heart {m}; they are more than can be conceived, of, they
overpass the deeds of the wicked, Jet. v. 28. or they
transgress by the imaginations of the heart"; which are
evil, and that continually.
Vet. 8. They are corrupt, &c.] In themselves, in
their principles, and in their practices, being shapen
and conceived in sin, and born of the flesh; and are
corrupters, or corrupt themselves, and their ways, and
also others by their corrupt speech, evil communica-
tions, and bad examples: or they consume away; like
smoke, or into it, as Psal. xxxvii. 20. or as wax melteth
at the fire, Psai. lxviii. 2. see Zech. xiv. 12. where the
same word is used as here: or they cause to consume
awayø; they melt or dissolve others; they consume
them, and waste their estates by their oppression and
violence; they make their hearts to melt with their
threatening and terrifying words; or they make them
dissolute in their lives by keeping them company:
and speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak
oppr›sion and revolt, threaten with it, Isa. lix. 13.
and speak in vindication of it, and in a boasting glo-
rylug manner; so Arama; which is speaking wick-
edly concerning it: they speak loftily: proudly, arro-
gantly, in a haughty and it.nperious manner: or from
on high {p}; as if they were m heaven, and above all
creatures, and even God himself; and as if what they
said were oracles, and to be received as such, without
any scruple anti hesitation.. Thus Pharaoh, Senna-
cherib, and Nebuchadnezzar spake, Exod. v. 2. Isa.
xxxvi. 20. Dan. iii. 15. and the little horn, or antichrist,
Dan. vii. c2.0. o_ Thess. iS. 4. Rev. xiii. 6.
Ver. 9. They set their mouth against the heavens, &c.]
Against God in heaven, see Dan.iv. 26. Matt. xxi. 25.
Luke xv. 18. against his being, saying, there is no God;
against his perfections, thinking him to be such an one
as themselves; against his purposes and decrees, reply-
ingagainst him, and charging him with insincerity,
cruelty, and unrighteousness; and 'against his provi-
dence, either denying it, or affirming it to be unequal;
and against his doctrines, ordinances, and ministers.
Aben Ezra interprets it also of the angels of heaven,
who are spoken against, when it is denied that there
are any such beings, as were by the Sadducees; and
blasphemed, when the worshipping of them is intro-
duced. The Targum understands it of the saints of
heaven, with which compare Rev. xiii. 6. it may be
applied to civil magistrates, the higher powers, who
represent on earth God in heaven; and there are some
that despise dominion, and speak evil of such digniti.es:
and their tongue walketh through the earth: sparing
none, high nor low, but injures all sorts of persons with
their lies and calumnies. This denotes the unbridled
liberty which wicked men take with their tongues;
there is no restraint upon them, no stopping of them;
see Psal. xii. & the universal mischief they are contin ually
doing, and the diabolical influence of their detraction
and falsehood; like Satan, their tongues walk to and
fi'o in the earth, doing all the injury to the credit and
characters of men they possibly can.
Ver. 10. Therefore his people return hither, &c.]
Either the true people of God, and so the Targum, the
people of the Lord, and whom the psalmist owned for
his people; for the Septuag. int, Vulgate Latin, Syriac,
Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, read my people;. who
seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and feeling their
own afflictions, rettirn to the same way of thinking,
and fall by the same snare and temptation as the psalmist
did; or such who were only the people of God by pro-
fession, but hypocrites, who observing the trouble that-
attends a religious life, and the prosperity of wicked
men, return from the good ways of God they have out.
wardly walked in for some time, to the conversation of
these men, and join .themselves to them: or else, his
being put for their, the sense is, the people of these
wicked men, of every one of them, return unto them,
and flock about them, and caress and flatter them, be-
cause of their prosperous circumstances, and join with
them in their evil practices of oppression and slander;
which sense seems best to agree with what goes before
and follows after: and waters of a full cup are wrung
out to them; meaning either to the people of God, and
to be understood either of the abundance of their tears,
on account of their afflictions inward and outward; see
Psal. vi. 6. and xlii. 3. and cxix. 136. so the Targum,
"and many tears flow unto them ;" or of their afflictions
themselves, which are oftentimes compared to waters
in Scripture; see Psal. xlii. 7. and lxvi. 12. Isa, xliii. 2.
which are given them in measure: it is a cup of them
that is put into their hands, and in frill measure; they
have a full cup of thent; many are their tribulations,
through which they enter the kingdom, and they are
all of God; it is he that wrings them out to them with,
his fatherly hand: or else, taking the people to mean
the followers and companions of the wicked, the words
are to be understood of the plenty of good things which
such men enjoy in this life, their cup runs over; and
indeed these seem to be the persons who are introduced
speaking the following words.
Ver. 11. And they say, how doth God know ? &c.]
Owning there is a God, but questionh!g his knowledge;
for the words are not an inquiry about the way and
manner of his knowing things; which is not by the
senses, as hearing and seeing; eyes and ears are impro-
perly ascribed to him; nor in a discursive way, by rea-
soning, and inferring one thing from another; for he
knows things intuitively, beholding all things in his
own eternal mind and will: but they are a question
about his knowledge itself, as follows: and is their
knowledge in the most High ? they acknowledge God to
be the most High, and yet doubt whether there is know-
ledge in him; and indeed the higher with respect to
place, and at the greater distance he was from them,
the less they imagined he knew of affairs below; see
Job xxii. 13, 14. for the knowledge called in question
is to be understood of his providential notice of human
affairs, which they thought he did not concern himself
with, as being below his regard; see Ezek. ix. 9. Zeph.
i. 1o_. and therefore concluded that their acts of oppres-
sion and violence, anti their insolent words against God
and men, would pass unobserved, and with impunity.
If these are the words of good men, of the people of
God under affliction, they are to be considered as under


{m} Excesserunt imaginationes cordis, Cocceius; excedunt, Michaelis.
{n} Transgrediuntur cogitationibus cordis, Gejerus.
{o} \^wqymy\^ dissolutos reddunt, Vatablus; reddent se dissolutos, Mon-
tanus; faciunt tabescere, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.
{p} \^Mwrmm\^ a sublimi, Musculus, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremel-
lius, Piscator; ex alto, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.