O God, if only you would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers!
Parallel translations
- WEB If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
- KJV Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.
- BSB O God, that You would slay the wicked—away from me, you bloodthirsty men—
- NKJV Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
- NASB ¶If only You would put the wicked to death, God; Leave me, you men of bloodshed.
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 wishes God would slay the wicked and separates himself from bloodthirsty men. It voices a longing for God's justice against entrenched evil.
Overview
After dwelling on God's intimate knowledge, David turns to the problem of the wicked who oppose this very God. His prayer for their judgment flows from zeal for God's holiness, not personal vindictiveness. Such imprecations are answered ultimately at the cross and the final judgment, where God deals justly with all evil while offering mercy to repentant sinners (Romans 12:19).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 119:115Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.
- Ps 5:6You will destroy those who speak lies. Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
- Isa 11:4but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
- Ps 9:17The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol, even all the nations that forget God.
- Ps 6:8Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.
- Ps 64:7But God will shoot at them. They will be suddenly struck down with an arrow.
- Ps 55:23But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.
- 2 Cor 6:17Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.
- Matt 25:41Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels;
- Ps 94:23He has brought on them their own iniquity, and will cut them off in their own wickedness. Yahweh, our God, will cut them off.
- Matt 7:23Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 139:19 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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