Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
Parallel translations
- WEB By 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.
- BSB Of David. To You, O LORD, I call; be not deaf to me, O my Rock. For if You remain silent, I will be like those descending to the Pit.
- NKJV To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock: Do not be silent to me, Lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.
- NASB To You, Lord, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit.
- NLT I pray to you, O Lord, my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you are silent, I might as well give up and die.
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 calls to the Lord, his rock, begging Him not to be silent lest David sink like those headed to the grave. It shows desperate dependence on God's answer.
Overview
David addresses God as his 'rock,' the stable refuge in danger, and dreads divine silence as equivalent to death. To be unheard by God would leave him among the doomed. This cry anticipates Christ, who endured God's silence so that His people would always be heard.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Ps 143:7Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
- Ps 18:2The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
- Ps 88:4–6I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:
- Prov 1:12Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
- Ps 83:1Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
- Isa 26:4Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
- Rev 20:3And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
- Job 33:28He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.
- Ps 22:2O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
- Isa 38:18For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
- Ps 30:9What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?
- Ps 35:22This thou hast seen, O LORD: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me.
- Ps 3:4I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
- Ps 69:15Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
- Ps 5:2Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.
- Ps 77:1I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.
- Ps 142:1I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.
- Ps 39:12Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
- Ps 42:9I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
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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 28:1 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.