Let the enemy. — Better, let an enemy.
Persecute. — Literally, burn. (See Note on Psalms 10:2.)
Tread. — Used of a potter treading the clay (Isaiah 41:25); of the trampling of horses (Ezekiel 26:11); of a herd trampling down their pasture (Ezekiel 34:28).
Dust. — Either as Psalms 22:15, “the dust of death,” and if so, then khabôd’.
Honour must be the soul or life, as plainly in Psalms 16:9; Psalms 57:8, where the Authorised Version has “glory.” The parallelism is in favour of this. On the other hand, to lay one’s honour in the dust is a common figurative phrase. Shakespeare, K. Hen. VI., i. 5, “Now, France, thy glory droopeth to the dust”; and Coriol. iii. 1, “And throw their power in the dust.”
Selah. — See Note on Psalms 3:2. This is one of the places which suggest its interpretation as a direction to the music, to strike up with passion and force.