Back to Psalms 69

Psalms 69:28

Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.

  • KJV King James Version

    Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    (69-29) Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

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Examined in Scripture Analysis

Contradictions (1)

Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.

  • Does hell exist?

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Cross-references (12)

Passages linked to Psalms 69:28 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Exodus 32:32-33 Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.” Yahweh said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book.
  • Luke 10:20 Nevertheless, don’t rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
  • Philippians 4:3 Yes, I beg you also, true partner, help these women, for they labored with me in the Good News with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
  • Ezekiel 13:9 “My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who utter lying divinations. They will not be in the council of my people, neither will they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither will they enter into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.”
  • Revelation 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed.
  • Revelation 20:12-15 I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works. Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
  • Hebrews 12:23 to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
  • Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
  • Revelation 22:19 If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, may God take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.
  • Isaiah 65:16 so that he who blesses himself in the earth will bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes.
  • Isaiah 4:3 It will happen that he who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem,
  • Hosea 1:9 He said, “Call his name Lo-Ammi; for you are not my people, and I will not be yours.

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 28. Let them be blotted out from the book…

28. Let them be blotted out from the book of the living. This is the last imprecation, and it is the most dreadful of the whole; but it nevertheless uniformly follows the persevered in impenitence and incorrigible obduracy of which the Psalmist has spoken above. After having taken away from them all hope of repentance, he denounces against them eternal destruction, which is the obvious meaning of the prayer, that they might be blotted out of the book of the living; for all those must inevitably perish who are not found written or enrolled in the book of life. This is indeed an improper manner of speaking; but it is one well adapted to our limited capacity, the book of life being nothing else than the eternal purpose of God, by which he has predestinated his own people to salvation. God, it is certain, is absolutely immutable; and, further, we know that those who are adopted to the hope of salvation were written before the foundation of the world, (Ephesians 1:4;) but as God’s eternal purpose of election is incomprehensible, it is said, in accommodation to the imperfection of the human understanding, that those whom God openly, and by manifest signs, enrols among his people, are written. On the other hand, those whom God openly rejects and casts out of his Church are, for the same reason, said to be blotted out. As then David desires that the vengeance of God may be manifested, he very properly speaks of the reprobation of his enemies in language accommodated to our understanding; as if he had said, O God! reckon them not among the number or ranks of thy people, and let them not be gathered together with thy Church; but rather show by destroying them that thou hast rejected them; and although they occupy a place for a time among thy faithful ones, do thou at length cut them off, to make it manifest that they were aliens, though they were mingled with the members of thy family. Ezekiel uses language of similar import when he says,

“And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel.” (Ezekiel 13:9)

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That, however, continues true which is spoken by the Apostle John, (1 John 2:19,) that none who have been once really the children of God will ever finally fall away or be wholly cut off. But as hypocrites presumptuously boast that they are the chief members of the Church, the Holy Spirit well expresses their rejection, by the figure of their being blotted out of the book of life. Moreover, it is to be observed that, in the second clause, all the elect of God are called the righteous; for, as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 4, 7,

“This is the will of God, even our sanctification, that every one of us should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor: for God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3, 4, 7)

And the climax which the same Apostle uses in the 8th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, at the 30th verse, is well known:

“Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:30)

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 They which seemed by their profession to have been…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 69:28 Let them be blotted out of the…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Of the living; or, of life: either,
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Let them be blotted out of the book of…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Living - Of eternal life.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 28. Let them be blotted out] They shall…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 69:28. Let them be blotted out of the…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Let them be blotted out of the book of…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain book of the living--or "life," with the next clause,…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 28. Blotted out of the book of the living—Or,…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 28. the book of the living] Or, as R.V.,…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (28) Book of the living—or life.—This image, which plays…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Let them be blotted out of the Book of…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 28. Let them be blotted out of the…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Let them be blotted out of
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 69:28 Erase their names from the Book of Life:…

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