They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.
Parallel translations
- WEB They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.
- BSB They band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.
- NKJV They gather together against the life of the righteous, And condemn innocent blood.
- NASB They band themselves together against the life of the righteous And condemn the innocent to death.
- NLT They gang up against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.
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 wicked band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent. Evildoers conspire to destroy the godly and shed innocent blood.
Overview
Here the oppressors unite to assault the lives of the righteous and to convict the guiltless. Their organized hostility against innocence is the very evil God will judge. This pattern reaches its climax in the condemnation of the truly innocent One, Jesus Christ, whose death secured the believers' vindication (Matthew 27:4; 1 Peter 3:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Prov 17:15He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.
- Matt 27:1When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:
- Ps 59:3For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD.
- Rev 17:6And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
- Exod 23:7Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.
- Acts 7:58–60And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
- Ps 2:1–3Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
- 1 Kgs 21:19And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.
- Jas 5:6Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
- Ezek 22:12In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.
- Prov 1:11If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
- Ezek 22:27Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
- Matt 27:4Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
- Ps 22:16For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
- Acts 7:52Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
- Prov 1:16For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
- Matt 23:32–36Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
- Ps 56:6They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
- Acts 4:27–28For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
- Ezek 22:6Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.
- Acts 4:5–7And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
- Ps 106:38And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.
- Jer 26:15But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.
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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 94:21 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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