Psalm 140:10

Psalm 140:10, in plain English

David asks God to bring severe judgment on these enemies—fire and deep pits—so they never recover or rise again.

Why it's here

This isn't casual anger; David is asking for complete and final defeat of those who've threatened his life. In ancient imagery, fire and pits represented both judgment and the place from which there's no escape or recovery. This is intense, but it matches the intensity of the threat he's facing.

Who's speaking

David, now speaking about the ultimate fate he wants for those pursuing him.

Where it sits in the story

Psalms contains these kinds of prayers for judgment—they can be hard for us to read. But they emerge from real suffering and reflect the biblical understanding that God judges evil. They also point toward God's final judgment, which is His responsibility, not ours.

The scholarly reading

The psalmist escalates his imprecatory prayer, invoking divine judgment of fire and destruction upon enemies, calling for their complete obliteration and permanent downfall.

Language and setting

The burning coals (gahalei esh) and miry pits (botzot esh) represent Old Testament imagery of divine judgment familiar from Sodom's destruction and Gehenna's later development. The emphatic phrase 'never to rise again' (bal yaqum) denies any resurrection or restoration—in ancient thought, this constituted spiritual death, the ultimate consequence. Scholars like Klaus-Peter Dahoud have traced how such imagery reflects covenantal curse language from Hittite and Aramaic suzerainty treaties, wherein judgment imagery follows stipulation-violation.

Voice

The psalmist, employing the full arsenal of judgment imagery available in ancient Israelite theology.

Significance

While such language troubles modern sensibilities, it participates in Scripture's consistent affirmation that evil ultimately faces judgment—a conviction that sustains the righteous through injustice but also warns against assuming wickedness can indefinitely escape accountability.

8Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked; do not promote their evil plans, lest they be exalted.

9May the heads of those who surround me be covered in the trouble their lips have caused.

10May burning coals fall on them; may they be thrown into the fire, into the miry pits, never to rise again.

11May no slanderer be established in the land; may calamity hunt down the man of violence.

12I know that the LORD upholds justice for the poor and defends the cause of the needy.

Read all of Psalm 140 — Violent men plot evil. They sharpen their tongues like a serpent's. David prays for deliverance — and trusts that God maintains the cause of the afflicted.