Passage

Psalms 16.10

"For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay." (Psalms 16:10, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"8. I have set Jehovah always before me: Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; My flesh also shall dwell in safety."

"10. For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption."

"11. Thou wilt show me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psalms 16:8-11, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"8. I have set Yahweh always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9. Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body shall also dwell in safety."

"10. For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption."

"11. You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more." (Psalms 16:8-11, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"8. I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. ^{rest: Heb. dwell confidently}"

"10. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."

"11. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psalms 16:8-11, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"8. I did place Jehovah before me continually, Because, at my right hand I am not moved. 9. Therefore hath my heart been glad, And my honour doth rejoice, Also my flesh dwelleth confidently:"

"10. For Thou dost not leave my soul to Sheol, Nor givest thy saintly one to see corruption."

"11. Thou causest me to know the path of life; Fulness of joys [is] with Thy presence, Pleasant things by Thy right hand for ever!" (Psalms 16:8-11, YLT)

The verse is the apostolic anchor of the resurrection argument from prophecy. Peter quotes it at Pentecost (Acts 2:25-31) and Paul quotes it at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:35-37), each pressing the same exegetical move: David, the speaker, did die and did "see corruption," so the prophecy cannot be terminally about David himself; it must be about a Davidic descendant whose body was not abandoned in Sheol nor allowed to decay. The risen Christ is the only candidate who fits. This is the most heavily cited messianic-prophecy text in apostolic preaching of the resurrection.

Setting

Speaker: David (the miktam superscription, attested as Davidic in Acts 2:29-31)
Audience: worshipping Israel; later, read in synagogue and church as a messianic psalm
Location: Israel, the Davidic court / cult
Time period: c. 1000 BC composition; apostolic exegesis c. AD 30-50

Theological reading

The literal sense of Psalm 16:10 in its Davidic setting is a confession of trust: YHWH will not finally surrender his faithful one to the grave. As an expression of pious hope on David's lips, it speaks of God's preservation of his servant through and beyond death. But the apostolic exegesis insists the verse cannot be exhausted at that level. Peter argues the case as a syllogism: David is dead, David's tomb is among us today (Acts 2:29); therefore David's body did see corruption; therefore David must have been speaking as a prophet (2:30) about another, and the only descendant whose body did not see corruption is the risen Christ (2:31-32). Paul's argument at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:35-37) is the same logic, stripped to its essentials.

The Hebrew terms carry the argument. Nephesh (soul, person, life) here means the whole self facing death, not merely an immaterial part. Sheol is the realm of the dead in Hebrew thought, the universal destiny of the nephesh at the body's collapse. The Greek translation in the Septuagint, which Peter and Paul quote, renders sheol as hades and shachath ("pit, corruption") as diaphthora ("decay, corruption"). The LXX's clearer "decay" reading sharpens the bodily-resurrection import: the Holy One's body specifically will not undergo diaphthora. The Hebrew text supports the same point, since "the pit" of shachath connotes the grave's process of bodily dissolution.

The apologetic deployment is forceful. First, the verse meets a key skeptical demand: a pre-Christian Jewish prophecy of a specific Messianic resurrection-before-decay, not a vague hope of vindication. Second, the apostolic exegesis is not retrofit imagination; it follows a rigorous "this cannot finally be about David" inference any Jewish reader could check by walking to David's tomb. Third, the prophecy is fulfilled with a falsifiable signature: a body in a known location at a known time, witnessed not to have decayed. The argument trades on the same kind of bodily, public-event evidence that supports the resurrection itself. See Messianic Prophecy Probability, Argument from the Resurrection, Resurrection of Jesus.

Key words

H5315 - nephesh, nephesh (soul, person, life). The whole self facing death, not a separable immaterial part.
H7585 - sheol, sheol (the grave, the realm of the dead). The universal destiny of the nephesh; the LXX renders this hades.

Theological themes

Apostolic resurrection prophecy. The single most-cited messianic-prophecy text in the apostolic preaching of the resurrection.
Davidic typology. David speaks beyond himself as a prophet of his greater Son; the literal-Davidic and christological senses both stand.
Bodily resurrection, not symbolic vindication. The Holy One's flesh specifically does not see decay; this is a body-level prophecy.
Sheol theology. The OT's realm-of-the-dead becomes the launching pad for the NT's victory-over-death.
Public-event evidence. Peter's argument is checkable: David's tomb is locatable; Christ's tomb is reportedly empty.
Septuagint exegesis. The LXX's diaphthora sharpens the bodily-decay reading the apostles work from; the Hebrew supports the same reading via shachath.
Holy One language. "Your Holy One" (chasid) ties to the messianic-vocabulary cluster that includes "your Anointed," "your Servant," and "your Son."

Cross-references

Acts 2.25-32, Peter's Pentecost quotation and argument from this verse.
Acts 13.35, Paul's Pisidian Antioch quotation of the same.
Psalms 110, the other principal Davidic messianic-prophecy psalm.
Matthew 12.40, Jesus' "three days and three nights" tied to Jonah, a parallel prophetic-resurrection sign.
1 Corinthians 15.21-22, the Adam-Christ resurrection logic that this prophecy serves.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.