To crush under one’s feet All the prisoners of the earth,
Parallel translations
- WEB To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
- KJV To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
- BSB To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,
- NASB To crush under one’s feet All the prisoners of the land,
- NLT If people crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,
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
God does not approve of crushing prisoners underfoot; injustice against the helpless is contrary to His will.
Overview
This verse begins a series describing oppressions God does not sanction. To trample captives is to violate justice that the Lord upholds. Such concern for the oppressed reflects God's righteous character and foreshadows the Messiah who comes to set captives free (Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Zech 9:11–12As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which is no water.
- Isa 51:22–23Thus says your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more:
- Isa 49:9saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed along the paths, and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights.
- Jer 51:33–36For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden. Yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.”
- Ps 69:33For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.
- Ps 102:20to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death;
- Isa 14:17who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities; who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”
- Ps 79:11Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.
- Jer 50:33–34Yahweh of Armies says: “The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together. All who took them captive hold them fast. They refuse to let them go.
- Jer 50:17“Israel is a hunted sheep. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 3:34 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.