Bible Strands
Psalms 109:11
May the creditor seize all he owns, and strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist pronounces a curse against a hostile figure, situating the judgment within a sequence of pleas for the enemy’s family to face destitution and abandonment. The moment is a formal imprecation asking God to execute total ruin on the target’s household and assets.
The words — נ֭וֹשֶׁה (No.o.sheh) = a creditor; זָרִ֣ים (za.Rim) = strangers. The verse literally commands a creditor to seize everything and strangers to plunder the labor’s output.
The thread — This pattern of forced loss appears in Job 5:5, where the hungry consume the harvest and thirst after the wealth. It aligns with Deuteronomy 28:29, which describes gropeing like a blind man and being plundered, and Deuteronomy 28:33, where an opposing people consume the land’s produce and the results of toil.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that divine judgment can systematically strip a person of economic security and human support. It requires the reader to accept that the curse describes concrete material ruin rather than abstract spiritual decline.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.
Cross-references
- Job 5:5 The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
- Deuteronomy 28:29 and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.
- Deuteronomy 28:33 A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
- Deuteronomy 28:50 a ruthless nation with no respect for the old and no pity for the young.
- Job 18:9 A trap seizes his heel; a snare grips him.
- Job 20:18 He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.
- Judges 6:3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,