Psalms 140:2
who devise evil in their hearts and stir up war all day long.
BSB
ASV
Who devise mischiefs in their heart; Continually do they gather themselves together for war.
KJV
Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.
Which imagine mischiefs in their heart,.... This shows that not a single person barely is meant but more, as Saul's courtiers; who were secretly and continually meditating mischief against David, traducing him to Saul, and devising things to take away his life.
Those who can agree in nothing else can agree to persecute a good man. Herod and Pilate will unite in this, and in this they resemble Satan, who is not divided against himself, all the devils agreeing in Beelzebub.
Which imagine mischiefs in their heart. They cannot be happy unless they are plotting and planning, conspiring and contriving. They seem to have but one heart, for they are completely agreed in their malice; and with all their heart and soul they pursue their victim. One piece of mischief is not enough for them; they work in the plural, and prepare many arrows for their bow. What they cannot actually do they nevertheless like to think over, and to rehearse on the stage of their cruel fancy. It is an awful thing to have such a heart disease as this.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Psalms 120:7I am in favor of peace; but when I speak, they want war.
leads to
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
In return for my love they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.
Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Through
Psalms 36:4Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.
leads to
For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.
Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
All day long I have held out My hands to an obstinate people who walk in the wrong path, who follow their own imaginations,
Through
Psalms 56:6They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps while they wait to take my life.
leads to
For my enemies speak against me, and those who lie in wait for my life conspire,
See how they lie in wait for me. Fierce men conspire against me for no transgression or sin of my own, O LORD.