All nations compassed me about The neighbouring nations, the Philistines, Syrians, Ammonites, Moabites, who were stirred up by the overthrows which David had given to some of them, by their jealousy at his growing greatness, and by their hatred against the true religion. Yea, they compassed me The repetition implies their frequency and fervency in this action, and their confidence of success. They compassed me like bees In great numbers, and with great fury. They are quenched In this sense the word דעךְ is taken, Job 6:17; Job 18:5-6; Job 21:17. The Seventy, however, render it εξεκαυθησαν, they burned, flamed out, or waxed exceeding fierce or vehement; that is, they raged against me like fire: with this interpretation the Chaldee agrees. As the fire of thorns Which flames out terribly, burns fiercely, and makes a crackling noise, but quickly spends itself without any considerable or lasting effect. For Or but, as the particle כי, chi, frequently signifies, and is twice rendered in this very phrase, Psalms 118:10-11. Thus, as the former part of the verse denotes their hostile attempt, this expresses their ill success and utter ruin. “The reader has here,” says Dr. Delaney, Life of David, book 2. chap. 9. p. 113, “in miniature, two of the finest images in Homer; which, if his curiosity demands to be gratified, he will find illustrated and enlarged in the second book of the Iliad. The first of them stands thus, transcribed from Mr. Pope's translation:
The following host, Pour'd forth by thousands, darkens all the coast. As from some rocky cleft the shepherd sees, Clust'ring, in heaps on heaps, the driving bees, Rolling and black'ning, swarms succeeding swarms, With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms; Dusky they spread, a close-imbodied crowd, And o'er the vale descends the living cloud; So from the tents and ships, &c. V. 109, &c.
The next is in the same book, V. 534, &c.
As on some mountain, through the lofty grove,
The crackling flames ascend and blaze above,
The fires, expanding as the winds arise,
Shoot their long beams, and kindle half the skies;
So from the polished arms, and brazen shields,
A gleamy splendour flash'd along the fields.
Not less their number, &c.
The candid reader will observe, that here the idea of an arm's resembling a flaming fire is common both to Homer and David; but the idea of that fire being quenched (when the army was conquered) is peculiar to David.”