Psalms 55:15 - John Trapp Complete Commentary

Bible Comments

Let death seize upon them, [and] let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness [is] in their dwellings, [and] among them.

Ver. 15. Let death seize upon them] Irruat super illos mors, as a merciless landlord, as a cruel creditor, or as he in the Gospel, who took his fellow by the throat, and said, Pay that thou owest me. A sad time it must needs be with the wicked when death shall come upon them with a writ of Habeas corpus, and the devil with another of Habeas animam. Capiat illos mors, Thou shalt have the spirit. Let death seize them, so Aben Ezra rendereth it; Exigat mors in cos, so Kimchi, a נושׁח Psalms 89:22. Here it is written, saith he, without an Aleph, Hebrew Text Note as it were, with a swift hand; and as if death and seize were all one word; to note the sudden stroke of death, and that it will soon despatch them. To which sense also some render it, Decipiat eos mors, Let death deceive them, be too nimble for them.

And let them go down quick into hell] As did Dathan and his complices, Numbers 16:31,33 See Trapp on " Psa 55:9 " According to this imprecation Ahithophel and Judas, hanging themselves, went to hell alive, that is, hale and well; not enfeebled by sickness first. Augustine saith that heretics do the like, falling with open eyes, and self-condemned.

For wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them] Heb. in their sojourning place (for here we are but guests and sojourners), and in the middle of them, that is, in their hearts and houses both, undique circumfluunt malitia et maleficiis, they are as naught as need to be.

Psalms 55:15

15 Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell:c for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.