Psalms 9:5
in Psalms 9You have rebuked the nations; You have destroyed the wicked; You have erased their name forever and ever.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou hast rebuked the nations, thou hast destroyed the wicked; Thou hast blotted out their name for ever and ever.
KJV
Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.
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This verse in Psalms 9
Commentary
13 notes on this verseThe expression "you have rebuked" indicates correction: "You have blotted out his name." God blotted out the name Abram, making it Abraham, and Sarai, calling her Sarah, and Simon, naming him Peter.
This site's exposition
When my enemies retreat
on Psalms 9:3-6
The praise rests on something that happened. Enemies retreated and fell before God, and God upheld the singer's just cause from a throne where He judges righteously. From verse 5 the same judgment falls on nations, their name erased and their cities uprooted until the memory of them is gone.
This site's exposition
You have rebuked the nations
Rebuked renders ga'ar, the word used when God rebuked the Red Sea at Psalm 106:9. The verse opens with gimel, the third letter of the acrostic. The erased name of the wicked stands against the name of the Most High praised in verse 2.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
From here on, the most sacred second advent of the Lord is explained, when unbelieving nations will be rebuked and the devil with his schemes will perish forever. For when the Lord is present, all things will be peaceful, and the devil's feisty depravity will …
You see how he has no need of weapons—sword, bows, arrows; rather, those things are mentioned in more human fashion. After all, God has only to censure, and those destined for punishment perish.
"You have rebuked the heathen, and the ungodly has perished" [Psalm 9:5]. We take this to be more suitably said to the Lord Jesus Christ, than said by Him. For who else has rebuked the heathen, and the ungodly perished, save He, who after that He ascended up into heaven, sent the Holy Ghost, that, filled by Him, the Apostles should preach the word of God with boldness, and freely reprove men's sins? At which rebuke the ungodly perished; because the ungodly was justified and was made godly. You have effaced their name for the world, and for the world's world. The name of the ungodly has been effaced. For they are not called ungodly who believe in the true God. Now their name is effaced "for the world," that is, as long as the course of the temporal world endures. "And for the world's world." What is "the world's world," but that whose image and shadow, as it were, this world possesses? For the change of seasons succeeding one another, while the moon is on the wane, and again on the increase, while the sun each year returns to his quarter, while spring, or summer, or autumn, or winter passes away only to return, is in some sort an imitation of eternity. But this world's world is that which abides in immutable eternity. As a verse in the mind, and a verse in the voice, the former is understood, the latter heard; and the former fashions the latter; and hence the former works in art and abides, the latter sounds in the air and passes away. So the fashion of this changeable world is defined by that world unchangeable which is called the world's world. And hence the one abides in the art, that is, in the Wisdom and Power of God: but the other is made to pass in the governance of creation. […]
The Medieval Church1 voice
"You have rebuked." Above, the Psalmist showed the judgment done on his part, because in this due judgment was done for him, and on the part of the judge; here he shows the judgment or justice done for him on the part of those who …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Thou hast rebuked the Heathen,....
5 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
He had cut them off: Thou hast destroyed the wicked. The wicked are marked for destruction, and some are made monuments of God's vindictive justice and destructive power in this world.
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Thou hast rebuked the heathen - Not the pagan in general, or the nations at large, but those who are particularly referred to in this psalm - those who are described as the enemies of the writer and of God. On the word rendered “heathen” here - גוים gôyim - see the notes at Psa 2:1. The word rebuke here does not mean, as it does usually with us, to chide with words, but it means that he had done this by deeds; that is, by overcoming or vanquishing them.
God rebukes before he destroys, but when he once comes to blows with the wicked he ceases not until he has dashed them in pieces so small that their very name is forgotten, and like a noisome snuff their remembrance is put out for ever and ever. How often the word "thou" occurs in this and the former verse, to show us that the grateful strain mounts up directly to the Lord as doth the smoke from the altar when the air is still.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
When . . . are turned back--It is the result of God's power alone. He, as a righteous Judge (Ps 7:11), vindicates His people. He rebukes by acts as well as words (Ps 6:1;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Thou hast rebuked the heathen - We know not what this particularly refers to, but it is most probably to the Canaanitish nations, which God destroyed from off the face of the earth; hence it is said, Thou hast put out their name for ever and ever, לעולם ועד leolam vaed, endlessly. Here עולם olam has its proper signification, without end. He who contends it means only a limited time, let him tell us where the Hivites, Perizzites, Jebusites, etc., now dwell; and when it is likely they are to be restored to Canaan.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| גָּעַ֣רְתָּ | gaarta | you have rebuked | H1605 → | 14 times |
| ג֭וֹיִם | goyim | nations | H1471 → | 561 times |
| אִבַּ֣דְתָּ | ʾibadta | you have destroyed | H6 → | 184 times |
| רָשָׁ֑ע | rasha' | [the] wicked | H7563 → | 263 times |
| שְׁמָ֥ם | shemam | name their | H8034 → | 864 times |
| מָ֝חִ֗יתָ | machita | you have wiped out | H4229 → | 36 times |
| לְעוֹלָ֥ם | leolam | for ever | H5769 → | 438 times |
| וָעֶֽד׃ | vaed | and ever | H5703 → | 49 times |
גָּעַ֣רְתָּyou have rebuked
gaartaH1605 →14 times
ג֭וֹיִםnations
goyimH1471 →561 times
אִבַּ֣דְתָּyou have destroyed
ʾibadtaH6 →184 times
רָשָׁ֑ע[the] wicked
rasha'H7563 →263 times
שְׁמָ֥םname their
shemamH8034 →864 times
מָ֝חִ֗יתָyou have wiped out
machitaH4229 →36 times
לְעוֹלָ֥םfor ever
leolamH5769 →438 times
וָעֶֽד׃and ever
vaedH5703 →49 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Proverbs 10:7The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.
it leads to
- Psalms 112:6
Surely he will never be shaken; the righteous man will be remembered forever.
- Psalms 109:13
May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Luke 1:48
For He has looked with favor on the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed.
- Psalms 112:6
Through
Revelation 19:15And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath…
it leads to
- Isaiah 63:2–6
Why are Your clothes red, and Your garments like one who treads the winepress?
- Revelation 1:16
He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.
- Revelation 2:27
He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery—just as I have received authority from My Father.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:8
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.
- Psalms 2:9
You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery.”
- Isaiah 63:2–6
About Psalms
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 9; Cassiodorus, EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 9:6; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 1; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 9:3; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, SELECTIONS FROM THE PSALMS 9:6 and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.