How long will you threaten a man? Will all of you throw him down like a leaning wall or a tottering fence?
Parallel translations
- WEB How long will you assault a man, would all of you throw him down, Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?
- KJV How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.
- NKJV How long will you attack a man? You shall be slain, all of you, Like a leaning wall and a tottering fence.
- NASB ¶How long will you attack a man, That you may murder him, all of you, Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?
- NLT So many enemies against one man— all of them trying to kill me. To them I’m just a broken-down wall or a tottering fence.
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 rebukes his attackers who assail him as if he were a leaning wall ready to collapse. It exposes the aggression of those seeking his downfall.
Overview
David challenges his enemies who relentlessly assault him, treating him as something already crumbling. The image of a leaning wall and tottering fence captures their intent to push him to ruin. Yet, secure in God, David is not as fragile as his foes imagine.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Jer 4:14Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?
- Ps 82:2“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
- Ps 140:2who devise evil in their hearts and stir up war all day long.
- Isa 30:13–14this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!
- Prov 1:22“How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?
- Ps 21:11Though they intend You harm, the schemes they devise will not prevail.
- Ps 38:12Those who seek my life lay snares; those who wish me harm speak destruction, plotting deceit all day long.
- Exod 16:28Then the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep My commandments and instructions?
- Hos 7:15Although I trained and strengthened their arms, they plot evil against Me.
- Ps 4:2How long, O men, will my honor be maligned? How long will you love vanity and seek after lies? Selah
- 1 Sam 26:10David added, “As surely as the LORD lives, the LORD Himself will strike him down; either his day will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.
- Prov 6:9How long will you lie there, O slacker? When will you get up from your sleep?
- Ps 73:18–20Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin.
- Exod 10:3So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.
- Matt 17:17“O unbelieving and perverse generation!” Jesus replied. “How long must I remain with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to Me.”
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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 62:3 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.