English Standard Version
Psalms 21:12
12For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows.
Psalms 21:12 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.
- New International Version (NIV)You will make them turn their backs when you aim at them with drawn bow.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Therefore You will make them turn their back; You will make ready Your arrows on Your string toward their faces.
- New Living Translation (NLT)For they will turn and run when they see your arrows aimed at them.
Context of Psalms 21:12
10You will destroy their descendants from the earth, and their offspring from among the children of man. 11Though they plan evil against you, though they devise mischief, they will not succeed. For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows. 13Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power.
Read all of Psalms 21Psalms 21:12 word by word
כִּ֭י תְּשִׁיתֵ֣מוֹ שֶׁ֑כֶם בְּ֝מֵֽיתָרֶ֗יךָ תְּכוֹנֵ֥ן עַל־פְּנֵיהֶֽם׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Psalms 21:12
- Psalms 9:3When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence.
- Psalms 44:10You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
- Psalms 56:9Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.
- Job 7:20If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?
- Job 16:12I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target;
- Lamentations 3:12he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
- Psalms 7:13he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
- Psalms 18:14And he sent out his arrows and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
- Psalms 64:7But God shoots his arrow at them; they are wounded suddenly.
Commentaries on Psalms 21:12
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 12Therefore 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.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 12Therefore 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…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 7-13Verses 7-13 The psalmist teaches to look forward with faith, and hope, and prayer upon what God would further do. The success with which God blessed David, was a type of the total overthrow of all Christ's enemies. Those who might have had Christ to rule and save them, but rejected him and fought against him, shall find the remembrance of it a worm that dies not. God makes sinners willing by his grace, receives them to his favour, and delivers them from…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 8-12As long as even a single enemy opposed the king’s authority, God’s kingdom was not fully present. This prayer requests victory over all evil in the world.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1212. turn their back--literally, "place them [as to the] shoulder." against the face of them--The shooting against their faces would cause them to turn their backs in flight.Read the comment
Topics related to Psalms 21:12
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Psalms 21
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- The Treasury of David
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
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Commentaries