For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.
Parallel translations
- WEB For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your 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 upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
- Exod 20:7Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
- Ps 74:18Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
- Ps 2:1–3Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
- Isa 37:23Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
- Ps 73:8–9They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
- Ps 74:22–23Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.
- Isa 37:28–29But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
- Rev 13:6And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
- Job 21:14–15Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy 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.