Psalms 140: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

A prayer asking the LORD for rescue from violent men who plan harm, speak poison, and set traps along the path. The speaker declares that the LORD is his God and his protection in battle, then asks that the wicked not get what they want and that the harm they planned fall back on them. The psalm closes with the confidence that the LORD defends poor and suffering people, and that upright people will thank him and live in his presence.

Claim by Claim

1. 140:1
   • The speaker asks the LORD to deliver him from the evil man.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to preserve him from the man of violence.
2. 140:2
   • These men devise evil things in their heart.
   • They continually stir up wars (the verb can mean either to gather together or to provoke).
3. 140:3
   • They have made their tongues sharp like a serpent's.
   • The venom of a viper is under their lips.
   • Selah.
4. 140:4
   • The speaker asks the LORD to guard him from the hands of the wicked.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to preserve him from the man of violence.
   • These men have planned to trip up his steps.
5. 140:5
   • The proud have hidden a trap for the speaker.
   • They have hidden cords.
   • They have spread a net beside the path.
   • They have set snares for him.
   • Selah.
6. 140:6
   • The speaker said to the LORD, You are my God.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to give ear to the voice of his pleas for mercy.
7. 140:7
   • The speaker addresses God the Lord as the strength of his salvation.
   • God covered the speaker's head in the day of battle.
8. 140:8
   • The speaker asks the LORD not to grant the desires of the wicked man.
   • The speaker asks the LORD not to advance his scheme.
   • The request is made lest they exalt themselves.
   • Selah.
9. 140:9
   • Concerning the head of those who surround the speaker: the trouble their own lips have caused should cover them.
10. 140:10
    • The speaker asks that burning coals fall upon them.
    • The speaker asks that they be cast into the fire.
    • The speaker asks that they be cast into pits.
    • The speaker asks that they not rise again.
11. 140:11
    • The speaker asks that a man of slanderous tongue not be established in the land.
    • Evil will hunt the man of violence down to overthrow him.
12. 140:12
    • The speaker knows that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted.
    • The speaker knows that the LORD will maintain the just claim of the poor.
13. 140:13
    • The righteous will give thanks to God's name.
    • The upright will dwell in God's presence.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

140:1

LORD in capitals marks the personal name of Israel's God (the four Hebrew letters YHWH), which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud. Where the text instead has the ordinary Hebrew word for "master," English versions print "Lord" in normal type.

140:2

"In their hearts" means inside their thoughts. Long ago, people said heart to mean the place where you plan things.

140:3

"Selah" is a Hebrew term that appears only in the Psalms and a few poetic passages. Its meaning is genuinely unknown; it is usually taken as a direction to the musicians or the congregation, perhaps a pause, an instrumental break, or a lifting of the voices. Translators leave it untranslated because no one can be sure. The picture of venom "on their lips" is about speech, not biting: the poison sits at the mouth, ready to go out with the words. Ancient readers did not distinguish sharply between a snake's tongue and its fangs.

140:5

These are the tools of a bird- and animal-catcher: a hidden trip-trap, the cords that pull a net shut, the net itself laid flat beside a path where prey walks, and smaller spring-traps. "Gins" in the King James is an old English word for exactly that kind of snare, unrelated to the drink. The whole verse is one image, the speaker is being hunted like game.

140:7

The King James "O GOD the Lord" reflects two different Hebrew names stacked together in the original, a doubled and emphatic form of address. "Covered my head in the day of battle" is armor language: the head is the part a soldier most needs shielded, so this describes protection at the moment of greatest danger, not a general blessing.

140:9

The Hebrew repeats the word "cover" from verse 7 and plays on "head": the God who covered the speaker's head in battle is asked to let his enemies' own words settle over their heads instead. The verse is also ambiguous in Hebrew about whether "head" means the leaders of the surrounding group or the heads of all of them; translations differ.

140:10

Burning coals falling from the sky was a stock image of disaster sent from above. The last phrase is uncertain in Hebrew: the word may mean deep watery pits, floods, or miry pits, a place from which someone thrown in cannot climb out. Older versions guess differently from newer ones.

140:11

The Hebrew is literally "a man of tongue", a slanderer or false accuser. This was not merely rude speech: in a legal system that ran on the testimony of witnesses, a false accusation could take a person's property or life, which is why the psalm treats it alongside violence.

140:12

"Maintain the cause" and "the right of the poor" are courtroom words. The claim is that God acts as the judge who takes up the legal case of people who have no one else to argue for them, a standard duty of a king in the ancient Near East.

140:13

The Hebrew reads "shall dwell before your face." Being allowed to stand in someone's presence was the language of access to a king, and here also of belonging at the temple, where God was understood to be present.