You have not handed me over to my enemies but have set me in a safe place.
Parallel translations
- WEB You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.
- KJV And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.
- BSB You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.
- NKJV And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a wide place.
- NASB And You have not handed me over to the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place.
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 did not hand David over to the enemy but set his feet in a spacious place. It thanks God for freedom and deliverance.
Overview
The 'large place' contrasts with the confinement of being trapped by foes, picturing liberty and security. God's deliverance gives room to live and breathe. This spaciousness anticipates the freedom believers find in Christ, released from bondage into the broad place of grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 36:16Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.
- Deut 32:30How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?
- Ps 18:19He brought me out also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
- Ps 4:1For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments. A Psalm by David. Answer me when I call, God of my righteousness. Give me relief from my distress. Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
- 1 Sam 17:46Today, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you, and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines today to the birds of the sky, and to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,
- 1 Sam 24:18You have declared today how you have dealt well with me, because when Yahweh had delivered me up into your hand, you didn’t kill me.
- Isa 19:4I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
- Job 16:11God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
- Ps 88:8You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.
- 1 Sam 26:8Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered up your enemy into your hand today. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.”
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 31:8 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.