(6) I shall not.--The meaning of the verse is clear, but the construction is involved. Literally, I shall not be moved to generation and generation, which not in evil. The LXX. and Vulg. omit the relative altogether. The best rendering is, "I shall never be moved at any time: I who am without ill."
Verse 6. - He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved (comp. Psalm 30:6). The idea of continuance is instinctive in the human mind. "The thing that has been, it is that which shall be" (Ecclesiastes 1:9). We expect the sun to rise each day, solely because in the past it has always risen (see Butler's 'Analogy,' part 1. ch. 1.). The wicked man, who has always prospered, expects to prosper in the future; he has no anticipation of coming change; he supposes that his "house will continue for ever, and his dwelling-place to all generations' (Psalm 49:11); he thinks that "to-morrow will be as to-day, and much more abundant" (Isaiah 56:12). For I shall never be in adversity; rather, unto generation and generation, I am he who will be exempt from calamity. The wicked man has no thought of dying - he will be prosperous, he thinks, age after age.
10:1-11 God's withdrawings are very grievous to his people, especially in times of trouble. We stand afar off from God by our unbelief, and then complain that God stands afar off from us. Passionate words against bad men do more hurt than good; if we speak of their badness, let it be to the Lord in prayer; he can make them better. The sinner proudly glories in his power and success. Wicked people will not seek after God, that is, will not call upon him. They live without prayer, and that is living without God. They have many thoughts, many objects and devices, but think not of the Lord in any of them; they have no submission to his will, nor aim for his glory. The cause of this is pride. Men think it below them to be religious. They could not break all the laws of justice and goodness toward man, if they had not first shaken off all sense of religion.
He hath said in his heart,.... To and within himself, he thought in his own mind; for the thought is the word or speech of the mind, ;
I shall not be moved; from his prosperous and happy condition, abounding: with riches and honours; from his seat of empire, over kings, princes, and the nations of the world; flattering himself that it would never be otherwise with him than it is: even "to generation and generation", I shall not be moved; so the words may be rendered;
for I shall never be in adversity, or "in evil" (d): meaning either the evil of sin; so asserting his innocence, wiping himself clean of all iniquity, claiming to himself the title of "holiness" itself, and the character of infallibility; giving out that he is impeccable, and cannot err; when he is not only almost, but altogether, in all evil; and is , the lawless and wicked one, the man of sin, who is nothing but sin itself. The Targum paraphrases the whole thus; "I shall not be moved from generation to generation from doing evil"; and so it is a boast of impiety, and that none can restrain him from it, no one having a superior power over him; see Psalm 12:4. Or the evil of affliction, or calamity; wherefore we render it "adversity", so Jarchi and Aben Ezra understand it: the note of the former is,
"evil shall not come upon me in my generation,''
or for ever; and the latter compares it with Numbers 11:15; Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it of long life. It is a vaunt of antichrist, promising himself a continuance of his grandeur, ease, peace, and prosperity; in which he will be wretchedly disappointed. The language and sense are much the same with that of the antichristian Babylon, Revelation 18:7.
(d) "in malo", Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Gejerus; so Ainsworth.
I shall not be moved; from his prosperous and happy condition, abounding: with riches and honours; from his seat of empire, over kings, princes, and the nations of the world; flattering himself that it would never be otherwise with him than it is: even "to generation and generation", I shall not be moved; so the words may be rendered;
for I shall never be in adversity, or "in evil" (d): meaning either the evil of sin; so asserting his innocence, wiping himself clean of all iniquity, claiming to himself the title of "holiness" itself, and the character of infallibility; giving out that he is impeccable, and cannot err; when he is not only almost, but altogether, in all evil; and is , the lawless and wicked one, the man of sin, who is nothing but sin itself. The Targum paraphrases the whole thus; "I shall not be moved from generation to generation from doing evil"; and so it is a boast of impiety, and that none can restrain him from it, no one having a superior power over him; see Psalm 12:4. Or the evil of affliction, or calamity; wherefore we render it "adversity", so Jarchi and Aben Ezra understand it: the note of the former is,
"evil shall not come upon me in my generation,''
or for ever; and the latter compares it with Numbers 11:15; Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it of long life. It is a vaunt of antichrist, promising himself a continuance of his grandeur, ease, peace, and prosperity; in which he will be wretchedly disappointed. The language and sense are much the same with that of the antichristian Babylon, Revelation 18:7.
(d) "in malo", Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Gejerus; so Ainsworth.