Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 58:8
As a snail [which] melteth, let [every one of them] pass away: [like] the untimely birth of a woman, [that] they may not see the sun.
8. Let them be like a snail which melts away and is gone:
Like the untimely births of women, that have not seen the sun.
Two more figures for the destruction of the wicked: let them melt away; nay, vanish as though they had never existed.
The word shabll puzzled the ancient translators. The LXX render it ‘wax’ (doubtless to suit the verb ‘melt’), Jerome ‘worm’; but later Hebrew attests the meaning snail. But what is the point of comparison? Is it that the snail seems to melt away as it goes along, leaving a slimy track behind it, or perhaps was popularly supposed to do so? or is it not rather an allusion to the way in which snails dry up and perish in drought? There are to be found in all parts of Palestine “myriads of snail shells in fissures, still adhering by the calcareous exudation round their orifice to the surface of the rock, but the animal of which is utterly shrivelled and wasted ‘melted away,’ according to the expression of the Psalmist.” Tristram, Nat. Hist, of Bible, p. 296.
For the second figure cp. Job 3:16; Ecc 6:3-5. That they may not see the sun (A.V.) is an ungrammatical rendering.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away – Or rather, As the snail which melteth as it goes; that is, which leaves a slimy trail as it moves along, and thus melts away the more as it advances, until at length it dies. Gesenius, Lexicon. The allusion is to what seems to occur to the snail; it seems to melt or to be dissolved as it moves along; or seems to leave a part of itself in the slime which flows from it.
Like the untimely birth of a woman – The Hebrew word means literally that which falls from a woman; and hence, the word is used to denote an abortion. The prayer is, that they might utterly pass away; that they might become like those who never had real life; that their power might wholly disappear.
That they may not see the sun – May not be among the living. Compare the notes at Job 3:16.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. As a snail which melteth] The Chaldee reads the verse thus: “They shall melt away in their sins as water flows off; as the creeping snail that smears its track; as the untimely birth and the blind mole, which do not see the sun.”
The original word shablul, a snail, is either from shebil, a path, because it leaves a shining path after it by emitting a portion of slime, and thus glaring the ground; and therefore might be emphatically called the pathmaker; or from yashab to dwell, be, in, lul, a winding or spiral shell, which is well known to be its house, and which it always inhabits; for when it is not coiled up within this shell, it carries it with it wheresoever it goes. See Bochart. These figures need no farther explanation.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Which melteth; Which thrusts forth, and seems to threaten with its horns, but is quickly dissolved; for when it goes out of its shell, it spends its vital moisture, until by degrees it waste away and perish.
The untimely birth of a woman; which endeavouring violently and unseasonably to break forth from the womb, is choked in the attempt, and doth not live to see the light of the sun.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8, 9. Other figures of thisutter ruin; the last denoting rapidity. In a shorter time than potsfeel the heat of thorns on fire
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As a snail [which] melteth, let [everyone of them] pass away,…. As a snail when it comes out of its shell liquefies, drops its moisture, and with it makes a “path”, from whence it has its name
, in the Hebrew language; and so the Targum here,
“as the snail moistens its way;”
which moistness it gradually exhausts, and melts away, and dies: so the psalmist prays that everyone of his enemies might die in like manner. Some think reference is had to the snail’s putting out its horns to no purpose when in danger, and apply it to the vain threatenings of the wicked; a strange difference this, between a roaring young lion,
Ps 58:6, and a melting snail. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, render it, “as wax [which] melteth”: see
Ps 68:2;
[like] the untimely birth of a woman, [that] they may not see the sun; see Job 3:16. The Targum is,
“as an abortive and a mole, which are blind and see not the sun.”
So Jarchi renders it a “mole”, agreeably to the Talmud g. Or, “let them not see the sun” h; let them die, and never see the sun in the firmament any more; Christ, the sun of righteousness; nor enjoy the favour of God, and the light of his countenance; nor have the light of life, or eternal glory and happiness; see Ps 49:19.
g T. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 6. 2. h “ne videant solem”, Pagninus, Montanus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8. Let him vanish like a snail, which melts away The two comparisons in this verse are introduced with the same design as the first, expressing his desire that his enemies might pass away quietly, and prove as things in their own nature the most evanescent. He likens them to snails, (355) and it might appear ridiculous in David to use such contemptible figures when speaking of men who were formidable for their strength and influence, did we not reflect that he considered God as able in a moment, without the slightest effort, to crush and annihilate the mightiest opposition. Their power might be such as encouraged them, in their vain-confidence, to extend their schemes into a far distant futurity, but he looked upon it with the eye of faith, and saw it doomed in the judgment of God to be of short continuance. He perhaps alluded to the suddenness with which the wicked rise into power, and designed to dash the pride which they are apt to feel from such an easy advance to prosperity, by reminding them that their destruction would be equally rapid and sudden. There is the same force in the figure employed in the end of the verse where they are compared to an abortion. If we consider the length of time to which they contemplate in their vain-confidence that their life shall extend, (356) they may be said to pass out of this world before they have well begun to live, and to be dragged back, as it were, from the very goal of existence.
(355) The original word for snail occurs only in this instance in the whole Bible. The LXX. render it ὡσεὶ κηρὸς, as wax, and the Syriac and Vulgate follow them. But the Chaldee reads “as a reptile,” interpreting the word as meaning some creeping thing, which affords an eminent example of melting, and this seems to apply to the snail, which, in its progress from its shell, leaves a slime in its track till it altogether melts away and dies. Comp. Job 3:16
(356) “ Si reputamus quantum temporis inani fiducia devorent,” etc. Literally, “If we consider how much time they devour in their vain-confidence,” etc. The French version adheres to this translation of the mere words. “ Si nous regardons combien ils devorent de temps par leur vaine confiance.” We have hazarded the more free translation given in the text, because this seems one of those instances where the brevity of the Latin idiom demands explanation, in order that the idea may be intelligible in any other language.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
8. As a snail which melteth “Referring to the well-known habits of the snail, which boldly comes forth from its shell, blind to all danger, and runs out its feelers to the utmost length, but quickly withdraws them at the slightest touch, and rapidly and timidly retreats within its fortress. The snail, moreover, is so frail that it may be crushed by its most insignificant enemy, and aptly illustrates the utter impotency of the proudest and mightiest of the wicked.” VAN LENNEP, Bible Lands, p. 322
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 58:8. As a snail which melteth, &c. Like the snail which dissolveth, let them flow away; like the untimely birth of a woman, that never saw the sun. Houbigant and Mudge.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 58:8 As a snail [which] melteth, let [every one of them] pass away: [like] the untimely birth of a woman, [that] they may not see the sun.
Ver. 8. As a snail which melteth ] The psalmist heapeth up many very fit similitudes agreeable to these men’s avarice and ambition, which was to raise themselves and their posterity to great estates; but all should come to nothing suddenly.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
a snail: Shabbelool, in Chaldee tivlala, the snail, is probably so called from the Arabic balla, to wet, moisten, because of the glutinous slime emitted from its body, by which it appears to waste itself away in its own motion; and in the same manner the wicked prove their own destruction.
pass: Psa 37:35, Psa 37:36, Mat 24:35, Jam 1:10
untimely: Job 3:16, Ecc 6:3
Reciprocal: Num 12:12 – of whom Job 3:11 – died I Job 10:19 – General Job 24:19 – so doth Job 29:17 – I brake Psa 112:10 – melt Ecc 6:5 – this Hos 9:11 – from the birth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 58:8. As a snail melteth Which thrusts forth itself, and seems to threaten with its horns, but is quickly dissolved. For it wastes by its own motions, in every stretch it makes, leaving some of its moisture behind, which, by degrees, must needs consume it, though it makes a path to shine after it. Like the untimely birth of a woman Which dies as soon as it begins to live, and never sees the sun.