Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent; He will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
Parallel translations
- WEB God 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.
- KJV God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
- NKJV God shall likewise destroy you forever; He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place, And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
- NASB ¶But God will break you down forever; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent, And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
- NLT But God will strike you down once and for all. He will pull you from your home and uproot you from the land of the living. Interlude
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 will permanently overthrow the wicked man, uprooting him from life itself. It declares that divine justice will surely answer human cruelty.
Overview
After describing the man's evil, David announces God's certain judgment: he will be torn down and rooted out of the land of the living. The imagery of uprooting reverses the security the wicked thought he had. This confidence in God's justice frees believers from taking vengeance into their own hands (Romans 12:19).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Prov 2:22but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.
- Ps 27:13Still I am certain to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
- Rev 21:8But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”
- Job 18:14He is torn from the shelter of his tent and is marched off to the king of terrors.
- Isa 38:11I said, “I will never again see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living; I will no longer look on mankind with those who dwell in this world.
- Prov 12:19Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.
- Prov 19:9A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who pours out lies will perish.
- Ps 64:7–10But God will shoot them with arrows; suddenly they will be wounded.
- Prov 19:5A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape.
- Ps 120:2–4Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.
- Ps 116:9I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
- Ps 7:14–16Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.
- Ps 37:35–36I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,
- Ps 140:9–11May the heads of those who surround me be covered in the trouble their lips have caused.
- Ps 55:23But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.
- Isa 22:19I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position.
- Job 20:6–7Though his arrogance reaches the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,
- Luke 16:27–28‘Then I beg you, father,’ he said, ‘send Lazarus to my father’s house,
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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 52:5 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.