LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? _How long_ shall they utter _and_ speak hard things? _and_ all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage: They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard _it_. Understand, ye brutish among the people; and, _ye_ fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, _shall not he know?_ The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they _are_ vanity. Blessed _is_ the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance: But judgment shall return unto righteousness; and all the upright in heart shall follow it. Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? _or_ who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Unless the LORD _had been_ my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up. In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. But the LORD is my defence; and my God _is_ the rock of my refuge. And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; _yea_, the LORD our God shall cut them off. This is a general but a most fervent prayer, filled with the feelings of an afflicted and sorrowful heart, grieving that the blood of the Abels should be shed and drank up, with such iniquity and cruelty, by Cainish hypocrites. The Psalmist complains, (as I consider it,) not of hostile nations, but of those domestic hypocrites and enemies, who will have it to appear that they, yea, that they alone, are the people of God; that is, the Psalmist complains of the wicked kings, and princes, and priests, and prophets, among the people of Israel. It is to these the Psalmist turns, in this apostrophe, “Understand, ye brutish among the people; and, ye fools, when will ye be wise?” He calls these characters “fools;” that is, ignorant and impious despisers of God; because they taught and ruled the people without knowledge, and wickedly.