Psalm 53:5
New International Version
But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to dread. God scattered the bones of those who attacked you; you put them to shame, for God despised them.

New Living Translation
Terror will grip them, terror like they have never known before. God will scatter the bones of your enemies. You will put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

English Standard Version
There they are, in great terror, where there is no terror! For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you; you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

Berean Standard Bible
There they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to fear. For God has scattered the bones of those who besieged you. You put them to shame, for God has despised them.

King James Bible
There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.

New King James Version
There they are in great fear Where no fear was, For God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you; You have put them to shame, Because God has despised them.

New American Standard Bible
They were in great fear there, where no fear had been; For God scattered the bones of him who encamped against you; You put them to shame, because God had rejected them.

NASB 1995
There they were in great fear where no fear had been; For God scattered the bones of him who encamped against you; You put them to shame, because God had rejected them.

NASB 1977
There they were in great fear where no fear had been; For God scattered the bones of him who encamped against you; You put them to shame, because God had rejected them.

Legacy Standard Bible
There they were in great dread where no dread had been; For God scattered the bones of him who encamped against you; You put them to shame, because God had rejected them.

Amplified Bible
There they were, in great terror and dread, where there had been no terror or dread; For God scattered the bones of him who besieged you; You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.

Christian Standard Bible
Then they will be filled with dread — dread like no other — because God will scatter the bones of those who besiege you. You will put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Then they will be filled with terror— terror like no other— because God will scatter the bones of those who besiege you. You will put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

American Standard Version
There were they in great fear, where no fear was; For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: Thou hast put them to shame, because God hath rejected them.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
There they feared a fear where there was no fear, because God would scatter the bones of those who are pleasing the children of men. They were ashamed because God despised them.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
for God has scattered the bones of the men-pleasers; they were ashamed, for God despised them.

Contemporary English Version
But you will be terrified worse than ever before. God will scatter the bones of his enemies, and you will be ashamed when God rejects you.

Douay-Rheims Bible
They have not called upon God: there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear. For God hath scattered the bones of them that please men: they have been confounded, because God hath despised them.

English Revised Version
There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee; thou hast put them to shame, because God hath rejected them.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
There they are-panic-stricken- [but] there was no reason to panic, because God has scattered the bones of those who set up camp against you. You put them to shame. After all, God has rejected them.

Good News Translation
But then they will become terrified, as they have never been before, for God will scatter the bones of the enemies of his people. God has rejected them, and so Israel will totally defeat them.

International Standard Version
There the Israelis were seized with terror, when there was nothing to fear. For God scattered the bones of those who laid siege against you — you put them to shame, for God rejected them.

JPS Tanakh 1917
There are they in great fear, where no fear was; For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee; Thou hast put them to shame, because God hath rejected them.

Literal Standard Version
There they feared a fear—there was no fear, | For God has scattered the bones of him | Who is encamping against you, | You have put to shame, | For God has despised them.

Majority Standard Bible
There they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to fear. For God has scattered the bones of those who besieged you. You put them to shame, for God has despised them.

New American Bible
They are going to fear his name with great fear, though they had not feared it before. For God will scatter the bones of those encamped against you. They will surely be put to shame, for God has rejected them.

NET Bible
They are absolutely terrified, even by things that do not normally cause fear. For God annihilates those who attack you. You are able to humiliate them because God has rejected them.

New Revised Standard Version
There they shall be in great terror, in terror such as has not been. For God will scatter the bones of the ungodly; they will be put to shame, for God has rejected them.

New Heart English Bible
There they will be in great fear, where no fear had been, for God will scatter the bones of those who encamp against you. You will put them to shame, because God has rejected them.

Webster's Bible Translation
There they were in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.

World English Bible
There they were in great fear, where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.

Young's Literal Translation
There they feared a fear -- there was no fear, For God hath scattered the bones of him Who is encamping against thee, Thou hast put to shame, For God hath despised them.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Fool Says There is No God
4Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon God. 5There they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to fear. For God has scattered the bones of those who besieged you. You put them to shame, for God has despised them. 6Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion! When God restores His captive people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad!…

Cross References
Leviticus 26:17
And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.

Leviticus 26:36
As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.

2 Kings 17:20
So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.

Psalm 44:7
For You save us from our enemies; You put those who hate us to shame.

Psalm 141:7
As when one plows and breaks up the soil, so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol.

Proverbs 28:1
The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

Jeremiah 6:30
They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them."


Treasury of Scripture

There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God has scattered the bones of him that encamps against you: you have put them to shame, because God has despised them.

There

Leviticus 26:17,36
And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you…

Deuteronomy 28:65-67
And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: …

1 Samuel 14:15
And there was trembling in the host, in the field, and among all the people: the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled, and the earth quaked: so it was a very great trembling.

were they in great fear [heb.

Psalm 14:5
There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.

scattered

Psalm 141:7
Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.

Ezekiel 6:5
And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

Ezekiel 37:1-11
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, …

thou hast

Psalm 35:4,26
Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt…

Psalm 40:14
Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.

Psalm 83:16,17
Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD…

because

Psalm 2:4
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.

Psalm 73:20
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

Isaiah 37:22
This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

Jump to Previous
Attacked Bones Broken Cause Desire Despised Dread Encamped Encampeth Encamping Encamps Fear Great Overwhelmed Rejected Scatter Scattered Shame Terror Ungodly War
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Attacked Bones Broken Cause Desire Despised Dread Encamped Encampeth Encamping Encamps Fear Great Overwhelmed Rejected Scatter Scattered Shame Terror Ungodly War
Psalm 53
1. David describes the corruption of the natural man
4. He convinces the wicked by the light of their own conscience
6. He glories in the salvation of God














(5) Where no fear was.--This--the most interesting variation from Psalms 14--appears plainly to have been inserted to bring the Psalm into harmony with some circumstance belonging to the time for which it was adapted, but to which we have no clue. As to the choice among the various explanations that have been given of it, we must remark that the one which takes "fear" in a good sense ("Then were they in great fright where there was no fear of God") is excluded by the fact that the same word is employed in both clauses; and, as elsewhere p?chad is used of a "cause of terror," we may render, There were they in great fear, where there was no cause for fear.

Apparently, from the immediate context, this statement is made not of the enemies of Israel, but of Israel itself, and was so constantly applicable to a people supposed to be living under the immediate protection of God, and yet liable to sudden panics, that we need not try to recover the precise event referred to.

Of him that encampeth against thee.--Literally, of thy besiegers. The bones of the beleaguering host lie bleaching on the sand. But the text seems to have suffered. The LXX. and Vulg. have "the bones of them that please men," and a comparison with Psalm 14:5-6 shows such a similarity of letters, with difference of meaning, that both texts look like different attempts to restore some faded MS. Many attempts have been made to restore the original, but none eminently satisfactory.

Verse 5. - There were they in great fear, where no fear was. So long a phrase as "where no fear was" (לא־היה כּחד) can scarcely have "fallen out," and must have been added intentionally to mark that, on the occasion in connection with which the revision was made, there had been no ground at all for the panic. For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee. This clause takes the place of the following in Psalm 14.: "For God is in the generation of the righteous" - a very considerable change, which must certainly have been intentional. On the second occasion whereto the psalm was made applicable, there must have been a very great catastrophe - some vast slaughter of an enemy who had been at open war with Israel. Sennacherib is suggested (Canon Cook). Thou hast put them to shams, because God hath despised them. The clause in Psalm 14. which this replaces runs as follows: "Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his Refuge." Here again, both the phrases used, and the whole tenor of the thought in either case, are different.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
There they are,
שָׁ֤ם ׀ (šām)
Adverb
Strong's 8033: There, then, thither

overwhelmed
פָּֽחֲדוּ־ (pā·ḥă·ḏū-)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 6342: To dread, be in dread or in awe

with dread,
פַחַד֮ (p̄a·ḥaḏ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6343: A, alarm

[where] there was
הָ֪יָה֫ (hā·yāh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

nothing
לֹא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

to fear.
פָ֥חַד (p̄ā·ḥaḏ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6343: A, alarm

For
כִּֽי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

God
אֱלֹהִ֗ים (’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

has scattered
פִּ֭זַּר (piz·zar)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6340: To scatter

the bones
עַצְמ֣וֹת (‘aṣ·mō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine plural construct
Strong's 6106: A bone, the body, the substance, selfsame

of those who besieged you.
חֹנָ֑ךְ (ḥō·nāḵ)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 2583: To incline, to decline, to pitch a, tent, gen, to encamp

You will put them to shame,
הֱ֝בִשֹׁ֗תָה (hĕ·ḇi·šō·ṯāh)
Verb - Hifil - Perfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 954: To pale, to be ashamed, to be disappointed, delayed

for
כִּֽי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

God
אֱלֹהִ֥ים (’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

has despised them.
מְאָסָֽם׃ (mə·’ā·sām)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular | third person masculine plural
Strong's 3988: To spurn, to disappear


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OT Poetry: Psalm 53:5 There they were in great fear where (Psalm Ps Psa.)
Psalm 53:4
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