Psalm 109:13 is a prayer that a person’s descendants be cut off and their name erased from memory. It is a call for God to bring a complete end to an oppressor’s family line, so that no one remains to carry on his wickedness. The words are spoken by David, who is praying against an enemy who has repaid his kindness with false accusation and cruelty, and the prayer is addressed to the LORD.
Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out.
Psalm 109:13 (WEB)
What Psalm 109:13 Means
The verse uses two images of erasure. The first, “let his posterity be cut off,” pictures a family tree being chopped down so that no new branches grow. “Posterity” means the people who come after him, his children and grandchildren. The second, “let their name be blotted out,” comes from the idea of wiping ink from a page, so that a name is no longer read or remembered. Together the phrases ask that this man’s line disappear within a generation.
It is important to see what the verse is and is not. It is a request addressed to God, an honest expression of anger from someone who has been wronged, and it does not describe a rule that God always enforces in this way. The Psalm does not promise that God will carry out every petition of this kind, and it does not tell the reader to pray such words against others. It shows us what raw pain can sound like when it is brought before God rather than hidden.
The Context of Psalm 109:13
Psalm 109 is a psalm of David, traditionally attributed to him, and it belongs to the group of psalms that scholars call imprecatory, meaning psalms that call down judgment on enemies. The audience was the worshiping community of Israel, who sang and prayed these words as part of their own relationship with God. The psalm opens with David saying that wicked people have spoken lies against him, and the surrounding verses describe the consequences David asks God to bring on his enemy and that enemy’s household.
Read in that setting, verse 13 is one line within a longer set of pleas that move from the enemy’s own life to his children and then to his memory. Verse 16 explains the reason for the request, because the man “didn’t remember to show kindness” and persecuted the poor. The verse therefore is not a random wish for harm. It is David asking God to bring justice to a man whose cruelty has been pointed and deliberate, which changes how the verse reads from a bare curse into a plea for righteousness.
Key Phrases in Psalm 109:13
Romans 12:19
Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.”
(WEB)
Paul echoes the theme of leaving judgment to God, urging believers not to take vengeance on others. Read alongside Psalm 109:13, it shows how the desire for justice can be brought to God rather than acted out by our own hands.
Psalm 37:1-2
1 Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness. 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb.
(WEB)
This psalm tells the faithful not to fret over evildoers, since their power does not last. It offers a calmer counterpart to the intensity of Psalm 109, pointing the reader toward trust in God’s timing.
A Short Prayer From Psalm 109:13
Lord, you see the lies that others tell and the cruelty that wounds the poor and the brokenhearted. I bring you my anger and my grief honestly, the same way David did, and I ask you to judge what is wrong. Keep me from taking revenge into my own hands. Where I have done harm, show me mercy and help me change. Let my trust rest in your justice, and let me leave every injustice in your care. Amen.
