Psalms 58:1 «To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David. » Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Ver. 1. _Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?_] Or, O council; you that are gathered together on a knot, under a pretence of do... [ Continue Reading ]
Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. Ver. 2. _Yea, in heart ye work wickedness_] These the devil worketh it as in a forge; ye are always plotting and ploughing mischief, and that not so much for fear of Saul, or to please him, as out of the naughtiness... [ Continue Reading ]
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Ver. 3. _The wicked are estranged from the womb_] _q.d._ These enemies of mine are old sinners; hardened and habituated in wickedness from the very womb; it hath also grown up with them, and quite turned... [ Continue Reading ]
Their poison [is] like the poison of a serpent: [they are] like the deaf adder [that] stoppeth her ear; Ver. 4. _Their poison is like the poison of a serpent_] Their inbred corruption (the spawn of that old serpent, Gen 3:1-14) is strong, and full of infection, able to kill both the party in whom i... [ Continue Reading ]
Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. Ver. 5. _Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers_] Such there are, the devil's spellmen, Ecclesiastes 10:8, that can enchant some kind of serpents, and some they cannot, as Jeremiah 8:17. That the serpent here spoken... [ Continue Reading ]
_Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD._ Ver. 6. _Break their teeth, O God_] Disarm and disable them from doing me mischief. See Psalms 3:7; Psalms 10:13; Psalms 57:4, to which last he seemeth here to refer.... [ Continue Reading ]
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. Ver. 7. _Let them melt away as waters_] As snowwaters before the sunbeams, quickly melted, and soon drunk in by the dry earth, Job 24:19. In Peru, they say, there is... [ Continue Reading ]
_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._ Ver. 8. _As a snail which melteth_] The psalmist heapeth up many very fit similitudes agreeable to these men's avarice and ambition, which was to raise themselves... [ Continue Reading ]
Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in [his] wrath. Ver. 9. _Before your pots can feel the thorns, &c._] Of this text we may say, as one doth of another, it had been easy had not commentators made it so knotty. I am for that of Drusius... [ Continue Reading ]
The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. Ver. 10. _The righteous shall rejoice, &c._] Giving God the glory of his justice against his enemies and care of his poor people. See Exodus 15:1,27 : 1Ki 15:3 Esther 7:10; Est 8:9 Proverbs 1... [ Continue Reading ]
_So that a man shall say, Verily [there is] a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth._ Ver. 11. _So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward_] Not the religious only, but the rational, _Passim et palam haec duo profitebuntur,_ shall everywhere, and all abroad,... [ Continue Reading ]