Psalms 73:6

"Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment."

Key Reflection

Pride for the original audience of Psalm 73 was not just an abstract concept but a tangible reality, represented as a visible and restrictive chain around the neck—symbolizing how pride binds and limits individuals. Similarly, violence is depicted as covering them like a garment, suggesting that acts of oppression and cruelty were pervasive in their daily lives, much like clothing that one cannot remove easily.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain -Therefore they are proud, haughty, imperious. They put on the ornaments and trappings of pride; their clothing and their adorning all are indicative of a proud heart. They seem to imagine that they are better than others, and that they are treated in this manner “because” they are better than others. In the original it is a single word which is rendered “compasseth about as a chain.” The word means “to adorn with a necklace or collar;” and the idea is, that pride surrounds them as with a neck-chain, or a collar for the neck. They wear it as an ornament. They make it conspicuous.

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