Psalms 17:10

10 They close their hearts to compassion; they speak arrogantly with their mouths;

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 So De Dieu.

Psalms 17:10 In-Context

8 Protect me like the pupil of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings

9 from the wicked, who are assailing me, from my deadly enemies, who are all around me.

10 They close their hearts to compassion; they speak arrogantly with their mouths;

11 they track me down, they surround me; they watch for a chance to bring me to the ground.

12 They are like lions eager to tear the prey, like young lions crouching in ambush.