Psalms 73:6
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Therefore pride compasses them about as a chain; violence covers them as a garment.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Therefore pride compasses them about as a chain; violence covers them as a garment.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Therefore pride is as a chain about their neck; Violence covereth them as a garment.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
For this reason pride is round them like a chain; they are clothed with violent behaviour as with a robe.
Webster's Revision
Therefore pride encompasseth them as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
World English Bible
Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Therefore pride is as a chain about their neck; violence covereth them as a garment.
Clarke's Psalms 73:6 Bible Commentary
Pride compasseth them about as a chain - Perhaps there is an allusion here to the office which some of them bore. Chains of gold, and golden rings, were ensigns of magistracy and civil power. As these chains encompassed their necks, or the rings their wrists and fingers, as the signs of the offices in virtue of which they acted; so חמס chamas, violence, oppressive conduct, encompassed them. They made no other use of their great power, than to oppress the poor and the needy; and to drive things to extremities. The Chaldee, instead of a chain, represents this as a crown or diadem, which they had formed out of the plunder of the poor and defenseless.
Barnes's Psalms 73:6 Bible Commentary
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. It is apparent on a haughty neck - in an erect and stiff demeanour. Compare the notes at Isaiah 3:16 : "The daughters of Zion walk with stretched forth necks."
Violence covereth them as a garment - Injustice or cruelty seems to be their very clothing. It is manifest in their whole gait and demeanor that they are men of haughtiness and pride; that they are destitute of tenderness, sympathy, sensibility.