Saying, “God has forsaken him; Pursue 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.”
- KJV Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him.
- BSB saying, “God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for there is no one to rescue 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 they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver.
- Ps 3:2Many there are who say of my soul, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah.
- Ps 50:22“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.
- Matt 27:46About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
- 2 Chr 32:13–14Don’t you know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands in any way able to deliver their land out of my hand?
- Dan 3:15Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image which I have made, good: but if you don’t worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the middle of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands?
- Matt 27:42–43“He saved others, but he can’t save himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.
- Ps 37:28For Yahweh loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
- Ps 42:10As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
- Ps 37:25I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread.
- Ps 41:7–8All who hate me whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me.
- Matt 27:49The rest said, “Let him be. Let’s see whether Elijah comes 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.