The enemy is overtaken by endless ruin. The very memory of the cities which you have overthrown has perished.
Parallel Translations
-
The enemy is overtaken by endless ruin. The very memory of the cities which you have overthrown has perished.
-
O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.
-
(9-7) O thou enemy, the waste places are come to an end for ever; and the cities which thou didst uproot, their very memorial is perished.
Cross-references (24)
Passages linked to Psalms 9:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 14:13 Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh, which he will work for you today; for you will never again see the Egyptians whom you have seen today.
- Isaiah 14:22-23 “I will rise up against them,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son,” says Yahweh. “I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Micah 7:8 Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me.
- 1 Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
- Revelation 20:2 He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,
- Exodus 15:16 Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone, until your people pass over, Yahweh, until the people you have purchased pass over.
- 1 Samuel 31:7 When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them.
- 2 Kings 19:25 Haven’t you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
- Psalms 7:5 let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust.
- Psalms 8:2 From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.
- Psalms 34:16 Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
- Psalms 46:9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire.
- Isaiah 10:6-7 I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me I will give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. However he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.
- Isaiah 10:24-25 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, says “My people who dwell in Zion, don’t be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did. For yet a very little while, and the indignation against you will be accomplished, and my anger will be directed to his destruction.”
- Isaiah 14:6-8 who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that no one restrained. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out in song. Yes, the cypress trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us.”
- Isaiah 14:17 who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”
- Isaiah 37:26 “ ‘Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.
- Jeremiah 51:25 “Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain,” says Yahweh, “which destroys all the earth. I will stretch out my hand on you, roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain.
- Jeremiah 51:62-64 and say, ‘Yahweh, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one will dwell in it, neither man nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever.’ It will be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates. Then you shall say, ‘Thus will Babylon sink, and will not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; and they will be weary.’ ” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
- Micah 7:10 Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her who said to me, where is Yahweh your God? Then my enemy will see me and will cover her shame. Now she will be trodden down like the mire of the streets.
- Nahum 1:9-13 What do you plot against Yahweh? He will make a full end. Affliction won’t rise up the second time. For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble. There is one gone out of you, who devises evil against Yahweh, who counsels wickedness. Yahweh says: “Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so they will be cut down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. Now I will break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds apart.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
- 1 Samuel 30:1 When David and his men had come to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the South, and on Ziklag, and had struck Ziklag, and burned it with fire,
- Isaiah 10:13-14 For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding. I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers. My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, I have gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 6. O thou enemy, desolations are come to an…
6. O thou enemy, desolations are come to an end for ever. This sixth verse is explained in different ways. Some read it interrogatively, viewing the letter ה, as a mark of interrogation, as if David, addressing his discourse to his enemies, asked whether they had completed their work of devastation, even as they had resolved to destroy every thing; for the verb תמם, tamam, signifies sometimes to complete, and sometimes to put an end to any thing. And if we here take it in this sense, David, in the language of sarcasm or irony, rebukes the foolish confidence of his enemies. Others, reading the verse without any interrogation, make the irony still more evident, and think that David describes, in these three verses, a twofold state of matters; that, in the first place, (verse 6,) he introduces his enemies persecuting him with savage violence, and persevering with determined obstinacy in their cruelty, so that it seemed to be their fixed purpose never to desist until the kingdom of David should be utterly destroyed; and that, in the second place, (verses 7, 8) he represents God as seated on his judgment-seat, directly over against them, to repress their outrageous attempts. If this sense is admitted, the copulative, in the beginning of the seventh verse, which we have translated and, must be rendered by the adversative particle but, in this way: Thou, O enemy, didst seek after nothing except slaughter and the destruction of cities; but, at length, God has shown that he sits in heaven on his throne as judge, to put into proper order the things which are in confusion on the earth. According to others, David gives thanks to God, because, when the ungodly were fully determined to spread universal ruin around them, he put an end to their devastations. Others understand the words in a more restricted sense, as meaning that the desolations of the ungodly were completed, because God, in his just judgment, had made to fall upon their own heads the calamities and ruin which they had devised against David. According to others, David, in the 6th verse, complains that God had, for a long time, silently suffered the miserable devastation of his people, so that the ungodly, being left unchecked, wasted and destroyed all things according to their pleasure; and in the seventh verse, they think he subjoins for his consolation that God, notwithstanding, presides over human affairs. I have no objection to the view, that there is first described ironically how dreadful the power of the enemy was, when they put forth their highest efforts; and next, that there is set in opposition to it the judgment of God, which suddenly brought their proceedings to an abrupt termination, contrary to their expectation. They anticipated no such issue; for we know that the ungodly, although they may not presume openly to deprive God of his authority and dominion, yet run headlong to every excess of wickedness, not less boldly than if he were bound with fetters. “Que s’il avait les pieds et mains liees.” — Fr. “Than if he were bound hand and foot.”
This contrast between the power of the enemies of God and his people, and the work of God in breaking up their proceedings, very well illustrates the wonderful character of the succor which he granted to his people. The ungodly had set to themselves no limit in the work of doing mischief, save in the utter destruction of all things, and at the commencement complete destruction seemed to be at hand; but when things were in this state of confusion, God seasonably made his appearance for the help of his people. “Dieu s’est montre bien a propos pour secourir les gens. — Fr.
Read full note →
“De quelque coste que nous-nous seachions tourner.” — Fr.
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 A derision of the enemy, that mindeth nothing but…
A derision of the enemy, that mindeth nothing but destruction: but the Lord will deliver his, and bring him into judgment.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 9:6 O thou enemy, destructions are come to…
Psa 9:6 O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.
Ver. 6. O thou enemy] The same whom he called wicked one in the former verse; where the word wicked is of the singular number: q.d. O thou implacable wretch, that wouldst never be reconciled till thou wast ruined; which now thou art, &c. Some read it interrogatively, and with it ironically, O enemy, are destructions come to an end? and cities so wasted that they can never be repaired? q.d. So indeed thou hast designed it, but art fairly disappointed. And the like befell Antiochus, Nero, Dioclesian, Philip II of Spain, Charles IX of France, and other bloody persecutors, with tbeir devilish thoughts and threats; which they could never effect and accomplish.
Read full note →
Their memorial is perished with them] Heb. Of them, of them (twice), for more vehemency. The Vulgate (alter the Greek) hath it cum sonitu, with a humming noise, so that the sound thereof ringeth all the world over. R. David rendereth it, Memoria eorum periit; suntne illi? Their memorial is perished; have they yet a being anywhere?
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 This is a sudden apostrophe to the enemies of…
This is a sudden apostrophe to the enemies of God’s people, Philistines, Amorites, or other nations, who had formerly made great havoc and waste among them.
Destructions are come to a perpetual end; thou hast destroyed the Israelitish nation utterly and irrecoverably, and, as it follows, their defenced cities, and their very name and memory, according to thy own desire. So it is a sarcasm or irony, a usual figure in Scripture and all authors, whereby the quite contrary is signified, to wit, that they were not only frustrated of their desires and hopes of destroying the Israelites, but were also subdued, and in a great part destroyed by them. Or this verse may be understood of the great waste and ruin which God’s enemies had brought upon Israel before this time; which is here remembered, to make the Israelites more thankful for their later or present deliverances. Or it may be taken as a prophecy of the future calamities which the enemies should by God’s permission bring upon Israel, of which he speaks as of a thing past and done, after the manner of the prophets. But this place is otherwise rendered in the margin of our Bibles, and by divers others, the destructions of the enemy which may be understood either,
Read full note →
1. Actively, which they caused; or,
2. Passively, which they felt
are come to a perpetual end, or, are fully and finally completed. Thou hast destroyed cities; either,
1. Thou, O God, who is oft understood and couched in a pronoun in this manner, thou hast destroyed their cities. Or rather,
2. Thou, O enemy; as may be gathered both from the foregoing clause, where it is so expressed; and from the next verse, where it follows by way of opposition to this, But the Lord, &c. Their memorial is perished with them; the places and people are utterly extinct.
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 the Lord shall endure for ever,.... When antichrist…
But the Lord shall endure for ever,.... When antichrist is entirely ruined, his cities destroyed, and the memorial of them perished, then "shall the Lord sit for ever" (g), as the words may be rendered; that is, as a Jewish writer (h) paraphrases them, in rest and quiet. The words may be expressive of the unchangeableness and eternity and power of God; the Chaldee paraphrase of them is, , "the Word of the Lord is for ever; his habitation is in the highest heavens". And they may very well be interpreted of Christ, the essential Word of God, who is the unchangeable, everlasting, and almighty God; and who sits King for ever, and must sit at God's right hand, in the highest heavens, until all his enemies are made his footstool; and to him most properly do the following things in this verse Psa 9:8 belong:
he hath prepared his throne for judgment; for the administration of judgment in this world, for the particular judgment after death, and for the general judgment after the resurrection of the dead; which seems by what follows to be chiefly meant, and which will come on after the destruction of antichrist; and all things are preparing for it; the day is appointed in which God will judge the world; Christ is ordained to be the Judge of quick and dead; devils and ungodly men are reserved to the judgment of the great day; the throne is ready, which will be a white one, Rev 20:11; denoting the purity, justice, and uprightness of the Judge, who himself is at the door.
Read full note →
(g) "sedebit", Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius, Michaelis; so Ainsworth; "sedet", Vatablus, Musculus. (h) R. Abraham Seba in Tzeror Hammor, fol. 150. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. Destructions are come to a perpetual end]…
Verse 6. Destructions are come to a perpetual end] Rather, "The enemy is desolated for ever; for thou hast destroyed their cities, and their memory is perished with them." Multitudes of the cities of the Canaanites have perished so utterly that neither name nor vestige remains of them.
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 9:6. O thou enemy, &c. — This is…
Psa 9:6. O thou enemy, &c. — This is a sudden apostrophe to the enemies of God’s people, the Philistines, Amorites, or other nations which had formerly made great havoc and waste among them: Destructions are come to a perpetual end — Thou hast formerly wasted and destroyed the people of God, but those destructions have now come to an end, and shall cease. Thy power to annoy Israel is now broken. Christians, when repeating those words, “may take a retrospect view of the successive fall of those empires, with their capital cities, in which the enemy had, from time to time, fixed his residence, and which had vexed and persecuted the people of God in different ages. Such were the Assyrian or Babylonian, the Persian and the Grecian monarchies. All these vanished away, and came to nothing. Nay, the very memorial of the stupendous Nineveh and Babylon is so perished with them that the place where they once stood is now no more to be found. The Roman empire was the last of the pagan persecuting powers; and when the church saw that under her feet, well might she cry out, The destructions of the enemy are completed to the uttermost! How lovely will this song be in the day when the last enemy shall be destroyed, and the world itself shall become what Babylon is at present.” — Horne.
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 O thou enemy! - This verse has been very…
O thou enemy! - This verse has been very variously rendered and explained. For an examination of the particular views entertained of it, see particularly Rosenmuller, in loc. The reference is doubtless to the enemies mentioned in the previous verses; and the idea is substantially the same - that they were completely overcome and subdued. The phrase, “O thou enemy,” is probably to be regarded as the nominative absolute. “The enemy - his destructions or desolations are finished forever. He will now no more engage in that work.” The attention of the writer is fixed on them, and on the fact that they will no more engage in the work of desolation. It is not, therefore, properly to be regarded, as it is rendered in the common translation, as an apostrophe to the enemy, but rather as indicating a state of mind in which the writer is meditating on his foes, and on the fact that they would no more engage in the work in which they had been occupied - of laying cities and towns in ruins.
Destructions are come to a perpetual end - That is, thy destructions are finished, completed, accomplished. There are to be no more of them. This may either refer to their acts causing destruction, or laying waste cities and towns, meaning that they would no more accomplish this work; or to the destruction or ruins which they had caused in laying waste cities - the ruins which marked their career - meaning that the number of such ruins was now complete, and that no more would be added, for they them. selves were overthrown. The word rendered “destructions” means properly desolations, waste places, ruins, and seem here to refer to the wastes or ruins which the enemy had made; and the true idea is, that such desolations were now complete, or that they would not be suffered to devastate anymore cities and fields. Prof. Alexander renders this, “finished, completed are (his) ruins, desolations, forever; that is, he is ruined or made desolate forever.”
Read full note →
And thou hast destroyed cities - That is, in thy desolating career. This, considered as an address to the enemy, would seem to refer to the career of some victor who had Carried fire and sword through the land, and whose course had been marked by smoking ruins. This was, however, now at an end, for God had interposed, and had given the author of the psalm a victory ever his foe. Prof. Alexander regards this, less properly, as an address to God, meaning that he had destroyed the cities of the enemy. The idea is, rather, that this enemy had been distinguised for spreading desolation and ruin, and that this career was now closed forever.
Their memorial is perished with them - The names of the cities, referring to their utter destruction, and to the character of the warfare which had been waged. It had been utterly barbarous and vicious; the enemy had left nothing to testify even what the city had been, and its name had ceased to be mentioned. See the notes at Psa 9:5. This seems to be mentioned as a justification of the warfare which the author of the psalm had waged against this enemy, and as showing why God had interposed and had given him the victory.
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 Literally, "As to the enemy finished are his ruins…
Literally, "As to the enemy finished are his ruins for ever. Thou [God] hast destroyed," &c. (Sa1 15:3, Sa1 15:7; Sa1 27:8-9). The wicked are utterly undone. Their ruins shall never be repaired.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. The enemy are consumed, left desolate for ever;
6. The enemy are consumed, left desolate for ever;
And (their) cities thou didst uproot; the very remembrance of them is perished.
Read full note →
An address to the enemy (P.B.V. and A.V.) would be out of place here; and the word rendered destructions does not bear an active sense, but means ruins or desolations. It is best to regard the words as still addressed to Jehovah, continuing the description of His judgment on the enemies of Israel. The language of this and the preceding verse recalls that of the curse on Amalek: “I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” (Exo_17:14; cp. Deu_25:19). ‘Their memorial’ or ‘remembrance’ refers grammatically to the enemy, not to the cities, and the pronoun is repeated in the original to emphasise the contrast between those who are thus destroyed and forgotten, and Jehovah who sits enthroned on high for ever.
Critical reasons however suggest a slight alteration of the text. If the emphatic pronoun is transferred from the end of Psa_9:6 to the beginning of Psa_9:7, and a verb supplied, we may render,
They are perished, but the Lord sitteth &c.
This emendation (approved by Delitzsch) marks the contrast still more strongly (cp. Psa_102:26), and moreover makes the pair of Psa_9:7-8 begin, as they should, with the letter Hç. There is also much to be said in favour of transposing the clauses of Psa_9:6 thus, as proposed by Nowack:
The enemy are consumed, the remembrance of them is perished:
And the cities thou didst uproot are desolate for ever.
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 (6) O thou enemy . . .—This vocative gives…
(6) O thou enemy . . .—This vocative gives no intelligible meaning. Translate, As for the enemy, they are made an utter wreck and perpetual ruin.
Destructions.—Properly, desolations, ruins, from a word meaning “to be dried up.”
Read full note →
Come to a perpetual end.—Properly, are completed for ever.
Thou hast destroyed.—Some understand the relative: “the cities which thou hast destroyed.”
Their memorial.—Better, their very memory is perished; literally, their memory, theirs. (Comp. “He cannot flatter, he”—Shakespeare, King Lear). The LXX. and Vulg. read, “with a sound,” referring to the crash of falling cities. Some would substitute enemies for cities, but they lose the emphasis of the passage, which points to the utter evanishment from history of great cities as a consequence and sign of Divine judgment. Probably the poet thinks of Sodom and Gomorrha, whose overthrow left such a signal mark on the thought of Israel. We think of the mounds of earth which alone represent Nineveh and Babylon.
“’Mid far sands,
The palm-tree cinctured city stands,
Bright white beneath, as heaven, bright blue,
Leans over it, while the years pursue
Their course, unable to abate
Its paradisal laugh at fate.
One morn the Arab staggers blind
O’er a new tract of earth calcined
To ashes, silence, nothingness,
And strives, with dizzy wits, to guess
Whence fell the blow.”—R. BROWNING: Easter Day.
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 O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual…
O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end. It is better to translate, with the Revised Version, The enemy are come to an end; they are desolate for ever a continuance of the hyperbole already noticed in the preceding verse. And thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them; rather, and as for the cities thou hast destroyed, their very memory has perished. This could only be an anticipation. It was fulfilled in the complete disappearance from history of the names of Zoba, Beth-rehob, and Tob, after the victory described in 2Sa_10:13, 2Sa_10:14.
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. 6. Here the Psalmist exults over the fallen…
Ver. 6. Here the Psalmist exults over the fallen foe. He bends as it were, over his prostrate form, and insults his once vaunted strength. He plucks the boaster's song out of his mouth, and sings it for him in derision. After this fashion doth our Glorious Redeemer ask of death, "Where is thy sting?" and of the grave, "Where is thy victory?" The spoiler is spoiled, and he who made captive is led into captivity himself. Let the daughters of Jerusalem go forth to meet their King, and praise him with timbrel and harp.
None.
Read full note →
Ver. 6.
1. The great enemy.
2. The destruction he has caused.
3. The means of his overthrow.
4. The rest which shall ensue.
In the light of the past the future is not doubtful. Since the same Almighty God fills the throne of power, we can with unhesitating confidence, exult in our security for all time to come.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.