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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 140:4 - 140:4
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The course of this second strophe is exactly parallel with the first. The perfects describe their conduct hitherto, as a comparison of Psa 140:3 with Psa 140:3 shows. פְּעָמִים is poetically equivalent to רַגְלַיִם, and signifies both the foot that steps (Psa 57:5; Psa 58:11) and the step that is made by the foot (Ps 85:14; Psa 119:133), and here the two senses are undistinguishable. They are called גֵּאִים on account of the inordinate ambition that infatuates them. The metaphors taken from the life of the hunter (Psa 141:9; Psa 142:4) are here brought together as it were into a body of synonyms. The meaning of לְיַד־מַעְגָּל becomes explicable from Psa 142:4; לְיַד, at hand, is equivalent to “immediately beside” (1Ch 18:17; Neh 11:24). Close by the path along which he has to pass, lie gins ready to spring together and ensnare him when he appears.