to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death;
Parallel Translations
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to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death;
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To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
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(102-21) To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Psalms 102:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 79:11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.
- Psalms 146:7 who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. Yahweh frees the prisoners.
- Exodus 3:7 Yahweh 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.
- Isaiah 61:1-3 The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.
- 2 Kings 13:22-23 Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. But Yahweh was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect for them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, and he didn’t cast them from his presence as yet.
- 2 Chronicles 33:11-13 Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.
- Isaiah 14:17 who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”
- Zechariah 9:9-12 Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow will be cut off; and he will speak peace to the nations: and his dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which is no water. Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope! Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.
- Ephesians 2:2-3 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
- Exodus 2:23-25 In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the children of Israel, and God was concerned about them.
- 2 Kings 13:4 Jehoahaz begged Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria oppressed them.
- Acts 12:6-11 The same night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in front of the door kept the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side, and woke him up, saying, “Stand up quickly!” His chains fell off his hands. The angel said to him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” He did so. He said to him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” And he went out and followed him. He didn’t know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he saw a vision. When they were past the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went out, and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. When Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I truly know that the Lord has sent out his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from everything the Jewish people were expecting.”
- Jeremiah 51:32-35 So the passages are seized. They have burned the reeds with fire. The men of war are frightened.” For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden. Yet a little while, and the time of harvest comes for her.” “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me. He has crushed me. He has made me an empty vessel. He has, like a monster, swallowed me up. He has filled his mouth with my delicacies. He has cast me out. May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon!” the inhabitant of Zion will say; and, “May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea!” will Jerusalem say.
- Job 24:12 From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 20. To hear the groaning of the prisoner Here…
20. To hear the groaning of the prisoner Here the prophet repeats once more what he had previously touched upon concerning prayer, in order again to stir up the hearts of the godly to engage in that exercise, and that after their deliverance they might know it to have been granted to their faith, because, depending on the divine promises, they had sent up their groanings to heaven. He calls them prisoners; for although they were not bound in fetters, their captivity resembled a most rigorous imprisonment. Yea, he affirms a little after that they were devoted to death, to give them to understand that their life and safety would have been altogether hopeless, had they not been delivered from death by the extraordinary power of God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Who now in their banishment could look for nothing…
Who now in their banishment could look for nothing but death.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 102:20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner;…
Psa 102:20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
Ver. 20. To hear the groaning of the prisoner] Those prisoners of hope held so long captive in Babylon, the cruelty whereof is graphically described, Jer 51:34.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain To release his poor captives out of Babylon, and,…
To release his poor captives out of Babylon, and, which is more, from the chains and fetters of sin and Satan, and from eternal destruction.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain To declare the name of the Lord in Zion,....…
To declare the name of the Lord in Zion,.... That is, that the prisoners and persons appointed to death, being loosed, might declare, in the church, what great things the Lord has done for them; and so speak well of his wisdom, power, grace, and goodness, in their deliverance; profess his name, and confess him before men, and express a value for his name, and show forth the honour of it, and seek his glory:
and his praise in Jerusalem; the Gospel church state, the same with Zion; when it shall be the praise of the whole earth; then and there will those, that are delivered from the antichristian yoke, praise the Lord, sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, and glorify God for all that he has done for them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain To loose - To release his poor captives out…
To loose - To release his poor captives out of Babylon, and from the chains of sin and eternal destruction.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. To hear the groaning] By sin, all…
Verse 20. To hear the groaning] By sin, all the inhabitants of the earth are miserable. They have broken the Divine laws, are under the arrest of judgment, and all cast into prison. They have been tried, found guilty, and appointed to die; they groan under their chains, are alarmed at the prospect of death, and implore mercy.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain To hear the groaning of the prisoner - Meaning…
To hear the groaning of the prisoner - Meaning here, probably, the captives in Babylon; those who were held as prisoners there, and who were subjected to such hardships in their long captivity. See the notes at Psa 79:11.
To loose those that are appointed to death - Margin, as in Hebrew, “the children of death.” Compare the notes at Mat 1:1. This may mean either those who were sentenced to death; those who were sick and ready to die; or those who, in their captivity, were in such a state of privation and suffering that death appeared inevitable. The word rendered “loose” means, properly, to “open,” applied to the mouth, for eating, Eze 3:2; or in song, Psa 78:2; or for speaking, Job 3:1; - or the ear, Isa 50:5; or the hand, Deu 15:8; or the gates of a city, a door, etc., Deu 20:11. Them it means to set free, as by opening the doors of a prison, Isa 14:17; Job 12:14. Here it means to “set free,” to deliver. Compare Isa 61:1.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 20. To loose those that are appointed to death—Hebrew,…
20. To loose those that are appointed to death—Hebrew, the sons of death. They were rescued from under the “death” sentence. Same as Psa_79:11. So imminent was the danger and opportune the help!
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 20. An echo of the prayer in Psa_79:11. Cp.…
20. An echo of the prayer in Psa_79:11. Cp. Isa_42:7; Isa_61:1. Israel in exile is compared to a condemned captive languishing in prison, and doomed to perish if Jehovah does not speedily interpose.
the groaning of the prisoner] R.V. the sighing of the prisoner, as in Psa_79:11.
Read full note →
those that are appointed to death] Lit. the sons of death. Cp. 1Sa_20:31 (marg.). The word for death is a form found only here and in Psa_79:11.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (20, 21) Comp. Isa_61:1-2, and generally the whole magnificent…
(20, 21) Comp. Isa_61:1-2, and generally the whole magnificent cycle of prophetic songs at the close of Isaiah.
Appointed to death.—See margin. LXX. and Vulg., “the sons of the slain.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain To hear the groaning of the prisoner. (see Exo_2:24,…
To hear the groaning of the prisoner. (see Exo_2:24, "God heard their groaning;" and comp. Exo_3:7 Exo_6:5) To loose those that are appointed to death; literally, the sons of death. (comp. Psa_79:11) Captive Israel regarded its life in Babylon as little better than death. (see Eze_37:11)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 20. Appointed unto death. Who, in their captivity,…
Ver. 20. Appointed unto death. Who, in their captivity, are experiencing so much affliction, that it is manifest their cruel enemies are desirous of destroying them utterly; or, at least, of bringing them into such a low and pitiable state, as to blot out their name from among the nations of the earth. William Keatinge Clay.
Psalms 102:21*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.