Psalms 37:14

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁷Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; fret not when men prosper in their ways, when they carry out wicked schemes. ⁸Refrain from anger and abandon wrath; do not fret-it can only bring harm. ⁹For the evildoers will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land. ¹⁰Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. ¹¹But the meek will inherit the land and delight in abundant prosperity. ¹²The wicked scheme against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them, ¹³but the Lord laughs, seeing that their day is coming. ¹⁴The wicked have drawn the sword and bent the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.¹⁵But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken. ¹⁶Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many who are wicked.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

wicked: Psalms 64:2-6, Acts 12:2, Acts 12:3, Acts 12:11, Acts 12:23

slay: 1 Samuel 24:11, 1 Samuel 24:17, Proverbs 29:10, Proverbs 29:27, Habakkuk 1:13, Matthew 23:30-34, Acts 7:52, 1 John 3:12

such as: etc. Heb. the upright of way

Reciprocal: Genesis 39:17 - General Genesis 49:24 - were made Esther 5:14 - he caused Esther 8:11 - to destroy Esther 8:13 - avenge themselves Psalms 10:9 - when Psalms 11:2 - lo Psalms 141:10 - the wicked Isaiah 8:9 - and ye Mark 6:24 - The head Luke 4:29 - that 1 Peter 2:12 - your conversation 2 Peter 3:11 - in all

Cross-References

Genesis 13:18
So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre in Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

Genesis 23:2
She died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went out to mourn and to weep for her.

Genesis 29:6
"Is he well?" Jacob inquired. "Yes," they answered, "and here comes his daughter Rachel with his sheep."

Genesis 35:27
Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt.

Genesis 37:17
"They have moved on from here," the man answered. "I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.'" So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

Genesis 37:18
Now Joseph's brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him.

Genesis 41:16
"I myself cannot do it," Joseph replied, "but God will give Pharaoh a sound answer."

Numbers 13:22
They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, dwelled. It had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.

Joshua 14:13
Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.

Joshua 14:15
(Hebron used to be called Kiriath-arba, after Arba, the greatest man among the Anakim.) Then the land had rest from war.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The wicked have drawn out the sword,.... That is, out of the scabbard; they drew upon the righteous, in order to sheath it in them; or they sharpened the sword, as Aben Ezra observes some interpret the word; it may be literally rendered, "opened the sword" q, which before lay hid in the scabbard:

and have bent their bow; having put the arrow in it, in order to shoot. The former expression may design the more open, and this the more secret way of acting against the righteous; and their view in both is

to cast down the poor and needy, who are so, both in a temporal and spiritual sense; to cause such to fall either into sin, or into some calamity or another:

[and] to slay such as be of upright conversation; who walk according to the rule of the word of God, and as becomes the Gospel of Christ: nothing less than the blood and life of these men will satisfy the wicked; and it is an aggravation of their wickedness that they should attempt to hurt men of such character who are poor and needy, holy, harmless, inoffensive, and upright; and this points at the reason why they hate them, and seek their ruin, because of the holiness and uprightness of their lives; see John 15:19.

q חרב פתחו "aperuerunt gladium", Gejerus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The wicked have drawn out the sword - That is, they have prepared themselves with a full purpose to destroy the righteous.

And have bent their bow - literally, “have trodden the bow,” in allusion to the method by which the bow was bent: to wit, by placing the foot on it, and drawing the string back.

To cast down the poor and needy - To cause them to fall.

And to slay such as be of upright conversation - Margin, as in Hebrew: “the upright of way.” That is, those who are upright in their manner of life, or in their conduct.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 37:14. The wicked have drawn out the sword — There is an irreconcilable enmity in the souls of sinners against the godly; and there is much evidence that the idolatrous Babylonians whetted their tongue like a sword, and shot out their arrows, even bitter words, to malign the poor captives, and to insult them in every possible way.