Psalm 75:10

All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Will I cut.—The Divine speaker again abruptly takes up the word in this verse. (For the abruptness, comp. Isaiah 48:15.) The “cutting off of the horns” recalls Zechariah 1:18 seq.; Lamentations 2:3.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

75:6-10. No second causes will raise men to preferment without the First Cause. It comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. He mentions not the north; the same word that signifies the north, signifies the secret place; and from the secret of God's counsel it does come. From God alone all must receive their doom. There are mixtures of mercy and grace in the cup of affliction, when it is put into the hands of God's people; mixtures of the curse, when it is put into the hands of the wicked. God's people have their share in common calamities, but the dregs of the cup are for the wicked. The exaltation of the Son of David will be the subject of the saints' everlasting praises. Then let sinners submit to the King of righteousness, and let believers rejoice in and obey him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

All the horns of the wicked ... - See the notes at Psalm 75:4. The meaning is, I will destroy all their power. This, too, may refer to the author of the psalm, supposed to be a prince or ruler about to ascend the throne, and to assert his rightful authority. This indicates his purpose in regard to his administration (compare Psalm 75:2); the principles on which he would administer his government. It would be an administration under which the wicked would be punished, and where the righteous would be protected. In this manner it would be an emblem of the administration of God. All just human governments are founded on the same principles as the government of God. People have only to apply to the affairs of civil society the principles on which God governs the universe, to constitute the most perfect human administration. Those which come nearest to that, most nearly approximate perfection; and civil governments will reach their end, and accomplish their design, only when those principles shall be universally applied among people.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9, 10. Contrasted is the lot of the pious who will praise God, and, acting under His direction, will destroy the power of the wicked, and exalt that of the righteous.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The horns of the wicked; their honour and power, which they made an instrument of mischief to oppress good men. A metaphor from horned and mischievous beasts.

I will cut off, when I shall be advanced to the throne, and have power and authority to do what now I can only desire and pray for.

The horns of the righteous shall be exalted; good men shall be encouraged and promoted, and intrusted with the management of all public affairs, which will be a great blessing to all my people.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off,.... Therefore let them not lift up the horn on high: "horns" denote the power and authority of wicked men, their kingdoms and states; both Rome Pagan and Rome Papal are said to have ten horns, which are interpreted of ten kings or kingdoms; and which will be cut off when the vials of God's wrath are poured out on the antichristian states; which vials will be filled from the cup which is in the hand of the Lord, Revelation 12:1, the Jews (b) interpret this of the ten horns of the nations of the world, that shall be cut off in future time; and Jarchi particularly of the horns of Esau, by whom he means Rome, or the Roman empire:

but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted; either of the righteous one Christ, for the word is in the singular number; he who is the Lord our righteousness, whose power and authority, kingdom and government, shall be enlarged and increased, signified by the budding of the horn of David, and the exaltation of the horn of his Messiah, 1 Samuel 2:10 or of everyone of the righteous, which will be when the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, and they shall reign with Christ on earth a thousand years, Daniel 7:27. Kimchi says this will be in the war of Gog and Magog, which is expected by the Jews.

(b) Vid. Yalkut in loc.

Geneva Study Bible

All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the {g} righteous shall be exalted.

(g) The godly will better prosper by their innocent simplicity, than the wicked will by all their craft and subtilty.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. will I cut off] If the poet is the speaker, he speaks in the name of Israel, confident that in God’s strength they will be able to complete the humiliation of their proud foes. Cp. Micah 4:13. But the speaker may be God, answering the vow of praise with a fresh promise. Cp. Psalm 46:10. For the figure cp. Zechariah 1:18 ff.

shall be exalted] Shall be lifted up (R.V.). Cp. 1 Samuel 2:10. ‘The righteous one’ is Israel, righteous by contrast with the wicked Assyrians. Cp. Habakkuk 1:13.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off. Besides declaring God's judgments and singing his praises, the psalmist adds that he will, as far as lies in his power, seek to advance God's cause, and establish his kingdom, by checking, controlling, and putting down the wicked. This he expresses by the metaphor, "I will cut off their horns;" i.e. bring down their haughtiness, and deprive them of the power of doing mischief. But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. Then, as a necessary consequence, "the horns of the righteous" - their power and might and glory - will be exalted.



Psalm 75:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The poet now turns back thankfully and cheerfully from the prophetically presented future to his own actual present. With ואני he contrasts himself as a member of the now still oppressed church with its proud oppressors: he will be a perpetual herald of the ever memorable deed of redemption. לעולם, says he, for, when he gives himself up so entirely to God the Redeemer, for him there is no dying. If he is a member of the ecclesia pressa, then he will also be a member of the ecclesia triumphans; for ει ̓ ὑπομένομεν, καὶ συμβασιλεύσομεν (2 Timothy 2:12). In the certainty of this συμβασιλεύειν, and in the strength of God, which is even now mighty in the weak one, he measures himself in v. 11 by the standard of what he expresses in Psalm 75:8 as God's own work. On the figure compare Deuteronomy 33:17; Lamentations 2:3, and more especially the four horns in the second vision of Zechariah, Zechariah 2:1. Zechariah 1:18.. The plural is both קרנות and קרני, because horns that do not consist of horn are meant. Horns are powers for offence and defence. The spiritual horns maintain the sovereignty over the natural. The Psalm closes as subjectively as it began. The prophetic picture is set in a lyric frame.