He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made.
- BSB He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.
- NKJV He made a pit and dug it out, And has fallen into the ditch which he made.
- NASB He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, And has fallen into the hole which he made.
- NLT They dig a deep pit to trap others, then fall into it themselves.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The wicked man digs a pit but falls into it himself. Evil schemes ultimately recoil upon those who devise them.
Overview
David describes the just irony of providence: the trap set for others becomes the trapper's own ruin. This principle of evil rebounding on its author runs throughout Scripture as a mark of God's righteous government. It assures the faithful that, in God's justice, wickedness is finally self-defeating, and supremely so at the cross, where evil's greatest scheme became its own undoing.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Job 4:8Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
- Ps 141:10Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.
- Prov 26:27Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.
- Ps 35:7–8For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.
- Ps 10:2The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
- Eccl 10:8–9He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
- Ps 57:6They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.
- Ps 9:15–16The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.
- Esth 7:10So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.
- Ps 140:9–10As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.
- Prov 5:22His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
- Jer 18:20Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.
- Ps 119:85The proud have digged pits for me, which are not after thy law.
- Ps 94:13That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.
- Job 6:27Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 7:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.