Psalms 58:9

_BEFORE YOUR POTS CAN FEEL THE THORNS, HE SHALL TAKE THEM AWAY AS WITH A WHIRLWIND, BOTH LIVING, AND IN HIS WRATH._ Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in (his) wrath. He here, as in Psalms 58:1, at first addresses the wicked directly ("your") but then turns away from them and speaks of "them." A proverbial phrase, Before your pots' contents can feel the heat of the thorns burning underneath, He will, with a whirlwind, take them (the wicked) away, be the pots' contents, or flesh, raw (living) (Hebrew, _ CHAY_ (H2416)), or be it sodden (not as the English version, "and in His wrath") - literally, glowing (Hebrew, _ CHAAROWN_ (H2740)). As the thorns quickly blaze and heat the pot ...

9._Before your pots can feel the fire of your thorns. _Some obscurity attaches to this verse, arising partly from the perplexed construction, and partly from the words being susceptible of a double meaning. (357) Thus the Hebrew word סירות,_siroth, _signifies either_a pot _or _a thorn. _If we adopt the first signification, we must read, _before your pots feel the fire which has been kindled by thorns; _if the second, _before your thorns grow to a bush, _that is, reach their full height and thickness. What, following the former sense, we have translated _flesh yet raw, _must be rendered, provided we adopt the other, _tender, or not yet grown. _But the scope of the Psalmist in the passage is sufficiently obvious. He refers to the swiftness of that judgment which God would execute upon his enemies, and prays that he would carry them away as by

6-11 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...

Verse Psalms 58:9. _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....

BEFORE YOUR POTS CAN FEEL THE THORNS - The word “thorns” here - אטד _'âṭâd_ - refers to what is called “Christ’s thorn,” the southern buckthorn. “Gesenius.” The fire made of such thorns when dry would be quick and rapid, and water would be soon heated by it. The idea is, that what is here referred to would occur “quickly” - sooner than the most rapid and intense fire could make an impression on a kettle and its contents. The destruction of the wicked would be, as it were, instantaneous. The following quotation from Prof. Hackitt (Illustrations of Scripture, p. 135) will explain this passage: “A species of thorn, now very common near Jerusalem, bears the name of _Spina Christi_, or Christ’s thorn. The people of the country gather these bushes and plants, and use them as fuel. As it is now, so it was of old. ‘As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool,’...

EXPOSITION A PSALM of condemnation on unrighteous judges. Some suppose the judges to be superhuman beings, entrusted with the government of the earth (Cheyne). Others suggest heathen rulers of Israel, in Babylonia, during the time of the Captivity. But the language is not stronger than that addressed often to native judges (see Isaiah 1:16; Isaiah 10:1; Jeremiah 5:26-24; Micah 3:9, etc.). And there is no reason for rejecting the statement of the "title," that the psalm was written by David. It may either belong to the early years of David's reign, or to the time immediately preceding Absalom's rebellion.

BEFORE YOUR POTS CAN FEEL THE THORNS,.... Which is soon done; for as dry thorns make a great blaze, so they give a quick heat; the pots soon feel them, or the water in them soon receives heat from them. From imprecations the psalmist proceeds to prophesy, and foretells the sudden destruction of wicked men, which would be before a pot could be heated with a blaze of thorns. The Targum is, "before the wicked become tender, they harden as the thorn:'' that is, they never become tender, or have any tender consciences, but are hardened in sin from their infancy. Some render the words, "before your thorns grow up to a brier" or "bramble" i; little thorns become great ones, tender thorns hard ones, as Jarchi; that is, as he interprets it, before the children of the wicked are grown up, they are destroyed; those sons of Belial, who are like to thorns thrust away,...

Psalms 58 A Judgment Psalm __ 1. Why God must judge (Psalms 58:1) 2. The judgment executed (Psalms 58:6) “Do ye of a truth in silence speak righteousness?” (literal rendering of the first verse). Righteousness is not heard on earth. Wickedness and violence are on the earth, therefore God must arise and deal with these conditions in judgment. It will overtake the wicked and the imprecatory prayers will be answered. Then the righteous will be glad when he seeth the vengeance and it will be said, “Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily He is a God who judgeth the earth.”...

LVIII. A PRAYER FOR VENGEANCE ON UNRIGHTEOUS JUDGES. This Ps. is closely allied to Psalms 82. The reproaches in Psalms 58:3, where the enemies of the Psalmist are said to have gone astray from the womb, and Psalms 58:4, where they are compared with deaf adders, point to Jewish tyranny, such, _e.g.,_ as that of the Sadducean priests, rather than to a foreign power. Nobody would have expected heathen to hear the voice of Jewish religion. PSALMS 58:1. We ought certainly to read, Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O ye gods? (_mg.)._ The title was given in flattery (_cf._ 2 Samuel 17:14, where see _mg.),_ or wit

THE THORNS. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Cause), App-6, for the fire caused by them (Ecclesiastes 7:6)....