The wicked in [his] pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
Ver. 2. The wicked in his pride doth persecute, &c.] Heb. hotly pursueth (εμπυριζεται. Chrysost.), and that out of his pride, the true cause of persecution, whatever else is pretended. And this is fitly here alleged, and urged as an argument to move God to make haste. See Deuteronomy 32:27 : The saints fare the better for the insolence and outrage of their enemies, whose ruin is thereby accelerated, and somewhat God will do the sooner for his people, lest the enemy exalt himself, Psalms 140:8, and say, Our hand is high, the Lord hath not done this.
Let them be taken in the devices, &c.] As all persecutors are sure to be in which regard Tertullian well adviseth Scapula, Si nobis non parcis, tibi parce; si non tibi, Carthagini: If thou wilt not spare us Christians, yet spare thyself; or if not thyself, yet thy city Carthage, which else will smart and smoke for thy cruelty.