Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips [are] our own: who [is] lord over us?
Ver. 4. Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail] Dictitant enim, this was a common word with them. And surely the tongue is a desperate weapon, made in the form of a flaming sword, and elsewhere by David compared to a tuck or rapier, Psalms 64:3, to a razor also, doing deceit, Psa 52:2 The Chaldee paraphrast hath this text thus, Because we can swear and lie, therefore we shall prevail.
Our lips are our own] Heb. are with us, that is, we have the command of our tongues, and have words at will; we can speak persuasively, and, therefore, we doubt not to persuade Saul to anything against David. Socrates, in his apology, My lords, said he to the judges, I know not how you have been affected with mine adversaries' eloquence while you heard them speak; for mine own part, I assure you that I, whom it toucheth most, was almost drawn to believe that all they said, though against myself, was true, when they scarcely uttered one word of truth. Gaius Curio, the Roman, was ingeniose nequam, wittily wicked (Paterculus); and the Duke of Buckingham, in his speech to the Londoners, for Richard III, gained this (though slender) commendation, that no man could deliver so much bad matter in so good words and quaint phrases.
Who is lord over us?] sc. To hinder us from speaking what and when we list with fineness and eloquence, though to the slaying of three at once, the tale bearer, the tale hearer, and the party traduced. R. Samuel Ben Jochai hath this note upon the text: A slanderous tongue is called Lashon Tabithai (Lingua tertia), because it slayeth three; but here it slew four, viz. Doeg, Saul, Nob, the city of the priests, and Abner, who suffered it so to be, 1 Samuel 22:18,19 .