Psalms 91:6

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness,.... Some think, and not without cause, that what is figuratively expressed in the preceding verse is here explained; and, indeed, the "pestilence" may

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness.

This verse explains the former, and showeth what that terror and arrow signifies. That walketh; that spreadeth, or maketh progress. In darkness; either invisibly, so as we can neither foresee nor prevent it; or rather, by night, as . That wasteth at noon-day; that like a bold enemy assaults us openly, and though discovered cannot be resisted.

Psalms 91:6 [Nor] for the pestilence [that] walketh in darkness; [nor] for the destruction [that] wasteth at noonday.Ver. 6. Nor for the pestilence] Called before terror, and arrow, as some conceive, Hippocrates calleth it τοθειον, the divine disease, because sent more immediately from God, as an evil messenger. Not but that a good man may die of the plague, as did Oecolampadius, and many others; Hezekiah is thought to have had it, so had reverend Beza (his family was four different times visited herewith), who was much comforted under that and other heavy afflictions by this sweet psalm, which, therefore, he hugged and held most dear all the days of his life, as himself witnesseth in his argument and use of this psalm. Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday] For the noonday devil (so the Vulgate rendereth it after the Septuagint), as, for pestilence walking in darkness, one old English manuscript hath goblin. The Chaldee here expounds it, the company of devils. As in the next verse, "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand," &c. R Solomon expoundeth, A thousand devils shall pitch their tents on thy right hand and on thy left; but shall not hurt thee, because the good angels shall guard thee against them. But it is better to understand all (as before) of the pestilence, though I doubt not but the devil, that old man slayer, hath a hand in this and other common calamities, yet not without the Lord’ s overruling power limiting him.

(6) Darkness . . . noonday.—Night and noon are, in Oriental climates, the most unwholesome, the former from exhalations, the latter from the fierce heat. Destruction.—From a root meaning “to cut off;” here, from parallelism, “deadly sickness.”

Verse 6. Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.] The rabbins supposed that the empire of death was under two demons, one of which ruled by day, the other by night. The Vulgate and Septuagint have - the noonday devil. The ancients thought that there were some demons who had the power to injure particularly at noonday. To this Theocritus refers, Id. i. ver. 15: - Ουθεμις, ωποιμαν, τομεσαμβρινον, ουθεμιςαμμιν Συρισδεν·τονΠαναδεδοικαμες·ηγαραπ' αγρας Τανικακεκμακωςαμπαυεται, εντιγεπικρος, Καιοἱαειδριμειαχολαποτιῥινικαθηται. "It is not lawful, it is not lawful, O shepherd, to play on the flute at noonday: we fear Pan, who at that hour goes to sleep in order to rest himself after the fatigues of the chase; then he is dangerous, and his wrath easily kindled." Lucan, in the horrible account he gives us of a grove sacred to some barbarous power, worshipped with the most horrid rites, refers to the same superstition: - Lucus erat longo nunquam violatus ab aevo, Non illum cultu populi propiore frequentant, Sed cessere deis: medio cum Phoebus in axe est, Aut coelum nox atra tenet, pavet ipse sacerdos Accessus, dominumque timet deprendere luci. LUCAN, lib. iii., ver. 399. "Not far away, for ages past, had stood An old inviolated sacred wood: - The pious worshippers approach not near, But shun their gods, and kneel with distant fear: The priest himself, when, or the day or night Rolling have reached their full meridian height, Refrains the gloomy paths with wary feet, Dreading the demon of the grove to meet; Who, terrible to sight, at that fixed hour Still treads the round about this dreary bower." ROWE. It has been stated among the heathens that the gods should be worshipped at all times, but the demons should be worshipped at midday: probably because these demons, having been employed during the night, required rest at noonday and that was the most proper time to appease them. See Calmet on this place. Both the Vulgate and Septuagint seem to have reference to this superstition. The Syriac understands the passage of a pestilential wind, that blows at noonday. Aquila translates, of the bite of the noonday demon.

6. Plague and Pestilence are personified as destroying angels. Cp. Isaiah 37:36.

Nor for the pestilence - The plague or pestilence was common in Oriental countries.

6. Pestilence that walketh in darkness—The usual idea of γαψ, pestilence, is here preserved, a mode of destruction, whether by sickness or other divine judgment, which is sudden, secret, and without warning.