Bible Strands
Psalms 109:13
May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist pronounces a curse against an unnamed adversary, continuing the series of imprecations that began in verse 6. The speaker addresses God directly, pleading for divine judgment on the target and his family.
The words — The Hebrew uses יְהִי־ (ye.hi-) for "may it be" paired with לְהַכְרִית (le.hakh.Rit), meaning "to cut off," and יִמַּח (yi.Mach), meaning "may it be wiped out," to frame the plea for total eradication.
The thread — The theme of a wicked person’s lineage being terminated appears in Job 18:19, which notes the absence of offspring and survivors, and in Proverbs 10:7, which contrasts the enduring memory of the righteous with the decay of the wicked. Psalm 37:28 similarly affirms that while the righteous are preserved forever, the offspring of the wicked face destruction.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of divine justice as the ultimate arbiter of familial and moral consequences. It requires the reader to acknowledge that persistent hostility toward God’s people invites total judgment, not merely personal loss.
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 his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 10:7 The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.
- Job 18:19 He has no offspring or posterity among his people, no survivor where he once lived.
- Psalms 37:28 For the LORD loves justice and will not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off.
- Deuteronomy 9:14 Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.”
- Deuteronomy 25:19 When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
- Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven
- 1 Samuel 2:31 Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that no one in it will reach old age.
- 1 Samuel 3:13 I told him that I would judge his house forever for the iniquity of which he knows, because his sons blasphemed God and he did not restrain them.
- 2 Kings 10:10 Know, then, that not a word the LORD has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail, for the LORD has done what He promised through His servant Elijah.”
- Psalms 21:10 You will wipe their descendants from the earth, and their offspring from the sons of men.