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4For 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 “ 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) “ are not dragged to death,” says Poole, “ 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 “ who had a spirit of infirmity,” a sore disease inflicted upon her by an evil spirit, “ years,” “ art loosed from thine infirmity,” (and loosing, we know, applies to bands:) he again describes her as “ daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years;” and farther says, “ 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, “ 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, “ 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 “ there is no sign of reluctance in their death.” The Vulgate, “Quia non est respectus morti eorum;” “ they do not think of dying,” or, “ they take no notice of their death.” The Chaldee, “ are not terrified or troubled on account of the day of their death.”