Psalms 58:9

9. Thorns The atad, or southern buckthorn, (the Rhamnus paliurus of Linnaeus,) noted, like the retem or broom shrub of the desert for its crackling flame and hot fire, and much used as fuel. See Ecclesiastes 7:6. Called also “Christ’s thorn,” from a tradition that it was the same that furnished the mock crown for our Saviour. The figure of the text supposes a robber-feast over recent success, where all are abandoned to wild, delirious merriment, such as is narrated in 1 Samuel 30:16. In the preparations for the feast the catastrophe comes. The sense is given by Perowne: “As a sudden whirlwind in the desert sweeps away the thorns which have been gathered for cooking before the caldron has grown hot, so shall the wicked and all their incomplete designs be swept away by the wrath of God.” On the whirlwind of the desert, see note on Psalms 83:13.

Living This is the usual signification of חי , ( hhah’y,) but as applied to meat, it may signify raw meat in opposition to that which is cooked, as in 1 Samuel 2:15, which develops the point of the metaphor, namely, that though the fire was built in a calm atmosphere, the whirlwind should be so sudden as to sweep away the meat while yet raw in the pot, together with the fire of thorns and the entire “cooking apparatus.”