For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,
Parallel translations
- WEB For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together,
- BSB For my enemies speak against me, and those who lie in wait for my life conspire,
- NKJV For my enemies speak against me; And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together,
- NASB For my enemies have spoken against me; And those who watch for my life have consulted together,
- NLT For my enemies are whispering against me. They are plotting together to kill 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
The psalmist's enemies talk against him and conspire together to take his life. It laments the plotting of those who seek his harm.
Overview
The psalmist reports that his foes speak against him and those who watch for his life take counsel together. Even in old age he faces conspiring enemies. This experience of being plotted against connects with the suffering righteous one throughout Scripture, ultimately Christ, against whom his enemies conspired, yet whom God vindicated.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 31:13For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.
- Ps 83:3They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
- Ps 56:6They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
- Jer 20:10For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
- Ps 37:32–33The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
- Matt 26:3–4Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,
- 1 Sam 19:11Saul also sent messengers unto David’s house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David’s wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain.
- 2 Sam 17:1–14Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:
- Matt 27:1When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:
- Ps 2:2The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
- Prov 1:11If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
- 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.
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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 71:10 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.