Read
Psalm 55:9
Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
7Behold, then I would wander far off. I would lodge in the wilderness.” Selah.
8“I would hurry to a shelter from the stormy wind and storm.”
9Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10Day and night they prowl around on its walls. Malice and abuse are also within her.
11Destructive forces are within her. Threats and lies don’t depart from her streets.
Notice
“Confound their language” is a plea for judgment against people whose violence threatens the city, exposing how severe a prayer for God's intervention can become.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What do you make of asking God to confound speech in a city marked by violence?
Write on thisWhat violence or strife in a place you know would you want to name before God?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
11 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
Genesis 11:7Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”Both passages speak of confusing language: Genesis describes God disrupting mutual understanding, and the psalm asks the Lord to confound violent people.
Jeremiah 6:7As a well produces its waters, so she produces her wickedness. Violence and destruction is heard in her. Sickness and wounds are continually before me.Both describe violence within a city, with Jeremiah's picture of destruction and wounds echoing the psalm's report of violence and strife.
2 Samuel 22:3God is my rock in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge. My savior, you save me from violence.Violence drives both texts toward God: the psalm asks him to confound opponents, while David names him as savior from violence.
Genesis 6:11The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.Violence marks both settings: the earth is filled with it in Genesis, and the psalm's speaker has seen it in the city.
2 Samuel 15:31Someone told David, saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” David said, “LORD, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”Both prayers ask God to frustrate opponents through their words: confounding language in the psalm and turning Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness.
Acts 23:6–10But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Men and brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of …The shared thread is limited: the psalm describes civic strife, while Paul addresses a council made up of two groups.
Psalm 56:7Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, God.Both prayers appeal to God for judgment against wrongdoing, asking him to confound opponents or cast down peoples.
Acts 23:7When he had said this, an argument arose between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the crowd was divided.Speech and division connect these texts: the psalm asks for confounded language, while Acts records an argument that divides the crowd.
Matthew 23:37–38“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen …Both name a city's violence: the psalm reports strife, and Jesus addresses Jerusalem's killing of prophets and stoning of messengers.
John 7:45–53The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”The link is slight: the psalm asks for confused language; John's excerpt records leaders asking why officers did not bring Jesus.
Jeremiah 23:14In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one …Both speakers report evil they have seen in a city: violence and strife in the psalm, wrongdoing among Jerusalem's prophets.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. fear for the future.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Prayer can include a plea for God to thwart those who do harm. Here, the cry for judgment rises from witnessed violence; the appeal is entrusted to the Lord.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 55:9. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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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).