Back to Psalms 38

Psalms 38:12-13

They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long.

But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear. I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long.

    But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear. I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth.

  • KJV King James Version

    They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.

    But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.

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  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    (38-13) They also that seek after my life lay snares for me; and they that seek my hurt speak crafty devices, and utter deceits all the day.

    (38-14) But I am as a deaf man, I hear not; and I am as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.

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Cross-references (17)

  • 2 Samuel 17:1-3 (v12) Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight. I will come…
  • Psalms 35:20 (v12) For they don’t speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.
  • Psalms 39:9 (v13) I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it.
  • Isaiah 53:7 (v13) He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before…
  • Psalms 39:2 (v13) I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred.
Show all 17 cross-references
  • Psalms 140:5 (v12) The proud have hidden a snare for me, they have spread the cords of a net by the path. They have set traps for me.
  • 1 Peter 2:23 (v13) When he was cursed, he didn’t curse back. When he suffered, he didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.
  • 2 Samuel 16:7-8 (v12) Shimei said when he cursed, “Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and wicked fellow! Yahweh has returned on you all the blood of Saul’s…
  • Psalms 35:4 (v12) Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonor. Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded.
  • Psalms 54:3 (v12) For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them.
  • Psalms 64:2-5 (v12) Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the noisy crowd of the ones doing evil; who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim…
  • Psalms 119:110 (v12) The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I haven’t gone astray from your precepts.
  • Psalms 141:9 (v12) Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
  • Luke 20:19-22 (v12) The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him that very hour, but they feared the people—for they knew he had spoken this…
  • 2 Samuel 16:10-12 (v13) The king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because Yahweh has said to him, ‘Curse David;’ who…
  • Psalms 10:9 (v12) He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless when he draws him in his net.
  • Psalms 62:3-4 (v12) How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence? They fully intend to throw…

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

Explain this passage (17 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv12–13 12 They also that sought for my life have…

12 They also that sought for my life have laid snares for me, etc.. Here another circumstance is added, that the enemies of David laid snares for him, and talked about his destruction, and framed deceits among themselves. The purport of what is stated is, that while his friends cowardly sit still and will do nothing to aid him, his enemies vigorously bestir themselves, and seek by every means to destroy him. He says that they seek his life, for as they were his deadly enemies and blood-thirsty men, they were not content with doing him some common injury, but furiously sought his destruction. He, however, here complains not so much that they assailed him by force of arms and with violence, as he accuses them of guileful conspiracy, which he designates in the first place metaphorically by the term snares, and afterwards adds in plain terms, that they talk about his destruction, and secretly consult among themselves how they might do him hurt. Now, as it is certain that David borrows not an artificial rhetoric from the bar, (as profane orators do when they plead their cause,) in order to win the favor of God, but rather draws his arguments from the Word of God, the sentences which he here brings together for the confirmation of his faith we ought to appropriate to our own use. If we are altogether destitute of human aid and assistance, if our friends fail us in the time of need, and if others seek our ruin, and breathe out nothing but destruction against us, let us remember that it is not in vain for us to lay these things in prayer before God, whose province it is to succor those who are in misery, to take under his protection those who are perfidiously forsaken and betrayed, to restrain the wicked, and not only to withstand their violence, but also to anticipate their deceitful counsels and to frustrate their designs.

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 On v13 For I can have no audience before men, and…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Psa 38:12 They also that seek after my life…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Lay snares for me; that if my disease do…
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v12 In these verses,
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv12–13 But I, as a deaf man, heard not,.... He…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Deceit - They design mischief, but cover it with…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Verse 12. They also that seek after my life]…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv12–13 They also that seek after my life - This…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv12–13 seek after my life-- (Sa1 20:1; Sa1 22:23).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv12–13 12. They… that seek… my life—This is David’s first…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv12–13 12. Pitiless enemies beset him. Comp. Psa_35:4; Psa_35:26.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv12–13 They also that seek after my life lay snares…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Ver. 12. They also that seek after my life…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v12 They also that seek after my life lay snares…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v13 I am like a deaf man ... hear nothing…
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v13 38:13 The psalmist suffers quietly before his opponents (see…
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