Psalm 141:10

Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Comp. Psalm 7:15.

Withal.—Probably, altogether (“whilst I altogether escape”), which some join with the previous clause, “Let the wicked fall into their own nets together, whilst I escape.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

141:5-10 We should be ready to welcome the rebuke of our heavenly Father, and also the reproof of our brethren. It shall not break my head, if it may but help to break my heart: we must show that we take it kindly. Those who slighted the word of God before, will be glad of it when in affliction, for that opens the ear to instruction. When the world is bitter, the word is sweet. Let us lift our prayer unto God. Let us entreat him to rescue us from the snares of Satan, and of all the workers of iniquity. In language like this psalm, O Lord, would we entreat that our poor prayers should set forth our only hope, our only dependence on thee. Grant us thy grace, that we may be prepared for this employment, being clothed with thy righteousness, and having all the gifts of thy Spirit planted in our hearts.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let the wicked fall into their own nets - See the notes at Psalm 35:8. Compare Psalm 7:15-16.

While that I withal escape - Margin, as in Hebrew, "pass over." While I safely pass over the net or snare which has been secretly laid for me. The word "withal" means, in the Hebrew, "together, at the same time;" that is, At the same time that they fall into the net, let me pass over it in safety. See the notes at Job 5:13.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

PSALM 141

Ps 141:1-10. This Psalm evinces its authorship as the preceding, by its structure and the character of its contents. It is a prayer for deliverance from sins to which affliction tempted him, and from the enemies who caused it.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Into their own nets, Heb. into his nets; either into God’s nets, the relative being put without the antecedent, as is usual in such cases, where it is easily understood; or, each

into his own nets, to wit, the mischiefs which he designs against me.

Withal, or, together, to wit, with my followers; or, in like manner, as I have done formerly. But this word may seem to be more fitly joined to the foregoing clause, to which it is next placed in the Hebrew, and the verse may be and is by divers, both ancient and later translators, thus rendered, Let the wicked fall (or, the wicked shall fall) into their own nets together, (altogether, or alike, one as well as another, Saul himself not excepted, whom though I dare not destroy, God will judge,)

whilst that I escape; am preserved from that common calamity in which mine enemies shall perish; which was verified by the event. For David was strangely kept out of harm’s way when Saul and others of David’s enemies were cut off by the Philistines, 1 Samuel 31.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let the wicked fall into their own nets,.... Which they have laid for others, as they very often do; see Psalm 7:15; or "into his net" (k), either Saul into his own net, and others with him, so Kimchi and Ben Melech; or the wicked into the net which God has laid for them; see Ezekiel 12:13;

whilst that I withal escape; or "whilst I together escape", or "pass over" (l); that is, while he, together with his companions, passed over the net laid; or,

"till I pass over safe and sound,''

will all mine, as Noldius (m); not only pass over and escape the snares of the wicked, but pass out of this world into a state of happiness and glory in another.

(k) "in retiacula ejus", Pagninus, Montanus; "in retia ejus", Vatablus, Cocceius; so Ainsworth. (l) "simul transeam", Montanus, Vatablus, Musculus; "una cum meis transiturus sum", Piscator. (m) Concord. Partic. Ebr. Chald. p. 363. No. 1279. so Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

Let the wicked fall into {i} their own nets, {k} whilst that I withal escape.

(i) Into God's nets, by which he catches the wicked in their own malice.

(k) So that none of them escape.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. into their own nets] Heb. into his own nets, i.e. each into his own net. “The enginer” is “hoist with his own petar.” For the thought that the plots of the wicked recoil upon themselves cp. Psalm 140:11; Psalm 7:15-16; Psalm 9:16.

withal escape] Lit. pass on unharmed, at the same time as they are caught in their own snare.

Additional Note

The P.B.V. of Psalm 141:5-7 gives a striking example of the use which Coverdale made of S. Münster’s version in revising his translation of 1535 for the ‘Great Bible’ of 1539 (see Introd. p. lxxiii), and also of the variations between the editions of the Great Bible.

Coverdale’s version of 1535 is: “Let the rightuous (rather) smite me frendly, and reprove me: so wil I take it, as though he had poured oyle upô my heade: it shal not hurte my heade, yee I wil praye yet for their wickednesse. Their iudges stôble at the stone, yet heare they my wordes, ye they be ioyfull. Oure bones lye scatered before ye pytt, like as when one graueth and dyggeth vp the grounde.”

In the Great Bible of 1539, reprinted in April 1540, the only change (with the exception of variations of spelling) is in Psalm 141:6, which runs: “Let theyr judges stomble in stony places: that they may heare my wordes, for they are swete.”

But in the second Great Bible, also published in 1540, all the changes with which we are familiar in the P.B.V. have been introduced. The passage runs thus: “Let the ryghteous rather smyte me frendly and reproue me. But let not ther preciouse balmes: breake myne heed, yee, I wyll praye yet agaynste theyr wyckednesse. Lett theyr judges be overthrowen in stony places: that they may heare my wordes: for they are swete. Our bones lye scatered before the pit, lyke as whç one breaketh and heweth wood upô ye erth.”

The substantial changes are all taken from Münster’s version: “Percutiat me justus in pietate atque redarguat me, oleum autem praecipuum non frangat caput meum: quia adhuc oratio mea contra mala eorum. Praecipitentur in locis petrosis judices illorum, ut audiant sermones meos, quoniam suaves sunt. Sicut qui frangit et dissecat (ligna) in terra, dispersa sunt ossa nostra iuxta sepulchrum.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Let the wicked fall into their own nets (comp. Psalm 7:15; Psalm 35:8; Psalm 57:6; Proverbs 5:22). The moral sense is always satisfied when the wicked man falls into his own trap, or is "hoist with his own petard." Even a heathen poet could say -

"Nec lex justior ulla est,
Quam necis artifices arte perire sun." Whilst that I withal escape; literally, until that I pass over; i.e. whilst I pass over the nets, or traps, in safety.



Psalm 141:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

If Psalm 141:7 is not merely an expression of the complaint, but at the same time of hope, we now have no need to give the כּי the adversative sense of imo, but we may leave it its most natural confirmatory signification namque. From this point the Psalm gradually dies away in strains comparatively easy to be understood and in perfect keeping with the situation. In connection with Psalm 141:8 one is reminded of Psalm 25:15; Psalm 31:2; with Psalm 141:9., of Psalm 7:16; Psalm 69:23, and other passages. In "pour not out (תּער with sharpened vowel instead of תּער, Ges. ֗75, rem. 8) my soul," ערה, Piel, is equivalent to the Hiph. הערה in Isaiah 53:12. ידי פח are as it were the hands of the seizing and capturing snare; and יקשׂוּ לּי is virtually a genitive: qui insidias tendunt mihi, since one cannot say יקשׁ פח, ponere laqueum. מכמרים, nets, in Psalm 141:10 is another hapaxlegomenon; the enallage numeri is as in Psalm 62:5; Isaiah 2:8; Isaiah 5:23, - the singular that slips in refers what is said of the many to each individual in particular. The plural מקשׁות for מקשׁים, Psalm 18:6; Psalm 64:6, also occurs only here. יחד is to be explained as in 4:9: it is intended to express the coincidence of the overthrow of the enemies and the going forth free of the persecuted one. With יחד אנכי the poet gives prominence to his simultaneous, distinct destiny: simul ego dum (עד as in Job 8:21, cf. Job 1:18) praetereo h.e. evado. The inverted position of the כּי in Psalm 18:10-12 may be compared; with Psalm 120:7 and 2 Kings 2:14, however (where instead of אף־הוּא it is with Thenius to be read אפוא), the case is different.