Passage
Psalms 3.8
Book: Psalms · ASV
Immediate context (±2 verses)
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ASV (ASV)
"6. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people That have set themselves against me round about. 7. Arise, O Jehovah; Save me, O my God: For thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; Thou hast broken the teeth of the wicked."
"8. Salvation belongeth unto Jehovah: Thy blessing be upon thy people. [Selah]" (Psalms 3:6-8, ASV)
WEB (WEB)
"6. I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people who have set themselves against me on every side. 7. Arise, Yahweh! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked."
"8. Salvation belongs to Yahweh. Your blessing be on your people. Selah." (Psalms 3:6-8, WEB)
KJV (KJV)
"6. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. 7. Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly."
"8. Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah." (Psalms 3:6-8, KJV)
YLT (YLT)
"6. I am not afraid of myriads of people, That round about they have set against me. 7. Rise, O Jehovah! save me, my God. Because Thou hast smitten All mine enemies [on] the cheek. The teeth of the wicked Thou hast broken."
"8. Of Jehovah [is] this salvation; On Thy people [is] Thy blessing! Selah." (Psalms 3:6-8, YLT)
Setting
- Speaker: David (per the superscription, "A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son")
- Audience: Israel, the psalter as the prayerbook of the covenant community
- Location: during David's flight from Absalom; trans-Jordan / wilderness east of Jerusalem
- Time period: Davidic crisis, c. 970s BC
Theological reading
Psalm 3:8 closes the Psalter's first lament (Ps 3 is the first individual-lament psalm) with the confessional summary "Salvation belongeth unto YHWH." The Hebrew is laconic: la-YHWH ha-yeshuʿah, to-YHWH (belongs) the salvation. The article on yeshuʿah is significant: not just "salvation in general" but the salvation, the recognizable saving-work of the covenant God. The confession occurs at the end of a lament composed during David's flight from Absalom (2 Sam 15-18), the lowest point of David's reign; the king himself confesses that yeshuʿah is not his to manufacture but YHWH's to give. The verse is one of the most-cited OT proof-texts for the Reformed-monergistic doctrine of salvation; cited together with Jonah 2:9 ("salvation is of YHWH") it establishes the canonical pattern that grounds the NT proclamation that "there is none other name under heaven... wherein we must be saved" (Acts 4:12) on Christ alone.
Key words
- H3444 - yeshuah, yeshuʿah (Strong's H3444). The salvation-noun belonging exclusively to YHWH.
See also
- H3444 - yeshuah, the lexicon entry
- Psalms, the book hub
- Jonah 2:9, the parallel confession from the belly of the fish
- Acts 4:12, the NT consummation of the yeshuʿah-exclusivity
- Monergism, the doctrinal frame
Quoted in
Notes
Stub. Promote to rich hub when warranted.
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.