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Friday, October 25th, 2024
the Week of Proper 24 / Ordinary 29
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Read the Bible

King James Version

Psalms 21:12

Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Arrow;   Thompson Chain Reference - Arrows;   God;   God's;   The Topic Concordance - Enemies;   Hate;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Arrows;  

Dictionaries:

- Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - English Versions;   Greek Versions of Ot;   Psalms;   Sin;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Solomon;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Psalms the book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bible, the;   Satan, Synagogue of;   Withes, Withs;  

Parallel Translations

New Living Translation
For they will turn and run when they see your arrows aimed at them.
English Revised Version
For thou shalt make them turn their back, thou shalt make ready with thy bowstrings against the face of them.
Update Bible Version
For you will make them turn their back; You will make ready with your bowstrings against their face.
New Century Version
You will make them turn their backs when you aim your arrows at them.
New English Translation
For you make them retreat when you shoot your arrows at them.
Webster's Bible Translation
Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, [when] thou shalt make ready [thy arrows] upon thy strings against the face of them.
World English Bible
For you will make them turn their back, When you aim drawn bows at their face.
Amplified Bible
For You will make them turn their backs [in defeat]; You will aim Your bowstring [of divine justice] at their faces.
English Standard Version
For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For thou schalt putte hem abac; in thi relifs thou schalt make redi the cheer of hem.
Berean Standard Bible
For You will put them to flight when Your bow is trained upon them.
Contemporary English Version
You will make them run away by shooting your arrows at their faces.
American Standard Version
For thou wilt make them turn their back; Thou wilt make ready with thy bowstrings against their face.
Bible in Basic English
Their backs will be turned when you make ready the cords of your bow against their faces.
Complete Jewish Bible
for they intended evil against you; but despite their scheme, they won't succeed.
Darby Translation
For thou wilt make them turn their back; thou wilt make ready thy bowstring against their face.
Easy-to-Read Version
You will make them turn and run away when you aim your arrows at their faces.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For they intended evil against thee, they imagined a device, wherewith they shall not prevail.
King James Version (1611)
Therefore shalt thou make them turne their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrowes vpon thy strings, against the face of them.
New Life Bible
For You will make them turn their backs when You take up Your bow against them.
New Revised Standard
For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Therefore shalt thou put them aparte, and the strings of thy bowe shalt thou make readie against their faces.
George Lamsa Translation
For you shall place a scar on them; and you shall make ready your array against their faces.
Good News Translation
He will shoot his arrows at them and make them turn and run.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For thou wilt cause them to turn their back, Upon thy bow-strings, wilt thou make ready against their face.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(20-13) For thou shalt make them turn their back: in thy remnants thou shalt prepare their face.
Revised Standard Version
For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Therfore thou wilt put them to flight: [and] direct thine arrowes agaynst their faces.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For thou shalt make them turn their back in thy latter end, thou wilt prepare their face.
Christian Standard Bible®
Instead, you will put them to flightwhen you ready your bowstrings to shoot at them.
Hebrew Names Version
For you will make them turn their back, When you aim drawn bows at their face.
Lexham English Bible
For you will turn them to flight; you will aim arrows on your bowstrings at their faces.
Literal Translation
for You shall make them turn the back; against their faces You shall make ready Your arrows on Your strings.
Young's Literal Translation
For Thou makest them a butt, When Thy strings Thou preparest against their faces.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore shalt thou put the to flight, & with thy stringes thou shalt make ready thine arowes agaynst the faces off them.
New American Standard Bible
For You will make them turn their back; You will take aim at their faces with Your bowstrings.
New King James Version
Therefore You will make them turn their back; You will make ready Your arrows on Your string toward their faces.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For You will make them turn their back; You will aim with Your bowstrings at their faces.
Legacy Standard Bible
For You will make them turn their back;You will aim with Your bowstrings at their faces.

Contextual Overview

7 For the king trusteth in the Lord , and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved. 8 Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. 9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. 10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. 11 For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform. 12 Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them. 13 Be thou exalted, Lord , in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Therefore: Psalms 9:3, Psalms 44:10, Psalms 56:9

make: etc. or, set them as a butt, Job 7:20, Job 16:12, Job 16:13, Lamentations 3:12

back: Heb. shoulder

thou shalt: Psalms 7:13, Psalms 18:14, Psalms 64:7

Reciprocal: Numbers 24:8 - pierce Job 6:4 - the arrows Psalms 11:2 - make Psalms 38:2 - thine Psalms 45:5 - Thine Psalms 144:6 - shoot out Ezekiel 28:22 - I will

Cross-References

Genesis 17:19
And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
Genesis 17:21
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
Genesis 21:7
And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.
Genesis 21:8
And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.
1 Samuel 8:7
And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
1 Samuel 8:9
Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.
Isaiah 46:10
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
Hebrews 11:18
Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Therefore shall thou make them turn their back,.... Or flee and run away to private places, to hide themselves from the wrath of God and of the Lamb, though to no purpose; or "make them turn [behind thy] back": God will turn his back upon them, and be negligent and careless of them, and not regard them when they cry in their misery and destruction. Some Jewish interpreters e understand it of their being put together on one side, in one corner, and be separate from the people of God; to which sense the Targum inclines, rendering the word for "back" the "shoulder", which sometimes signifies unanimity and union, Zephaniah 3:9; and thus, being all together by themselves, the wrath of God shall be poured forth upon them, and they shall be destroyed at once: so the Christians were, by the providence of God, brought out of Jerusalem before its destruction; and the saints will be called out of Babylon before its fall; and the goats, the wicked, will be separated from the righteous, and set together at Christ's left hand; for they shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous: but the best sense of the words is, "thou shalt set them [for a] butt" or f "heap"; or, as it is in the Hebrew text, a shoulder; a butt to shoot at being so called, because it is earth heaped up like a shoulder; see Job 16:12; and to this agrees what follows:

[when] thou shalt make ready [thine arrows] upon thy strings against the face of them; that is, direct the arrows of his wrath and vengeance right against them; see Psalms 7:11.

e Kimchi Ben Melech in loc. f תשיתמו שכם "ponis eos metam", Cocceius "humerum", Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus; "velut tumulum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back - Margin, “Thou shalt set them as a butt.” The word back also is rendered in the margin “shoulder.” The word translated “therefore” means in this placer or, and the rendering “therefore” obscures the sense. The statement in this verse in connection with the previous verse, is, that they would not be able to “perform” or carry out their well-laid schemes, “for” or “because” God would make them turn the back; that is, he had vanquished them. They were going forward in the execution of their purposes, but God would interpose and turn them back, or compel them to “retreat.” The word rendered “back” in this place - שׁכם shekem - means properly “shoulder,” or, more strictly, the “shoulder-blades,” that is, the part where these approach each other behind; and then the upper part of the back. It is not, therefore, incorrectly rendered by the phrase “thou shalt make them turn “the back.”” The expression is equivalent to saying that they would be defeated or foiled in their plans and purposes.

When thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings - Compare the notes at Psalms 11:2. That is, when God should go forth against them, armed as a warrior.

Against the face of them - Against them; or, in their very front. He would meet them as they seemed to be marching on to certain conquest, and would defeat them. It would not be by a side-blow, or by skillful maneuver, or by turning their flank and attacking them in the rear. Truth meets error boldly, face to face, and is not afraid of a fair fight. In every such conflict error will ultimately yield; and whenever the wicked come openly into conflict with God, they must be compelled to turn and flee.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 21:12. Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back — God can in a moment strike the most powerful and numerous army, even in the moment of victory, with panic; and then even the lame, the army which they had nearly routed, shall take the prey, and divide the spoil.

Against the face of them. — Thou shalt cause them to turn their backs and fly, as if a volley of arrows had been discharged in their faces. This seems to be the sense of this difficult verse.


 
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