Commentary on Psalms Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
7. His mouth is full of cursing, and deceit, and malice: under his tongue are mischief and iniquity. 8. He will sit in the ensnaring places of the villages; in his lurking places will he murder the innocent: his eyes will take their aim against the poor. 9. He will lie in wait secretly, as a lion in his den; he will lie in wait to catch the poor; he will catch the poor by drawing him into his net. 10. He will crouch low, and cast himself down, and then shall an army of the afflicted fall by his strengths. 216
7. His mouth is full of cursing. The scope of these four verses is this: If God intends to succor his servants, it is now a proper time for doing so, inasmuch as the lawlessness of the ungodly has burst forth to the utmost possible excess. In the first place, he complains that their tongues are full of perjuries and deceits, and that they carry or hide mischief and wrongs, it being impossible to have any dealings with them in any matter without loss and damage. The word,אלהalah, which some render cursing, does not signify the execrations which they throw out against others, but rather those which they call down upon their own heads: for they do not scruple to utter the most awful imprecations against themselves, that thereby they may the better succeed in deceiving others. It is, therefore, not improperly rendered by some, perjury, for this word ought to be joined to the other two, deceit and malice. Thus the wicked are described as cursing or swearing falsely, so far as it contributes to forward their purposes of deceiving and doing injury. Hence follow mischief and injustice, because it is impossible for the simple, without suffering detriment, to escape their snares, which are woven of deceits, perjuries, and malice.
8. He will sit in the ensnaring places of the villages. 217 I have purposely avoided changing the verbs of the future tense into another tense, because
"Ou, par ses forts, asavoir membres." — Fr. "Or, by his strong members." That is, his teeth, or claws. The adjective for strong, in the original, is in the plural, and there is no substantive with which it agrees. We have examples of a similar ellipsis in other parts of Scripture. Thus in 2 Samuel 21:16, we have new, for a new sword; and in Psalm 73:10, full, for a full cup; and in Matthew 10:42, cold, for cold water. — Poole's Annotations.
Horsley renders the eighth verse thus: "He sitteth in ambush* in the villages in secret places; He murdereth the innocent; his eyes are ever watching for the helpless."
And he has the following note: "Symmachus and St Jerome certainly read thusישכ ,בחצרים מארבand they both render,,הas a participle. 'He sitteth prowling about the farm-houses.' This I take to be the true reading and the true rendering. The image is that of a beast of prey of the lesser order, a fox or a wolf, lying upon the watch about the farm-yard in the evening."
*Or, "he sitteth prowling about the farmyard."