May they be before the Lord continually, So that He may eliminate their memory from the earth;
Parallel translations
- WEB Let them be before Yahweh continually, that he may cut off their memory from the earth;
- KJV Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
- BSB May their sins always remain before the LORD, that He may cut off their memory from the earth.
- ESV Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!
- NKJV Let them be continually before the Lord, That He may cut off the memory of them from the earth;
- NLT May the Lord always remember these sins, and may his name disappear from human memory.
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 prays that the family's sins remain before God until their memory is erased from the earth. It seeks God's thorough and lasting judgment on persistent evil.
Overview
To be 'before Yahweh continually' means kept in view for judgment, not for blessing. The petition asks God to cut off the legacy of those who set themselves against Him. The verse shows that God does not overlook sin, and it magnifies the grace of being remembered in mercy rather than judgment (Luke 23:42-43).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 34:16Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
- Job 18:17His memory shall perish from the earth. He shall have no name in the street.
- Ps 90:8You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
- Ps 51:9Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.
- Deut 32:34“Isn’t this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?
- Ps 109:13Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out.
- Jer 2:22For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me,” says the Lord Yahweh.
- Isa 65:15You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you. He will call his servants by another name,
- Amos 8:7Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.
- Hos 7:2They don’t consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds have engulfed them. They are before my face.
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 109:15 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.