They will fall to the power of the sword; they will become a portion for foxes.
Parallel translations
- WEB They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be jackal food.
- KJV They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.
- NKJV They shall fall by the sword; They shall be a portion for jackals.
- NASB They will be turned over to the power of the sword; They will be a prey for foxes.
- NLT They will die by the sword and become the food of jackals.
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 foresees his enemies falling by the sword and left as prey for jackals. It depicts the certain defeat of those who oppose God's anointed.
Overview
David pictures the violent end of his foes, slain and unburied, food for scavengers. The stark image conveys the completeness of their downfall. While sobering, it affirms God's justice against those who set themselves against his purposes and his people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Jer 18:21Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
- Ezek 35:5Because you harbored an ancient hatred and delivered the Israelites over to the sword in the time of their disaster at the final stage of their punishment,
- Ezek 39:4On the mountains of Israel you will fall—you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to every kind of ravenous bird and wild beast.
- Song 2:15Catch for us the foxes—the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—for our vineyards are in bloom.
- 1 Sam 31:1–6Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
- 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.
- Ezek 39:17–20And as for you, son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: Call out to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great feast on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood.
- Rev 19:17–18Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds flying overhead, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God,
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 63:10 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.