Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, July 29th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

New Life Version

Psalms 7:2

Or they will tear me like a lion, carrying me away where there is no one to help.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Lion;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Lion, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Shiggaion;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Animals;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Deliver;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - David;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Confessions and Credos;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Cush;   English Versions;   Psalms;   Sin;   1910 New Catholic Dictionary - parallelism;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Shiggaion;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Lion;   Psalms the book of;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Lion;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Tear (verb);   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Lion;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Lion;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
or they will tear me like a lion,ripping me apart with no one to rescue me.
Hebrew Names Version
Lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, Rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
King James Version
Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
English Standard Version
lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
New Century Version
Otherwise, like a lion they will tear me apart. They will rip me to pieces, and no one can save me.
New English Translation
Otherwise they will rip me to shreds like a lion; they will tear me to bits and no one will be able to rescue me.
Amplified Bible
So that my enemy will not tear me like a lion, Dragging me away while there is no one to rescue [me].
New American Standard Bible
Or he will tear my soul like a lion, Dragging me away, while there is no one to rescue me.
World English Bible
Lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, Rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Least he deuoure my soule like a lion, and teare it in pieces, while there is none to helpe.
Legacy Standard Bible
Lest he tear my soul like a lion,Rending me in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
Berean Standard Bible
or they will shred my soul like a lion, and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
Contemporary English Version
Or else they will rip me apart like lions attacking a victim, and no one will save me.
Complete Jewish Bible
Adonai my God, in you I take refuge. Save me from all my pursuers, and rescue me;
Darby Translation
Lest he tear my soul like a lion, crushing it while there is no deliverer.
Easy-to-Read Version
If you don't help me, I will be torn apart like an animal caught by a lion. I will be carried away with no one to save me.
George Lamsa Translation
Lest my soul be torn as by a lion, and there is no one to save me and to deliver me.
Good News Translation
or else like a lion they will carry me off where no one can save me, and there they will tear me to pieces.
Lexham English Bible
Or else he will tear me apart like a lion, ripping to pieces, with none to deliver.
Literal Translation
lest he tear my soul like a lion, ripping, and there be no one to deliver.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Lest he hantch vp my soule like a lyon, & teare it in peces, whyle there is none to helpe.
American Standard Version
Lest they tear my soul like a lion, Rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
Bible in Basic English
So that he may not come rushing on my soul like a lion, wounding it, while there is no one to be my saviour.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
O LORD my God, in Thee have I taken refuge; save me from all them that pursue me, and deliver me;
King James Version (1611)
Least hee teare my soule like a lyon, renting it in pieces, while there is none to deliuer.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Lest he like a Lion seasoneth on my soule: teareth it in peeces, hauyng no rescue.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Lest at any time the enemy seize my soul as a lion, while there is none to ransom, nor to save.
English Revised Version
Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Lest ony tyme he as a lioun rauysche my soule; the while noon is that ayenbieth, nether that makith saaf.
Update Bible Version
Or else they will tear my soul like a lion, Rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
Webster's Bible Translation
Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending [it] in pieces, while [there is] none to deliver.
New King James Version
Lest they tear me like a lion, Rending me in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
New Living Translation
If you don't, they will maul me like a lion, tearing me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
New Revised Standard
or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Lest one tear, as a lion, my soul, - and there be no deliverer to rescue.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(7-3) Lest at any time he seize upon my soul like a lion, while there is no one to redeem me, nor to save.
Revised Standard Version
lest like a lion they rend me, dragging me away, with none to rescue.
Young's Literal Translation
Lest he tear as a lion my soul, Rending, and there is no deliverer.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Or he will tear my soul like a lion, Dragging me away, while there is none to deliver.

Contextual Overview

1 O Lord my God, in You I have put my trust. Save me from all those who come for me, and keep me safe. 2 Or they will tear me like a lion, carrying me away where there is no one to help. 3 O Lord my God, if I have done this, and there is guilt on my hands, 4 if I have done wrong to him who was at peace with me, or without a reason have robbed him who worked against me, 5 let him who hates me come for me and catch me. Let him break me under his feet until I die, and lay my honor in the dust. 6 Rise up in Your anger, O Lord. Rise up against the anger of those who hate me. Awake, my God, and help me. Prove what is right. 7 Let the people gather around You, and rule over them from Your throne. 8 May the Lord judge which people are guilty or not. O Lord, judge in my favor if I am right with You, and if I am without blame. 9 Let the sins of the sinful stop. But build up those who are right with You. For the God Who is right and good tests both the hearts and the minds.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Lest: Psalms 35:15, Isaiah 38:13

like: Psalms 10:9, Psalms 17:12, Psalms 22:13, Deuteronomy 33:20, Proverbs 19:12, 2 Timothy 4:17, 1 Peter 5:8

rending: Psalms 50:22, Hosea 13:7, Hosea 13:8

while: Judges 18:28, 2 Samuel 14:6, *marg. Job 10:7, not to deliver, Heb. not a deliverer

Reciprocal: Job 4:11 - old lion Job 5:4 - neither Psalms 13:2 - enemy Psalms 59:1 - Deliver Psalms 71:11 - for there Psalms 94:5 - break Psalms 143:3 - the enemy Lamentations 5:8 - there Daniel 8:4 - neither Hosea 5:14 - as a lion Acts 23:10 - fearing

Cross-References

Genesis 7:1
Then the Lord said to Noah, "Go into the boat, you and all your family. For I have seen that you only are right and good at this time.
Genesis 7:8
Clean animals and animals that were unclean and birds and every thing that moved on the ground
Genesis 7:11
In the year 600 of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the wells of water under the earth broke open. The windows of the heavens were opened.
Genesis 7:15
They went into the large boat with Noah, two of every living thing.
Genesis 7:19
The water got higher and higher upon the earth until all the high mountains under heaven were covered.
Genesis 7:21
All flesh that moved on the earth was destroyed, birds and cattle and wild animals, and every man.
Genesis 8:20
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took of every clean animal and every clean bird, and gave burnt gifts in worship on the altar.
Leviticus 10:10
You are to know the difference between what is holy and what is not, and between what is clean and what is not.
Ezekiel 44:23
They will teach My people the difference between what is holy and what is not. And they will teach them to know what is unclean and what is clean.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Lest he tear my soul like a lion,.... That is, one of his persecutors, the chief of them; it may be Saul, whom the psalmist compares to a lion for his majesty and greatness, the lion being the king among beasts; and for his authority, power, and might, and for his wrath and cruelty, which he feared; and which, should it be exerted on him, would tear his soul, or himself, in pieces; would rend his soul from his body, and dispatch his life; see Proverbs 19:12. So the Apostle Paul calls the Roman governor, before whom he was, and from whose hands he was delivered, a lion, for his power and fierceness, 2 Timothy 4:17. And so our adversary the devil, the chief of all persecutors, and who instigates others against the saints, is by Peter said to go about like a roaring lion, 1 Peter 5:8;

rending [it] in pieces, as the lion does his prey when hungry. So Homer s compares Polyphemus to a mountain lion, which devours and leaves nothing, neither the intestines, nor flesh, nor bones; and represents t it first taking hold of the creature with its strong teeth, and breaking its neck, and drawing out its blood and all its inwards; see

Isaiah 38:13;

while [there is] none to deliver; no saviour, no deliverer: for if God does not save and deliver his people out of the hands of their persecutors, none can; especially out of the hands of such an one as is here described tearing and rending in pieces. As there is no God besides the Lord, there is no saviour besides him: there is no temporal nor spiritual saviour but he: salvation is not to be expected from any other; and were it not for him, saints must fall a prey to their enemies.

s Odyss. 9. v. 292, 293. t Iliad. 11. v. 175, 176. & Iliad. 17. v. 63.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Lest he - Lest “Cush” should do this. See the title, and the introduction to the psalm, Section 2.

Tear my soul like a lion - Tear or rend my “life” - that is, “me” - like a lion. The word rendered “soul” here - נפשׁ nephesh - refers, as it properly does elsewhere, to the “life,” and not to the soul, as we use the term, denoting the thinking, immortal part. The simple idea is, that David was apprehensive of his “life,” and, in order to indicate his great peril, he uses language derived from the fierceness of the lion. Such imagery would be well understood in a country where lions abounded, and nothing could more strikingly denote the danger in which David was, or the fierceness of the wrath of the enemy that he dreaded.

Rending it in pieces - Rending me in pieces. Or rather, perhaps, breaking or crushing the bones, for the word used - פרק pâraq (from our English word “break”) - means “to break, to crush,” and would apply to the act of the lion crushing or breaking the bones of his victim as he devoured it.

While there is none to deliver - Denoting the complete destruction which he feared would come upon him. The figure is that of a solitary man seized by a powerful lion, with no one at hand to rescue him. So David felt that if God did not interfere, he would fall into the hands of this fierce and wrathful enemy.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 7:2. Lest he tear my soul like a lion — These words seem to answer well to Saul. As the lion is king in the forest; so was Saul king over the land. As the lion, in his fierceness, seizes at once, and tears his prey in pieces; so David expected to be seized and suddenly destroyed by Saul. He had already, in his rage, thrown his javelin at him, intending to have pierced him to the wall with it. As from the power of the lion no beast in the forest could deliver any thing; so David knew that Saul's power was irresistible, and that none of his friends or well-wishers could save or deliver him out of such hands. "Lest he tear my soul (my life) like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver." All this answers to Saul, and to none else.


 
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