But [the sons] of Belial [are] all of them as thorns thrust away, Because they cannot be taken with hands;
David's last words picture a just ruler, bright as morning light after rain. Then comes the opposite: worthless men, called "sons of Belial" in older translations, whom no bare hand can touch.
The word itself is not a personal name but a description of character.
The Hebrew word means "worthless, lawless." It is not a proper name. It stands for evil itself, so we read of a "son of Belial" and a "daughter of Belial" in Deuteronomy 13:13; Judges 19:22; 1 Samuel 1:16; 1 Samuel 25:17, 25, and elsewhere. In the New Testament it stands in contrast to Christ, as if it meant Satan, in 2 Corinthians 6:15.
Thorns carry a history that reaches back to the beginning of the Bible.
These thorns and briers picture those whom David calls "sons of Belial," thrust away because no hand can take hold of them. Remember that thorns were the sign of the curse at the beginning. They are, in fact, as botanists tell us, failed leaves — parts of a plant that cannot do what they were first meant to do. So this symbol ties sinners to the curse upon sin. And we may fairly see the thorn bush itself as a picture of sinful flesh.
No one gathers a thorn bush barehanded. One writer takes that detail as a limit on what words can do, and links the fire that follows to a scene Jesus described.
The sons of Belial are the children of the wicked one. They are all of them thorns thrust away, because no hand can take hold of them. That is, the teaching and pleading of man cannot draw them to what is right. Whoever touches them must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear, and fire will burn them up completely in the same place — the very place where they are, like the burning of the weeds.
Iron and a spear shaft are tools of force, not of invitation. One writer sees in them the change that comes when Christ returns.
The Lord Jesus could not take up this great work of judgment when He came in grace. As He said, "I did not come to judge the world but to save the world" (John 12:47). But He will deal with all the evil when He returns. Judgment is God's strange work, yet it is necessary. God will not let evil men go on for ever filling the earth with corruption and violence. The hands of grace, held out to sinners when the Lord was here and through the many centuries since, cannot take hold of such men. They must be seized with an iron hand of government, and with the spear of divine judgment.
David is not describing something already done in his reign.
He sees clearly the judgment of the wicked... This will never be until Jesus executes the judgment.
Writers caution against loading the thorn image with more than it carries. The burning here is set on earth, and the figure is not a full account of the wicked's final end.
So the men of Belial are as thorns. Whoever would touch them must carry iron and the shaft of a spear, and fire will burn them up completely in that place. This does refer to a judgment on earth. It is a figure drawn from thorns, and it does not unfold the final results of God's judgment concerning them.
David sets two outcomes side by side: what God grows, and what men produce.
In this David saw all his salvation and his every desire. He asks, "Will He not indeed make it grow?" (NASB). For what is of God will grow, while men's works will come to nothing, as verses 6 and 7 show. The sons of Belial ("worthlessness") are like unwelcome thorns, thrown away because human hands cannot handle them.
- Worthless — "Belial" is not a name but a verdict: worthless, lawless, and in the New Testament the opposite of Christ Himself.
- Cursed — thorns marked the curse from the start. They are growth that failed its purpose, a picture of sinful flesh.
- Untouchable — teaching and pleading cannot draw such men to what is right.
- Armed — what the open hand cannot take, the iron hand of government and the spear of judgment will, when Christ returns.
- Growing — what God plants will grow; what men are comes to nothing, and the thorns burn where they stand.
And the man that will touch them provideth himself with iron and the staff of a spear; And they shall be utterly burned with fire in [their] place.
David's last song moves from a righteous ruler and a cloudless morning to a very different picture: men like thorns that no hand can gather. His closing line asks why some evil can end only in judgment, and who carries that judgment out.
The ESV calls these men "worthless men." Older translations say "sons of Belial." One writer explains the name, and shows why touching them calls for both defence and attack:
The sons of Belial ("worthlessness") are like unwelcome thorns, discarded because they cannot be handled with human hands. Anyone who deals with such men needs heavy defensive armour, and a spear as well to attack. But God's kingdom will not put up with such harmful influences: fire will burn them up.
No hand can take hold of these men. The reason is that words cannot move them:
The sons of Belial are the children of the wicked one. They cannot be taken with hands — that is, they cannot be drawn by the teaching and pleading of man to come to what is right.
Another writer compares them to the weeds in Jesus' parable, which stay in the field until harvest:
The soft hand of grace cannot touch them... Weeds have sprung up among the wheat (Matt. 13). Grace cannot take the weeds out of the field; grace cannot turn weeds into wheat! They must be "let alone until the harvest." Then they are to be "gathered together in bundles to be burned."
Who is the one who arms himself and touches them? David is describing something still future, not his own reign:
The kingdom is before him [David] here. He sees clearly the judgment of the wicked. This will never be till Jesus executes the judgment.
Older translations end the verse with "in the same place" — the thorns burn where they lie. One writer marks the limits of the picture, and what it leaves behind:
The men of Belial are like thorns. The man who would touch them must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear, and they will be utterly burned with fire in that same place. This surely refers to a judgment on the earth. It is a picture drawn from thorns, and it does not show the final results of God's judgment on them... When these wicked ones are cut off out of the earth, they will leave no successors or shoots after them of the same kind.
Why call such a judgment good news? Because human history keeps ending in ruin, and one writer sees only one ground left for hope:
After all God's deliverances and triumphs, the power of sin and the cunning and might of Satan have seemed to revive again. They turn the fairest work into the saddest ruin. Every successive age has ended in worse failure than the one before... It is only the covenant, the eternal covenant, that encourages us still. God must step in; judgment, long delayed, must come... Faith and love therefore agree with the judgment which alone can free the earth from its long chain. "If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness." And: "When your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness."
None of this hands the believer a weapon. The judgment belongs to God's government of the earth, and our place is different:
David says the same of these men: they cannot be taken with the hand. A man must be armed with iron to touch them... This is the meaning of these terrible judgments: they establish the government and righteous judgment of God in the earth. Grace has taken us out of the world; we are not of it, as Christ was not of it. Christ will come and take us out of the evil — that is our deliverance, even from suffering. So we have no need at all to seek the destruction of our enemies.
- Worthless. Behind "worthless men" is the name Belial, which means worthlessness. These men are thorns thrown away, because no hand can hold them.
- Untouchable. No hand gathers them, because teaching and pleading cannot draw them. The soft hand of grace cannot touch them.
- Armed. Only a man armed with iron and a spear can deal with them. That touch waits for Jesus to execute the judgment.
- Burned. Fire consumes them where they stand, like weeds tied in bundles. Commentators note that this pictures a judgment on the earth, not the full end.
- Freed. That judgment frees the earth and sets up God's righteous government. But the iron is His weapon, not ours: grace has taken us out of the world.