Psalm 74:20
New International Version
Have regard for your covenant, because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.

New Living Translation
Remember your covenant promises, for the land is full of darkness and violence!

English Standard Version
Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

Berean Standard Bible
Consider Your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.

King James Bible
Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

New King James Version
Have respect to the covenant; For the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty.

New American Standard Bible
Consider the covenant; For the dark places of the land are full of the places of violence.

NASB 1995
Consider the covenant; For the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

NASB 1977
Consider the covenant; For the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

Legacy Standard Bible
Look to the covenant; For the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.

Amplified Bible
Consider the covenant [You made with Abraham], For the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

Christian Standard Bible
Consider the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of violence.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Consider the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of violence.

American Standard Version
Have respect unto the covenant; For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.

Contemporary English Version
Remember the agreement you made with us. Violent enemies are hiding in every dark corner of the earth.

English Revised Version
Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Consider your promise because every dark corner of the land is filled with violence.

Good News Translation
Remember the covenant you made with us. There is violence in every dark corner of the land.

International Standard Version
Pay attention to your covenant, for the dark regions of the earth are full of violence.

Majority Standard Bible
Consider Your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.

NET Bible
Remember your covenant promises, for the dark regions of the earth are full of places where violence rules.

New Heart English Bible
Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.

Webster's Bible Translation
Have respect to the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

World English Bible
Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
Look attentively to the covenant, "" For the dark places of earth, "" Have been full of habitations of violence.

Young's Literal Translation
Look attentively to the covenant, For the dark places of earth, Have been full of habitations of violence.

Smith's Literal Translation
Look to thy covenant: for the dark places of the earth were filled with habitations of violence.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
Have regard to thy covenant: for they that are the obscure of the earth have been filled with dwellings of iniquity.

Catholic Public Domain Version
Consider your covenant. For those who have been darkened upon the earth have been filled by the iniquity of the houses.

New American Bible
Look to your covenant, for the recesses of the land are full of the haunts of violence.

New Revised Standard Version
Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
Respect thy covenant, O LORD; for the habitations of the earth are full of ignorance and cruelty.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
Look, LORD JEHOVAH, at your covenant, because the dwellings of the Earth are filled with darkness and evil.
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
Look upon the covenant; For the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Look upon thy covenant: for the dark places of the earth are filled with the habitations of iniquity.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Why Have You Rejected Us Forever?
19Do not deliver the soul of Your dove to beasts; do not forget the lives of Your afflicted forever. 20Consider Your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land. 21Do not let the oppressed retreat in shame; may the poor and needy praise Your name.…

Cross References
Exodus 2:24
So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Genesis 9:16
And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.”

Leviticus 26:44-45
Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. / But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their fathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.”

Deuteronomy 4:31
For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.

2 Kings 13:23
But the LORD was gracious to Israel and had compassion on them, and He turned toward them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And to this day, the LORD has been unwilling to destroy them or cast them from His presence.

Nehemiah 9:32
So now, our God, the great and mighty and awesome God who keeps His gracious covenant, do not view lightly all the hardship that has come upon us, and upon our kings and leaders, our priests and prophets, our ancestors and all Your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today.

Isaiah 54:10
Though the mountains may be removed and the hills may be shaken, My loving devotion will not depart from you, and My covenant of peace will not be broken,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Jeremiah 14:21
For the sake of Your name do not despise us; do not disgrace Your glorious throne. Remember Your covenant with us; do not break it.

Ezekiel 16:60
But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

Hosea 2:19-20
So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion and compassion. / And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.”

Luke 1:72
to show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant,

Acts 3:25
And you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers when He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.’

Romans 11:27
And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.”

2 Corinthians 3:6
And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Galatians 3:15-17
Brothers, let me put this in human terms. Even a human covenant, once it is ratified, cannot be canceled or amended. / The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many, but “and to your seed,” meaning One, who is Christ. / What I mean is this: The law that came 430 years later does not revoke the covenant previously established by God, so as to nullify the promise.


Treasury of Scripture

Have respect to the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

have

Psalm 89:28,34-36
My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him…

Psalm 105:8
He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.

Psalm 106:45
And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.

the dark

Deuteronomy 12:31
Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

Romans 1:29-31
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, …

Ephesians 4:17,18
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, …

habitations

Psalm 5:8
Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.

Genesis 49:5-7
Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations…

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Acts Attentively Consider Covenant Cruel Cruelty Dark Dwellings Earth Fill Full Habitations Haunts Honor Mind Places Pride Regard Respect Undertaking Violence
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Acts Attentively Consider Covenant Cruel Cruelty Dark Dwellings Earth Fill Full Habitations Haunts Honor Mind Places Pride Regard Respect Undertaking Violence
Psalm 74
1. The prophet complains of the desolation of the sanctuary
10. He moves God to help in consideration of his power
18. Of his reproachful enemies, or his children and of his covenant.














Consider the covenant
The word "consider" in Hebrew is "ra'ah," which means to see, look at, or inspect. It implies a deep, thoughtful reflection. The psalmist is urging God to remember His covenant, a solemn agreement that He made with His people. The covenant is central to the relationship between God and Israel, often associated with promises of protection, blessing, and a call to obedience. Historically, covenants were binding agreements, and in the biblical context, they were often sealed with sacrifices. The psalmist appeals to God's faithfulness, reminding Him of the promises made to His people.

for the dark places of the land
The phrase "dark places" can be understood as areas of spiritual or moral darkness, places where God's presence and light seem absent. In Hebrew, "dark" is "choshek," which can also mean obscurity or secrecy. This could refer to regions overtaken by idolatry or oppression, where the knowledge of God is not acknowledged. Historically, Israel faced many periods of spiritual decline and foreign oppression, and the psalmist is likely lamenting these conditions, asking God to intervene.

are full of violence
The Hebrew word for "violence" is "chamas," which denotes cruelty, injustice, or wrongdoing. This word is often used in the Old Testament to describe the moral corruption and social injustice that provoked God's judgment. The psalmist is highlighting the prevalence of violence and injustice in the land, a situation that stands in stark contrast to the peace and righteousness that should characterize a society under God's covenant. This plea is a call for divine justice and restoration, a cry for God to act against the pervasive evil and to restore His order and peace.

(20) Habitations.--The word thus rendered is so consistently used of the "quiet resting-places" of God's people that it seems quite impossible that the psalmist should have used the expression, "resting- places of cruelty." A slight change in the text gives, "Look upon the covenant, for they have filled (Thy) land with darkness, Thy quiet dwelling with violence" (Burgess, Notes on the Hebrew Psalms.)

Verse 20. - Have respect unto the covenant. The "covenant" intended is probably that made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whereby Canaan was assured to their descendants, as "the lot of their inheritance." Israel is being deprived of its inheritance, and dragged off into "dark places." Will not "respect for his covenant" induce God to interpose, and even now at the last gasp deliver his afflicted ones? For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. Israel is being dragged into "dark places of the earth" - benighted lands, where there is no glimmer of the light of God's truth - and lands, moreover, which are "full of habitations of cruelty," abodes, i.e., where captives taken in war are treated with harshness and violence.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Consider
הַבֵּ֥ט (hab·bêṭ)
Verb - Hifil - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 5027: To scan, look intently at, to regard

Your covenant,
לַבְּרִ֑ית (lab·bə·rîṯ)
Preposition-l, Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 1285: A covenant

for
כִּ֥י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

haunts
נְא֣וֹת (nə·’ō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine plural construct
Strong's 4999: Habitation, house, pasture, pleasant place

of violence
חָמָֽס׃ (ḥā·mās)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2555: Violence, wrong, by meton, unjust gain

fill
מָלְא֥וּ (mā·lə·’ū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 4390: To fill, be full of

the dark places
מַחֲשַׁכֵּי־ (ma·ḥă·šak·kê-)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 4285: Darkness, a dark place

of the land.
אֶ֝֗רֶץ (’e·reṣ)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 776: Earth, land


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OT Poetry: Psalm 74:20 Honor your covenant for haunts of violence (Psalm Ps Psa.)
Psalm 74:19
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