Psalm 118:12
They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
They compassed me about like bees,.... In great numbers {w}; as a swarm of bees, which, being irritated and provoked, will fly upon persons in a body, and with great fury; to which the Amorites and the Assyrian army were compared, Deuteronomy 1:44. They will attack horses and kill them, as Aristotle {x} says; and places besieged have been delivered by throwing out hives of bees among the besiegers {y}: and yet as they are feeble creatures, so by striking they lose their sting; and either die very quickly, or however become useless. All which denotes the numbers of the enemies of David and of Christ, and of his church and people, and the wrath and fury of them against them, as well as their fruitless and unsuccessful attempts upon them; for though they rage, what they contrive and endeavour to put in execution are vain things, and in the issue end in their own ruin and destruction;
they are quenched as the fire of thorns; which make a blaze, a noise, for a while; but are soon consumed, and leave only a few ashes behind. Wicked men are often compared to thorns, they being like them, unfruitful in themselves, unprofitable to others, harmful to the saints, and whose end is to be burnt; and whose destruction is certain and sudden, and easily effected as the burning of thorns; see Psalms 58:9 Ecclesiastes 7:6. The Targum renders it,
"they burned as fire among thorns;''
which is easily kindled and soon quenched: and so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions; as if it was expressive of their wrath and fury, which was soon over; which agrees with what follows:
for; or "but", or "verily" {z},
in the name of the LORD I will destroy them;
See Gill on "Ps 118:10" and
See Gill on "Ps 118:11".
{w} hute eynea melissa wn, Homer. Iliad. 2. v. 87, Vid. Virgil. Aeneid. 12. v. 587.
{x} Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 40.
{y} Vid. Dieteric. Antiqu. Biblic. p. 478.
{z} yk "sed", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "certe utique", Polus; "quod certissime", Michaelis.