Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.
Parallel translations
- WEB Again, they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, trouble, and sorrow.
- BSB When they are decreased and humbled by oppression, evil, and sorrow,
- NKJV When they are diminished and brought low Through oppression, affliction, and sorrow,
- NASB ¶When they become few and lowly Because of oppression, misery, and sorrow,
- NLT When they decrease in number and become impoverished through oppression, trouble, and sorrow,
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
Yet at times they are diminished and humbled through oppression, trouble, and sorrow.
Overview
The psalm acknowledges that the same people can later be reduced and bowed down by affliction and grief. Fortunes rise and fall under God's sovereign hand. This honest realism about life's reversals reminds believers that their security rests not in circumstances but in the unchanging God who works all things toward good in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Exod 2:23–24And 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 10:32In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel;
- 2 Chr 15:5–6And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries.
- Judg 6:3–6And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them;
- 2 Kgs 14:26For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel.
- 2 Kgs 8:3And it came to pass at the seven years’ end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land.
- Exod 1:13–14And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
- 1 Sam 2:5–7They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
- Ps 30:6–7And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.
- 2 Kgs 13:7Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing.
- Ruth 1:20–21And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
- Gen 45:11And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.
- Job 1:10–17Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
- 2 Kgs 4:8And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.
- Jer 51:33–34For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
- 2 Kgs 13:22But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.
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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 107:39 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.