Psalms 140:9-11 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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.”