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Psalm 35:25
Don’t let them say in their heart, “Aha! That’s the way we want it!” Don’t let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”
23Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!
24Vindicate me, LORD my God, according to your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me.
25Don’t let them say in their heart, “Aha! That’s the way we want it!” Don’t let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”
26Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me.
27Let those who favor my righteous cause shout for joy and be glad. Yes, let them say continually, “May the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant!”
Notice
The boast about swallowing someone up makes the threat stark: the speaker fears destruction and the pleasure his enemies would take in it.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What does the repeated plea, “Don’t let them say,” reveal about the help the speaker wants?
Write on thisWhen have you feared someone would celebrate your loss, and how has that shaped your prayers?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 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
Psalm 27:12Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty.Both prayers ask God to keep hostile people from getting what they want at the speaker’s expense.
Psalm 41:11By this I know that you delight in me, because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me.Psalm 35 asks God to prevent enemy triumph; Psalm 41 sees the enemy’s failure to triumph as evidence of God’s delight.
Lamentations 2:16All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that …Both passages portray enemies boasting that they have swallowed someone up and achieved the destruction they wanted.
Psalm 40:15Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, “Aha! Aha!”Both prayers bring the enemies’ taunt, “Aha!”, before God and ask him to thwart their gloating.
Psalm 124:3then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us,Both psalms describe destruction by enemies as being swallowed up, making the danger concrete and bodily.
Matthew 27:43He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he wants him; for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”Both texts feature hostile speech against someone seeking or trusting God’s help, though Matthew records mockery directed at Jesus.
2 Samuel 17:16Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, ‘Don’t lodge tonight at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over, lest the king be swallowed …Both passages use being swallowed up to describe threatened destruction, with Samuel recording an urgent warning to David.
Job 30:24“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?Both passages concern a cry for help amid threatened or present calamity, though Job does not mention gloating enemies here.
Job 31:31if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’The connection is slight: both report others’ speech and use eating language, though Job describes food and Psalm 35 describes destruction.
Exodus 15:9The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the plunder. My desire will be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword. My hand will destroy …Both passages voice an enemy’s desire for destruction and the satisfaction expected from overcoming another person.
Job 1:5It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt …Both passages concern what people might say in their hearts, though Job fears his children’s sin and the psalm fears enemy gloating.
2 Samuel 20:19I am among those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?”Both passages use swallowing up as language for destruction and appeal against that threatened outcome.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. fear for the future.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Your fear of another person’s triumph can be spoken to God. Here, the plea for protection rests on God’s righteousness, while the threat remains unresolved.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 35:25. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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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).