Bible Strands
Psalms 55:10
Day and night they encircle the walls, while malice and trouble lie within.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses God while observing persistent violence and strife in a city under threat. The moment captures a crisis where external siege and internal corruption converge.
The words — יְסוֹבְּבֻהָ (ye.so.Vu./ha) translates to "they go around it," and בְּקִרְבָּהּ (be./kir.Ba/h) means "in its midst." These terms anchor the verse’s focus on continuous encirclement and internal decay.
The thread — This motif of surrounding hostility and hidden wickedness recurs in Psalms 59:14 and Isaiah 59:6. The texts collectively trace a pattern of external pressure masking internal moral collapse.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that systemic corruption operates both outside and inside protective boundaries. It calls the reader to identify pervasive malice and seek resolution beyond human defenses.
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
Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it.
Cross-references
- Psalms 59:14 They return in the evening, snarling like dogs and prowling around the city.
- Isaiah 59:6 Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.
- John 18:28 Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.
- Psalms 59:6 They return in the evening, snarling like dogs and prowling around the city.
- Ezekiel 9:4 “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the LORD, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.”
- Acts 9:24 but Saul learned of their plot. Day and night they watched the city gates in order to kill him.
- 1 Samuel 19:11 Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you do not run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”
- 2 Samuel 16:21 Ahithophel replied, “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to take care of the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become a stench to your father, then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”
- 2 Samuel 17:1 Furthermore, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men and set out tonight in pursuit of David.
- Hosea 7:6 For they prepare their heart like an oven while they lie in wait; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.