Psalms 141:10

into their own nets Heb. into his own nets, i.e. each into his own net. "The enginer" is "hoist with his own petar." For the thought that the plots of the wicked recoil upon themselves cp. Psalms 140:11; Psalms 7:15-16; Psalms 9:16.

withal escape Lit. pass onunharmed, at the same timeas they are caught in their own snare.

Additional Note

The P.B.V. of Psalms 141:5 gives a striking example of the use which Coverdale made of S. Münster's version in revising his translation of 1535 for the -Great Bible" of 1539 (see Introd. p. lxxiii), and also of the variations between the editions of the Great Bible.

Coverdale's version of 1535 is: "Let the rightuous (rather) smite me frendly, and reprove me: so wil I take it, as though he had poured oyle upô my heade: it shal not hurte my heade, yee I wil praye yet for their wickednesse. Their iudges stôble at the stone, yet heare they my wordes, y e they be ioyfull. Oure bones lye scatered before y e pytt, like as when one graueth and dyggeth vp the grounde."

In the Great Bible of 1539, reprinted in April 1540, the only change (with the exception of variations of spelling) is in Psalms 141:6, which runs: "Let theyr judges stomble in stony places: that they may heare my wordes, for they are swete."

But in the second Great Bible, also published in 1540, all the changes with which we are familiar in the P.B.V. have been introduced. The passage runs thus: "Let the ryghteous rather smyte me frendly and reproue me. But let not ther preciouse balmes: breake myne heed, yee, I wyll praye yet agaynste theyr wyckednesse. Lett theyr judges be overthrowen in stony places: that they may heare my wordes: for they are swete. Our bones lye scatered before the pit, lyke as whç one breaketh and heweth wood upô y e erth."

The substantial changes are all taken from Münster's version: "Percutiat me justus in pietate atque redarguat me, oleum autem praecipuum non frangat caput meum: quia adhuc oratio mea contra mala eorum. Praecipitentur in locis petrosis judices illorum, ut audiant sermones meos, quoniam suaves sunt. Sicut qui frangit et dissecat (ligna) in terra, dispersa sunt ossa nostra iuxta sepulchrum."