Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him.
Parallel translations
- WEB saying, “God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.”
- BSB saying, “God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for there is no one to rescue him.”
- NKJV Saying, “God has forsaken him; Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.”
- NASB Saying, “God has abandoned him; Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to save him.”
- NLT They say, “God has abandoned him. Let’s go and get him, for no one will help him now.”
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
His enemies claim God has forsaken him and urge one another to seize him since no one will rescue. It shows foes exploiting his apparent abandonment.
Overview
The psalmist's enemies interpret his distress as proof that God has abandoned him, emboldening them to pursue him as defenseless. They presume no deliverer will come. Strikingly, this taunt was hurled at Christ on the cross, that God should rescue him if he delighted in him (Matthew 27:43), yet God's seeming silence was not abandonment but the path to victory.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 7:2Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
- Ps 3:2Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.
- Ps 50:22Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
- Matt 27:46And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
- 2 Chr 32:13–14Know ye not what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands? were the gods of the nations of those lands any ways able to deliver their lands out of mine hand?
- Dan 3:15Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
- Matt 27:42–43He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.
- Ps 37:28For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
- Ps 42:10As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
- Ps 37:25I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
- Ps 41:7–8All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.
- Matt 27:49The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.
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 71:11 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.