Psalms 18:4,5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The sorrows of death compassed me That is, dangerous and deadly troubles. Or, the bands, or cords, of death, as חבלי, cheblee, may be rendered, quæ hominem quasi fune arctissime constringunt, which binds a man most closely, as with a cord, whence the word is used concerning the pains of women in labour. And the floods of ungodly men Literally, of Belial, as in the margin. Their great multitudes, strength, and violence, broke in upon me like an irresistible flood, carrying all before it, or like a torrent came down upon me as though they would have swept me away by their fury. “Nothing,” says Dr. Delaney, “can be a finer emblem of a host of men, in their several ranks, than the waves of the sea succeeding one another in their natural order.” And when we consider them pressing forward to the destruction of their adversaries, they may be very properly termed waves of death. The sorrows Or, cords, of hell, or of death, compassed me about Brought me to the brink of the grave; the snares of death prevented me Deadly snares came upon me, and almost took hold on me, before I was aware of my danger.