Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares - a just retribution in kind upon these who laid "snares" for the godly (Psalms 9:15; Psalms 10:9; Psalms 38:12; Psalms 64:5; Job 18:9; Job 22:10; Isaiah 24:17-18; Proverbs 22:5). David had been urged to flee as a "bird" (Psalms 11:1) from the snares of the wicked, but the snares were destined to entangle, not him, but them, so that they cannot escape. "He shall rain snares" implies the multitude of judicial visitations whereby all escape is cut off from the wicked; their first thought when adversity overtakes them is to find an escape. They shall be first entangled in God's snares, precluding escape; and then shall be scathed by the tempest of "fire and brimstone," as God rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha: a type of the ever burning lake of hell (Revelation 14:10; Revelation 21:8), as well as of the similar rain upon Gog, the last invader of the restored Israel (Ezra 38:22 ; cf. Job 18:15). The cities of the plain blasted with fire and brimstone, and sunk in the inland Dead Sea, were continually before the eyes of the covenant people, a standing monument of God's primitive justice, and a type of the doom of the lost. Reference already occurred to them and to Lot, Psalms 11:1, note. 'Every divine act is a real prediction of the future, and under like circumstances must again take place' (Hengstenberg).
And an horrible tempest, х zil`aapowt (H2152), from zaa`ap (H2196), be angry] - 'the wrath-wind.' It is translated "horror," Psalms 119:53. Compare Isaiah 30:33, "The pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it."