Don’t gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men;
Parallel translations
- KJV Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:
- BSB Do not take my soul away with sinners, or my life with men of bloodshed,
- NKJV Do not gather my soul with sinners, Nor my life with bloodthirsty men,
- NASB Do not take my soul away along with sinners, Nor my life with men of bloodshed,
- NLT Don’t let me suffer the fate of sinners. Don’t condemn me along with murderers.
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 prays not to be swept away with sinners and violent men. He asks to be spared the fate of the wicked.
Overview
David pleads that God would not include him among sinners and bloodthirsty men when judgment falls. He desires a destiny different from that of the wicked. This plea expresses dependence on God's mercy rather than confidence in self, a separation from condemnation ultimately secured for believers through Christ, who delivers his people from wrath.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Rev 22:14–15Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.
- Matt 25:32Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
- Ps 139:19If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
- Matt 24:51and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.
- 2 Sam 16:7Shimei said when he cursed, “Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and base fellow!
- 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.
- 1 Sam 22:18–19The king said to Doeg, “Turn and attack the priests!” Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod.
- Mal 3:18Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.
- Ps 51:14Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
- Ps 28:1–3By David. To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me; lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.
- Ps 55:23But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.
- Matt 25:46These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
- Matt 25:44“Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’
- 2 Sam 21:1There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
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 26:9 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.