Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in 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.”
- BSB “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over 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 ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
- Hab 2:20But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
- Ezek 38:23Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.
- Zech 2:13Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.
- Ps 83:18That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
- Isa 2:17And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
- Ps 57:5Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.
- 1 Chr 29:11Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.
- Ps 21:13Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.
- Isa 5:16But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
- Isa 2:11The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
- Exod 18:11Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.
- 1 Kgs 18:36And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.
- 1 Sam 17:46This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
- Rev 15:3–4And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
- 2 Kgs 19:12Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?
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.