Psalms 110:6

He shall judge among the Heathen,.... Either rule among the Gentiles, making them through his Gospel obedient by word and deed, and so reigning in their hearts by his Spirit and grace; and, by making

He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall judge among the heathen. "He" - namely, Messiah.

Shall judge; either, 1. Conquer and govern them; or rather, 2. Condemn and punish them, as it is explained in the following clauses, and as this word is used, ,2 , and elsewhere. The places; or, the place of battle, which is necessarily supposed in the fight, and therefore may very well be understood. Dead bodies of his enemies, slain by his hand, and lying in the field in great numbers and heaps, and that unburied, to their greater infamy. Shall wound the heads, Heb. the head; which may be understood, either, 1. Of some one person and eminent adversary of Christ, and of his kingdom; either the devil, by comparing this with , who was indeed the head or ruler of many countries, and indeed of all nations, except that of Israel; or the Roman empire, which was the great enemy and obstructer of Christ’ s kingdom, and therefore was to be destroyed by him, as is declared, ,45 7:7, &c.; or the great antichrist, or the beast after which the whole world wondered, , which Christ will destroy, as we read, , and in divers places of St. John’ s Revelation. Or, 2. Of all those heads or princes which opposed him; the singular number head being here put collectively for heads, as is very usual in the Hebrew tongue and text; and so the meaning is, that none of Christ’ s enemies, though never so many or great, and their empire be never so large and potent, shall be able to withstand his force, or escape out of his hand; and that he shall not only destroy the common soldiers, but also their greatest commanders and princes, who in such cases do frequently make their escape. But this and the other like passages, both here and in the prophets, are not to be understood grossly and carnally, but spiritually, according to the nature of Christ’ s kingdom, the weapons of Christ’ s warfare, by which he accomplished his great works, being spiritual; and therefore such must be his battles and judgments, as is evident from many other scriptures, although these also are followed many times with temporal plagues.

Psalms 110:6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill [the places] with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.Ver. 6. He shall judge among the heathen] Do execution upon his enemies, as Psalms 110:1, whether kings or commoners. He shall fill the places] The ditches of their own camps. He shall wound the heads] Heb. head; cruentabit caput, whereby some understand the Roman empire, with its image, antichrist with his adherents, who are called heathens, Revelation 11:2. Others, Turks and Saracens, reading the next words, Over the land of Rabbah, the chief city of the Ammonites, who were likewise Arabians; and so they make it an allusion to David’ s victories over the Ammonites, 2 Samuel 10:6-19; 2 Samuel 12:26-31

(6) He shall judge.—Comp. Psalms 9:8, &c. He shall fill.—The construction is peculiar, and in the Hebrew for heathen and corpses there is a play on words. A slight change in the vowel pointing gives a better construction than is obtained by understanding any word as the Authorised Version does, and critics generally: He judges among the heathen fulness of corpses. At first the poet meant to write, “He judges among the heathen fulness of judgment” (comp. Job 36:17), but, for the sake of the play on the sound, changed his words to “fulness of corpses.” He shall wound the heads.—Literally, crushes a head over a vast land, where “head” means, as in Judges 7:16; Judges 7:20, a band or host of men. The picture is of a vast battle-field with heaps of slain. Others understand, “the chief or master of a wide land.” (Comp. Habakkuk 3:14, “head of his villages.”)

Verse 6. He shall judge among the heathen] David shall greatly extend his dominion, and rule over the Idumeans, Moabites, Philistines, c. He shall fill-with the dead bodies] He shall fill pits - make heaps of slain there shall be an immense slaughter among his enemies. He shall wound the heads] He shall so bring down the power of all the neighbouring kings, as to cause them to acknowledge him as their lord, and pay him tribute.

6. He shall judge among the nations] The subject of the sentence must be Jehovah. Cp. Psalms 7:8; Psalms 9:8; Psalms 76:9. The nations are the enemies of Psa 110:2. On them He will execute judgement, vindicating the cause of His king and people. he shall fill (the battle-field) with corpses] This is on the whole the best rendering of an obscurely brief phrase. The tense is, as before, a prophetic perfect. he shall shatter the heads over many countries] i.e. their rulers. But the usage of the phrase in Psalms 68:21, Habakkuk 3:13, points rather to the rendering, he shall shatter the head (of his enemies) over (all) the wide earth. The earth is the battle-field whereon He deals deadly blows upon all His enemies. Delitzsch and others think that the last words may also be rendered the land of Rabbah, and may contain at least an allusive reference to David’s conquest of the Ammonite capital (2 Samuel 12:26 ff.).

He shall judge among the heathen - Among the “nations.” That is, he shall set up a kingdom, or shall rule over the nations of the earth.

6. He shall judge—See on Psalms 110:5. Fill the places with the dead bodies—This may be considered as a simple carrying out of the figure, to give it symmetry and completeness, not to be applied literally.