a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular construct
established
יִכּ֪וֹןyi.Kon
H3559
properly · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
earth
בָּ֫אָ֥רֶץba.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
evil
רָ֑עRa'
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
hunt
יְ֝צוּדֶ֗נּוּye.tzu.De.nu
H6679
to lie alongside (i.e. in wait) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
violent
חָמָ֥סcha.Mas
H2555
violence · noun, common masculine singular absolute
man
אִישׁ'ish-
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular construct
overthrow
לְמַדְחֵפֹֽתle.mad.che.Fot
H4073
a push · preposition + noun, common feminine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 34:21 Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Proverbs 13:21 Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repayed.
Proverbs 17:20 He that hath a froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief.
Isaiah 3:11 Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
Psalms 7:14-16 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
Psalms 9:16 The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
Psalms 12:3-4 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 140:8–end
Here is the believing foresight David had,
I. Of the shame and confusion of persecutors.
1. Their disappointment. This he prays for (Psa 140:8), that their lusts might not be gratified, their lust of ambition, envy, and revenge: "Grant not, O Lord! the desires of the wicked, but frustrate them; let them not see the ruin of my interest, which they so earnestly wish to see; but hear the voice of my supplications." He prays that their projects might not take effect, but be blasted: "O further not his wicked device; let not Providence favour any of his designs, but cross them; suffer not his wicked device to proceed, but chain his wheels, and stop him in the career of his pursuits." Thus we are…
Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth,.... One that sets his mouth against the heavens, and speaks evil of God; of his being, perfections, purposes, and providences: whose tongue walks through the earth, and speaks evil of all men, even of dignities; and especially of the saints of the most High, and of the Gospel and ways of Christ. Or, "a men of tongue" (q); that uses his tongue in an ill way, in detractions and slanders (r); in blaspheming God, his name and tabernacle, and those that dwell therein, as antichrist, Revelation 13:5; a man that calumniates with a triple tongue, so the Targum; like a serpent, whose tongue seems to be so sometimes. Kimchi applies this to Doeg, and…
Psalm 140:11-13
11. The man (vir) of tongue shall not be established in the earth, evil shall hunt the man (vir) [231] of violence to banishments. 12. I have known that God will accomplish the judgment of the poor, the judgment of the afflicted. 13. Surely the righteous will praise thy name, the upright shall dwell before thy face.
11. The man of tongue, [232] etc. Some understand by this the loquacious man, but the sense is too restricted; nor is the reference to a reproachful, garrulous, vain and boastful man, but the man of virulence, who wars by deceit and calumny, and not openly. This is plain from what is said of the other class of persons in the subsequent part of the sentence, that…
The Church Fathers
"A man full of words shall not be guided upon earth" [Psalm 140:11]. "A man full of words" loves lies. For what pleasure has he, save in speaking? He cares not what he speaks, so long as he speaks. It cannot be that he will be guided. What then ought the servant of God to do, who is kindled with these "coals," and himself made a coal of salvation, what should he do? He should wish rather to hear than to speak; as it is written, "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak." [James 1:19] And if it may be so, let him desire this, not to be obliged to speak and talk and teach....I can quickly tell you wherein each one may prove himself, not by never speaking, but by requiring a case where it is his duty to speak; let him be glad to be silent, in will, let him speak to teach, when he must. For when must thou needs speak and teach? When you meet with one ignorant, when you meet with one unlearned. If it delight you always to teach, you wish always to have some ignorant one to teach...."Evil shall hunt the unrighteous man to destruction." Evils come, and he stands not; therefore said he, "they shall hunt him to destruction." For many good men, many righteous men evils have befallen, evils have, as it were, found them. Therefore when the evil pursued the good, that is, our martyrs, when they seized them, they "hunted" them, but not "to destruction." For the flesh was pressed down, the spirit was crowned; the spirit was cast out from the body, yet was nought done to the flesh which might hinder it for the future. Let the flesh be burned, scourged, mangled; is it therefore withdrawn from its Creator, because it is given into the hands of its persecutor? Will not He who created it from nothing, remake it better than it was?
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Speaking · EVIL — EVIL
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
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 (Exo 13:18), and to raise round about (Ch2 14:6); here, after Jos 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"…
The psalmist wants fire to descend on his enemies, and he wants them thrown into pits so they can never attack again. The language foreshadows the New Testament teaching on hell (Matt 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; 18:9; Mark 9:43-47; Luke 12:5; Jas 3:6; 2 Pet 2:4).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 140:11
Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
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 carcases: 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…
