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He also drove out the nations from them And apportioned them as an inheritance by measurement, And had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.
Psalms 78:55 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
  • KJV He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
  • BSB He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
  • NKJV He also drove out the nations before them, Allotted them an inheritance by survey, And made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.
  • NLT He drove out the nations before them; he gave them their inheritance by lot. He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.

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

God drove out the nations and gave Israel their inheritance. He settled His people in the promised land.

Overview

God 'drove out the nations' and allotted the land 'for an inheritance' to Israel's tribes. The conquest fulfilled His covenant promise to Abraham. This securing of an inheritance by God's power points to the imperishable inheritance kept in heaven for those who belong to Christ (1 Peter 1:4).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 11

  • Josh 13:7Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.”
  • Ps 44:2You drove out the nations with your hand, but you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but you spread them abroad.
  • Neh 9:22–25Moreover you gave them kingdoms and peoples, which you allotted according to their portions. So they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.
  • Deut 6:10–12It shall be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and goodly cities, which you didn’t build,
  • Ps 105:44–45He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession,
  • Ps 136:18–22And killed mighty kings; for his loving kindness endures forever:
  • Josh 6:1–21Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the children of Israel. No one went out, and no one came in.
  • Num 33:54You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers.
  • Josh 19:51These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance by lot in Shiloh before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting. So they finished dividing the land.
  • Ps 135:10–12who struck many nations, and killed mighty kings,
  • Josh 23:4Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 78:55YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 78:55 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.