Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
Ver. 2. Yea, in heart ye work wickedness] These the devil worketh it as in a forge; ye are always plotting and ploughing mischief, and that not so much for fear of Saul, or to please him, as out of the naughtiness of your own hearts; and all this you know in your consciences to be true. Kimchi saith, that the word Aph, or yea, importeth, that their hearts were made for a better purpose; and therefore their sin was the greater. Corruptio optimi pessima.
Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth] i.e. Your bribes, saith Kimchi; these we weigh or poise, quasi essent recta, as if there were no hurt in them: so Demosthenes weighed Harpalus's goblet, to the great danger of his country, and his own indelible infamy. Manus vestrae concinnant iniquitatem (Vul.). The Arabic rendereth it, Manus vestrae in tenebris immersae sunt, your hands are drowned in darkness; you seem to do all according to law and justice (pictured with a pair of balances in her hand), when, indeed, you weigh out wrong for right, and do things κατα προσκλισιν, by partiality, 1 Timothy 5:21, by tilting the balance on the one side, Trutina iustior. Prov. ζυγον μη παραBαινειν (Pythag. Symb.).