Bible Strands
Psalms 56:5
All day long they twist my words; all their thoughts are on my demise.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God while cataloging the continuous surveillance and malicious plotting of his adversaries. This declaration follows his explicit refusal to fear human opposition and precedes his description of their physical conspiracy.
The words — The verb יְעַצֵּ֑בוּ (ye'atzevu) literally means "they twist" or "they pervert," detailing how enemies actively distort the psalmist's speech. The noun מַחְשְׁבֹתָם (machshveatham) translates to "their thoughts" or "their plans," which the text specifies are wholly fixed on bringing harm.
The thread — The pattern of adversaries monitoring speech and conspiring for destruction appears in Matthew 22:15, Psalms 41:7, and Luke 11:54. These passages document the same dynamic of opponents watching for verbal missteps to engineer ruin.
Why it lands — The text requires acknowledging that opposition will actively corrupt one's message and seek physical elimination. It demands a clear separation between the enemy's malicious intent and the reliability of divine trust, forcing a choice to maintain confidence despite the threat.
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
Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.
Cross-references
- Matthew 22:15 Then the Pharisees went out and conspired to trap Jesus in His words.
- Psalms 41:7 All who hate me whisper against me; they imagine the worst for me:
- Luke 11:54 waiting to catch Him in something He might say.
- Isaiah 29:20 For the ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who look for evil will be cut down—
- 2 Peter 3:16 He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
- 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 18:17 Then Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage. Only be valiant for me and fight the LORD’s battles.” But Saul was thinking, “I need not raise my hand against him; let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”
- Luke 22:3 Then Satan entered Judas Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve.
- John 2:19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.”
- 1 Samuel 18:29 he grew even more afraid of David. So from then on Saul was David’s enemy.