properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
pit
בּ֣וֹרBor
H953
a pit hole (especially one used as a cistern or a priso… · noun, common masculine singular absolute
digged
וַֽיַּחְפְּרֵ֑הוּvai.yach.pe.Re.hu
H2658
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
fallen
וַ֝יִּפֹּ֗לvai.yi.Pol
H5307
to fall · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
ditch
בְּשַׁ֣חַתbe.Sha.chat
H7845
a pit (especially as a trap) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
made
יִפְעָֽלyif.'Al
H6466
to do or make (systematically and habitually) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
Psalms 141:10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.
Proverbs 26:27 Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.
Psalms 35:7-8 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.
Ecclesiastes 10:8-9 He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
Psalms 10:2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
Psalms 9:15-16 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.
Psalms 57:6 They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen thems…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 7:10–end
David having lodged his appeal with God by prayer and a solemn profession of his integrity, in the former part of the psalm, in this latter part does, as it were, take out judgment upon the appeal, by faith in the word of God, and the assurance it gives of the happiness and safety of the righteous and the certain destruction of wicked people that continue impenitent.
I. David is confident that he shall find God his powerful protector and Saviour, and the patron of his oppressed innocency (Psa 7:10): "My defence is of God. Not only, God is my defender, and I shall find him so; but I look for defence and safety in no other; my hope for shelter in a time of danger is placed in God alone; if I h…
psa 7:15Sa1 18:17; Sa1 31:2 illustrate the statement whether alluded to or not. These verses are expository of Psa 7:14, showing how the devices of the wicked end in disappointment, falsifying their expectations.
John Gill on Psalms 7:15
He made a pit and digged it,.... That is, he digged a pit, and made it very large and capacious, to answer his purposes;
and is fallen into the ditch which he made; so it is said of the Heathen, Psalm 9:15; and is exemplified in the case of Haman, who was hanged upon the gallows he had built for Mordecai. Kimchi explains this of Saul's falling upon his own sword, and dying by it, which he drew against David; phrase is proverbial, Proverbs 26:27; the sense of this and the above figurative expressions is literally and properly given in Psalm 7:16.
John Calvin on Psalms 7:15–end
Psalm 7:15-16
15. He hath digged a pit, and hollowed it out; [125] and he hath fallen into the ditch which he hath made. 16. His wickedness shall return upon his own head, and his violence shall descend upon his own crown.
Here David says not only that their wicked devices were without success, but that, by the wonderful providence of God, the result was the very opposite of what had been contemplated. He sets this forth in the first place metaphorically, by employing the figure of a pit and a ditch; and then he expresses the same thing in simple terms without figure, declaring, that the mischief intended for others returned upon the head of him who had devised it There is no doubt that it…
The Church Fathers
Truly, he sins first against himself, then he injures another; since sin is harmful and ruinous, foremost it harms and roughly handles the one sinning.… "If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit". In this saying it must be realized that teachers and students become blinded by foolishness and wantonness.
'He hath opened a pit and dug it out, and he is fallen into the ditch which he made.' The pit is the devil's own, which is also the ditch. 'He hath opened a pit': but since it cannot hold water, according to Jeremiah, therefore his pit has been turned into a ditch. 'He hath opened a pit, and dug it out.' All the conventicles of heretics are ditches of the devil.
"He hath opened a ditch, and digged it" (ver. 15). To open a ditch is, in earthly matters, that is, as it were in the earth, to prepare deceit, that another fall therein, whom the unrighteous man wishes to deceive. Now this ditch is opened when consent is given to the evil suggestion of earthly lusts: but it is digged when after consent we press on to actual work of deceit. But how can it be, that iniquity should rather hurt the righteous man against whom it proceeds, than the unrighteous heart whence it proceeds? Accordingly, the stealer of money, for instance, while he desires to inflict painful harm upon another, is himself maimed by the wound of avarice. Now who, even out of his right mind, sees not how great is the difference between these men, when one suffers the loss of money, the other of innocence? "He will fall" then "into the pit which he hath made." As it is said in another Psalm, "The Lord is known in executing judgments; the sinner is caught in the works of his own hands."
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
Cush — Black. (1.) A son, probably the eldest, of Ham, and the father of Nimrod (Gen. 10:8; 1 Chr. 1:10). From him the land of Cush seems to have derived its name. The question of the precise locality of…
Psalms — The psalms are the production of various authors. “Only a portion of the Book of Psalms claims David as its author. Other inspired poets in successive generations added now one now another…
Shiggaion — From the verb shagah, “to reel about through drink,” occurs in the title of Ps. 7. The plural form, shigionoth, is found in Hab. 3:1. The word denotes a lyrical poem composed under strong mental…
Malice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Pit · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
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).
(Heb.: 7:15-18) This closing strophe foretells to the enemy of God, as if dictated by the judge, what awaits him; and concludes with a prospect of thanksgiving and praise. Man brings forth what he has conceived, he reaps what he has sown. Starting from this primary passage, we find the punishment which sin brings with it frequently represented under these figures of הדה and ילד (הוליד, חבּל, חיל), זרע and קצר, and first of all in Job 15:35. The act, guilt, and punishment of sin appear in general as notions that run into one another. David sees in the sin of his enemies their self-destruction. It is singular, that travail is first spoken of, and then only afterwards pregnancy. For חבּל signif…
Evil begins with small words or steps, and gives birth to increasingly worse deeds as time goes on (see Isa 59:4-5).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 7:15
He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
"He made a pit, and digged it." He was cunning in his plans, and industrious in his labours. He stooped to the dirty work of digging. He did not fear to soil his own hands, he was willing to work in a ditch if others might fall therein. What mean things men will do to wreak revenge on the godly. They hunt for good men, as if they were brute beasts; nay, they will not give them the fair chase afforded to the hare or the fox, but must secretly entrap them, because they can neither run them down nor shoot them down. Our enemies will not meet us to the face, for they fear us as much as they pretend to despise us. But let…
