Back to Psalms 91

Psalms 91:12

They will bear you up in their hands, so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    They will bear you up in their hands, so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone.

  • KJV King James Version

    They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    They shall bear thee upon their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

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Cross-references (7)

Passages linked to Psalms 91:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Psalms 37:24 Though he stumble, he shall not fall, for Yahweh holds him up with his hand.
  • Proverbs 3:23 Then you shall walk in your way securely. Your foot won’t stumble.
  • Luke 4:11 and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
  • Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
  • Matthew 4:6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
  • Isaiah 46:3 “Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb.
  • Job 5:23 For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you.

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

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Explain this verse (13 sources)

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

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 12 They shall bear thee upon their hands. He…

12 They shall bear thee upon their hands. He gives us a still higher idea of the guardianship of the angels, informing us, that they not only watch lest any evil should befall us, and are on the alert to extend assistance, but bear up our steps with their hands, so as to prevent us from stumbling in our course. Were we to judge indeed by mere appearances, the children of God are far from being thus borne up aloft in their career; often they labor and pant with exertion, occasionally they stagger and fall, and it is with a struggle that they advance in their course; but as in the midst of all this weakness it is only by the singular help of God that they are preserved every moment from falling and from being destroyed, we need not wonder that the Psalmist should speak in such exalted terms of the assistance which they receive through the ministrations of angels. Never, besides, could we surmount the serious obstacles which Satan opposes to our prayers, unless God should bear us up in the manner here described. Let any one combine together the two considerations which have been mentioned, — our own utter weakness on the one hand, and on the other the roughness, the difficulties, the thorns which beset our way, the stupidity besides which characterises our hearts, and the subtlety of the evil one in laying snares for our destruction, — and he will see that the language of the Psalmist is not that of hyperbole, that we could not proceed one step did not the angels bear us up in their hands in a manner beyond the ordinary course of nature. That we frequently stumble is owing to our own fault in departing from him who is our head and leader. And though God suffers us to stumble and fall in this manner that he may convince us how weak we are in ourselves, yet, inasmuch as he does not permit us to be crushed or altogether overwhelmed, it is virtually even then as if he put his hand under us and bore us up.

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 91:12 They shall bear thee up in [their]…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Shall bear thee up in their hands; sustain or…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain They shall bear thee up in their hands,.... Which…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Bear thee - Sustain or uphold thee in thy…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. They shall bear thee up in their…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain They shall bear thee up ... - As if…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. Upon their hands shall they bear thee] Cp.…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) In their hands.—Literally, on, as a nurse a…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain They shall bear thee up in their hands; rather,…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 12. Preservation from minor evils most precious because…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 They will lift you

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