ζυγοῦ ἱμάντι δαμάλεως] Might be taken to mean, ‘a thong of a heifer's yoke’; but the order of the words suggests that it means ‘a cow-hide chariot-trace,’ ζυγοῦ being, so to speak, the inner, and δαμάλεως the outer genitive. Cf. Hom. Il. ΙΙΙ. 375, ἥ οἱ ῥῆξεν ἱμάντα βοὸς· ἶφι κταμένοιο.

The idea seems to be of men sinning deliberately and laboriously, with complicated ingenuity: not as Ps. ii. 3, cxxix. 4, Prov. v. 22, of the wicked trapping others. or being bond-slaves of their own sin.

δαμάλεις] The word for ‘cart’ and that for ‘heifer’ differ in vowel-points only.

19. Cf. Ps. x. lxxiii. 11.

Τὸ τάχος] Cf. l Kings xxii. 9.