Psalm 17:10

10 ¹They close their hearts to pity; with their mouths they ²speak arrogantly.

Psalm 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.

Psalm 17:10 In-Context

8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,

9 from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me.

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

11 They have now surrounded our steps; they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.

12 He is like a lion eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush.

Cross References

• 1. 17:10 [Ps. 119:70]
• 2. 17:10 Ps. 31:18; 1 Sam. 2:3