May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out.
- KJV Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
- ESV May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
- NKJV Let his posterity be cut off, And in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
- NASB May his descendants be eliminated; May their name be wiped out in a following generation.
- NLT May all his offspring die. May his family name be blotted out in the next generation.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
David asks that the wicked man's descendants be cut off and his name forgotten within a generation. It pleads for the complete end of his line.
Overview
To have one's 'name blotted out' was, in Israel, the loss of all remembrance and legacy, the opposite of God's promise to preserve the righteous. This severe petition leaves final judgment to God. In sharp contrast, those in Christ have their names written in the Book of Life and are remembered forever (Revelation 3:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Prov 10:7The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.
- Ps 37:28For the LORD loves justice and will not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off.
- Job 18:19He has no offspring or posterity among his people, no survivor where he once lived.
- Deut 29:20The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven
- 2 Kgs 10:10–11Know, then, that not a word the LORD has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail, for the LORD has done what He promised through His servant Elijah.”
- Deut 9:14Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.”
- Deut 25:19When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
- 1 Sam 3:13I told him that I would judge his house forever for the iniquity of which he knows, because his sons blasphemed God and he did not restrain them.
- Isa 14:20–22You will not join them in burial, since you have destroyed your land and slaughtered your own people. The offspring of the wicked will never again be mentioned.
- 1 Sam 2:31–33Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that no older man will be left in your house.
- Jer 22:30This is what the LORD says: “Enroll this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will prosper to sit on the throne of David or to rule again in Judah.”
- Ps 21:10You will wipe their descendants from the earth, and their offspring from the sons of men.
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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 109:13 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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