Psalm - 141:9



9 Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, from the traps of the workers of iniquity.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Psalm 141:9.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.
Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, And from the gins of the workers of iniquity.
Keep me from the snare, which they have laid for me, and from the stumblingblocks of them that work iniquity.
Keep me from the gin they laid for me, Even snares of workers of iniquity.
Keep me from the net which they have put down for me, and from the designs of the workers of evil.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Keep me, etc. He owns himself to be shut up in the snares of his enemies, unless set free by a higher hand. In praying to God under the straits to which he was reduced, he proves what a high estimate he formed of what his mercy could effect, as elsewhere he says, that the issues from death belong to him. (Psalm 68:20.) God often delays interposing, that the deliverance may be the more signal; and afterwards he makes the devices of the wicked to recoil upon their own heads. It seems absurd to refer the pronoun his to Saul, as if the sense were that Doeg and others of that character would fall into the snares of Saul. It would seem to be God who is intended. First, he had spoken of being preserved by God from the toils of the wicked, and now to these snares which the wicked spread for the upright he opposes the snares with which God catches the crafty in their own devices. And as the number of his enemies was great, he uses the expression, let them fall together, for escape would have been impossible, had he not been persuaded that it was easy for God to overthrow any combined force and array of men. What follows admits of two meanings. Many read, I shall always pass. But we may suppose order of the words changed and read, until I pass. It prays that his enemies should be held in the snare till he got off safe,

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.

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.

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