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They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.
Psalms 94:5 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB They break your people in pieces, Yahweh, and afflict your heritage.
  • BSB They crush Your people, O LORD; they oppress Your heritage.
  • NKJV They break in pieces Your people, O Lord, And afflict Your heritage.
  • NASB They crush Your people, Lord, And afflict Your inheritance.
  • NLT They crush your people, Lord, hurting those you claim as your own.

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 crush God's people and afflict His heritage. Their evil is directed against those God calls His own.

Overview

The oppression here strikes at the covenant people, God's special inheritance. To harm them is to provoke the God who claims them as His own possession. This concern for His afflicted people is fulfilled in Christ, who so identifies with His own that to persecute them is to persecute Him (Acts 9:4; Zechariah 2:8).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 18

  • Isa 3:15What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
  • Ps 79:2–3The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.
  • Rev 11:3And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
  • Mic 3:2–3Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
  • Ps 74:8They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
  • 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.
  • Jer 51:20–23Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
  • Exod 2:23–24And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
  • Ps 7:2Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
  • Jer 22:17But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
  • Ps 74:19–20O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.
  • Jer 50:11Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;
  • Ps 44:22Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
  • Ps 79:7For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.
  • Jer 51:34Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
  • Ps 129:2–3Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.
  • Ps 14:4Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
  • Isa 52:5Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

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 94:5YouTube · 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 94:5 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.