Psalm 58:8
As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
As a snail which melteth, let everyone of them pass away,.... As a snail when it comes out of its shell liquefies, drops its moisture, and with it makes a "path", from whence it has its name
lwlbv, in the Hebrew language; and so the Targum here,
"as the snail moistens its way;''
which moistness it gradually exhausts, and melts away, and dies: so the psalmist prays that everyone of his enemies might die in like manner. Some think reference is had to the snail's putting out its horns to no purpose when in danger, and apply it to the vain threatenings of the wicked; a strange difference this, between a roaring young lion,
Psalms 58:6, and a melting snail. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, render it, "as wax which melteth": see
like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun; see Job 3:16. The Targum is,
"as an abortive and a mole, which are blind and see not the sun.''
So Jarchi renders it a "mole", agreeably to the Talmud {g}. Or, "let them not see the sun" {h}; let them die, and never see the sun in the firmament any more; Christ, the sun of righteousness; nor enjoy the favour of God, and the light of his countenance; nor have the light of life, or eternal glory and happiness; see Psalms 49:19.
{g} T. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 6. 2.
{h} vmv wzx lb "ne videant solem", Pagninus, Montanus.