Psalms Chapter 18 verse 4 Holy Bible

ASV Psalms 18:4

The cords of death compassed me, And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
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BBE Psalms 18:4

The cords of death were round me, and the seas of evil put me in fear.
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DARBY Psalms 18:4

The bands of death encompassed me, and torrents of Belial made me afraid.
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KJV Psalms 18:4

The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
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WBT Psalms 18:4

I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from my enemies.
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WEB Psalms 18:4

The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
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YLT Psalms 18:4

Compassed me have cords of death, And streams of the worthless make me afraid.
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Psalms 18 : 4 Bible Verse Songs

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - The sorrows of death compassed me. Here begins the narrative of David's sufferings in the past. "'The sorrows' - or rather, 'the cords' - of death," he says, "encompassed me," or "coiled around me" (Kay). Death is represented as a hunter, who goes out with nets and cords, encompassing his victims and driving them into the toils. David's recollection is probably of the time when he was "hunted upon the mountains" by Saul (1 Samuel 26:20), and expected continually to be caught and put to death (1 Samuel 19:1; 1 Samuel 23:15; 1 Samuel 27:1). And the floods of ungodlymen made me afraid; literally, the torrents of Belial, or of ungodliness. The LXX. have χείμαῥῤοι, ἀνομίας. Streams of ungodly men, the myrmidons of Saul, cut him off from escape.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) The sorrows of death.--The Hebrew word may mean either birth pangs (LXX. and Acts 2:24, where see Note, New Testament Commentary), or cords. The figure of the hunter in the next verse, "the snares of death," determines its meaning there to be cords (see margin). It is best, therefore, to keep the same rendering here: but there can be little doubt that the version in Samuel, breakers, or waves, is the true one, from the parallelism--"Waves of death compassed me,And billows of Belial terrified me."For Belial, see Deuteronomy 13:13. Here the parallelism fixes its meaning, "ruin." For the ideas of peril and destruction, connected by the Hebrews with waves and floods, comp. Psalm 18:16, also Psalm 32:6; Psalm 42:7; Psalm 69:1. Doubtless the tradition of the Flood and of the Red Sea helped to strengthen the apprehensions natural in a country where the river annually overflowed its banks. and where a dry ravine might at any moment become a dangerous flood. The hatred of the sea arose from quite another cause--viz., the dread of it as a highway for invasion. . . .