Psalms 58:7

Let them melt away as waters [which] run continually,.... Let them be disheartened, and their courage fail them, and let there be no spirit left in them, Joshua 7:5; or let them be unstable as water

Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD. -Petition rounded on the foregoing description of the malignity of the foe; confident anticipation of the answer (Psalms 58:9-10).

As waters which run continually; as waters arising from melted snow, or great showers, or some other extraordinary cause, which at first run with great force and noise, and throw down all that stands in their way, but are suddenly gone, and run away and vanish, and return no more. When he bendeth his bow, to wit, any or every one of mine enemies, as appears from the foregoing and following words. Is cut in pieces, i.e. like arrows broken asunder whilst a man shoots, which can do no hurt.

Psalms 58:7 Let them melt away as waters [which] run continually: [when] he bendeth [his bow to shoot] his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.Ver. 7. Let them melt away as waters] As snowwaters before the sunbeams, quickly melted, and soon drunk in by the dry earth, Job 24:19. In Peru, they say, there is a river called the diurnal river, or the day river, because it flows with a mighty current in the day, but in the night is dry, because it is not fed by a spring, but caused merely by the melting of the snow, which lieth on the mountains thereabouts. When he bendeth his bow] i.e. Let him be utterly frustrated, let all his mischievous designs and endeavours be blasted, and come to nothing. In that famous battle between Theodosius and Maximus, Milites nobis qui aderant retulerunt, saith Augustine (De Cit. Dei, l. 5, c. 26), extorta sibi esse de manibus quaecunque iculabantur; cum a Theodosii partibus in adversarios vehemens ventus iret; et non solum quaecunque in cos iaciebantur concitatissime raperet, verum etiam ipsorum tela in eorum corpora retorqueret: the soldiers told us that their darts thrown against the Christians were, by a violent wind, brought back upon themselves. Accordingly some render this hemistich thus: When he bendeth, &c., let him be as they that cut off themselves, Iethmalalu reciprocam habet significationem. Et hoc Saulo contigit.

(7, 8) After the types of obstinate and fierce malignity, come four striking images of the fatuity of the wicked man’s projects, and his own imminent ruin. The first of these compares him to water, which, spilt on a sandy soil, sinks into it and melts away. (Comp. 2 Samuel 14:14.) Perhaps a phenomenon, often described by travellers, was in the poet’s mind, the disappearance of a stream which, after accompanying the track for some time, suddenly sinks into the sand. The words which run continually, even if the Hebrew can bear this meaning, only weaken the figure. The verb is in the reflexive conjugation, and has “to” or “for themselves” added, and seems to be exactly equivalent to our, they walk themselves off. This certainly should be joined to the clause following. Here, too, we must suppose that the sign of comparison, khemτ, was dropped out by the copyist in consequence of the lβmτ just written, and afterwards being inserted in the margin, got misplaced. We must bring it back, and read: They are utterly gone, as when One shoots his arrows. This figure thus becomes also clear and striking. The arrow once shot is irrevocably gone, probably lost, fit emblem of the fate of the wicked. For the ellipse in bend (literally, tread, see Psalms 7:12), comp. Psalms 64:3, where also the action properly belonging to the bow is transferred to the arrow.The words, “Let them be as cut in pieces,” must be carried on to the following verse, which contains two fresh images: So they are cut off (LXX., “are weak “) as shablϋl melts; (as) the abortion of a woman passes away without seeing the sun. The word shablϋl, by its derivation (bβlal = to pour out) may mean any liquid or moist substance. Hence some understand a watercourse, others (LXX. and Vulg.) wax. The first would weaken the passage by introducing a bald repetition of a previous image. The second is quite intelligible. But the Talmud says shablϋl is a slug or shelless snail, and there may be a reference in the passage to the popular notion derived from the slimy track of the creature, that the slug dissolves as it moves, and eventually melts away. Dr. Tristram, however (Nat. Hist. Bib., p. 295), finds scientific support for the image in the myriads of snail shells found in the Holy Land, still adhering, by the calcareous exudation round the orifice, to the surface of the rock, while the animal itself is utterly shrivelled and wasted. The last image presents no difficulty either in language or form, except that the form of the noun woman is unusual. That they may not.—That this refers to the abortion which passed away without seeing the sun, is certain. The grammatical difficulty of want of concord may be got over by taking abortion as a collective noun.

Verse 7. Let them melt away as waters] Let them be minished away like the waters which sometimes run in the desert, but are soon evaporated by the sun, or absorbed by the sand. When he bendeth his bow] When my adversaries aim their envenomed shafts against me, let their arrows not only fall short of the mark, but he broken to pieces in the flight. Some apply this to GOD. When he bends his bow against them, they shall all be exterminated.

7. as waters which run continually) R.V., restoring P.B.V., as water that runneth apace: like some torrent that rages wildly for a while when swollen by a sudden storm, and then vanishes entirely (Job 6:15 ff.). when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows] A cumbrous rendering of a peculiar phrase, the verb strictly applicable to the bow being used of the arrows (cp. Psalms 64:3). Better as R.V., when he aimeth his arrows. But who is the subject? (1) It may be the wicked man, (as in Psalms 64:3); When he aimeth his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off (R.V.), their points broken, and their power to hurt destroyed. (2) It may be God (as in Psalms 7:12 f.); when He aimeth His arrows, let them (the wicked) be as it were mowed down. Cp. Psalms 90:6. Neither alternative is free from serious difficulties, but the first seems preferable.

Let them melt away as waters which run continually - Let them vanish or disappear as waters that flow off, or floods that run by, and are no more seen.

7. Melt away as waters—The allusion is to winter torrents, and the momentary streams occasioned by showers, which suddenly and totally disappear, having no permanent source of supply, so deceiving