Bible Strands
Psalms 141:7
As when one plows and breaks up the soil, so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks to God while describing a state of extreme vulnerability, positioned between a reference to rulers being cast down and a declaration of fixed trust in Yahweh.
The words — The Hebrew terms נִפְזְר֥וּ (nif.ze.Ru) and עֲ֝צָמֵ֗י/נוּ ('a.tza.Mei./nu) literally state that the speaker's bones have been scattered. This physical state is located לְ/פִ֣י (le./Fi) שְׁאֽוֹל (she.'ol), indicating the mouth of Sheol as the precise site of this dispersion.
The thread — The scattering of bones appears in Psalms 53:5 as a distinct divine action that follows a description of dread, not as a description of the dread itself. Romans 8:36 and Psalms 44:22 share slaughter imagery without referencing scattered bones.
Why it lands — The text first establishes the reality of total physical destruction before directing attention to divine refuge. It requires the reader to acknowledge the finality of death while maintaining fixed focus on God.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.
Cross-references
- Psalms 53:5 There they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to fear. For God has scattered the bones of those who besieged you. You put them to shame, for God has despised them.
- Romans 8:36 As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
- Psalms 44:22 Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
- Revelation 11:8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified.
- 1 Samuel 22:18 So the king ordered Doeg, “You turn and strike down the priests!” And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests himself. On that day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.
- 2 Corinthians 1:9 Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.
- Hebrews 11:37 They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, oppressed, and mistreated.