Psalm 109:10

Psalm 109:10, in plain English

May his children become homeless beggars, forced to wander far from their destroyed home, having to beg for survival.

Why it's here

You're seeing the complete collapse of a family's security. Children wandering as beggars, separated from home, desperate for food—this paints a picture of utter destitution. In the ancient world, this was about as low as you could fall socially and economically.

Who's speaking

David, describing the full extent of the poverty he's praying for

Where it sits in the story

The Psalms often describe the poor and homeless as objects of God's special care. Interestingly, the psalmist is asking God to place the accuser's family in exactly the position God calls His people to care for. It's a plea for God's justice to humble the wicked.

The scholarly reading

May the accuser's children be reduced to beggary, forced to search for sustenance among the ruins of their former home.

Language and setting

The verb 'shinnu' (wander/seek) combined with 'lehem' (bread/livelihood) emphasizes not mere poverty but destitution and homelessness. The phrase 'me'omedeyhem' (from the ruins of their dwellings) suggests total economic collapse—not gradual decline but catastrophic loss. This represents the complete social humiliation: children of a once-prominent figure reduced to mendicancy. Medieval Jewish commentator David Kimhi read this as describing actual historical reversals of fortunes, a reading that connects to the providence narratives of Scripture.

Voice

The psalmist, detailing the economic consequences of the curse.

Significance

Throughout Scripture, the collapse of a family's estate and the reduction to poverty serves as a sign of divine judgment (1 Samuel 2:7-8, Luke 1:52-53). Yet the righteous poor are also a constant scriptural category, suggesting that poverty itself is not morally determinative—but poverty resulting from wickedness is its natural fruit.

8May his days be few; may another take his position.

9May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.

10May his children wander as beggars, seeking sustenance far from their ruined homes.

11May the creditor seize all he owns, and strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.

12May there be no one to extend kindness to him, and no one to favor his fatherless children.

Read all of Psalm 109 — David's most severe imprecatory psalm. The curses are shocking — but they come from a man who has handed vengeance to God instead of taking it himself.