Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh.

  • KJV King James Version

    Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    (58-7) Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the cheek-teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

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Cross-references (11)

Passages linked to Psalms 58:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Psalms 3:7 Arise, Yahweh! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.
  • Hosea 5:14 For I will be to Ephraim like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear in pieces and go away. I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.
  • Job 4:10-11 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken. The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.
  • Job 29:17 I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.
  • Psalms 10:15 Break the arm of the wicked. As for the evil man, seek out his wickedness until you find none.
  • Psalms 17:12 He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
  • Micah 5:8 The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, among many peoples, like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is no one to deliver.
  • Numbers 23:24 Behold, a people rises up as a lioness. As a lion he lifts himself up. He shall not lie down until he eats of the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain.”
  • Psalms 91:13 You will tread on the lion and cobra. You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot.
  • Isaiah 31:4 For Yahweh says to me, “As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for their noise, so Yahweh of Armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.
  • Ezekiel 30:21-26 “Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Behold, it has not been bound up, to apply medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it become strong to hold the sword. Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong arm, and that which was broken. I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand; but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before the king of Babylon with the groaning of a mortally wounded man. I will hold up the arms of the king of Babylon; and the arms of Pharaoh will fall down. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he stretches it out on the land of Egypt. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’ ”

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

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Explain this verse (18 sources)

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

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 6. Break their teeth, O God! in their mouth…

6. Break their teeth, O God! in their mouth From this part of the psalm he assumes the language of imprecation, and solicits the vengeance of God, whose peculiar prerogative it is to repel oppression and vindicate injured innocence. It is necessary, however, that we attend to the manner in which this is done. He does not claim the judgment or patronage of God to his cause, until he had, in the first place, asserted his integrity, and stated his complaint against the malicious conduct of his enemies; for God can never be expected to undertake a cause which is unworthy of defense. In the verse before us, he prays that God would crush the wicked, and restrain the violence of their rage. By their teeth, he would intimate that they resembled wild beasts in their desire to rend and destroy the victims of their oppression; and this is brought out more clearly in the latter part of the verse, where he likens them to lions The comparison denotes the fury with which they were bent upon his destruction.

In the next verse, and in the several succeeding verses, he prosecutes the same purpose, employing a variety of apt similitudes. He prays that God would make them flow away like waters, that is, swiftly. The expression indicates the greatness of his faith. His enemies were before his eyes in all the array of their numbers and resources; he saw that their power was deeply rooted and firmly established; the whole nation was against him, and seemed to rise up before him like a hopeless and formidable barrier of rocky mountains. To pray that this solid and prodigious opposition should melt down and disappear, evidenced no small degree of courage, and the event could only appear credible to one who had learnt to exalt the power of God above all intervening obstacles. In the comparison which immediately follows, he prays that the attempts of his adversaries might be frustrated, the meaning of the words being, that their arrows might fall powerless, as if broken, when they bent their bow. Actuated as they were by implacable cruelty, he requests that God would confound their enterprises, and in this we are again called to admire his unshaken courage, which could contemplate the formidable preparations of his enemies as completely at the disposal of God, and their whole power as lying at his feet. Let his example in this particular point be considered. Let us not cease to pray, even after the arrows of our enemies have been fitted to the string, and destruction might seem inevitable.

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 Take away all occasions and means whereby they hurt.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 58:6 Break their teeth, O God, in their…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Their teeth; their power and instruments of doing mischief.…
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain In these verses we have,
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth,.... From…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Their teeth - Their powerful instruments of doing mischief.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. Break their teeth] He still compares Saul,…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 58:6. Break their teeth, O God — Their…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth -…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain He prays for their destruction, under the figure of…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 6. Break their teeth—The allusion is to the custom…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. The figure of the serpent, typical of insidious…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (6) Break their teeth.—The change is abrupt from the…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 6-9. passes into imprecation, with an "Elohim" emphatically…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 6. Break their teeth, O God, in their…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 58:6 The psalmist calls on God to break the…

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