If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.
If he turn not. There is this merciful proviso always made, that judgment will descend only if the sinner will "not turn" from his evil way. David, in denouncing judgment on the ungodly, is always to be regarded as wishing that they would rather turn, and so avert the judgments.
He will whet his sword - God will whet it. A plain allusion to Deuteronomy 32:41. So entirely are the Psalms based on the Pentateuch-law. Bow ... ready - with the arrows upon it, the aim having been already taken. It is striking that the very instruments of Saul's death, the bow and the sword, are here mentioned. Hit and sore wounded by the Philistine archers, "Saul took a sword and fell upon it" (1 Samuel 31:3-4).