Though they intend You harm, the schemes they devise will not prevail.
Parallel translations
- WEB For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
- KJV For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
- NKJV For they intended evil against You; They devised a plot which they are not able to perform.
- NASB Though they intended evil against You And devised a plot, They will not succeed.
- NLT Although they plot against you, their evil schemes will never succeed.
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 enemies plotted evil against the king, but their schemes cannot succeed. Plans set against God's anointed are doomed to fail.
Overview
The reason for their judgment is stated: they intended and devised evil against God's king. Yet their plotting is futile, unable to prevail against the Lord's purposes. This echoes Psalm 2's theme that the nations rage in vain against God's Messiah, whose throne God secures despite all opposition.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Ps 10:2In pride the wicked pursue the needy; let them be caught in the schemes they devise.
- Ps 2:1Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
- Ps 31:13For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side. They conspire against me and plot to take my life.
- Jer 11:18–19And the LORD informed me, so I knew. Then You showed me their deeds.
- Isa 7:6–7‘Let us invade Judah, terrorize it, and divide it among ourselves. Then we can install the son of Tabeal over it as king.’
- Isa 8:9–10Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!
- Matt 2:16When Herod saw that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was filled with rage. Sending orders, he put to death all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, according to the time he had learned from the Magi.
- Acts 4:17–18But to keep this message from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in this name.”
- Matt 28:2–6Suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, rolled away the stone, and sat on it.
- Ps 35:20For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful schemes against those who live quietly in the land.
- Matt 27:63–64“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while He was alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’
- Matt 2:8And sending them to Bethlehem, he said: “Go and search carefully for the Child, and when you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him.”
- Ps 83:4saying, “Come, let us erase them as a nation; may the name of Israel be remembered no more.”
- Matt 21:46Although they wanted to arrest Him, they were afraid of the crowds, because the people regarded Him as a prophet.
- Ezek 11:2And the LORD said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who plot evil and give wicked counsel in this city.
- Matt 26:4–5and they conspired to arrest Jesus covertly and kill Him.
- Acts 5:27–28They brought them in and made them stand before the Sanhedrin, where the high priest interrogated them.
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 21:11 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.