Psalms 64:6 - Clarke's commentary and critical notes on the Bible

They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep. They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search - The word חפש chaphash, which is used three times, as a noun and a verb, in this sentence, signifies to strip off the clothes. "They investigate iniquities; they perfectly investigate an investigation." Most energetically translated by the old Psalter: Thai ransaked wickednesses: thai failled ransakand in ransaking. To ransack signifies to search every corner, to examine things part by part, to turn over every leaf, to leave no hole or cranny unexplored. But the word investigate fully expresses the meaning of the term, as it comes either from in, taken privately, and vestire, to clothe, stripping the man bare, that he may be exposed to all shame, and be the more easily wounded; or from the word investigo, which may be derived from in, intensive, and vestigium, the footstep or track of man or beast. A metaphor from hunting the stag; as the slot, or mark of his foot, is diligently sought out, in order to find whither he is gone, and whether he is old or young, for huntsmen can determine the age by the slot. Tuberville, in his Treatise on Hunting, gives rules to form this judgment, To this the next verse seems to refer.