Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell, For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let death come suddenly on them. Let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is among them, in their dwelling.
- KJV Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.
- BSB Let death seize them by surprise; let them go down to Sheol alive, for evil is with them in their homes.
- NASB May death come deceitfully upon them; May they go down alive to Sheol, For evil is in their dwelling, in their midst.
- NLT Let death stalk my enemies; let the grave swallow them alive, for evil makes its home within them.
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
David calls for sudden judgment to fall on the wicked betrayers. It is an imprecatory plea entrusting their fate to God.
Overview
David prays that death would overtake those whose dwelling is full of wickedness. Such severe language reflects zeal for justice against entrenched, unrepentant evil, not personal spite. These imprecations leave vengeance to God and anticipate the final judgment that Christ will execute on persistent wickedness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 59:13Consume them in wrath. Consume them, and they will be no more. Let them know that God rules in Jacob, to the ends of the earth. Selah.
- Ps 64:7But God will shoot at them. They will be suddenly struck down with an arrow.
- Acts 1:18–20Now this man obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness, and falling headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines gushed out.
- Ps 9:17The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol, even all the nations that forget God.
- Ps 109:6–20Set a wicked man over him. Let an adversary stand at his right hand.
- Acts 1:25to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place.”
- 2 Sam 18:14Then Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this with you.” He took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the middle of the oak.
- Matt 26:24The Son of Man goes, even as it is written of him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had not been born.”
- Num 16:30–34But if Yahweh makes a new thing, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up, with all that belong to them, and they go down alive into Sheol; then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh.”
- Matt 27:5He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself.
- 2 Sam 18:9Absalom happened to meet David’s servants. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the sky and earth; and the mule that was under him went on.
- Ps 69:22–28Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.
- 2 Sam 17:23When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, arose, and went home, to his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.
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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 55:15 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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