Poole on 2 Samuel 23:6, 7: The Goodness of God-fearing Government, Part 3

Verse 6:[1]  But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands…

[But transgressors shall be rooted out like thorns, all of them,‎ וּבְלִיַּ֕עַל כְּק֥וֹץ מֻנָ֖ד כֻּלָּ֑הַם]  But the impious (or and Belial [Montanus, Vatablus], man of Belial, as it is found fully stated in 2 Samuel 16:7, with an Ellipsis of אִישׁ/man, as in Ruth 3:2 [Glassius], or men of wickedness [Castalio]) all (understanding are, or shall be) (Pagnine, Vatablus, etc.), after the likeness of thorns (Syriac), just like a thorn cast away (Septuagint), like a thorn, moved (Montanus), just like cruel thorns (Arabic), as thorns removed (Junius and Tremellius, Piscator, thus Dieu).  Hebrew:  as a thorn taken away (Piscator); like thorns that are driven away (Pagnine), or are repulsed, that is with a foot or staff (Vatablus).  [Others refer the ‎כֻּלָּהַם, all of them, elsewhere:]  The depraved man (or the impious man of Belial [Munster]) shall be like a thorn rooted out entirely (or throughout [Munster]) (Tigurinus, Munster), as thorns to be pulled up by the roots (Strigelius).

[Which are not removed with hands, ‎כִּֽי־לֹ֥א בְיָ֖ד יִקָּֽחוּ׃]  Because not with the hand shall they grasp (Pagnine, thus Montanus, Vatablus), or do they grasp, or are they wont to grasp (the future denoting an ongoing action, and the expression being impersonal [Piscator]), understanding, them (Vatablus).  Not with the hand shall they be received (Septuagint), or are they grasped (Syriac, Junius and Tremellius); a man is not able to grasp, etc. (Arabic); because with the hand they are not able to be grasped (Dieu), for they bloody the hands of those wishing to touch (Menochius).  No one handles with the hand (Tigurinus); that is to say, as men are not wont to handle thorns with their hands, indeed, drive them from themselves, so God shall drive the impious from Himself (Vatablus).  Question:  Of whom is he speaking?  Responses:  1.  Concerning wicked men [in general].  What sort of God He is going to be toward the just He taught in verses 3 and 4; here He teaches what sort He will be toward the impious.  Therefore, in this passage is comprehended the same thing that Psalm 1 expresses, namely, the state of the good and of the evil; and so this is a certain summary of the entire Psalter (Sanchez).  Wicked men, that is, who do not embrace the commandments of God, and are not partakers of the promises, that is, reprobates.  It is the antithesis of the comparison with things preceding (Malvenda out of Junius).  2.  Concerning impious Kings; but the impious and men of Belial, who tyrannically take charge of Kingdoms, are like thorns that are not able to be handled without instruments of iron, or are certainly to be consumed with fire.  Thus all kingdoms of the world at length sink into ruin:  Only the kingdom of David and of Christ abides forever (Munster).  3.  Concerning the impious of the family of David; that is to say, My descendants that shall continue in the faith, shall reign perpetually:  but those among them that shall be impious shall be chastened by God; God shall drive them from Himself; yet He will not take His mercy from my family[2] (Vatablus).  Or, 4.  he understands the impious that plot against his kingdom, and were not able to stomach his felicity (Malvenda).  He compares this kingdom with the kingdom of the Devil, of Antichrist, and of the impious.  David was seeing in his own kingdom the impious extirpated to some extent; but he was foreseeing that it was going to be to a greater extent in the kingdom of Messiah (Martyr).  All the impious shall be cast out of the kingdom of Christ (Osiander).

The sons of Belial, or, the men of Belial, as it is expressed 2 Samuel 16:7, and elsewhere.  Having in the foregoing verses described the nature, and felicity, and stability of that kingdom which God himself had by a sure and everlasting covenant settled upon him and his seed; and especially, upon the Messiah, who was to be one of his posterity; he now describes the quality, the mischievous nature, the hazardous and miserable condition, of all the enemies of this holy and blessed kingdom, whom he justly calleth sons of Belial, because they rebelled against God’s appointment, and against that king whom God had set over them; for which reason others are so called, 1 Samuel 10:27; 2 Chronicles 13:7.  As thorns thrust away which men do not use to handle, as they do other trees, but thrust them away from themselves, by some instrument chosen for that purpose.  And so will God remove or thrust away from himself, and from his people and kingdom, all those who shall either secretly or openly set themselves against it.  And this may be here added, either, 1.  By way of prescription to rulers, whom, as before he admonished to be just and kind to their people, verses 3, 4; so here he requires them to be severe in punishing and purging away wicked and incorrigible men from about his throne, and from among his people; the encouraging of the good, and the punishing of the bad, being the two chief works of every good magistrate, and the two pillars of all government.  Or, 2.  By way of caution; to show, that notwithstanding the holiness, and happiness, and sureness of this kingdom, yet there would be sons of Belial in it, who would endeavour to disturb and overthrow it, but to no purpose; for all their projects against it should be vain, and fall upon their own heads.

Verse 7:[3]  But the man that shall touch them must be fenced (Heb. filled[4]) with iron and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place.

[And, should anyone desire to touch them, he shall be armed with iron, and with the staff of a lance, ‎וְאִישׁ֙ יִגַּ֣ע בָּהֶ֔ם יִמָּלֵ֥א בַרְזֶ֖ל וְעֵ֣ץ חֲנִ֑ית]  Whoever means to touch them (Pagnine, Munster) (anyone that is going to lay hands on them [Junius and Tremellius], if anyone is compelled to touch them [Tigurinus]), he shall be filled (or is filled [Vatablus, Pagnine], understanding, himself [Vatablus], or his hand [Vatablus, Piscator]; or let him arm his hand [Munster]) with iron, or the shaft of a lance (Pagnine), or with the staff of a spear, or lance (Munster, Tigurinus, Montanus, Dieu), that is, he shall take hold of an iron instrument, wherewith he has cut them down, or the staff of a lance, wherewith he shall drive them away (Vatablus).  I do not translate it with the Vulgate, armabitur, he shall be armed, nor with Junius, munitur, he is fortified:  for, whether anyone wishes to cut down thorns, he is indeed wont to employ the iron and wood of an ax, but not of a spear; or to protect his hand, lest it be injured by the touch, he was by no means accustomed to make use of the iron and staff of a spear.  But I think the sense to be, that thorns do not suffer themselves to be grasped:  should anyone touch them, the spines of the thorns are driven into the hand, and, cleaving to it, fill the wounds made, no otherwise than the iron and staff of a spear, etc.; and when the thorns are implanted deeply, it is no different than when not only the point of iron, but also the very staff of the spear with the iron, is thrust through (Dieu).

The staff of a spear; so the meaning is, he must fill his hand, or arm himself with some iron weapon, whereby he may cut them down; or, with the staff of a spear, or some such like thing, whereby he may thrust them away from himself, that they do him no hurt.  Or thus, he will be filled, or will fill himself, that is, his hand, wherewith he attempted to touch and take them, with thorns, as with iron and the staff of a spear; that is, he will be as surely and sorely wounded, as if one should run the iron head and part of the wood of a spear into his hand.

[And, set ablaze with fire, they shall be reduced to nothing,‎וּבָאֵ֕שׁ שָׂר֥וֹף יִשָּׂרְפ֖וּ בַּשָּֽׁבֶת׃]  Then he determines them to kindle fire for use and quiet (Arabic, similarly the Syriac).  And (or, or [Munster, Tigurinus]) with burning fire they shall be consumed (or let them be altogether consumed [Junius and Tremellius]) in their place (Pagnine, Vatablus), in the very, or same, place (English), in the same seat (Junius and Tremellius), that is, where they were cut down (Junius).  In their seat, that is, they are not removed to another place; but in the place where the thorns spring forth, there they are burned (Mariana).  In their habitation, or abode (Vatablus), that is, he carries them home, so that they might be burned there (Malvenda).  The extirpation of the impious is here noted.  They are often consumed in the place in which they stand.  That happened to the Jews in the time of Titus.[5]  There is a tacit antithesis to good produce, which are gathered and preserved (Martyr).  The sense:  When God shall decide to expel the obstinate Jews from the kingdom of Messiah, He will not handle them gently, but He will assail them with the arms of the Romans, and will overcome them, and at last consume them with the city of Jerusalem (Osiander).

And they shall be utterly burned, or, therefore; because men cannot safely touch them, therefore they will burn them up.  Or, or, that is, if they do not cut them down with iron, or thrust them away with the staff of a spear, they will burn and consume them.  In the same place, or, in their place, where they grow or stand; and they will not trouble nor hazard themselves to remove them.  Withal, it may imply that they shall be destroyed when and where they thought themselves most secure, even in their own place.  And it may possibly intimate, that those children of Belial, the wicked and unbelieving Jews, who rejected and rebelled against the Messiah, David’s successor, and their lawful King, should be destroyed in their great, and strong, and holy city Jerusalem, where the greatest part of that people were gathered together as fuel for the fire, and were destroyed together by the Romans under Titus, where also their wicked predecessors had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in former times.

[1] Hebrew:  ‎וּבְלִיַּ֕עַל כְּק֥וֹץ מֻנָ֖ד כֻּלָּ֑הַם כִּֽי־לֹ֥א בְיָ֖ד יִקָּֽחוּ׃

[2] See 2 Samuel 7; Psalm 89.

[3] Hebrew:  ‎וְאִישׁ֙ יִגַּ֣ע בָּהֶ֔ם יִמָּלֵ֥א בַרְזֶ֖ל וְעֵ֣ץ חֲנִ֑ית וּבָאֵ֕שׁ שָׂר֥וֹף יִשָּׂרְפ֖וּ בַּשָּֽׁבֶת׃ פ

[4] Hebrew:  ‎יִמָּלֵא.

[5] Nero appointed Titus Flavius Vespasianus to crush the Jewish Revolt in 66 AD, which he managed with great success and bloodshed until 69 AD, when he was called to Rome and became emperor following Nero’s death the previous year.  Vespasian’s son, Titus Flavius, continued the campaign against the Jewish rebellion, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.