God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living.
Parallel Translations
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God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living.
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God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
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(52-7) God will likewise break thee for ever, He will take thee up, and pluck thee out of thy tent, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Psalms 52:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 2:22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.
- Psalms 27:13 I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living.
- Revelation 21:8 But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
- Job 18:14 He will be rooted out of the security of his tent. He will be brought to the king of terrors.
- Proverbs 12:19 Truth’s lips will be established forever, but a lying tongue is only momentary.
- Proverbs 19:9 A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who utters lies shall perish.
- Isaiah 38:11 I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
- Job 20:6-7 Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
- Psalms 7:14-16 Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood. He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made. The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.
- Psalms 37:35-36 I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil. But he passed away, and behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found.
- Psalms 55:23 But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.
- Psalms 64:7-10 But God will shoot at them. They will be suddenly struck down with an arrow. Their own tongues shall ruin them. All who see them will shake their heads. All mankind shall be afraid. They shall declare the work of God, and shall wisely ponder what he has done. The righteous shall be glad in Yahweh, and shall take refuge in him. All the upright in heart shall praise him!
- Psalms 116:9 I will walk before Yahweh in the land of the living.
- Psalms 120:2-4 Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.
- Psalms 140:9-11 As for the head of those who surround me, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning coals fall on them. Let them be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, from where they never rise. An evil speaker won’t be established in the earth. Evil will hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
- Proverbs 19:5 A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who pours out lies shall not go free.
- Isaiah 22:19 I will thrust you from your office. You will be pulled down from your station.
- Luke 16:27-28 “He said, ‘I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house; for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, so they won’t also come into this place of torment.’
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever. From…
5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever. From these words it is made still more evident that his object in dwelling upon the aggravated guilt of Doeg, was to prove the certainty of his approaching doom, and this rather for his own conviction and comfort, than with a view to alarming the conscience of the offender. Accordingly, he declares his persuasion that God would not allow his treachery to pass unpunished, though he might for a time connive at the perpetration of it. The ungodly are disposed, so long as their prosperity continues, to indulge in undisturbed security; and the saint of God, when he sees the power of which they are possessed, and witnesses their proud contempt of the divine judgments, is too apt to be overwhelmed with unbelieving apprehensions. But in order to establish his mind in the truth which he announces, it is observable that the Psalmist heaps one expression upon another, — God shall destroy thee, take thee away, pluck thee out, root thee out, — as if by this multiplicity of words he would convince himself more effectually, that God was able to overthrow this adversary with all his boasted might and authority. In adding that God would root him out of his dwelling-place or tent, and out of the land of the living, he insinuates that the wicked will be destroyed by God, however securely they may seem to repose ir the nest of some comfortable mansion, and in the vain hope of living upon earth for ever. Possibly he may allude, in mentioning a tent, to the profession of Doeg, as shepherds have their dwelling in tents.
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 Though God forbear for a time, yet at length…
Though God forbear for a time, yet at length he will recompense thy falsehood.
Albeit thou seem to be never so sure settled.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 52:5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever,…
Psa 52:5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of [thy] dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
Ver. 5. God shall likewise destroy thee] Here are quot verba tot tonitrua, so many words, so many thunderclaps. As thou hast destroyed the Lord’s priests and their whole city, razing and harassing it; so God will demolish and destroy thee utterly, as a house pulled down to the ground, so that one stone is not left upon another, Lev 14:45. So shall God pull down Doeg from that high preferment which he by sycophancy hath got at court, Iudicium ipsum lethale describitur.
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He shall take thee away] As a coal of fire is taken with the tongs, Isa 30:4, that it do no further mischief. Some render it, He shall burn thee, Exuret te (Vatab.). R. Gaon, He shall terrify thee.
And pluck thee out of thy dwelling place] Or, shall sweep thee out of thy tabernacle. R. Gaon interpreteth it, Beth hamidrash, the Lord’s tabernacle, whereinto a Doeg may set his foot as far as a David, but God will pluck him thence.
And root thee out of the land of the living] Everret et evertet te cum tota familia, He shall utterly ruin thee and thine, leaving thee neither root nor branch, chick nor child.
Selah] i.e. Veritas est, saith Aben Ezra. It is even so; think not that these things are spoken only in terrorem, for a scarebug, for they shall all be surely fulfilled upon thee.
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 Likewise, i.e. totally and unavoidably, as thou didst destroy…
Likewise, i.e. totally and unavoidably, as thou didst destroy the priests.
Pluck thee, i.e. violently, and irresistibly, and suddenly remove thee, as the Hebrew word signifies.
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Out of thy dwelling-place; from thy house and lands, and all the wages of thy unrighteousness. Or, out of his (i.e. the Lord’s) tabernacle; in which thou didst seek and take the matter of thy slanders, and from which thou didst cut off the Lord’s priests. Therefore God shall excommunicate thee from his presence, and from the society of the faithful.
Root thee out; though thou seemest to have taken very deep rooting, and to be the more firmly settled for this barbarous cruelty, yet God shall pluck thee up by the very roots, and destroy thee both root and branch.
Out of the land of the living; out of this world, as the phrase is taken, Isa 53:8; Eze 32:32, and elsewhere; which was very terrible to him, who had all his portion in this world.
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 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever,.... As a…
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever,.... As a just retaliation for the mischief done to others; or, "therefore God shall destroy" (z), &c. even body and soul in hell, with an everlasting destruction, which will be the case of every wicked man, and particularly of the antichristian party, Rev 14:10; the word is used of breaking down the house in which the leprosy was, Lev 14:45; and denotes the utter extinction of Doeg's family, and the irrecoverable ruin of antichrist, Rev 18:21;
he shall take thee away; as fire from the hearth, Isa 30:14; or as burning coals from the altar: a word from the root here used signifies a censer: and the meaning is, that as his tongue was a fire, and set on fire of hell, and he was as a burning coal, he was fit for nothing but to be cast into everlasting burnings;
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and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place; "tent", or "tabernacle" (a); referring to the tents of shepherds, he being the chief of Saul's shepherds, or to some stately palace he had built for himself to dwell in, upon his advancement at court; or rather to the tabernacle of the Lord, where he had been an hypocritical worshipper; but now should be cut off from the church of God, as a rotten member, and cast out of the tabernacle of Jacob, Mal 2:12; while David flourished as an olive tree in the house of the Lord, Psa 52:8;
and root thee out of the land of the living. In retaliation for his rooting out Ahimelech's family, and the inhabitants of Nob; so in like manner he and his should be destroyed root and branch, and not see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, nor enjoy eternal life in the world to come.
Selah; on this word; see Gill on Psa 3:2. The Targum renders the word "Selah" here "for ever", as in Psa 52:3.
(z) , Sept. "propterea", V. L. "idcirco etiam", Piscator; "ideo etiam", Michaelis. (a) "de tabernaculo", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus; "e tentorio", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.
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 Pluck thee - Violently and suddenly as the Hebrew…
Pluck thee - Violently and suddenly as the Hebrew word signifies, from thy house and lands, and all the wages of thy righteousness. Root - Though thou seemest to have taken deep root, yet God shall pluck thee up by the very roots, and destroy thee both root and branch.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. God shall likewise destroy thee]
Verse 5. God shall likewise destroy thee]
1. God shall set himself to destroy thee; יתצך yittotscha, "he will pull down thy building;" he shall unroof it, dilapidate, and dig up thy foundation.
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2. He shall bruise or break thee to pieces for ever; thou shalt have neither strength, consistence, nor support.
3. He will mow thee down, and sweep thee away like dust or chaff, or light hay in a whirlwind, so that thou shalt be scattered to all the winds of heaven. Thou shalt have no residence, no tabernacle: that shall be entirely destroyed. Thou shalt be rooted out for ever from the land of the living. The bad fruit which it has borne shall bring God's curse upon the tree; it shall not merely wither, or die, but it shall be plucked up from the roots, intimating that such a sinner shall die a violent death. Selah. So it shall be, and so it ought to be.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain God shall likewise destroy thee for ever - Margin,…
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever - Margin, “beat thee down.” The Hebrew word means to “tear, to break down, to destroy:” Lev 14:45; Jdg 6:30. The reference here is not to the “tongue” alluded to in the previous verses, but to Doeg himself. The language in the verse is intensive and emphatic. The main idea is presented in a variety of forms, all designed to denote utter and absolute destruction - a complete and entire sweeping away, so that nothing should be left. The word “here” used would suggest the idea of “pulling down” - as a house, a fence, a wall; that is, the idea of completely “demolishing” it; and the meaning is, that destruction would come upon the informer and slanderer “like” the destruction which comes upon a house, or wall, or fence, when it is entirely pulled down.
He shall take thee away - An expression indicating in another form that he would be certainly destroyed. The verb used here - חתה châthâh - is elsewhere used only in the sense of taking up and carrying fire or coals: Isa 30:14; Pro 6:27; Pro 25:22. The idea here “may” be that he would be seized and carried away with haste, as when one takes up fire or coals, he does it as rapidly as possible, lest he should be burned.
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And shall pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place - literally, “out of the tent.” The reference is to his abode. The allusion here in the verb that is used - נסח nâsach - is to the act of pulling up plants; and the idea is, that he would be plucked up as a plant is torn from its roots.
And root thee out of the land of the living - As a tree is torn up from the roots and thus destroyed. He would be no more among the living. Compare Psa 27:13. All these phrases are intended to denote that such a man would be utterly destroyed.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain likewise--or, "so," "also," as you have done to others…
likewise--or, "so," "also," as you have done to others God will do to you (Psa 18:27). The following terms describe the most entire ruin.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5-7. These verses describe the downfall of this wicked…
5-7. These verses describe the downfall of this wicked man. God shall…
destroy thee—Literally, God shall break thee down: cause thee to fall with a crash. Sudden and irretrievable ruin would end his boastful career of crime.
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For ever—The fall of the wicked is without relief or hope.
Pluck thee out of thy dwellingplace… root thee out of the land—Descriptions of the utter extirpation of his plans and social standing.
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 5. likewise] We might have expected therefore, as P.B.V.…
5. likewise] We might have expected therefore, as P.B.V. following Vulg. loosely renders: but likewise is significant. There is a correspondence and equivalence between the sin and its punishment Cp. Mic_2:1-10, where the idea is worked out that the heartless oppressors who have driven the poor from their homes will be driven from the land into exile.
The doom of the wicked man is forcibly described by various figures. He fancies himself securely intrenched in the fortress of his wealth, but God will break him down (Jdg_8:9) and that for ever, so that there will be no restoration of the ruins. He is at ease in his home, but God will take him as a man takes a coal from the hearth with tongs or shovel, and plucking him out of his dwelling, drive him forth as a homeless wanderer (Deu_28:63; Pro_2:22; Job_18:14, R.V.). He is “spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil” (Psa_37:35), but God will uproot him out of the land of the living. Cp. for the phrase Jer_11:19; and note the contrast between the fate of the wicked and the future of the Psalmist (Psa_52:8).
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The verbs in this verse might be rendered as in the LXX, as a prayer, “May God destroy thee” &c.; but the rendering in the future is preferable. Sentence is pronounced in a tone of prophetic authority. Cp. Isa_22:17 ff.
Selah marks the conclusion of the first part of the Psalm.
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 (5) Destroy.—Better, tear down, as if of a building.
(5) Destroy.—Better, tear down, as if of a building.
Take thee away.—Better, lay hold of thee. The Hebrew word is always used of taking a live coal from the hearth. Notice, however, that the exactly opposite is intended of our “pluck a brand from the burning.” Here the idea is of pulling the house-fire to pieces, and so extinguishing domestic life.
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 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever. As thy…
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever. As thy "devouring words" have been the destruction of many, so shall God, in return, "destroy thee" (literally, pull thee down) "for ever destroy thee, i.e. , with a complete and final destruction. He shall take thee away; rather, seize thee (Kay, Cheyne), and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place; literally, out of thy tent. (comp. Job_18:14 1Ki_12:16) And root thee out of the land of the living. Destroy thee, root and branch, as thou didst destroy the entire house of Ahimelech. (1Sa_22:17-19)
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. 5. God shall likewise destroy thee for ever.…
Ver. 5. God shall likewise destroy thee for ever. Fain would the persecutor destroy the church, and therefore God shall destroy him, pull down his house, pluck up his roots, and make an end of him. He shall take thee away. God shall extinguish his coal and sweep him away like the ashes of the hearth; he would have quenched the truth, and God shall quench him. And pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, like a plant torn from the place where it grew, or a captive dragged from his home. Ahimelech and his brother priests were cut off from their abode, and so should those be who compassed and contrived their murder. And root thee out of the land of the living. The persecutor shall be eradicated, stubbed up by the root, cut up root and branch. He sought the death of others and death shall fall upon him. He troubled the land of the living, and he shall be banished to that land where the wicked cease from troubling. Those who will not "let live" have no right to "live." God will turn the tables on malicious men, and mete to them a portion with their own measure. "SELAH." Pause again, and behold the divine justice proving itself more than a match for human sin.
Ver. 5. God shall destroy thee forever, etc. There are four words the psalmist makes us of to denote the utter vengeance that awaited this deceitful and bloody wretch, all of them having a very strong meaning. The first, ksty from stn, signifies to pull down, and break utterly into pieces; as when an altar is demolished. (Jud 6:30 8:9.) The second, kth from the root hrh, which signifies to twist anything, or pluck it up by twisting it round, as trees are sometimes twisted up. The third, khmy from hmg, which properly signifies utterly to sweep away anything like dust or chaff; and the expression lhm khm means not sweep thee away from thy tent, but sweep thee away, that thou mayest be no longer a tent; thyself, thy family, thy fortune, shall be wholly and entirely swept away, and dissipated forever; to which the fourth word, ksrs, answers, eradicabit te, he shall root thee out from the land of the living. It is impossible words can express a more entire and absolute destruction. Samuel Chandler.
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Ver. 5. God shall likewise destroy thee forever. Here are quot verba tot tonotrua, so many words, so many thunderclaps. As thou hast destroyed the Lord's priests, and their whole city, razing and harassing it; so God will demolish and destroy thee utterly, as an house pulled down to the ground, so that one stone is not left upon another (Le 14:45); so shall God pull down Doeg from that high preferment, which he by sycophancy hath got at court. John Trapp.
Ver. 5. Wonderful is the force of the verbs in the original, which convey to us the four ideas of laying prostrate, dissolving as by fire, sweeping away as with a besom, and totally extirpating root and branch, as a tree is eradicated from the spot on which it grew. If a farther comment be wanted, it may be found in the history of David's enemies, and the crucifiers of the son of David; but the passage will be fully and finally explained by the destruction of the world of the ungodly at the last day. George Horne.
Ver. 5. The poet accumulates dire and heavy words, and mingles various metaphors that he might paint the picture of this man's destruction in more lively colours. Three metaphors appear to be joined together, the first taken from a building, the second from a tent, the third from a tree, if attention is given to the force and common acceptation of the words. Hermann Venema.
Ver. 5. He shall take thee away; or, seize thee, as coals are taken with the tongs. J. J. Stewart Perowne.
None.
Psalms 52:6*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 52:5-7 God’s judgment on the wicked will come suddenly…
52:5-7 God’s judgment on the wicked will come suddenly and forcibly. The godly rejoice in God’s justice, not in the misfortunes of the wicked.
52:5 God will strike the wicked down like a pagan altar, idol, or unclean vessel (Exod 34:13; Lev 11:35; 2 Kgs 10:27).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.