But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
Parallel translations
- WEB but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
- BSB They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.
- NKJV But turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
- NASB But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; They turned aside like a treacherous bow.
- NLT They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow.
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
They turned back treacherously like their fathers, unreliable as a faulty bow. Their faithlessness ran in the family.
Overview
They 'dealt treacherously like their fathers,' compared to a 'deceitful bow' that fails to hit its mark. The image captures the unreliability of those who cannot be trusted to remain faithful. It exposes the inherited bent toward sin that only God's redeeming grace can finally overcome.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Hos 7:16They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
- Ezek 20:27–28Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.
- Ps 78:8And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
- Judg 3:5–7And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:
- Ps 78:41Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
- Judg 3:12And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.
- Ps 78:10–37They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
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 78:57 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
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