Many bulls have compassed me: strong [bulls] of Bashan have beset me round.
Ver. 12. Many bulls have compassed me] Young bulls, which noteth their lustiness and courage. Tauri bene saginati et petulci.
Strong bulls of Bashan] A far country beyond Jordan, famous for fat and fierce cattle. Hereby are meant princes and potentates, persecutors of Christ and his people, against whom they run and rush with utmost might and malice, but not always with desired success. Of the wild bull it is said, that of all things he cannot abide any red colour. Therefore the hunter for the nonce standing before a tree, puts on a red garment; whom, when the bull seeth, he runneth hard at him, as hard as he can drive; but the hunter slipping aside, the bull's horns stick fast in the tree; as, when David slipped aside, Saul's spear stuck fast in the wall. In like manner, saith a divine, Christ standing before the tree of his cross, put on a red garment dipped and dyed in his own blood, as one that cometh with red garments from Bozra, Isaiah 63:1. Therefore the devil and his agents, like wild bulls of Bashan, ran at him. But he, saving himself, their horns stick fast in the cross; as Abraham's ram by his horns stuck fast in the briers.