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Psalm 109:9

Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

7When he is judged, let him come out guilty. Let his prayer be turned into sin.
8Let his days be few. Let another take his office.
9Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
10Let his children be wandering beggars. Let them be sought from their ruins.
11Let the creditor seize all that he has. Let strangers plunder the fruit of his labor.
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← Psalm 109:8Psalm 109:10 →
Notice

The words “fatherless” and “widow” make this curse hard to read: the requested death reaches into a household, leaving a wife and children bereaved.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What troubles you about a plea for judgment that names a man's wife and children?

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How does reading this line between verses 8 and 10 shape your understanding of its severity?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

3 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Exodus 22:24and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.Both passages name widowhood and fatherlessness as consequences of death under judgment.
Jeremiah 18:21Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless and widows. Let their men be …Both prayers ask for death that leaves wives widowed, extending the requested devastation into the household.
Lamentations 5:3We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows.Psalm 109 asks for fatherlessness and widowhood; Lamentations describes those losses as the community's lived grief.
Where this verse fits

Injustice and anger. sermon or Bible study notes.

What the Bible says about anger →
One step

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Bring your response to this curse before God

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Encouragement

The request is severe: a death that leaves a family bereaved. It is spoken before God; it gives you no command to inflict that loss.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 109:9. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 109 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).