Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 10:8

"He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages; In the secret places doth he murder the innocent; His eyes are privily set against the helpless." — Psalms 10:8 (ASV)

He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages - As robbers do, who hide themselves in the vicinity of villages, so that they can make a sudden descent upon them in the silence of the night, or so that they may seize and rob the inhabitants as they go out in the morning to attend their flocks to the pastures, or to labor in the fields.

The word translated “villages” properly means an enclosure, such as a court before a building; and then a village or hamlet, farm buildings, or farm hamlets, usually erected around an open space. It is then used to denote the encampment of nomadic tribes, who usually pitch their tents in a circle so as to form an enclosure (Genesis 25:16; Isaiah 42:11).

In the neighborhood of such places—in the thickets, bushes, or ravines that might be near such encampments or enclosures—robbers would naturally hide themselves, so that they might fall upon them suddenly, or so that they might seize anyone who left the village or encampment for any purpose.

So Frazer remarks in his Travels in Chorasan, i. 437: “When the Turkomans design to fall upon a village, they take a position near it in the rear, until in the morning the unsuspecting inhabitants drive out their herds, or leave the villages for some other purpose, and then they suddenly fall upon them.” DeWette, in loc.

In the secret places doth he murder the innocent - From these retreats he suddenly falls upon those who are unsuspicious and who have done him no wrong. The word “innocent” here does not mean sinless in the absolute sense, but it means that they were innocent as far as the robber was concerned. They had done him no wrong; they had given him no occasion to make war upon them.

His eyes are privily set - Margin: “hide themselves.” The Hebrew word means to hide; to conceal; to lay up in private; to hoard; to keep back; to hold back, etc. Here it means to conceal, to lurk in ambush; and the idea is that his eyes will secretly watch, or keep a lookout for them; that is, that his eyes, or that he himself, will be concealed, so that he may observe the movements of those whom he intends to make his prey.

Against the poor - Or, the wretched, the afflicted, the defenseless. The meaning is that, instead of being a helper of the poor and wretched, he is disposed to take every advantage of them, and deprive them of all their rights and comforts.