Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 73:4
For [there are] no bands in their death: but their strength [is] firm.
4. no bands &c.] The meaning may be that they are not bound and delivered over like “pale captives” to premature death (cp. the paraphrase of P.B.V. “they are in no peril of death”): or that they have no torments of pain and disease (R.V. marg. pangs) in their death, but have a peaceful end to a prosperous life. Cp. Job 21:13; Job 21:23.
But the mention of death seems premature, and the rhythm of the Hebrew is halting: sense and rhythm both gain by a simple emendation which is adopted by most editors:
For they have no torments:
Sound and stalwart is their body.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For there are no bands in their death – The word rendered bands here means properly cords tightly drawn, Isa 58:6; then, pains, pangs, torments – as if one were twisted or tortured with pain, as a cord is closely twisted. The word occurs only in Isa 58:6, and in this place. The fact which is here referred to by the psalmist, and which gave him so much uneasiness, was that which so often occurs, that when the wicked die, they do not seem to suffer in proportion to their wickedness; or there seem to be no special marks of the divine displeasure as they are about to leave the world. They have lived in prosperity, and they die in peace. There is no uncommon agony in death; there is no special alarm about the future world. They have enjoyed this world, and a sinful life seems now to be followed by a peaceful death. They do not even suffer as much in death as good people often do; – what then is the advantage of piety? And how can we believe that God is just; or that he is the friend of the righteous; or even that there is a God? Of the fact here adverted to by the psalmist, that the wicked do thus live and die, there can be no doubt, and that fact has given perplexity to good people in all ages of the world.
But their strength is firm – Margin, as in Hebrew, fat. That is, They are not emaciated and weakened by disease, but they go down to death apparently from good health, and without wasting disease. See the notes at Job 21:23-26.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 73:4
For there are no bands in their death.
No bands in the death of the wicked
I. Their minds are occupied exclusively with the things of a present world (Php 3:19).
1. Habits.
2. Tastes.
3. Wants.
II. The conscience and heart, then, exemplify the effect of long-continued resistance to the Gospel.
1. The natural effect.
2. The judicial effect.
3. This produced by the abuse of abundant mercy.
III. The moral character of God is grossly misapprehended.
1. It is with God they have to do.
2. Did they apprehend His character, infinitely holy and just.
3. They have an idol in His place.
IV. The nature of the law by which they are to be tried and judged is not understood.
V. There is generally an extreme ignorance as to the nature of the salvation which is offered in the gospel. (J. Stewart.)
Bands in death
I. Let us see what are some of the bands of death, the sufferings of the Christian at his departure, that we may realize more fully this seeming freedom and tranquillity of the wicked. Need we say that death, when seriously looked at, is always terrible? Consider that religion teaches men to be far more jealous of themselves, and to think far more deeply and correctly of judgment and of eternity than others do. At death the books are made up, our fate sealed irrevocably. There is also the sense of the holiness of God, before whom he must so soon appear, with the eager desire that he had served Him in his day and generation with all tenderness of conscience, and a consequently painful sense of shortcomings and offences.
II. The freedom of the wicked.
1. The quietness and peacefulness of the death-bed of a wicked man, without the agony of remorse, without bitter self-chiding and awful presentiments of judgment and eternity, may tell the same tale that the violence, the pride, the cruelty, the rashness, the unrestrained licentiousness of his life did.
2. The placid death-bed of the wicked, without a groan, or pain, or fetter, without regrets or murmurs, is sometimes welcomed by him in his stolidity and ignorance as a happy escape from some disappointment or trouble.
3. The wicked shall be freed from bands in their death, if, by the temptations of Satan, they have been led to presume on that mercy from God which they have never sought.
4. They have no bands in their death, because of its utter suddenness and unexpectedness. This busy present, these manifold wants, and cravings, and indulgences, these strong drinks that deaden the soul, and their over-mastering passions of a life of brief rule over others, of vengeance, of rivalry, of tyranny, of temporary renown and influence–oh, how they succeed in banishing the thought of death while yet the vigour of life is full in veins and body! (G. B. Blake, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. No bands in their death] Many of the godly have sore conflicts at their death. Their enemy then thrusts sore at them that they may fall; or that their confidence in their God may be shaken. But of this the ungodly know nothing. Satan will not molest them; he is sure of his prey; they are entangled, and cannot now break their nets; their consciences are seared, they have no sense of guilt. If they think at all of another world, they presume on that mercy which they never sought, and of which they have no distinct notion. Perhaps, “they die without a sigh or a groan; and thus go off as quiet as a lamb”-to the slaughter.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
There are no bands in their death; they are not dragged to death, neither by the hand and sentence of the magistrate, which yet they deserve; nor by any lingering and grievous torments of mind or body, which is the case of many good men; but they enjoy a sweet and quiet death, dropping into the grave, like ripe fruit from the tree, without ally violence used to them. Compare Job 5:26; 21:13.
But their strength is firm, Heb. and their strength is fat, i.e. sound and good; the best of any thing being called fat in Scripture, as Gen 41:2; Dan 1:15. And in their lifetime they have great ease, and health, and content, till they expire like a lamp, merely for want of moisture.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
For there are no bands in their death,…. Nothing that binds and straitens them, afflicts and distresses them; they have no pain of mind nor of body, but die at once, suddenly, in a moment, wholly at ease and quiet, without any bitterness of soul; see Job 21:13, or “there are no bands until their death” f; they have no straits nor difficulties all their life long, no distempers nor diseases which may be called “bonds”, Lu 13:12, till they come to die: the Vulgate Latin version is, “there is no respect to their death”; they take no notice of it, they have no care or concern about it; or, as the Targum,
“they are not terrified nor troubled because of the day of their death;”
they put it away far from them, and think nothing about it: but their strength is firm; they are hale and robust, healthful and sound, to the day of their death; their strength is not weakened in the way by diseases and distempers. Some take the word rendered “strength” to signify a porch or palace, and translate it, they are strong as a palace, or in a palace, or their palace is strong g their houses are well built, and continue long.
f “usque ad mortem eorum”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis. g “palatium vel sicut palatium” so some in Piscator; “porticus”, Schmidt; so R. Jonah, Arama, and Jerom.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
4 For there are no bands to their death. The Psalmist describes the comforts and advantages of the ungodly, which are as it were so many temptations to shake the faith of the people of God. He begins with the good health which they enjoy, telling us, that they are robust and vigorous, and have not to draw their breath with difficulty through continual sicknesses, as will often be the case with regard to true believers. (161) Some explain bands to death, as meaning delays, viewing the words as implying that the wicked die suddenly, and in a moment, not having to struggle with the pangs of dissolution. In the book of Job it is reckoned among the earthly felicities of the ungodly, That, after having enjoyed to the full their luxurious pleasures, they “in a moment go down to the grave,” (Job 21:13.) And it is related of Julius Caesar, that, the day before he was put to death, he remarked, that to die suddenly and unexpectedly, seemed to him to be a happy death. Thus, then, according to the opinion of these expositors, David complains that the wicked go to death by a smooth and easy path, without much trouble and anxiety. But I am rather inclined to agree with those who read these two clauses jointly in this way: Their strength is vigorous, and, in respect to them, there are no bands to death; because they are not dragged to death like prisoners. (162) As diseases lay prostrate our strength, they are so many messengers of death, warning us of the frailty and short duration of our life. They are therefore with propriety compared to bands, with which God binds us to his yoke, lest our strength and rigour should incite us to licentiousness and rebellion.
(161) “ Comme souvent il en prendra aux fideles.” — Fr.
(162) “They are not dragged to death,” says Poole, “either by the hand or sentence of the magistrate, which yet they deserve, nor by any lingering or grievous torments of mind or body, which is the case with many good men; but they enjoy a sweet and quiet death, dropping into the grave like ripe fruit from the tree, without any violence used to them, (compare Job 5:26 and Job 31:13.) The word translated bands occurs in only one other place of Scripture, Isa 58:6, where in all the ancient versions it is rendered bands But bands will bear various significations. In the Hebrew style it often signifies the pangs of child-birth; and therefore the meaning here may be, they have no pangs in their death; i e. , they die an easy death, being suffered to live on to extreme old age, when the flame of life gradually and quietly becomes extinct. It was also used by the Hebrews to express diseases of any kind, and this is the sense, in which Calvin understands it. Thus Jesus says of the “woman who had a spirit of infirmity,” a sore disease inflicted upon her by an evil spirit, “eighteen years,” “Thou art loosed from thine infirmity,” (and loosing, we know, applies to bands:) he again describes her as “this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years;” and farther says, “Ought she not to be loosed from this bond?” that is, cured of this sickness? Luk 13:11. According to this view, the meaning will be, they have no violent diseases in their death Horsley reads, “There is no fatality in their death.” After observing that the word חרצבות, translated bands, occurs but in one other place in the whole Bible, Isa 58:6; where the LXX. have rendered it συνδεσμον, and the Vulgate colligationes , he says, “From its sense there, and from its seeming affinity with the roots חרף and צבה, I should guess that in a secondary and figurative sense, the word may denote the strongest of all bands or knots, physical necessity, or fate; and in that sense it may be taken here. The complaint is, that the ordinary constitution of the world is supposed to contain no certain provision for the extermination of the impious; that there is no necessary and immediate connection between moral evil and physical, wickedness and death.” The Septuagint reads, ὅτι οὺκ ἔστιν ἀνάνευσις ἐν τῶ Θανάτω αὐτῶν: “For there is no sign of reluctance in their death.” The Vulgate, “ Quia non est respectus morti eorum;” “For they do not think of dying,” or, “For they take no notice of their death.” The Chaldee, “They are not terrified or troubled on account of the day of their death.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) For there are no bands in their death.This is quite unintelligible, and does not fairly render the Hebrew, which gives, For there are no bands to their death. And by analogy of the derivation of tormenta from tor queo, we might give the Hebrew word bands the sense of pangs, rendering, they have a painless death, if such a statement about the wicked were not quite out of keeping with the psalm. The ancient versions give us no help. Some emendation of the text is absolutely necessary. In the only other place it occurs (Isa. 58:6) the word means specially the bands of a yoke; hence a most ingenious conjecture, which, by only a change of one letter, gives there are no bands to their yoke, i.e., they are chartered libertines, men of libido effrenata et indomita, a description admirably in keeping with that of the animal grossness in the next clause, fat is their belly. (Comp. the image of an animal restive from over-feeding, Deu. 32:15; Burgess, Notes on the Hebrew Psalms.)
Strength.The word is curious, but explained by Arabic cognates to mean belly, possibly from its roundness (a fair round belly with good capon lined); from root meaning roll.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. No bands in their death The word “bands” means tortures, pains, “intended of pains that produce convulsive contractions.” Delitzsch. Not “no pangs till their death,” which some have adopted in order to harmonize the verse with Psa 73:18-19, but, following the English version, consider that “the psalmist is describing here, not the fact, but what seemed to him to be the fact, in a state of mind which he [afterwards] confesses to have been unhealthy.” Perowne. See Job 21:13.
Their strength is firm They enjoy life to the last.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
He here draws the outlines of the prosperity of the wicked: they have all carnal enjoyments, the good things brought forth by the sun, and the precious things put forth by the moon: they have plenty of corn, and wine, and oil; they chant to the sound of the organ; they send forth their little ones to the dance, but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Nay, what appeared to the prophet’s view as still more astonishing, they seemed for the most part to die in peace; no bands, no pangs, no difficulties in their death: and though strangers to Christ, strangers to God’s covenant love in him, strangers to the new-birth, and all the work of God the Spirit on their hearts; they died as much at ease as if all the promises of salvation were their own. This view puzzled and perplexed the prophet’s mind, and for awhile he was at a loss to explain it. Reader! do the same things appear in the world now? Oh yes! Every day’s experience demonstrates such things, and to an enlightened eye they carry their own reasoning and confirmation with them. What a striking picture hath Job drawn of such in his days: but after he hath drawn it to the life, and sketched their features to a nicety, he gives the finishing stroke when he describes them, after spending their days in wealth, as in a moment going down to the grave! Job 21:7-13 . See also the prophet’s representation of the same, Amo 6:3-7 . When you have paid due attention to these scriptures, turn to the gospel, and read some of the unequalled words of Jesus and his apostles on the same subject; and if God the Holy Ghost be your teacher, you will rise to a degree of enjoyment unknown to all such worldly characters. Indeed, that one passage alone of Christ is a volume in point, Joh 14:18-20 . To this subjoin the apostle’s account of God’s people, Heb 11:33 , to the end.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 73:4 For [there are] no bands in their death: but their strength [is] firm.
Ver. 4. For there are no bands in their death ] Or, no knots and knarls; they die without long sickness, or much pain, or trouble of mind. If a man die like a lamb, and pass out of the world like a bird in a shell, he is certainly saved, think some. The wicked are here said to die quietly, as if there were no loosening of the band that is between soul and body. Julian the apostate died with these words in his mouth; Vitam reposcenti naturae tanquam debitor bonae fidei redditurus exulto, that is, I owe a death to nature, and now that she calleth for it, as a faithful debtor, I gladly pay it (Ammian.). The princes of the Sogdians, when they were drawn forth to death by Alexander the Great, carmen more laetantium cecinerunt, tripudiisque gaudium animi ostentare caeperunt, they sang and danced to the place of execution (Curt. lib. 7, ex Diodor.).
But their strength is firm
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
bands: or pangs. The Massorah calls attention to this Homonym (harzuboth) as occurring not only twice, but in two different senses. The other case is Isa 58:6.
in = at.
is. Supply Ellipsis by “continues”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
no: Psa 17:14, Job 21:23, Job 21:24, Job 24:20, Ecc 2:16, Ecc 7:15, Luk 16:22
firm: Heb. fat, Psa 17:10
Reciprocal: Job 21:13 – They Jer 48:11 – hath been
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 73:4. For there are no bands in their death They are not violently dragged to an untimely death, either by the hand and sentence of the magistrate, which yet they deserve, or by any sudden and unexpected stroke of Divine Providence, like the fruit forced from the tree before it is ripe, but are left to hang on, till, through old age, they gently drop off themselves. Hebrew, , een chartzuboth, There are no pangs, anguish, or agonies, in their death; they are not afflicted with sore and painful diseases, nor brought to the grave by grievous torments of body or mind; but after a long life, in firm and vigorous health, they enjoy a sweet and quiet death, and depart easily out of the world: while others of a contrary character are worn with chronical, or racked with acute disorders, which bring them with sorrow and torment to the grave. Horne. But their strength is firm Hebrew, , baria ulam, their strength is fat, that is, sound and good; the best of any thing being called fat, in Scripture, as Gen 41:2; Dan 1:15. They continue strong and healthful all their days, till at last they expire quietly, as a lamp goes out when the oil is spent.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
73:4 For [there are] {b} no bands in their death: but their strength [is] firm.
(b) The wicked in this life live at pleasure and are not drawn to death like prisoners: that is, by sickness which is death’s messenger.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The writer next described the ways the wicked behave. They seem more carefree (Psa 73:4-5), proud and violent (Psa 73:6), as well as unrestrained (Psa 73:7). They speak proudly (Psa 73:8-9), lead others after themselves (Psa 73:10), and act as if God does not care how they live (Psa 73:11; cf. Psa 94:7). With few cares, they continue to prosper (Psa 73:12; cf. Psa 73:4-5).