Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 58
The Fifty Eighth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, Altaschith, Michtam o… David.
Paraphrase. The fifty eighth Psalm is a contemplation of the injustice and incorrigible wickedness of men, especially of his enemies that exasperated Saul against him, together with Gods unex…ected speedy vengeance on them. 'Tw…s set to the tune which began with the words, Destroy not, (s…e note on Psal. lvii. a.) and (as several others) styled Davids jewel, because of the signal acts of Gods just judgm…nt mentioned in it, (see note on Psal. xvi. a.) and was composed by David, and committed to the Praefect of his Musick.
1. Doe ye indeed speak righteousness, O‖congregation foreign congregations? doe ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
'Tis lamentable to consider how little truth and justice is left in the world, even among those whose quality most exacts it from them.
3. Yea in heart ye work wickedness,†on the earth; Your hands, or, you with your hands frame violence. youa. weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
All their thoughts and designes are continually imployed in mischief, all the business of their lives to fit it, and frame it, perfect and compass it to the best advantage.
3. The wicked are estrangedb. from the wombe; they goe astray*from the belly foreign as soon as they be born, speaking lyes.
Vice begins and takes possession of them very early, from their very birth, as it were; in their very first and tenderest childehood, they transgress the rules of justice, tell lyes as soon as they are able to speak; the corruption of their nature soon shews it selfe in inclinations to ill, and they make not use of divine grace, or humane discipline, to restrain it, bu… set out, and begin their age with sinning, and so proceed without reformation.
4. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are likec. the deaf adder that stoppeth her eare,
5. Which will not hea…ken to the voice of thed. charmers,‖the wisard that useth incantations. charming never so wisely.
They are full of nothing but wickedness, therein to be resembled to serpents, the most poisonous noxiou… creatures: and one resemblance more they have to one famous sort of se…pents, those of whom the naturalists say, that being deaf of one eare by nature, they have a way of making themselves perfectly deaf, on purpose to preserve themselves from the force of the wisards charmes, designed to lull them asleep and take them. And thus doe these …bstinate incorrigible men resolve never to admit or hearken to any means, which may have force to perswade th…m to leave their wicked wayes, are to all methods of working their reformation impregnable, and impersuasible.
6. ‖Thou wilt break foreignBreak theire. teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the†grinders foreign great teeth of the young Lions, O Lord.
But God will disappoint their poisonous and mischievous designes; he will weaken and disable them, deprive them of the weapons, or opportunities of their malice; as snakes or serpents that have their teeth pulled out: and for the more violent open oppressors, that Lion-like invade the innocent, he will disarme them of those instruments whereby they rend and enjoy their prey; and though their ravenous wicked inclinations and appetites remain, yet shall God restrain them from breaking out, to the destroying of his servants.
7. *They shall melt as waters goe from themselves; he shall direct his arrows (see note on Ps. 64. a.) as if they were cut asunder.Let them melt away as waters thatf. run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be cut in pieces.
Their preparations and forces shall be routed, all their designes disappointed and frustrated, never attaining the end which their malice had projected to the hurt of others.
8. As ag. snail that melteth, ‖he shall pass away as the decid…: u… fal'n, or dead embry…n of a w…man, they shall not—let every one of them pass away, like the untimely fruit of a woman, that they may not see the sunne.
As a snaile melts, and exhausts, and utterly consumes it selfe, when it goes out of the shell, every motion tends to the dissolving and melting of it; or as an Embryon in the womb, when the ligatures of life are dissolved, presently pines away, and comes to nought; so shall they and all their malitious designes be blasted and frustrated and destroyed, and never arrive or attain to their desired success.
9. Before yourh. †…r thorns kn…w the brier.pots can feel the thorns, he shall*hurry them away as it were alive, as it were in fury; or so shall rawness, so shall anguish knew them, or affright them. take them away as with a whirlewind, both living and in his wrath.
And the unexpected suddenness of this is oft very observable: You cannot imagine a cauldron, with a flame of brambles or thorns under it, to be sooner heated, and that which is in it scalded by the fire, or a thorn and a brier entangled one in another, than this vexation, or destruction and discomfiture is wrought on wicked men: As a tempest, or whirlewind, or as a man in a rage hurries away any thing, so shall the wicked be hurried away, seised on, and carried alive, as it were, in a trice, before they can think of any means to prevent it.
10. The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance; he shalli. wash his footsteps in the blood of the wicked.
All good men shall see, and observe this dealing of God with these, and bless his name for their own deliverance out of their hands, and receive benefit and confirmation by sight of this vengeance that falls on them.
11. ‖And foreignSo that a man shall say, Verily there is†fruit foreign a reward for the righteous; verily he is a God that judgeth the earth.
And all that behold it shall be forced to acknowledge, that piety and vertue are matters of advantage and benefit in this world, (abstracted from all reward in another life;) disappointments, and suddain blasts, and destructions being the ordinary guerdon of impiety, and peace and prosperity of conscientious and pious dealing, of justice, and of charity. And this on both sides an infallible evidence of conviction, that this world is not governed by chance, but administred and managed by an all-mighty, all-wise, and most just providence.
Annotations on Psalm LVIII.
V. 2. Weigh] All the Antient Interpreters consent to annex foreign foreignon the earth] to the former part of the verse: foreign, ye work wickedness on the earth, say the Lxxii. and so the Chaldee, and Syriack, &c. by that meaning all the space that they live upon the earth in this world. Then for foreign foreignyour hands,] they generally render it so, as to goe before, and govern the verbe foreign: so the Lxxii. foreign; and the vulgar, injustitias manus vestrae concinnant, your hands weave, or frame wickedness; the Chaldee foreign your hands prepare evil; and the rest after the same manner, (only the Jewish Arab goes the other way, reading, In the regions you weigh the injustice of your hands.) And in case the verbe (as it will bear) should be in the second person, there will yet be no reason to joyn foreign to foreign the iniquity of your hands: The more probable rendring will be by understanding the preposition foreign (prefixt to foreign heart in the former part of the verse, and so fit to be foreign repeated here) in, or with the heart ye work wickedness on the earth, with your hands you frame or prepare violence. The word foreign foreignsignifies to weigh in a balance, and to frame any thing by rule and line: and in this latter sense the Chaldee understand it, rendring it by foreign from foreign to prepare, or fit, or frame any thing; and herein the Latine choose to follow them (rather than the Lxxii.) concinnant, they frame, which the Lxxii. more loosely and paraphrastically render, foreign they complicate, as that signifies weaving, or texture, and so by a metaphore, framing also.
3. From the wombe] foreign foreignand foreign,foreign from the womb, and from the belly, are not strictly to be taken for the houre or minute after birth, as if they did actually sin, or tell lyes, as soon as ever they were born; but in that latitude that aversions (so foreign foreignsignifies) and straying and speaking lyes are capable of, i. e. as soon as they are by age, and understanding, and use of their faculties qualified for sinning, which is not many moneths after their birth, they doe actually fall into sin, and accordingly grow up with it, without reformation.
V. 4. Deaf adder] foreign foreignthe deaf viper, or adder, is said to be so called, because (saith Schindler in the word foreign) being deaf of one eare, he useth to stop the other with dust, or with his taile, to avoid the force of charms or incantations wherewith he is wont to be caught. Of this art of catching Dragons in India, Philostratus gives an account in the*l. iii. c. 2. p. 113. A. life of Apollonius; On the mountain, saith he, foreign, they are wont to hunt the dragons; and there are three parts of the prize, when they are caught (foreign, the eyes, p. 114. B.the skin, and the teeth, but especially the first, the apples of their eyes being foreign a stone bright as fire, Ib. A. 115. A.foreign, florid and sparkling out all manner of colours, and of secret and unspeakable efficacy, such as Gyges his ring is said to be. The hope of this gain stirs up the inhabitants to use all arts to circumvent and take them. And this is the Indian manner of it,p. 114. C. foreign— they take a scarlet coat imbroydered with golden letters, and spread it before the serpents hole, and these golden letters have a fascinating power over him, and therewith his …yes, though as hard as stones, are yet overcome and laid to sleep. And besides, foreign, They have Charms of hidden wisdome (or sorcery) which they use to him, and thereby he is brought to put his neck out of the hole, and sleep upon the golden letters, and then the Indian taking that advantage cutteth off his head with an axe, and seiseth upon his prey, the stones which he findes in the head. Here is a signal testimony of the received custome of charming or inchanting of serpents, very agreeable to the expression of the Chaldee h…re, which stiles it the voice of inchanting words, which binde the Serpents, i. e. lay them fast asleep. For the avoiding of which danger, the deaf adder, so called, because he hears but of one eare, is supposed to stop his other eare, and so to secure himselfe. Whether there be exact truth in this, is not material to the Psalmists use of it, or to the explicating the meaning of this allusion, which as from a thing vulgarly believed, sets forth the matter in hand, the impersuasibleness of wicked men, who will not be wrought upon by any the wisest and divinest arts of perswasion, to forsake his course, or be wonne and gained and caught to virtue, but fortifies himself impregnable against all such artifices, that he can foresee likely to have efficacy upon him.
V. 5. Charmers] foreign,foreign from foreign to murmur or whisper, signifies those that use charmes. As for the other part of the verse, it will best be understood by joyning the last word foreign foreignthe wise, or wisard, by way of apposition to the charmers precedent; and then with that will connect foreign that inchants inchantments, i. e. useth all the inchantments he is furnisht with, foreign foreign(from foreign to associate) denoting a conjurer, or inchanter, that either brings many creatures into one place by his charms, or else stills them, that they shall not hurt, by that means. And then the phrase [inchanting inchantments] is but ordinary Hebrew style, very frequent in all words where any foreign aggravation is to be exprest.
V. 6. Teeth] The mention of [teeth] in this first place,foreign with the relative [their,] looks most probably on the adders or serpents immediately foregoing, whose poyson and noxious power is in their teeth, and the way to disarme a snake is to deprive him of his teeth. This they that keep them tame usually doe, by putting to them a piece of red cloth in which they love to fix their teeth, and so draw them out. And breaking them is equivalent to drawing them. This mention of teeth fairly introduces that which follows concerning the Lion, whose doing mischief with that part is more violent and formidable, and so signifies the open riotous invader, the violent and lawless person, as the serpents teeth the more secret undiscernible wounds of the whisperer, or backbiter, which yet are as dangerous and destructive as the former, by the smallest prick killing him on whom they fasten.
V. 7. Run] foreign foreign(from foreign going or going away) will be here best joyned with foreign as waters, and rendred thus, They shall melt as waters depart or go foreign foreignfrom themselves (so the Chaldee foreign they shall fall away from themselves) this being the nature of water, when it is not coopt up in some vessel, or inclosed within banks, to run about, to depart from its own sphaerical nature, and every part to leave the other (so the Jewish Arab reads, let them be dissolved as waters, that go their way) or when it is in a current, continually to flow, and not remain: and so the resemblance is most fit to describe the destruction which is here aboded to the wicked, by way of melting or falling asunder, which is nothing else but the departing of one part from the other, so as not to return again to their state. To this well accords the other part of this verse, He shall direct or send out his arrows, foreign foreignas if they were cut in sunder (from foreign to cut in pieces:) i. e. when he prepares his arrows, sends out the instruments of his malice, they shall not come to their designed marke; but, as when arrows are cut in sunder, before they goe out of the bow the pieces fly not out, but fall presently to the ground, so shall it be with his intended mischiefs, they shall be frustrated, disappointed utterly, unable to hurt any man. Abu Walid observes of the word foreign, that it implies as much as if 'twere said, let them be cut in two like straws. And the Jewish Arab, though he interpret the former part by change of the person, [when thou settest thine arrows to the string against them] yet in this part he agrees, [so let them be cut off as an eare of corne.] The noune foreign we have Deut. xxiii. 26. for stalks, or ears of corne; and if the verb may draw any signification from thence, then this will be the meaning, that their arrows, when shot, should fall asunder, like the eare from the straw, to which Job seems to refer ch. xLi. 27.29. He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood, Darts are counted as stubble, &c. In the beginning of the verse, for foreign foreignshall melt, from foreign liquefacit, the Lxxii. reads foreign, which is thought to signifie being despised or contemned, and so to be the rendring of foreign sprevit: but foreign may rather be understood there for bringing to nothing, and so the vulgar Latine understood the Lxxii. who read ad nihilum devenient, they shall come to nothing; and so it is a clear periphrasis of the melting which the Hebrew designed, and fitly agrees to the resemblance of water falling on a plain, where it runs abroad, and comes to nothing.
V. 8. Snaile] What foreign foreignhere signifies cannot be certainly defined, being but this once in the whole Bible. The Lxxii. render it foreign as wax, and the Syriack and Latine &c. follow them. And if it be thus rendred, then the verb foreign foreignwhich is joyned to it, must be taken in the Arabick notion of it (not unusual in the Bible) for perishing and being destroyed, or in the notion wherein 'tis used here v. 7. of waters which goe from themselves, and is there a resemblance of melting. But the Chaldee may also deserve to be heard, who read foreign as a reptile, or crawling &c. which interpreting the word of some creeping thing, which is an eminent example of melting, seems to apply it to a snail, (which notion Abu Walid prefers before any) when he goes out of his shell, (to which also the [foreign walking or going out] fitly agrees) which melts and leaves the marks thereof behinde, wheresoever he goes, foreign wets or moistens his way, saith the Chaldee, till at length by degrees he consumes and destroyes himselfe. And with this agrees the latter part of the verse, that other resemblance of foreign foreignthe abortive, or as the word from foreign signifies, the falling fruit of a woman, meaning the childe in the wombe, when by the dissolving of the ligatures, by which it is knit to the womb, and by which it receives all its nourishment, it falls down, and if it continue in the wombe, from that time it presently melts and co…sumes away, as the snail did by going out of his shell. For this the Lxxii. read foreign the fire fell (and so the Latine and Syriack, &c.) reading it seems foreign, and applying it to the wax precedent: As on the other side, the Chaldee, looking forward to the conclusion of the verse, of not seeing the sun, for foreign the woman, read foreign the mole, and so joyne that with the abortive child, as an abortive and blinde mole (so false conceptions, or liveless embryons are wont to be called) which see not the sun. But the Hebrew will best be rendred so, as the snail and the child dead in the womb may be the two resemblances to express the blasting of the wicked mans designes; and then the not seeing the sun] be applied only to the wicked, not either to the snail, or that fruit in the womb (though in the latter of them it certainly holds also) that he shall not see the sun, i. e. shall not bring his designed or projected malice to light, shall be disappointed and blasted, and consumed, before he bring it forth.
V. 9. Potts] foreign foreignsignifies two things, a thorne, and a pot or vessel to be set over the fire. In the latter sense the Lxxii. (though they here, and Eccl. vii. 7. render it in the former foreign, and Hos. ii. 6. foreign) doe oft take it and render it foreign cauldron, 22. times, and foreign brass-pot twice, and foreign, which we render pot 2 Chron. iv. 11. and foreign a pan, Exod. xxvii. 3. and xxxviii 3. and Jer. Lii. 18. and foreign a cauldron, Jer. Lii. 19. And if we shall here take it in that sense, then for the pot to understand (so foreign foreignfrom foreign signifies) or rather to feel the thorns, i. e. the fire that is made of thorns (a quick and scorching fire) will be no more then to be heated by a fire of thorns: That is very instantly done, the fire is instantly kindled into a great flame, and so the Cauldrons that are over it are soon heated, and what is in them, scalded by it. This resemblance therefore is fitly set to express the swiftness of wicked mens destruction, and hath the same importance, that the Greek adage, foreign, or the Latine, citius quam asparagi coquuntur, sooner then asparagus is boiled. (which yet is so very little while a doing.) But the LXXII. as was said, render foreign here in the other notion by foreign thorns; and so it may also signifie. For thorns and briers, foreign and foreign, being both noxious shrubs, of the same kinde, full of hooks and prickles, upon the first touch are united and claspt fast together, entangled in one another, and grow one upon the suddain, have an intimate acquaintance as it were (the importance of foreign) upon the first meeting. And in this sense there is ground also for the Proverb, especially when there is speech of diverse naughty persons (as here there is) agreeing one with the other in their irregular intangling figures, i. e. in the like mischievous dispositions. And to this purpose is that adage in Aristotle, Moral. l.vii. foreign, One thief, and one wolfe or rapacious person knoweth another. And then it will be thus rendred, Ere your thorns understand or know the brier, ere they are combined together, where they can grow acquainted (which they usually do at their very first encounter, and can hardly be got asunder again) foreign so &c. These latter words (as the former, and in proportion with them) are also capable of a double interpretation. For if foreign foreignbe taken, as most frequently it is, for vivum living, then most probably foreign foreignmust be rendred in the notion of foreign horruit, or horripilavit, horror or staring of the hair, caused by fright, or of foreign (changing foreign into foreign) carrying away with a whirlwind or tempest; and then the latter part will be thus rendred, so shall he affright and perplex them, or so shall he hurry them away with a whirlewinde, as it were alive (as when the earth swallowed up Coreh) and (again) as in anger or su…y. For when a man is in rage, then he hurries them away with whom he is thus displeased, and stayes not first to kill, and then carry away, which requires time, but as it were alive hurries them tempestuously no man knows whither, by both these noting the swiftness and terrible…ess of it. And though God be not capable of such incitation, yet foreign,foreign as if he were thus in a rage or incitation, he will thus hurry them away, as it were alive. And so this may be the meaning of the phrase, if only we suppose an ellipsis of foreign in before foreign, and read as it were in anger, or fury; but it is possible foreign foreignmay be substantively taken, and be of some affinity with foreign, and then both these joyne together in the nominative case. To which purpose it may be considered that Levit. xiii. 16. in the examination of the leper, foreign signifies raw flesh, and so our old translation here took it, rendring it a thing that is raw. And then rawness and anger (in that dialect, wherein we call a sore angry, which is painfull or inflamed) will signify joyntly that anguish which proceeds from an inflamed wound, and thus be rendred, so shall rawness, so shall anger, or inflammation (foreign from foreign inflammatus est) affright, or perplex them. Beside this, the Arabick notion of foreign foreignis considerable, for knowing or understanding; and then there will be a farther elegancy, in allusion to the knowing of the briers and thorns forementioned, and the rendring thus, Ere the thorns know the briers, so shall rawness, so shall inflammation or anguish know them. And if foreign will bear this sense proposed, this will be a fair and ready meaning of the passage.
V. 10. Wash his footsteps] foreign signifies primarily (from foreign foreignimpulit) an hammer, then the soles of the seet by which the earth is trodden on, or beaten: so the LXXII. (though here they read foreign hands) render it Psal. xvii. 5. foreign my footsteps, where the Chaldee hath foreign my feet. As for the phrase, washing their feet in the blood of the ungodly, it literally signifies the plentifull effusion of the blood of wicked men, which the godly live to see; but figuratively to refresh (as washing of feet was designed to weary travailers) to recreate, and withall to benefit and profit them (as bathing was a principal part of the antient medicine;) and so, besides the thankfull acknowledgment of Gods mercy to them, in thus destroying their enemies, (which is some refreshment to those that are under their persecution) they receive profitable document also, to cleave fast to God, and the practice of all virtue, which hath this assurance to be secured and remunerated in this life.