They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns - I shall refer to Dr. Delaney's note on this passage. The reader has here in miniature two of the finest images in Homer; which, if his curiosity demands to be gratified, he will find illustrated and enlarged, Iliad ii., ver. 86.
- Επεσσευοντο δε λαοι.
Ηΰτε εθνεα εισι μελισσαων αδιναων,
Πετρης εκ γλαφυρης αιει νεον ερχομεναων,
Βοτρυδον δε πετονται επ' ανθεσιν ειαρινοισιν,
Αἱ μεν τ' ενθα ἁλις πεποτηαται, αἱ δε τε ανθα
Ὡς των εθνεα πολλα νεων απο και κλισιαων
Ηΐονος προπαροιθε βαθειης εστιχοωντο
Ιλαδον εις αγορην.
- The following host,
Poured forth by thousands, darkens all the coast.
As from some rocky cleft the shepherd sees,
Clustering in heaps on heaps, the driving bees,
Rolling and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms,
With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms:
Dusky they spread a close embodied crowd,
And o'er the vale descends the living cloud;
So from the tents and ships a lengthening train
Spreads all the beach, and wide o'ershades the plain;
Along the region runs a deafening sound;
Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground.
Pope
The other image, the fire consuming the thorns, we find in the same book, ver. 455: -
Ηΰτε πυρ αΐδηλον επιφλεγει ασπετον ὑλην,
Ουρεος εν κορυφης· ἑκαθεν δε τε φαινεται αυγη·
Ὡς των ερχομενων, απο χαλκου θεσπεσιοιο
Αιγλη παμφανοωσα δι' αιθερος ουρανον ἱκεν.
As on some mountain, through the lofty grove,
The crackling flames ascend and blaze above;
The fires expanding, as the winds arise,
Shoot their long beams, and kindle half the skies;
So, from the polished arms, and brazen shields,
A gleamy splendor flashed along the fields.
Pope.
The arms resembling a gleaming fire is common both to the psalmist and Homer; but the idea of that fire being quenched when the army was conquered, is peculiar to the psalmist.