The wicked plot against the godly; they snarl at them in defiance.
Parallel translations
- WEB The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth.
- KJV The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
- BSB The wicked scheme against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them,
- NKJV The wicked plots against the just, And gnashes at him with his teeth.
- NASB ¶The wicked plots against the righteous, And gnashes at him with his teeth.
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 wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth in hostility. The godly often face active malice.
Overview
David acknowledges the real danger: the wicked scheme against the just with seething hatred, 'gnashes at him with his teeth.' This sober realism keeps the psalm's comfort from being naive. The righteous have always faced such enmity, supremely Christ, against whom His enemies raged, yet God's purposes prevail.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 35:16Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me.
- Mic 2:1Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.
- Dan 8:12The army was given over to it together with the continual burnt offering through disobedience; and it cast down truth to the ground, and it did its pleasure and prospered.
- Ps 31:13For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, while they conspire together against me, they plot to take away my life.
- Matt 26:16From that time he sought opportunity to betray him.
- 1 Sam 18:21Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David, “You shall today be my son-in-law a second time.”
- Matt 26:4They took counsel together that they might take Jesus by deceit, and kill him.
- Esth 3:6But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai’s people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai’s people.
- Ps 37:32The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to kill him.
- 1 Sam 23:7–9Saul was told that David had come to Keilah. Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in by entering into a town that has gates and bars.”
- Dan 8:24His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper in what he does; and he shall destroy the mighty ones and the holy people.
- 2 Sam 15:10–12But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron!’”
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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 37:12 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.