Psalms 18 · Verse 5

Psalms 18:5

The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.
Psalms 18:5, King James Version

Psalms 18:5 in other translations

BSBThe cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.
WEBThe cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me.
ASVThe cords of Sheol were round about me; The snares of death came upon me.
YLTCords of Sheol have surrounded me, Before me have been snares of death.
DARBYThe bands of Sheol surrounded me, the cords of death encountered me.
BBEThe cords of hell were round me: the nets of death came on me.
WebsterThe sorrows of hell encompassed me: the snares of death seized me.

What does Psalms 18:5 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
5. death--and hell (compare Psa 16:10) are personified as man's great enemies (compare Re 20:13, 14). prevented--encountered me, crossed my path, and endangered my safety. He does not mean he was in their power.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 5 The sorrows of hell - חבלי שאול chebley sheol, the cables or cords of the grave. Is not this a reference to the cords or ropes with which they lowered the corpse into the grave? or the bandages by which the dead were swathed? He was as good as dead. The snares of death prevented me - I was just on the point of dropping into the pit which they had digged for me. In short, I was all but a dead man; and nothing less than the immediate interference of God could have saved my life.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Psalms 18:1-19

The first words, "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength," are the scope and contents of the psalm. Those that truly love God, may triumph in him as their Rock and Refuge, and may with confidence call upon him. It is good for us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy which magnify the power of God and his goodness to us in it. David was a praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did…

Read the full comment on Psalms 18:1-19 →

Psalms 18:5 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

חֶבְלֵ֣יchev.Lei[the] cords ofH2256
שְׁא֣וֹלshe.'olSheolH7585
סְבָב֑וּנִיse.va.Vu.nithey surrounded meH5437
קִ֝דְּמ֗וּנִיki.de.Mu.nithey confronted meH6923
מ֣וֹקְשֵׁיMok.shei[the] snares ofH4170
מָֽוֶת\׃Ma.vetdeathH4194

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Psalms 18:5

  • Psalms 86:13

    For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.

  • Psalms 88:15-17

    I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off. They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

  • Psalms 88:3-8

    For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength: Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. …

  • Acts 2:24

    Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

  • Ecclesiastes 9:12

    For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

  • Psalms 116:3

    The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The sorrows, or, cords.
86:13; 88:3-8,15-17; Ac 2:24
snares.
Ec 9:12

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Psalms 18:4

    The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.

  • Psalms 18:5

    The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.

  • Psalms 18:6

    In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

Read all of Psalms 18

Psalms 18:5 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Dolores del sepulcro me rodearon, previniéronme lazos de muerte.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Les cordeaux de la mort m’ont environné, et les torrents de Bélial m’ont fait peur;
German
Elberfelder 1871		Die Bande des Scheols umringten mich, es ereilten mich die Fallstricke des Todes.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum, et in fines orbis terræ verba eorum.