or they will shred my soul like a lion and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
Parallel translations
- WEB lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver.
- KJV Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
- NKJV Lest they tear me like a lion, Rending me in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
- NASB Or he will tear my soul like a lion, Dragging me away, while there is no one to rescue me.
- NLT If you don’t, they will maul me like a lion, tearing me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
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 fears his enemies will tear him apart like a lion if God does not rescue him. He pictures his peril vividly to press his urgent plea.
Overview
The image of a lion ripping its prey conveys the deadly seriousness of David's danger and the absence of any human deliverer. His only hope is God's intervention. The verse reminds us that the believer's adversary prowls like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8), and only the Lord can deliver from his jaws.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 50:22Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
- 2 Tim 4:17But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.
- Isa 38:13I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.
- 1 Pet 5:8Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
- Ps 35:15But when I stumbled, they assembled in glee; they gathered together against me. Assailants I did not know slandered me without ceasing.
- Deut 33:20Concerning Gad he said: “Blessed is he who enlarges the domain of Gad! He lies down like a lion and tears off an arm or a head.
- Ps 10:9He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net.
- Prov 19:12A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.
- Ps 17:12like a lion greedy for prey, like a young lion lurking in ambush.
- 2 Sam 14:6And your maidservant had two sons who were fighting in the field with no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.
- Job 10:7though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
- Judg 18:28There was no one to deliver them, because the city was far from Sidon and had no alliance with anyone; it was in a valley near Beth-rehob. And the Danites rebuilt the city and lived there.
- Hos 13:7–8So like a lion I will pounce on them; like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
- Ps 22:13They open their jaws against me like lions that roar and maul.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 7:2 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.