For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain.
Parallel translations
- KJV For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.
- BSB who speak of You deceitfully; Your enemies take Your name in vain.
- NKJV For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain.
- NASB For they speak against You wickedly, And Your enemies take Your name in vain.
- NLT They blaspheme you; your enemies misuse your name.
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
The wicked speak against God maliciously and take His name in vain. It identifies their offense as rebellion aimed at God Himself.
Overview
David grounds his opposition to the wicked in their hostility to God, not merely to himself. Their sin is fundamentally vertical: they defame and misuse the holy name. This clarifies that David's hatred in the following verses is hatred of God's enemies, a stance that finds its measure in love for God's honor.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Jude 1:15to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
- Exod 20:7“You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
- Ps 74:18Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
- Ps 2:1–3Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
- Isa 37:23Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
- Ps 73:8–9They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression.
- Ps 74:22–23Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.
- Isa 37:28–29But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me.
- Rev 13:6He opened his mouth for blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his dwelling, those who dwell in heaven.
- Job 21:14–15They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.
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 139:20 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.