I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons
of
men
He thought of the condition of the children of men, their sinful
and polluted state; he weighed and considered in his mind their
actions, conversation, and course of life; and was concerned how
it would go with them at the day of judgment on account of the
same. Some render it, "I said in mine heart after the speech of
the children of men" F18; speaking in their language, and
representing the atheist and the epicure, as some think the wise
man does in the following verses; though he rather speaks his own
real sentiments concerning men, as they are in their present
state, and as they will appear in the day of judgment; that
God might manifest them;
or "separate them" F19; as the chaff from the wheat, and
as goats from the sheep; as will be done at the day of judgment,
( Matthew
3:10 ) ( Matthew
25:30 Matthew
25:33 ) ; or "that they might clear God" F20; as
they will, when he shall judge and condemn them; and that
they might see that they themselves are beasts;
as they are through the fall, and the corruption of nature, being
born like the wild ass's colt, stupid, senseless, and without
understanding of spiritual things; nay, more brutish than the
beasts themselves, than the horse and the mule that have no
understanding, ( Psalms 32:9 ) ; "mulo
inscitior", as is Plautus's F21 phrase; see ( Psalms 49:12
Psalms
49:20 ) ( Job 11:12 ) ( Isaiah 1:3 ) ( Jeremiah 8:7
) ; this is now made manifest to the people of God by the word
and Spirit; is seen, known, and acknowledged by them, ( Psalms 73:21
) ( Proverbs
30:2 ) ; and the wicked themselves will see, know, and own
what beasts they are and have been, at the day of judgment; how
they have lived and died like beasts; how like brute beasts they
have corrupted themselves in things they knew naturally; and that
as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, spoke
evil of things they understood not, and perished in their own
corruption, ( Jude 1:10 ) ( 2 Peter 2:12
) ; and that they have been beasts to themselves, as Jarchi
renders and interprets it; made beasts of themselves by their
brutish gratifications; have been cruel to themselves, ruining
and destroying their own souls; or among themselves, and to one
another, "homo lupus homini"; hence wicked men are compared to
lions, foxes, evening wolves, vipers, and the like. So Mr.
Broughton renders it, "how they are beasts, they to themselves."