Surely thou didst set them in slippery places
In which a man cannot stand long, and without danger; and the
higher they are the more dangerous, being slippery, and such are
places of honour and riches. The phrase denotes the uncertainty
and instability of these things, and the danger men are in who
are possessed of them of falling into destruction and misery. The
Targum is,
``thou didst set them in darkness;''to be in slippery places, and in the dark, is very uncomfortable, unsafe, and dangerous indeed; See ( Psalms 35:6 ) ( Jeremiah 23:12 ) and it may be observed, that all this honour, promotion, and riches, are of God; it is he that sets them in these places of honour and profit; and he that sets them up can pull them down, as he does; so it follows,
thou castest them down into destruction:
into temporal destruction, by removing them from their high
stations into a very low, mean, and contemptible state, as were
Shebna and Nebuchadnezzar, ( Isaiah 22:15
Isaiah
22:19 ) ( Daniel 4:24 Daniel 4:25 ) and into
everlasting destruction, from whence there is no recovery; see (
Psalms
55:23 ) .