O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city.
Parallel translations
- WEB Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
- KJV Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
- NKJV Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, For I have seen violence and strife in the city.
- NASB ¶Confuse them, Lord, divide their tongues, For I have seen violence and strife in the city.
- NLT Confuse them, Lord, and frustrate their plans, for I see violence and conflict in the city.
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 asks God to confuse and divide the violent, deceitful city. It prays for God to thwart the wickedness around him.
Overview
Seeing violence and strife filling the city, David appeals to God to confound his enemies, echoing the confusion of languages at Babel. He entrusts judgment to God rather than acting on his own. The prayer reflects a longing for evil's disruption that God alone can accomplish justly.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Jer 6:7As a well gushes its water, so she pours out her evil. Violence and destruction resound in her; sickness and wounds are ever before Me.
- 2 Sam 15:31Now someone told David: “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David pleaded, “O LORD, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness!”
- Acts 23:6–10Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. It is because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”
- Gen 11:7–9Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
- Jer 23:14And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”
- John 7:45–53Then the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Him in?”
- Matt 23:37–38O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!
- 2 Sam 17:1–14Furthermore, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men and set out tonight in pursuit of David.
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 55:9 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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