Limitless Word
You will capture all your enemies. Your strong right hand will seize all who hate you.
Psalms 21:8 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
  • KJV Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.
  • BSB Your hand will apprehend all Your enemies; Your right hand will seize those who hate You.
  • NKJV Your hand will find all Your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate You.
  • NASB Your hand will find all your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate you.

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

God's hand will find out and seize all his enemies. No foe of the Lord and his king can escape divine justice.

Overview

The psalm turns to the defeat of God's enemies: his powerful hand will locate and grasp all who hate him. The address shifts toward God's own action against the wicked. This assured judgment on God's foes anticipates the final triumph of the Messiah over all that opposes God's reign.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 15

  • 1 Cor 15:25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
  • Ps 110:1–2A Psalm by David. Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”
  • Luke 19:27But bring those enemies of mine who didn’t want me to reign over them here, and kill them before me.’”
  • Ps 72:9Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him. His enemies shall lick the dust.
  • Rev 19:15Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty.
  • Ps 89:22–23No enemy will tax him. No wicked man will oppress him.
  • Luke 19:14But his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this man to reign over us.’
  • Ps 2:9You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
  • Heb 10:28–29A man who disregards Moses’ law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses.
  • Amos 9:2–3Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down.
  • Ps 18:1For the Chief Musician. By David the servant of Yahweh, who spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said, I love you, Yahweh, my strength.
  • 2 Sam 7:1When the king lived in his house, and Yahweh had given him rest from all his enemies all around,
  • Isa 10:10As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
  • 1 Sam 31:3The battle went hard against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers.
  • 1 Sam 25:29Though men may rise up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your God. He will sling out the souls of your enemies, as from the hollow of a sling.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 21:8YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 21:8 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.