Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
Parallel translations
- WEB You will keep them, Yahweh. You will preserve them from this generation forever.
- BSB You, O LORD, will keep us; You will forever guard us from this generation.
- NKJV You shall keep them, O Lord, You shall preserve them from this generation forever.
- NASB You, Lord, will keep them; You will protect him from this generation forever.
- NLT Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect the oppressed, preserving them forever from this lying generation,
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
Yahweh will keep and preserve His people from this corrupt generation forever. God guards the faithful amid a faithless world.
Overview
David trusts that the God whose words are pure will also protect His people permanently. Some take 'them' as God's words, others as the oppressed; faithful interpreters read it either way, and both are true to Scripture. The verse assures believers of God's keeping power even in a wicked age.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 1 Sam 2:9He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
- Ps 121:8The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
- Ps 37:40And the LORD shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.
- Ps 145:20The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
- 1 Pet 1:5Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
- Isa 27:3I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
- Deut 33:3Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.
- Ps 10:18To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.
- Ps 37:28For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
- Ps 16:1Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.
- Matt 3:7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
- Jude 1:1Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 12:7 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.