Hurl your lightning bolts and scatter your enemies! Shoot your arrows and confuse them!
Parallel translations
- WEB Throw out lightning, and scatter them. Send out your arrows, and rout them.
- KJV Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.
- BSB Flash forth Your lightning and scatter them; shoot Your arrows and rout them.
- NKJV Flash forth lightning and scatter them; Shoot out Your arrows and destroy them.
- NASB Flash forth lightning and scatter them; Send out Your arrows and confuse them.
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 asks God to send lightning and arrows to scatter and rout his enemies. It appeals to God's power to overcome overwhelming foes.
Overview
David pictures God wielding the forces of nature as weapons against his enemies, trusting divine power rather than his own. The imagery conveys God's sovereign might over all opposition. The same Lord who routs His enemies will one day put every foe to flight at Christ's appearing (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Deut 32:23“I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.
- Ps 18:13–14Yahweh also thundered in the sky. The Most High uttered his voice: hailstones and coals of fire.
- Deut 32:42I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy.”
- Ps 45:5Your arrows are sharp. The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king’s enemies.
- Ps 7:12–13If a man doesn’t relent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow.
- 2 Sam 22:12–15He made darkness a shelter around himself: gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies.
- Ps 21:12For you will make them turn their back, when you aim drawn bows at their face.
- Ps 77:17–18The clouds poured out water. The skies resounded with thunder. Your arrows also flashed around.
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 144:6 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.