Psalms 52:5

5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living.

Psalms 52:5 in Other Translations

KJV
5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
ESV
5 But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
NLT
5 But God will strike you down once and for all. He will pull you from your home and uproot you from the land of the living. Interlude
MSG
5 God will tear you limb from limb, sweep you up and throw you out, Pull you up by the roots from the land of life.
CSB
5 This is why God will bring you down forever. He will take you, ripping you out of your tent; He will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah

Psalms 52:5 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 52:5

God shall likewise destroy thee for ever
As a just retaliation for the mischief done to others; or, "therefore God shall destroy" F26 even body and soul in hell, with an everlasting destruction, which will be the case of every wicked man, and particularly of the antichristian party, ( Revelation 14:10 Revelation 14:11 ) ; the word is used of breaking down the house in which the leprosy was, ( Leviticus 14:45 ) ; and denotes the utter extinction of Doeg's family, and the irrecoverable ruin of antichrist, ( Revelation 18:21 ) ;

he shall take thee away;
as fire from the hearth, ( Isaiah 30:14 ) ; or as burning coals from the altar: a word from the root here used signifies a censer: and the meaning is, that as his tongue was a fire, and set on fire of hell, and he was as a burning coal, he was fit for nothing but to be cast into everlasting burnings;

and pluck thee out of [thy] dwelling place;
"tent", or "tabernacle" {a}; referring to the tents of shepherds, he being the chief of Saul's shepherds, or to some stately palace he had built for himself to dwell in, upon his advancement at court; or rather to the tabernacle of the Lord, where he had been an hypocritical worshipper; but now should be cut off from the church of God, as a rotten member, and cast out of the tabernacle of Jacob, ( Malachi 2:12 ) ; while David flourished as an olive tree in the house of the Lord, ( Psalms 52:8 ) ;

and root thee out of the land of the living.
In retaliation for his rooting out Ahimelech's family, and the inhabitants of Nob; so in like manner he and his should be destroyed root and branch, and not see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, nor enjoy eternal life in the world to come.

Selah; on this word, (See Gill on Psalms 3:2). The Targum renders the word "Selah" here "for ever", as in ( Psalms 52:3 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F26 (Mg) (dia touto) , Sept. "propterea", V. L. "idcirco etiam", Piscator; "ideo etiam", Michaelis.
F1 (lham) "de tabernaculo", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus; "e tentorio", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.

Psalms 52:5 In-Context

3 You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
4 You love every harmful word, you deceitful tongue!
5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living.
6 The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at you, saying,
7 “Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!”

Cross References 3

  • 1. S Deuteronomy 29:28; S Job 40:12; Isaiah 22:19; Ezekiel 17:24
  • 2. S Deuteronomy 28:63; Proverbs 2:22
  • 3. S Job 28:13; Psalms 27:13
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