Psalm 37:14
◄  Psalm 37:14  ►
New International Version (©2011)
The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.

New Living Translation (©2007)
The wicked draw their swords and string their bows to kill the poor and the oppressed, to slaughter those who do right.

English Standard Version (©2001)
The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright;

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow To cast down the afflicted and the needy, To slay those who are upright in conduct.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
The wicked have drawn the sword and strung the bow to bring down the afflicted and needy and to slaughter those whose way is upright.

International Standard Version (©2012)
The wicked take out a sword and bend the bow, to bring down the humble and the poor to slay those who are righteous in conduct.

NET Bible (©2006)
Evil men draw their swords and prepare their bows, to bring down the oppressed and needy, and to slaughter those who are godly.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)
The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent the bow to kill the poor and the afflicted and those whose ways are upright.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Wicked people pull out their swords and bend their bows to kill oppressed and needy people, to slaughter those who are decent.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright behavior.

American King James Version
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.

American Standard Version
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, To cast down the poor and needy, To slay such as are upright in the way.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The wicked have drawn out the sword : they have bent their bow. To cast down the poor and needy, to kill the upright of heart.

Darby Bible Translation
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the afflicted and needy, to slay those that are upright in the way:

English Revised Version
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow; to cast down the poor and needy, to slay such as be upright in the way:

Webster's Bible Translation
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as are of upright deportment.

World English Bible
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to kill those who are upright in the way.

Young's Literal Translation
A sword have the wicked opened, And they have trodden their bow, To cause to fall the poor and needy, To slaughter the upright of the way.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

37:7-20 Let us be satisfied that God will make all to work for good to us. Let us not discompose ourselves at what we see in this world. A fretful, discontented spirit is open to many temptations. For, in all respects, the little which is allotted to the righteous, is more comfortable and more profitable than the ill-gotten and abused riches of ungodly men. It comes from a hand of special love. God provides plentifully and well, not only for his working servants, but for his waiting servants. They have that which is better than wealth, peace of mind, peace with God, and then peace in God; that peace which the world cannot give, and which the world cannot have. God knows the believer's days. Not one day's work shall go unrewarded. Their time on earth is reckoned by days, which will soon be numbered; but heavenly happiness shall be for ever. This will be a real support to believers in evil times. Those that rest on the Rock of ages, have no reason to envy the wicked the support of their broken reeds.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - The wicked have drawn out the sword, and bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy. David is perhaps thinking especially of his own persecutors, Saul and Absalom, who pursued after him with armed men, and sought his life (1 Samuel 23:8, 14, 26; 1 Samuel 24:2; 1 Samuel 26:2; 2 Samuel 17:24-26; 2 Samuel 18:6-8). But he may also have in his mind the raids that powerful chiefs made upon their weak and peaceful neighbours (Job 24:5-12). And to slay such as be of a right conversation; or, such as are upright in way; i.e. such as lead a righteous

Gill's Exposition of the Entire 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) "aperuerunt gladium", Gejerus.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14, 15. sword, and … bow—for any instruments of violence.

slay—literally, "slaughter" (1Sa 25:11).

poor and needy—God's people (Ps 10:17; 12:5). The punishment of the wicked as drawn on themselves—often mentioned (compare Ps 7:15, 16; 35:8).

Psalm 37:14 Parallel Commentaries

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Don't Fret Because of Evildoers
…13The LORD shall laugh at him: for he sees that his day is coming. 14The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. 15Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. …

Psalm 11:2 For look, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.
Psalm 17:11 They have tracked me down, they now surround me, with eyes alert, to throw me to the ground.
Psalm 22:20 Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.
Psalm 35:10 My whole being will exclaim, "Who is like you, LORD? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them."
Psalm 37:32 The wicked lie in wait for the righteous, intent on putting them to death;
Psalm 86:1 A prayer of David. Hear me, LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
Psalm 109:16 For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted.
Lamentations 2:4 Like an enemy he has strung his bow; his right hand is ready. Like a foe he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye; he has poured out his wrath like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.