Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 63:10
They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.
10. They shall fall &c.] Lit., They shall give him over (lit. pour him out) to the power of the sword (Jer 18:21; Eze 35:5). The active verb with indefinite subject is practically equivalent to a passive, ‘He shall be given over’; yet the idiom suggests the idea of mysterious agents, God’s ministers of justice, whose office it is. Cp. Luk 12:20, R.V. marg. The object of the verb is in the singular, either individualising the king’s enemies (‘each one of them’), or treating them as one body; but hardly singling out the leader. Cp. Psa 64:8, note.
a portion for foxes ] Rather, jackals. “It is the jackal rather than the fox which preys on dead bodies, and which assembles in troops on the battle-fields, to feast on the slain.” Tristram, Nat. Hist., p. 110. Their corpses will lie unburied where they fall, to be devoured ignominiously by wild beasts, instead of receiving honourable sepulture. Cp. Isa 18:6; Jer 19:7.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
10, 11. While his enemies come to an ignominious end, the king emerges from the struggle, triumphant over all opposition.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They shall fall by the sword – Margin, They shall make him run out like water by the hands of the sword. The word rendered in the text they shall fall, and in the margin they shall make him run out – nagar – means properly, to flow, to pour out, as water; and then, to pour out; then, to give up or deliver. The idea here is that of delivering over, as one pours out water from a basin or pitcher: they shall be delivered over to the sword. The original rendered sword is, as in the margin, by the hands of the sword; that is, the sword is represented as accomplishing its purpose as if it had hands. The sword shall slay them.
They shall be a portion for foxes – The original word – shual – means properly and commonly a fox. But under this general name fox, the Orientals seem to have comprehended other animals also, having some resemblance to a fox, and particularly jackals. Thus jackals seem to be meant in Jdg 15:4; since foxes are with great difficulty taken alive; and in this place also it has the same meaning, inasmuch as foxes do not feast on dead bodies, though a favorite repast of the jackal. Gesenius, Lexicon. Compare Bochart Hieroz. T. ii. p. 190, ed. Lips. Jackals are wild, fierce, savage; they howl around dwellings at night – producing most hideous music, beginning in a sort of solo, a low, long-drawn wail, rising and swelling higher and higher until it quite overtops the wind, (Thomsons Land and the Book, i. 133) – and ready to gather at any moment when there is prey to be devoured. These sinister, guilty, wo-begone brutes, when pressed with hunger, gather in gangs among the graves, and yell in rage, and fight like fiends over their midnight orgies; but on the battlefield is their great carnival. Oh! let me never even dream that anyone dear to me has fallen by the sword, and lies there to be torn, and gnawed at, and dragged about by these hideous howlers.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 10. They shall fall by the sword] They shall be poured out by the hand of the sword, Heb. That is, their life’s blood shall be shed either in war, or by the hand of justice.
They shall be a portion for foxes.] They shall be left unburied, and the jackals shall feed upon their dead bodies. Or, being all cut off by utter destruction, their inheritance shall be left for the wild beasts. That which was their portion shall shortly be the portion of the wild beasts of the forest. If he here refers to the destruction of the Babylonians, the prediction has been literally fulfilled. Where ancient Babylon stood, as far as it can be ascertained, is now the hold of dangerous reptiles and ferocious beasts. The jackal, or chokal, is a very ravenous beast, and fond of human flesh. It devours dead bodies, steals infants out of the lap of their mothers, devours alive the sick who are left by the side of the Ganges, and even in the streets of Calcutta has been known to eat persons who were in a state of intoxication. WARD’S Customs.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They shall fall by the sword, i.e. die in battle, as David foretold, 1Sa 26:10, and as was accomplished in Saul and his followers, who were Davids greatest enemies, 1Sa 31.
They shall be a portion for foxes; their carcasses shall be unburied upon the earth, and thereby become a prey to wild and ravenous creatures, and especially to foxes, which were in those parts in great abundance and which did and do feed not only upon fruits, Son 2:15, but also upon flesh, as experience showeth. Besides, some very learned men think that the word rendered foxes is more general, and comprehends, besides foxes, another sort of creatures, like unto them called thoes, which were very numerous in this country; of which See Poole “Jdg 15:4“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. foxesliterally,”jackals.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They shall fall by the sword,…. As Saul, his sons, and mighty men, did, 1Sa 31:4; or, “they shall make him pour out” u; that is, his blood, “by the hands” or “[means] of the sword”; meaning either some principal enemy, as Saul in particular, or everyone of his enemies; who should be thrust with the sword, their blood let out, and they slain: so antichrist, the enemy of David’s son, will be put to death in this manner, Re 13:10;
they shall be a portion for foxes; falling in desolate places where foxes run, and so become the food of them, and have no other burial. The foxes hunt after dead carcasses, and will find them out where they are, in holes and ditches; as appears from the case of Aristomenes, related by Pausanias w: so the followers of antichrist, their flesh will be eaten by the fowls of heaven, Re 19:17.
u “fundere facient eum”, Montanus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt. w Messenica, sive l. 4. p. 251.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(10) Shall fall.See margin. But more literally, they shall pour him on to the hands of the sword, where the suffix him is collective of the enemy, and the meaning is, they shall be given over to the power of the sword. (Comp. Jer. 18:21; Eze. 35:5.)
Foxes . . .Rather, jackals. Heb., shualm. (See Note, Son. 2:15.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Sword foxes Denoting that they should die violent deaths, and, being unhonoured with a burial, their carcasses would become food for carrion eaters, a punishment and dishonour of no ordinary grade. Foxes, , ( shual,) the jackal, a natural association with his present desert life. No animal body in the East can remain long exposed after death without being eaten by dogs or jackals. See 2Ki 9:35-36.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 63:10. They shall fall, &c. Their blood shall gush out by the edge of the sword. The verb properly signifies the boiling of water in a pot; when, through the violence of the heat, it is thrown out of it: and, from hence, it figuratively denotes the bursting or boiling out of the blood from the wound of a sword, or any other deadly instrument. Virgil, in a very lively manner, has expressed it by another almost similar word:
Tum caput ipsi aufert domino, truncumque reliquit Sanguine singultantem. AEn. 9. ver. 332.
The gasping head flies off; a purple flood Flows from the trunk that welters in the blood. DRYDEN.
One almost sees the blood sobbing, as it were, and gushing out from the headless body. The expression, as used by the Psalmist, denotes that they should die a violent death, and their blood should be spilled by the edge of the sword; and the next expression, They shall be a portion for foxes, signifies, “They shall be left unburied, and as a prey to ravenous beasts.” Bochart has shewn that foxes preyed upon dead bodies. See his Hieroz. pars 1: cap. 13 and Chandler.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 63:10 They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.
Ver. 10. They shall fall by the sword ] Heb. They shall make him run out (like water) by the hand of the sword. A plain prophecy of Saul’s death, and the manner of it. See alike phrase Jer 18:21 Eze 35:5 .
They shall be a portion for foxes
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
foxes = jackals.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
They shall fall: etc. Heb. They shall make him run out, like water, by the hands of the sword, 1Sa 26:10, 1Sa 31:1-6, Jer 18:21, Eze 35:5
a portion: Son 2:15, Eze 39:4, Eze 39:17-20, Rev 19:17, Rev 19:18
Reciprocal: Jdg 15:4 – caught three 2Sa 4:8 – sought 2Sa 18:9 – taken up Eze 31:14 – the nether Eze 32:4 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
63:10 {f} They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.
(f) He prophecies of the destruction of Saul and they who take his part, whose bodies will not be buried but be devoured with wild beasts.