Psalms 17:10

10 Their hearts are hard as nails, their mouths blast hot air.

Psalms 17:10 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 17:10

They are enclosed in their own fat
Or "their fat has enclosed them"; either their eyes, that they can hardly see out of them, or their hearts, so that they are stupid and senseless, and devoid of the fear of God; the phrase is expressive of the multitude of their wealth and increase of power, by which they were swelled with pride and vanity, and neither feared God nor regarded man; so the Targum paraphrases it,

``their riches are multiplied, their fat covers them;''

see ( Deuteronomy 32:15 ) ( Psalms 73:8 Psalms 73:9 ) ; some read it, "their fat shuts their mouths", so Aben Ezra and Kimchi; or "with their fat they shut them" F8; but the accent "athnach" will not admit of this reading; the last word belongs to the next clause;

with their mouth they speak proudly;
against God and his people, belching out blasphemies against the one, and severe menaces and threatenings against the other.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 So De Dieu.

Psalms 17:10 In-Context

8 Keep your eye on me; hide me under your cool wing feathers
9 From the wicked who are out to get me, from mortal enemies closing in.
10 Their hearts are hard as nails, their mouths blast hot air.
11 They are after me, nipping my heels, determined to bring me down,
12 Lions ready to rip me apart, young lions poised to pounce.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.