What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?
Ver. 3. What shall be given unto thee? &c.] That is (as Austin senseth it), what remedy is there for thee? q.d. None at all. Contra sycophantarum morsum non est remedium, saith Seneca. But others better, what gain gettest thou what profit makest thou of thy lying and slandering? Hurt thou mayest another, but not help thyself. Thou art not like the maid whom Avicen speaketh of, who feeding herself with poison, was herself healthy, yet infected others with her venomous breath; but rather like the traitor of whom Augustus said, I like the treason, but hate the traitor. The slander is oft applauded when the slanderer is abhorred.
Or what shall be done unto thee, &c.] Heb. added; Nihil praeter plagas durissimas, as Psalms 120:4 .
Thou false tongue?] This he seemeth to say to Doeg, who is here called a false fellow and a liar, though he spake but the truth against the Lord's priests, because not for any love to the truth, nor for respect of justice, nor of the bettering either of Saul or the priests, but only to prejudice these and to incense the other.