Psalms 18:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The sorrows of death, &c.— The whirlpools of death in heaps rolled over me. Chandler. In the parallel place of Samuel, it is, The waves of death compassed me. Dr. Delaney observes, that nothing 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 very properly be termed waves of death. The next clause is literally, The torrents of Belial made me afraid: i.e. "The forces of wicked men came down upon me like a torrent of water; as though they would have swept me away by their violence and fury; like an irresistible flood carrying all before it; and filled me with sudden terror." It is to be observed, that, by this translation, the two clauses in this verse properly correspond to each other.