How suddenly they are laid waste, completely swept away by terrors!
Parallel translations
- WEB How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors.
- KJV How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
- ESV How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
- NKJV Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors.
- NASB How they are destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!
- NLT In an instant they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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 wicked are destroyed in a moment, utterly swept away by terrors.
Overview
What looked like lasting security collapses suddenly and completely. Their downfall is swift and final. This certainty of judgment answers Asaph's envy and warns that earthly prosperity apart from God offers no safety against the day of reckoning.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Isa 47:11But disaster will come upon you; you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will be unable to ward off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.
- Prov 28:1The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
- Dan 5:6his face grew pale and his thoughts so alarmed him that his hips gave way and his knees knocked together.
- Job 20:5the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?
- 1 Th 5:3While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Rev 18:10In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”
- Job 15:21Sounds of terror fill his ears; in his prosperity the destroyer attacks him.
- Isa 30:13this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!
- Num 17:12–13Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost!
- Job 20:23–25When he has filled his stomach, God will vent His fury upon him, raining it down on him as he eats.
- Acts 2:23He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
- Ps 58:9Before your pots can feel the burning thorns—whether green or dry—He will sweep them away.
- Num 16:21“Separate yourselves from this congregation so that I may consume them in an instant.”
- Isa 21:3–4Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.
- Job 18:11Terrors frighten him on every side and harass his every step.
- 1 Sam 28:20Immediately Saul fell flat on the ground, terrified by the words of Samuel. And his strength was gone, because he had not eaten anything all that day and night.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 73:19 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.