Psalm 52:5
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever,.... As a just retaliation for the mischief done to others; or, "therefore God shall destroy" {z}, &c. even body and soul in hell, with an everlasting destruction, which will be the case of every wicked man, and particularly of the antichristian party, Revelation 14:10; the word is used of breaking down the house in which the leprosy was, Leviticus 14:45; and denotes the utter extinction of Doeg's family, and the irrecoverable ruin of antichrist, Revelation 18:21;
he shall take thee away; as fire from the hearth, Isaiah 30:14; or as burning coals from the altar: a word from the root here used signifies a censer: and the meaning is, that as his tongue was a fire, and set on fire of hell, and he was as a burning coal, he was fit for nothing but to be cast into everlasting burnings;
and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place; "tent", or "tabernacle" {a}; referring to the tents of shepherds, he being the chief of Saul's shepherds, or to some stately palace he had built for himself to dwell in, upon his advancement at court; or rather to the tabernacle of the Lord, where he had been an hypocritical worshipper; but now should be cut off from the church of God, as a rotten member, and cast out of the tabernacle of Jacob, Malachi 2:12; while David flourished as an olive tree in the house of the Lord, Psalms 52:8;
and root thee out of the land of the living. In retaliation for his rooting out Ahimelech's family, and the inhabitants of Nob; so in like manner he and his should be destroyed root and branch, and not see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, nor enjoy eternal life in the world to come.
Selah; on this word, See Gill on "Psalms 3:2". The Targum renders the word "Selah" here "for ever", as in Psalms 52:3.
{z} Mg dia touto, Sept. "propterea", V. L. "idcirco etiam", Piscator; "ideo etiam", Michaelis.
{a} lham "de tabernaculo", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus; "e tentorio", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.