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Psalm 7:5
let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.
3LORD, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands,
4if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, I have plundered him who without cause was my adversary),
5let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.
6Arise, LORD, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.
7Let the congregation of the peoples surround you. Rule over them on high.
Notice
Dust marks the end of a severe conditional oath: the speaker accepts being trampled and disgraced if he has committed the wrongdoing named before God.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
How does the conditional language in verses 3–4 change your reading of this violent prayer?
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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 143:3For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.Both describe an enemy pursuing the speaker's soul and bringing his life to the ground, though Psalm 7 makes this conditional.
Job 16:15I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust.Both use dust to depict humiliation: Psalm 7 speaks of glory laid there, while Job describes his horn thrust into it.
Malachi 4:3You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says the LORD of Armies.Both depict people being trodden down, though Psalm 7 makes the speaker the possible victim and Malachi names the wicked.
Jeremiah 17:13LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, …The shared image is limited: both associate earth or dust with disgrace, though Jeremiah speaks of those who forsake the LORD.
Psalm 44:5Through you, we will push down our adversaries. Through your name, we will tread down those who rise up against us.Both describe trampling in conflict with adversaries, but the threatened speaker in Psalm 7 becomes the victorious people in Psalm 44.
Psalm 3:2Many there are who say of my soul, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah.Both concern a speaker facing hostility toward his soul; Psalm 3 reports taunts, while Psalm 7 describes possible violent defeat.
Psalm 49:12But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish.Both describe the loss of life despite what a person possesses: glory in Psalm 7 and riches in Psalm 49.
Zechariah 10:5They will be as mighty men, treading down muddy streets in the battle. They will fight, because the LORD is with them. The riders on horses will be confounded.Both use trampling imagery in violent conflict, though Zechariah describes fighters with the LORD's help rather than a speaker facing defeat.
Isaiah 10:6I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me I will give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread …Both portray people trampled into the ground, with wrongdoing forming the setting for the threatened violence.
Job 31:38–40If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;Both belong to conditional statements about possible wrongdoing; Job pictures land crying out, while Psalm 7 names consequences the speaker would accept.
Habakkuk 3:13You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the land of wickedness. You stripped them head to …Both contain images of crushing violence, though Habakkuk describes God saving his people and Psalm 7 describes the speaker's possible ruin.
Isaiah 63:3“I have trodden the wine press alone. Of the peoples, no one was with me. Yes, I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath. Their lifeblood is …Both portray human beings trampled down; Isaiah identifies God as the one trampling, while Psalm 7 names an enemy.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
These severe words belong to a conditional plea about specific wrongdoing. The surrounding prayer asks God to judge; it gives no one permission to harm you.
Now put it in your words.
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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).