A fire goes before Him, And burns up His enemies round about.
Parallel translations
- WEB A fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries on every side.
- KJV A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.
- BSB Fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side.
- NASB Fire goes before Him And burns up His enemies all around.
- NLT Fire spreads ahead of him and burns up all his foes.
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
Fire goes before the reigning LORD, consuming His enemies. It pictures God's holy presence as unstoppable against all that opposes Him.
Overview
This verse continues the theophany of Psalm 97, where God's coming as King is marked by fire that devours His adversaries (cf. Exodus 19; Deuteronomy 4:24). The imagery underscores both His holiness and His just judgment on rebellion. It anticipates the final judgment when Christ returns, and reminds believers that His enemies cannot stand before Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Ps 50:3Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
- Heb 12:29for our God is a consuming fire.
- Ps 18:8Smoke went out of his nostrils. Consuming fire came out of his mouth. Coals were kindled by it.
- 2 Th 1:8giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,
- Mal 4:1“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
- Dan 7:10A fiery stream issued and came out from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
- Ps 21:8–9Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
- Deut 32:22For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
- Nah 1:5–6The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- 2 Pet 3:10–12But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
- Deut 4:11You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.
- Deut 5:4Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire,
- Deut 5:23–24When you heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;
- Hab 3:5Plague went before him, and pestilence followed his feet.
- Rev 11:5If anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. If anyone desires to harm them, he must be killed in this way.
- Deut 4:36Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire.
- Rev 20:15If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
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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 97:3 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.