the Week of Proper 22 / Ordinary 27
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King James Version
Psalms 11:3
Bible Study Resources
Dictionaries:
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- InternationalParallel Translations
If the foundations are destroyed,What can the righteous do?"
If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?"
For if the foundations shalbe caste downe: what must the righteous do?
If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?
If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
What would good people do if the wicked destroyed all that is good?
If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
If the foundations bee destroyed: what can the righteous doe?
The very foundacion haue they cast downe, what ca the rightuous the do withall?
If the foundations be destroyed, What can the righteous do?
If the bases are broken down, what is the upright man to do?
If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
When the foundations are destroyed, what can the godly accomplish?"
What can an honest person do when everything crumbles?"
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
For the foundations are cast downe: what hath the righteous done?
For if they have destroyed the foundations which the LORD has prepared, what can the righteous do?
"If the foundations [of a godly society] are destroyed, What can the righteous do?"
If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
When the foundations are destroyed, what hath the righteous wrought?
The foundations of law and order have collapsed. What can the righteous do?"
If the base of the building is destroyed, what can those who are right with God do?"
For they have pulled down what thou didst frame, but what has the righteous done?
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
When the pillars are overthrown, What could, a righteous man, do?
(10-4) For they have destroyed the things which thou hast made: but what has the just man done?
When the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do?
if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
"If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?"
When the foundations for good collapse, what can good people do?"
There is nothing a good person can do when everything falls apart."
When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
For thei han distryed, whom thou hast maad perfit; but what dide the riytful man?
When the foundations are destroyed, The righteous -- what hath he done?
if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do"?
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
If the: Psalms 75:3, Psalms 82:5, Isaiah 58:12, 2 Timothy 2:19
what: 2 Kings 19:13-18, 2 Kings 22:12-14, 2 Chronicles 32:13-15, Nehemiah 6:10-12, Jeremiah 26:11-15, Daniel 3:15-18, Daniel 6:10-28, John 11:8-10, Acts 4:5-12, Acts 4:24-33
Reciprocal: Ezekiel 13:14 - the foundation Habakkuk 1:4 - the law
Cross-References
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:
And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.
They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
Gill's Notes on the Bible
If the foundations be destroyed,.... Or, "for the foundations are destroyed" s; all things are out of order and course both in church and state; the laws, which are the foundations of government, are despised and disregarded; judgment is perverted, and justice stands afar off; the doctrines and principles of religion are derided and subverted; so that there is no standing, either in a political or religious sense. Jarchi interprets this of the priests of the Lord, the righteous, who are the foundations of the world, particularly the priests of Nob, slain by Doeg. Other Jewish writers, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, understand it of the purposes and counsels, nets and snares, laid by the wicked for the righteous, which are broken and destroyed; not by them, for what can they do? but by the Lord, who is in his holy temple. So it
what can the righteous do? or "what does the righteous one do" t? that is, the righteous Lord, he sits in the heavens, he beholds all the actions of the wicked, he distinguishes the righteous from them, and rains a violent storm of wrath upon them, as in the following verses; or "what has the righteous man done" u? what has David done, that the priests of Nob should be slain? nothing that was criminal; nor shall he bear the sin, but they, according to Jarchi's sense; or rather, what has he done that the wicked should bend their bow, prepare their arrow, and attempt to shoot privily at him, and to overturn the foundations of justice and equity? nothing that deserves such treatment: or if the fundamental doctrines of true religion and everlasting salvation be subverted, what can the righteous do? he can do nothing to obtain salvation, nor do any good works of himself; the Chaldee paraphrase is, "wherefore does he do good?" he can have no principle, motive, or end to do good, if fundamental truths are destroyed: or "what should he do" w? something the righteous ones may do, and should do, when men are attempting to undermine and sap the foundation articles of religion; they should go to the throne of grace, to God in his holy temple, who knows what is doing, and plead with him to put a stop to the designs and attempts of such subverters of foundations; and they should endeavour to build one another up on their most holy faith, and constantly affirm it while others deny it; and should contend earnestly for it, and stand fast in it.
s כי השתות יהרסון "nam fundamenta destruuntur", Piscator, Michaelis; "quoniam", Pagninus, Montanus; so Ainsworth. t צדיק מה פעל "justus quid operatus est?" Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus; "quid facit?" Syr. Arab. u "Justus quid fecit?" V. L. Munster, Tigurine versiom, Piscator; so Ainsworth. w "Quid fuerit operatus justus?" Junius Tremellius "quid fecerit?" Schmidt.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
If the foundations be destroyed - These are still to be regarded as the words of the psalmist’s advisers; or as an argument why he should make his escape. The word “foundations,” here, refers to those things on which society rests, or by which social order is sustained - the great principles of truth and righteousness that uphold society, as the foundations on which an edifice rests uphold the building. The reference is to a destruction of those things in a community, when truth is no longer respected; when justice is no longer practiced; when fraud and violence have taken the place of honesty and honor; when error prevails; when a character for integrity and virtue affords no longer any security. This is supposed to be the case in the circumstances referred to in the psalm, when there was no respect paid to truth and justice, and when the righteous, therefore, could find no security. It is under these circumstances the advice is given Psalms 11:1, that the righteous should seek safety in flight.
What can the righteous do? - What source of safety or confidence has he? His trust for his own safety, and for the good of society, has always been in the prevalence of just principles, and he has no other resource. Whatever others may do; whatever reliance they may place on such things, he can have no confidence in fraud, dishonesty, and error - in secret machinations and plans of treachery and deceit. His reliance is, and must be, in the prevalence of just principles; in the observance of law; in the diffusion of truth; in plans and deeds which are honorable and pure. When these no longer prevail, the argument is, there is nothing on which he can repose confidence in executing the plans on which his heart is fixed, and his proper course would be to flee Psalms 11:1. Part of this is true; part not. It is true that all the hope of the righteous is in the prevalence of principles of truth and justice, and that for the success of the objects nearest to his heart, whether of a private or public nature, he has no other resource or hope; but it is not always true, even when injustice, fraud, and error prevail, that he, should withdraw from society and seek his safety in flight, and leave the world to its own course. His presence may be the very thing to counteract this; his duty may be to remain and face the evil, and to endeavor to secure a better state of things. So the psalmist understood in his case.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Psalms 11:3. If the foundations be destroyed — If Saul, who is the vicegerent of God, has cast aside his fear, and now regards neither truth nor justice, a righteous man has no security for his life. This is at present thy case; therefore flee! They have utterly destroyed the foundations; (of truth and equity;) what can righteousness now effect? Kimchi supposes this refers to the priests who were murdered by Doeg, at the command of Saul. The priests are destroyed, the preservers of knowledge and truth; the Divine worship is overthrown; and what can the righteous man work? These I think to be also the words of David's advisers. To all of which he answers:-
