Psalms 17:14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

From men which are thy hand Wherewith thou dost correct me. From men of the world Who prosper in, and set their hearts upon, this vain and transitory world, and neither have, nor choose, nor desire, any other portion or felicity: who are actuated by the spirit of the world, walk according to the course of this world, are in love with the wealth and pleasure of this world, eager in the pursuits of it, making them their business; and at ease in the enjoyments of it, making them their happiness: such as, in our Lord's language, have their reward here, and are to expect none hereafter. The Hebrew מתים מחלד, methim mecheled, means, properly, mortals of the world, a world cessans, instabilis, et transiens, perishing, unstable, and transient, as Buxtorff interprets the word who, though dying men, in a world continually changing, and at last passing away, are content to have their portion in it; looking upon the reputed good things of it as the best things, and sufficient to make them happy; choosing them accordingly, placing their felicity in enjoying them, aiming at them as their chief good, and, if they attain them, resting satisfied therewith, and neither looking farther, nor taking care to provide for another world. Now, Lord, shall men of this character, men so unreasonable, so unwise, so sottish; men so earthly, so sensual, so grovelling, so like the beasts that perish; shall men of this sort be supported and countenanced against those that honour thee, by preferring thy favour, and the enjoyment of thee, before all the wealth, and honour, and pleasures of this world? Whose belly thou fillest That is, whose mind or appetite thou satisfiest, with thy hid treasure, that is, not only with common mercies, such as food and raiment, but with the choicest of earthly things, such as men are wont to hide or keep in their treasures; with wealth, and glory, and all the delights and comforts of the present life: “whom thou permittest to enjoy thy temporal blessings in abundance, as if it were to convince us in what estimation we ought to hold the world when we see the largest shares of it dealt out to the most worthless of the sons of Adam.” They are full of children While many of thy faithful servants are barren, these are blessed with a numerous posterity. Or, as ישׂבעו בנים jisbegnu banim, may be rendered, their children are filled up, or satisfied, namely, as well as themselves. There is abundantly enough, both for them and for their children, and even for their children's children, for they leave the residue of their substance to their babes “After living in plenty, perhaps to a good old age, they leave behind them a numerous and flourishing posterity, who inherit their estates, and go on, as their fathers did before them, without piety to God, or charity to the poor. From these men and their ways we have all reason to say with David, Good Lord, deliver us.” Horne.