Psaume 17:10

10 Ils ferment leur cœur endurci; leur bouche parle avec fierté.

Psaume 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.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 So De Dieu.

Psaume 17:10 In-Context

8 Garde-moi comme la prunelle de l'œil; couvre-moi sous l'ombre de tes ailes,
9 Contre ces méchants qui m'oppriment, contre mes ennemis mortels qui m'environnent!
10 Ils ferment leur cœur endurci; leur bouche parle avec fierté.
11 Déjà ils entourent nos pas; ils nous épient pour nous jeter à terre.
12 Ils ressemblent au lion qui ne demande qu'à déchirer, au lionceau qui se tient en embuscade.
The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.