Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; According to the greatness of Your power, let those who are doomed to die remain.
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;
- BSB May the groans of the captives reach You; by the strength of Your arm preserve those condemned to death.
- NKJV Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; According to the greatness of Your power Preserve those who are appointed to die;
- 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 the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death;
- Isa 42:7to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
- Isa 33:2Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.
- Ps 146:6–7who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever;
- Exod 2:23–24In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
- Ps 12:5“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”
- Ps 69:33For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.
- Eph 3:20Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
- Matt 6:13Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
- Num 14:17–19Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,
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 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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