But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
Ver. 7. But ye shall die like men] Yea, if wicked, like beasts, but only for their pillow and bolster. Super cubilia forsan in honore moriuntur, quo a bestiis differunt, sed non in morte, saith Kimchi. God, who had so highly advanced such, will lay them low enough; even in the slimy valley (if not in hell), where are many already like them, and more shall come after them, Job 21:31,32. Our Henry VIII was told on his death bed that he should go to the place of princes; which was no great comfort, if the old proverb be true, that hell is paved with the crowns of princes and helmets of soldiers. The Spanish friar used to say, there were but few princes in hell; for what reason? there were but few in all.
And fall like one of the princes] Of the heathen tyrants, which are oft slain by the people, as most of the Caesars before Constantine were. Ad generum Cereris, &c. Some of the fathers, Arnobius, Chrysostom, Theodoret, &c., understand it to be Beelzebub and his fellows, qui acerbissimis et exquisitissimis tormentis cruciantur, who are most tormented in hell, 2 Peter 2:1, Potentes potenter torquebantur. Some read it, And ye, O princes, shall fall as one, i.e. as others do. A necessary consideration for great ones, who are apt to dream of an immortality, or, at least, to drive off the thoughts of death.