A New Look at Tehillim 140

Contributed by Doron Beckerman

Psalm 140 May Have Never Been More Apt

למנצח מזמור לדוד:
(1) To the conductor. A song of David.

חלצני ה’ מאדם רע מאיש חמסים תנצרני:
(2) Extricate me, O Hashem, from a wicked person. Protect me from a man of depravities.

אשר חשבו רעות בלב כל יום יגורו מלחמות:
(3) Who scheme evil in their heart; every day they have war within their dwelling places (Rashi).

שננו לשונם כמו נחש חמת עכשוב תחת שפתימו סלה:
(4) They sharpen their tongue as a snake; venom of vipers is constantly under their lips (as they foam at the mouth spewing their rhetoric; Radak).

שמרני ה’ מידי רשע מאיש חמסים תנצרני אשר חשבו לדחות פעמי:
(5) Keep me, Hashem, from the hand of an evildoer, protect me from a man of depravity; those who scheme to make my steps falter (and fall into their traps; Malbim).

טמנו גאים פח לי וחבלים פרשו רשת ליד מעגל מקשים שתו לי סלה:
(6) The haughty have set snares before me, and cords. They have spread out nets on the pathways on which I tread. They have incessantly placed stumbling blocks before me (even after multiple failures, they try again and again – Metzudos).

אמרתי לה’ אלי אתה האזינה ה’ קול תחנוני
I say unto Hashem, You are my Almighty! Hearken, Hashem, to the voice of my supplication!

אלקים ה’ עז ישועתי סכתה לראשי ביום נשק
(8) The Almighty, Hashem, is the strength of my salvation. You have provided a shield over my head on a day of armaments. (On the day they attack me with lances, arrows, and all manner of weaponry, You are a helmet of salvation over my head; Radak.)

אל תתן ה’ מאויי רשע זממו אל תפק ירומו סלה
(9) Do not grant, Hashem, the desires of the evildoers. Do not allow his plots to come forth; may they elude him forever!

ראש מסבי עמל שפתימו יכסמו
(10) The leader of those who surround me, may the toil of his lips engulf them.

ימיטו עליהם גחלים באש יפלם במהמרות בל יקומו
(11) May coals rain down upon them; may it cause their downfall in fire, in deep ditches from which they will never arise. (The ditches themselves will be full of fire, from the coals that rain down on them from above – Malbim)

איש לשון בל יכון בארץ איש חמס רע יצודנו למדחפת
(12) A man of evil tongue shall not have a foothold in the land; evil will hunt down a man of depravity for endless jostling.

ידעתי כי יעשה ה’ דין עני משפט אבינים:
(13) I know that Hashem will maintain the cause of the poor, uphold justice for the destitute.

אך צדיקים יודו לשמך ישבו ישרים את פניך:
(14) Make haste! (Rashi) The righteous will give thanks to Your Name; the upright shall sit before You (as they appreciate and recognize Your Hashgachah Peratis – Malbim).

(Readers of the original Hebrew may have picked up on the passage’s keyword – [חמס[ים)

Rabbi Doron Beckerman contributes from time to time from where he says Tehillim in Israel.