But the rebellious will be destroyed; they have no future.
Parallel translations
- WEB As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off.
- KJV But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.
- BSB But the transgressors will all be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off.
- NKJV But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; The future of the wicked shall be cut off.
- NASB But wrongdoers will altogether be destroyed; The future of the wicked will be eliminated.
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
Transgressors will be destroyed together, and the future of the wicked is cut off. The unrepentant have no lasting hope.
Overview
David completes the contrast: while the upright have a future (v.37), the wicked are destroyed and their 'future' cut off. Persistent rebellion against God ends in ruin. This solemn warning underscores the urgency of the gospel, which alone rescues sinners from this end and grants them, through Christ, the future the wicked forfeit.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 14:32The wicked is brought down in his calamity, but in death, the righteous has a refuge.
- Ps 52:5God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.
- 2 Th 1:8–9giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,
- Ps 1:4–6The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
- Ps 9:17The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol, even all the nations that forget God.
- Matt 13:49–50So will it be in the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked from among the righteous,
- Matt 13:30Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
- Ps 73:17Until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end.
- Matt 25:46These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
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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 37:38 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.