to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
Parallel translations
- WEB To execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples;
- KJV To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people;
- NKJV To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples;
- NASB To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishment on the peoples,
- NLT to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
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 saints are called to execute God's vengeance and just punishments on the nations, carrying out His righteous judgment rather than personal revenge.
Overview
Within Israel's history this described God using His covenant people to enact His judgments against hostile nations. The vengeance in view is God's own, not human spite (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19). In the New Testament era the church wages a spiritual rather than military campaign, advancing Christ's kingdom by the gospel, while final judgment of the nations belongs to the returning Christ (Revelation 19).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Zech 14:17–19And should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, then the rain will not fall on them.
- Rev 19:11–21Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. With righteousness He judges and wages war.
- 1 Sam 15:2–3This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they ambushed them on their way up from Egypt.
- 1 Sam 15:18–23and sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and devote to destruction the sinful Amalekites. Fight against them until you have wiped them out.’
- Ps 137:8–9O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
- Judg 5:23‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of the LORD. ‘Bitterly curse her inhabitants; for they did not come to help the LORD, to help the LORD against the mighty.’
- Num 31:2–3“Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”
- Zech 9:13–16For I will bend Judah as My bow and fit it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against the sons of Greece. I will make you like the sword of a mighty man.
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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 149:7 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.