Just Justice for the Violent and for the Needy

Psalm 140 is another prayer psalm about personal enemies. They are described in the familiar categories of “the righteous” (v. 13) and “the wicked” (vv. 4, 8). These “men of violence” (vv. 1, 4, 11) are further described by moral adjectives such as “evil” (v. 1, and so they “devise evil”) and “proud” (v. 5) and by a variety of images. They are warlike (vv. 2, 7) and are compared to hunters (v. 5) and “their tongues” to “a serpent’s” (v. 3). The Hebrew expression behind the NIV’s “slanderers” (v. 11) is literally “a man of the tongue,” thus echoing verse 3. The righteous are further described by the moral term “the upright” and by economic terms, “the poor” and “needy,” which may or may not be metaphoric. The issue of the psalm is that of justic…