(3) Then.--Critics are at issue both as to the form and meaning of the word--whether it is an archaism or an aramaism, expressing time or logical sequence.

Swallowed . . . quick (alive).--No doubt an allusion to the fall of Korah (Numbers 16:32-33), where the same verb and adjective occur together. (See also Psalm 55:15.)

Verse 3. - Then they had swallowed us up quick; or, "alive." A common expression for sudden and complete destruction (comp. Psalm 56:2; Psalm 57:3; Proverbs 1:12; Lamentations 2:2, 5, 8, etc.). When their wrath was kindled against us; or, "blazed out against us." The comparison of anger to fire is an almost universal commonplace.

124:1-5 God suffers the enemies of his people sometimes to prevail very far against them, that his power may be seen the more in their deliverance. Happy the people whose God is Jehovah, a God all-sufficient. Besides applying this to any particular deliverance wrought in our days and the ancient times, we should have in our thoughts the great work of redemption by Jesus Christ, by which believers were rescued from Satan.Then they had swallowed us up quick,.... Or "alive"; as the earth swallowed up Korah and his company; or as the fish swallowed up Jonah; or rather as ravenous beasts swallow their prey; to which the allusion is. The people of God are comparable to sheep and lambs, and such like innocent creatures: and the wicked to lions, tigers, wolves, bears, and such like beasts of prey that devour living creatures;

when their wrath was kindled against us; which is cruel and outrageous; there is no standing against it, nor before it; it is like a fierce flame of fire that burns furiously, and there is no stopping it; none but God can restrain it.