Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, [when] the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
Ver. 5. Wherfore should I fear in the days of evil?] All the days of the afflicted are evil, Proverbs 15:15. But why should either I, or any other afflicted servant of God, be overly troubled, as if some strange thing had befallen us; or staggered at the better condition of worse men, all things considered?
When the iniquity of my heels] Or, of my supplanters, mine enemies, those naughty men (called here iniquity in the abstract) who seek to trip up my heels, and do surround me with their snares for that purpose. See Psalms 56:7. Or thus, "When the iniquity of my heels," &c. That is, as some will have it, when my sins come to my remembrance, or are chastened upon me. Every man's heel hath some iniquity. As we shall have some dirt cleaving to our heels whiles we walk in a dirty world; so there is some defilement upon all our actions, which we may call the iniquity of our heels. "He that is washed," saith our Saviour to Peter, "needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit," John 13:10. The comparison seems to be taken from those that wash in baths; for although their whole bodies are thereby made clean, yet going forth they touch the earth with their feet, and so are fain to wash again; in like manner the saints, although bathed in that blessed fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, Zechariah 13:1, and thereby freed from the stain and reign of sin; yet their feet or heels have some filth on them, some relics of corruption do still cleave to them, and cause them some sorrow; yet ought they not to fear, or be dismayed, but by the practice of mortification purge themselves daily from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, 2 Corinthians 7:1 .