Psalm 140:9

As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) Head.—Ewald, who keeps to the text, takes rôsh in the sense of poison (see Psalm 69:22, Note):—

“The poison of those encircling me,

Let them be covered with the perdition of their lips.

This brings Psalm 140:8-9 into harmony with Psalm 140:4. But the emendation given above is better.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 140:9-11. As for the head of those, &c. — Bishop Hare connects this clause with the preceding, and translates the passage thus; Let not those that beset me lift up the head. Let the mischief of their own lips cover them — Let the evil, which by their calumnies they design to bring upon me fall upon themselves. Let burning coals fall, &c. — Rather, burning coals shall fall, the verb ימישׂו, and the other verbs in this verse being in the future tense: that is, the divine vengeance, often compared to coals of fire, shall fall upon them. The psalmist seems to allude to the destruction of the Sodomites. Let them be cast — They shall be cast, into the fire — Which themselves have kindled, and shall perish in the flames thereof: into deep pits — Into those dangers and mischiefs which, like deep pits, they prepared for my destruction; that they rise not, &c. — Hebrews they shall not rise again. Let not an evil speaker — Such as slander me and other innocent persons; Hebrew אישׁ לשׁון, a man of tongue, which, according to the Hebrew phraseology, signifies a detractor, a sycophant, one who gives his tongue the liberty to vent what mischief he pleases; be established — Hebrew בל יכון, he shall not be established; he shall not prosper, or establish his power or greatness by such base and wicked practices. Evil shall hunt the violent man — Either the evil of punishment, or which comes to the same thing, the evil of sin, shall pursue and overtake him. The wickedness of such persons shall recoil upon themselves to their utter destruction. “The prophet, in these three verses,” says Dr. Horne, “predicts those just judgments which Heaven would inflict on the slanderers and persecutors of the righteous. Their lips, which uttered mischief against others, shall be the means of covering themselves with confusion, when out of their own mouths they shall be judged. Those tongues which have contributed to set the world on fire shall be tormented with the hot burning coals of eternal vengeance; and they who with so much eagerness and diligence have prepared pits for the destruction of their brethren shall be cast into a deep and bottomless pit, out of which they will not rise up again any more for ever. Evil speakers and false accusers shall gain no lasting establishment, but punishment shall hunt sin through all its doubles, and seize it, at last, as its legal prey. Let those great truths be firmly rooted in our hearts, and they will keep us steady in the worst of times.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

140:8-13 Believers may pray that God would not grant the desires of the wicked, nor further their evil devices. False accusers will bring mischief upon themselves, even the burning coals of Divine vengeance. And surely the righteous shall dwell in God's presence, and give him thanks for evermore. This is true thanksgiving, even thanks-living: this use we should make of all our deliverances, we should serve God the more closely and cheerfully. Those who, though evil spoken of and ill-used by men, are righteous in the sight of God, being justified by the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to them, and received by faith, as the effect of which, they live soberly and righteously; these give thanks to the Lord, for the righteousness whereby they are made righteous, and for every blessing of grace, and mercy of life.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As for the head of those that compass me about - Luther renders this, "The calamity which my enemies design against me must fall upon their own heads." The passage stands in contrast with Psalm 140:7 : "Thou hast covered my head," etc. As for his own head, it had been protected in the day of battle. In reference now to the heads of his enemies - of those that compassed him about - he prays that what they had designed for "his" head might come by a just retribution on their own. The phrase "compass me about" refers to his enemies as being numerous, and as surrounding him on every side. See Psalm 40:12; Psalm 88:17; Psalm 109:3; Psalm 118:10-12.

Let the mischief of their own lips cover them - Come upon them. The mischief which they have designed against me; that which they have conspired to bring on me. The reference is to a combination against him, or to some agreement which they had made to destroy him.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. Contrasts his head covered by God (Ps 140:7) with theirs, or (as "head" may be used for "persons") with them, covered with the results of their wicked deeds (Ps 7:16).

The Treasury of David

9 As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.

10 Let burning coals fall upon them; let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again.

11 Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth, evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.

Psalm 140:9

"As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them." To the Lord who had covered his head amid the din of arms the Psalmist appeals against his foes, that their heads may be covered in quite another sense - covered with the reward of their own malice. David's foes were so many that they hemmed him in, encircling him as hunters do their prey. It is little wonder that he turns to the Lord in his dire need. The poet represents his adversaries as so united as to have but one head; for there is often a unanimity among evil spirits which makes them the more strong and terrible for their vile purposes. The lex talionis, or law of retaliation, often brings down upon violent men the evil which they planned and spoke of for others: their arrows fall upon themselves. When a man's lips vent curses they will probably, like chickens, come home to roost. A stone hurled upward into the air is apt to fall upon the thrower's head.

David's words may be read in the future as a prophecy; but in this verse, at any rate, there is no need to do so in order to soften their tone. It is so just that the mischief which men plot and the slander which they speak should recoil upon themselves that every righteous man must desire it: he who does not desire it may wish to be considered humane and Christlike, but the chances are that he has a sneaking agreement with the wicked, or is deficient in a manly sense of right and wrong. When evil men fall into pits which they have digged for the innocent we believe that even the angels are glad; certainly the most gentle and tender of philanthropists, however much they pity the sufferers, must also approve the justice which makes them suffer. We suspect that some of our excessively soft-spoken critics only need to be put into David's place, and they would become a vast deal more bitter than he ever was.

Psalm 140:10

"Let burning coals fall upon them." Then will they know that the scattering of the firebrands is not the sport they thought it to be. When hailstones and coals of fire descend upon them, how will they escape? Even the skies above the wicked are able to deal out vengeance upon them. "Let them be cast into the fire." They have kindled the flames of strife, and it is fair that they should be cast therein. They have heated the furnace of slander seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated, and they shall be devoured therein. Who would have pitied Nebuchadnezzar if he had been thrown into his own burning fiery furnace? "Into deep pits, that they rise not up again." They made those ditches or fosses for the godly, and it is meet that they should themselves fall into them and never escape. When a righteous man falls he rises again; but when the wicked man goes down "he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again." The Psalmist in this passage graphically depicts the Sodom of the wicked persecutor: fire falls upon him from heaven; the city blazes, and he is east into the conflagration; the vale of Siddim is full of slime-pits, and into these he is buried. Extraordinary judgment overtakes the extraordinary offender: above, around, beneath, all is destruction. He would have consumed the righteous, and now he is consumed himself. So shall it be: so let it be.

Psalm 140:11

"Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth." For that would be an established plague, a perpetual curse. Men of false and cruel tongues are of most use when they go to fatten the soil in which they rot as carcasses: while they are alive they are the terror of the good, and the torment of the poor. God will not allow the specious orators of falsehood to retain the power they temporarily obtain by their deceitful speaking. They may become prominent, but they cannot become permanent. They shall be disendowed and disestablished in spite of all that they can say to the contrary. All evil bears the element of decay within itself; for what is it but corruption? Hence the utmost powers of oratory are insufficient to settle upon a sure foundation the cause which bears a lie within it. "Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him." He hunted the good, and now his own evil shall hunt him. He tried to overthrow the goings of the righteous, and now his own unrighteousness shall prove his overthrow. As he was violent, so shall he be violently assaulted and hunted down. Sin is its own punishment; a violent man will need no direr doom than to reap what he has sown. It is horrible for a huntsman to be devoured by his own hounds; yet this is the sure fate of the persecutor.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The head; or, heads; the singular number put for the plural, as is frequent. By which he understands either,

1. Their politic heads, their chiefs or ringleaders, who were most malicious, and by whom all the rest were supported and stirred up: or,

2. Their proper and natural heads, as this word is used Psalm 140:7; and this covering of their heads here is opposed to the covering of David’s head there.

Let the mischief of their own lips cover them; let the mischief which by their calumnies they design against me fall upon themselves.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

As for the head of those that compass me about, let the,

mischief of their own lips cover them. Meaning either their natural head, put for their whole persons; and the sense is, let the mischief they have contrived for others fall upon themselves; see Ezekiel 9:10, Psalm 7:16; or some principal person, the head and leader of them, as the word is sometimes used, Isaiah 9:14; and designs either Saul, who at the head of three thousand men surrounded the hill where David and his men were; or Doeg the Edomite, who was over the servants of Saul, and accused David to him; so Kimchi: or Ahithophel, who was at the head of the conspirators against him; so the Targum paraphrases it,

"Ahithophel, the head of the sanhedrim of the disciples of wickedness.''

If we understand this clause of Christ, the antitype of David, it may design Judas; who was the guide to them that sought Jesus, and, at the head of a band of men, enclosed and took him: or if of the church and people of God, the man of sin may be intended, the pope of Rome; the head over many countries, the antichristian nations, Psalm 110:6. The word is used of the gall and poison of asps, Job 20:14; and if so taken here, as Arama interprets it, it will make the sense agree with Psalm 140:3; and may be read in connection with the following clause, thus: "let the poison of those that compass me about, even the mischief of their lips, cover them" (o); or the labour of them (p): let the lies and calumnies they have so industriously spread, and took so much pains to propagate to the hurt of others, like deadly poison, cover them with shame and confusion; and the mischief they have boasted of, and gave out that they would do, let it come upon them on all sides, and utterly ruin and destroy them.

(o) So Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (p) "labor labiorum eorum", Montanus, Gejerus, Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

As for {g} the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.

(g) It seems that he alludes to Saul.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. A word seems to be wanting at the beginning of the verse, and if the last word of Psalm 140:8, with the change of a single letter (ירימו for ירומו), is prefixed to this verse, it reads, When those that compass me about lift up the head, let the mischief &c. Let the mischief they are trying to do me by slander and calumny recoil upon themselves, and overwhelm them. Cp. Psalm 141:10.

9–11. May retribution overtake my enemies!

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9 - As for the head of those that compass me about. The "head" of David's enemies is put in contrast with his own "head" (see ver. 7). While God shields and protects his head, theirs has no protection, but the mischief of their own lips which covers them, but with confusion, rather than with defense or safety. Psalm 140:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The strophic symmetry is now at an end. The longer the poet lingers over the contemplation of the rebels the more lofty and dignified does his language become, the more particular the choice of the expressions, and the more difficult and unmanageable the construction. The Hiph. הסב signifies, causatively, to cause to go round about (Exodus 13:18), and to raise round about (2 Chronicles 14:6); here, after Joshua 6:11, where with an accusative following it signifies to go round about: to make the circuit of anything, as enemies who surround a city on all sides and seek the most favourable point for assault; מסבּי from the participle מסב. Even when derived from the substantive מסב (Hupfeld), "my surroundings" is equivalent to איבי סביבותי in Psalm 27:6. Hitzig, on the other hand, renders it: the head of my slanderers, from סבב, to go round about, Arabic to tell tales of any one, defame; but the Arabic sbb, fut. u, to abuse, the IV form (Hiphil) of which moreover is not used either in the ancient or in the modern language, has nothing to do with the Hebrew סבב, but signifies originally to cut off round about, then to clip (injure) any one's honour and good name.

(Note: The lexicographer Neshwn says, i.:279b: Arab. 'l-sbb 'l - šatm w-qı̂l an aṣl 'l-sbb 'l - qaṭ‛ ṯm ṣâr 'l - štm, "sebb is to abuse; still, the more original signification of cutting off is said to lie at the foundation of this signification." That Arab. qṭ‛ is synonymous with it, e.g., Arab. lı̂štqt‛fı̂nâ, why dost thou cut into us? i.e., why dost thou insult our honour? - Wetzstein.)

The fact that the enemies who surround the psalmist on every side are just such calumniators, is intimated here in the word שׂפתימו. He wishes that the trouble which the enemies' slanderous lips occasion him may fall back upon their own head. ראשׁ is head in the first and literal sense according to Psalm 7:17; and יכסּימו (with the Jod of the groundform kcy, as in Deuteronomy 32:26; 1 Kings 20:35; Chethb יכסּוּמו,

(Note: Which is favoured by Exodus 15:5, jechasjûmû with mû instead of mô, which is otherwise without example.)

after the attractional schema, 2 Samuel 2:4; Isaiah 2:11, and frequently; cf. on the masculine form, Proverbs 5:2; Proverbs 10:21) refers back to ראשׁ, which is meant of the heads of all persons individually. In Psalm 140:11 ימיטוּ (with an indefinite subject of the higher punitive powers, Ges. 137, note), in the signification to cause to descend, has a support in Psalm 55:4, whereas the Niph. נמוט, fut. ימּט, which is preferred by the Ker, in the signification to be made to descend, is contrary to the usage of the language. The ἅπ. λεγ. מהמרות has been combined by Parchon and others with the Arabic hmr, which, together with other significations (to strike, stamp, cast down, and the like), also has the signification to flow (whence e.g., in the Koran, mâ' munhamir, flowing water). "Fire" and "water" are emblems of perils that cannot be escaped, Psalm 66:12, and the mention of fire is therefore appropriately succeeded by places of flowing water, pits of water. The signification "pits" is attested by the Targum, Symmachus, Jerome, and the quotation in Kimchi: "first of all they buried them in מהמורות; when the flesh was consumed they collected the bones and buried them in coffins." On בּל־יקוּמוּ cf. Isaiah 26:14. Like Psalm 140:10-11, Psalm 140:12 is also not to be taken as a general maxim, but as expressing a wish in accordance with the excited tone of this strophe. אישׁ לשׁון is not a great talker, i.e., boaster, but an idle talker, i.e., slanderer (lxx ἀνὴρ γλωσσώδης, cf. Sir. 8:4). According to the accents, אישׁ חמס רע is the parallel; but what would be the object of this designation of violence as worse or more malignant? With Sommer, Olshausen, and others, we take רע as the subject to יצוּדנּוּ: let evil, i.e., the punishment which arises out of evil, hunt him; cf. Proverbs 13:21, חטּאים תּרדּף רעה, and the opposite in Psalm 23:6. It would have to be accented, according to this our construction of the words, אישׁ חמס רע יצודני למדחפת. The ἅπ. λεγ. למדחפת we do not render, with Hengstenberg, Olshausen, and others: push upon push, with repeated pushes, which, to say nothing more, is not suited to the figure of hunting, but, since דּחף always has the signification of precipitate hastening: by hastenings, that is to say, forced marches.