But those who seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
Parallel Translations
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But those who seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
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But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
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(63-10) But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the nethermost parts of the earth.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Psalms 63:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 55:15 Let death come suddenly on them. Let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is among them, in their dwelling.
- Psalms 9:17 The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol, even all the nations that forget God.
- Psalms 40:14 Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.
- 1 Samuel 25:29 Though men may rise up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your God. He will sling out the souls of your enemies, as from the hollow of a sling.
- Numbers 16:30-33 But if Yahweh makes a new thing, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up with all that belong to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh.” As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split apart. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all of Korah’s men, and all their goods. So they, and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol. The earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly.
- Psalms 86:13 For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
- Isaiah 14:19 But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.
- Job 40:13 Hide them in the dust together. Bind their faces in the hidden place.
- Psalms 35:4 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 35:26 Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me.
- 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.
- 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 70:2 Let them be disappointed and confounded who seek my soul. Let those who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.
- Isaiah 14:9 Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
- Isaiah 14:15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit.
- Ezekiel 32:18-32 “Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit. Whom do you pass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised. They will fall among those who are slain by the sword. She is delivered to the sword. Draw her away with all her multitudes. The strong among the mighty will speak to him out of the middle of Sheol with those who help him. They have gone down. The uncircumcised lie still, slain by the sword. “Asshur is there with all her company. Her graves are all around her. All of them slain, fallen by the sword; whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living. “There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. They have set her a bed among the slain with all her multitude. Her graves are around her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. He is put among those who are slain. “There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude. Their graves are around them, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living. They will not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who have gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are on their bones; for they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. “But you will be broken among the uncircumcised, and will lie with those who are slain by the sword. “There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, who in their might are laid with those who are slain by the sword. They will lie with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down to the pit. “There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down with the slain. They are put to shame in the terror which they caused by their might. They lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. “Pharaoh will see them, and will be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword,” says the Lord Yahweh. “For I have put his terror in the land of the living. He will be laid among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude,” says the Lord Yahweh.
- 1 Samuel 28:19 Moreover Yahweh will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Yahweh will deliver the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”
- Acts 1:25 to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 9. And they, whilst they seek, etc. Here we…
9. And they, whilst they seek, etc. Here we find David rising to a more assured confidence, and triumphing as if he had already obtained the victory. And there is every reason to believe, that though he had escaped his difficulties, and was in circumstances of peace and prosperity when he wrote this psalm, yet he only expresses what he actually felt at the critical period when his life was in such imminent danger. He declares his conviction that the enemies who eagerly sought his life would be cut off; that God would cast them headlong into destruction; and that their very bodies should be left without burial. To be the portion of foxes, is the same thing with being left to be torn and devoured by the beasts of the field. It is often denounced as one judgment which should befall the wicked, that they would perish by the sword, and become the prey of wolves and of dogs, without privilege of sepulture. This is a fate which the best of men have met with in the world, — for good as well as bad are exposed to the stroke of temporal evil; — but there is this distinction, that God watches over the scattered dust of his own children, gathers it again, and will suffer nothing of them to perish, whereas, when the wicked are slain, and their bones spread on the field, this is only preparatory to their everlasting destruction.
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.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 63:9 But those [that] seek my soul, to…
Psa 63:9 But those [that] seek my soul, to destroy [it], shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
Ver. 9. But those that seek my soul to destroy it] Heb. Ad pracipitium, to hurl it down headlong, shall themselves be laid low enough, even in the slimy valley where are many already like them, and more (shall come after them), Job 21:31-32. And this assurance of his enemies’ downfall David had gotten by his meditations on God, Psa 63:6.
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Shall go into the lower parts of the earth] i.e. Into the grave at least, if not into hell; they shall be abyssed into hell, into eternal perdition, saith Diodati.
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 destroy it, i.e. to take away my life.
To destroy it, i.e. to take away my life.
Into the lower parts of the earth; either,
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1. Into hell. Or rather,
2. Into their grave, as this phrase is used, Eze 31:14,18. But how is this true, when they are supposed to be devoured by foxes, Psa 63:10? Answ. This may be understood, either,
1. Of divers persons. Some of their slain might be buried, and others lie unburied. Or,
2. Of the same persons; they did go into the earth, but not immediately, but were first devoured of foxes, and the remainders of them were buried, as is frequently done in such cases. Or this phrase may note not so much the place as the state of the dead; this being universally said of those that die, whether they are buried or unburied, that they return to the earth or dust, Job 1:21; Ecc 12:7.
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 But those that seek my soul to destroy it,....…
But those that seek my soul to destroy it,.... Meaning his life; for as for his soul, that was immaterial and immortal, and could never be destroyed by man: but as for his natural life, his enemies laid snares for that, and sought to take it away, and nothing less would satisfy them;
shall go into the lower parts of the earth; not the grave, whither the righteous go as well as the wicked; besides, by their being the portion of foxes, as follows, it seems that they should have no burial; but hell is meant, the bottomless pit. Some take it to be a prayer, as Kimchi and Ben Melech; "may they go", or "let them go", &c. see Psa 55:15. The allusion may be thought to be to the death of Korah and his company.
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 Shall go - Into the grave.
Shall go - Into the grave.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. Lower parts of the earth.] They are…
Verse 9. Lower parts of the earth.] They are appointed, in the just judgment of God, to destruction; they shall be slain and buried in the earth, and shall be seen no more. Some understand the passage as referring to the punishment of hell; which many supposed to be in the centre of the earth. So the old Psalter, - Thai sall entir in till lagher pine of hell. Lahher or laigher, lower, undermost.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 63:9-10. But those that seek my soul, &c.…
Psa 63:9-10. But those that seek my soul, &c. — That seek to take away my life; shall go into the lower parts of the earth — Into the grave; and, if they repent not, into hell. God shall cut them off, and send them to their own place. Their enmity to David, and opposition to the counsel of God respecting him, he foresaw would be their death and their damnation, their ruin and their eternal ruin. They shall fall by the sword — Shall die in battle, as he foretold 1Sa 26:10, and as was accomplished in Saul and his followers, who were David’s greatest enemies. They shall be a portion for foxes — The carcasses of some of them shall lie unburied upon the earth, and thereby shall become a prey to wild and ravenous beasts, and especially to foxes, which abounded in those parts.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain But those that seek my soul to destroy it…
But those that seek my soul to destroy it - Who seek my life; who endeavor to kill me. This language would well describe the purposes of Absalom and his followers.
Shall go into the lower parts of the earth - Shall descend into the earth; into the deepest graves. He would live; but they would perish.
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 those . . . to destroy it--or literally, "to…
those . . . to destroy it--or literally, "to ruin," or, "for ruin"; that is, such as seek to injure me (are) for ruin, appointed to it (compare Psa 35:8).
shall go . . . earth--into the grave, or, to death; as their bodies are represented as a portion for--
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 9. But those—He turns from these soul yearnings and…
9. But those—He turns from these soul yearnings and sweet thoughts of God to the stern battle of life before him. The strong adversative force of the conjunction, joined to the pronoun, brings out the sharp contrast between him and his enemies.
That seek my soul, to destroy it—The order of the Hebrew words is, but they to destruction will seek after my soul, that is, to their own destruction, and so the parallel clause, they shall go, etc., shows that it is not what they intended for him, which is clearly enough implied, but what should overtake them, that he is speaking of. The word here rendered destruction radically denotes a loud noise, crash, and means tempestuous overthrow, ruin with a crash.
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Lower parts of the earth—Not a periphrasis for grave, as elsewhere and as in Eph_4:9, for in Psa_63:10 he declares they shall be denied burial, and being a threatened punishment of bad men, it must be understood of punishment in sheol, or the future world, taking the phrase as synonymous with our Lord’s words, Joh_8:23 : “Ye are ‘εκ των κατω, (from the beneath,)” using beneath as antithetic to “τα ανω, (the above,)” in the same connexion; and more sharply defined Joh_8:44, “Ye are ‘εκ πατρος του διαβολους, (from your father the devil.)” And this is further evidence by their condition after death, Joh_8:21, “Whither I go ye cannot come,” a denunciation conditioned on their “dying in their sins,” which shows that he is speaking of the future state. In the same verse (Joh_8:23) our Lord says, “Ye are ‘εκ του κοσμου, (from the world,)” but κοσμος, world, here is to be taken figuratively in the morally bad sense of a state of society at enmity with God, as in Joh_15:8-9; 1Jn_2:15-16. Different is Joh_3:31, where εκ της γης, (of the earth,) is to be understood of humble, imperfect, perishable origin. It is clear, therefore, that both the psalmist and the Saviour, in the words in question, use language Hebraistically of future punishment.
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 9. But those &c.] They, his enemies, who are…
9. But those &c.] They, his enemies, who are seeking his life, are emphatically contrasted with himself (Psa_59:15; Psa_56:6). While his path is upward to God, theirs is downward to the depths of Sheol. It is possible to render (cp. R.V. marg.) But they shall be destroyed that seek my life, They shall go &c.
into the lower parts of the earth] Into Sheol, swallowed up like Korah and his company of rebels. Cp. for the phrase, Isa_44:23; Eze_26:20; Psa_86:13; Eph_4:9; Deu_32:22 : and for the thought, Psa_9:15; Psa_9:17; Psa_55:15; Psa_55:23.
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.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain But those that seek my soul, to destroy it,…
But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. Professor Cheyne notes that "the psalmist has no sense of any incongruity between deeply spiritual musings and vehement denunciations of his enemies." And this is certainly true. But it is to be remembered that he views his enemies, not merely as his own fees, but as the foes of God and of Israel. As the servant of God, he must hate those who are opposed to God; as the King of Israel, he must hate those who seek to injure and ruin his people. He does not, however, desire for them suffering or torment; he only asks that they may be removed from this sphere into another world. (On David"s conception of the lower world, see the comment upon Psa_16:10 and Psa_86:13)
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. 9. As David earnestly sought for God, so…
Ver. 9. As David earnestly sought for God, so there were men of another order who as eagerly sought after his blood; of these he speaks:
But those that seek my soul, to destroy it. At his life they aimed, at his honour, his best welfare; and this they would not merely injure but utterly ruin. The devil is a destroyer, and all his seed are greedy to do the same mischief; and as he has ruined himself by his crafty devices, so also shall they. Destroyers shall be destroyed. Those who hunt souls shall be themselves the victims.
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Shall go into the lower parts of the earth. Into the pits which they digged for others they shall fall themselves. The slayers shall be slain, and the grave shall cover them. The hell which they in their curse invoked for others shall shut its mouth upon them. Every blow aimed against the godly will recoil on the persecutor; he who smites a believer drives a nail in his own coffin.
Ver. 9-10. If the psalmist's divine longing was unquenched, so also was his faith; and in the latter part of the psalm he foretells with full assurance the final overthrow of his enemies. Nor did his denunciations fail to meet with a certain accuracy of fulfilment even in the battle by which his own deliverance was effected. The armies encountered in the wood of Ephraim, across the Jordan; there was "a greater slaughter that day of twenty thousand men; ""and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured." That David's words concerning the lower parts of the earth, and the sword, and the foxes, had not been idly spoken: the pitfalls of the forest, and the swords of the royal pursuers, and the wild beasts that had there made their lairs, all effectually did their work; and the fate of the rebel army was shared by their leader, who, caught in the thick boughs of the oak, pierced through the heart by Joab, and cut down by his attendants, received no further funeral honours than to be cast "into a great pit in the wood, "and have "a very great heap of stones" laid upon him to cover him. Joseph Francis Thrupp, in "An Introduction to the Study and Use of the Psalms, "1860.
Ver. 9-10.
I. The enemies of the Christian. Evil spirits, evil
men, evil habits, etc., etc.
II. Their intent. To destroy the soul.
III. Their fall. Certain, shameful, destructive.
IV. Their future. Hell is reserved for them. G. J. K.
Psalms 63:10*
Ver. 9-10. See Psalms on "Ps 63:9" for further information.
Ver. 9-10.
I. The enemies of the Christian. Evil spirits, evil
men, evil habits, etc., etc.
II. Their intent. To destroy the soul.
III. Their fall. Certain, shameful, destructive.
IV. Their future. Hell is reserved for them G. J. K.
Psalms 63:11*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 will go down into the lowest parts of the…
will go down into the lowest parts of the earth
This means they will die and go to the place of the dead. This can be stated clearly in the translation. AT: "will die and descend into the place of the dead" or "will die and go down into the place of the dead" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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they will be given over to those whose hands use the sword
Here "the sword" represents death in battle, and "those whose hands use the sword" refers to enemies who kill them in battle. This can be stated in active form. AT: "God will cause them to die in battle" (See: Metonymy and Active or Passive)
they will become food for the jackals
Here "they" refers to the corpses of those who die in battle. AT: "jackals will eat their dead bodies" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
the jackals
"jackals" here are a kind of long-legged wild dog. They feed on carrion, game, and fruit.
translationWords
sword
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 63:9 The wicked were plotting to destroy the psalmist’s…
63:9 The wicked were plotting to destroy the psalmist’s life through deception and lies, but they would meet their end. • The depths of the earth refers to the place of the dead.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.