Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 141:7

"As when one ploweth and cleaveth the earth, Our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol." — Psalms 141:7 (ASV)

Our bones.— The literal rendering of this verse is As when one cutteth and cleaveth in the earth our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.

The reading “our bones” necessarily creates an abrupt transition from the fate of the unjust judges in the previous verse to that of the afflicted people. However, a correction by a second hand in the Codex Alexandrinus of the Septuagint presents the much easier and more satisfactory reading “their bones.” This alternative reading is confirmed by the Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, and also by the fact that the word rendered here as “cleave” is the one used in 2 Chronicles 25:12 (see reference above, Psalms 141:6) concerning the Edomites thrown from the cliff. But the abrupt transition is not uncommon in Hebrew poetry, and the more difficult reading is, according to rule, to be preserved.

The figure is mistaken in the Authorized Version. The reference is not to the ground strewn with logs left by a woodcutter, but to the clods of earth left by the plough. Keeping the present text, and making the figure refer to the righteous, we should naturally compare Psalm 129:3, where ploughing is used as an image of affliction and torture, as “harrowing” is for us. The verse might be paraphrased: “We have been so harrowed and torn that we are brought to the brink of the grave,” the image being, however, heightened by the recollection of some actual massacre.