Psalms 17:10

10 They have closed up their fat hearts; With their mouths they speak proudly.

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 Keep me as the apple of Your eye; Hide me under the shadow of Your wings,

9 From the wicked who oppress me, From my deadly enemies who surround me.

10 They have closed up their fat hearts; With their mouths they speak proudly.

11 They have now surrounded us in our steps; They have set their eyes, crouching down to the earth,

12 As a lion is eager to tear his prey, And like a young lion lurking in secret places.