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Its resemblance to Psalms 58, 64 hardly needs to be pointed out. “The close of all three psalms sounds much alike; they agree in the use of rare forms of expression, and their language becomes fearfully obscure in style and sound. when they are directed against the enemies.” Besides the conjecture of Davidic authorship by the Rabbins, further developed by the addition in the Syriac, <span class= "ital">“</span>when Saul threw the spear,” Manasseh’s reign, the immediate post-exile times, and the Maccabæan age, have all been selected for the situations out of which the psalm sprang. It is most in harmony with its feeling to suppose Israel speaking as a community, or an individual who identifies his own fortunes entirely with that of the better part of the nation. Heathen oppressors and foreign influences are undoubtedly attacked in the poem, and the blessings attending a loyal adherence to the religious and national traditions supply the cheerful and confident tone in which it ends. The rhythm is fine and varied.<p><span class= "ital">Title.—See </span>Psalms 4.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-1.htm">Psalm 140:1</a></div><div class="verse">To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;</div>(1) <span class= "bld">Evil man.—</span>The singular of the object in this verse must not lead us to think the psalm is an expression of personal feeling against one enemy, for it is immediately changed to the plural.<p><span class= "bld">Violent man.—</span>See Margin.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-2.htm">Psalm 140:2</a></div><div class="verse">Which imagine mischiefs in <i>their</i> heart; continually are they gathered together <i>for</i> war.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Imagine </span>. . .—Or, <span class= "ital">contrive, plot.</span><p><span class= "bld">Gathered together.—</span>This translation follows the analogy of <a href="/psalms/56-6.htm" title="They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.">Psalm 56:6</a>. Others render, “dwell with wars.” But it is preferable to derive from a root meaning <span class= "ital">to incite: </span>“They are continually stirring up wars.” It is the situation described in <a href="/psalms/120-7.htm" title="I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.">Psalm 120:7</a> and frequently; Israel would be at peace, but within and without are those ever trying to involve her in troubles.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-3.htm">Psalm 140:3</a></div><div class="verse">They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison <i>is</i> under their lips. Selah.</div>(3) Comp. <a href="/psalms/64-3.htm" title="Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:">Psalm 64:3</a>; <a href="/psalms/58-4.htm" title="Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stops her ear;">Psalm 58:4</a>; <a href="/psalms/52-2.htm" title="The tongue devises mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.">Psalm 52:2</a>; <a href="/psalms/10-7.htm" title="His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.">Psalm 10:7</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Adders.—</span>The Hebrew word is peculiar to this place, and is explained by Gesenius to be a compound of two words, to represent “that which rolls itself up and lies in ambush.” “Besides the cobra and the cerastes, several other species of venomous snakes are common in Syria, and we may apply the name, either generically or specifically, to the vipers. Two species, <span class= "ital">Vipera ammodytes </span>and <span class= "ital">Vipera euphratica, we </span>found to be very common. The former of these was known to Linnæus as inhabiting Palestine. They are plainlycoloured serpents, with broad flat heads and suddenly-contracting tails” (Tristram, <span class= "ital">Nat. Hist. of the Bible, </span>p. 275). The LXX. and Vulg. read “asp.” (Comp. <a href="/romans/3-13.htm" title="Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:">Romans 3:13</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-4.htm">Psalm 140:4</a></div><div class="verse">Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Overthrow my goings.—</span>Literally, <span class= "ital">thrust aside my steps. </span>The verse is a repetition, with variation, of <a href="/psalms/140-1.htm" title="Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;">Psalm 140:1</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-5.htm">Psalm 140:5</a></div><div class="verse">The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Net.—</span>An elaboration of the favourite image of the net. (<a href="/psalms/9-15.htm" title="The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.">Psalm 9:15</a>.) The frequent occurrence of this figure well indicates the dangers to which Israel was subjected through the leaning of many of the nation itself to foreign influences.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-7.htm">Psalm 140:7</a></div><div class="verse">O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">In the day of battle.—</span>Literally, <span class= "ital">in the day of arms, i.e., </span>when he was arming for fight. God covered the warrior’s head, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>provided the “helmet of salvation” (<a href="/isaiah/59-17.htm" title="For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.">Isaiah 59:17</a>). (Comp. also <a href="/psalms/60-9.htm" title="Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?">Psalm 60:9</a> : “Strength of my head.”) Others, however, follow the LXX. and Authorised Version in understanding by “day of arms” the <span class= "ital">day of battle.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-8.htm">Psalm 140:8</a></div><div class="verse">Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked: further not his wicked device; <i>lest</i> they exalt themselves. Selah.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Desires.—</span>The form of the Hebrew word is anomalous, but the meaning certain. The LXX. and Vulg. give the first clause thus: “Give me not over to the enemy, by reason of their own desire;” which may possibly have been in St. Paul’s mind in <a href="/romans/1-24.htm" title="Why God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:">Romans 1:24</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Further not.—</span>The text of this clause has undoubtedly suffered. The Authorised Version follows the LXX. and Vulg. in inserting a negative before the last word. These versions also take the word rendered “wicked devices” as a verb, not finding a noun of the form anywhere else: “They have plotted against me: desert me not, lest they exalt themselves.” So also Symmachus, and another Greek version quoted by Origen.<p>As the text at present stands, we must render: <span class= "ital">his plot do not further</span>—<span class= "ital">they lift up. </span>Looking on to the next verse, “the head of those surrounding me,” the suggestion at once arises that the verb <span class= "ital">lift up </span>properly belongs to this clause:<p>“His plot do not further.<p>They lift the head, these surrounding me.”<p>This arrangement disregards the “selah.” and also obliges us to suspect that a clause has dropped cut after the first clause of <a href="/psalms/140-9.htm" title="As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.">Psalm 140:9</a>—a suspicion confirmed by the rhythm.<span class= "note">[20]<p>[20] Mr. Burgess amends to “Further not his plot to his exaltation.”</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-9.htm">Psalm 140:9</a></div><div class="verse"><i>As for</i> the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.</div><span class= "note">(</span>9<span class= "note">)</span> <span class= "bld">Head.—</span>Ewald, who keeps to the text, takes <span class= "ital">rôsh </span>in the sense of poison (see <a href="/psalms/69-22.htm" title="Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.">Psalm 69:22</a>, Note):—<p>“The poison of those encircling me,<p>Let them be covered with the perdition of their lips.<p>This brings <a href="/context/psalms/140-8.htm" title="Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked: further not his wicked device; lest they exalt themselves. Selah.">Psalm 140:8-9</a> into harmony with <a href="/psalms/140-4.htm" title="Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.">Psalm 140:4</a>. But the emendation given above is better.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-10.htm">Psalm 140:10</a></div><div class="verse">Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again.</div>(10) In this verse too there is a grammatical difficulty, which the margin, “Let there fall on them,” instead of “Let them bring upon them,” does not remove, since the subject of the next verb is third person <span class= "ital">singular. </span>The first verb is usually taken impersonally, as by the LXX., which version is actually to be followed in rendering <span class= "ital">coals of fire </span>(literally, <span class= "ital">coals accompanied with fire, </span>or, <span class= "ital">coals as fire</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>and we get the somewhat awkward, but intelligible—<p>“Let them bring upon them coals of fire;<p>Let him cast them into pits that they rise not again.’<p>But a very slight change gives a plain grammatical sentence with the subject carried on from the last verse:<p>“Let it (mischief) bring even upon themselves coals of fire;<p>Let it cast them into pits, so that they rise no more.”<p>(Burgess.)<p>The word “pits” is peculiar to the passage. Gesenius, deriving from a root meaning “to boil up,” renders, “whirlpools,” which, as in <a href="/psalms/66-12.htm" title="You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but you brought us out into a wealthy place.">Psalm 66:12</a>, combines “water” with “fire,” as joint emblems of <span class= "ital">perils </span>that cannot be escaped. But Symmachus, Theodotion, and Jerome render “ditches,” which is supported by a Rabbinical quotation, given by Delitzsch: “first of all they burned them in pits; when the flesh was consumed they collected the bones, and burned them in coffins.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-11.htm">Psalm 140:11</a></div><div class="verse">Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow <i>him</i>.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">An evil speaker.</span>—Literally, as in LXX. and Vulg., <span class= "ital">a man of tongue; </span>(Comp. <a href="//apocrypha.org/ecclesiasticus/8-3.htm" title="Strive not with a man that is full of tongue, and heap not wood upon his fire.">Ecclesiasticus 8:3</a>; <a href="/job/11-2.htm" title="Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?">Job 11:2</a>.) margin,” man of lips.” It is hardly possible to resist the suggestion that some particular person, noted for the loudness or violence of his speech, was intended.<p>Evil shall hunt . . .—Comp. <a href="/proverbs/13-21.htm" title="Evil pursues sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repaid.">Proverbs 13:21</a> and Horace, <span class= "ital">Odes </span>iii. 2, Conington’s translation:<p>“Though vengeance halt, she seldom leaves<p>The wretch whose flying step she hounds.’<p><span class= "bld">To overthrow.</span>—The Hebrew is a noun, formed from a root meaning “to thrust,” and literally means either <span class= "ital">to destruction </span>or <span class= "ital">with hasty pursuit. </span>Some render “with successive thrusts;” but this is hardly a hunting figure.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-12.htm">Psalm 140:12</a></div><div class="verse">I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, <i>and</i> the right of the poor.</div>(12) Comp. <a href="/psalms/9-4.htm" title="For you have maintained my right and my cause; you sat in the throne judging right.">Psalm 9:4</a>; <a href="/psalms/9-16.htm" title="The LORD is known by the judgment which he executes: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.">Psalm 9:16</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/140-13.htm">Psalm 140:13</a></div><div class="verse">Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">Surely.</span>—Or, perhaps here, <span class= "ital">only, </span>the primary meaning of the particle.<p><span class= "bld">Dwell.</span>—For the thought comp. <a href="/psalms/11-7.htm" title="For the righteous LORD loves righteousness; his countenance does behold the upright.">Psalm 11:7</a>; <a href="/psalms/16-11.htm" title="You will show me the path of life: in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for ever more.">Psalm 16:11</a>. After the peril and seeming abandonment God again proves the covenant promise true, and those whom the heathen would have chased from the land find in it a sure dwelling-place in the light of the presence and favour of Jehovah.<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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