My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: [and] meddle not with them that are given to change:
Ver. 21. My son, fear the Lord and the king.] "Who would not fear thee, O king of nations? for unto thee doth it appertain." Jer 10:7 God is the prime and proper object of fear. Psa 76:11 Whence, by an appellative proper, he is called "fear" by the Psalmist. The Greeks call him Yεος quasi Lεος, as some think, from the fear that is due to him. Princes also must be feared and honoured, 1Pe 2:17 as those that are invested with God's authority, and intrusted with the administration of his kingdom upon earth, by the exercise of vindictive and remunerative justice. And while they be just, ruling in the fear of God, 2Sa 23:3 and commanding things consonant to the word and will of God, they must be obeyed for conscience sake, Rom 13:5 otherwise not. See Trapp on " Act 4:19 "
And meddle not with them that are given to change,] i.e., With seditious spirits that affect and effect alterations; lawless persons, as St Paul calls them; malcontents, a to whom αει το παρον βαρυ, the present government is ever grievous, as Thucydides notes. Such were Korah and his complices; Absalom; Sheba; the ten tribes that cried, Alleys iugum, Ease our yoke; and before them, those in Samuel's time that cried, "Nay, but we will have a king." Novatus hath still too many followers, of whom St Cyprian, under whom he lived, thus testifieth: Novatus rerum novarum semper cupidus, arrogantia inflatus, that he was an arrogant innovator. These turbulent spirits prove oft the pests and boutefeaus of the state they live in; and it is dangerous having to deal with them.
a Mεμψιμοιροι .