death (natural or violent) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
strength
אוּלָֽם'u.Lam
H193
the body (as being rolled together) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
firm
וּבָרִ֥יאu.va.Ri'
H1277
fatted or plump · conjunction + adjective, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 21:23-24 One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
Ecclesiastes 2:16 For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten.…
Luke 16:22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
Psalms 17:14 From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid…
Ecclesiastes 7:15 All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that pro…
Job 24:20 The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.
Psalms 17:10 They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 73:1-14
This psalm begins somewhat abruptly: Yet God is good to Israel (so the margin reads it); he had been thinking of the prosperity of the wicked; while he was thus musing the fire burned, and at last he spoke by way of check to himself for what he had been thinking of. "However it be, yet God is good." Though wicked people receive many of the gifts of his providential bounty, yet we must own that he is, in a peculiar manner, good to Israel; they have favours from him which others have not.
The psalmist designs an account of a temptation he was strongly assaulted with - to envy the prosperity of the wicked, a common temptation, which has tried the graces of many of the saints. Now in this accoun…
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", Luke 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 i…
Psalm 73:4-9
4. For there are no bands to their death, and their strength is vigorous. [158] 5. They are not in the trouble that is common to man; neither are they scourged [or stricken] with other men. 6. Therefore pride compasseth them as a chain; the raiment of violence hath covered them. 7. Their eye goeth out for fatness; they have passed beyond [or exceeded] the thoughts of their heart. 8. They become insolent, and wickedly talk of extortion: [159] they speak from on high. 9. They have set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. [160]
4 For there are no bands to their death. The Psalmist describes the comforts and advantages of the ungodly, which…
The Church Fathers
But why sinners have this, he says briefly: "Because there is no avoidance of their death, and there is a firmament in their scourge" [Psalm 73:4]. Now I have perceived, he says, why they have peace, and flourish on the earth; because of their death there is no avoidance, because death sure and eternal does await them, which neither does avoid them, nor can they avoid it, "because there is no avoidance of their death, and there is a firmament in their scourge." And there is a firmament in their scourge. For their scourge is not temporal, but firm for everlasting. Because of these evil things then which are to be to them eternal, now what?
We have seen that rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen. In this world, he reclined at table and feasted elegantly every day, while the poor man Lazarus would gather what fell from his table. When he was in torments in hell, he could not lean back and rest; but with great difficulty he lifted up only his eyes to Abraham, not his whole body, and asked him to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and to cool his tongue. Therefore "there was no rest to his death nor strength in his affliction." For scourges have no value after death. And so, while David was in this bodily life, he made himself ready for scourges, so that the Lord might receive him as one that had been chastised. Think again, I ask you, on holy Job. He was covered all over with sores, afflicted in all his limbs and filled with pain over his entire body. He dissolved clods of earth with the corrupt matter and the liquid from his wounds, and since he could not rest in this body, he found death a repose. And so, thinking of his own case, he said, "Death is a repose for a person." He, therefore, was not moved in his affliction, nor did he totter in the morass of his own speech, for "in all those things, he did not sin with his lips," even as Scripture testifies. Rather, he found strength in his affliction, through which he was strengthened in Christ. And thus both Job and David, because they were scourged here, had strength in their afflictions, because "the father scourges the son whom he receives." But those who are not scourged here are not received as sons there. And there "they are not in the toils of people and they shall not be scourged with people," so that they may be scourged forever with the devil.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Bands — (1) of love (Hos. 11:4); (2) of Christ (Ps. 2:3); (3) uniting together Christ’s body the church (Col. 2:19; 3:14; Eph. 4:3); (4) the emblem of the captivity of Israel (Ezek. 34:27; Isa. 28:22; 52:2);…
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Blindness · 21:14;22:13,14; — 21:14;22:13,14;
Happiness Of The Wicked, The · Is derived from: Their worldly prosperity — Is derived from: Their worldly prosperity
Integrity · 16:19,20; — 16:19,20;
Punishment Of The Wicked, The · In this life by: Put in slippery places — In this life by: Put in slippery places
Rich, The · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Worldliness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Now follows the occasion of the conflict of temptation: the good fortune of those who are estranged from God. In accordance with the gloominess of the theme, the style is also gloomy, and piles up the full-toned suffixes amo and emo (vid., Psa 78:66; Psa 80:7; Psa 83:12, Psa 83:14); both are after the example set by David. קנּא with Beth of the object ion which the zeal or warmth of feeling is kindled (Psa 37:1; Pro 3:31) here refers to the warmth of envious ill-feeling. Concerning הולל vid., Psa 5:6. Psa 73:3 tells under what circumsntaces the envy was excited; cf. so far as the syntax is concerned, Psa 49:6; Psa 76:11. In Psa 73:4 חרצצבּות (from חרצב = חצּב from חצב, cognate עצב, whence עצ…
The psalmist presents a caricature of the bliss of the wicked (cp. Ps 1).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 73:4
For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
For there are no bands in their death. This is mentioned as the chief wonder, for we usually expect that in the solemn article of death, a difference will appear, and the wicked will become evidently in trouble. The notion is still prevalent that a quiet death means a happy hereafter. The psalmist had observed that the very reverse is true. Careless persons become case hardened, and continue presumptuously secure, even to the last. Some are startled at the approach of judgment, but many more have received a strong delusion to believe a lie. What with the surgeon's drugs and their own infidelity, or false peace, they glide in…
