Psalms 52:5

5 Therefore God shall destroy thee into the end, he shall draw thee out by the root, and he shall make thee to pass away from thy tabernacle; and thy root from the land of living men. (And so God shall destroy thee, or ruin thee, forever, yea, he shall draw thee out, and he shall make thee go far away from thy home; he shall root thee out from the land of the living.)

Psalms 52:5 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 52:5

God shall likewise destroy thee for ever
As a just retaliation for the mischief done to others; or, "therefore God shall destroy" ^F26 even body and soul in hell, with an everlasting destruction, which will be the case of every wicked man, and particularly of the antichristian party, ( Revelation 14:10 Revelation 14:11 ) ; the word is used of breaking down the house in which the leprosy was, ( Leviticus 14:45 ) ; and denotes the utter extinction of Doeg's family, and the irrecoverable ruin of antichrist, ( Revelation 18:21 ) ;

he shall take thee away;
as fire from the hearth, ( Isaiah 30:14 ) ; or as burning coals from the altar: a word from the root here used signifies a censer: and the meaning is, that as his tongue was a fire, and set on fire of hell, and he was as a burning coal, he was fit for nothing but to be cast into everlasting burnings;

and pluck thee out of [thy] dwelling place;
"tent", or "tabernacle" {a}; referring to the tents of shepherds, he being the chief of Saul's shepherds, or to some stately palace he had built for himself to dwell in, upon his advancement at court; or rather to the tabernacle of the Lord, where he had been an hypocritical worshipper; but now should be cut off from the church of God, as a rotten member, and cast out of the tabernacle of Jacob, ( Malachi 2:12 ) ; while David flourished as an olive tree in the house of the Lord, ( Psalms 52:8 ) ;

and root thee out of the land of the living.
In retaliation for his rooting out Ahimelech's family, and the inhabitants of Nob; so in like manner he and his should be destroyed root and branch, and not see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, nor enjoy eternal life in the world to come.

Selah; on this word, (See Gill on Psalms 3:2). The Targum renders the word "Selah" here "for ever", as in ( Psalms 52:3 ) .

---

FOOTNOTES:

F26 (Mg) (dia touto) , Sept. "propterea", V. L. "idcirco etiam", Piscator; "ideo etiam", Michaelis.
F1 (lham) "de tabernaculo", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus; "e tentorio", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.

Psalms 52:5 In-Context

3 Thou lovedest malice more than benignity; and wickedness more than to speak equity. (Thou lovedest evil more than good; and lying more than telling the truth.)

4 Thou lovedest all words of casting down; with a guileful tongue. (Thou with a deceitful, or a lying, tongue.)

5 Therefore God shall destroy thee into the end, he shall draw thee out by the root, and he shall make thee to pass away from thy tabernacle; and thy root from the land of living men. (And so God shall destroy thee, or ruin thee, forever, yea, he shall draw thee out, and he shall make thee go far away from thy home; he shall root thee out from the land of the living.)

6 Just men shall see, and shall dread; and they shall laugh on him, (The righteous shall see it, and shall have fear; and then they shall laugh at him,)

7 and they shall say, Lo! the man that setted not God his helper. But he hoped in the multitude of his riches; and had mastery in his vanity. (and they shall say, Lo! the man who did not want God to be his helper. But he trusted in the multitude of his riches; and had the mastery through his wickedness.)