the head (as most easily shaken) · noun, common masculine singular construct
about
מְסִבָּ֑יme.si.Bai
H4524
a divan (as enclosing the room) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
mischief
עֲמַ֖ל'a.Mal
H5999
toil · noun, common both genders singular construct
lips
שְׂפָתֵ֣ימוֹse.fa.Tei.mov
H8193
the lip (as a natural boundary) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
cover
יְכַסֵּֽמוֹye.kha.su.mov
H3680
properly · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
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 7:16 His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.
Proverbs 18:7 A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.
Psalms 94:23 And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.
Proverbs 12:13 The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips: but the just shall come out of trouble.
Esther 7:10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.
Psalms 64:8 So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.
Proverbs 10:6 Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
Proverbs 10:11 The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
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…
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…
Psalm 140:6-10
6. I said to Jehovah thou art my God; hear the voice of my supplication. 7. O, Jehovah, my Lord! the strength of my salvation, thou hast set a covering upon my head in the day of arms. [226] 8. Grant not, O Jehovah! the desires of the wicked; they have devised, do not though consummate, they shall be exalted. Selah. 9. As for the head of those compassing me about, let the mischief of his lips cover him. 10. Let coals with fire fall upon them; he shall cast them into deeps, [227] they shall not rise again.
6. I said to Jehovah. In these words he shows that his prayers were not merely those of the lips, as hypocrites will make loud appeals to God for mere appearance sake, but…
The Church Fathers
The head of their compassing about, the labor of their own lips shall cover them. Just as a serpent, when it sees someone coming to strike it, makes a coil of its whole body and hides its head in the middle, where it knows its life resides: so too these heretics, by the discourse of the philosophers and of Aristotle and the rest, seem to hide themselves, and as it were to shield and defend themselves. But the man of the Church, as it were with a rod — that is, with the cross — unwinds the coil, and finds the hidden head, and strikes it there; that is, he brings forth a testimony from the Scriptures.
"The head of their going about, the toil of their own lips shall cover them" (ver. 9). Me, he saith, the shadow of Thy wings shall cover: for, "Thou hast covered me in the day of battle." Them what shall cover? "The head of their going about;" that is, pride. What is, "their going about"? How they go about and stand not, how they go in the circle of error, where is journeying without end. He who goeth in a straight line, beginneth from some point, endeth at some point: he who goeth in a circle, never endeth. That is the toil of the wicked, which is set forth yet more plainly in another Psalm, "The wicked walk in a circle." But "the head of their going about" is pride, for pride is the beginning of every sin. But whence is pride "the toil of their own lips"? Every proud man is false, and every false man is a liar. Men toil in speaking falsehood; for truth they could speak with entire facility. For he toileth, who maketh what he saith: he who wisheth to speak the truth, toileth not, for truth herself speaketh without toil. ...
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…
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 prays for God’s judgment on the wicked.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 140:9
As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.
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…
