Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.
- BSB Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
- NKJV “Now consider this, you who forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, And there be none to deliver:
- NASB ¶“Now consider this, you who forget God, Or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be no one to save you.
- NLT Repent, all of you who forget me, or I will tear you apart, and no one will help you.
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 warns those who forget Him to consider their ways, lest He tear them apart with none to rescue. Forgetting God is perilous.
Overview
God solemnly calls the forgetful to reflect before judgment falls, using the image of a lion rending its prey with no deliverer to intervene. The warning is severe because the danger is real. Yet the call to 'consider' is also merciful, an invitation to repent while there is still time.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Job 8:13So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish:
- Hos 4:6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
- Ps 9:17The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
- Ps 7:2Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
- Deut 32:18Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
- Jer 2:32Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
- Ps 10:4The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
- Hos 13:8I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.
- Isa 51:13And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
- 2 Sam 22:42They looked, but there was none to save; even unto the LORD, but he answered them not.
- Hag 1:5Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
- Rev 6:16–17And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
- Amos 2:14Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:
- Mic 5:8And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.
- Hos 5:14For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.
- Ezek 18:28Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
- Luke 15:17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
- Eccl 7:14In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.
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 50:22 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
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