The LORD brings death and gives life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Yahweh kills, and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol, and brings up.
- KJV The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.
- NKJV “TheLord kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up.
- NASB “The Lord puts to death and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and brings up.
- NLT The Lord gives both death and life; he brings some down to the grave but raises others up.
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 Lord holds power over death and life, bringing down to the grave and raising up. He alone is sovereign over human destiny.
Overview
Hannah confesses God's absolute sovereignty over life, death, and even the realm of the dead. This is poetic confession of God's total dominion over every human condition. Such language reaches forward to the hope of resurrection, fully revealed in Christ, who holds the keys of death and Hades.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Deut 32:39See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
- Isa 26:19Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.
- Rev 1:18the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.
- Job 5:18For He wounds, but He also binds; He strikes, but His hands also heal.
- Jonah 2:2–6saying: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me. From the belly of Sheol I called for help, and You heard my voice.
- 2 Kgs 5:7When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and asked, “Am I God, killing and giving life, that this man expects me to cure a leper? Surely you can see that he is seeking a quarrel with me!”
- John 5:25–29Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
- John 11:25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.
- Hos 6:1–2Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
- Matt 12:40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
- 1 Sam 20:3But David again vowed, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or he will be grieved.’ As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”
- 2 Cor 1:9–10Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.
- Ps 116:3The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.
- Ps 68:20Our God is a God of deliverance; the Lord GOD is our rescuer from death.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 2:6 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.