to be addressed to them, and they are asked to justify their silence. Silence gives consent. He who refrains from defending the right is himself an accomplice in the wrong. Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Ye too are only men though dressed in a little brief authority. Your office for men, and your relation to men both bind you to rectitude; but have ye remembered this? Have ye not put aside all truth when ye have condemned the godly, and united in seeking the overthrow of the innocent? Yet in doing this be not too sure of success, or ye are only the "sons of men, "and there is a God who can and will reverse your verdicts.

Yea, in heart ye work wickedness. Down deep in your very souls ye hold a rehearsal of the injustice ye intend to practise, and when your opportunity arrives, ye wreak vengeance with a gusto; your hearts are in your wicked work, and your hands are therefore ready enough. Those very men who sat as judges, and pretended to so much indignation at the faults imputed to their victim, were in their hearts perpetrating all manner of evil. Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. They were deliberate sinners, cold, calculating villains. As righteous judges ponder the law, balance the evidence, and weigh the case, so the malicious dispense injustice with malice aforethought in cold blood. Note in this verse that the men described sinned with heart and hand; privately in their heart, publicly in the earth; they worked and they weighed —they were active, and yet deliberate. See what a generation saints have to deal with! Such were the foes of our Lord, a generation of vipers, an evil and adulterous generation; they sought to kill him because he was righteousness itself, yet they masked their hatred to his goodness by charging him with sin.

The wicked are estranged from the womb. It is small wonder that some men persecute the righteous seed of the woman, since all of them are of the serpent's brood, and enmity is set between them. No sooner born than alienated from God —what a condition to be found in! Do we so early leave the right track? Do we at the same moment begin to be men and commence to be sinners? They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Every observer may see how very soon infants act lies. Before they can speak they practise little deceptive arts. This is especially the case in those who grow up to be adept in slander, they begin their evil trade early, and there is no marvel that they become adept in it. He who starts early in the morning will go far before night. To be untruthful is one of the surest proofs of a fallen state, and since falsehood is universal, so also is human depravity.

Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. Is man also a poisonous reptile? Yes, and his venom is even as that of a serpent. The viper has but death for the body in his fangs; but unregenerate man carries poison under his tongue, destructive to the nobler nature. They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear. While speaking of serpents the psalmist remembers that many of them have been conquered by the charmer's art, but men such as he had to deal with no art could tame or restrain; therefore, he likens them to a serpent less susceptible than others to the charmer's music, and says that they refused to hear reason, even as the adder shuts her ear to those incantations which fascinate other reptiles. Man, in his natural corruption, appears to have all the ill points of a serpent without its excellences. O sin, what hast thou done!

Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. Ungodly men are not to be won to right by arguments the most logical, or appeals the most pathetic. Try all your arts, ye preachers of the word! Lay yourselves out to meet the prejudices and tastes of sinners, and ye shall yet have to cry, "Who hath believed our report?" It is not in your music, but in the sinner's ear that the cause of failure lies, and it is only the power of God that can remove it.

"You can call spirits from the vast deep,

But will they come when you do call for them?"

No, we call and call, and call in vain, till the arm of the Lord is revealed. This is at once the sinner's guilt and danger. He ought to hear but will not, and because he will not hear, he cannot escape the damnation of hell.

Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth. If they have no capacity for good, at least deprive them of their ability for evil. Treat them as the snake charmers do their serpents, extract their fangs, break their teeth. The Lord can do this, and he will. He will not suffer the malice of the wicked to triumph, he will deal them such a blow as shall disable them from mischief. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord. As if one brute creature had not enough of evil in it to complete the emblem of ungodly nature, another specimen of ferae naturae is fetched in. For fierce cruelty the wicked are likened to young lions, monsters in the prime of their vigour, and the fury of their lustiness; and it is asked that their grinders may be smashed in, broken off, or dashed out, that the creatures may henceforth be harmless. One can well understand how the banished son of Jesse, while poisoned by the venomous slander of his foes, and worried by their cruel power, should appeal to heaven for a speedy and complete riddance from his enemies.

Let them melt away as waters which run continually. Like mountain torrents dried up by the summer heats let them disappear; or like running streams whose waters are swiftly gone, so let them pass away; or like water spilt which none can find again, so let them vanish out of existence. Begone, ye foul streams, the sooner ye are forgotten the better for the universe. When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. When the Lord goes forth to war, let his judgments so tell upon these persecutors that they may be utterly cut in pieces as a mark shattered by many shafts. Or perhaps the meaning is, when the ungodly man marches to the conflict, let his arrows and his bow drop into fragments, the string cut, the bow snapped, the arrows headless, the points blunted; so that the boastful warrior may not have wherewithal to hurt the object of his enmity. In either sense the prayer of the Psalm has often become fact, and will be again fulfilled as often as need arises.

As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away. As the snail makes its own way by its slime, and so dissolves as it goes, or as its shell is often found empty, as though the inhabitant had melted away, so shall the malicious eat out their own strength while they proceed upon their malevolent designs, and shall themselves disappear. To destroy himself by envy and chagrin is the portion of the ill disposed. Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. Solemn is this curse, but how surely does it fall on many graceless wretches! They are as if they had never been. Their character is shapeless, hideous, revolting. They are fitter to be hidden away in an unknown grave than to be reckoned among men. Their life comes never to ripeness, their aims are abortive, their only achievement is to have brought misery to others, and horror to themselves. Such men as Herod, Judas, Alva, Bonner, had it not been better for them if they had never been born? Better for the mothers who bore them? Better for the lands they cursed? Better for the earth in which their putrid carcasses are hidden from the sun? Every unregenerate man is an abortion. He misses the true form of God made manhood; he corrupts in the darkness of sin; he never sees or shall see the light of God in purity, in heaven.

Before your pots can feel the thorns. So sudden is the overthrow of the wicked, so great a failure is their life, that they never see joy. Their pot is put upon the hook to prepare a feast of joy, and the fuel is placed beneath, but before the thorns are lit, before any heat can be brought to bear upon the pot, yea, even as soon as the fuel has touched the cooking vessel, a storm comes and sweeps all away; the pot is overturned, the fuel is scattered far and wide. Perhaps the figure may suppose the thorns, which are the fuel, to be kindled, and then the flame is so rapid that before any heat can be produced the fire is out, the meat remains raw, the man is disappointed, his work is altogether a failure. He shall take them away as with a whirlwind. Cook, fire, pot, meat and all, disappear at once, whirled away to destruction. Both living, and in his wrath. In the very midst of the man's life, and in the fury of his rage against the righteous, the persecutor is overwhelmed with a tornado, his designs are baffled, his contrivances defeated, and himself destroyed. The passage is difficult, but this is probably its meaning, and a very terrible one it is. The malicious wretch puts on his great seething pot, he gathers his fuel, he means to play the cannibal with the godly; but he reckons without his host, or rather without the Lord of hosts, and the unexpected tempest removes all trace of him, and his fire, and his feast, and that in a moment.

The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. He will have no hand in meting out, neither will he rejoice in the spirit of revenge, but his righteous soul shall acquiesce in the judgments of God, and he shall rejoice to see justice triumphant. There is nothing in Scripture of that sympathy with God's enemies which modern traitors are so fond of parading as the finest species of benevolence. We shall at the last say, "Amen, "to the condemnation of the wicked, and feel no disposition to question the ways of God with the impenitent. Remember how John, the loving disciple, puts it. "And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever." He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. He shall triumph over them, they shall be so utterly vanquished that their overthrow shall be final and fatal, and his deliverance complete and crowning. The damnation of sinners shall not mar the happiness of saints.

So that a man shall say. Every man however ignorant shall be compelled to say, Verily, in very deed, assuredly, there is a reward for the righteous. If nothing else be true this is. The godly are not after all forsaken and given over to their enemies; the wicked are not to have the best of it, truth and goodness are recompensed in the long run. Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. All men shall be forced by the sight of the final judgment to see that there is a God, and that he is the righteous ruler of the universe. Two things will come out clearly after all —there is a God and there is a reward for the righteous. Time will remove doubts, solve difficulties, and reveal secrets; meanwhile faith's foreseeing eye discerns the truth even now, and is glad thereat.

TITLE. The proper meaning of the root of Michtam is to engrave, or to stamp a metal. It therefore, in strictness, means, an engraving or sculpture. Hence in the Septuagint, it is translated sthlografia, an inscription on a column. I would venture to offer a conjecture in perfect harmony with this view. It appears by the titles of four out of these six Psalms, that they were composed by David while flying and hiding from the persecutions of Saul. What, then, should hinder us from imagining that they were inscribed on the rocks and on the sides of the caves which so often formed his place of refuge? This view would accord with the strict etymological meaning of the word, and explain the rendering of the Septuagint. John Jebb, in "A Literal Translation of the Book of Psalms," 1846. (See also Explanatory Notes on Psalms 6 and 56. "Treasury of David", Vol. 1., pp. 222-23; Vol. 3, p. 40.)

Whole Psalm. Kimchi says this Psalm was written on account of Abner, and the rest of Saul's princes, who judged David as a rebel against the government, and said it was for Saul to pursue after him to slay him; for if they had restrained him, Saul would not have pursued after him; and indeed they seem to be wicked judges who are addressed in this Psalm; do not destroy. Arama says, it declares the wickedness of Saul's judges. John Gill.

Are ye dumb (when) ye (should) speak righteousness (and) judge equitably, sons of men? The first words are exceedingly obscure. One of them mla, not expressed in the English, and the ancient versions, means dumbness, as in Ps 61:1, and seems to be here used as a strong expression for entirely speechless. In what respect they were thus dumb, is indicated by the verb which follows, but the connection can be made clear in English only by a circumlocution. The interrogation, are ye indeed, expresses wonder, as at something scarcely credible. Can it be so? Is it possible? are you really silent, you, whose very office is to speak for God, and against the sins of men? Joseph Addison Alexander.

O congregation, O band, or company. The Hebrew alem, which hath the signification of binding as a sheaf or bundle, seemeth here to be a company that are combined or confederate. Henry Ainsworth.

In heart ye work wickedness, etc. The psalmist doth not say, they had wickedness in their heart, but that they did work it there: the heart is a shop within, an underground shop; there they did closely contrive, forge, and hammer out their wicked purposes, and fit them into actions; yea, they weighed the violence of their hands in the earth. That's an allusion to merchants, who buy and sell by weight; they weigh their commodity to an ounce; they do not give it out in gross, but by exact weight. This saith the psalmist, they weigh the violence of their hands; they do not oppress grossly, but with a kind of exactness and skill, they sit down and consider what and how much violence they may use in such a case, or how much such a person may endure, or such a season may bear. They are wiser than to do all at once, or all to one, lest they spoil all. They weigh what they do, though what they do be so bad that it will hold no weight when God comes to weigh it. Nor do they arrive at this skill presently, but after they have, as it were, served an apprenticeship at it; and they bind themselves to the trade very early; for as it follows at the third verse of the Psalm, The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies, that is, they are estranged both by nature and by early practice; they lose no time, they go to it young, even "as soon as they are born, "as soon as they are fit for any use, or to do any thing, they are using and setting themselves to do wickedly. Joseph Caryl.

The word twlwe wickedness properly signifies the inclinations of scales, when the scale weighs down to one side; then it is transferred to respect of persons, to injustice and iniquity, especially in public tribunals and decisions, as in Ps 82:2, How long will ye judge lwe by an unjust inclination of the scales? Hermann Venema.

The principles of the wicked are even worse than their practices: premeditated violence is doubly guilty. George Rogers.

The wicked are estranged from the womb, etc. How early men do sin! How late they do repent! As soon as they are born "they go astray, "but if left to themselves they will not return till they die; they will never return. Children can neither go nor speak as soon as born, but as soon as born they can "go astray" and "speak lies; "that is, their first speaking is lying, and their first going is straying; yea, when they cannot go naturally, they can go astray morally or metaphorically: the first step they are able to take is a step out of the way. Joseph Caryl.

They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Of all sins, no sin can call Satan father like to lying. All the corruption that is in us came from Satan, but yet this sin of forging and lying is from the devil more than any; tastes of the devil more than any. Hence every man is a liar (Ro 3:4), and so every man is every sinner else; but in a special manner every man is a liar; for that the very first depravation of our nature came in by lying, and our nature doth taste much still of this old block to be given to lying, the devil also breathing into us a strong breath to stir us up to lying. Hence no sooner do we speak but we lie. As we are in body, subject to all diseases, but yet, some to one sickness rather than to another: so in the soul, all are apt enough to all sin, and some rather to one vice than to another; but all are much inclined to lying. A liar then is as like the devil as ever he can look: as unlike to God as ever he can be. Richard Capel, 1586-1656, in "Tentations, their Nature, Danger, Cure."

The figure of the wicked going astray as soon as they are born, seems to be taken from the disposition and power of a young serpent soon after its birth. The youngest serpent can convey poison to anything which it bites; and the suffering in all cases is great, though the bite is seldom fatal. Place a stick near the reptile whose age does not amount to many days, and he will immediately snap at it. The offspring of the tiger and of the alligator are equally fierce in their earliest habits. Joseph Roberts, in "Oriental Illustrations of the Sacred Scriptures," 1844.

Poison. There is such a thing as poison; but where to be found? Ubicunque fuerit, in homine quis quaereret? Wheresoever it is, in man who would look for it? God made man's body of the dust; he mingled no poison with it. He inspires his soul from heaven; he breathes no poison with it. He feeds him with bread; he conveys no poison with it. Unde venenum? Whence is the poison? Mt 13:27 —"Didst not thou, O Lord, sow good seed in thy field?" Unde zizaniae —"From whence then hath it tares?" Whence? Hoc fecit inimicus —"The enemy hath done this." We may perceive the devil in it. That great serpent, the red dragon, hath poured into wicked hearts this poison. His own poison, malitiam, wickedness. Cum infundit peccatum, infundit venenum —"When he pours in sin he pours in poison." Sin is poison. Original depravity is called corruption; actual poison. The violence and virulence of this venomous quality comes not at first. Nemo fit repente pessimus —No man becomes worst at the first dash. We are born corrupt, we have made ourselves poisonous. There be three degrees, as it were so may ages, in sin. First —secret sin; an ulcer lying in the bones, but skinned over with hypocrisy. Secondly —open sin, bursting forth into manifest villany. The former is corruption, the second is eruption. Thirdly —frequented and confirmed sin, and that is rank poison, envenoming soul and body. Thomas Adams, 1614.

Adder. Hebrew ntb pethen, the Egyptian cobra (Naja hage), one of the venomous Colubrine Snakes (Colubri). This is one of the so called hooded snakes, with which serpent charmers chiefly deal. The Spectacled Snake proper (Naja tripudians) is a closely related species. The well known Cobra di Capello is another. They are all noted for their deadly bite. The hollow fangs communicate with a poison gland, which being pressed in the act of biting, sends a few drops into the puncture. The venom quickly acts on the whole system, and death soon ensues. John Duns, D.D., in "Biblical Natural Science," 1868.

The deaf adder. Certain it is, says a modern writer upon the Psalms, that the common adder or viper here in England, the bite of which too, by the way, is very venomous, if it is not wholly deaf, has the sense of hearing very imperfectly. This is evident from the danger there is of treading upon these animals, unless you happen to see them; for if they do not see you, and you do not disturb them, they never endeavour to avoid you, which when they are disturbed and do see you, they are very solicitous of doing. Allowing, then, that there is a species of these noxious animals, which either not having the sense of hearing at all, or having it only in a low degree, may very well be said to be deaf; this may help to explain the present poetical passage of the psalmist. He very elegantly compares the pernicious and destructive practices of wicked men to the venom of a serpent; and his mentioning this species of animals, seems to have brought to his mind another property of at least one sort of them, in which they likewise resembled perverse and obstinate sinners, who are deaf to all advice, utterly irreclaimable, and not to be persuaded. This the adder resembled, which is a very venomous animal, and moreover is deaf, or very near it. And perhaps his saying that she stoppeth her ear, may be no more than a poetical expression for deafness; just as the mole, which in common speech is said to be blind, might in a poetical phrase, be said to shut her eyes; as in fact she does when you expose her to the light. The next clause, Which refuseth to hear, etc., is another poetical expression for the same thing. Samuel Burder, in "The Scripture Expositor," 1810.

The deaf adder. Several of the serpent tribe are believed to be either quite deaf, or very dull of hearing. Perhaps that which is called the puddeyan, the "beaver serpent, "is more so than any other. I have frequently come close up to these reptiles; but they did not make any effort to move out of the way. They lurk in the path, and the victim on whom they pounce will expire within a few minutes after he is bitten. Joseph Roberts.

The deaf adder. The adder, or asp, is the haje naja, or cobra of Egypt, according to Cuvier. The hearing of all the serpent tribes is imperfect, as all are destitute of a tympanic cavity, and of external openings to the ear. The deaf adder is not a particular species. The point of the rebuke is, the pathen, or "adder, "here in question, could hear in some degree but would not; just as the unrighteous judges, or persecutors, of David could hear with their outward ears such appeals as he makes in Ps 58:1-2, but would not. The charmer usually could charm the serpent by shrill sounds, either of his voice or of the flute, the serpent's comparative deafness rendering it the more amenable to those sounds which it could hear. But exceptional cases occurred of a deaf adder which was deaf only in the sense that it refused to hear, or to be acted on. Also Jer 8:17; compare Ec 10:11. A. R. Fausset.

The deaf adder that stoppeth her ear. With respect to what is said of the animal's stopping its ears, it is not necessary to have recourse to the supposition of its actually doing so, which by some persons has been stated, but it is sufficient to know, that whilst some serpents are operated upon in the manner above described, others are partly or altogether insensible to the incantation. Richard Mant.

(second clause). This clause admits of a different construction, like the deaf adder he stops his ear, which some interpreters prefer, because an adder cannot stop its ears, and need not stop them if naturally deaf, whereas it is by stopping his, the wicked man becomes like a deaf adder. J. A. Alexander.

Verses 4-5. Experienced and skilful as the serpent charmers are, however, they do not invariably escape with impunity. Fatal terminations to these exhibitions of the psyllid art now and then occur; for there are still to be found "deaf adders, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely."... Roberts mentions the instance of a man who came to a gentleman's house to exhibit tame snakes, and on being told that a cobra, or hooded snake, was in a cage in the house, was asked if he could charm it; on his replying in the affirmative, the serpent was released from the cage, and no doubt, in a state of high irritation. The man began his incantation, and repeated his charms; but the snake darted at him, fastened upon his arm, and before night he was a corpse. Philip Henry Gosse, in "The Romance of Natural History, "1861.

Verses 4-5. One day a rattlesnake entered our encampment. Among us was a Canadian who could play the flute, and who, to divert us, marched against the serpent with his new species of weapon. On the approach of his enemy, the haughty reptile curls himself into a spiral line, flattens his head, inflates his cheeks, contracts his lips, displays his envenomed fangs and his bold throat; his tongue flows like two flames of fire; his eyes are burning coals; his body swollen with rage, rises and falls like the bellows of a forge; his dilated skin assumes a dull and scaly appearance; and his tail, whence proceeds the death announcing sound, vibrates with such rapidity as to resemble a light vapour. The Canadian begins to play upon his flute —the serpent starts with surprise, and draws back his head. In proportion as he is struck with the magic notes, his eyes lose their fierceness; the oscillations of his tail become slower and the sounds which it makes become weaker, and gradually die away. Less perpendicular upon their spiral line, the rings of the charmed serpent are by degrees expanded, and sink one after another on the ground in concentric circles. The shades of azure, green, white, and gold recover their brightness on his quivering skin, and slightly turning his head, he remains motionless, in the attitude of attention and pleasure. At this moment the Canadian advances a few steps, producing from his flute sweet and simple notes. The serpent, inclining his variegated neck, opens a passage with the head through the high grass, and begins to creep after the musician; stopping when he stops, and beginning to follow him again as soon as he advances forward. In this manner he was led out of the camp, attended by a great number of spectators, both savages and Europeans, who could scarcely believe their eyes, which had witnessed this effect of harmony. Francois Aguste, Viscount de Chateaubriand, 1768-1848.

Verses 4-5. The serpent, when she begins to feel the charmer, clappeth one ear presently to the ground, and stoppeth the other ear with her tail, although by hearkening to the charmer, as some observe, she would be provoked to spit out her poison, and renew her age. (This is a specimen of the old fashioned un-natural history. No one will be misled by it. C. H. S.) So hot is man upon his harlot sin, that he is deaf to all that would counsel him to the contrary; he stops his ear, hardens his heart, stiffens his neck against the thunders of the law, the still voice of the gospel, the motions of the Spirit, and the convictions of his own conscience. When sin calls, they run through thick and thin for haste; when the world commands, how readily do they hearken, how quickly do they hear, how faithfully do they obey! but when the blessed God cries to them, charges them by his unquestionable authority, beseeches them for their own unchangeable felicity, they, like statues of men, rather than living creatures, stand still and stir not at all. Other things move swiftly to their centres; stones fall tumbling downward, sparks fly apace upward, coneys run with speed to their burrows, rivers with violence to the ocean, and yet silly man hangs off from his Maker, that neither entreaties nor threatenings, nor the word, nor the works of God, nor the hope of heaven, nor fear of hell, can quicken or hasten him to his happiness. Who would imagine that a reasonable soul should act so much against sense and reason? George Swinnock, 1627-1673.

Will not hearken. The Lord hath some of his elect ones whom he seeth walking in bypaths and crooked ways: the Lord giveth a commission to his servants, the ministers, and saith, Go invite and call yon soul to come to me, and say, Return, O Shulamite; but the soul stirs not: the Lord sends and calls again: yet with the deaf adder, he hearkeneth not to the voice of the enchanter: well, saith the Lord, "If you will not come; I will fetch you"; if fair means will not do, foul means must; then he hisses for the fly and the bee of affliction, and calls forth armies of trouble, and gives them commission to seize upon, and to lay siege to such a man or woman, and saith, Ply them with your cannon shot, till you make them yield, give up the keys and strike the sail; he sends sickness to their bodies, a consumption to their estate, death to their friends, shame to their reputation, a fire to their house, and the like, and bids them prey and spoil, till they see and acknowledge the hand of the Lord lifted up. J. Votier's "Survey of Effectual Calling," 1652.

Break their teeth, destroy the fangs of these serpents, in which their poison is contained. This will amount to the same meaning as above. Save me from the adders, the sly and poisonous slanderers: save me also from the lions —the tyrannical and bloodthirsty men. Adam Clarke.

Great teeth. mwetlm, according to Michaelis and Gesenius, are the eye teeth, which in lions are sharp and terrible. George Phillips, B.D., in "The Psalms in Hebrew: With a Commentary," 1846.

Verses 6-9. David's enemies were strong and fierce as young lions: he therefore prayed that their teeth might be broken, even their strongest teeth, their grinders, with which they were ready to devour him; that so they might be disabled from doing mischief. They overwhelmed him like an inundation: but he desired it might prove a land flood, which is soon wasted. They were about to shoot at him: but he would have their bows, or their arrows, to be shivered to pieces, and become like straw, and do no execution, and he prayed that they might waste insensibly as the snail, which leaves its substance all along its track; and that they might come to nothing, like an abortion. He also predicted, that their prosperous rage (which resembled the crackling of thorns under a pot), would soon be extinct, and produce no effect; while the Lord in his wrath would hurry them into speedy destruction; as a furious whirlwind drives a living man down a precipice, or into a dreadful pit. Thomas Scott, 1747-1821.

As a snail which melteth away as it goeth, literally, which goeth in melting (or slime), the noun being in the accusative as describing the nature of the action, and the allusion being to the slimy trail which the snail leaves behind it, so that it seems to waste away. Evidently this is nothing more than a poetical hyperbole, and need not be explained, therefore, as a popular error or a mistake in natural history. —J. J. Stewart Perowne, B.D., in "The Book of Psalms; a New Translation, with Introduction and Notes," 1864.

As a snail which melteth, etc. This is a very remarkable and not very intelligible passage. The Jewish Bible renders the passage in a way which explains the idea which evidently prevailed at the time the Psalms were composed: "As a snail let him melt as he passeth on." The ancients had an idea that the slimy track made by a snail as it crawled along was subtracted from the substance of its body, and that in consequence the farther it crept the smaller it became until at last it wasted entirely away. The commentators on the Talmud took this view of the case. The Hebrew word, lwlbv shablul, which undoubtedly does signify a snail of some kind, is thus explained: —"The Shablul is a creeping thing; when it comes out of its shell, saliva pours from itself until it becomes liquid, and so dies." Other explanations of this passage have been offered, but there is no doubt that the view taken by these commentators is the correct one, and that the psalmist, when he wrote the terrible series of denunciations in which the passage occurs, had in his mind the popular belief regarding the gradual wasting away of the snail as it "passeth on." It is needless to say that no particular species of snail is mentioned, and almost as needless to state that in Palestine there are many species of snails, to any or all of which these words are equally applicable. J. G. Wood, in "Bible Animals." 1869.

The untimely birth of a woman. The wicked are all, so speak, human abortions; they are and for ever remain defective beings, who have not accomplished the great purpose of their existence. Heaven is the one end for which man is created, and he who falls short of it does not attain the purpose of his being; he is an eternal abortion. O. Prescott Hiller.

(second clause). David when he curseth the plots of wicked men, that though they have conceived mischief, and though they have gone with it a long time, and are ready to bring it forth, yet saith he, Let them be (that is, let their counsels and designs be) like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun: that is, let them be dashed and blasted, let them never bring forth their poisonous brood to the hurt and trouble of the world. Joseph Caryl.

(first clause). Before your cooking vessels, etc. It would puzzle Oedipus himself to make any tolerable sense of the English translation of this verse. It refers to the usage of travellers in the East, who when journeying through the deserts, make a hasty blaze with the thorns which they collect, some green and full of sap, others dry and withered, for the purpose of dressing their food; in which circumstances, violent storms of wind not infrequently arise, which sweep away their fuel and entire apparatus, before the vessels which they use become warm by the heat. An expressive and graphical image of the overwhelming ruin of wicked men. William Walford, 1837.

Before your pots feel the bramble. By this proverbial expression the psalmist describes the sudden eruption of the divine wrath; sudden and violent as the ascension of the dry bramble underneath the housewife's pot. The brightness of the flame which this material furnishes, the height to which it mounts in an instant, the fury with which it seems to rage on all sides of the vessel, give force, and even sublimity to the image, though taken from one of the commonest occurrences of the lower life —a cottager's wife boiling her pot! The sense, then, will be: "Before your pots feel the bramble, he shall sweep them away in whirlwind and hurricane." Samuel Horsley, 1733-1806.

In all the book of God I do not remember any sentence so variously and differently translated as this verse... This variety of translations ariseth chiefly from the original Hebrew word twrym siroth, which in the Hebrew tongue signifies, first, pots or cauldrons, wherein flesh is sod, as Ex 16:3 38:3 Eze 11:11. Secondly, thorns, and pricks of thorns and briers, as Isa 34:13 Ho 2:8. Thirdly, because the pricks of the great bramble are very sharp and hooked, this word is used to signify fishhooks. Am 4:2. In all our English Bibles of the old, new, and Geneva translation, and some Latin Bibles, this word is taken to signify pots or cauldrons; but the Septuagint, Hierome, vulgar Latin, Austine, Pagnine, Tremellius, and all others that I have seen, take this word in the second sense, for the sharp pricks of thorns and brambles. Here, certainly, this word signifies the sharp pricks of the great dog bramble, which here in the Hebrew text is dj atad, and is used (Jud 9:14-15) in Jotham's parable to signify the bramble, which being made king of the trees, kindled a fire, which devoured the cedars of Lebanon. Now this bramble in the body, and every branch of it, is beset with sharp hooked pricks, some of which are green and have life and moisture in them, and though they be sharp, yet they are not so stiff and strong as to make any deep wound in a man's flesh. Others are greater, more hooked, and hardened by drying and parching with the vehement heat of the sun; and they strike to the quick, and hold fast, or tear where they catch hold of man's skin or flesh. The first are here called dja, living or green; the other are called, nwrx, dried, or parched and hardened; and the prophetical psalmist affirms that "God who judgeth in the earth, will take away and destroy as with a tempestuous whirlwind, every one of them, as well the green as the dry, "as Tremellius out of the original doth most truly translate the word... The whole text runs thus: "Before they feel your thorns or pricks, O ye bramble, he will take away every one as with a whirlwind, as well the green as the dry." Before they, that is, the righteous whom ye hate and persecute; do feel. that is, have a full sense and understanding of your thorns or pricks, that is, of the sharpness, fury, and mischief which is in the heart and hand of all and every one among you; for every one in your band and congregation is a grievous thorn and sharp prick of the cursed bramble, sharply set and bent to do mischief in malice and fury to the people and church of God. "He that is God who judgeth in the earth" (as it is expressed in the eleventh verse, in the last words) "will take away as with a whirlwind" (that is, scatter and destroy tempestuously), "every one, as well the living and green as the dry and hardened." That is, of every sort banded together, as well the green headed and young persecutors, sharp set, but not so strong to hurt, as the old and dry who are hardened in malice by long custom, and in power and policy are strong to do mischief. George Walker, in a Fast Sermon before the House of Commons, 1644.

The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. When the just man seeth the vengeance and rejoiceth, it is not of malice, but of benevolence, either hoping that the wicked may by punishment be amended, or loving God's justice above men's persons, not being displeased with the punishment of the wicked, because it proceedeth from the Lord, nor desiring that the wicked may be acquitted from penalty because the deserve in justice to be punished. Nicholas Gibbens.

The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. Not that he shall be glad of the vengeance purely as it is a hurt, or a suffering to the creature, but the righteous shall be glad when he seeth the vengeance of God, as it is a fulfilling of the threatening of God against the sin of man, and so evidence of his own holiness. Ps 59:9-10. Joseph Caryl.

He shall; wash his feet, etc. That is, he gets comfort and encouragement by seeing the Lord avenge his cause against his adversaries. Joseph Caryl.

He shall wash his feet in the blood, etc. As the victorious survivor of a conflict, walking over the battle field, might be said to do. R. T. Society's Notes.

. When angels execute God's judgments upon sinners, the saints see much in it; they see matter of fear and praise; of fear, in that God's power, wrath, and hatred are manifested in them against sin and sinners; of praise, in that themselves are delivered and justice performed. When the wicked are taken away by a divine stroke, by the hand of justice, and God hath the glory of his justice, the righteous rejoice at it: but is that all? No, he washes his feet in the blood of the wicked; that is, by this judgment he fears and reforms. It is a metaphor taken from the practice of those parts where they went barefoot, or with sandals, and so contracted much filth, and used to wash and cleanse their feet when they came in; so here, the godly seeing the hand of God upon the wicked, fears, and judges himself for his sins, purges his conscience and affections, and stands now in awe of that God who hath stricken the wicked for those sins which he himself in part is guilty of. Waldus, a man of note in Lyons, seeing one struck dead in his presence, he washed his hands in his blood; for presently he gave alms to the poor, instructed his family in the true knowledge of God, and exhorted all that came unto him to repentance and holiness of life. William Greenhill, 1691-1777.

. No doubt, at the sight of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim destroyed, angels saw cause to rejoice and sing, "Hallelujah." Wickedness was swept away; earth was lightened of a burden; justice, the justice of God, was highly exalted; love to his other creatures was displayed in freeing them from the neighbourhood of hellish contaminations. On the same principles (entering, however, yet deeper into the mind of the Father, and sympathising to the full in his justice), the Lord Jesus himself, and each one of his members shall cry, "Hallelujah, "over Antichrist's ruined hosts. Re 19:3. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. He shall be refreshed at the end of his journey (Joh 13:5 Lu 7:44 Ge 18:4), he shall wipe off all the dust of the way, and end its weariness by entering into that strange, that divine joy over sin destroyed, justice honoured, the law magnified, vengeance taken for the insult done to Godhead, the triumph of the Holy One over the unholy. It is not merely the time when the joy begins —it is also the occasion and cause of that day's rapturous delight. Andrew A. Bonar.

A broad and vital distinction is to be made between desire for the gratification of personal vengeance, and zeal for the vindication of the glory of God. "The glory of God" includes necessarily the real good of the offender and the well being of society. Desire for retaliation is alway wrong; desire for retribution may be in the highest degree praiseworthy. For personal motives only can I desire retaliation upon the wrong doer; but for motives most disinterested and noble I may desire retribution. R. A. Bertram, in "The Imprecatory Psalms, "1867.

So that a man shall say, Verily, etc. This shall be said not by a man, nor by any particular man, but by men in general, by man as opposed to God. The particle translated, verily really means only, and denotes that this and nothing else is true. J. A. Alexander.

So that, etc. There is something worth noting from the connexion of this verse with the context, and is implied in the first word, so that, which joins this verse with the former parts of this Psalm, and shows this to be an illation from them. What? did God so suddenly, "as with a whirlwind, "overthrow those wicked judges who lorded it over his people? did he make those "lions" melt like snails? did he confirm the joints of his people, which were little before, trembling and smiting on against another, as if they had been so many forlorn wretches exposed and cast forth, and no eye to pity them; as if they had been floating with Moses upon the sea in a basket of bulrushes, without any pilot to guide them, and even ready to cry out with the disciple, "Master, carest not that we perish?" Did he then command a calm, and bring them to the haven where they would be? did he turn their howling like dragons and chattering like cranes, under the whips and saws of tyrannical taskmasters, into a song of joy and triumph? did he dismantle himself of that cloud wherein for a time he had so enveloped himself, that he seemed not to behold the pressures of his people? did he, I say, then step in to his people's rescue, by breaking their yokes as in the day of Midian, and kissing them with kisses of his mouth? So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. Observe: Though the passages of God's providence may seem so rugged and uncouth, as if they were destructive to his church, and likely to put out the eye of his own glory; yet our God will so dispose of them in the close, that they shall have an advantageous tendency, to the setting forth of his honour and our good. John Hinckley, 1657.

Some of the judgments of God are a shallow, or a ford, over which a lamb may wade; every child may read the meaning of them; and a man —any ordinary man —may say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. Joseph Caryl.

This judging here does not refer to the judgment to come, at the last day, when there shall be a general convention of quick and dead before the Lord's dreadful tribunal; though so, it is most true affore tempus, that there will be a time when God will ride his circuit here in a solemn manner, so that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth; but that is not the scope of this place. It is in the present tense, o krinwn, that now judgeth, or is now judging the earth and the inhabitants thereof; and therefore it must be understood of a judgment on this side, the judgment of the great day; and so God judges the earth, or in the earth, three manner of ways. First, by a providential ordering and wise disposal of all the affairs of all creatures. Secondly, in relieving the oppressed, and pleading the cause of the innocent. Thirdly, in overthrowing and plaguing the wicked doers. John Hinckley.

1. The natural effects of original sin are seen in early suffering and death.

2. Its moral effects are seen in the early commission of actual sin.

3. Early depravity is evinced in the conscious guilt of telling lies. G. R.

(first clause). The inner pandemonium, or the calendar of the heart's crime.

(first clause). A generation of serpents. T. Adams's Sermon.

Sin as a poison. Poisons may be attractive in colour and taste, slow or rapid in action, painful in effect, withering, soporific or maddening. In all cases deadly.

The serpent charmer.

1. He charms with moral persuasion, promise, threatening, etc.

2. He charms wisely, earnestly, affectionately, argumentively. 3.  He charms in vain; the will is averse. Hence the need of divine grace and of the gospel.

The snail like course of ungodly men. Their sin destroys their property, health, time, influence, life.

Remarkable cases of divine judgments and their results.