Psalms 55:9

Destroy, O Lord, [and] divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.

Ver. 9. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues] Heb. Swallow them up, O Lord, and divide their tongues; by an allusion, as some conceive, to those two famous judgments of God upon Dathan and Abiram, first, Numbers 16:31,33, and then, secondly, upon the Babel builders, Genesis 11:6,9, both which were thrown out for examples to all succeeding ages (as St Jude saith of the Sodomites, Jdg 1:7), and are to be considered by the saints, as here, in their prayers against their enemies. How God answered this prayer to David, see 2 Samuel 17:1,14, &c.

For I have seen violence and strife in the city] i.e. In Jerusalem, something I have seen, but more outrages I have heard of, since Absalom with his army came into it. The rude soldiers plunder the poor citizens at pleasure, and cannot agree among themselves in dividing the spoil.