How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?

  • KJV King James Version

    How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    (62-4) How long will ye set upon a man, that ye may slay him, all of you, as a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

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Cross-references (15)

Passages linked to Psalms 62:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Jeremiah 4:14 Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?
  • Psalms 82:2 “How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?”
  • Psalms 140:2 those who devise mischief in their hearts. They continually gather themselves together for war.
  • Exodus 16:28 Yahweh said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?
  • Psalms 21:11 For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
  • Psalms 38:12 They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long.
  • Proverbs 1:22 “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?
  • Isaiah 30:13-14 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. He will break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found among the broken pieces a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
  • Psalms 4:2 You sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonor? Will you love vanity and seek after falsehood?
  • Hosea 7:15 Though I have taught and strengthened their arms, yet they plot evil against me.
  • Exodus 10:3 Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, “This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.
  • 1 Samuel 26:10 David said, “As Yahweh lives, Yahweh will strike him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish.
  • Psalms 73:18-20 Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction. How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors. As a dream when one wakes up, so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies.
  • Proverbs 6:9 How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?
  • Matthew 17:17 Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring him here to me.”

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

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Explain this verse (17 sources)

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

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 3. How long will ye continue mischief? The Hebrew…

3. How long will ye continue mischief? The Hebrew word תהותתו, tehotethu, which I have translated continue, or lengthen out, mischief, is rendered by some, to meditate, or imagine mischief, while others suppose an allusion to the putting forth of the tongue in sign of mockery. It has been rendered also, to rush upon, or assault. The sense of the passage seems to be, How long will ye meditate evil against a man, and persist in mischievous devices for accomplishing his ruin? He has in view the obstinate malice of his enemies, moving every stone for his destruction, and forming new plans daily for effecting it. The instruction to be learned from his experience is, that we should exercise patience, even when our enemies show unwearied cruelty in their attempts to destroy us, and are instigated by the devil to incessant artifices for our persecution. We may just advert to the meaning of the figure which is subjoined. Some think that the wicked are compared to a bowing wall, because it threatens every moment to fall to the ground, and they, upon every sin which they commit, tend more and more downwards, till they are precipitated into destruction. But it would seem as if the allusion were somewhat different. A wall, when ill built, bulges out in the center, presenting the appearance of nearly twice its actual breadth; but, as it is hollow within, it soon falls to ruins. The wicked, in like manner, are dilated with pride, and assume, in their consultations, a most formidable appearance; but David predicts that they would be brought to unexpected and utter destruction, like a wall badly constructed, and hollow in the interior, which falls with a sudden crash, and is broken by its own weight into a thousand pieces. The word גדר, gader, which I have rendered, a fence, means, properly, an enclosure built of slight and insufficient materials; and an epithet is added still more to express the violence and impetuosity of their fall. The Psalmist, then, would teach us that, high as our enemies may appear to stand, and proud and swelling as their denunciations may be, they shall be suddenly and signally overthrown, like a smitten wall.

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 He meaneth himself, being the man whom God had…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 62:3 How long will ye imagine mischief against…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Ye, mine enemies, to whom now he turneth his…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain How long will ye imagine mischief against a man?....…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Ye - Mine enemies; to whom now he turns…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. How long will ye imagine mischief] The…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 62:3. How long will ye — Mine enemies,…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain How long will ye imagine mischief against a man?…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Their destruction will come; as a tottering wall they…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. How long will ye imagine mischief—He addresses the…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. How long] For the indignant remonstrance cp. Psa_4:2,…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) Imagine mischief.—This is the Rabbinical rendering of a…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain How long will ye imagine mischief agaiust a man?…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 3. How long will ye imagine mischief against…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 all of you
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 62:3-4 The enemies desire to topple the king with…

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