Psalms 64:8

Psa 64:8 So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.

Ver. 8. So they shall make their own tongue, &c.] According to Pro 12:13 Psa 59:12. {See Trapp on "Pro 12:13"} {See Trapp on "Psa 59:12"}

And all that see them shall flee away] With horror and astonishment. Heb. They shall wander about in their flight; this is spoken of their favourites and abetters fearing to fall under the like punishment, and being agitated by the furies of their own evil consciences.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 64:8-9. They shall make their own tongue, &c. — The mischief of their hard speeches, and threats, and crafty counsels against me, shall be turned against themselves. All that see them shall flee away — Partly through abhorrence of them, and partly through fear of being involved in their destruction. Some think this was fulfilled in the death of Saul, when not only his army was dispersed, but the inhabitants of the neighbouring country were so terrified with his fall, and with that of his three sons, that they quitted their cities and fled, 1Sa 31:7. And all men shall fear — A great number of those who shall see this event shall be affected with a holy awe of God upon the consideration of it, and shall fear and tremble because of his judgments; shall fear being found persecutors of God’s people. And shall declare the work of God — His admirable work of divine wisdom, power, and faithfulness; they shall speak one to another, and to all about them, of the justice of God in punishing persecutors. For they shall wisely consider of his doing — Learning wisdom by the folly and misery of these persecutors, and avoiding those evil courses which brought ruin upon them. There is need of consideration and serious thought, rightly to take up such a matter of fact, and need of wisdom to put a true interpretation upon it. What God does is well worth our considering, Ecc 7:13. But it must be considered wisely, that we do not mistake the design of it, and the instruction it is intended to convey.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. (Psa 64:8). And he has cast them down; upon them (comes) their own tongue; all shall flee gazing at them. Cast down, literally made to fall or stumble. See the use of the same verb in historical prose, 2Ch 25:8, and compare the original in 2 Chron. 27. The construction is indefinite, as in Psa 63:10, they have cast him down, i.e. he is cast down, meaning the enemy as an ideal person, who, according to the usage of these psalms, is immediately afterwards referred to in the plural number. Their tongue, i.e. the consequences of their false, malignant speeches, and their mischievous deliberations. The verb in the last clause is an intensive form of the one used in Psa 31:11; Psa 55:7. Gazing at them, not simply seeing them, but seeing with emotion, whether that of wonder, joy, or terror. See above, on Psa 54:7; Psa 59:10. The clause seems to contain an allusion to the flight of the people, when the earth opened to devour Korah and his company, Num 16:34.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To see God’s heavy judgments against them, and how he hath caught them in their own snares.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

their . . . tongue to fall, &c.--that is, the consequences of their slanders, &c. (compare Psa 10:2; Psa 31:16).

all that see . . . away--Their partners in evil shall be terrified.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 8. Their own tongue to fall upon them-selves] All the plottings, counsels, and curses, they have formed against me, shall come upon themselves.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8 And they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves Pursuing the same subject, he remarks, that the poison concocted in their secret counsels, and which they revealed with their tongues, would prove to have a deadly effect upon themselves. The sentiment is the same with that expressed elsewhere by another figure, when they are said to be caught in their own snares, and to fall into the pit which they have digged themselves, (Psalm 57:6.) It is just that Heaven should make the mischiefs which they had devised against innocent and upright men to recoil upon their own heads. The judgment is one which we see repeatedly and daily exemplified before our eyes, and yet we find much difficulty in believing that it can take place. We should feel ourselves bound the more to impress the truth upon our hearts, that God is ever watching, as it were, his opportunity of converting the stratagems of the wicked into means just as completely effective of their destruction, as if they had intentionally employed them for that end. In the close of the verse, to point out the striking severity of their punishment, it is said that all who saw them should flee away The judgments of God are lifted above out of the sight of an ignorant world, and ere it can be roused to fear and dismay, these must be such as to bear signal marks indeed of a divine hand.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

8. So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves] An untenable rendering of an obscure sentence. It is best to render, substantially as R.V., And they are made to stumble, their own tongue being against them. Lit. they make him stumble: the plural subject to the verb suggesting, as in Psa_63:10, the idea of mysterious agents in God’s service, and the singular object regarding ‘the enemy’ (as in Psa_64:1 b) collectively as a body. For the sense cp. Psa_140:9; Psa_7:15 f (note that v. 12 f are parallel to v. 7 here); Psa_57:6. Their tongue, the weapon with which they sought to destroy others, is turned against themselves. Ahithophel’s fate may serve for illustration. Possible, but less satisfactory, is the rendering of R.V. marg.: So shall they against whom their tongue was make them to stumble. The context does not hint that their victims become their executioners.

shall flee away] For fear of sharing their fate (Num_16:34). But the right rendering certainly is, All that see their desire upon them shall wag the head, in scornful triumph, as Jer_48:27, R.V.; cp. Psa_22:7. See Psa_52:6 ff.; Psa_54:7; Psa_59:10, and for the light in which such expressions of satisfaction are to be regarded see note on Psa_58:11.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So shall they make their own tongue to fall upon themselves,.... The evil things they have wished for, threatened unto, and imprecated on others, shall come upon themselves; the curses they have cursed others with shall come upon themselves; the pit they have dug for others, they fall into. So Haman, to whom some apply the psalm, was hanged on the gallows he made for Mordecai; and the accusers of Daniel, to whom others apply it, were cast into the same den of lions they procured for him; and Babylon, who has been drunk with the blood of the saints, shall have blood given her to drink.

all that see them shall flee away; not being able to help them, nor to bear the horrible sight, and fearing the same judgments should fall on themselves; see Num 16:34. Or, "they shall move themselves" (d); shake their heads in a way of derision, as Jarchi interprets it; or skip for joy, as the word is rendered in Jer 48:27; and then it must be understood of the righteous; who, seeing the vengeance on the wicked, rejoice, as in Psa 52:6; though, as they are afterwards particularly mentioned, others seem to be designed. The word is used for lamenting and bemoaning one's self, in Jer 31:18; and so may be applied to the friends of the wicked lamenting and bemoaning their ruin, and their being bereaved of them, Rev 18:9.

(d) "amovebunt se", Montanus; "commovebuntur", Vatablus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves - In Psa 64:3, their tongue is represented as a sword; and here, keeping up the figure, the tongue, as a sword, is represented as falling on them, or as inflicting the wound on themselves which they had intended to inflict on others. This might be rendered, “And they have cast him down; upon them is their own tongue;” or, “Upon them their own tongue has come.” That is, someone would cast them down, and they would fall as if smitten by their own tongue like a sword. It is not said who would do this, but the most natural interpretation is that it would be done by God. The idea is, that the instrument which they had employed to injure others would be the means of their own ruin.

All that see them shall flee away - Compare Psa 31:11. That is, they shall flee in consternation from those who are so fearfully overthrown. They shall see that God is just, and that He will punish the wicked; and they will desire to escape from a ruin so dreadful as that which comes upon the ungodly. The idea is, that when God punishes sinners, the effect on others is, and should be, to lead them to wish not to be associated with such people, but to escape from a doom so fearful.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The mischief of their hard speeches, and threats, and crafty counsels against me shall be turned against themselves.

Shall flee away; partly through abhorrency of them, and partly through fear of being involved in their destruction.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 8. So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves. Their slander shall recoil. Their curses shall come home to roost. Their tongue shall cut their throats. It was both sword, and bow and arrow; it shall be turned against them, and bring home to them full punishment.

All that see them shall flee away. Afraid, both of them and their overthrow, their former friends shall give them wide space, lest they perish with them. Who cares to go near to Herod when the worms are eating him? or to be in the same chariot with Pharaoh when the waves roar round him? Those who crowded around a powerful persecutor, and cringed at his feet, are among the first to desert him in the day of wrath. Woe unto you, ye liars! "Who will desire fellowship with you in your seething lake of fire?"

Ver. 8. (first clause).

In these cases,

We still have judgment here, that we but teach

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

To plague the inventor: This even handed justice

Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice

To our own lips. William Shakespeare.

Ver. 8. Their own tongue to fall upon themselves. That is, their own words shall be brought as a testimony against them, and condemn them. "The tongue is a little member" (Jas 3:5), and therefore a light member; yet it falls heavy, as heavy as lead. A man were better have his house fall upon him, than that, in this sense, his tongue should fall upon him. Some have been pressed to death because they would not speak, but stood mute before the judge; but more have been pressed to death by their sinful freedom, or rather licentiousness in speaking; this hath brought them to judgment, and cast them in judgment... A strange thing, that the fall of a man's tongue should oppress his body and whole estate; yet so it is, the weight of a man's tongue falling upon him crushes him to powder. Joseph Caryl.

Ver. 8. Their own tongue to fall upon themselves. The arrows of idle words, though shot out of sight, and possibly quite forgotten, will hereafter drop down upon the heads of such as drew the bow. Words are but wind, is the common saying, but they are such wind as will either blow the soul to its haven of rest, if holy, wholesome, savoury, spiritual, and tending to edification, or else sink it into the Dead Sea and bottomless gulf of eternal misery, if idle, profane, frothy, and unprofitable. Edward Reyner (1600-1670) in "Rules for the Government of the Tongue."

None.

Psalms 64:9*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. Make their own tongue to fall upon themselves—The evil which they had proposed to bring upon the righteous by false testimony and vile slander, shall be visited back upon themselves to their ruin. Psa_7:16; Pro_12:13; Pro_18:7. “They were thinking of wounding the upright, but behold they are wounded themselves.”—Hengstenberg.

All that see them shall flee—As the people fled at the cry of Korah and his company when they saw them swallowed up alive. Num_16:34. But the word translated flee, signifies, radically, to move to and fro, to shake; and hence, also, to wag or shake the head in derisive triumph, as in Jer_18:16; Jer_48:27, in which latter it is translated in our English Bible, “skippedst for joy.” See also Psalm 14:14. So Furst translates the text, “All that look upon them shake [the head].” In this sense the looking upon them signifies, “the gratification of looking upon those who are justly punished, and rendered harmless.”—Delitzsch. See Psa_59:10; Psa_92:11

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves; rather, so shall they be made to stumble; their own tongue shall be against them. The tongue, which they "whetted like a sword," shall be the principal means of bringing them into trouble. (see 2Sa_17:1-23) All that see them shall flee away; rather, shall wag the head (Cheyne, Revised Version) in derision.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Flee - Through fear of being involved in their destruction.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And God cast them down He cast them into the lions’ den, as it is written (Dan. 6:25): “And the king commanded, and they brought these men who had slandered Daniel, and they cast them into the lions’ den, etc.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.