To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
Parallel translations
- WEB to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death;
- BSB to hear a prisoner’s groaning, to release those condemned to death,
- NKJV To hear the groaning of the prisoner, To release those appointed to death,
- NASB To hear the groaning of the prisoner, To set free those who were doomed to death,
- NLT to hear the groans of the prisoners, to release those condemned to die.
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
He hears the prisoner's groans and frees those condemned to die. God acts to deliver the oppressed and doomed.
Overview
God looks down specifically to hear the groaning of prisoners and to release those appointed to death. His attention moves Him to act in liberation. This foreshadows the work of Christ, who came to proclaim freedom to captives and life to those under sentence of death (Luke 4:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 79:11Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die;
- Ps 146:7Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:
- Exod 3:7And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
- Isa 61:1–3The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
- 2 Chr 33:11–13Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
- Isa 14:17That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
- 2 Kgs 13:22–23But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.
- Eph 2:2–3Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
- Zech 9:9–12Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
- Exod 2:23–25And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
- 2 Kgs 13:4And Jehoahaz besought the LORD, and the LORD hearkened unto him: for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them.
- Acts 12:6–11And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.
- Jer 51:32–35And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
- Job 24:12Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 102:20 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
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