Psalms 58:8

“As a snail [which] melteth, let [everyone of them] pass away, etc.] As a snail when it comes out of its shell liquefies, drops its moisture, and with it makes a “path”, from whence it has its name lwlbç, in the Hebrew language; and so the Targum here, “as the snail moistens its way;” which moistness it gradually exhausts, and melts away, and dies: so the psalmist prays that everyone of his enemies might die in like manner. Some think reference is had to the snail’s putting out its horns to no purpose when in danger, and apply it to the vain threatenings of the wicked; a strange difference this, between a roaring young lion, (<195806>Psalm 58:6), and a melting snail. The Septuagint, Vulgate…”

“Other figures of this utter ruin; the last denoting rapidity. In a shorter time than pots feel the heat of thorns on fire--”

“As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away - Or rather, As the snail which melteth as it goes; that is, which leaves a slimy trail as it moves along, and thus melts away the more as it advances, until at length it dies. Gesenius, Lexicon. The allusion is to what seems to occur to the snail; it seems to melt or to be dissolved as it moves along; or seems to leave a part of itself in the slime which flows from it. Like the untimely birth of a woman - The Hebrew word means literally “that which falls from a woman;” and hence, the word is used to denote an abortion. The prayer is, that they might utterly pass away; that they might become like those who never had real life; that…”

“Melteth - Which is quickly dissolved. Psalms 58:9”

“58:8 When moving over dry ground, snails dry up.”

“a snail: Shabbelool, in Chaldee tivlala, the snail, is probably so called from the Arabic balla, to wet, moisten, because of the glutinous slime emitted from its body, by which it appears to waste itself away in its own motion; and in the same manner the wicked prove their own destruction. pass: Psa 37:35, Psa 37:36; Mat 24:35; Jam 1:10 untimely: Job 3:16; Ecc 6:3 Psalms 58:9”