I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will strike them through, so that they will not be able to rise. They shall fall under my feet.
- BSB I crushed them so they could not rise; they have fallen under my feet.
- NKJV I have wounded them, So that they could not rise; They have fallen under my feet.
- NASB I shattered them, so that they were not able to rise; They fell under my feet.
- NLT I struck them down so they could not get up; they fell beneath my feet.
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's enemies are struck down so thoroughly they cannot rise again. The defeat God grants is final, not partial.
Overview
The vivid language of foes falling and being unable to stand underscores the totality of the victory. Such warfare imagery belongs to David's historical conflicts as God's anointed king. Read in light of the whole canon, it anticipates the decisive overthrow of all that opposes God's kingdom, accomplished ultimately in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 47:3He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.
- Ps 36:12There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.
- 1 Sam 17:49–51And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
- 1 Sam 23:5So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
- 2 Sam 10:1–19And it came to pass after this, that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanun his son reigned in his stead.
- 2 Sam 8:1–18And after this it came to pass that David smote the Philistines, and subdued them: and David took Methegammah out of the hand of the Philistines.
- 2 Sam 21:15–22Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint.
- 2 Sam 18:7–8Where the people of Israel were slain before the servants of David, and there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand men.
- 2 Sam 5:1–25Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
- 2 Sam 22:39And I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they could not arise: yea, they are fallen under my feet.
- 1 Sam 30:17And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.
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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 18:38 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.