They wander up and down for food, And howl if they are not satisfied.
Parallel translations
- WEB They shall wander up and down for food, and wait all night if they aren’t satisfied.
- KJV Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.
- BSB They scavenge for food, and growl if they are not satisfied.
- NASB They wander about for food And murmur if they are not satisfied.
- NLT They scavenge for food but go to sleep unsatisfied.
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
The wicked wander hungry through the night, never satisfied. Their restless emptiness contrasts with the contentment of those who trust God.
Overview
Like scavenging dogs that prowl for food and growl when unsatisfied, the wicked find no lasting fulfillment. Their endless craving pictures the emptiness of a life apart from God. This sets up the bright contrast of the next verses, where David rests secure and rejoicing in the Lord.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Job 15:23He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
- Ps 109:10Let his children be wandering beggars. Let them be sought from their ruins.
- Job 30:1–7“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
- Lam 5:9We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness.
- Isa 56:11Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.
- Lam 4:4–5The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst: The young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them.
- Lam 4:9–10Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
- Mic 3:5Yahweh says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:
- Deut 28:48therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he has destroyed you.
- Matt 24:7–8For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places.
- Deut 28:53–58You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you.
- 2 Kgs 6:25–29There was a great famine in Samaria. Behold, they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.
- Isa 8:21They will pass through it, very distressed and hungry; and it will happen that when they are hungry, they will worry, and curse by their king and by their God. They will turn their faces upward,
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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 59:15 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
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.