May the groans of the captives reach You; by the strength of Your arm preserve those condemned to death.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.
- KJV Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die;
- NKJV Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; According to the greatness of Your power Preserve those who are appointed to die;
- NASB Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; According to the greatness of Your power, let those who are doomed to die remain.
- NLT Listen to the moaning of the prisoners. Demonstrate your great power by saving those condemned to die.
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 ask God to hear the groaning prisoners and preserve those condemned to die. The prayer pleads for the powerless by God's great power.
Overview
The psalmist appeals for 'the sighing of the prisoner' to reach God and for Him to spare those sentenced to death. It rests God's deliverance on 'the greatness of your power.' This compassion for captives reflects God's heart and anticipates Christ, who came to proclaim liberty to captives and release to the oppressed (Luke 4:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 102:20to hear a prisoner’s groaning, to release those condemned to death,
- Isa 42:7to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.
- Isa 33:2O LORD, be gracious to us! We wait for You. Be our strength every morning and our salvation in time of trouble.
- Ps 146:6–7the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He remains faithful forever.
- Exod 2:23–24After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.
- Ps 12:5“For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”
- Ps 69:33For the LORD listens to the needy and does not despise His captive people.
- Eph 3:20Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,
- Matt 6:13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
- Num 14:17–19So now I pray, may the power of my Lord be magnified, just as You have declared:
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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 79:11 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
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