God’s Word Translation
Psalms 18:5
5The ropes of the grave had surrounded me. The clutches of death had confronted me.
Psalms 18:5 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.
- New International Version (NIV)The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.
- English Standard Version (ESV)the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.
- New King James Version (NKJV)The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me.
Context of Psalms 18:5
3The Lord should be praised. I called on him, and I was saved from my enemies. 4The ropes of death had become tangled around me. The torrents of destruction had overwhelmed me. The ropes of the grave had surrounded me. The clutches of death had confronted me. 6I called on the Lord in my distress. I cried to my God for help. He heard my voice from his temple, and my cry for help reached his ears. 7Then the earth shook and quaked. Even the foundations of the mountains trembled. They shook violently because he was angry.
Read all of Psalms 18Psalms 18:5 word by word
חֶבְלֵ֣י שְׁא֣וֹל סְבָב֑וּנִי קִ֝דְּמ֗וּנִי מ֣וֹקְשֵׁי מָֽוֶת׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Psalms 18:5
- Psalms 86:13because your mercy toward me is great. You have rescued me from the depths of hell.
- Psalms 88:3My soul is filled with troubles, and my life comes closer to the grave.
- Acts 2:24But God brought him from death back to life and destroyed the pains of death, because death had no power to hold him.
- Ecclesiastes 9:12No one knows when his time will come. Like fish that are caught in a cruel net or birds caught in a snare, humans are trapped by a disaster when it suddenly strikes them.
Commentaries on Psalms 18:5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 5The sorrows of hell - שאול חבלי chebley sheol, the cables or cords of the grave. Is not this a reference to the cords or ropes with which they lowered the corpse into the grave? or the bandages by which the dead were swathed? He was as good as dead. The snares of death prevented me - I was just on the point of dropping into the pit which they had digged for me. In short, I was all but a dead man; and nothing less than the immediate interference of God…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 5The sorrows of hell - Margin, “cords.” The word used here is the same which occurs in the previous verse, and which is there rendered “sorrows.” It is correctly translated here, as in that verse, “sorrows,” though the parallelism would seem to favor the interpretation in the margin - cords. If it means “sorrows,” the idea is, that such sufferings encompassed him, or seized upon him, as we associate in idea with the descent to the under-world, or the going…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-50This psalm describes a royal story of God rescuing his king. A similar version of this psalm appears in 2 Samuel 22:1–51. The psalm encourages those who hear the earlier prayers for help in Psalms 16 and 17. The psalmist describes the dramatic nature of God’s rescue in three different ways (Psalm 18:7–15, 16–19, 30–36). The psalm also offers hope that a future Son of David will completely defeat evil (Psalm 18:43–50; compare Psalm 2).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 55. death--and hell (compare Psa 16:10) are personified as man's great enemies (compare Re 20:13, 14). prevented--encountered me, crossed my path, and endangered my safety. He does not mean he was in their power.Read the comment
Topics related to Psalms 18:5
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Psalms 18
- 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
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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