They shall fall, &c.— Their blood shall gush out by the edge of the sword. The verb properly signifies the boiling of water in a pot; when, through the violence of the heat, it is thrown out of it: and, from hence, it figuratively denotes the bursting or boiling out of the blood from the wound of a sword, or any other deadly instrument. Virgil, in a very lively manner, has expressed it by another almost similar word:
Tum caput ipsi aufert domino, truncumque reliquit Sanguine singultantem. AEn. 9. ver. 332.
The gasping head flies off; a purple flood Flows from the trunk that welters in the blood. DRYDEN.
One almost sees the blood sobbing, as it were, and gushing out from the headless body. The expression, as used by the Psalmist, denotes that they should die a violent death, and their blood should be spilled by the edge of the sword; and the next expression, They shall be a portion for foxes, signifies, "They shall be left unburied, and as a prey to ravenous beasts." Bochart has shewn that foxes preyed upon dead bodies. See his Hieroz. pars 1: cap. 13 and Chandler.