Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, August 3rd, 2025
the Week of Proper 13 / Ordinary 18
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THE MESSAGE

Psalms 7:4

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Evil for Good;   Honesty;   Integrity;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Forgiveness of Injuries;   Ingratitude;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Shiggaion;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Cush (1);   David;   Shiggaion;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Confessions and Credos;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Cush;   English Versions;   Psalms;   Sin;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Hating, Hatred;   Reward;   Reward (2);   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Shiggaion;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Psalms the book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Cush (2);  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
if I have done harm to one at peace with meor have plundered my adversary without cause,
Hebrew Names Version
If I have rewarded evil to him who was at shalom with me (Yes, I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary),
King James Version
If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)
English Standard Version
if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,
New Century Version
Have I done wrong to my friend or stolen without reason from my enemy?
New English Translation
or have wronged my ally, or helped his lawless enemy,
Amplified Bible
If I have done evil to him who was at peace with me, Or without cause robbed him who was my enemy,
New American Standard Bible
If I have done evil to my friend, Or have plundered my enemy for no reason,
World English Bible
If I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (Yes, I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary),
Geneva Bible (1587)
If I haue rewarded euill vnto him that had peace with mee, (yea I haue deliuered him that vexed me without cause)
Legacy Standard Bible
If I have rewarded evil to him who is at peace with me,Or have plundered my adversary without cause,
Berean Standard Bible
if I have rewarded my ally with evil, if I have plundered my foe without cause,
Contemporary English Version
I have not betrayed a friend or had pity on an enemy who attacks for no reason.
Complete Jewish Bible
Adonai my God, if I have caused this, if there is guilt on my hands,
Darby Translation
If I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me; (indeed I have freed him that without cause oppressed me;)
Easy-to-Read Version
I have done nothing to hurt a friend or to help his enemies.
George Lamsa Translation
If I have been vengeful to him that has done me evil, and if I have oppressed my enemies without a cause;
Lexham English Bible
if I have repaid my ally with harm, or if I have plundered my enemy without cause,
Literal Translation
if I have repaid evil to one at peace with me or I have plundered one oppressing me without cause,
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yff I haue rewarded euell vnto the yt dealt frendly wt me or hurte the yt wt out eny cause are myne enemies:
American Standard Version
If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me (Yea, I have delivered him that without cause was mine adversary;)
Bible in Basic English
If I have given back evil to him who did evil to me, or have taken anything from him who was against me without cause;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;
King James Version (1611)
If I haue rewarded euill vnto him that was at peace with me: (yea I haue deliuered him that without cause is mine enemie.)
Bishop's Bible (1568)
If I haue done euyll vnto hym that had peace with me: and [if] I haue [not] deliuered hym that is without a cause myne aduersarie?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
if I have requited with evil those who requited me with good; may I then perish empty by means of my enemies.
English Revised Version
If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause was mine adversary:)
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
if Y `yeldide to men yeldynge to me yuels, falle Y `bi disseruyng voide fro myn enemyes;
Update Bible Version
If I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me; (Yes, I have delivered him that without cause was my adversary;)
Webster's Bible Translation
If I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me; (yes, I have delivered him that without cause is my enemy:)
New King James Version
If I have repaid evil to him who was at peace with me, Or have plundered my enemy without cause,
New Living Translation
if I have betrayed a friend or plundered my enemy without cause,
New Life Bible
if I have done wrong to him who was at peace with me, or without a reason have robbed him who worked against me,
New Revised Standard
if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause,
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If I have requited my friend with wrong, - or have oppressed mine adversary without need,
Douay-Rheims Bible
(7-5) If I have rendered to them that repaid me evils, let me deservedly fall empty before my enemies.
Revised Standard Version
if I have requited my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,
Young's Literal Translation
If I have done my well-wisher evil, And draw mine adversary without cause,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
If I have rewarded evil to my friend, Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary,

Contextual Overview

1A 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. 3 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. 6Stand 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." 9Close 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 .

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

If I: Psalms 55:20, Psalms 109:5, Genesis 44:4, Proverbs 17:3, Jeremiah 18:20, Jeremiah 18:21

I have: 1 Samuel 24:7, 1 Samuel 24:10, 1 Samuel 24:11, 1 Samuel 26:9-17, 1 Samuel 26:24

without: 1 Samuel 19:4, 1 Samuel 19:5, 1 Samuel 20:1, 1 Samuel 22:14, 1 Samuel 24:11-15, 1 Samuel 24:17-19, 1 Samuel 25:28, 1 Samuel 25:29, 1 Samuel 26:21

Reciprocal: Numbers 5:22 - the woman Deuteronomy 21:7 - General 1 Samuel 20:8 - if there be 2 Samuel 22:21 - rewarded 2 Chronicles 20:11 - how they reward us Job 31:22 - let Psalms 13:2 - enemy Psalms 17:3 - shalt Psalms 25:3 - without Psalms 38:20 - render Psalms 139:24 - And see Matthew 5:22 - without Matthew 5:44 - General Luke 6:27 - Love John 15:25 - They Acts 16:28 - cried 1 Thessalonians 5:15 - none

Cross-References

Genesis 2:5
At the time God made Earth and Heaven, before any grasses or shrubs had sprouted from the ground— God hadn't yet sent rain on Earth, nor was there anyone around to work the ground (the whole Earth was watered by underground springs)— God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!
Genesis 6:3
Then God said, "I'm not going to breathe life into men and women endlessly. Eventually they're going to die; from now on they can expect a life span of 120 years."
Genesis 6:13
God said to Noah, "It's all over. It's the end of the human race. The violence is everywhere; I'm making a clean sweep.
Genesis 6:17
"I'm going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction.
Genesis 7:11
It was the six-hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month that it happened: all the underground springs erupted and all the windows of Heaven were thrown open. Rain poured for forty days and forty nights.
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.
Genesis 8:10
He waited seven more days and sent out the dove again. It came back in the evening with a freshly picked olive leaf in its beak. Noah knew that the flood was about finished.
Genesis 8:12
He waited another seven days and sent the dove out a third time. This time it didn't come back.
Psalms 69:28
Strike their names from the list of the living; No rock-carved honor for them among the righteous.
Amos 4:7
"Yes, and I'm the One who stopped the rains three months short of harvest. I'd make it rain on one village but not on another. I'd make it rain on one field but not on another—and that one would dry up. People would stagger from village to village crazed for water and never quenching their thirst. But you never got thirsty for me. You ignored me." God 's Decree.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me,.... That is, when Saul was at peace with him; when he lived at his court, and ate at his table his meaning is, that he did not conspire against him, nor form schemes to deprive him of his crown nor of his life: or, as it may be rendered, "if I have rewarded to him that rewarded me evil" u; that is, as Jarchi explains it, if I rewarded him as he rewarded me, evil for evil. This David did not; and it is eminently true of Christ his antitype, 1 Peter 2:23; and in it he ought to be imitated by every believer, Romans 12:17;

yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy; meaning Saul, who persecuted David without any just reason, and whom David delivered without any obligation to do it; not for any benefit and kindness he had received from him; for the phrase "without cause" may be read in connection either with the word "delivered" w; for the deliverance was wrought without any cause or merit on Saul's part, or profit to David; or with the word "enemy", for Saul was David's enemy without any just cause on David's part: and the deliverance referred to was when he cut off Saul's skirt, in the cave at Engedi, and spared his life; and when he took away his spear from him, as he was sleeping in the trench, and did not destroy him, nor suffer those that would to do it, 1 Samuel 24:4. The words may be rendered, "only I stripped him" x. The sense is, that he cut off the skirt of his coat, and took away his spear, and so in part stripped him both of his clothes and armour, at two different times; not to do him any hurt, but to let him know, as Jarchi observes, that he was delivered into his hands, and he could have slain him, but did not. The same Jewish writer interprets the word used "of stripping of garments"; and Aben Ezra observes, from R. Moses, that the "vau", rendered "yea", signifies "only", as in Genesis 42:10.

u "Si malum malo rependi", Castalio. w ריקם "absque emolumento ullo ad me inde redeunte", Gussetius. x Verbum חלץ "proprie extrahere, &c. significat, et de vestibus quae alieui exuuntur et eripiuntur proprie dicitur", De Dieu.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me - If I have done evil; or if I have requited him that was friendly by some unjust and evil conduct. If I have come upon him wantonly and unprovoked, and have done him wrong. This seems to have been the substance of the accusation; and, as remarked above, it is most probable that the accuser (Cush) referred to himself.

Yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy - So far is this from being true, that the very reverse is true. So far from taking advantage of another that was at peace with me, and depriving him of his just rights by fraud or force, it is a fact that I have rescued from impending danger the man that was at war with me, and that was an avowed enemy. It would seem probable that in this he refers to this very Cush, and means to say that there had been some occasion in which he, who was long hostile to him, was wholly in his power, and when he had not only declined to take advantage of him, but had actually interposed to rescue him from danger. An instance of this kind actually occurred in the life of David, in his treatment of Saul 1 Samuel 24:10-11; and it is “possible” that David referred to that case, and meant to say that that was an indication of his character, and of his manner of treating others. Those who suppose that the whole psalm refers to Saul (see the introduction, Section 2), of course regard this as the specific case referred to. There may have been other instances of the same kind in the life of David, and there is no improbability in supposing that on some occasion he had treated this very man, “Cush,” in this way, and that he refers here to that fact.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 7:4. Yea, I have delivered him — When, in the course of thy providence, thou didst put his life in my hand in the cave, I contented myself with cutting off his skirt, merely to show him the danger he had been in, and the spirit of the man whom he accused of designs against his life; and yet even for this my heart smote me, because it appeared to be an indignity offered to him who was the Lord's anointed. This fact, and my venturing my life frequently for his good and the safety of the state, sufficiently show the falsity of such accusations, and the innocence of my life.


 
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