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The enemy is finished, in endless ruins; the cities you uprooted are now forgotten.
Psalms 9:6 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB The enemy is overtaken by endless ruin. The very memory of the cities which you have overthrown has perished.
  • KJV O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.
  • BSB The enemy has come to eternal ruin, and You have uprooted their cities; the very memory of them has vanished.
  • NKJV O enemy, destructions are finished forever! And you have destroyed cities; Even their memory has perished.
  • NASB The enemy has come to an end in everlasting ruins, And You have uprooted the cities; The very memory of them has perished.

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

The enemy is brought to endless ruin, their cities and memory wiped out. Evil powers that seemed permanent are utterly undone by God.

Overview

David contrasts the seeming permanence of enemy strongholds with their complete and lasting destruction under God's hand. What boasted of endurance is reduced to forgotten ruins. This sober picture of judgment magnifies the everlasting reign of God set forth in the next verse.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 24

  • Exod 14:13Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh, which he will work for you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall never see them again.
  • Isa 14:22–23“I will rise up against them,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son,” says Yahweh.
  • 1 Cor 15:26The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
  • Rev 20:2He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,
  • Mic 7:8Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me.
  • 1 Sam 31:7When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them.
  • Ps 7:5let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.
  • Isa 10:6–7I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me will I give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
  • Ps 34:16Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
  • Isa 14:6–8who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that no one restrained.
  • Ps 46:9He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire.
  • Ps 8:2From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.
  • 2 Kgs 19:25Haven’t you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
  • Exod 15:16Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone — until your people pass over, Yahweh, until the people pass over who you have purchased.
  • Isa 37:26Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.
  • Jer 51:25“Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain,” says Yahweh, “which destroys all the earth. I will stretch out my hand on you, roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain.
  • Mic 7:10Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her who said to me, where is Yahweh your God? Then my enemy will see me and will cover her shame. Now she will be trodden down like the mire of the streets.
  • Jer 51:62–64and say, ‘Yahweh, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one will dwell in it, neither man nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever.’
  • Isa 10:24–25Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, says “My people who dwell in Zion, don’t be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did.
  • 1 Cor 15:54–57But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
  • Isa 14:17who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities; who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”
  • Nah 1:9–13What do you plot against Yahweh? He will make a full end. Affliction won’t rise up the second time.
  • Isa 10:13–14For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers.
  • 1 Sam 30:1When David and his men had come to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the South, and on Ziklag, and had struck Ziklag, and burned it with fire,

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 9:6YouTube · 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 9:6 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.