For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
Parallel translations
- WEB For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
- BSB Though they intend You harm, the schemes they devise will not prevail.
- 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 10:2The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
- Ps 2:1Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
- Ps 31:13For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.
- Jer 11:18–19And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings.
- Isa 7:6–7Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal:
- Isa 8:9–10Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
- Matt 2:16Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.
- Acts 4:17–18But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.
- Matt 28:2–6And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
- Ps 35:20For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land.
- Matt 27:63–64Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.
- Matt 2:8And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
- Ps 83:4They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
- Matt 21:46But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.
- Ezek 11:2Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city:
- Matt 26:4–5And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.
- Acts 5:27–28And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked 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
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