For He who requires blood remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the needy.
Parallel translations
- WEB For he who avenges blood remembers them. He doesn’t forget the cry of the afflicted.
- KJV When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.
- BSB For the Avenger of bloodshed remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
- NKJV When He avenges blood, He remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the humble.
- NLT For he who avenges murder cares for the helpless. He does not ignore the cries of those who suffer.
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 remembers and avenges the shedding of blood and never forgets the cry of the afflicted. The oppressed are seen and not forgotten by God.
Overview
David assures that God holds violence to account and attends to the suffering of the helpless. The God who 'requires' shed blood (Genesis 9:5) is the same who hears the cry of the lowly. This care for the afflicted reflects God's justice and foreshadows Christ's compassion for the broken.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 34:6This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
- Exod 3:7Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
- Rev 16:6For they poured out the blood of the saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this.”
- Rev 6:9–10When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had.
- Gen 9:5I will surely require your blood of your lives; at the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man.
- Ps 22:24For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, Neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard.
- Isa 26:21For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.
- Luke 18:7–8Won’t God avenge his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?
- Luke 11:50–51that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
- 2 Kgs 24:4and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yahweh would not pardon.
- Judg 10:16They put away the foreign gods from among them, and served Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
- Exod 3:9Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
- Ps 102:17He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.
- Matt 23:35that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
- Ps 10:14But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.
- Ps 10:17Yahweh, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear,
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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 9:12 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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