Therefore pride compasseth them as a chain. This complaint proceeds farther than the preceding; for we are here told that although God sees the ungodly shamefully and wickedly abusing his kindness and clemency, he notwithstanding bears with their ingratitude and rebellion. The Psalmist employs a similitude taken from the dress and attire of the body, to show that such persons glory in their evil deeds. The verb nq, anak, which we have rendered, encompasseth them as a chain, comes from a noun which signifies a chain. The language, therefore, implies that the ungodly glory in their audacity and madness, as if they were richly adorned with a chain of gold: [1] and that violence serves them for raiment, thinking, as they do, that it renders them very stately and honorable. Some translate the Hebrew word syt, shith, which we have rendered raiment, by buttocks; but this is a sense which the scope of the passage will by no means admit. David, I have no doubt, after having commenced at the neck or head -- for the Hebrew verb nq, anak which he uses, signifies also sometimes to crown [2] -- now meant to comprehend, in one word, the whole attire of the person. The amount of what is stated is, that the wicked are so blinded with their prosperity, as to become more and more proud and insolent [3] The Psalmist has very properly put pride first in order, and then added violence to it as its companion; for what is the reason why the ungodly seize and plunder whatever they can get on all sides, and exercise so much cruelty, but because they account all other men as nothing in comparison of themselves; or rather persuade themselves that mankind are born only for them? The source, then, and, as it were, the mother of all violence, is pride.

Footnotes

1 - There is here a metaphorical allusion to the rich collars or chains worn about the necks of great personages for ornament. Compare Proverbs 1:9, and Cant. 4, 9. Pride compassed these prosperous wicked men about as a chain; they wore it for an ornament as gold chains or collars were worn about the neck; discovering it by their stately carriage. See Isaiah 3:16. Or there may be an allusion to the office which some of them bore; for chains of gold were among the ensigns of magistracy and civil power.

2 - Accordingly, the Chaldee, instead of "compasseth them as a chain." has "crowneth them as a crown or diadem does the head."

3 - "Violence covereth them as a garment. Wicked men that are prosperous and proud, are generally oppressive to others; and are very often open in their acts of violence, which are as openly done, and to be seen of all men, as the clothes they wear upon their backs; and frequently the clothes they wear are got by rapine and oppression, so that they may properly be called garments of violence. See Isaiah 59:6." -- Dr Gill.

Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain - Therefore they are proud, haughty, imperious. They put on the ornaments and trappings of pride; their clothing and their adorning all are indicative of a proud heart. They seem to imagine that they are better than others, and that they are treated in this manner "because" they are better than others. In the original it is a single word which is rendered "compasseth about as a chain." The word means "to adorn with a necklace or collar;" and the idea is, that pride surrounds them as with a neck-chain, or a collar for the neck. They wear it as an ornament. They make it conspicuous. It is apparent on a haughty neck - in an erect and stiff demeanour. Compare the notes at Isaiah 3:16 : "The daughters of Zion walk with stretched forth necks."
Violence covereth them as a garment - Injustice or cruelty seems to be their very clothing. It is manifest in their whole gait and demeanor that they are men of haughtiness and pride; that they are destitute of tenderness, sympathy, sensibility.

Pride compasseth them about as a chain - Perhaps there is an allusion here to the office which some of them bore. Chains of gold, and golden rings, were ensigns of magistracy and civil power. As these chains encompassed their necks, or the rings their wrists and fingers, as the signs of the offices in virtue of which they acted; so חמס chamas, violence, oppressive conduct, encompassed them. They made no other use of their great power, than to oppress the poor and the needy; and to drive things to extremities. The Chaldee, instead of a chain, represents this as a crown or diadem, which they had formed out of the plunder of the poor and defenseless.

(c) Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them [as] a garment.
(c) They glory in their pride as some do in their chains, and in cruelty, as some do in apparel.

Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain, Which was the sin of the devils, and of our first parents, and of Sodom, and is the sin of antichrist; and which, of all sins, is most hateful to God; this arises from, at least is increased by, outward prosperity. Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked; pride and fulness of bread went together in Sodom; and, where it is predominant, it binds as a chain; such who are under the power of it are slaves unto it, they are chained and fettered by it, and it possesses them wholly; it shows itself in the several members of their bodies, in their eyes and feet, their walk and gait, and in their conduct and behaviour, and in the several actions of their lives, and is rightly called "the pride of life"; or rather they bind it about themselves as a chain, fancying it to be an ornament to them, what sets them off, and makes them look great in the eyes of others; whereas the reverse is what is of great price, and in high esteem with God and good men; namely, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit:
violence covereth them as a garment; wicked men that are prosperous and proud are generally oppressive to others; and are very often open in their acts of violence, which are as openly done and to be seen of all men, as the clothes upon their backs; and frequently the clothes they wear are got by rapine and oppression, so that they may properly be called garments of violence; see Isaiah 59:6.