Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
Parallel translations
- WEB lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver.
- BSB or they will shred my soul like a lion and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
- 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, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
- 2 Tim 4:17Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
- Isa 38:13I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
- 1 Pet 5:8Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
- Ps 35:15But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not:
- Deut 33:20And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown of the head.
- Ps 10:9He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
- Prov 19:12The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.
- Ps 17:12Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
- 2 Sam 14:6And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him.
- Job 10:7Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.
- Judg 18:28And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein.
- Hos 13:7–8Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:
- Ps 22:13They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
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 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.