Psalm 141:9

Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) From the snare.—The original idiom is far more forcible: “from the hands (or, ‘clutches’) of the snare.” (See above, Psalm 141:6, “in the hands of the cliff.”)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 141:9-10. Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me — Keep me from being taken in it: give me to discover and evade it. If Saul and his evil counsellors be intended in this clause, probably the heathen, to whom David was now driven for refuge, were meant in the next. They were workers of iniquity in the worst sense, being worshippers of idols, and their idols were always snares to the Israelites, as their history informs us, and as they were forewarned by God himself, Jdg 2:3. Their gods will be a snare unto you, Hebrew, מוקשׁ, the same word with that translated, in the plural number, gins, in this verse. Let the wicked fall — Hebrew, יפלו, they shall fall; into their own nets — Into the snares, dangers, and mischiefs which they design for me. While that I withal escape — Namely, together with my followers, or, in like manner, as I have formerly done. But many translators, both ancient and modern, join the word יחד, here rendered withal, or together, to the preceding clause to which it is placed next in the Hebrew, and then the meaning is, the wicked shall fall into their own nets together, or alike, one as well as another, Saul himself not excepted, (whom, though I dare not destroy him, God will judge,) while that I escape, am preserved from that common calamity in which mine enemies perish. Which was verified by the event. For David escaped all the snares which were laid for him on every side; and was strangely kept out of harm’s way, when Saul and other of David’s enemies were cut off by the Philistines, 1 Samuel 31. So will the devices of the enemies of God’s people be in the end turned against themselves. They shall fall and perish, but the saved of the Lord shall triumph with their Redeemer to eternity. Reader, see that thou be one of these!

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

Keep me from the snares ... - See the notes at Psalm 11:6. Compare Psalm 38:12; Psalm 69:22; Psalm 91:3. The secret plans which they have laid against me.

And the gins of the workers of iniquity - Wicked men; men who seek my destruction. On the word gins, see the notes at Isaiah 8:14. The gin is a trap or snare to catch birds or wild animals. The word used here is the same which occurs in Psalm 18:5, and which is there rendered "snare." See the notes at that passage. Compare also Psalm 64:5; Psalm 69:22; Psalm 106:36; Psalm 140:5, where the same word occurs.

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

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me,.... Either Saul, who gave him a wife to be a snare to him, and set men to watch his house and take him; or the Ziphites, who proposed to Saul to deliver him into his hands; see 1 Samuel 18:21.

and the gins of the workers of iniquity; the transgressions of wicked men are snares to others, by way of example; and so are the doctrines of false teachers, and the temptations of Satan, from all which good men desire to be kept, Proverbs 29:6; and it is the Lord alone that keeps and preserves from them, or breaks the snare and delivers them, Psalm 124:7.

Geneva Study Bible

Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. Cp. Psalm 140:4-5.

grins] Rather, baits or lures, the sensual temptations by which they are endeavouring to entice him (Psalm 141:4). For grins see on Psalm 140:5.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity (comp. Psalm 40:4, 5). Psalm 141:9

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.