Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Therefore he knoweth their works - Or, "Because he knoweth their works." The word ( lākên ) here rendered "therefore" is evidently used as denoting that since or because he was intimately acquainted with all which they did, he could justly bring vengeance upon them without long investigation.
And he overturneth them in the night - literally, "he turneth night;" meaning, probably, he turns night upon them; that is, he brings calamity upon them. The word "night" is often used to denote calamity, or ruin. Umbreit understands it in the sense of "turning about the night;" that is, that they had covered up their deeds as in the night, but that God "so turns the night about" as to bring them to the light of day. The Vulgate renders it "et ideireo inducit noctem," "and therefore he brings night;" that is, he brings adversity and ruin. This is probably the correct interpretation.
So that they are destroyed - Margin, "crushed." The idea is, that when God thus brings adversity upon them, they are prostrated beneath his power.
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