Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them [as] a garment.
Ver. 6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain] The pride of their hearts breaketh forth in their costly habits, while they are torquati, et auro ac gemmis amicti, setting up their plumes, as peacocks, which have their names in Hebrew from the joy they take in their fair feathers; so do these glory in their pride, and are puffed up with a foolish persuasion of their own prudence. Vermis divitiarum est superbia, Charge the rich that they be not high minded, 1 Timothy 6:17. He is a great rich man, says Austin, and greater than his riches, who doth not therefore think himself great because he is rich. Magna cognatio, saith another, ut rei sic nominis, divitiis et vitiis, He is a rare rich man that is not the worse for his wealth. The palm tree, they say, will not grow in a rich ground, but salt and ashes must, in that case, be cast at the root, to qualify the strength of the soil; so grace will not grow in a fat heart, without the salt of mortification aud ashes of humiliation. "Their heart is fat as grease, but I delight in thy law," Psalms 119:70 .
Violence covereth them as a garment] Violence or wrong-dealing, is the perpetual companion of pride, and covereth them as a garment finely fitted to their bodies, as was the harlot's habit Proverbs 7:10. Aben-Ezra rendereth it, obruit cos, overwhelmeth them; that is, domineereth over them. Some Rabbis render, Nates eorum violentia tegit.