A wise king scattereth the wicked,.... Or "fans [them] away" ; separates them from his good counsellors, courtiers, and subjects; scatters them from his presence and court, and breaks their counsels and confederacies one with another; he discovers, discountenances, and discourages them; See Gill on "Pr 20:8";and bringeth the wheel over them; alluding to the custom of the eastern nations turning a cart wheel over the grain in threshing it out, and agreeably to the metaphor in the preceding clause; see Isa 28:27.
Though some think it refers to a sort of punishment inflicted on malefactors in those times and countries, by putting them under harrows drawn on wheels, as breaking upon the wheel has been since used; see 2Sa 12:31.
The Arabic version understands it of exile. Jarchi interprets the wise king of the Lord, and the wicked of Pharaoh and his host, on whom he brought the wheel, or gave measure for measure, and punished in a way of retaliation; and to this sense it is by some interpreted,"as the wheel turns over, just in the same place, so as the wicked hath done, it shall be done to them.'
'It may be applied to Christ, the wise King, who scatters all his and our enemies; whose fan is in his hand, and he wilt thoroughly purge his floor, Mt 3:12. hrzm "ventilat", Junius & Tremellius, Schultens.
Vid. Schindler. Lexic. col. 109. & Weemse's Christ. Synagog. l. 1. c. 6. s. 8. p.