Psalm 78:57
◄  Psalm 78:57  ►
New International Version (©2011)
Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.

New Living Translation (©2007)
They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow.

English Standard Version (©2001)
but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; They turned aside like a treacherous bow.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
They treacherously turned away like their fathers; they became warped like a faulty bow.

International Standard Version (©2012)
They fell away and were as disloyal as their ancestors. They became unreliable, like a defective bow;

NET Bible (©2006)
They were unfaithful and acted as treacherously as their ancestors; they were as unreliable as a malfunctioning bow.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)
They turned back and they lied like their fathers and they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors. They were like arrows shot from a defective bow.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

American King James Version
But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

American Standard Version
But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers: They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they turned away, and kept not the covenant: even like their fathers they were turned aside as a crooked bow.

Darby Bible Translation
And they drew back and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow.

English Revised Version
But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

Webster's Bible Translation
But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

World English Bible
but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

Young's Literal Translation
And they turn back, And deal treacherously like their fathers, They have been turned like a deceitful bow,

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

78:56-72 After the Israelites were settled in Canaan, the children were like their fathers. God gave them his testimonies, but they turned back. Presumptuous sins render even Israelites hateful to God's holiness, and exposed to his justice. Those whom the Lord forsakes become an easy prey to the destroyer. And sooner or later, God will disgrace his enemies. He set a good government over his people; a monarch after his own heart. With good reason does the psalmist make this finishing, crowning instance of God's favour to Israel; for David was a type of Christ, the great and good Shepherd, who was humbled first, and then exalted; and of whom it was foretold, that he should be filled with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. On the uprightness of his heart, and the skilfulness of his hands, all his subjects may rely; and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. Every trial of human nature hitherto, confirms the testimony of Scripture, that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and nothing but being created anew by the Holy Ghost can cure the ungodliness of any.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 57. - But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers (comp. ver. 8, end the comment ad loc.). They were turned aside like a deceitful bow (comp. Hosea 7:16). A "deceitful bow" is one that fails in the hour of need, either breaking, or losing its strength, or sending its arrows wide of the mark.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But turned back,.... From God and his worship, apostatized from the true religion, and turned to idols:

and dealt unfaithfully, like their fathers; in the wilderness; see Psalm 78:8,

they were turned aside like a deceitful bow; that promises well to carry the arrow right, but drops it at the feet of the archer; or carries it another way, so that it misses the mark, The Targum is,

"as a bow casting arrows;''

to the ground, and not to the mark; see Hosea 7:16, or being too much stretched is suddenly broken, and kills the archer; or returns to its own nature; so Arama.

Psalm 78:57 Parallel Commentaries

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I will Open My Mouth in Parables
…56Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: 57But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. 58For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. …

Psalm 44:17 All this came upon us, though we had not forgotten you; we had not been false to your covenant.
Psalm 44:18 Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path.
Psalm 78:9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle;
Psalm 85:8 I will listen to what God the LORD says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants-- but let them not turn to folly.
Psalm 106:6 We have sinned, even as our ancestors did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.
Ezekiel 20:27 "Therefore, son of man, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In this also your ancestors blasphemed me by being unfaithful to me:
Ezekiel 20:28 When I brought them into the land I had sworn to give them and they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices, made offerings that aroused my anger, presented their fragrant incense and poured out their drink offerings.
Hosea 7:16 They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words. For this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.