Loading...
They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns - I shall refer to Dr. Delaney's note on this passage. The reader has here in miniature two of the finest images in Homer; which, if his curiosity demands to be gratified, he will find illustrated and enlarged, Iliad ii., ver. 86.
- Επεσσευοντο δε λαοι.π
Ηΰτε εθνεα εισι μελισσαων αδιναων,Πετρης εκ γλαφυρης αιει νεον ερχομεναων,Βοτρυδον δε πετονται επ 'ανθεσιν ειαρινοισιν,Αἱ μεν τ 'ενθα ἁλις πεποτηαται, αἱ δε τε ανθαπ
Ὡς των εθνεα πολλα νεων απο και κλισιαωνπ
Ηΐονος προπαροιθε βαθειης εστιχοωντοπ
Ιλαδον εις αγορην .
- The following host,
Poured forth by thousands, darkens all the coast.
As from some rocky cleft the shepherd sees,
Clustering in heaps on heaps, the driving bees,
Rolling and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms,
With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms:
Dusky they spread a close embodied crowd,
And o'er the vale descends the living cloud;
So from the tents and ships a lengthening train
Spreads all the beach, and wide o'ershades the plain;
Along the region runs a deafening sound;
Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground.
Pope
The other image, the fire consuming the thorns, we find in the same book, ver. 455: -
Ηΰτε πυρ αΐδηλον επιφλεγει ασπετον ὑλην,π
Ουρεος εν κορυφης· ἑκαθεν δε τε φαινεται αυγη·π
Ὡς των ερχομενων, απο χαλκου θεσπεσιοιοπ
Αιγλη παμφανοωσα δι 'αιθερος ουρανον ἱκεν .
As on some mountain, through the lofty grove,
The crackling flames ascend and blaze above;
The fires expanding, as the winds arise,
Shoot their long beams, and kindle half the skies;
So, from the polished arms, and brazen shields,
A gleamy splendor flashed along the fields.
Pope.
The arms resembling a gleaming fire is common both to the psalmist and Homer; but the idea of that fire being quenched when the army was conquered, is peculiar to the psalmist.
They compassed me about like bees -
(a) As thick or numerous as bees;
(b) armed as bees - or, their weapons might be compared to the stings of bees.
They are quenched as the fire of thorns - The Septuagint and the Vulgate render this, “They burn as the fire of thorns.” The connection would seem to demand this, but the Hebrew will not bear it. The figure is changed in the Hebrew, as is not uncommon. The mind of the psalmist at first recalls the number and the malignity of his foes; it then instantly adverts to the rapid manner in which they were destroyed. The illustration from the “fire of thorns” is derived from the fact that they quickly kindle into a blaze, and then the flame soon dies away. In Eastern countries it was common to burn over their fields in the dry time of the year, and thus to clear them of thorns and briars and weeds. Of course, at such a time they would kindle quickly, and burn rapidly, and would soon be consumed. So the psalmist says it was with his enemies. He came upon them, numerous as they were, as the fire runs over a field in a dry time, burning everything before it. Compare the notes at Isaiah 33:12.
For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them - That is, such was his purpose then; such was the reason why they so soon and suddenly disappeared.