“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”
Parallel translations
- WEB “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”
- KJV Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
- NKJV Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
- NASB “Stop striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted on the earth.”
- NLT “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”
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 commands, 'Be still, and know that I am God,' for He will be exalted among the nations. It matters because it calls people to cease striving and acknowledge God's supremacy.
Overview
The call to 'be still' is chiefly a summons to stop raging and resisting and to recognize God's sovereign rule, though it also comforts His people with rest in Him. God declares His certain exaltation over all nations and the whole earth. This points to the day when every knee bows to Christ and God is glorified in all the earth.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 100:3Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
- Hab 2:20But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.
- Ezek 38:23I will magnify and sanctify Myself, and will reveal Myself in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.
- Zech 2:13Be silent before the LORD, all people, for He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling.”
- Ps 83:18May they know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, are Most High over all the earth.
- Isa 2:17So the pride of man will be brought low, and the loftiness of men will be humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,
- Ps 57:5Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; may Your glory cover all the earth.
- 1 Chr 29:11Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all.
- Ps 21:13Be exalted, O LORD, in Your strength; we will sing and praise Your power.
- Isa 5:16But the LORD of Hosts will be exalted by His justice, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
- Isa 2:11The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
- Exod 18:11Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for He did this when they treated Israel with arrogance.”
- 1 Kgs 18:36At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet approached the altar and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and have done all these things at Your command.
- 1 Sam 17:46This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand. This day I will strike you down, cut off your head, and give the carcasses of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the creatures of the earth. Then the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
- Rev 15:3–4and they sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!
- 2 Kgs 19:12Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers rescue those nations—the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar?
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 46:10 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.