8 As a snail H7642 which melteth, H8557 let every one of them pass away: H1980 like the untimely birth H5309 of a woman, H802 that they may not see H2372 the sun. H8121
Or as an hidden H2934 untimely birth H5309 I had not been; as infants H5768 which never saw H7200 light. H216
If a man H376 beget H3205 an hundred H3967 children, and live H2421 many H7227 years, H8141 so that the days H3117 of his years H8141 be many, H7227 and his soul H5315 be not filled H7646 with good, H2896 and also that he have no burial; H6900 I say, H559 that an untimely birth H5309 is better H2896 than he.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 58
Commentary on Psalms 58 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 58
It is the probable conjecture of some (Amyraldus particularly) that before Saul began to persecute David by force of arms, and raised the militia to seize him, he formed a process against him by course of law, upon which he was condemned unheard, and attainted as a traitor, by the great council, or supreme court of judicature, and then proclaimed "qui caput gerit lupinum-an outlawed wolf,' whom any man might kill and no man might protect. The elders, in order to curry favour with Saul, having passed this bill of attainder, it is supposed that David penned this psalm on the occasion.
Sin appears here both exceedingly sinful and exceedingly dangerous, and God a just avenger of wrong, with which we should be affected in singing this psalm.
To the chief musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David.
Psa 58:1-5
We have reason to think that this psalm refers to the malice of Saul and his janizaries against David, because it bears the same inscription (Al-taschith, and Michtam of David) with that which goes before and that which follows, both which appear, by the title, to have been penned with reference to that persecution through which God preserved him (Al-taschith-Destroy not), and therefore the psalms he then penned were precious to him, Michtams-David's jewels, as Dr. Hammond translates it.
In these verses David, not as a king, for he had not yet come to the throne, but as a prophet, in God's name arraigns and convicts his judges, with more authority and justice than they showed in prosecuting him. Two things he charges them with:
Psa 58:6-11
In these verses we have,