Psalms 7:12

THE MESSAGE

class="psalm-title"> A David Psalm God ! God! I am running to you for dear life; the chase is wild. If they catch me, I'm finished: ripped to shreds by foes fierce as lions, dragged into the forest and left unlooked for, unremembered. God , if I've done what they say— betrayed my friends, ripped off my enemies— If my hands are really that dirty, let them get me, walk all over me, leave me flat on my face in the dirt. Stand up, God; pit your holy fury against my furious enemies. Wake up, God. My accusers have packed the courtroom; it's judgment time. Take your place on the bench, reach for your gavel, throw out the false charges against me. I'm ready, confident in your verdict: "Innocent." Close the book on Evil, God , but publish your mandate for us. You get us ready for life: you probe for our soft spots, you knock off our rough edges. And I'm feeling so fit, so safe: made right, kept right. God in solemn honor does things right, but his nerves are sandpapered raw. Nobody gets by with anything. God is already in action— Sword honed on his whetstone, bow strung, arrow on the string, Lethal weapons in hand, each arrow a flaming missile. Look at that guy! He had sex with sin, he's pregnant with evil. Oh, look! He's having the baby—a Lie-Baby! See that man shoveling day after day, digging, then concealing, his man-trap down that lonely stretch of road? Go back and look again—you'll see him in it headfirst, legs waving in the breeze. That's what happens: mischief backfires; violence boomerangs. I'm thanking God, who makes things right. I'm singing the fame of heaven-high God .

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If anyone does not repent,he will sharpen his sword;he has strung his bow and made it ready.

Hebrew Names Version
If a man doesn't relent, he will sharpen his sword; He has bent and strung his bow.

King James Version
If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.

English Standard Version
If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow;

New Century Version
If they do not change their lives, God will sharpen his sword; he will string his bow and take aim.

New English Translation
If a person does not repent, God sharpens his sword and prepares to shoot his bow.

Amplified Bible
If a man does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has strung and bent His [mighty] bow and made it ready.

New American Standard Bible
If one does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and taken aim.

World English Bible
If a man doesn't relent, he will sharpen his sword; He has bent and strung his bow.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Except he turne, he hath whet his sword: he hath bent his bowe and made it readie.

Legacy Standard Bible
If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword;He has bent His bow and prepared it.

Berean Standard Bible
If one does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has bent and strung His bow.

Contemporary English Version
Whenever your enemies refuse to change their ways, you sharpen your sword and string your bow.

Complete Jewish Bible
God is a righteous judge, a God whose anger is present every day.

Darby Translation
If one turn not, he will sharpen his sword; he hath bent his bow and made it ready,

Easy-to-Read Version
If the wicked will not change, then God is ready to punish them. He has prepared his deadly weapons. His sword is sharp. His bow is strung, drawn back, and ready to shoot its flaming arrow.

George Lamsa Translation
If he turn not from his anger, he will whet his sword and bend his bow and make it ready.

Good News Translation
If they do not change their ways, God will sharpen his sword. He bends his bow and makes it ready;

Lexham English Bible
If he does not repent, he will sharpen his sword. He has bent his bow and he has strung it.

Literal Translation
If he will not turn, He will whet His sword; He has trod His bow, He made it ready;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
God is a rightuous iudge, & God is euer threateninge. Yf men wil not turne, he hath whet his swearde: he hath bent his bowe & made it ready.

American Standard Version
If a man turn not, he will whet his sword; He hath bent his bow, and made it ready;

Bible in Basic English
If a man is not turned from his evil, he will make his sword sharp; his bow is bent and ready.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
God is a righteous judge, yea, a God that hath indignation every day:

King James Version (1611)
If he turne not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bowe, and made it ready.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
If the wicked wyll not turne, he wyll whet his sworde: bende his bowe, and haue it in a redinesse [to shoote]

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
If ye will not repent, he will furbish his sword; he has bent his bow, and made it ready.

English Revised Version
If a man turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If ye ben `not conuertid, he schal florische his swerd; he hath bent his bouwe, and made it redi.

Update Bible Version
If a man doesn't turn, he will whet his sword; He has bent his bow, and made it ready.

Webster's Bible Translation
If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.

New King James Version
If he does not turn back, He will sharpen His sword; He bends His bow and makes it ready.

New Living Translation
If a person does not repent, God will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow.

New Life Bible
If a man is not sorry for his sins and will not turn from them, God will make His sword sharp. He will string His bow and make it ready.

New Revised Standard
If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If he turn not, his sword, will he whet, - his bow, hath he bent, and made ready:

Douay-Rheims Bible
(7-13) Except you will be converted, he will brandish his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.

Revised Standard Version
If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;

Young's Literal Translation
If [one] turn not, His sword he sharpeneth, His bow he hath trodden -- He prepareth it,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready.

Contextual Overview

¹²class="psalm-title"> A David Psalm God ! God! I am running to you for dear life; the chase is wild. If they catch me, I'm finished: ripped to shreds by foes fierce as lions, dragged into the forest and left unlooked for, unremembered. God , if I've done what they say— betrayed my friends, ripped off my enemies— If my hands are really that dirty, let them get me, walk all over me, leave me flat on my face in the dirt. Stand up, God; pit your holy fury against my furious enemies. Wake up, God. My accusers have packed the courtroom; it's judgment time. Take your place on the bench, reach for your gavel, throw out the false charges against me. I'm ready, confident in your verdict: "Innocent." Close the book on Evil, God , but publish your mandate for us. You get us ready for life: you probe for our soft spots, you knock off our rough edges. And I'm feeling so fit, so safe: made right, kept right. God in solemn honor does things right, but his nerves are sandpapered raw. Nobody gets by with anything. God is already in action— Sword honed on his whetstone, bow strung, arrow on the string, Lethal weapons in hand, each arrow a flaming missile. Look at that guy! He had sex with sin, he's pregnant with evil. Oh, look! He's having the baby—a Lie-Baby! See that man shoveling day after day, digging, then concealing, his man-trap down that lonely stretch of road? Go back and look again—you'll see him in it headfirst, legs waving in the breeze. That's what happens: mischief backfires; violence boomerangs. I'm thanking God, who makes things right. I'm singing the fame of heaven-high God . ¹³class="psalm-title"> A David Psalm God ! God! I am running to you for dear life; the chase is wild. If they catch me, I'm finished: ripped to shreds by foes fierce as lions, dragged into the forest and left unlooked for, unremembered. God , if I've done what they say— betrayed my friends, ripped off my enemies— If my hands are really that dirty, let them get me, walk all over me, leave me flat on my face in the dirt. Stand up, God; pit your holy fury against my furious enemies. Wake up, God. My accusers have packed the courtroom; it's judgment time. Take your place on the bench, reach for your gavel, throw out the false charges against me. I'm ready, confident in your verdict: "Innocent." Close the book on Evil, God , but publish your mandate for us. You get us ready for life: you probe for our soft spots, you knock off our rough edges. And I'm feeling so fit, so safe: made right, kept right. God in solemn honor does things right, but his nerves are sandpapered raw. Nobody gets by with anything. God is already in action— Sword honed on his whetstone, bow strung, arrow on the string, Lethal weapons in hand, each arrow a flaming missile. ¹⁴ Look at that guy! He had sex with sin, he's pregnant with evil. Oh, look! He's having the baby—a Lie-Baby! ¹⁵See that man shoveling day after day, digging, then concealing, his man-trap down that lonely stretch of road? Go back and look again—you'll see him in it headfirst, legs waving in the breeze. That's what happens: mischief backfires; violence boomerangs. ¹⁷ I'm thanking God, who makes things right. I'm singing the fame of heaven-high God .

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

If: Psalms 85:4, Isaiah 55:6, Isaiah 55:7, Jeremiah 31:18, Jeremiah 31:19, Ezekiel 18:30, Ezekiel 33:11, Matthew 3:10, Acts 3:19

he will: Deuteronomy 32:41, Isaiah 27:1, Isaiah 34:5, Ezekiel 21:9-11, Ezekiel 21:23

Reciprocal: Exodus 9:2 - General Deuteronomy 32:23 - spend Deuteronomy 33:29 - the sword 2 Samuel 22:15 - arrows Job 16:13 - archers Job 18:12 - destruction Job 20:25 - drawn Job 40:19 - he that Psalms 35:2 - General Psalms 59:5 - be not Psalms 64:7 - God Psalms 68:21 - of such Psalms 144:6 - shoot out Lamentations 3:12 - bent Habakkuk 3:9 - bow

Cross-References

Genesis 7:17
The flood continued forty days and the waters rose and lifted the ship high over the Earth. The waters kept rising, the flood deepened on the Earth, the ship floated on the surface. The flood got worse until all the highest mountains were covered—the high-water mark reached twenty feet above the crest of the mountains. Everything died. Anything that moved—dead. Birds, farm animals, wild animals, the entire teeming exuberance of life—dead. And all people—dead. Every living, breathing creature that lived on dry land died; he wiped out the whole works—people and animals, crawling creatures and flying birds, every last one of them, gone. Only Noah and his company on the ship lived.

Exodus 24:18
Moses entered the middle of the Cloud and climbed the mountain. Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Deuteronomy 9:18
Then I prostrated myself before God , just as I had at the beginning of the forty days and nights. I ate no food; I drank no water. I did this because of you, all your sins, sinning against God , doing what is evil in God 's eyes and making him angry. I was terrified of God 's furious anger, his blazing anger. I was sure he would destroy you. But once again God listened to me. And Aaron! How furious he was with Aaron—ready to destroy him. But I prayed also for Aaron at that same time.

Deuteronomy 10:10
I stayed there on the mountain forty days and nights, just as I did the first time. And God listened to me, just as he did the first time: God decided not to destroy you.

1 Kings 19:8
He got up, ate and drank his fill, and set out. Nourished by that meal, he walked forty days and nights, all the way to the mountain of God, to Horeb. When he got there, he crawled into a cave and went to sleep. Then the word of God came to him: "So Elijah, what are you doing here?"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If he turn not,.... Not God, but the enemy, or the wicked man, spoken of Psalms 7:5; if he turn not from his wicked course of life, to the Lord to live to him, and according to his will; unless he is converted and repents of his sin, and there is a change wrought in him, in his heart and life; the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read, "if ye turn not", or "are not converted", an apostrophe to the wicked;

he will whet his sword: God is a man of war, and he is sometimes represented as accoutred with military weapons; see Isaiah 59:17; and among the rest with the sword of judgment, which he may be said to whet, when he prepares sharp and sore judgments for his enemies,

Isaiah 27:1;

he hath bent his bow, and made it ready; drawn his bow of vengeance, and put it on the full stretch, and made it ready with the arrows of his wrath, levelled against the wicked, with whom he is angry; which is expressive of their speedy and inevitable ruin, in case of impenitence; see Lamentations 2:4; or "trod his bow", as is the usual phrase elsewhere; see Psalms 11:2; which was done by the feet, and was necessary when the bow was a strong one, as Jarchi on Psalms 11:2; observes; and so the Arabs, as Suidas g relates, using arrows the length of a man, put their feet on the string of the bow instead of their hands.

g In voce αραβες.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If he turn not - If the wicked person does not repent. in the previous verse the psalmist had said that God is angry with the wicked every day; he here states what must be the consequence to the wicked if they persevere in the course which they are pursuing; that is, if they do not repent. God, he says, cannot be indifferent to the course which they pursue, but he is preparing for them the instruments of punishment, and he will certainly bring destruction upon them. It is implied here that if they would repent and turn they would avoid this, and would be saved: a doctrine which is everywhere stated in the Scriptures.

He will whet his sword - He will sharpen his sword preparatory to inflicting punishment. That is, God will do this. Some, however, have supposed that this refers to the wicked person - the enemy of David - meaning that if he did not turn; if he was not arrested; if he was suffered to go on as he intended, he would whet his sword, and bend his bow, etc.; that is, that he would go on to execute his purposes against the righteous. See Rosenmuller in loc. But the most natural construction is to refer it to God, as meaning that if the sinner did not repent, He would inflict on him deserved punishment. The “sword” is an instrument of punishment (compare Romans 13:4); and to “whet” or sharpen it, is merely a phrase denoting that he would prepare to execute punishment. See Deuteronomy 32:41.

He hath bent his bow - The bow, like the sword, was used in battle as a means of destroying an enemy. It is used here of God, who is represented as going forth to destroy or punish his foes. The language is derived from the customs of war. Compare Exodus 15:3; Isaiah 63:1-4. The Hebrew here is,” his bow he has trodden,” alluding to the ancient mode of bending the large and heavy bows used in war, by treading on them in order to bend them.

And made it ready - Made it ready to shoot the arrow. That is, He is ready to execute punishment on the wicked; or, all the preparations are made for it.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 7:12. If he turn not — This clause the Syriac adds to the preceding verse. Most of the versions read, "If ye return not." Some contend, and not without a great show of probability, that the two verses should be read in connection, thus: "God is a just Judge; a God who is provoked every day. If (the sinner) turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready." This, no doubt, gives the sense of both.