Those who hate me without a cause Are more than the hairs of my head; They are mighty who would destroy me, Being my enemies wrongfully; Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it.
Parallel translations
- WEB Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.
- KJV They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
- BSB Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head; many are those who would destroy me—my enemies for no reason. Though I did not steal, I must repay.
- NASB Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; Those who would destroy me are powerful, those who oppose me with lies; What I did not steal, I then have to restore.
- NLT Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs on my head. Many enemies try to destroy me with lies, demanding that I give back what I didn’t steal.
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's enemies hate him without cause and are many and mighty, demanding he repay what he never stole. It laments suffering unjust hostility.
Overview
David is surrounded by countless powerful foes who hate him for no valid reason and press false charges. Jesus applied the phrase hated me without a cause directly to himself (John 15:25), marking this verse as a prophecy of the Messiah's unjust rejection. The righteous sufferer here points to Christ, who bore wrongful hatred and made restitution he did not owe.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 35:19Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes.
- John 15:25But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
- Ps 109:3–5They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause.
- Ps 35:11–12Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I don’t know about.
- 2 Cor 5:21For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
- Isa 53:4–7Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
- Ps 38:19–20But my enemies are vigorous and many. Those who hate me without reason are numerous.
- Ps 40:12For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.
- Ps 7:3–5Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands,
- 1 Pet 3:18Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
- Ps 59:3For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.
- 1 Pet 2:22who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”
- 1 Pet 2:24who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.
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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 69:4 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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