Bible Strands
Psalms 37:12
The wicked scheme against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the community, contrasting the active hostility of the wicked with the imminent judgment of the Lord.
The words — זֹמֵם (zo.Mem) means [is] plotting, and חֹרֵק (cho.Rek) means [is] gnashing, describing the wicked's deliberate and hostile posture toward the righteous.
The thread — The text describes the wicked's plotting and gnashing teeth before the Lord's laughter is mentioned. This pattern appears in Psalms 35:16 where jesters gnash teeth, Micah 2:1 where leaders plot iniquity, and Psalms 31:13 where conspirators plot to take life.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that human malice operates in real time but remains subject to divine oversight. It requires the reader to observe wicked plotting without assuming it will succeed.
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
The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
Cross-references
- Psalms 35:16 Like godless jesters at a feast, they gnashed their teeth at me.
- Micah 2:1 Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
- Psalms 31:13 For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side. They conspire against me and plot to take my life.
- Daniel 8:12 And in the rebellion, the host and the daily sacrifice were given over to the horn, and it flung truth to the ground and prospered in whatever it did.
- Matthew 26:16 So from then on Judas looked for an opportunity to betray Jesus.
- 1 Samuel 18:21 “I will give her to David,” Saul thought, “so that she may be a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “For a second time now you can be my son-in-law.”
- 1 Samuel 23:7 When Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, he said, “God has delivered him into my hand, for he has trapped himself by entering a town with gates and bars.”
- 2 Samuel 15:10 Then Absalom sent spies throughout the tribes of Israel with this message: “When you hear the sound of the horn, you are to say, ‘Absalom reigns in Hebron!’”
- Esther 3:6 And when he learned the identity of Mordecai’s people, he scorned the notion of laying hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he sought to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the kingdom of Xerxes.
- Psalms 37:32 Though the wicked lie in wait for the righteous, and seek to slay them,