When they are diminished and brought low Through oppression, affliction, and sorrow,
Parallel translations
- WEB Again, they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, trouble, and sorrow.
- KJV Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.
- BSB When they are decreased and humbled by oppression, evil, 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 2:23–24In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
- 2 Kgs 10:32In those days Yahweh began to cut away parts of Israel; and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel;
- 2 Chr 15:5–6In those times there was no peace to him who went out, nor to him who came in; but great troubles were on all the inhabitants of the lands.
- Judg 6:3–6So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east came up against them.
- 2 Kgs 14:26For Yahweh saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter; for all, slave and free, and there was no helper for Israel.
- 2 Kgs 8:3At the end of seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines. Then she went out to beg the king for her house and for her land.
- Exod 1:13–14The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve,
- 1 Sam 2:5–7Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. Those who were hungry are satisfied. Yes, the barren has borne seven. She who has many children languishes.
- Ps 30:6–7As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”
- 2 Kgs 13:7For he didn’t leave to Jehoahaz of the people any more than fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing.
- Ruth 1:20–21She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara; for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
- Gen 45:11There I will nourish you; for there are yet five years of famine; lest you come to poverty, you, and your household, and all that you have.”’
- Job 1:10–17Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
- 2 Kgs 4:8One day Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.
- Jer 51:33–34For 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.”
- 2 Kgs 13:22Hazael 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.