Translation
King James Version
All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?
Complete Jewish Bible
All my bones will say, "Who is like you? Who can rescue the weak from those stronger than they, the poor and needy from those who exploit them?"
Berean Standard Bible
All my bones will exclaim, “Who is like You, O LORD, who delivers the afflicted from the aggressor, the poor and needy from the robber?”
American Standard Version
All my bones shall say, Jehovah, who is like unto thee, Who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, Yea, the poor and the needy from him that robbeth him?
World English Bible Messianic
All my bones shall say, “LORD, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?”
Geneva Bible (1599)
All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like vnto thee, which deliuerest the poore from him, that is too strong for him! yea, the poore and him that is in miserie, from him that spoyleth him!
Young's Literal Translation
All my bones say, `Jehovah, who is like Thee, Delivering the poor from the stronger than he, And the poor and needy from his plunderer.'
In the KJVVerse 14,421 of 31,102
Study This Verse
Commentary on Psalms 35 verses 1–10
1 ¶ A Psalm of David. Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.
2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.
3 Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
4 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.
5 Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.
6 Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the LORD persecute them.
7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.
8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.
9 And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation.
10 All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?
In these verses we have,
I. David's representation of his case to God, setting forth the restless rage and malice of his persecutors. He was God's servant, expressly appointed by him to be what he was, followed his guidance, and aimed at his glory in the way of duty, had lived (as St. Paul speaks) in all good conscience before God unto this day; and yet there were those that strove with him, that did their utmost to oppose his advancement, and made all the interest they could against him; they fought against him (Psa 35:1), not only undermined him closely and secretly, but openly avowed their opposition to him and set themselves to do him all the mischief they could. They persecuted him with an unwearied enmity, sought after his soul (Psa 35:4), that is, his life, no less would satisfy their bloody minds; they aimed to disquiet his spirit and put that into disorder. Nor was it a sudden passion against him that they harboured, but inveterate malice: They devised his hurt, laid their heads together, and set their wits on work, not only to do him a mischief, but to find out ways and means to ruin him. They treated him, who was the greatest blessing of his country, as if he had been the curse and plague of it; they hunted him as a dangerous beast of prey; they digged a pit for him and laid a net in it, that they might have him at their mercy, Psa 35:7. They took a great deal of pains in persecuting him, for they digged a pit (Psa 7:15); and very close and crafty they were in carrying on their designs; the old serpent taught them subtlety: they hid their net from David and his friends; but in vain, for they could not hide it from God. And, lastly, he found himself an unequal match for them. His enemy, especially Saul, was too strong for him (Psa 35:10), for he had the army at his command, and assumed to himself the sole power of making laws and giving judgment, attainted and condemned whom he pleased, carried not a sceptre, but a javelin, in his hand, to cast at any man that stood in his way; such was the manner of the king, and all about him were compelled to do as he bade them, right or wrong. The king's word is a law, and every thing must be carried with a high hand; he has fields, and vineyards, and preferments, at his disposal, Sa1 22:7. but David is poor and needy, has nothing to make friends with, and therefore has none to take his part but men (as we say) of broken fortunes (Sa1 22:2); and therefore no marvel that Saul spoiled him of what little he had got and the interest he had made. If the kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord and his anointed, who can contend with them? Note, It is no new thing for the most righteous men, and the most righteous cause, to meet with many mighty and malicious enemies: Christ himself is striven with and fought against, and war is made upon the holy seed; and we are not to marvel at the matter: it is a fruit of the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman.
II. His appeal to God concerning his integrity and the justice of his cause. If a fellow-subject had wronged him, he might have appealed to his prince, as St. Paul did to Caesar; but, when his prince wronged him, he appealed to his God, who is prince and Judge of the kings of the earth: Plead my cause, O Lord! Psa 35:1. Note, A righteous cause may, with the greatest satisfaction imaginable, he laid before a righteous God, and referred to him to give judgment upon it; for he perfectly knows the merits of it, holds the balance exactly even, and with him there is no respect of persons. God knew that they were, without cause, his enemies, and that they had, without cause, digged pits for him, Psa 35:7. Note, It will be a comfort to us, when men do us wrong, if our consciences can witness for us that we have never done them any. It was so to St. Paul. Act 25:10, To the Jews have I done no wrong. We are apt to justify our uneasiness at the injuries men do us by this, That we never gave them any cause to use us so; whereas this should, more than any thing, make us easy, for then we may the more confidently expect that God will plead our cause.
III. His prayer to God to manifest himself both for him and to him, in this trial. 1. For him. He prays that God would fight against his enemies, so as to disable them to hurt him, and defeat their designs against him (Psa 35:1), that he would take hold of shield and buckler, for the Lord is a man of war (Exo 15:3), and that he would stand up for his help (Psa 35:2), for he had few that would stand up for him, and, if he had ever so many, they would stand him in no stead without God. he prays that God would stop their way (Psa 35:3), that they might not overtake him when he fled from them. This prayer we may put up against our persecutors, that God would restrain them and stop their way. 2. To him: "Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation; let me have inward comfort under all these outward troubles, to support my soul which they strike at. Let God be my salvation, not only my Saviour out of my present troubles, but my everlasting bliss. Let me have that salvation not only which he is the author of, but which consists in his favour; and let me know my interest in it; let me have the comfortable assurance of it in my own breast." If God, by his Spirit, witness to our spirits that he is our salvation, we have enough, we need desire no more to make us happy; and this is a powerful support when men persecute us. If God be our friend, no matter who is our enemy.
IV. His prospect of the destruction of his enemies, which he prays for, not in malice or revenge. We find how patiently he bore Shimei's curses (so let him curse, for the Lord has bidden him); and we cannot suppose that he who was so meek in his conversation would give vent to any intemperate heat or passion in his devotion; but, by the spirit of prophecy, he foretells the just judgments of God that would come upon them for their great wickedness, their malice, cruelty, and perfidiousness, and especially the enmity to the counsels of God, the interests of religion, and that reformation which they knew David, if ever he had power in his hand, would be an instrument of. They seemed to be hardened in their sins, and to be of the number of those who have sinned unto death and are not to be prayed for, Jer 7:16; Jer 11:14; Jer 14:11; Jo1 5:16. As for Saul himself, David, it is probable, knew that God had rejected him and had forbidden Samuel to mourn for him, Sa1 16:1. And these predictions look further, and read the doom of the enemies of Christ and his kingdom, as appears by comparing Rom 11:9, Rom 11:10. David here prays, 1. Against his many enemies (Psa 35:4-6): Let them be confounded, etc. Or, as Dr. Hammond reads it, They shall be confounded, they shall be turned back. This may be taken as a prayer for their repentance, for all penitents are put to shame for their sins and turned back from them. Or, if they were not brought to repentance, David prays that they might be defeated and disappointed in their designs against him and so put to shame. Though they should in some degree prevail, yet he foresees that it would be to their own ruin at last: They shall be as chaff before the wind, so unable will wicked men be to stand before the judgments of God and so certainly will they be driven away by them, Psa 1:4. Their way shall be dark and slippery, darkness and slipperiness (so the margin reads it); the way of sinners is so, for they walk in darkness and in continual danger of falling into sin, into hell; and it will prove so at last, for their foot shall slide in due time, Deu 32:35. But this is not the worst of it. Even chaff before the wind may perhaps be stopped, and find a place of rest, and, though the way be dark and slippery, it is possible that a man may keep his footing; but it is here foretold that the angel of the Lord shall chase them (Psa 35:5) so that they shall find no rest, shall persecute them (Psa 35:6) so that they cannot possibly escape the pit of destruction. As God's angels encamp against those that fight against him. They are the ministers of his justice, as well as of his mercy. Those that make God their enemy make all the holy angels their enemies. 2. Against his one mighty enemy (Psa 35:8): Let destruction come upon him. It is probable that he means Saul, who laid snares for him and aimed at his destruction. David vowed that his hand should not be upon him; he would not be judge in his own cause. But, at the same time, he foretold that the Lord would smite him (Sa1 26:10), and here that the net he had hidden should catch himself, and into that very destruction he should fall. This was remarkably fulfilled in the ruin of Saul; for he had laid a plot to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines (Sa1 18:25), that was the net which he hid for him under pretence of doing him honour, and in that very net was he himself taken, for he fell by the hand of the Philistines when his day came to fall.
V. His prospect of his own deliverance, which, having committed his cause to God, he did not doubt of, Psa 35:9, Psa 35:10. 1. He hoped that he should have the comfort of it: "My soul shall be joyful, not in my own ease and safety, but in the Lord and in his favour, in his promise and in his salvation according to the promise." Joy in God and in his salvation is the only true, solid, satisfying joy. Those whose souls are sorrowful in the Lord, who sow in tears and sorrow after a godly sort, need not question but that in due time their souls shall be joyful in the Lord; for gladness is sown for them, and they shall at last enter into the joy of their Lord. 2. He promised that then God should have the glory of it (Psa 35:10): All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee? (1.) He will praise God with the whole man, with all that is within him, and with all the strength and vigour of his soul, intimated by his bones, which are within the body and are the strength of it. (2.) He will praise him as one of peerless and unparalleled perfection. We cannot express how great and good God is, and therefore must praise him by acknowledging him to be a non-such. Lord, who is like unto thee? No such patron of oppressed innocency, no such punisher of triumphant tyranny. The formation of our bones so wonderfully, so curiously (Ecc 11:5; Psa 139:16), the serviceableness of our bones, and the preservation of them, and especially the life which, at the resurrection, shall be breathed upon the dry bones and make them flourish as a herb, oblige every bone in our bodies, if it could speak, to say, Lord, who is like unto thee? and willingly to undergo any services or sufferings for him.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–10. Public domain.
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Theodore of MopsuestiaAD 428
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 35:10B, c
I shall say no one is like you, he means, and shall confess you to be more powerful than everyone, even those considered strong and powerful; you are capable of rescuing the poor and insignificant and delivering them from their scheming against the odds.… You see, both the insignificance by comparison with him of the one who suffers and is rescued and also the might of the schemers brought out his greatness: the more effective the release from the schemers was shown to be, the more powerful did the one who effected it appear.
Augustine of HippoAD 430
Exposition on Psalm 35
"All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like You" [Psalm 35:10]. Who can speak anything worthily of these words? I think them only to be pronounced, not to be expounded. Why do you seek this or that? What is like your Lord? Him have you before you. "The unrighteous have declared unto me delights, but not after Your law, O Lord!" Persecutors have been who have said, Worship Saturn, worship Mercury. I worship not idols (says he): "Lord, who is like You? They have eyes, and see not; ears have they, but they hear not." "Lord, who is like You," who hast made the eye to see, the ear to hear? But I (says he) worship not idols, for them a workman made. Worship a tree or mountain; did a workman make them also? Here too, Lord, who is like You? Earthly things are shown unto me; You are Creator of the earth. And from these haply they turn to the higher creation, and say to me, Worship the Moon, worship this Sun, who with his light, as a great lamp in the Heavens, makes the day. Here also I plainly say, "Lord, who is like You?" The Moon and the Stars You have made, the Sun to rule the day have You kindled, the Heavens have You framed together. There are many invisible things better. But haply here also it is said to me, Worship Angels, adore Angels. And here also will I say, "Lord, who is like You?" Even the Angels You have created. The Angels are nothing, but by seeing You. It is better with them to possess You, than by worshipping them to fall from You.
CassiodorusAD 585
EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 35:10
Bones must be understood as strength of spirit and steadfastness of mind. Such things are rightly compared with bones, for just as the body contains bones, so also these qualities strengthen holy desires. So only the bones, which mean firmness, could communicate this mystery, not flesh, which stands for slackness, for only strength of mind can speak such a song of praise.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 35:10 is a profound declaration of King David's unshakeable faith and a visceral cry of praise, asserting God's unparalleled uniqueness as the deliverer of the vulnerable. It encapsulates a deep, whole-being conviction that only the LORD possesses the power to rescue the weak and oppressed from those who are overwhelmingly strong and unjustly predatory, thereby testifying to His singular justice, protective nature, and incomparable might. This verse emerges as a confident anticipation of divine intervention amidst intense personal suffering and opposition.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 35:10 employs several potent literary devices to convey its message. Personification is prominently featured in "All my bones shall say," attributing the human capacity for speech and declaration to the inanimate parts of the body, vividly illustrating a deep, internal, and holistic response to God's deliverance. The phrase "LORD, who [is] like unto thee" is a classic example of a Rhetorical Question, which, rather than seeking an answer, serves to emphasize the unparalleled and incomparable nature of God. It functions as a powerful affirmation that no one can stand beside Him in power and saving ability. Furthermore, the verse utilizes Parallelism, specifically synonymous parallelism, in its latter half: "the poor from him that is too strong for him" is echoed and intensified by "the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him." This repetition with slight variation serves to reinforce the message, highlighting both the vulnerability of the oppressed and the aggressive injustice of their tormentors, while also emphasizing the completeness of God's protective action. There is also an element of Hyperbole in "All my bones shall say," which exaggerates the extent of David's praise to convey its profound depth and sincerity, suggesting a testimony that permeates every fiber of his being.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 35:10 profoundly articulates a core theological truth: God's incomparability is most vividly demonstrated in His active and compassionate intervention on behalf of the helpless. This verse positions God not merely as a distant sovereign but as an engaged Deliverer who actively champions the cause of the oppressed against overwhelming odds. It highlights His unique justice, which is not abstract but manifests in concrete acts of rescue for those who are marginalized and exploited. The psalmist's declaration that "all my bones shall say" underscores that true faith involves a deep, existential recognition of God's character, a praise that arises from the very essence of one's being in response to His salvific work. This truth resonates throughout the biblical narrative, affirming God's consistent commitment to justice and His special care for the vulnerable members of society, revealing a divine nature that is utterly unlike any earthly power or false god.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 35:10 offers immense encouragement and a powerful framework for believers navigating personal struggles or observing widespread injustice. It calls us to remember that no matter how overwhelming the opposition, how powerful the oppressor, or how vulnerable we feel, God remains the incomparable, active Deliverer. This verse invites us to a profound, wholehearted trust, recognizing that our ultimate defense and vindication rest solely in His hands. When we are afflicted, unjustly treated, or witness the suffering of the "poor and needy," this psalm empowers us to cry out to God with full confidence, knowing that He sees, He cares, and He possesses the unique power to rescue. Our response to His intervention, whether anticipated or realized, should be one of deep, visceral praise that emanates from our very core, a testimony that acknowledges His singular greatness and unwavering commitment to justice. It reminds us that our faith is not merely intellectual assent but a lived reality, prompting a deep-seated worship that recognizes God's unparalleled ability to turn helplessness into deliverance.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "All my bones shall say" truly mean in a practical sense for believers today?
Answer: "All my bones shall say" is a powerful Hebrew idiom signifying a profound, holistic, and undeniable conviction that emanates from the very core of one's being. It's not just a verbal declaration or an intellectual acknowledgment, but a deep, visceral response that permeates every fiber of one's existence. For believers today, it means that our praise and trust in God should be so deeply ingrained that it affects our entire person—our thoughts, emotions, and even physical reactions. When God delivers us or reveals His incomparable nature, our response should be an overflowing, undeniable testimony that comes from the "marrow of our bones," reflecting a faith that is not superficial but rooted in the deepest parts of who we are. It calls for a worship that is authentic, heartfelt, and all-encompassing, a recognition of God's character that shapes our entire outlook and behavior, similar to how Psalms 103:1 calls us to bless the Lord with all that is within us.
Why does David emphasize "the poor and the needy" in this verse?
Answer: David emphasizes "the poor and the needy" because these terms represent the most vulnerable and powerless members of society in ancient Israel, those who were most susceptible to exploitation and oppression by the powerful. By highlighting God's deliverance of such individuals, David underscores a fundamental aspect of God's character: His unwavering justice and compassion for the marginalized. God is consistently portrayed in Scripture as the defender of the defenseless, the one who hears the cry of the oppressed and intervenes on their behalf (e.g., Psalms 68:5 and Proverbs 22:22-23). This emphasis serves to magnify God's power and righteousness, as it is precisely in rescuing those who cannot help themselves from those who are "too strong" or "spoileth them" that His unique and incomparable nature is most clearly demonstrated. It also implies that David, though a king, identifies with the vulnerable in his own experience of being unjustly persecuted.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 35:10 finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the preeminent "Deliverer" whom David anticipated, not merely from earthly oppressors but from the spiritual forces of sin, death, and the devil that truly hold humanity captive. The rhetorical question, "LORD, who is like unto thee?" is answered definitively in Christ, for in Him, the incomparable nature of God is fully revealed in human form (e.g., Colossians 1:15). Jesus perfectly embodies God's character as the one who "delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him." He identified with the poor and needy, not only ministering to their physical needs but also declaring a spiritual blessedness upon them (e.g., Matthew 5:3). More significantly, Christ, through His crucifixion and resurrection, delivered humanity from the ultimate oppressor—Satan, who "spoileth" and enslaves with sin (e.g., Hebrews 2:14-15). His victory over the grave demonstrates an unparalleled power that no earthly or spiritual foe can match, eliciting a "whole-being" praise from all who believe, a praise that resonates from the deepest parts of their redeemed spirits (e.g., Revelation 5:9-10). In Christ, David's cry for deliverance and his vow of incomparable praise are perfectly and eternally realized.