May his descendants be eliminated; May their name be wiped out in a following 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.
- BSB May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.
- 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.
- 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 blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.
- Ps 37:28For Yahweh loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
- Job 18:19He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived.
- Deut 29:20Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.
- 2 Kgs 10:10–11Know now that nothing will fall to the earth of Yahweh’s word, which Yahweh spoke concerning Ahab’s house. For Yahweh has done that which he spoke by his servant Elijah.”
- Deut 9:14Leave me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the sky; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.”
- Deut 25:19Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. You shall not forget.
- 1 Sam 3:13For I have told him that I will judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves, and he didn’t restrain them.
- Isa 14:20–22You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The offspring of evildoers will not be named forever.
- 1 Sam 2:31–33Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father’s house, that there will not be an old man in your house.
- Jer 22:30Yahweh says, “Record this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his offspring prosper, sitting on David’s throne, and ruling in Judah.”
- Ps 21:10You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from among the children of men.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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
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.